<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Santanu Kumar Bhukta Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 29/04/2024.</p> <p>The matter is related to illegal mining
Rehab, clearances a bother in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh. Tata Steel's greenfield projects in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh have been delayed by about 12 to 16 months due to issues over land acquisition and resettlement, the company's executives said. The company plans to invest about Rs 90,000 crore in the three projects, which will have a total capacity of 23 million tonnes. Speaking to journalists today on the sidelines of Steelrise 2008, a three-day conference, the company's Chief Operating Officer H M Nerurkar said that all the projects were delayed. Construction work has not started on the first project, which was to go on stream in Kalinganagar (six million tonnes). About 400 families are yet to be re-settled for the project. Equipment costing about Rs 10,000 crore had already been ordered for the Kalinganagar plant, said Amit Chatterjee, advisor to Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman. The project would be spared some cost overruns as the equipment was ordered some time back. Still, the equipment is expected to come this year and there could be penalties if it was not cleared in time from the ports. Nerurkar was optimistic about the construction work starting by March-end. In Orissa, the company is yet to get recommendation for iron ore mines for its project in the state. The state government was assessing the mines that Tata Steel already has there, Nerurukar said. The scenario is no better for the company's proposed five million tonnes plant in Chhattisgarh. According to Varun Jha, vice president, Chhattisgarh project, the first phase is planned to be commissioned by 2011 and the second phase by 2015. But the project has been delayed on account of litigation over mines. About two-thirds of the residents have accepted the compensation package. Investments would depend on when the project would start, Jha said. Addressing a seminar at the steel conference, Partha Sengupta, vice president (corporate services), Tata Steel, who is in charge of the Jharkhand project, pointed out that applications for land acquisitins were made a year and a half ago. However, the state government was yet to announce a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package, which was necessary for land acquisition, he said.
With 1.67 million cases of malaria and around 1,000 deaths last year, the government has changed the drug policy and directed states from January this year to introduce the ACT (artesunate and sulpha pyrimethamine) combination as the first line of anti-malarial drug treatment in chloroquine-resistant areas. Dr G S Sonal, Joint Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP), told The Indian Express that there has been concern over the increasing number of plasmodium falciparum (PF) cases of malaria. India contributes to 77 per cent cases of malaria in South East Asia. PF in the 70s amounted to less than 15 per cent of the malaria cases, but this has now gone up to 50 per cent of the total malaria cases. Moreover the dangerous PF has developed resistance to chloroquine in various parts of the country. Sixty-five per cent of cases of malaria in various pockets of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal are due to PF and drug resistance to chloroquine is high here. Chloroquine however is useful in states like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At least one million ACT course drugs will be supplied to the high endemic states. So far the government had supplied 20 crore tablets of chloroquine in the country. This quantum of drugs will be slightly reduced, Sonal said. According to Dr A P Dash, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), the PF species of malaria is spreading wider due to migration of population from endemic to non-endemic areas and drug sensitivity studies from various states have observed that there is resistance to the drug chloroquine - which is being used as the first line of treatment for malaria cases. The last time the policy was revised was in 2003. Vaccine for malaria Two sites have been selected for trial of a vaccine against malaria. Epidemiological and immunological data will be collected from the sites selected in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to test the vaccine. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi, has developed the vaccine and will be tested at these two sites, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research Dr A P Dash said.
Entrepreneurs and NGOs find innovative models to take solar energy to rural homes in the country. As dusk slowly lapses into night, it is time for millions to call it a day. For, before the night falls, farmers with their cattle have to be at home, children have to finish studies, housewives have to finish the household chores, as life comes to a standstill once it is dark.
The National Water Award and the Bhoomijal Samvardhan Puraskar-2007 were awarded by the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India in September 2007 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The public health system in Orissa is on the brink of collapse. Most government hospitals in the state are running without doctors, para-medical staff, medicine and basic infrastructure. The outbreak of cholera in Koraput last year and the recent cases of anthrax-related deaths have already exposed the weak links in the health system. What's worse, at a time when the government is grappling with controversies like irregularities in the Rs 415-crore World Bank-aided Orissa Health Systems Development Project and the fake medicine scam, about 3,000 government doctors have threatened to quit their jobs. On February 18, government doctors across the state put in their papers en-masse demanding higher salary and more privileges. The doctors have given a time-frame of one month to the government to either consider their 18-point charter of demands or accept the resignation letters. Their demands include basic salary of Rs 12,000-Rs 16,500 per month at the entry level (subject to revision, as per recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission), specialist allowance of 30% of the basic salary, in-service post-graduation study and housing accommodation for doctors from primary health centres to block headquarters and, above all, security to all doctors. The doctors demands are not illogical, say observers. With the population:doctor ratio touching a new low (roughly one doctor to 8,000 patients), the doctors in government hospitals have to bear the burden of a huge workload. Unable to meet the growing demand, these doctors end up facing public wrath. There have been many such incidents in various parts of the state. Moreover, these doctors see no reason why they should serve the government when higher salaries and better privileges await in the private sector. Amidst all this, it is the patients who have been suffering. Orissa is virtually running short of doctors, particularly allopathic, in recent years. There are 929 posts of doctors that have been lying vacant in various streams. Of these, 765 are for allopathic, 77 ayurvedic and 87 homeopathic doctors. The highest number of 31 vacancies in allopathy has been reported in Sundergarh district. Even though state health minister Sanatan Bisi has assured the people that the vacancies would be filled up, the fact is that adequate number of doctors are not available in the state. The few doctors who pass out from the three government medical colleges migrate to other states in search of higher compensation, promotional avenues, professional security and social status. There are 150 seats each in the three medical colleges and hospitals in the state, while in private medical colleges there are 300 seats. In a desperate bid, the state government is now considering enhancing the entry age limit of doctors for government jobs from 32 years to 45. It also proposes to raise the retirement age of government doctors from the present 60 to 62. Meanwhile, the state government has empowered the chief district medical officers to appoint on contract those MBBS pass-outs who have failed to make it in the Orissa Public Service examinations and have crossed the age limit. Retired doctors can also be appointed on contract basis till 68 years of age. An incentive of Rs 4,000 a month has been announced, besides salary, for doctors posted at the district and sub-divisional headquarters of KBK, Boudh and Gajapati districts. Doctors on rural stint in these districts get an incentive of Rs 8,000 a month. Contractual doctors in KBK, Gajapati and Boudh districts get Rs 18,000 a month while in the rest of the districts, the salary amounts to Rs 12,000 a month. "There is requirement of an additional 5,000 doctors in the state. From where will such a huge number of doctors come'? says Madhusudan Mishra, president of Orissa Medical Service Association (OMSA). He suggests that the state government should take immediate steps to retain existing doctors and provide them all the facilities. "The doctors demands will be taken up for consideration soon after the on-going Budget session is over', health minister Bisi said.
It is not possible to realise the massive potential of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act if we deploy the same ossified structure of implementation that has deeply institutionalised corruption, inefficiency and non-accountability into the very fabric of Indian democracy.
At a time when the poor infrastructure of the state's heath department has been constantly inviting criticism from every nook and corner, a model developed in West Bengal to reduce mortality rate of newborns, has been praised and recognised by the United Nations. The newborn care unit model of the state, known as the Purulia model, would be adopted by the other states to bring down children mortality rate under United Nations Millennium Development Goal-IV (UNMDG-IV). Such states include ~ Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The turtle population of India is under threat because Bengal will not stop consumption of turtle meat. The charge was levelled at a meet by officials of the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) on Tuesday. "Freshwater turtles have become extinct in Bengal in the past 10 years. Now, every turtle consignment seized elsewhere is headed here,' says Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of WSO and a member of the government's National Board for Wildlife. The NGO works for the preservation of freshwater turtles in the Mahanadi basin.
The Orissa Pollution Control Board (OPCB) on Monday issued a closure notice to Bhushan Power and Steel (BPSL) for not making arrangements for the suitable disposal of solid waste. BPSL has been asked to stop all production till further orders, failing which stringent penal proceedings would be initiated against the company. BPSL currently produces 1.2 million tonnes of steel, which would subsequently be raised to 2.2 million tonnes through expansion drives.
Coal India (CIL) has ambitious plans of investing Rs 18,000 crore in 118 projects during 2008-09. This would enable the company to augment its production by comprehensive margins. CIL projects a production of around 520 million tonne during the 11th Plan. Its current production is about 363 million tonnes which is expected to go up by over 384 million tonnes in 2008-09.
