___________

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Bishnu Dash / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar April 17, 2009, 0:59 IST

The Centre plans to set up two new Ultar Mega Power Plants (UMPPs) in Orissa. Those projects are proposed to come up at locations closer to the sea and will have a generating capacity of 4000Mw each.

Though the locations have not been identified, five possible locations have been short listed for the purpose which are Kirtania (Balasore district), Dhamara (Bhadrakh district), Paradeep (Jagatsinghpur district) Astharanga (Puri district) and Ganjam (in Ganjam district).

A team of senior officials from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Central Electricity Authority (CEA) were likely to visit the state to identify the locations soon, sources said.

These units will make use of the sea water for meeting their water requirement and the state will get 50 per cent of the power generated from the two proposed UMPPs. The Centre plans to set up 13 UMPPs in different states. This includes Tamil Nadu (2), Gujarat (2), Andhra Pradesh (2), Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, one each. Orissa was allotted one UMPP earlier at Sundergarh district.

Meanwhile, the exact location of the Sundergarh UMPP with an installed capacity of 4000 Mw is expected to be finalised soon. … Though the state water resources department has given conditional water allotment for the proposed project, the state has asked for creation of additional water reserves in certain sites.

However, the Centre is yet to agree to this proposal. Sources said, the Centre had agreed to bear the expenses for creation of additional reservoir capacity, but wanted the work to be taken up by the state government.

Besides, the Union government has not agreed to the Orissa government’s stipulations to spend five per cent of the net profit for the peripheral development of the area. It has sought waiver of this stipulation for the project. However, the Orissa government is reported to have expressed it’s unwillingness to waive off this condition for the project.

The following was found as a comment on a tathya.in report.

Er. Ramchandra Hansdah NIT, Rourkela passed out is also contesting from Saraskana (Mayurbhanj) constituency from NCP supported by BJD.

Upon verification in the Chief Election Officer of Orissa’s web page (constituency 27) it shows that Ramchandra Hansdah graduated from NIT RKL in 1987. Note that a different Ramchandra Hansdah was a congress(I) MLA from Bahalda in 1980.

This is scary. Following are excerpts from an opinion piece in Telegraph.

In retrospect, the violence in Kandhamal in Orissa last year seems like the first step in an electoral strategy, a strategy that can be broadly described as the Gujarat model. For those who don’t remember those events, starting in the last week of August, Christians in the Kandhamal district suffered a month and a half of systematic intimidation, killing and displacement. Figures released by the Orissa government put the figure at over 12,000 refugees, fed and sheltered in government camps. This doesn’t account for those Christians who fled their homes and sought refuge in places other than these refugee camps, so the overall figure for the displaced is higher.

The troubles began after Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, was murdered by ‘Maoists’. The sangh parivar alleged that his murder had been organized by Christians and used his funeral procession to stoke murderous violence against Christians in the area. Having ‘cleansed’ Christians from their homes, Hindutva militants declared with impunity that they wouldn’t be allowed back till they re-converted to their ‘parent’ faith, Hinduism. There were reports of groups of Christians submitting to ritual ‘shuddhi’ ceremonies organized by these custodians of Hinduism’s integrity, to purge them of Christianity, that alien contagion.

The main accused in this campaign of carnage and killing was Manoj Pradhan. Charged with more than a dozen cases of murder and arson, Manoj Pradhan is currently lodged in jail in G. Udayagiri, a town in Kandhamal. The not-so-subtle irony is that Pradhan is also the Bharatiya Janata Party’s official candidate for the G. Udayagiri assembly seat in the approaching elections. B.B. Ramachandran Harichandan, the BJP’s leader in the state’s legislative assembly, offered a familiar defence: “he has been arrested under false charges. In any case, he is not yet proved guilty in the court of law. Let the people decide his fate”.

The BJP’s nominee for the newly delimited Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat is a former IPS officer, Ashok Sahu, currently the state president of the Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, who is notable for having declared without the inconvenience of evidence that Christian terrorists had killed Laxmananda Saraswati.

A pogrom is the first step in the Gujarat model. The object of the pogrom is polarization, specifically the consolidation of a Hindu majority. The third ‘P’ in this grim sequence is political victory at the polls. …

In a circumstance where, just over six months ago, dozens of Christians had been killed and thousands made homeless, … But the last word in this matter must be reserved for Ashok Sahu, the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the Kandhamal seat. He said, “What happened in Kandhamal is no reason to be ashamed about, at least not for me. Today Kandhamal symbolizes Hindu culture.”

The reason these contests in Kandhamal are of historic and of national importance is because they show us the BJP being true to its impulses, its gut beliefs. Over the last few years (with the exception of Gujarat), the BJP has been compelled by political and electoral necessity to abide by anodyne coalition manifestos. Now that the party doesn’t have a tiresomely ‘secular’ partner to alienate in Gujarat, it’s taking the opportunity to be itself.

… In recent times, majoritarian organizations in this country have tried to expand the domain of permissible violence. The Sri Ram Sena in Karnataka, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in Maharashtra, and the BJP in Orissa and Karnataka have used thuggish intimidation in the name of a defence of culture. Their targets have been the vulnerable and the weak: young women, poor north Indian men and religious minorities. This election is a pointer to the likely political behaviour of the BJP parties were it to be sprung from the straitjacket of coalition politics. And should it win the Kandhamal contests, something ominous shall have been proved

He is an independent candidate from Karanjia. A web page and blog set up for his campaign is at http://www.baidyasing.org/.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

Launching a scathing attack at the UPA and NDA, Patnaik said these alliances work on national agenda and a state’s interest is never a priority for them. "Orissa has been a victim of discrimination, particularly when it came to coal and mineral royalty and rail connectivity both during UPA and NDA regimes," Pattnaik said. "Leaders of different political parties from other states now touring Orissa and shedding crocodile tears, but they will not be successful here," Patnaik said.

Following is from Sambada. It reports that Jindal Steel of Kalinganagar is trying to give its extra power to its plant in Harayana against the agreement that the state of Orissa has the first rights to get that extra power. The Orissa high court was approached on this and it has put a stay order on this. Industrialists should realize that such attempt to steal from a state, that too a poor state like Orissa, is what gives the whole conecpt of industrailization a bad name.

Other potential representatives should learn from this young leader. Following is an excerpt from a report in ExpressBuzz.

The BJD candidate for Sambalpur Parliamentary constituency Rohit Pujari is all prepared for the contest.

… So well had he done his homework that after the boundaries were redrawn he strengthened his organisation in the newly included Athamallick and Chendipada areas and had even formed booth committees.The technocrat had even put in place committees at the gram panchayat and booth level and maintained a rapport with them through SMSs and phones. And this seems to have paid dividends for the young leader.

… But now it seems Pujari has also done his groundwork listing out problems of the PC area wise and priorities.

The young leader also listed out the problems the voters face in the constituency.

In a document handed out to the mediamen he has listed out the need to combat Naxalism in Sambalpur and Deogarh districts as the biggest challenge.

He attributed the growth of Naxalism to lack of development in rural areas.

The document also lays thrust on providing and promoting technical education and developing sports infrastructure to channelise youth power productively.

He also has something for the chillies and fruit growing areas as he has assured to look into the long pending demand for a food processing unit and cold storage.

Diversion of NH-6 in Deogarh and Sambalpur to contain road accidents and casualties also finds mention and so also an LPG dealership, as the block does not have one.

Ask for it and he has all in the document.

Promoting tourism, cleaning of Mahanadi river, upgradation of Jamadarpali airstrip, air ticketing facility, development of education corridor to compliment the presence of VSS Medical and VSS University of Technology, museums, expediting Kendriya Vidyalaya and Navodaya Vidyalaya and development of technical education in Deogarh has also been assured.

The document also touches upon issues like training to tribal girls to make them economically independent.

Some of the points made by BJD are:

• People of Orissa have seen the frightening consequences of BJP and the Sangh Parivaar’s conspiracy to make Orissa like Modi’s Gujarat , in the hellish violence in Kandhamal, Gajapati and Sundergarh districts.
• The BJP government had declared the Gujarat earthquake a national calamity but refused to declare the Orissa super cyclone as a national calamity.
• Like BJP, Congress gave 2000 crores for the Bihar floods and did not even give 100 crores for the Orissa floods.

Following is from Sambada.

The following is from http://ceoorissa.nic.in/PC%20candidates%20of%20first%20phase.pdf.

The following is from the cover story of ndia Today of September 22, 2008. It was done by Economists Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari.

The data is about how the states have improved (accelerated) since 1991. Overall Orissa is number 3 among all states. (See the last table.) With respect to individual parameters Orissa is number 7 in Agriculture (best in the east), number 2 in consumer markets (best in the east), number 2 in macro economy behind Assam, number 1 in education, number 8 in governance, number 6 in investment, number 2 in health and number 12 in infrastructure.

Baidyanath Sing is from a poor tribal family of Aswakuti (Hudisahi) village near Similipal of Mayurbhanj district. Since his school days he had to struggle financially for his studies. He got admission to NIT Rourkela in Electrical Engineering. Lacking financial resources, he was supported by his friends for his study. After that he did his M.Tech at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. About his early days, this is what he has to say:

Since from my school days, I struggled for existence, had to work to support my education. After getting admission into Engineering Institute, my friends supported me financially for entire four years as I was in no position to support by my own, nor my parents were. During those days, when I visited my native place, I saw lot many talented students not being able to complete their studies due to poverty, like mine. This moved me so much and forced me to think again and again. This, I realized is not an isolated case and there is a need to look at the bigger picture. From that day onwards, I realized that I have a bigger role to play than any of my friends and thought of doing something for the poor people like me. My determination was multiplied by several other problems such as deforestation by jungle mafias, ignorance of the fellow villagers about their rights and resulting exploitations. I realized that people in here needed somebody to lead them and show them ways to create a better life for themselves and the generation next. Situation demanded that, I spend my valuable asset, my times, as I myself don’t have enough funds to spin on development of my fellow sufferers. 

During his days at NIT Rourkela and IISc Bangalore he cultivated friendships with his classmates, juniors, seniors, and alumni working across India and abroad. About this interactions and how it shaped his future agenda this is what he has to say:

During our electronic e-conference all my intellectual troupes suggested insisting upon taking legitimate care of the education from the grass root level. We concluded that we will start with education i.e. we will interact with primary school teachers, guardians by arranging meeting in regular time interval and we will support attractive accessories to kids to attract them so that we can avoid drop out in the primary levels. Then I personally realized that visibility of development would take much time if we will start first with education, in the most deprived area where education is a distant dream, and our effort would be useless. They dearth in living standard and they are not at all in a position to think of education, and mostly they are busy arranging for their per day foods. So, we have to observe their weakest point, through which we can attract them more easily and we can change their mentality to bring them towards the mainstream of developed path. Then I proposed if we can start education and parallel with some income generating activities like agriculture, agricultural related activities, managing locally available natural resources by local people and villagers empowerment porgrammes. then there may be possible in “sustainable rural development” and finally my proposal was accepted by all others.

 With those agenda in mind Baidyanath Singh left his job in an IT company in Bangalore and embarked on several projects in and around his villages. In pursuing those projects the procedure he adopted is outlined as follows in his own words.

Step 1: We are having local tribal educated mass, arranging farmers’ awareness programmes in targeted village and forming FSHG (Farmers Self Help Group) and WSHG (Women Self Help Group), which consist of 15 to 20 no of members. In each village there are minimum 5 to 8 no of SHG depends on strength of the targeted village. There is no discrimination in cast, religious, BPL and APL during group formation. Landless villagers are also included in the groups so, that they can take advantage out of it. And we are trying to create competitive mind among the groups.

Step 2: When we are arranging awareness programmes in targeted village we are making survey of

• What are their livelihoods?
• What are their traditional crops?
• Any person in the village doing other crops pattern?
• Any crops they were cultivating previously but they stopped now, if yes when and why?
• After getting all data there will be a mutual discussion with them and they will give proposal what can possible so that everyone can accept it with great interest by which no one will feel as a burden and probability of success for proposed crops should be 100% with any weather conditions so there will be no frustration among the farmers. With this our aim is to attract more and more no of farmers not only that village but also in consecutive villages.

Following are some of the activities that he has been involved in, in and around his village, after he left his job in Mumbai and came back to his village to help develop his village and its surroundings. They are in his own words.

Activities 1: My village Aswakuti (Hudisahi) is located very close to Similipal    reserved area. During my B.E. time there was lot of timber business used to happen by Jangle mafia from out side. They were taking advantage of villager’s illiteracy, innocence and poverty. The mafia groups motivated the villagers up to such extend that, instead of traditional farming their hobby became supplying timber.  Which became easiest income source in a short time period.

I personally realized that if a thing goes so then just after 5 years there may be vagaries of nature. Then we motivated some people to understand the reality and arranged one meeting in our village and formed one "Jangle Surakhya Committee". This committee formed four groups and each groups was assigned to do duty in jangle once in a week. As a result it hampered mafia and motivated villagers, which became a great problem for our committee. They became our great enemy and we got life threatening from them. At last we took help of our Sarat local forester who supported us. He became our advisor now our village committee is renamed into J.F.M (Joint Forest Management). This JFM is working so effectively that we are also getting financial support from Forest Department. Interesting thing is that now maximum villagers are having Committee.

Activities2: Year 2004-05 we promoted Niger cultivation as an experimental basis in the village of Dangadhia, Khukundu and Paterpada of Thakurmunda block in Mayurbhanj district among the 100 beneficiaries, but seeds were not perfect even though it was a great success for us, farmers accepted it very easily. maximum farmers earned minimum of Rs 3000/- just for four month.

Activities3: Year 2005-06 we distributed same seeds in my sarat area of Kaptipada Block among the three villages named Keshpada, Kadabahali and Kutumundi with four FSHG as a foundation seeds for this area. This activity was so popular for this area and also they earned very god amount. I will feel proud to inform you that this year agriculture department people (Udala ADAO) visited our field and he appreciated it.

Activities 4: Last year’s Niger activity was so popular and year 2006-07 (this year) we distributed 5 quintal Niger seeds which covered more than 100 acars of free land, vegetables seeds, 1 quintal of mustard seeds which has covered more than 20 acars of land and 60 no of vegetable kits from Horticultural department in different villages. I think this Niger project was a biggest activity in whole Mayurbhanj. This years Niger activity was so excellent and attractive. I will be proud to inform you that last 25th Oct. during flowering time we organized one Agricultural Awareness Programme.

Activities 5: This year on 24th Sept. We organized Mathematics Olympiad Test Called Rural Mathematics Talent Search Test (RMTST) for 6th class, which was state level Exam. and supported by Institutes of Mathematics, BBSR and NRO’s USA. Qualified students will be awarded Rs 1500/- per annum for five years and they will be eligible for National level (for national level they will get Rs 1500/- per month) and then for International level.

Activity 6: From this year I became a lifetime member of Foundation for Excellence (FFE) USA based Organization through which we can be able give scholarship to students from BPL/antardoya/arnapurna card holders with good marks in High School, +2, +3, Diploma, Medical (rank within 280) and Engg. (Rank within 2050) from Rs 5000/- to Rs 40,000/-. Per annum until to complete their course. This year I have provided scholarship (Rs 5000/-) to Mr. Manash Mallick from BPL family who has secured 667 marks in HSC-2005, Kumini Prava Panigrahi (Rs 19000/-) who is doing Diploma in Rourkela but yet to come.

Activity 7:  From next month we are going to start Masses for Rural Computer Education Institute in Sarat for school and college level students with minimum price. Which is also going to support by NRO’s USA.

Activity 8: We are running one non-formal school for students from class 1 to 5th in my village Aswakuti itself (class timing is 6.30 am to 8.30 am and 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm) this is just a special class and volunteer teachers from village itself, salary for them is donated by parents themselves. This school is running so effectively and we are planning to do in other villages also. Some NRO’s from USA are also going to support these special schools very soon.

He has the following proposals for the near future; again in his own words.

1. All activities as mentioned above will be continued in future and multiplied into large scale till turned into sustainable activity.
   
2. As farmers’ interest is multiplying drastically, which is a positive symbol for this area, within next two years we are trying to cover all nine Gram Panchayat, which includes more than 80 villages with more than one lakhs people. Our mission will be to form as many as no of FSHG and WSHG. All groups will make saving account in near by Baitarani Gramyan Bank.
3. Last year we encouraged only for Niger, mustard and some area for vegetable cultivation but this year we are preparing to promote mixed horticulture farming which includes Turmeric, Zinger, Sun flower, Sweet Potato, Drumstick, Hybrid Banana, Mango, Amala with very large scale.
4. Beneficiaries list is increasing. If these activities go in this way then within very short span of time this area may be able to give huge amount of Agro-product. But main problem is market potential. As per Orissa is concerned Agro-Industries are very rare so agro market potential is not supportive for farmers. Farmers are not getting proper justice for their product, which is tending to create frustration among the farmers.
5.  According to our vision, if there will be a processing unit just like a Small Scale Agro-Industries (SSAI) in the local area there will no question of mediators in between grass root level farmers and SSAI by which maximum benefits goes towards grass level framers only. Which can influence financial status of farmers directly.

Few weeks back he contemplated getting into electoral politics and run in his constituency. Following is an excerpt from an email he sent to Sandip Dasverma on his thoughts on why he should run and his chances.

… whole area is requiring one good leader for them so I am thinking that I may not be a good leader for them but I will try to be a good leader for them. I am thinking that as election in Orissa is very close and I am thinking to contest from my constituency (KARANJIA) as a MLA …

Since I am a highly qualified tribal guy who has been involved directly with social problems since from long days so, why shouldn’t I enter into politics in order to deliver my capabilities and my dreams for my areas. People of my area love me very much and I have excellent chances to win from my constituency.

Yesterday Baidyanath Sing went to file his nomination for the Karanjia Assembly seat as an independent and we support his candidacy whole heartedly. 

Following is a map of the Karanjia constituency. We encourage readers with ties to that area to help Mr. Sing.

Following is from a report in hospitalitybizindia.com.

The Orissa government is planning to set up two mega food parks in south Orissa’s Ganjam and Gajapati districts at an investment of Rs 200 Crore. The proposal to set up the parks is pending before the Union Government’s concerned departments.

Of the total investment, the Union Government is likely to bear 50 per cent of the cost, while the balance 50 per cent will be provided by the Orissa government. Two mega food processing units are likely to be set up in the food parks to facilitate vegetable and fruit processing. The proposed food parks will offer marketing avenues for different agricultural and horticultural products from the farmers after these products are scientifically processed.

Following is from a report in Hindu Business line.

Kingfisher Airlines on Thursday announced it has commenced flights on five new domestic routes as part of its Summer-2009 schedule that began on March 29.

They are: Mumbai-Vadodara, Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad-Aurangabad and Bangalore-Kozhikode.

Following is an excerpt from a report in PTI.

The grandeur of the majestic Konark Sun Temple in Orissa is set to be reflected in the new uniforms of Air India, with both cabin crew and ground staff, readying to don designer Ritu Beri’s fashionable creations.

"There is an endless wealth of decoration from minute patterns to boldly modelled free standing sculptures in the Sun Temple, which marks the foundation for the uniforms including saris and ties for men," says Beri who has been awarded the task to design the new uniforms.

"The wheels and arches of the temple are reflected in the print created. The saris depict the sun with rays going in all directions, inspired by the wheels of the Sun god’s chariot," Beri told PTI in an interview.

… "The endeavour was to combine our rich Indian colours and motifs from the temple with the powerful and more modern combination of black and white in the borders and the ‘pallu’ of the saris," says Beri. 

Update: KP Singh Deo says that he has not resigned. Other reports quote AICC sources to say that he has threatened to resign 4 times.

Earlier this year the Congress party replaced Jayadev Jena as the PCC leader and installed a 4-member leadership in Orissa.

• K. P. Singh Deo
• Srikant Jena
• Bhakta Charan Das
• Ram Chandra Ulaka

Following is the current status of this four people:

• K P Singh Deo: He wants to run for the Lok Sabha from Dhenkanal and has not been able to get a ticket. Apparently Rahul Gandhi wants the youngster Suparno Satpathy to run from there. The following tathya.in headline says that: " RAHUL GANDHI ASKS K P SINGHDEO TO BE ON GUARD", "K P SINGHDEO SENDS RESIGNATION OUT OF DISGUST"

• Srikant Jena: He has no idea what is happening to him. A Times of India article reports the following: Sources said Congress nominee Srikant Jena is reluctant to contest from Balasore Lok Sabha seat. Jena was earlier interested for the Kendrapada LS seat which was filled up by Ranjib Biswal against which local party cadres have registered their protest. "I don’t know where I am contesting. All that I know is what I read in the newspapers," Jena said referring to media reports that he has been renominated to contest from Bari Assembly seat.
• Bhakta Charan Das: He threatened to resign before he was given the ticket to contest from Kalahandi.
• Ram Chandra Ulaka: He also threatened to resign. An Indian Express article had this to say:

  Over the past few days, at least two senior Congress leaders, including chief of Congress Legislature Party Ulaka Ramachandra, have threatened to resign after the high command ignored their demands. Ramachandra’s list of favourite candidates for his home district Rayagada was trashed by the party’s Central Election Committee, which favoured the candidates of former chief minister Giridhar Gomango.

  Besides, former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das is unhappy over being denied the Kalahandi Lok Sabha ticket. Even the state Congress president has raised a banner of revolt after names of several of his candidates were struck off and names of relatively fresh faces added by the high command.

There have also been some high profile actual resignations from Congress in Orissa. This includes Taraprasad Bahinipati (leader from Koraput), Pinaki Mishra (leader from Puri) and Rohit Pujari (the then president of Youth Congress of Orissa).

If this is how the Congress leadership treats the leaders from Orissa now, one wonder how the remaining people in Congress, if they win elections and govern Orissa, will be able to stand-up in Delhi and make the case for Orissa.

A researcher in one state government institution in Orissa recently received an invitation to spend a month in a top US university with all expenses paid by the US university. She/He requested permission from the head of his/her institution to take leave and make the trip. The head sent the request (WHY?) to the overseeing department in the secretariat. When the whereabouts of the file was inquired the secretary in charge of that department said that she has just put up the file to the Chief Minister’s office (WHY?). Now the file will probably sit among hundreds of files in the CMO’s office that are waiting for his attention.

This is an example of how even simple stuff are not being decided at lower levels and are being sent all the way up to the CM’s office. In this case, the head of the institution should have just made the decision.

The current Orissa government is at fault for directly or indirectly allowing/encouraging such passing the buck and/or for not empowering decision making at lower levels. Regardless of who wins the election this must change and the new government should encourage and empower decision making at lower levels.

From http://eci.nic.in/.