Odisha plans to restore coastal green cover
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Uprooted trees in Puri. Nearly 22 lakh trees have been destroyed in the cyclone in Odisha.Biswaranjan Rout Cyclone Fani-hit State aims at planting over 1.3 crore saplings as per a five-year scheme
Competitive bidding not done for selecting pvt promoters The office of the Comptroller & Accountant General (CAG) of India has slammed the Odisha government for entering into MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with industrial houses without any policy or guidelines for assessing the need for industries. The CAG which is conducting performance audit of commitments made to MoU signed companies on land, water and minerals, noted that pre-requisites for signing of MoUs with promoter companies was not prescribed.
Odisha-based Geomin Minerals, which has been locked in a legal battle with Korean giant Posco for an iron ore prospecting licence in the Kandadhar mines in Sundergarh district, on Wednesday opposed a Supreme Court move to ask the Centre to make an assessment of all potential contenders for the licence. The company had first challenged the Odisha government’s recommendation to allot the prospecting mining licence to Posco in the High Court, which cancelled the mine and asked the state to conduct the exercise afresh. Both Geomin and Posco then moved the HC against the decision.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday indicated that it may lob the issue of granting a prospective iron ore licence to South Korean giant Posco back to the central government. The top court raised this possibility and sought responses on Wednesday from all parties fighting over the grant of the Khandadhar mines in Odisha to Posco. The top court is hearing cross appeals filed by local company Geomin and Korean giant Posco against a high court decision cancelling the prospecting licence awarded to Posco in the area.
The State Budget for 2013-14 may cross Rs 60,000 crore, about Rs 8,000 crore more than Rs 52,030.70 crore outlay proposed for 2012-13. Odisha’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for the next fiscal has been pegged at Rs 2.9 lakh crore, which is 11.53 per cent higher than the current year’s figure of Rs 2.6 lakh crore. “The Budgetary allocation for 2013-14 will be 10-15 per cent higher compared to 2012-13. The focus of the Budget will be on agriculture, education, health and infrastructure creation.
ROURKELA: There has been no headway in the solid waste management (SWM) project in the city despite availability of funds under the 12th Finance Commission. The Rourkela Municipality has received Rs 4 crore in the last four years. Earlier efforts of the civic body to find a suitable place for SWM have met the dead end. It had identified a plot in Balughat and started dumping garbage there after constructing a boundary wall. However, nearby residents complained about the stench and the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) also rejected the site stating that the waste may spill into the nearby river Brahmani. The municipality and Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) then chose an open space near the airstrip to dump solid waste but were soon slapped with show cause notices by OSPCB.
As Odisha gears up to meet additional power demand of 3517 Mw for rural electrification during the 12th Plan, it is facing a challenge to raise Rs 7500 crore needed to create matching transmission infrastructure. The additional internal power demand of 3517 Mw is projected to be created by rural electrification taken up under Rajeev Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) and Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana (BGJY). This is over and above the current peak power demand of the state pegged at 3500 Mw.
BHUBANESWAR: The state government has set a target to sink 25,000 bore-wells by June this year. Besides, there are plans to construct 30,000 check dams in the next five years. These decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday. The government has so far drilled 13,000 bore-wells, while 4,500 have been provided with power connection. Naveen directed the officials to supply electricity to the remaining bore-wells. And at places where there is no electricity facility, the bore-wells should be connected to solar panels, the chief minister said.
New Delhi: The joint stand that environment ministry and the tribal affairs ministry take in the critical Vedanta bauxite mining case in the Supreme Court on Monday is set to decide the fate of hundreds
The Orissa government on Saturday announced the launching of a pilot project under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to provide at least 150 days of work to poor people in
The government has decided to sell the project on The state government has decided to sell unprofitable Potteru small hydro electric project (SHEP) having 6 MW generating capacity as part of its wasteful expenditure minimisation plan. “Due to insufficient flow of water and weak embankment of the canal, the project is not feasible to generate more than 1.5 MW. The area is heavily naxal affected and Rs 52 lakh per year is being spent for watch and ward. Government approval has been taken for selling the SHEP,” the state energy secretary revealed during the interdepartmental coordination committee of secretaries recently.