ODISHA

Endangered Brydes Whale Carcass Were Found Nearby The Puri Border And Ganjam Districts Of Odisha.

Highlights:

The 48-foot-long female whale was buried near the shore, whose Exact cause of death can be determined only after getting a post-mortem report.

There are 3 or 4 Rorqual species of Brydes whale. As the number and its Classification remain unclear due to a lack of definitive information & research, it is called Complex.

Common Brydes whale is a more extensive form occurring worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters.

Sittang or Edens whale is a more diminutive form, restricted to the Indo-Pacific.

A more diminutive & coastal form of B. Brydei is found off southern Africa.

The demand for district status to Brahmapur gained momentum after the CM Naveen Patnaiks recent decision to make Padmapur the 31stdistrict of the State.

City based outfit Sahara TaliAnchalMilitaKriyaAnusthan Committee (STAMKAC) has renewed its earlier demand of making the Brahmapur sub-division a district. The STAMKAC had submitted a memorandum in this regard addressing to the Chief Ministerin 2018 when the Government was considering creating some new districts before the 2019 simultaneous .

Ganjam district is still a big district to govern and for better administration, Brahmapur needs to be made a district, said Patnaik.

Brahmapur has already got a separate Police and labour district tag under its purview. Recently the Government is also going to give a nod for a separate RTO office for Brahmapur. The RDC office is in Brahmapur but the district headquarters town of Ganjam is in Chhatrapur, said the memorandum.

Chief ministerNaveen Patnaik inaugurated a state-of-the-art and milk processing plant of theOdishaState Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (OMFED) atAriloin Cuttack district where 5 lakh litres of milk will be processed daily.

Set up over 51 acres of land, the automated plant has been developed by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) at an Investment of Rs 263 crore.

The plant will produce 2-lakh litres of milk, 30,000 litres of curd, 10,000 litres of butter milk, 5,000 litres of lassi and other products like butter, cheese, flavoured milk and milk powder.

Following the commissioning of the new plant, the existing plant in the city, which used to employ 550 staff, will now shut down. The new plant can employ 650 people.

The chief minister also reiterated that increasing income of farmers is the key objective of various programmes of his government. The state has been facilitating subsidy of up to Rs 50 lakh to promote establishment of more dairy and milk processing units in the state, said the chief minister, urging the people to take advantage of various government programmes.

The abolished the contractual recruitment system with effect from October 15. All contractual employees would be regularised.

The contractual recruitment system started in 2013. It was too a difficult decision for me. Now, our economy has improved significantly. Odisha has created a new identity for itself in the field of development in the country. Last year, we substituted the contractual recruitment posts with initial appointees, he said.

The has recorded more than 200% Growth in revenue from themining and Metal sectorin the first six months of the current financial year. The states revenue from the mining and metal sector as on Thursday is estimated to be around Rs 19,118 crore, which is much more than the Rs 5,947 crore collected during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The first six months collection from the sector is also more than the total collection of the previous fiscal as mining had contributed Rs 13,600 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal and Rs 11,000 crore in the previous financial year.

Though the states revenue from all sources is yet to be estimated officially, sources said it could be around Rs 33,000 crore by the end of September, which means that themining sectorcontributed over 60% of total revenue in the first half of the current fiscal.

Every year the mining sector contributes a major chunk to the states overall revenue. Over the past few years that has been in the region of 25%. Huge growth in revenue collection from the sector would come as a breather for the state government trying to bring the pandemic-hit economy on track.

Odishahas topped in the country in terms of curbingvaccine wastage. The state has so far saved 12.2 lakh doses and thus registered -5.5 per cent misuse. This means the state administered 105 doses and saved five for every 100 doses allotted.

The state till Wednesday administered 2.45 crore doses, which include 12.2 lakh saved doses. The capitals entire Population can be vaccinated with at least the first jab with the saved doses.

While Odisha achieved 58 per cent coverage of the first dose, seven districts have less than 50 per cent coverage. Districts with less than 60 per cent of second dose coverage against the due target are Malkangiri (50 per cent), Nabarangpur (55 per cent), Boudh (57 per cent) and Kandhamal (58 per cent). Nine districts are yet to cross the 1-lakh mark in terms of administering the second dose.

The disaster-prone coastalstatehas decided to construct the stadiums in such a way that these can also be used as cyclone and flood shelters if needed.

For Health emergency, the Sports facilities can also be converted into 50 to 100-bed field hospitals, the need of which was felt during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Government sources said two models would be followed while building the stadiums. For smaller townships or notified area councils (NACs), the structures will be comparatively smaller, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 6.40 crore each.

For municipal towns and cities, these would be bigger and cost around Rs 10.15 crore each.

The on Monday approved 11 industrial projects worth Rs 3,266 crore, which are expected to create EMPLOYMENT for 9,146 people. The projects were cleared by the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) chaired by chief secretaryPradeep KumarJena.

The industrial projects include those in Metal downstream and ancillary, chemicals, Food Processing, agro-processing, plastics, textiles apparel and IT and RENEWABLE ENERGY sectors. The approved projects will be set up in Balasore, Balangir, Kalhandi, Khurda and Jajpur districts.

Nestl India Limited will set up a food processing unit at an Investment of over Rs 890 crore. The project will provide jobs to 800 people.

In IT and electronic system design and management (ESDM) sector, the authority gave its go-ahead to a a Software development centre by Nisum Consulting Private Limited at Rs 200 crore.

The state demanded the reduction of tax rates for items required for Covid management, such asvaccines, at the 43rdGST councilmeeting headed by Union finance ministerNirmala Sitharamanthrough video-conference.

Representing the state, finance ministerNiranjan Pujarisaid the reduction ofGSTon Vaccines and other consumables would ease the burden on common people and also on the states procuring these to deal with the unprecedented healthcare crisis.

As chief ministerNaveen Patnaikhas already sought the intervention of the Union finance minister for the exemption of GST on the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines by the states, Pujari demanded that the GST council should consider the matter on priority in view of the urgency.
Raising the issue of GST compensation to the states, theOdishafinance minister demanded that the system introduced by theCentreshould continue in this financial year as well and the states be compensated accordingly.

During the 2020-21 financial year, the Centre had zeroed in on a formula to compensate the states for the loss of revenue owing to implementation of the GST. As the collection of GST had reduced significantly owing to the lockdown, the Centre had raised a certain amount through borrowing and passed it to the states as compensation. The amount will be repaid out of the GST cess receipt collected by the Centre later.

The has decided to resume the purchase of new vehicles for ministers and bureaucrats, lifting a ban that had come into force in February 2020 as part of its austerity measures. As per the government decision, only hybrid and electric vehicles (EV)s will be allowed to be bought.

Economic slowdown and drop in revenue receipt from various Resources had prompted the government to impose a complete ban on purchase of new vehicles for government officials except for judges ofOrissahigh court and in cases like emergency requirements (Health and security purposes).