ORISSA

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said disaster and pandemic management is being introduced in the educational curricula for students from Standard-IV to graduation level with a view to preparing Disaster Management Yodhas in every village and household.

Odishas geographic location made it prone to natural disasters. Nearly 10,000 people died in the Super Cyclone in 1999. Then, the State did not have safe shelters. During these years, 815 multi-purpose cyclone and flood shelters have been constructed whiled 55 new shelters are under construction out of the Chief Ministers Relief Fund, Patnaik said.

For better impact-based forecasting, the Government would set up a Telemetric Rain Gauge in every gram panchayat, Automatic Weather Stations at block headquarters and sensors in river systems. These steps would help get precise real time information for more effective management of disasters.

The has approved the release of Rs 50 crore for theKonarkHeritage AreaDevelopment Project, which was proposed for the overall development of Konark into a world-class tourism destination.

In January, the state government had unveiled the draft master plan of the KonarkHeritageArea Development Project, which aims to transform the Infrastructure around the historic Konark Sun Temple. Theredevelopmentplan is based on four major aspects – celebrating the grandeur of the Sun Temple, enhancing visitors’ experience, boosting local businesses and strengthening tourism-based economy. Around Rs 150 crore will be spent in phases for the purpose.

The core area development plan, including the upgrade of the entrance of the 13th century Sun Temple, landscaping, development of pedestrian areas and parking and revamping of the open-air theatre will be taken up by the Archaeological Survey of India.

A committee led by finance minister Niranjan Pujari has given its nod to establish 34 new courts16 civil, 10 commercial and eight sessions courtsin the state, law minister Pratap Jena said here on Monday. Jena said the new courts will help reduce pendency and take the delivery system closer to people.

Odisha currently has more than 700 Subordinate Courts. According to a reply given by Union law ministerKiren RijijuinLok Sabhaon March 25, total 15.45 lakh cases are pending cases in lower courts in Odisha. They include 12.38 lakh criminal cases and 3.07 lakh civil cases. Similarly, 1.89 lakh cases are pending in theOrissaHigh Court.

The law department has asked the registrar of the Orissa high court for staff pattern and revised cost estimates for establishment of the different courts. As per the current estimate, the government would spend Rs 21.26 crore on Infrastructure.

While the NPA as on March 31, 2021 was Rs 11,339.37 crore, it has risen to Rs 13,645.17 crore, which is 7.20per cent of the total credit facility extended to people. This is at much higher side and alarming, said a senior member of the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC).

While the banks have provided total advance of Rs 1,89,404.28 crore, the NPA is Rs 13,645.17 crore. Each quarter, there is rise in NPA; and due to absence of stimulant recovery measures, the hike has been accelerated.The Pradhan Mantri EMPLOYMENT Guarantee Programme (PMEGP) has turned out to be having the highest NPA of 21.17per cent. The Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture term loan sector has also become a concern for bankers as the NPA level is as high as 11.10per cent.

The is harping on more and more advances to be extended to the Self-Help Groups (SHGs), but cases of NPA are coming to the fore. By 31 August 2021, credit of Rs 1,321 crore has been extended to SHGs and more than 8per cent of it has turned out to be NPA.

The NPA issue was raised in a recently-held SLBC) meeting, in which major bankers sought the State administrations cooperation to arrest the NPA rise.

The SLBC advised the banks to stimulate the recovery measures to curtail the growing NPAs and the State Government was requested to extend support in this regard. While the district administrations support was also sought in this regard, it was felt that proper monitoring and handholding support is also required to restrict fresh slippages.

The banks were advised to increase advance portfolio by extending more priority sector credit in the State. In the programmes like PMEGP, MULM, NRLM and SHG, the NPA is high and on rise owing to non-repayment of loans, mounting overdue.

While NPA is on rise, banks require support from District Magistrates for attachment of property and quick enforcement of the SARFAESI Act, it was felt.

More than 630 applications for such attachments are pending with several district administrations across State, it was pointed out.

In 2016, the Railways had faced widespread criticism and protest from people of the state for shifting the proposed wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi district to Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh. It had invited sharp political reactions from all the parties. Even chief minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the issue with the then RAILWAY minister to give an alternate project in Kalahandi district.

Later the Centre had sanctioned the electric loco POH workshop in the Union Budget 2017. This is a maintenance workshop for electric engines. It had sanctioned a token amount in 2017 for the beginning of the project. Four years have already passed, but construction work of the project could not start.

An amount of Rs 3.28 crore has been allocated for the project up to the Budget 2021-22, said the reply of the Union minister.

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.