ZP Poll: Two Cornered Contest Likely For BJD-BJP

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

The Zilla Parishad(ZP) poll in Angul district, in all probability, will be a two cornered contest for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Biju Janata Dal(BJD) candidates, poll analysts said.

They said that the saffron party this time has chalked out strategy for an impressive show at the hustings . Top party brasses have asked leaders like Sajib Sahu and Durga Pradhan, who have joined the saffron party after being disgruntled over years with BJD leadership, to lead the show at their respective regions to ensure votes at any cost. While Sahu is the former BJD MLA of Athamallik, Pradhan is the former vice chairman of Angul block. 

The observers said BJP has been trying to give its best performance in the coming exercise. In the last panchayat election, BJP had bagged 12 ZP seats of the total of 28. Party sources said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is hell bent to win as many seats as possible as this has become a prestige issue for him. He has given strict instructions to the party workers and local leaders to outshine the rival BJD leaders in the poll.

Sources said Union Minister's wife has been meeting BJP leaders and workers in Angul district to discuss about the strategy to garner more support of the people and convert their goodwill to votes at ZP election. Although Angul district is known to be a pocket borough for BJD, infighting among party workers and MLAs not keeping well with Dhenkanal MP Mahesh Sahoo has created chinks in the party's armour. 

Political pundits maintained that the saffron party has been trying to cash in on from the adverse situation BJD is facing when the grampanchayat polls will be held next month.

The Congress in Angul district, like other areas of Odisha, has become a party without rudder, the political analysts said and added it might take the position of a poor third at the hustings.    

Talcher Rani Park Parishad Members Prefer Nalco Deer

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

Even as officials of Angul Forest Division and Wildlife wing are preparing to relocate deer from Nalco Township Deer Park to Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary, office bearers of Rani Park Unnayan Parishad in Talcher have submitted a memorandum to Talcher Sub-Collector that Rani Park will be the safest habitat for the animals.

In the memorandum, the office bearers of the Parishad reasoned that earlier Odisha Government had directed Angul district administration to initiate measures for relocation of nearly 50 deer from Nalco park to Rani Park for enrichment of flora and fauna in the only biosphere in the environmental hotspot. Rani Park provides much needed relief to the denizens of Black Diamond Township who are leading a life of depression following widespread contamination of air and water.

As Rani Park is being developed as place of tourist attraction, relocation of deer from Nalco Township Park will boost its prospects on this score, the Parishad members argued.

Official sources said that Angul DFO(T) has initiated measures for early relocation of deer from Nalco Township to Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary. The animals will be kept in an enclosure in the natural surroundings of the sanctuary for a certain period for acclimatization and providing protection from other wild animals, the sources added. Official sources said enclosure will act as safe captivity for deer as these animals were never accustomed to the life of challenge in the dense forest locality.

The relocation has been necessitated after Central Zoo Authority urged Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) to expedite the process as Nalco authorities have contravened wildlife Act by keeping deer in Township Park over years.       

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.