Odisha HRD

Kalinganagar citizens ask for central school, engineering college & medical college

July 20th, 2010

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

The Vyasa Nagar Nagarik Committee has demanded a Central School, an engineering college and a medical college at Vyasa Nagar and Kalinga Nagar. It placed its demand to the Jajpur Collector on Sunday. The 12-point charter of demands was also sent to the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and local Korai MLA Preeti Ranjan Ghadai.

In a unanimous resolution passed at a meeting of the committee, it was alleged that in the name of development of a steel city in the Kalinga Nagar-Vyasa Nagar area the local people are exploited by industrialists. Industrial units like Jindal, NINL and VISA have come up in the area and very soon Tata Steel is likely to start its plant in the locality.

The committee noted that so far no industrial house has done any social service in the area though many of them established their industries about four years ago. They are only polluting the entire area with dust and smoke. So far, they have not extended any help to set up any school, college, hospital, market complex or even staff quarters in the area. This is despite the fact that the industries are depending on Vyasa Nagar as the gateway to the industrial hub of Kalinga Nagar.

Now, the population of the Vyasa Nagar Municipality has crossed the mark of one lakh, that too only for the steel industries. The road conditions of the Vyasa Nagar and Kalinga Nagar areas are pathetic. The educated youth of the locality are not getting jobs in the plants. Even diploma and ITI certificate holders are posted as labourers, the committee pointed out.

… The committee, headed by its president Dr HK Sahu, and secretary Duryodhan Rout, met the Collector at Jajpur Town and placed the demands before him. The others associated in the committee are senior journalist Krishna Chandra Samal, Rishi Agrawal and Alekh Mallick. They warned the Government that the committee would resort to agitation if the demands are not met by July 30.

Although I am originally from that area, I have not yet taken special interest towards it. It is good to see that a local citizen committee has finally started making the demands.

I believe that industrial and mining places should be provided with appropriate HRD facilities so that the bad apsects of industries and mining are balanced with the good aspects. The places of this category with a lot of operating industries, mines or both that the Odisha government has some what neglected so far and needs to pay immediate attention are: Paradeep, Kalinganagar, Jharsuguda-Ib valley (encompasses part of Sundergarh district), Joda-Barbil, Keonjhar, Rayagada and Angul-Talcher. Among these places, Keonjhar and Talcher have an engineering college and MCL is making a medical college in the Talcher area.

Entry Filed under: Anugul-Talcher-Dhenkanal area (7),Educational and Knowledge clusters,Rayagada-Gunupur area