ORISSA

According to the study, parts of the State are yet to achieve the recommended daily drinking water target of 40 liter per capita per day (LPCD). While about 17 districts in the State have issues with saline groundwater, in many districts, the concentration of fluoride, nitrate, iron and chromium (hexavalent) are found to be above the permissible limits. Besides, there is huge wastage of water in the domestic sector. Due to a lack of adequate and metering, around 54% of unaccounted water losses were observed within the system.

The availability of water by the year 2051 was assessed, and the result shows that the surface water availability from its own drainage boundary remains more or less fixed but the inflow of surface water from neighbouring States will be reduced from 37.556 billion cubic metres (BCM) to 25.272 BCM.

The study indicated that by the year 2051 the total water requirement may go up to 85 BCM from the present requirement of 55 BCM, and the State may face a severe water scarcity situation in 2051.

The has reduced land acquisition contingency from 20 per cent to seven per cent of cost of acquisition for facilitating smooth transfer of land for industrial projects under Make-in-Odisha initiative.

As per the new provision, five per cent of the estimated cost of land acquired directly will go to government account while two per cent will be retained in the bank account of the district collector or special land acquisition officer. Of the two per cent, 0.10 per cent will be transferred to Revenue and Disaster Management department and 0.20 per cent to the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) concerned.

In case of land acquired through IDCO, 3.5 per cent of the cost will be retained by the state Psu while two per cent will be transferred to the account of collector and 1.5 per cent to government treasury.

Covid-induced lockdown and weekend shutdown didnt help contain crimes as rape, robbery, burglary, theft and swindling cases went up in the capital city during January-November this year than the corresponding 11 months in 2020. Suicide cases too saw an upward trend during the period.

As per the statistics shared by the commissionerate Police, rape cases increased by about 1.8%, robbery cases soared by 65%, burglary rose by 33.5%, theft cases increased by 12% and swindling cases witnessed a rise by 80% during the first 11 months this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.

The data showed around 21% rise in suicide cases in the capital city during January-November as compared to the corresponding period during the last year. While 229 persons had committed suicide during the time in 2020, the figure has climbed to 277 (190 male, 87 female) this year.

The city has been ranked bottom in quality Education in the Goals Urban Index 2020-21 recently released by the NITI Aayog contrary to its increasing popularity as an education hub.

The Odisha capital has scored 50 out of 100 in quality education while Thiruvananthapuram tops the list with 96 points. The survey was conducted for Percentage of school Internet, schools with computer available, schools with functional electricity and drinking water, pupil-teacher ratio and percentage of trained teachers at secondary level in schools in 56 cities.

The survey revealed only 25.10% schools in the state capital have internet facilities while 57% have computers. Among the cities that have failed in providing internet Services to schools, Agra tops the list followed by Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

Among the top three cities in quality education are Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Chandigarh with 96, 93 and 88 marks out of 100 while the bottom three cities are Agra, Bhopal, and Bhubaneswar with 54, 54 and 50 marks.

Odisha on the other hand has improved its ranking in quality education from 40 marks in 2019 to 45 in 2020. It is ranked 21 among the states in quality education in the index.

One classroom of each department ofUtkal Universitywill be converted into a smart classroom, higher Education minister Arun KumarSahoosaid at the institutes 51st convocation.

He added that the premier institute can take any initiative for the betterment of its and students. The minister assured that there will be no problem in terms of funds.

On development of research ecosystem, Sahoo said, The new generation scholars should be guided and motivated for better research and publication of world-class articles. The State Government has already taken steps in terms of development of research as per the provisions of the National Education Policy.

Union Education minister DharmendraPradhanhas written two different letters to his cabinet colleague Bhupender Yadav, Union labour and EMPLOYMENT minister, requesting him to create sub-regional office (SRO) of employees state Insurance corporation (Esic) atJharsugudaand personal intervention for opening of 12 dispensaries at different places ofOdisha.

In the first letter, Pradhan stated that the ESIC regional office at Bhubaneswar is in the eastern side of Odisha and it is not easily accessible for the employers and beneficiaries from the western part of the state. Hence, a proposal has been put forth for creation of a SRO at Jharsuguda under the ESIC regional office Bhubaneswar, said Pradhan.

The Union education minister stated that most of the states have at least one or more number of SROs, but Odisha has no SRO at present. Because of the long distance, many people face difficulties to come to Bhubaneswar for any ESI related work.

The state commerce and transport secretaryMadhu Sudan Padhihas asked all district collectors, SPs and regional transport officers to strictly comply with the directive of theSupreme Court Committeeon Road Safety. The transport department has laid Stress on the conduct of joint inspection of accident spots on regular basis from August 1.

The government said proper analysis of the accidents can be done once the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) project in launched in Odisha. TheWorld Bankfunded project, which is being executed by theministry of road transportand highways across the country, is aimed at analysing the causes of road accidents and devising measures to cut down the fatality rate. The ministry already rolled out the IT-based solution in six states Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

Once launched, the ministry of road transport and highways will provide funds to the State Government to purchase tablets for the Police stations for capturing the spot accident data by using the IRAD mobile App. This data can be used for finding the causes of the accidents and remedial measures to improve the road Infrastructure, to record the accidents data for the use of police, Health Services and other concerned departments.

In a first of its kind initiative, the Water Corporation ofOdisha(WATCO) has planned to build an exclusive hostel for transgender persons. Coming up at Rokat, on the outskirts of the city, this will be the first such facility for the community in the state.

In order to execute the project, WATCO has recently floated a tender to hire an architectural firm, which will conduct the site inspection as well as give a detailed architectural and feasibility plan to the corporation for the project.

The department of social security and Empowerment of persons with disability of the state has also been taking a number of initiatives to increase facilities and living standards of the transgender persons in the state.

A committee led by finance minister Niranjan Pujari has given its nod to establish 34 new courts16 civil, 10 commercial and eight sessions courtsin the state, law minister Pratap Jena said here on Monday. Jena said the new courts will help reduce pendency and take the delivery system closer to people.

Odisha currently has more than 700 Subordinate Courts. According to a reply given by Union law ministerKiren RijijuinLok Sabhaon March 25, total 15.45 lakh cases are pending cases in lower courts in Odisha. They include 12.38 lakh criminal cases and 3.07 lakh civil cases. Similarly, 1.89 lakh cases are pending in theOrissaHigh Court, the HCs pendency report as on April 29 on its website shows.

Two commercial courts will come up in Puri besides one each in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Balasore, Balangir, Kendrapada, Jeypore and Rourkela. One commercial court will be a Leave Reserve court to hear cases in case of any commercial court judge on leave.
The law department has asked the registrar of the Orissa high court for staff pattern and revised cost estimates for establishment of the different courts. As per the current estimate, the government would spend Rs 21.26 crore on Infrastructure.

The on Tuesday approved five Investment proposals in the Metal sector worth Rs 1.46 lakh crore with an aim to double steel production in the state over the next few years. While the states existing steel-making capacity is about 30 mtpa, the high-level clearance authority led by chief ministerNaveen Patnaikapproved another 27.5 mtpa capacity. All five approved proposals are expansion of existing facilities.

All these projects need a big push forward to realize Odishas dream of becoming the steel hub of India by 2030, Naveen said during the meeting. The national steel policy-2017, that aims to increase the countrys steel production to 300 mtpa by 2030, envisionsOdishaproducing 100 mtpa steel by that time.

Official sources in the state industries department said Odisha attracted investment opportunities of Rs 2.96 lakh crore during the 2020-21 financial year despite Covid. With Tuesdays additional investments, the total investments since last year will be in the region of Rs 4.43 lakh crore.

The approved projects include expansion ofBhushan Power and SteelLimiteds (BPSL) plant from 5 mtpa to 15 mtpa. Around Rs 55,000 crore will be invested in the expansion project located at Rengali in Sambalpur while it is expected to generate EMPLOYMENT opportunities for over 10,000 people.