ODISHA

Under the Green Mahanadi Mission (GMM), the so far released over Rs 168.30 crore. The Mission was launched during 2018-19 with an aim to create a green belt in 1 km width on both sides of the river Mahanadi, Tel and IB on all available and suitable forest land, revenue forest land, District Level Committee (DLC) area and private land through massive participation of peoples representatives and all stakeholders.

Preparatory activities of the Mission like identification of villages, selection of plantation sites, nursery sites, identification of Mahanadi Sevaks and mass motivation were taken up during 2017-18 in 16 districts covering 1,303 villages under the jurisdiction of 20 forest and wildlife divisions.

The scheme is being implemented with the funding sources under the State Plan. The scheme has been approved in the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) meeting from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and their maintenance up to 2025-26, sources said.

The scheme was implemented during the Phase II in 2019-20 with inclusion of four more rivers namely Brahmani, Baitarani, Rushikulya and Vanshadhara and left-over area of Mahanadi, Tel and IB at a total budget provision of Rs 51 crore.

In 2022-23, 576 hectares of AR, 424 hectares of bald hill, 3,000 hectares of ANR plantation, 2.89 lakh saplings under urban tree plantation were taken up and 5.48 lakh seedlings were distributed with a cost of Rs 26.82 crore.

The government on Monday formed a separateState Dam Safety Organisation(SDSO) to monitor safety of Dams and to undertake their repair and maintenance.

The SDSO will be headed by a chief engineer (dam safety) and will be headquartered in Bhubaneswar. It was formed as per the Dam Safety Act, 2021, which mandates that all states should form such organisations within 180 days from the date of commencement of this Act from December 14, 2021.

The department also notified the Dam Safety (Procedures, Allowance and Other Expenditure) Rules, 2022, and formed a state committee on dam safety to review the work done by the SDSO and provide strategic supervision for dam improvement and rehabilitation programmes.

The SDSO will keep perpetual surveillance, carry out inspections and monitor the operation and maintenance of all specified dams falling under its jurisdiction to ensure their continued safety and take steps to address safety concerns.

TheNational Human Rights Commission(NHRC) has asked the director general of Police (DGP) and the chief secretary ofOdishato look into the case of compensation to a rape survivor fromMalkangiri districtand the steps taken by the state to check, control and prevent crime against Women within six weeks.

The commission passed this order on June 29 after hearing a petition, which was filed by human rights lawyerRadhakanta Tripathyon August 14, 2017. He had alleged that a tribal woman was raped on the roadside in broad daylight near the MV-84 village in Malkangiri district on August 9 that year. The matter had come to Light after a video of the incident had gone viral on Social Media. He had said the incident had occurred when a tribal woman fell unconscious on the roadside, prompting a tribal man to committ the crime in full public glare.
No compensation has been paid to the victim and the video of the heinous act has not been stopped by the government, the petitioner had said in his prayer.

The MoU was signed on May 31 by Utkal University of Culture Vice-Chancellor Byomakesh Tripathy and IITTM Nodal Officer Dr Md S Hussain.

The MoU would facilitate innovations in training, faculty exchange programmes, curriculum development, collaborative seminars, symposiums and workshops and conferences on various dimensions of tourism and culture. It would foster organising certificate programmes, interdisciplinary research, PhD and several academic initiatives.

Culture and tourism are fast-growing global tourism markets. Despite Covid-19 and its aftermath, culture and tourism industries are increasingly being used to promote destinations and enhance their competitiveness and attractiveness.

Theactive casesinOdishabreached the one-lakh mark on Thursday, for the first time, after 10,649 people more tested positive forCovid-19in the last 24 hours. Altogether 13 states and UTs in the country now have more than one lakh active cases, with Odisha being on the 13th spot (1,00,313 cases).

The number ofnew infectionshas grown by 2.1% in the state, on an Average, in the last one week, which is more than the national average of 1.7%. The state has added more than one lakh new infections in the last 10 days.

The Union Health ministry said Odisha is among the 24 states with a positivity rate of above 20%. It is also among the states still showing a rising trend in infections, the others being Nadu, Kerala, Punajb, West Bengal, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Manipur. With rising infections, the number of patients needing critical care has also gone up sharply. Currently, 2,433 patients are inICU, including 570 on ventilator support.

As many as 5,770 villages in Odisha do not have mobile Network connectivity. The information was provided by Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, while replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on March 24, raised by Sulata Deo.

45,406 villages out of total 51,176 villages of the State have mobile network connectivity facilities till December 2022.

As per the reports, less than 20 villages in Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Puri, Baleswar, Dhenkanal, Subarnapur, Bolangir, Bargarh and Kendrapada districts do not have mobile network connectivity.

The has decided to prepare a concerted, multi-sectoral action plan engaging all stakeholders to prevent and prohibit the age-old practice of child marriage.
According to theNational Family Health Survey(NFHS) 2015-16, as many as 21.3% girls inOdishaget married before the legal age of 18 years. Along with the districts, the government will also focus on the urban poor in municipalities.

The government will prepare an inter-sectoral convergent action plan for each district for prevention and Prohibition of child marriages. This includes convergence of programmes across sectors and key line departments in districts, officials said.

District task force (DTF) meetings will be held regularly to review implementation of child marriage-free village initiative, rehabilitation and skilling opportunities for adolescents rescued from child marriage or at risk of child marriage, Child Labour and child trafficking.

The Odisha government has planned to spend Rs 1062 crore for strengthening hospital in the state this year. As many as 863 hospital projects from the sub-centre to district headquarters hospital (DHH) level have been selected for infra upgradation.As per the state action plan 2022-23, additional units will be constructed at nine DHHs at the cost of Rs 26.7 crore along with buildings for six sub-divisional hospitals at Rs 240 crore and 60 CHCs at Rs 596 crore.

The decision for upgrading the hospital infrastructure under the Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission has been taken in the wake of recently issued Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) guidelines to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in view of the rising load of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The Health and Family Welfare department has also decided to upgrade five PHCs/CHCs at a cost of Rs 4.6 crore, construct 47 PHC and staff quarter buildings as per IPHS norms at Rs 35.57 crore, 40 sub-centre buildings at Rs 18.4 crore and provide basic amenities at 696 PHCs and sub-centres at Rs 82.42 crore besides the residential and non-residential complexes under AYUSH department at a cost of Rs 58 crore.