Compensation for farmers demanded

Berhampur: Demanding crop loss compensation for the drought affected areas of Ganjam district; farmer bodies have started agitation and block gheraos in front of their respective block offices of the district. In order to protest against the government’s inaction to tackle the drought situation, Odisha Kheta Mazdoor Union (OKMU) and Odisha Krushak Sabha (OKS) organized a protest rally in front of Kukudakhandi block office on Tuesday.

The farmer body demanded to declare Kukudakhandi block drought-hit immediately, provide compensation for the farmers, for the livelihood of the farmers provide Rs 200 as daily wage in the scheme of MGNREGS, compensation for the farmers who had faced crop loss due to untimely rain during last Khariff season and to provide house patta for the homeless.

The OKMU and OKS handed over the memorandum to the collector through the BDO of Kukudakhandi block. If the Government will not listen to their demand they will sit in dharna.

Earlier, the farmer bodies of Polsara block, Digapahandi block, Bhanjanagar block along with other blocks had started agitation in front of their respective blocks to give compensation for the drought affected farmers in the district.

Crop loss during last December due to untimely rain and the drought situation of the current year harassed the Ganjam farmers. The loan taken by the farmers from different sources could not be paid due to the crop loss. Most of the farmers are migrating to other places like Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad and Chennai in search for employment.  

7 arrested in Ankuli ATM loot case

Berhampur: After a week, city police arrested seven out of nine in connection with Ankuli ATM loot case on Friday here.

Out of nine convicted persons, 7 arrested persons were from local area. Among them, two were ITI students. Mastermind of the ATM loot Deva Prasad Padhy alias Pinku of Industrial area in the city had prepared the blueprint of the ATM robbery. The other team members Tofan Gauda, Sanjeev Kumar Nayak, Ranjan Gauda, Sudhansu Sekhar Panda all are from Industrial area, Babula Patra of RDC colony, Pintu Pradhan of Kumbhar Palli were involved in the robbery.

“We have seized a Tavera car which was used in the robbery. To avoid the suspect minds, they had used SBI stickered and logo imprinted car. After arresting the seven, we have forwarded them to the court while other two are absconded”, informed Berhampur Superintendent of Police Safeen Ahmed K in a Press meet here on Friday.

According to the SP, mastermind Pinku was involved in several gold chain snatching cases in the city and he was trying to set up a gang after released from the jail. Police have recovered gold chains and ornaments of 150 gm from a gold shop, where Pinku had sold that after snatching the gold ornaments.

On the other hand, in the presence of police, the recovered ATM cash box was opened by a team of officials from Mumbai. 14 lakh and 22 thousand rupees was recovered from the cash box. According to the police it was the first of its kind in Odisha to loot the whole ATM machine which weighs 350 kg.             

It may be noted that on November 3, at the wee hours of night an ATM counter near Ankuli in the city was looted by some looters. They had thrown the ATM outer box and had taken the cash box from the spot. After two days of the incident, the ATM cash box was recovered from a farm land near Ankuli-Gaunju road.    

‘Boita Bandana’ Utsav celebrated at Gopalpur

Berhampur: A perfect fusion of “aa ka ma bei…” folk songs with the rhythmic sound of sea waves at Gopalpur added serenity in the pious environment of devotees, visitors, tourists and lovers of nature. On Thursday dawn, the ‘Boita Bandana’ festival was celebrated with utmost solemnity, religious fervor, gaiety and éclat.

 Thousands of devotees joined in the mass ‘Boita Bandana’ Utsav with their family members. Among the devotees, most of them were women came from different nearby villages and from the Berhampur city. Some of them had brought readymade boat replicas made up of Sholes while most of the women had brought hand made boat replicas by devotees made up of banana trees. The colourful boats along with fireworks on the shore were amazing which attracted so many.

“The tradition of worshipping God recalling the days of Sadhabas, the son of Kalinga, the brave mariners of ancient India who were going to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Malaya, Sinhala for trading. For their safe journey and the returning, the peoples of the Kalinga were worshipping God while starting the journey on the sea by the Boitas (boats). To remember our tradition we are observing the Utsav on Kartika Purnima”, said a devotee Swapnarani Acharya.

Following the rituals of Puja, the boats containing Pan Leaves, betel, rice were being flown by the devotees by chanting “aa ka ma bei…” song.

On the occasion of ‘Boita Bandana’ Utsav ‘Bhajan Samaroh’ was organized on the beach for the entertainment of the devotees and visitors. Security arrangement to control the crowd and special trained police were deployed for rescue operation.

On the other hand, the ‘Boita Bandana’ Utsavwas organized in different part of Ganjam district. The religious month ‘Kartika’ along with ‘Panchuka’ and the full moon day of Kartika increased its importance of the Utsav.

On Thursday, on the eve of ‘Boita Bandana’ Utsav,  ‘Bali Yatra’ was organised in some places of the district include the Shaiva shrines of Bateswar and Aleswar near the shore of Bay of Bengal under Ganjam block.          

'Boita Bandana' Utsav at Gopalpur

Photo feature

Scenic beauty of nature at Gopalpur-on-sea



Aa Ka Ma Bei....



Pana Gua Tora...
Masa jakara dharma mora



BDA Chairman in Boita Bandana Utsav at Gopalpur



Beautiful sunrise at Gopalpur

A devotee at Gopalpur

Jaare....danga bhasija.........

FCI workers’ strike in Ganjam

Berhampur: Demanding pension, new employment, treatment facility, the employees of Food Corporation of India (FCI)Berhampur zone staged dharna in front of FCI’s Berhampur office on Wednesday here.

It was the part of an All India FCI Employees Union’s strike against FCI’s apathy. To support the all India movement, employees of Berhampur office and Jagannathpur FCI godown staged dharna in front of the office. Even due to this protest movement employees denied to empty out rice packets from the goods train came from Chhattisgarh. The employees also did not give chance to the officials to enter into the godown.

In the protest dharna, R N Acharya, Ramesh Nayak and Basant Nanda addressed the employees in the rally. Among others, All India General Secretary of FCI Employees Union H M Faizulla, President of Odisha State FCI Employees Union Shiva Prasad Mahapatra and District Secretary of FCI Executive Union Subash Chandra Das were taken the lead of the strike.           

BU students’ poll end peacefully

Berhampur: Finally Berhampur University students’ union election held and it ended peacefully on Wednesday. All candidates were got elected uncontested.

According to the notification by University administration, election for Class Representatives (CR) was held first in respective departments. Then the CRs were assembled in Old Examination Hall to elect representatives for Students’ Union. Among them some CRs filed nomination for the respective posts. At the evening, the result was declared. Almost all the candidates got elected uncontested.

As an extra feature to strengthen the students’ union, six members were selected for BU students’ union executive body, while three were selected for executive body of Dramatic Union.    

Jaydev Pandit got elected as President of BU students’ union, while Kapilendra Nahak as Vice-president, Ajay Sahu as General Secretary, Balaram Behera as Assistant Secretary, Sidharth Agarwal as Athletic Secretary, Minaketan Behera as Assistant Athletic Secretary, P Swarup Kissan as Dramatic Secretary and Satyajit Singh Yadav got elected as Assistant Dramatic Secretary for the session of 2011-12.

As it was purely indirect election after the earlier cancellation of poll here. On the day of the election 3 platoon police force and ten officers were deployed to maintain peace in the campus. Due to holiday on Thursday, the oath taking ceremony will be held on Friday.    

A week long campaign ‘CHILDLINE se dosti’ launched

….Every Child has right to love, affection, care & Protection

….Every child has right to family.

….Children should be free from violence and exploitation

Berhampur: In order to promote child rights and ensure safe family and society for children, CHILDLINE a programme initiated by the Government which is working for child right in Berhampur has launched week long massive awareness campaign in Ganjam district from November 8 to 14.

While inaugurating the CHILDLINE Ratha, Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Southern circle Lakshmi Narayan Nayak said that in every family children should have access to quality service for their all round growth. Director of ISRD-CHILDLINE, Sudhir Sabat described the objective by saying that fundamental right to every children and a child friendly society is the goal of the CHILDLINE Se Dosti program.

Attending the programme as the honorable guest District Magistrate of Rayagada Nitish Bhanu Das stated that the voluntary organizations have to play a meaningful role in successful implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS).

The CHILDLINE Ratha marched from the premises of the office of RDC to different offices include Ganjam district bar association, office of the Sub-Collector and CDPO, office of DIG of Police, SP office, SP, Vigilance office, DFO office, Observation Home for Boys and Girls and blind school, different police stations, Utkal Balashram with Children typed dosti bandhan. Hundreds of children dressed themselves as animals, birds, legends and great lives like Gandhi, Gopabandhu, Rabindranath Tagore and Vivekananda accompanied the rally. While visiting the offices the Children were tying Suraksha bands on the wrist of the present staff.

In the afternoon children reached the Biju Pattnaik Park and the Railway station. They typed Dosti/Suraksha bands on the wrist of the park visitors and passengers respectively. It is noteworthy that this week long campaign will be closed at the Ganjam district headquarters Chatrapur on November 14, the Children’s Day.

Secretary of NIRMATA Sarbeswar Mahapatra, Secretary of Sraddha Manoj Kumar Padhy and CHILDLINE team comprising of Prabhu Prasad Patro, Amiya Kumar Tripathy, Pranati Kaur were contributed fully to the success of the significant CHILDLINE se dosti march.