ODISHA

T-Setu, which spans the Mahanadi River, was opened by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on 20 December.

Highlights:

T-Setu, built over the Mahanadi River in Cuttack district, is Odisha’s longest bridge.

It’s a 3.4-kilometer-long, 7.5-meter-wide bridge.

Gopinathpur in Badamba, Baideswar in Banki, and Singhanath Pitha in the middle of the Mahanadi River are connected by a bridge, which will cost Rs 111 crore in total.

On both sides of the T-Setu bridge, there is a footpath. It has a width of 1.5 meters.

T-Setu will help Cuttack and Khurda residents by cutting the distance between Badamba and Baideswar by 45 kilometers.

Five lakh individuals from adjacent communities would communicate thanks to the bridge.

It will also boost the area’s Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, business, and tourism industries, and devotees visiting Baba Singhanath’s Bali Makar Jatra in Badamba block will benefit from it.

T-construction Setu’s is notable because the constructs a 3-kilometer fair-weather road (pedestrian track) on the Mahanadi River every year at the cost of Rs 14-Rs15 million to facilitate Communication for worshippers. During the monsoon season, this road is swept away.

As a result, residents have been clamoring to construct this bridge for quite some time. On 28 February 2014, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for T-setu. However, the building was delayed due to technical challenges and only began in 2018.

The is repeatedly laying Stress on the 5T initiatives and the 5T Secretary is personally visiting the under-construction Infrastructure projects and taking stocks of their progress.

As part of the 5T initiative, in the different bridge collapses or other mishaps in the State like the Bomikhal flyover collapse incident, the supervising officials and the executing agency have been penalised. Some officials have been suspended and the contractor blacklisted.

In major projects undertaken by the OBCC, the work progress and other aspects, the Abadha project, Joda Flyover and other major projects which are on the priority list of the Chief Minister are getting neglected.

With a total Revenue Receipt target of Rs 1,25,600 crore, the has expected to get Rs 68,100 crore from the Union Government as Share Tax and Central Grants during 2021-22 fiscal.

However, by October 31, 2021, the State has received only Rs 23,528.73 crore, which is 15.25% less compared to October 2020. In real figures, during April to October of 2021-22, the State got Rs 4238.68 crore less than what it had got during the same period of previous fiscal year. Up to October, 2020, it had received Rs 27,763.41 crore.

Moreover, the State has estimated to get Grants of Rs 37,963.32 crore from the Centre during the current year. Till October 2021-end, it has received only Rs 9,596.57 crore, which is 31.49% less than the amount received up to October last year.

Similarly, against the budget estimation of 2021-22 to get Rs 30,136.68 crore share on Central taxes, the State has received Rs 13,932.16 crore till last month-end. Though the amount received on Share Tax head is 1.28% more than the previous years figure, it is not satisfactory as the funding is 19.22% less than received till October 2019.

The target for both Tax and Non Tax revenue for 2021-22 is Rs 57,500 crore, out of which Rs 37,500 crore is from Own Tax and Rs 20,000 crore from Non Tax sources. The total revenue collection from both sources till October-end has increased by 75.37% against the collection of the same period of last year. So, both Tax and Non Tax collection till October 2021 was Rs 45,516.61 crore while the collection till October 2020 had been Rs 25,955.16 crore.

The Own Tax Revenue collection registered a 29.42% Growth till October of 2021-22 as compared to corresponding period of 2020-21 while Non Tax Revenue collection growth has gone up by 152.59%. Own Tax Revenue collection by October 31, 2020 was Rs 16,273.84 crore and Non Tax Revenue collection was Rs 9,681.32 crore.

In the RKVY scheme, an initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), free training for Skill development will be provided to unemployed youths (in the age group of 18-35 years) having minimum qualification as matriculation passed. They will get certificates after successful completion of training.
In Odisha, skill development training will be given at the Carriage Repair Workshop at Mancheswar in Bhubaneswar and Electric Loco Shed at Angul. Two RAILWAY institutions-Diesel Loco Shed Visakhapatnam and Electric Loco Shed Visakhapatnam- in Andhra Pradesh have been selected as training institutes.

According to the WSO (Wildlife Society of Orissa), the elephant landscape in Odisha has gone through a dramatic change because of mindless mining & unplanned developmental activities.

Key Points:

According to WSO, the elephant panorama has changed dramatically in the final two decades.

In the Keonjhar district of Odisha, there had been 112 elephants in 2002. Now, it has only forty elephants due to large-scale mining.

In the last 20 days of July-August, five elephants had been deemed useless in the Keonjhar forest division.

Dhenkanal district had eighty-one elephants in 2002 which has multiplied to 169. Number of elephants are getting trapped in the Rengali Irrigation canals.

On similar lines, 70 elephants from the Chandaka sanctuary have abandoned the location and have migrated to Nayagarh, Ganjam and Cuttack districts. Many of them have been killed by means of trains or due to electrocution in Ganjam.

The 10 districts covered in first phase are Mayurbhanj, Baleswar, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Khordha, Puri and Nayagarh.

Notably, on the direction of the Chief Minister, 5T Secretary VK Pandian had a videoconference with public representatives of 37 ULBs of the aforesaid 10 districts on June 2 and discussed with them on development of urban bodies under the MUKTA Yojana.

All these projects would be executed directly by the Mission Shakti groups as the implementing agency.

The proposed Sri Jagannath International Airport inPurimay soon become a reality with a team of officials from theAirports Authority of India(AAI) conducting a pre-feasibility study in the temple town on Thursday. The central team also inspected a 1,000-acre land, about 5km from the Jagannath Temple, for theconstruction of the proposed airport.

The AAI team was shown a vast stretch of land, sprawling over 1,000 acres, owned and acquired by the near the Girala andMangalarivers under Sipasarubali mouza. The land does not have any encroachment nor is it entangled in legal disputes. The proposed international airport will not violate the CRZ norms as the land is located more than 500 metres from the beach. Verma denied reports of the proposed airport posing any threat to the structural safety of the 12th century shrine.

V K Pandian, 5T secretary-cum-secretary to the chief minister, directed officials to begin construction of the multipurpose Irrigation project at Chheligada in R Udayagiri block ofGajapatidistrict.

When completed, the Rs 936-crore project will irrigate 6,260 hectares of land in Gajapati and Ganjam districts. Besides, it will provide drinking water to Berhampur and generate 36 KW of hydroelectric power. The project, whose tender has been floated, has been aimed to be completed in 2025.

Pandian met some people who will be displaced due to the project. As many as 501 families of five villages will be displaced, while another 10 villages will be submerged partially. They will be rehabilitated to seven colonies in Ganjam and Gajapati districts.

Breast augmentation surgery, gaining popularity in metros and big cities, is also slowly catching up in tier-2 states likeOdisha.

Experts believe Social Media, peer pressure and rising aspirations have led to Women shedding their inhibitions and embracing their bodies. A growing middle-class that is exposed to celebrity lifestyle, wooed by the cosmetics and influenced heavily by the huge wedding market, does not mind shelling a lakh or two for a fuller body shape.

A small segment of such women want to restore their breasts, in case they have become disfigured or have been lost to cancer. This apart, women having amastia (absence of breasts) or hypomastia (small-size breasts) take recourse to surgery.

Government data has revealed that family planning is gaining pace in the state.

According to the data, while total sterilisation cases were 55,072 in 2020-21, but it increased to 83,143 in 2021-22 and 85,219 in 2022-23 (till February 2023). Intake ofcontraception pillsand use ofcondomshave also increased in the state.

According to government data, both male and female sterilisation cases have increased since 2020-21. Of seven contraception methods propagated by the , intake of contraceptionpillshas sharply increased over the years.

Only 1,587 Women were taking these pills in 2018-19. The number doubled the next year. In 2020-21, as many as 17,260 women had taken these pills. The number increased to 1,38,663 in 2021-22 and more than two lakh in 2022-23 (till February).