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Following is from Samaja. Its unacceptable that Orissa only spent 650 crores out of the allocated 1100 crores for NREGS during 2008-2009. The unspent money could have built half of Khurda-Balangir line. The Orissa government needs to do a better job at spending this money.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. (Tathya.in also has a similar report.)

The Centre has proposed to set up an Integrated Marketing Project for the development and promotion of handicrafts and handloom of Orissa with a special focus on Tribal and Fibre Crafts.

The project is proposed to be executed by Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and IL&FS. It will involve an investment of approximately Rs.100 crore.

In order to make it a reality, Executive Director of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Rakesh Kumar along with other senior officials called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Orissa Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday and apprised him about the project.

During the meeting, Patnaik said the State has a vast potential for development of Tribal Crafts, Tribal Jewellery, Dhokra Casting, Silver Filigree work and other metal work, Terracotta, Wood work, Appliqué work, horn work, golden grass work, Cane and Bamboo products.

Kumar informed the Chief Minister that the project will include various components like human resource development, design & product development, national & international marketing, setting up of a state of the art Crafts Complex at Bhubaneswar and Puri as well as setting up of showrooms abroad.

New Indian express reports that all villages in Orissa will be lighted up by 2009.

Excerpts of the report are as follows:

By 2008-end, all the villages in Orissa would be provided with electricity, said Union Minister of State for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu.

He was launching the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) for Ganjam and Gajapati districts here on Thursday. He said the implementation of RGGVY in the State had been entrusted to three organisations which would supply power to every village unconditionally.

Earlier, power was supplied to the villages with more than 300 households, but the Union Government under RGGVY has decided to supply power to all the villages irrespective of number of families, he added. While the Power Grid has been entrusted with electrifying 12 districts, NTPC will electrify an equal number of districts.

The electrification of the rest six has been entrusted to NHPC, he said and added all the below poverty line families would be supplied electricity free of cost. He said the Centre is providing 90 per cent capital subsidy and the rest 10 per cent in terms of soft loan to the State Government for implementation of the programme. The Minister said 3,162 villages in Ganjam and 1,512 villages in Gajapati would get power by 2008.

D.K.Roy, Orissa in-charge of NHPC, said his organisation has been given the task of electrifying Ganjam, Gajapati, Boudh, Puri, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts. In the six districts 4,91,520 BPL families would be provided with power at an estimated cost of Rs 660.18 crore.

He said the electrification drive would be in two packages. In the first package, 55,000 BPL families in Ganjam would be supplied power at an estimated cost of Rs Rs 52.17 crore and in the second package another 57,263 BPL families would get power at an estimated cost of Rs 46.56 crores.”

Following is from a Zee News report.

With the aim to accelerate development in rural areas, the Centre has released Rs 1346 crore to Orissa under various programmes in 2006-07, out of which Rs 762 crore has been allocated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act covering 19 districts.

During the current fiscal, the Government has so far released Rs 445 crore to Orissa against the central allocation of Rs 614 crore under major allocation based schemes, official sources said.

Under the NREGA, a total 799.34 lakh person days employment were generated, of which 198.06 lakh person days were for SCs, 393.87 for STs, 284.58 for women and 216.41 lakh persons days for others.

A total of 51,521 works were taken up in the state under the programmes, out of which 18,803 works have been completed and 32,718 are ongoing.

During 2007-08, five additional districts have been included under NREGA. Central release is Rs 94.20 crore and total available funds as on April 1, was Rs 263.28 crore, out of which expenditure of Rs 16.52 crore has been reported.

Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the entitlement of Orissa from 2000-01 till 2006-07 was Rs 1,411 crore against which Rs 1804 crore has already been released and Rs 1638.29 crore has been spent by the state government.

Under Bharat Nirman programme, 2312 habitations of 1000 plus population and 2135 habitations of 500 plus population are proposed to be covered and 9993.36 km road is proposed to be constructed under it in Orissa, they said.