___________

I am very impressed by two things: 

(i) the popularity of the Malkangiri collector Vineel Krishna, and

(ii) the way the Odisha government handled the negotiation after the maoist abduction.

I will elaborate on this at a later point, but for now, please see http://ashok.name/?p=181, http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=5030 , and http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=5023.

The approval of TIE Bhubaneswar Chapter was posted in http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/invest_bbsr/message/1027. The TIE Global web page is http://www.tie.org/. TIE Bhubaneswar facebook page is here.

On the visit of Cupertino Mayor, following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

… Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has joined hands with Cupertino City of California.

BMC mayor A N Jena on Wednesday signed a letter of intent (LOI) with his Cupertino counterpart Gilbert Wong here to explore the possibility of establishing a "sister city" tie-up between Bhubaneswar and Cupertino city. "This will help BMC understand the functioning of the foreign civic body as well as improving our operation," Jena said.

"Besides the exchange of expertise in the functioning of both the civic bodies, the Cupertino-Bhubaneswar Sister City Initiative will facilitate exchange of ideas and resource in areas of education, healthcare, environment, trade, culture, tourism, technology and urban planning," Cupertino mayor Wong said. "The initiative will soon be cleared at the Cupertino City Council meeting," he added. The details about the exchange programmes would be chalked out soon, Wong remarked.

Cupertino City recently established the "sister city" status with Hsinchu city of Taiwan, Ivrea in Italy and Toyokawa in Japan.

It is for the first time that BMC entered an agreement with a foreign civic body for logistic support. "BMC took the initiative to rope in Cupertino City Council, following a visit by some government officials to the US last year," BMC commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev said.

Wong’s visit came close on the heels of the tour of some foreign delegates of Washington State India Trade Relation Action Committee (WASITRAC) to Bhubaneswar for a similar "sister city" tie-up last November. But no such pact was signed.

Following is excerpted from a report in Business Standard.

Steel players pay Rs 2041 cr tax to Centre, Rs 1038 cr to state

… the steel sector in the state has recorded an investment of Rs 51940.67 crore till the end of December 2010.

…The 50 steel companies that have inked MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government have generated direct employment for 21508 people besides creating indirect jobs for 52448 others.

Out of 21508 people engaged in the direct route, 14217 are from within the state and the remaining 7291 outside Orissa. In the indirect employment category, 38122 people from the state have got jobs and 14326 persons have been sourced from outside the state.

According to the state steel & mines minister Raghunath Mohanty, 29 out of these 50 steel firms have begun partial production, achieving a sponge iron output of 6.24 million tonne per annum (mtpa) and steel capacity of 7.79 mtpa.

These steel units have achieved a CPP (Captive Power Plant) capacity of 1062 MW and have spent Rs 61.21 crore on peripheral development till the end of December last year.

Among the steel investors who have made significant investments in the state are Bhushan Steel Ltd-Dhenkanal (Rs 12000 crore), Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd-Sambalpur ( Rs 7000 crore), Jindal Steel & Power Ltd-Angul (Rs 8470.96 crore), JSL Ltd-Kalinganagar (Rs 5367.59 crore), Essar Steel Orissa Ltd-Paradip (Rs 5077 crore), Adhunik Metalicks Ltd-Kuarnmunda (Rs 1740 crore), Visa Steel-Kalinganagar (Rs 1626.83 crore) and Tata Steel-Kalinganagar (Rs 1302.60 crore).

The units that have started partial production are Aarti Steels Ltd, Adhunik Metalicks Ltd, Visa Steel Ltd, Shyam DRI Power Ltd, Sree Metaliks Ltd, Jain Steel & Power Ltd, Eastern Steels & Power Ltd and Bhushan Steel Ltd to name a few.

…The envisaged capacity of all the steel companies, that have signed MoUs with the state government, is 83.66 mtpa and the state has attracted investments worth Rs 2.30 lakh crore in the steel sector.

Following is from Samaja:

On the education side Odisha must ask for the following:

• A campus of ISMU in one of the mining hubs of Odisha.
• A tribal university and a branch of the IGNTU.
• A central agricultural university in a backward district in Odisha, along with other such districts in India.
• A National Sports University/Institute in Rourkela/Sundergarh with a branch in Kendrapada.
• A rural engineering institute like SLIET Longowal, ABAGKCIET Malda, and CIT Kokrajhar.
• An IIM. (If more IIMs are being established.)
• Upgradation of VSSUT to an IIEST.

See http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/5859, http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/6076, and http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/6091 for the reasoning that can be used to push for these.

Update on 3/19/2011: Jet adds a daily direct flight to Mumbai between 3/27/11 and 10/29/11.

Few years before, before Jet bought Sahara, the latter used to fly Bhubaneswar-Delhi, Bhubaneswar-Bangalore, Bhubaneswar-Chennai and Bhubaneswar-Kolkata routes. After Jet bought Sahara, Sahara was rechristened as Jetlite and Jetlite flew those routes but it then cancelled the first three and last year Jet Airways flights at Bhubaneswar only included two daily Jet Konnect flights between Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. 

So it is good news that in March 2011, Jet will start new Jet Konnect services in the routes of Bhubaneswar-Bangalore, Bhubaneswar-Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar-Delhi and Bhubaneswar-Raipur. The outgoing flight timings of these flights are:

With these additions come April the daily flight connectivity for Bhubaneswar increases to:

• Bhubaneswar-Delhi: 6 flights (Air India, Indigo -2, Jet Konnect, Kingfisher Red -2)
• Bhubaneswar-Mumbai: 3 flights (Air India, Indigo – with one stop at Hyderabad, Kingfisher Red); Jet Konnect has two good connecting flights with short connection times. (Update: 4 flights till 10/29/11; Jet introduces a Jet Konnect flight.)
• Bhubaneswar-Kolkata: 4 flights (Jet Konnect -2, Kingfisher Red-2)
• Bhubaneswar-Hyderabad: 3 flights (Jet Konnect, Indigo-2)
• Bhubaneswar-Bangalore: 3 flights (Indigo – with one stop at Hyderabad, Jet Konnect, Kingfisher Red)
• Bhubaneswar-Chennai: 1 flight (Air India), Jet Konnect has a good connecting flight with short connection times
• Bhubaneswar-Raipur: 1 flight (Jet Konnect)

The above data in a matrix form is as follows:

Following is an excerpt from a report in DNA.

After giving clearance to Chiria mines and Korean giant POSCO’s steel plant s on “developmental” grounds, the environment ministry under Jairam Ramesh has once again been pushed to the backfoot — this time by Congress Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Steel & Power.

The ministry on Monday announced it was withdrawing its earlier threat to withdraw environmental clearance to Jindal’s Rs25,000 crore steel and power plant in Angul, Orissa.

The ministry had, in November last year, sought cause as to why the clearance may not be withdrawn after it was proven that Jindal had started work on the project before getting forest clearance.

“The ministry, while according the environmental clearance, stipulated the specific condition: “no construction activity shall be initiated till the approval for the 168 hectare forest land is obtained… Serious non-compliance with the stipulated environment conditions reported above mandate commensurate action,” the ministry had said in its November order.

In the new order, the ministry seems to have accepted Jindal’s contention that the ‘no construction’ condition in the clearance was merely a well intentioned ‘advice’ and not a legal requirement.

The firm argued that the condition was there only to make sure that Jindal would not lose money on initial construction if the forest clearance ulitmately failed to come through and the project had to be abandoned.

It argued that “this clause is only intended to prevent the expenditure involved from proving to be infructuous if the diversion of forest land involved is not approved,” pointing to an “office memorandum” of the ministry.

As both stages of forest clearances have been obtained, Jindal Steel & Power pointed out, there is no case of withdrawing its environmental clearance.

The ministry too seemed to accept the ‘office memorandum’ agreement, abandoning its earlier stance that Jindal had violated clearance conditions.

“A circular has been issued by the Ministry on 6 January 2011 [after the show-cause notice was issued] .. that if a project involves forest as well as non-forest land, it is advisable that work should not be started on non-forest land till approval.. for the release of forest land has been given,” it noted in its final order.

Following is an excerpt from a report in expresstravelworld.

Deccan Charters and TajAir have recently joined hands to form a marketing alliance called Powerfly. The alliance includes Capt GR Gopinath’s Deccan Charters, IHCL owned charter services TajAir and Business Jets India (BJETS) and is poised to connect as many as 500 airports in India with the extensive charter services. Capt Gopinath, CMD of Deccan Charters, said, "The aim of setting up Powerfly is to tap the top of the travelling pyramid, providing seamless experience to international travellers. With Powerfly, we will be able to provide hassle free travel to any location in the country with complete end-to-end solutions." Powerfly services will be active from February 14, 2011 operating from eight cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad and Jammu.

The Powerfly alliance fleet will have 16 Deccan Charter crafts, and four crafts each of TajAir and BJETS, bringing three Hawker 850XPs and the Cessna Citation CJ-2, along with the P180 Avanti and the Falcons. Deccan Charters will take over the maintenance and operations of the BJETS crafts. Deccan Charters will also be the exclusive marketing concessionaire for BJETS aircraft in India and will work on developing, expanding and consolidating the market across the country through Powerfly. The combined fleet will be available through various programmes including ad hoc charters and memberships, loyalty programmes that extend across all three brands and the various hotels of Taj, and membership options. "People can buy hours and utilise them according to their needs. We aim at tying up with major charter operators in Middle East, Europe and Singapore. We are also looking at fractional ownership in these international destinations and are currently in talks with the government to allow the same," added Capt Gopinath.

The web pages of the three participating companies mentioned above are:

• Deccan Charters
• Taj Air
• Business Jets India (BJETS)

Among these Deccan Charters shows a map of its major operations.

What the above map and the list of eight locations in the Powerfly list suggests is that Bhubaneswar is one of the eight places in the country where a lot of charter flying happens. This is partly because of the development and growth happening in Odisha and partly because of the lack of airports in Odisha with regularly scheduled commercial airlines. Considering that a lot of charter flying happens by business houses, this means Bhubaneswar and Odisha are among the top 7 (Jammu is more for tourists) places in the country with ties to top business houses. While most of them are eying our mineral resources, Odisha should make efforts to cajole them to put positive long term legacies (such as Vedanta University) in Odisha.

Following are excerpts from a report in Telegraph.

The proposed bridge from CDA Square up to Trisulia and Baranga, which is said to be longest and first of its kind three-lane bridge in the state, would act as ‘direct-link’ between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

… “The distance between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar would be reduced by 10km after the completion of the project. Efforts are on by the government for the all-round development of Cuttack and I hope the new project would be completed on time,” Naveen said.

… With the construction of the second bridge, one would have to cover a distance of only 20km from CDA square to Jaydev Vihar via Nandankanan and Trisulia. The length of the bridge would be 2.8km and it would also have footpaths for pedestrians and cycles on both sides and dividers and railing. The cost of the total project was estimated to be around Rs 122crore.

… The project, to be built in assistance of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), is expected to be completed within three years.

The three-lane bridge would not only solve precious time of the people, it will also create new vistas for development in Barang and nearby areas which are also in an expansion mode. The project has been targeted to be completed within three years from the date of agreement with the company, Pradhan said.

… Apart from this, there is also a proposal to construct another bridge over Mahanadi river. The bridge would connect Pitapali area near Khurda with Dhenkanal on NH-5 via Manguli square. The existing route distance would be reduced to 71.5 km from 93km. The project is also likely to take off soon.

The last paragraph is confusing. Pitapali, Dhenkanal and Manguli Square form a triangle. It could mean the proposed bridge near Jatamundia in the following map.

Or, as suggested by reader Debi Prasanna Sarangi, it could mean the bridge over Mahanadi in the following map. (Note: The point where NH-5 meets NH-42 is called Manguli Square.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

Editors and News Heads of leading Oriya and English newspapers and television channels have expressed their deep concern over the rising number of attacks on media persons in the state.

… The Editors expressed surprise over the fact that police had not taken any action on an elected member of the ruling Biju Janata Dal despite leading a brutal attack on Pipili-based journalist Rajat Ranjan Dash a week ago. They said it strengthened the perception that the state government was against Media Freedom. 

The Editors and News Heads resolved to join hands to ensure the Media responds as one when faced with such challenges.

I have read many news items on attacks on media persons in Odisha and these (the attacks) need to stop.

However, I think, one aspect is missing from the response.

One needs to analyze the reason behind the attacks and address the root cause. I think one of the root cause behind the attacks is that some people or organization rightly or wrongly feel that they have been unfairly portrayed by some media. Now if someone feels that way, what is their recourse.They can of course go to the courts and sue for libel but the courts in India and Odisha are too slow and by the time they process the case the aggrieved person incurs a lot of damage.

Many do not know that there is another outlet. They could file a complaint at the Press Council of India. See http://presscouncil.nic.in/complaints.htm . That is a lawful outlet and thus there is absolutely no reason for people feeling aggrieved by media coverage to resort to violence and become a criminal.

I would suggest the MUFP to highlight this option in their articles and releases so that this outlet becomes well known. It will act as a safety valve and protect them from physical harm.

The media in Odisha does an outstanding job (and in trying circumstances) in keeping various people with power  and influence in check. The threat of media exposure of their misdeeds and/or high handedness constrains the people with power and influence.

However, with "media unity" where media people follow the unwritten code of not exposing each others misdeeds (which may be rare but is not zero), many people and organizations feel helpless against what they think as being victimized by some media.

Sometimes these people and organizations react to this in bad ways:

• I was told one organization had signs made saying "Dogs and reporters of XYZ are not allowed". (XYZ is a media house in Odisha.)
• Similarly recently there were reports of some police officials behaving badly with media person of a particular media organization.

My point is that the Odisha media as a group needs to also refelect on their own conduct and publicize venues such as http://presscouncil.nic.in/complaints.htm and humbly tell people that they are not above criticism or mistakes and if someone feels that they have been wronged by media then they have an outlet such as http://presscouncil.nic.in/complaints.htm which they can approach.

This will greatly enhance the respect of common people towards media and towards the job they do as the fourth pillar of democracy. It will also greatly enhance their safety.

I explored some of the reports of the Press Council of India by googling "Press Council of India Orissa" and found some interesting reports. From reading them it seems that indeed they are a fair organization and their process is impartial. Following are some links to read.

• http://presscouncil.nic.in/Decisions/decision05/5.htm
• http://presscouncil.nic.in/Decisions/agiant_press/12.htm
• http://presscouncil.nic.in/Decisions/9.htm
• http://cyberjournalist.org.in/archive/council.html.

Following is from a PTI report in dnaindia.com.

Exactly eight years after the ministry of environment and forest accorded stage-I forest clearance to Ong Irrigation Project, the Orissa government has decided to go ahead with the major project to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs305 crore, official sources said.

"Notification for land acquisition for the Ong project has already been made. The state government has also made budgetary allocation for the purpose," water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra told reporters after holding a discussion with the local MLA and state’s Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha.

Stating that the project would irrigate about 30,000 hecatre of land in Bargarh district, Mohapatra said that public hearing for the pupose was conducted both in Orissa and
neighbouring Chhatishgarh state.

The drought prone area of Padmapur, Sohela, Bijepur, Gaisilat blocks of Padampur in Baragarah district and Agalpur block of Balangir district would get irrigation facilities after completion of the project, Mohapatra said.

While Rs10 crore was allocated for the project in the current fiscal, Rs 15 crore could be sanctioned in 2011-12, Mohapatra said adding that there was apparently no opposition to the project in Bargarh’s Padmapur area.

While the Stage-I Forest clearance had been received from MOEF during February, 2003, the public hearing for environment clearance was conducted on August 6, 2004 in Orissa and on September 11, 2007 in Chhatisgarh.

The salient features of the project given at http://dowrorissa.gov.in/Projects/MajMed/Proposed/Details/SFONG.pdf are as follows:

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The construction of a 75-km ring road circling the capital is likely to begin in two months. 

… Sources said in the first phase of the project a 13km road would be built from Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital Square to Lingipur near the Daya Bridge on the outskirts of the city.

With tenders having been finalised, the work is likely to begin in the next two months. Sources said that the project will be executed at an estimated cost of Rs 35.09 crore and would be completed in two years. 

… the ring road would help address the communication needs of the city besides acting as a buffer against occasional floods. All the major roads of the city would join the ring road at one point or another.

… once the road materialised the traffic congestion between Rasulgarh Square and Samantarapur would be reduced significantly. This will be an additional support to the National Highway-203 bypass road, which is bearing the brunt of the traffic currently.

… Foundation stone for two more feeder roads, which would ultimately join the ring road, was also laid yesterday. While one of these would involve two-laning of an existing road between Kalpana Square-Jagannath Ashram, the other one would be a four-lane road stretch from Ravi Talkies Square to Sai temple. …

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

… The first preparatory meet for Nabakalebara was chaired by Chief Minister, was attended by P K Mohapatra, RDC, U N Behera Principal Secretary Home, Aditya Prasad Padhi Principal Secretary to CM.

… A Four Lane National Highway is progressing from Bhubaneswar (Rasulgarh) to Puri (Sipasarubali) with almost half the road will be new alignment. 

Meeting decided to approach National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) to develop Four Lanning of Puri-Konark and Puri-Satapada Road. 

Secondly at least seven roads will be taken up for Four Lanning, which include Pipili-Konark, Charichhak-Niali-Phulanakhara, Balighai-Gop, Pipili-Jatnai, Chandanpur-Rameswar, Bira Harekrishnapur-Talabania and Bira Harekrishnapur-Rahangiria Roads.

… There is a need for creating more hotel and lodging rooms, for which appropriate Government land has to be provided to the promoters adopting transparent procedure.

The following maps show the location of some of the names mentioned above.

One interesting point to note is that Puri district’s area is 3,479 sq. km, which is comparable to Goa’s 3,702 sq km. Population wise they are also comparable. Goa’s population is 1.4 million while Puri district’s population is about 1.5 million.

Past the Nabakalebar in 2015, the Odisha government may think of building up on the infrastructure and try to benchmark Puri district with respect to Goa. It may also consider to make it a special district with some special laws that will allow it the flexibility to become as big a tourist hub (or bigger) than Goa, minus the negatives.

Following is from Dharitri:

Following is from a report in ibnlive.in.com.

• Of the total Rs 3,400 crore investment proposals approved by the SLSWCC, Rs 2,870 crore would be in the steel sector …
• SLWCC approved a proposal from Tata Steel to set up a re-bar mill and a hi-carbon ferrochrome unit at its Gopalpur SEZ in Ganjam district. The steel major would invest Rs 800 crore in the project … this time the company had been asked to use water through the process of desalination, Ramachandru said. While the Tata Steel was planning to manufacture 4 lakh metric ton of re-bar mill per annum from its re-bar mill unit, it would produce 55,000 metric tons of hi-carbon ferrochrome at the Gopalpur SEZ to be set up by the company.
• Other steel units included
  • a 0.6 mtpa integrated plant at an investment of Rs 925 crore by Shyam Steel Industry
  • Sri Bajrang Power & Ispat company’s 0.12 mtpa steel plant at an investment of Rs 500 crore
  • another 0.21 mtpa plant at an investment of Rs 645 crore by Rupa Ispat
• Aryan Mining and Trading Corporation Limited’s proposal for setting up an ore benefication plant at Koeda in Sundargarh district at an investment of Rs 423 crore was also okayed
• Kashivi International’s proposal to set up an iron ore pellet plant at an investment of Rs 56 crore was also cleared
• Binani Cement Limited which had initially decided to set up a cement plant at Dhamra in Bhadrak district had been allowed to shift its unit to Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Orissa government’s water resources secretary Suresh Mohapatra said: “We have information that the Chhattisgarh government is building a number of annicuts and not barrages across the upper stream of Mahanadi. We had taken up the issue. We found out that the annicuts would not pose any threat to Orissa.”

Mohapatra said: “Orissa will not have any problem even if the Chhattisgarh government builds 100 barrages. We are using only a small quantity of water from the Mahanadi river system. Mahanadi basin is a surplus water basin. In the last 25 years, the water flow has more than doubled. Only 30 per cent is used for irrigation purposes and 10 per used for industry. The remaining 60 per cent goes down stream. The water should be used purposefully.”

The government officials said the state government has been able to maintain the water reservoir capacity on the Hirakud reservoir by discharging excess water.

The water reservoir level in Mahanadi stands at 630 feet and it comes down to 590 feet in summer.

This is important as many groups oppose all kind of things in the name of lack of water in the Mahanadi basin and spread all kinds of misinformation. In general Odisha has plenty of water; what it lacks in many parts is proper distribution systems for this water.

Update 2: The following excerpt from a report in Telegraph elaborates on the point where this may head to the courts.

Giving conditional clearance to the project, the Union environment and forests ministry had yesterday asked the state for an assurance that no one was so entitled. At stake is the final approval for the diversion of 1,253 hectares of forestland for the steel plant and its captive port.

Jagatsinghpur collector Narayan Jena today argued that no one met the criteria under which they could legitimately stake claim to any part of the forestland. This was challenged by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, which is resisting the project.

Under the 2006 law, tribals can claim rights over forestland on which they are currently living or dependent for livelihood. According to the state government, no tribal lives in the project area.

However, the 2006 law also allows Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) to claim forest rights provided they satisfy three criteria. The claimants must:

• Have lived on the forestland for 75 years prior to December 13, 2005;

• Have been in occupation of the land before December 13, 2005;

• Be dependent on the forestland for their “bona fide” livelihood needs.

Collector Jena declined comment on the Union ministry’s riders since the official order is yet to be received, but tried to clear the air on the matter of forest rights.

He said the project area had been notified as protected forest area only in 1961 — so technically, no OTFD could claim to have lived in a “forest” there for 75 years. “Had there been tribals in the area, the situation would have been different. But no OTFD can claim such benefits because its forest status does not go back 75 years,” he said.

He conceded that the area was part of Burdwan estate before 1952, when there were reserve forests in Jatadhari and Bhuyanpal, which are part of the project area. But he insisted that the area was completely uninhabited now.

However, the Union tribal ministry says that claimants under the OTFD category do not have to prove they live on the forestland but only that they depend on it for their “bona fide” livelihood needs.

Jena countered this by alleging that claimants to land in the project area were encroachers, implying their claims about dependence for livelihood would be untenable.

Update: Following is from an editorial in Economic Times. I am in agreement with the observations there.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has passed the Posco buck, nominally to the government of Orissa but, in reality, to the courts. His final clearance of the project depends on a categorical assertion by the government of Orissa that there are no ‘other traditional forest dwellers’ among those whose land would be diverted for the project. … Now, if the government of Orissa does provide the Centre with the categorical assertion that it has sought on the nature of the people who would be displaced, it is inevitable that the villagers would go to court.

Whether the affected villagers are indeed people whom the Forest Rights Act seeks to protect is a matter of fact that would then be left to the courts to verify, beyond final challenge in the Supreme Court. This will take time. But a lengthy pilgrimage through the shrines of graded sanctity of Indian legality is not the only future open to Posco. The company can make a fresh, larger-hearted and better funded effort to win over the villagers whose lives and livelihoods would be disrupted by the project than the current one rejected by the villagers. People need certainty about their future incomes and occupations, and these would need to be superior to what they are asked to give up. This would not take much, given how the villagers eke out a living. But it does call for imagination, empathy and a willingness to engage directly with the villagers and not just with political and bureaucratic powerbrokers.

… The state has to show its earnestness. At the same time, companies and their projects must respect, not bend, the people of India and their laws. The Posco decision sets the stage for companies to show how they are inclined.

While the news media is buzz with the conditional approval of POSCO by the environment ministry, the interview with NAC Chairperson NC Saxena elaborates on the nuance behind the approval. While I am not conversant with the detailed aspects of the law here, I hope the Odisha government follows the law of the land to the dot and makes sure that displaced as well as project affected people are adequately and properly compensated. At the same I hope people and groups who blindly oppose this focus their attention towards helping the project affected and displaced people.

Following are excerpts from a CNBC-TV18 interview of NC Saxena which spells out the nuances behind the non-approval approval.

Korean steel giant POSCO has welcomed the conditional approval, which comes three years after the plant was first envisaged. It says it will maintain 25% of the area allocated for the steel plant as green cover. As per the ministry’s conditions, POSCO says it will earmark 2% of its net India profits for its corporate social responsibility drive. It will also work on creating sustainable livelihood options for people affected by the project. POSCO adds that it plans to ensure conservation of land and marine environment at the site. However, member of the National Advisory Council or NAC, NC Saxena has said that the order should not be read as a clearance. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Saxena said the Orissa government should recognise the rights of the people. The Orissa government’s rehabilitation package is very weak, he said. He however added that the package was not the concern of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

…Q: Finally a clearance being given to POSCO by the ministry of environment but you and your panel had said that there were several violations of the forest rights act by the Orissa government while the land acquisition had actually taken place. Now if I look at the order that’s been put out by the ministry of environment it clearly says that the final approval for diversion of 1253 hectares of forest land for the POSCO project would be granted as soon as there is an assurance from the state government to the ministry of finance that there is indeed no violation as far as other traditional forest dweller rights are concerned, how are you reading this?

A: Infact I don’t think it can be read as a clearance because if you see the order very carefully it very clearly says that there are conditions to be satisfied. For instance it says that there are 3 conditions. People have to be living there for the last three generations, people have to be in occupation since December 2005 and also they should depend on forest lands. Orissa government’s case was that occupation is also necessary for 3 generations which is not true.

So I am very happy that the minister has clarified that it is only living which is there for 3 generations. Minister has also clarified that these people who are forest dwellers they don’t have to claim their rights, its for the state government to recognize their rights, so therefore Orissa government if it is to stick to its own records would find it very difficult to declare that none of these condition are satisfied and I am sure that people will get justice.

Q: … so then how does one actually progress from here because the riders are going to be very difficult for the Orissa government to comply with?

A: The Orissa government should first of all recognize the rights of these people and grant the rights under the forest rights act, then they can acquire the land under the land acquisition law. I do not know why Orissa government is not willing to talk to the people. The other point is Orissa governments rehabilitation package is very weak.

They recognize rehabilitation only for those who are displaced. It should also recognize those who are affected so therefore a large number of people are losing their livelihoods, their incomes are being affected and they should also be compensated. Once you do that, if my income is Rs 5000 a month and Orissa government says I will give you Rs 10000 I am sure I will be very happy so that’s how Orissa government should deal with resentment.

Q: … this doesn’t really spell out what more needs to be done to strengthen the rehabilitation package?

A: Rehabilitation package is not the concern of the Ministry of Environment and Forest and therefore the minister has rightly not dealt with that issue but that is certainly an issue which the Orissa government and also the Ministry of Tribal affairs should be concerned with.

The ministries concern, the MoEF’s concern was only with the forest conservation act and the environmental protection act and therefore they have not commented but of you read Meena Gupta’s report and also the 3 members report they have dealt with this question in great detail and they have suggested how to strengthen and augment the whole rehabilitation package.

Q: … hence the uncertainty continues?

A: Infact yes I would say that uncertainty does not continue. Orissa government has been given a very clear order and they should comply with it …

So Orissa government should go ahead recognize their forest rights and then only think of further action. So therefore I think a very clear order has been given and it can be complied with. The project can also be completed provided Orissa government has a good rehabilitation package and observes all the laws specially the Forest Rights Act.

Following is an excerpt from an article in tathya.in.

The multi-crore mining scam would not have come to the light had Samir Das, a first timer from Nimapara Assembly constituency, questioned the theft of minerals from Ram Bahadur Thakur mines. 

His starred question exposed a major scam that was going on in the state mining sector for quite few years. 

The scam put the Naveen Patnaik Government in the most difficult time. 

The Government become defensive and now struggling to avoid a CBI probe into the scam. 

Before the dust settled, the coal scam surfaced putting in the dock two Ministers — Urban Development Minister Badri Narayan Patra and School and Mass Education Minister Pratap Jena. 

Coal worth crores of rupees have been allotted in favour companies and firms those do not exist at all, alleged both BJP and Congress Lawmakers. 

And this time round, senior BJD Lawmaker Kalpataru Das first to expose the scam. 

Mr. Das, known for his deep going instinct, gave a detailed write up as to how OSIC under Mr. Patra favoured these firms. 

As if that was not enough, Mr.Das along with Debasis Nayak, a former BJD Minister, have brought into light the Rs 3000 crore Dal scam which has rocked the State Government. 

Mr.Nayak in a letter to Chief Minister and copy to the Director Vigilance gave out the modus operandi of the Dal Scam. 

Fingers have been raised against the Women & Child Welfare Minister, Pramila Mallik, for the massive irregularities in the purchase of Arhar Dal for Mid-day Meal Scheme (MDM)and Special Nutrition Programme (SNP). 

In all these case Congress and BJP failed to expose the scam, however when the BJD Lawmakers lifted the lid of these frauds and scandals, they grabbed the lime light of Media.

While the tathya.in article suggests that this is BJD shooting on its own foot, I understand it in a different way:

1. The CM is not involved in these scams. (That is because, he is the supremo in the party, and if he was involved, no one would dare to expose these scams.)
2. The party members have the freedom to expose scams. I.e., they are not told to hide scams for the interest of the party. This is refreshing and healthy. Compare this to the 2G scam where the UPA government tolerated corruption in the name of coalition government.
3. Sure this implies that there is some infighting in the party. I think that is better than all being together and hiding each other’s role in scams.
4. This also means that it is known to the rank and file that the CM (the supremo) will not tolerate corruption and will not reprimand anyone who brings that to his notice. Only when that is known would people come out against their own party and expose corruption by other members.

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

East Coast Railway (ECoR) GM Arvind Kumar Vohra …

He informed about the achievements made by the ECoR during the last three quarters both at the freight and passenger fronts. During the period, ECoR has earned `6140.72 crore, 19.77 per cent more than the corresponding period of last year.

It has carried 79.98 MT of freight traffic, 4.91 per cent more as compared to the corresponding period of last year while 59.13 million passengers have been carried which is 12.03 per cent more than the corresponding period of last year.

The above is only about the earnings and not about profits. There is no data on that yet. However, Indian Railways as a whole has reduced earnings and may make a loss the last year. Following is from a report in Indian Express.

The Indian Railways’ great “turnaround story”, which was making waves in business schools till a few months back, now appears headed towards an ignominious end. A sharp decline in earnings and a serious escalation in expenditures are threatening to push India’s transport behemoth to near-bankruptcy.

… the Railways now has a net deficit of around Rs 2,500 crore. “While our expenditure has gone up by almost Rs 1,330 crore, our earnings are down by Rs 1,142 crore,” says a Railway Board official.

(Thanks to Odisha Tourism in Facebook for the pointer.)

Jagmohan Swain has been talking about this in facebook for a long time. I agree with him. If and when the Kra canal opens it will have a huge huge positive effect on Odisha as Odisha ports will be the closest way to reach India for ships coming from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, etc. That may be the part of the reason there is so much clamoring for making new ports in coastal Odisha. Following is a picture from Jagmohan’s facebook page.

Following is from a report on the current status of the proposed Kra canal. (Thanks again to Jagmohan for the pointer.)

The Kra Canal Project, which would link the South China Sea directly to the Indian Ocean by cutting across the Thai isthmus, has shown recent signs of being reactivated given the economic benefits it would bring to the region as well as the continuing problems with piracy in the Straits of Malacca and the current route for trade to and from India and South–East Asia to China.

The canal, which was first recognized as a potential for boosting trade in 1677, would have the same impact on South-East Asia as the Panama and Suez Canals have had elsewhere. The canal would need to traverse a length of only 44 kilometers at the narrowest point of the Thai peninsula, however with rocky land of up to 75 meters above sea level; the engineering and labor requirements would be huge.

China, not surprisingly, has offered to lend considerable assistance to the development of the project, which was tentatively approved by the Thai Senate in 2007. The project is currently stalled due to “environmental concerns”, however, this is largely interpreted as meaning political wrangling over the project, which has plenty of detractors. Two major voices of dissent are the Singapore Government, who would stand to lose their preeminent position as a shipping hub for South-East Asia, and the previous Bush administration in the United States, who’s then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld showed concern about the plan amidst growing concern of developing Chinese influence in the region.

The cost of the project is estimated at US$20 billion, and would take ten years to complete, with some 30,000 workers being involved. The project would also compliment the Highway 44 overland route, which links the West and East coasts of Thailand, and has currently been stalled with some 50 kilometers to go at either end – a victim of the recent political turmoil in Thailand. However, with domestic politics apparently heading for smoother waters and the previous Bush regime now out of the way, the Kra Canal project is certain to come back into public view, and with South-East nations keen to develop trade with China, the project looks certain to come back to the drawing board.

Note that in ten years the proposed national waterway 5 — passing through Odisha connecting coastal Odisha to Kolkata and up north through national waterway 1 — would also be ready making it possible to connect a huge part of India to the above mentioned asian countries through waterways.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

In the run up to the Railway Budget for 2011-12, the Orissa government has requested the Ministry of Railways to sanction Rs 2085 crore for the state in the current financial year …

The state government has sought Rs 350 crore for the Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link (289 km), Rs 250 crore for the Paradeep-Haridaspur rail link (82 km), Rs 150 crore each for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road rail line (90 km) and Talcher-Bimalagarh (154 km) rail line and Rs 60 crore for the Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh rail link (56 km).

For gauge conversion, the state has sought Rs 20 crore for the 89-km Rupsa-Bangriposi and Rs 30 crore for the 90-km Nuapada-Gunupur.

Similarly, for doubling projects, the state government has requested the Ministry of Railways to allot Rs 760 crore. Presently, 20 doubling projects are under execution in order to further augment line capacity. Allocation of funds for the second bridge on Kathajori and Kauakhai and Haridaspur-Jakhapura (third line) needs to be sharply increased.

The proposals for new doubling include Rayagada-Koraput rail link and patch doubling of Kottavalasa-Kirandul line. The state government has requested the Ministry of Railways to sanction doubling of this rail link which connects the port city of Visakhapatanam with the iron ore rich area of Kirandul.

For undertaking new electrification works, the state has sought Rs 100 crore from the Ministry of Railways in 2011-12. It has also requested the ministry to sanction funds for the development of multi modal logistics parks and container freight stations at Kalinga Nagar, Angul, Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Choudwar.

The Railways ministry has been requested to sanction some new rail links in 2011-12. These include Rupsa-Burhamura-Chakulia (35 km), Nuapada-Gunupur-Theruvali (79 km), Banspani-Barbil (15 km), Bhadrachalam Raod-Malkangiri-Jeypore-Junagarh-Lanjigarh Road-Talcher-Bimlagarh, Bargarh-Nuapada via Padampur (120 km), Talcher-Gopalpur (245 km), Puri-Konark (35 km), Rupsa-Bangriposi-Gorumahisani (35 km), Badampahar-Keonjhar (70 km), Berhampur-Phulbani (169.8 km) and Khurda Road-Rajathgarh (59 km).

The Orissa government has proposed to set up a dedicated industrial corridor in the Meramandali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt linking the coal mines, power generating units and steel plants.

This proposed corridor, to be co-habited by multiple users, is estimated to cost Rs 2192 crore. The state government has requested the Railways ministry to finalize the policy to construct such dedicated rail corridors in coal and mineral bearing areas.

The state has also given proposal for introduction of 16 new trains. This includes Duronto type super fast trains between Bhubaneswar-Mumbai, Puri-jaipur, Bhubaneswar-Pune, Bhubaneswar-Bangalore and Puri-Surat. It has also presented proposal for introduction of a super fast express between Visakhapatanam and Allahabad, express train between Koraput and Visakhapatanam, express train from Titlagarh to Bhubaneswar via Rayagada, express train from Keonjhar to Howrah, express train from Barbil to Visakhaptanam, super fast express from Rourkela to New Delhi, inter-city express between Puri and Tata via Keonjhar, express train between Berhampur and Rourkela, direct train between Bhubaneswar and Kalka, express train service between Jagdalpur and Kolkata, inter-city express between Berhampur and Puri and passenger train services between Barbil and Puri as well as from Rayagada to Bolangir.

Moreover, the state has sought Rs 25 crore for five new coaching terminals and Rs 50 crore for seven ‘Adarsh’ stations (model stations) and two multi-functional complexes.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The work on five major National Highway (NH) projects in the state- Bhubaneswar-Puri, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole, Sambalpur-Bargarh and Remudi-Rajamunda (NH-215) will begin in February 2011. While work on four-laning of the Bhubaneswar-Puri NH is expected to be completed soon, the remaining projects will be commissioned within three years."The work on these NH projects will commence in February 2011 and the projects are expected to be commissioned within three years. The work is being taken up on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the cost assessment will be made by NHAI. …

While work will be taken up for four-laning of Bhubaneswar-Puri (60 km) and Sambalpur-Bargarh (88-km) NHs, the Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole (62 km) highways will be six laned. As per the thumb rule Rs 4 crore will be spent per km on building these highways.