ODISHA

RAILWAY Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has sanctioned Rs 1.55 crore from his MPLAD fund for various developmental works of the Bahanaga area.

A sum of Rs 1 crore has been sanctioned for works including construction of five community centres and halls with provision of toilet and cold drinking water at Bahanaga Bazar and nearby villages, construction of a childrens park and gym near Basuli High School, strengthening of road from NH-16 to level-crossing No. 95, repairing of a village road, improvement of Pranabandhu Bidyapitha playground, provision of 42 solar streetlights, etc.

He has also sanctioned Rs 35 lakh for Advanced Life Support (ALS) Ambulance for District Headquarters Hospital besides Rs 20 lakh for a Modular Operation Theatre at the Balasore Lions Eye Hospital.

The State received excise revenue of Rs 5,528.36 crore in the year 2021-22 whereas in 2020-21 it was Rs 4,053.51 crore and in 2019-20 Rs 4,495.52 crore.

Regarding the licence criteria, the Minister said only the Government-approved and tested liquors are allowed to be sold in shops. If somebody is found selling imported foreign liquor in a Government-licensed shop and found manufacturing spurious liquor, the shop shall be fined Rs 10 lakh and its owner would be imprisoned up to 10 years along with paying fine.

In the last three years, only nine persons reportedly died by consuming illicit or spurious liquor in the State and all cases were reported from Bhadrak district, the Minister said.

Though the land for the proposed international airport in Puri has not been finalised yet, the on Sunday said the ambitious project is likely to be commissioned in the next two years.
If everything goes as planned, the flight operations to and from Puri may commence in 2022 or 2023. The land will be finalised soon as the process of identification has already begun. The government will leave no stone unturned to fast-track the project.

The proposed land, owned and acquired by the state government, near the Girala and Mangala rivers under the Sipasarubali mouza, does not have any encroachment nor is it entangled in legal disputes. The Puri District Administration said the proposed site will not violate the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms as the land is located more than 500 metres from the beach.

Puri is one of the four holy dhams in the country. Its famous Rath Yatra attracts lakhs of pilgrims and visitors from across the globe every year. Rath Yatra is celebrated in 192 countries. The proposed international airport will help bring devotees from across the world to Puri and promote the Jagannath culture globally.

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

The of all the 30 districts will be covered in the next two phases.

Earlier, 5T secretary VK Pandian had a video conference with representatives of the 37 urban local bodies of the 10 districts and discussed with them on development of the urban bodies under Mukta scheme.

Under the scheme, an array of projects will be executed in the urban local bodies, including mini-park, open-air gym, child playstation, playground, walking track, vending zones, development of open spaces and water body development among others.

Odisha introduced a award of Rs. 1,000 to preserve gharials in Mahanadi River Basin. Gharials, now and again called gavials, are a kind of Asian crocodilian individual by their long, skinny snouts. Crocodilians are a team of reptiles that consists of crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and more.

Highlights:

India has three species of Crocodilians namely:

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus): IUCN Red List- Critically Endangered
Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris): IUCN- Vulnerable.
Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus): IUCN- Least Concern.

All the three are listed on Appendix I of CITES and Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

Exception: Saltwater Crocodile populations of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are included in Appendix II of CITES.

BHOJANA, a charitable activity to feed attendants of patients of VIMSAR, Burla, on each Sunday has completed one year. And to celebrate the occasion, the organisers held a meeting here today in presence of celibrity persons who came with high words in praising the such activity.

Normally patients from all over western Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh and also a few from Jharkhand, belonging to poor economic background, come to VIMSAR Burla for treatment of different diseases. But the attendants can’t get Rs 5-meal from Ahaar Kendra on Sundays as it remains closed on this particular day. They also find it difficult to afford to costly meals from hotels and thus skip lunch or dinner.

In order to create a one-stop point of contact and support for Odias who live in other parts of the country, the Odisha Government has decided to set up a Directorate of Odisha Parivar.

The decision was taken at a State Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in virtual mode from Japan.

The Directorate of Odisha Parivar will be under the Department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture to have better connect with Pravasi Odias within the country and across the world. The directorate will engage with the diaspora in the Growth journey of Odisha by leveraging their knowledge, skills and global reach while also making efforts to resolve any issues they may be facing.

The directorate will enlist Odia associations in different parts of India and foreign countries. This will develop a closer relationship with the people of Odisha living in different States and abroad including Gen Next through partnerships at individual, institutional and civil Society levels on matters relating to promotion of Odia language, culture and heritage, tourism and Sports, handlooms and handicrafts.

The directorate will enlist organisations involved in furthering the cause of cultural heritage of Odisha. It will enlist the Jagannath temples located in different parts of India and other parts of the world.

It will promote the cultural heritage of Odisha, celebration of Odisha Divas, organising world Odia conferences at regular intervals in association with Odia scholars, creative writers living in different parts of the world. It will bring out selected Odia works in other and important languages of the world.

Odishahas collected the highest amount of Rs 11,984 crore among all the states under theDistrict Mineral Foundation(DMF) fund since it was created in 2015, Union mines ministerPralhad Joshitold Lok Sabha.

Till January, a total of Rs 45,095.86 crore in DMF fund was generated in the country. Odisha got more than one-fourth of the share, the ministers written reply revealed.

NeighbouringJharkhand(Rs 6,533.04 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs 6,329.78 crore) managed to collect the second and third highest amounts under DMF. Rajasthan is fourth, having collected Rs 4,496 crore.

The funds are contribution from mining companies operating in the respective districts, which has been mandated under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015. The mining companies pay 30% equivalent of the royalty amount for leases given before 2015 and 10% for leases granted after that when auction of mines and mineral blocks started.

The state assembly will sit from March 25 to 31 to pass a for expenses in the first few months of the next financial year instead of passing a full-fledged budget.
Government sources said the full budget will be passed some months later, as statutory requirements for the same could not be done in the small window of time due to the Model Code Of Conduct that has been in place for a long time, starting with notification of panchayat election on January 11 to counting of votes for urban local body polls on March 26.

A vote on account is a special permission given to the government to get the assembly nod to withdraw Money when the budget for the new financial year is not passed. Without a vote on account, the government wont be able to spend from April 1.

Finance ministerNiranjan Pujariis likely to place the proposed expenditure for the first quarter (April to July) of the 2022-2023 financial year for the assemblys approval. The session is likely to be reconvened again in June-July to pass the full budget

As government is planning 50 additional , we request Puri to be developed as a major international airport in eastern India, said J K Mohanty, chairman of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO). Eastern sector in India has not been promoted as much as the southern, northern and western sectors which have more international airports and domestic connectivity in terms of both flights and railways, he added.