ODISHA

Chief ministerNaveen Patnaik flagged off insulated vaccine vans and mobile blood collection vans from his official residence in the city. The vans will roam around different districts to provide quality healthcare facilities to the people.
Flagging off the vehicles,Naveensaid they will enhance the states capacity to serve in remote areas. The Health and family welfare department said the insulated vaccine van will play a very important role in transportation of temperature sensitive Vaccines from vaccine stores to field-level destinations and immunization points.

It said that 10 such vaccine vans have been procured at a cost of Rs 3.32 crore. The vans will be positioned at state vaccine stores and nine regional vaccine stores in Balasore, Balangir, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Koraput, Phulbani, Sambalpur and Sundargarh to manage smooth vaccine supply.

In the meantime, the mobile blood collection van will encourage and increase voluntary blood collection in remote areas. Five fully fabricated mobile blood collection vans have been procured at a cost of Rs 2.70 crore.

The biannual Thakurani Jatra will be held in the last week of March or first week of April this year, said the hereditary head and chief architect of the festival, who is also regarded as the head of the Dera community (weaver) of the city, P Durgaprasad Desibehera here.

According to information available, the Desibehera family has already started necessary preparations in full swing for the famous mass festival which is being celebrated once in every two years. As per the traditions, the lagna (sacred moment) for this fest is usually finalised soon after the celebration of Maha Sivaratri. Dera communitys priest (Kula Purohita) decides the time for performance of the rituals.

Thereafter, the specific date and time for installation of Subhakhunti (most auspicious pillar) are finalized soon after discussions with the District Administration and BeMC authorities including other stakeholders.

It may be recalled here that, the last Maa Budhi Thakurani Yatra was conducted in 2021 amidst a sleuth of restrictions due to prevalence of Covid-19 pandemic and the fest was limited only to certain important rituals. The public access to the fest was also limited.

The significance of the mega fest is that, Budhi Thakurani is considered as the Istadevi of Silk city Brahmapur. As a child feels safe and secure in her mothers lap, the inhabitants of Brahmapur always have a secure feeling under the blessing of Maa Budhi Thakurani. Therefore, the people of the city worship the deity with great reverence, devotion, love and affection.

The is readying a proposal for the establishment of a textile park inOdishawith the Centre having approved seven PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks for the development of the textile sector in the country.
The Centre has planned to invest around Rs 4,445 crore by 2027-28 to develop these parks with world-class Infrastructure, including plug-and-play facility for investors in the sector. The Centre has asked the state governments to send their proposals for the establishment of textile parks under PM MITRA by March 15.

The state-owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) has roped in consultancy firm,Grant Thornton, to prepare the preliminary project report (PPR) seeking setting up of the park. It has engaged the industries department as the nodal agency for the purpose.
The state government has identified around 1,000 acres at Neulopoi near Dhenkanal for a greenfield textile park under the PM MITRA Scheme.

The state government source said it is ready to hand over the 1,000 acres of land at a nominal rate to the special purpose vehicle (SPV), to be formed for the development of the textile park.
Under the PM-MITRA, the Centre assures capital support of Rs 500 crore or 30% of the project cost (whichever is highest) for developing common infrastructure in the proposed textile park.
Considering Odishas huge potential for Growth of the textile Industry, the state government has listed the textile and apparel sector as one of the six focus sectors to draw investments.
Odisha also has skilled manpower in the textile and apparel sectors. The state produces several varieties of saris while some of them are popular globally. It has also proposed to set up Cotton processing, spinning and weaving, textile and garment Plants to draw Investment in the sector.

The Population of dolphins in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and its nearby areas within Bhitarkanika marginally increased in December last year. The count of dolphins stood at 550 including six Irrawaddy, 281, bottlenose, 208 humpbacks, 52 striped and three spinner species in the park during the annual census of 2022.

In 2021, 540 dolphins were found in the park, said acting DFO of Bhitarkanika Adhir Behera. The dolphin census was conducted from December 21 to 23, 2022. We had engaged ten teams to enumerate the dolphins. The census report depended heavily on sighting forms. Forest guards, locals, environmentalists and others were engaged in the exercise conducted in the water bodies of the sanctuary and its nearby areas. The enumerators used GPS to map the exact location of the dolphins during the census, he informed.

Gahiramatha was declared a marine sanctuary in 1997 by the State Government to protect the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles at Gahirmatha beach. Every year, the state government imposes a ban on fishing in the sanctuary from November 1 to May 31 to protect the turtles. The seven-month-long fishing ban also helps maintain the population of dolphins in Gahirmatha.

The Centre has approved the installation of 2,542mobile towers, including 483 inOdisha, under phase-II of the scheme for provision of mobile Services in extremism affected areas, official sources said.

Minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan told theLok Sabha that under phase-I of the scheme, 256 mobile towers out of the sanctioned 261 have been installed in Odisha. “Five towers could not be installed due to Maoist activities and lack of forest clearance,” he added.

The teledensity in rural and urban areas of the state till September 30 was 61.87% and 144.14%, respectively. Hundreds of villages in tribal-dominated districts do not have mobile connectivity, the sources said.

Chauhan said the BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats in the country. In Odisha, phase-II of the project is being implemented under which 2,485 gram panchayats have been made service ready out of the planned 2,946 till November 30, sources said. A total of 6,313 gram panchayats have been made service ready in Odisha in the two phases.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Odisha had 2.11 crore broadband subscribers till October 21. Similarly, the state has 50.15 Internet subscribers per 100 people. The internet penetration is 40.61% in rural areas and 91.98% in urban areas.

The Odisha Police on Friday signed an MoU with the National Law University, Odisha (NLUO) for a new professional relationship based on mutual cooperation and interest.

The purpose is to set up an institutional mechanism namely Police-Academia Interaction Forum (PAIF)’ for interaction of final year suitable students of NLUO with police officers on legal matters.

The MoU provides for mutual cooperation to help investigating officers to update their knowledge on legal sphere and latest referral judgements to have regular academic conferences, workshops, investigation process, monitoring of trial, coordination and functioning of district prosecution cell.

The Odisha government has decided to set up 14 new cyber Police stations at different places, including one each at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. At present only four cyber police stations, one each atCuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela and Sambalpur are operational in the state.

At least 779 cybercrime cases have been registered from January 1 till May 31 this year across the state. Cybercrime offences increased by an alarming 31% in Odisha in 2020 as compared to 2019. Statistics of Odisha police said altogether 1931 cybercrime cases were registered last year as against 1475 cases in 2019.

Slow investigation and poor conviction have often raised questions on the efficacy of cops in solving such complex cases. Going by the latestNational Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) statistics, not a single case has resulted in conviction in the state between 2018 and 2020.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is set to perform the bhoomi puja of the ambitious Shree Mandir Parikrama Yojana or the Jagannath Heritage Corridor project in Puri on October 18. The announcement came on the heels of the temple administration receiving a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the National Monuments Authority (NMA) for the smooth execution of the project.

Being implemented at a cost of nearly Rs 800 crore within a 75-metre radius of the temple, the heritage corridor project envisages the development of mutts, a Shree Jagannath reception centre, amenities for devotees and enhanced security for the shrine.

The project is a part of the Augmentation of Basic Amenities and Development of Heritage and Architecture (ABADHA) scheme for developing Puri as a world-class heritage city.