Unseasonal Rain, Hailstorms Damage Farm Products, Farmers Hard-hit In Angul District

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

Farmers in Angul and Athamallik blocks are hard hit following unseasonal heavy downpour accompanied by hailstorms that destroyed crop and vegetable.

Intermittent rain continued in most parts of Angul district at the time of writing this piece. This is the third time in a span of two months that  torrential rain accompanied by gales and thunders lashed the region breaking the backbone of farming community causing widespread damage to crop and vegetation.

Although revenue officials did not confirm the colossus loss of crop and vegetation in the region saying the impact of hailstorms and rain over farm produces is being estimated, farmer groups said continuous downpour over days during harvesting of paddy crop has destroyed everything. 'They will not get even a few kilograms of paddy from several acres of land. The paddy fields resemble ponds following heavy rain for days. Crops float on water mocking at them', the farmer groups said sorrowfully.

Vegetable growers as well as crop producers in Bantala and Athamallik region alleged that the revenue officials seemed to be little interested to assess the crop damage and provide immediate financial assistance as compensation. They said the delay in compensation provision will further aggravate their situation.

Extensive damage to vegetable crops has cast adverse impact on local market. Essential commodities are sold at skyrocketing prices forbidding middle class and small income groups to visit markets and if they did then they are left with no choice but to buy products of their choice in very less quantity. 

Abandonment Of NH-55 Bypass: Powerful Road Construction Co Cares Little

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

The road construction agency does not seem to be paying heed neither to the instructions of Angul district administration nor the Deputy Speaker of Odisha Assembly nor Dhenkanal MP nor Union Transport Ministry to expedite completion of four lane bypass route from Panchamahala to Banarpal.

Half finished flyover at Saradhapur on Angul-Bantala road

The work for ambitious four laning of NH-55 that connects two business centres of Odisha of the eastern India, Cuttack and Sambalpur, is going on a snail's pace since 2018. It was scheduled to be completed by 2020, but barely fifty percent of the four lane work of the highway is finished till date. The purpose for which the bypass route, connecting Panchamahala to Banarpal, has not been fulfilled yet as nobody knows when the bypass route will become a reality to contribute to easing of traffic.

The bypass route is heaped up with soil and the flyovers are half-finished, standing as if they are mangled steel and concrete structures abandoned years ago.

Angul District Collector Siddharth Shankar Sswain, in the recent past, has time and again convened meetings of the concerned officials and engineers urging them for early completion of the bypass route. Yet, the meetings did not bear any fruit.

Panchamahala-Banarpal bypass route lies abandoned

Deputy Speaker of Odisha Assembly Rajanikanta Singh, who is also Angul MLA, has reprimanded the construction agency to complete the work in three months or action will be taken against them. The given time frame has surpassed, yet the agency did not seemed to be little worried.

Sources said the agency has been resorting to dilly dallying tactics by using Corona and Omicron pandemic as shields to justify elongation of four lane work. The contractual company has also alleged that resource crunch is one among the prime reasons for delay in work. This allegation seems to be baseless as the Union Government has already announced that there is no shortage of funds for construction of four and six lane roads including expressways.  

Dhenkanal MP Mahesh Sahoo had met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadakari in New Delhi in December 2021 to urge him for exercising his influence for early completion of four lane work. Gadakari, it is learnt, that he has given strict instructions to the construction firm to finish the work at the earliest. Nearly a month has elapsed, yet the construction company does not seem to be woken up from its slumber.

One can gauge how powerful is the construction agency that even takes the direction of Union Ministry carelessly. Denizens of Angul urged the Union Ministry to take immediate action against the road construction company which is responsible for devastating road traffic situation in the district. The road construction company has left Sambalpur-Angul-Cuttack NH-55 horrible and it is not motorable. Over 20 persons were killed in road accidents in the past three years especially for delay of four lane work.      

Encroachment, Water Issue Delay Talcher Fertilizers Revival

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

Revival of Talcher Fertilizers in Angul district might be delayed due to a number of hassles including encroachment in the plant area and supply of water to the plant from the second largest river of Odisha, Brahmani.

A high level delegation headed by the State Industries Secretary recently discussed at length on the possible measures to be initiated for revival of Talcher Fertilizers and extended the completion deadline of July 2023 to September 2024.

Sources said that as the urea producing industry was lying defunct for over decades, a large portion of its area in the township, railway and pipeline corridors are under encroachment. In addition to this, the demand of local youth for employment in the fertilizer industry has become an uphill task for the officials to find out suitable solution to the tangle.

The high level delegation also included top officials of water resources department, IDCO, IPICOL, OPTCL and Angul District Collector.

It is worthwhile to mention here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the revival of Talcher Fertilizers on September 22, 2018. Modi had then declared that the industry will be revived within three years and priority in employment will be given to the locals. However, the revival is being delayed due several factors including the above mentioned problems.

Talcher Fertilizers will be revived at a cost of Rs 13,777 crore and its annual output will be 12.7 lakh tonne. This urea producing industry will use coal gasification technology due to abundance of coal in Talcher region. Sources said that the government is yet to give the green signal for using Brahmani water for industrial purpose.     

Poachers Target Leopards After Tigers

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

Leopards will be wiped out from Odisha forest reserves soon unless immediate foolproof measures are initiated by the forest department to contain killing of the wild animal.

Reports said the Special Task Force (STF) has seized as many as 25 hides of grown up leopards last year from traders and poachers active in different forest regions. Poachers arrested by forest officials revealed that the leopards are hunted from Athamallik, Boudh, Kandhamal, Nayagarh and Athagarh forest regions in Odisha.

They said the skins are sold at very high prices in national and international markets and added that an inter-state racket is active to carry out the trade with utmost precision.

Bidyadhar Naik, a leopard hide trader from Kandhamal district who was nabbed by STF recently, admitted that the poachers are targeting leopards as the number of tigers and dwindling. He said earlier Royal Bengal Tigers were hunted down as their skins were more lucrative than leopards.

STF sources said a power syndicate is active in West Bengal and North Eastern States of India and added that the hides of leopards are smuggled to China, Nepal and Bangladesh. They said the skins are in high demand in China.

Odisha forest officials posted in Wildlife Sanctuaries are allegedly hand in glove with the animal hide traders who influence these officials in a number of ways. Social activists associated with nature organizations in Angul alleged that how come the forest officials posted at wildlife forest ranges could not arrest poachers when the STF could. They said the forest officials must take the responsibility of saving the lives of leopards when these species are fast becoming extinct.

   

 

  

Uncertainty Over New Power Plant Unnerves TTPS Employees

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

The uncertainty over the commissioning of a new power plant in place of the old Talcher Thermal Power Plant(TTPS), closed since March 2021, has unnerved over 1500 employees.

The National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC) authorities have been stressing since the closure of TTPS that a new mega power plant with two units of 660 MW each will come up soon. Yet, nobody is sure when work for the new plant will begin. The process for such work has not been initiated so far.

Nearly 15000 families were depending on the power plant for their livelihood. Their survival is at stake now. A number of contractual workers of the abandoned TTPS said with distress:' We contributed our bit to efficient functioning of the power plant over years. The plant is now closed. We have lost livelihood. The NTPC authorities have been saying a new mega plant will come up, but when?'

The employees of the decommissioned power plant alleged that they were not given gate passes nor salary since October 2021 and added that they have been kept in dark by the authorities. Who know what the future has in store for them, they shied.

A top source of NTPC when contacted said 'as the new power plant will have two big units involving huge investments, therefore things will naturally be delayed. But, the government has already made up its mind to set a new plant at Talcher shortly.'

Worthwhile to mention that TTPS was closed down for not adhering to environmental norms and other nine parameters that usually govern the functioning of thermal power plants all over the country.  

 

 

Royal Bengal Tigers In Peril

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

A disturbing report has surfaced that over 100 Royal Bengal Tigers(RBTs) have either been poached or died due to ailments in different wildlife sanctuaries in India last year.

According to data available by Wildlife Protection Society Of India a good percentage of RBTs perished due to poaching, but it stressed that death of majority of the big cats were natural. The report said Madhya Pradesh has incurred the bad name by registering deaths of as many as 32 RBTs last year.

In the case of Odisha, although the agency has not given any adverse report on casualty status of RBTs, the recent disappearance of the only tigress from Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary in Angul district has not gone down well with nature lovers and environmentalists alike. As the surveillance cameras fitted inside the sanctuary could not capture the footage of the tigress since three months ago, nature lovers are apprehensive that the big cat is no more.

However, Saroj Panda, DFO, Angul Wildlife Division, is hopeful that the tigress has not gone anywhere nor missing and it is premature to come to a conclusion that the animal has died or killed.

Recent reports suggest that poachers are active in Similipal National Park in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. The Special Task Force team have seized hide of leopard from two poachers who admitted that they have been killing the animal for selling their skins at lucrative prices for quite some time.

According to National Tiger Conservation Agency (NTCA), the poachers have resorted to killing of leopards as the number of tigers are dwindling. The report said as many as 23 hides were seized in Odisha in the past nine months. The NTCA report further said that during 2012-2020 as many as 857 RBTs died due to several factors including poaching. 

Hidisingh Irrigation Project In Limbo As BJD Leaders Indulge In Panchayat Poll Gimmick

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

As the Panchayat election is drawing near, several leaders of the ruling Biju Janata Dal(BJD) have embarked upon laying foundation stones of various projects in Angul district to send a message to the electorate that they are the leaders who are concerned with their wellbeing, although the reality is different.

Media reports said Deputy Speaker of Odisha Assembly and Angul MLA Rajanikanta Singh laid the foundation stone of different projects at Baragaunia, Badakantalkul, Nuakheta, New Raiguda and other places under Bantala police station in Angul Sub-Division recently to woo voters in the upcoming Panchayat poll.

Singh laid the foundation stones for two bridges to be built over Nuaghai Nala and Aandhari Nala at Nuakheta-Badakantakul and some development projects at New Raiguda. He also attended two programmes at Bargaunia and Badakantakul under Odisha government's most ambitious Mo School project for transformation of educational institutions.

It is a fact that several irrigation projects in Bantala region in Angul district are in limbo due to lack of political will of the representatives they have chosen to deliver the goods. None of the leaders of the ruling clique seemed to be little worried over the matter, but as the panchayat poll is drawing near, they are out to prevail upon the voters to get their support for their aspiring cronies who are likely to be fielded.

Hidisingh Medium Irrigation Project(MIP) was conceived over decades ago, yet there is no headway due to lack of political will. The file, sources said, is gathering dust due to lack of environmental clearance. It was decided that the loss of forest due to the irrigation project will be compensated by adequate afforestation in Angul, Deogarh and Dhenkanal forest divisions. Yet, it is alleged that the work for the project is going at a snail's pace.

The irony is that the leaders themselves vie with each other to rake up Hidisingh MIP issue at the hustings when casting of ballots comes near, be it in assembly or parliament. But, they tend to forget the issue altogether as soon as the poll heat is over.

Reports said Talcher MLA Braja Kishore Pradhan and Pallahara MLA Mukesh Pal are on a spree to inaugurate Community Halls and other utilities at different panchayats keeping an eye on the ensuing panchayat election.

Dhenkanal MP Mahesh Sahoo has also not left himself behind in the race in view of the upcoming panchayat poll. Sahoo attended a function for upgradation of the vegetable market at NTPC in Kaniha possibly with the intention of earning the goodwill of small time traders and farmers of Kaniha region who hail from different panchayats. Poll analysts maintained that their goodwill can be converted into votes for his candidates who will be in the fray.