Parab fest to begin on December 22

KORAPUT: One can have the taste of tribal food during this year's Parab festival at Koraput, according to district Collector Rajesh Pravakar Patil. Apart from the food festival, a tribal medicine centre, giving an exposure to the richness of indigenous know-how of the tribal community in treating diseases would be opened at the venue, he said at a press conference here on Thursday. The fortnight-long tribal festival, after getting launched on December 22, would be an educational venture even for researchers. While the national-level seminar on tribal culture, to be organised by the district council of culture in association with Central University of Orissa here would provide a platform for researchers and scholars from across the country to discuss the impact of the modernisation on the tribal way of life, presentation of cultural heritage by the tribal communities themselves could be of greater advantage, Mr. Patil added.

Source: The Hindu

PM confers best listed CPSE award to Orissa-based PSU NALCO

Bhubaneswar: National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) – a Navratna PSU under the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has received the Best Listed CPSE Award for its excellent performance in significant value addition to its shareholders. The award was received by Shri A.K. Srivastava, CMD, NALCO from Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh at the MoU Excellence Awards & SCOPE Excellence Awards ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

NALCO has received this award for achieving the highest growth in market capitalization during 2008-09, among 42 listed Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The MoU Excellence Awards, instituted by the Department of Public Enterprises under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Govt. of India has recognized twelve Best-Performing CPSEs under the MoU scheme with the Government – one each from ten industrial sectors and the other two from among listed companies and turnaround enterprises. The company has recorded the highest ever production since inception with respect to Bauxite, Alumina, Cast Metal and Power. Mines, Refinery, Smelter and CPP have achieved 101.64%, 101.05%, 99.88% and 88.33% capacity utilization respectively during 2009-10. In 2009-10 NALCO marketing divisions achieved the highest ever sale of 4,35,979 MT metal as against sale of 3,53,589 MT metal during the previous financial year. This comprises 2,89,031 MT, the highest ever domestic sale of metal surpassing the previous best of 2,71,274 MT achieved in 2008-09 and the highest ever export sale of 1,46,948 MT against the previous best of 1,32,730 MT achieved in 2004-05. The company has recorded a higher export earning of Rs.2209 crore during the year 2009-10 against Rs.2071 crore achieved during the previous year.

It may be mentioned here that, NALCO has been on the growth path right from the beginning. Presently, the company has lined up various projects involving an investment of over Rs.45,000 crore. NALCO has drawn up ambitious plans to grow both organically as well as inorganically to be a reputed global company in the metals and energy sectors. The company also intends to enter into energy sector as an independent power producer and acquire new mineral resources especially coal, bauxite, copper etc.

As part of these plans, NALCO has signed MoU with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.(NPCIL) for establishment of a nuclear power plant in Joint Venture. Besides, NALCO has plans to venture into both upstream and downstream fields to leverage its strength in alumina and aluminium business in India and abroad. In this direction, the company is actively pursuing various proposals including a Greenfield Project in Indonesia.

Source: Orissa Diary

Hirakhand Express to stop at Jeypore

JEYPORE: Their nine years of fight has borne fruit with the East Coast Railways announcing extension of Hirakhand Express up to Jagdalpur via Jeypore from December 18. The people of South Odisha and KBK backed by several political parties, student organisations, social organisations of Koraput, Malkangiri, Ganjam and Nabarangpur districts have been demanding extension of Hirakhand Express from Koraput to Jeypore station.

They had even staged agitations in Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Delhi to press for their demand.

However, it was not possible to extend the train service to Jeypore station due to nonavailability of necessary facilities for arrival and departure of trains. Recently the locals of Jagdalpur also staged an agitation over the demand which was taken seriously by the Government, as Jagdalpur has all facilities to accommodate passenger trains.

Source: The New Indian Express 

South Orissa News

Olive Ridley turtles arrive on time near Rushikulya near Berhampur

Project Smile India

Rushikulya is one of the biggest mating grounds of Olive Ridleys in the world

Measures have been initiated to protect these mating Olive Ridleys

At present small number of mating pairs are visible which is expected to increase

Fishing has been banned in the area where these turtles are congregating

BERHAMPUR: Rare and endangered Olive Ridley turtles have started to arrive for mating near Rushikulya rookery (about 30km from Berhampur and 30km from the famous Tara Tarini hill Shrine) in Ganjam district is considered as one of the biggest mating grounds of Olive Ridleys in the world. According to officials of the forest department they are now gathering up at a distance of seven kilometres from the coast line. At present small number of mating pairs are visible. But a large number of turtles can be seen. Mating of Olive Ridleys picks up in this area in the last week of December and January. This year these endangered marine turtles have arrived in time.

The Olive Ridleys usually start their mating in the sea near their preferred nesting coast. According to experts these rare turtles have a single mating season in a year. After the end of the mating season most male turtles usually return back leaving behind the female turtles to lay their eggs. The nesting of Olive Ridleys starts from the end of January in sporadic manner which picks up in February.

Measures have been initiated to protect these mating Olive Ridleys in the sea. Fishing has been banned in the area where these turtles are congregating. This involves the stretch of sea up to a distance of ten kilometres from the coast line of Rushikulya rookery. Extension of fishing ban area extends to ten kilometres towards the north and ten kilometres towards south of the rookery.

Illegal entry of fishing trawlers to this region is being checked through regular patrolling at sea said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer. A team of forest officials is also monitoring the Rushikulya rookery coast line where the turtles would lay eggs after two months. They are also documenting the carcasses of turtles found on this coast to assess the number and cause of deaths of Olive Ridleys out here. DFO said this year deposition was quite good at Rushikulya river coast, which means the turtles would have a good stretch of beach to lay their eggs.

Source: The Hindu

Haldia-Chennai (new weekly superfast), Paralakhemundi-Puri (Earlier Palasa-Puri) and Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur (Earlier Bhubaneswar-Koraput) trains pass through Berhampur city
BERHAMPUR: As announced in the last Railway Budget the 2755 Chennai-Haldia weekly Super Fast Express has started operation from December 9 from Chennai. The train will leave Chennai at 2.35p.m every Thursday and will arrive at Howrah at 06.10p.m on Friday. In the return direction, 2756 Haldia-Chennai weekly Super Fast Express will leave Haldia at 11.30 am every Saturday and will arrive at Chennai at 5 pm on Sunday. This train has one AC-2 tier, five Sleeper Class, six General Second Class and two guard cum luggage vans having stoppages at Ongole, Vijaywada, Rajahmundry, Vizianagaram, Berhampur, Khurda Road, Cuttack, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Kharagpur, Panskura and Tamluk between Chennai Central & Haldia.

Similarly, Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the services of Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Koraput Hirakhand Express upto Jagadalpur and Puri- Berhampur-Palasa passenger to Parlakhemundi w.e.f. 18th December 2010 in East Coast Railway jurisdiction. 217 Puri-Palasa passenger which is leaving Puri at 07.50a.m and arriving Palasa at 03.25p.m will leave Palasa at 04.30p.m and will arrive at Paralakhemundi at 06.45p.m in the extended portion. In the return direction, 218 Paralakhemundi-Puri Passenger will leave Paralakhemundi at 07.45a.m and will arrive at Puri at 09.05p.m. This train will stop at Pundi, Rauthpuram, Naupada, Tekkali, Pedasana, Temburu, Ganguvada, and Pathapatnam between Palasa and Paralakhemundi. The timings of 217/218 Puri-Paralakhemundi-Puri passenger will remain unchanged between Puri & Palasa. The train will run as a special train on the flagging off day of the extended portion and the regular run will be from Puri w.e.f 19th December and from Paralakhemundi w.e.f 20th Dec’2010. 8447 Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Koraput Hirakhand Express, which is leaving Bhubaneswar at 07.35p.m and arriving Koraput at 09.45a.m on the next day, will leave Koraput at 10.05a.m and will arrive at Jagadalpur at 12.40p.m in the extended portion. In the return direction, 8448 Jagadalpur-Berhampur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express will leave Jagadalpur at 03.30p.m and will arrive at Bhubaneswar at 08.25a.m on the next day. This train will stop at Jeypore and Jagadalpur in the extended portion. The timings of 8447/8448 Bhubaneswar-Jagadalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express will remain unchanged between Bhubaneswar and Koraput. The train will run as a special train on the day of flagging off of the extended portion and the regular run will be from Bhubaneswar on 18th December and from Jagadalpur from 19th Dec’2010.

BERHAMPUR: The department of journalism and mass communication has started the campus radio in Berhampur University. Vice-chancellor Jayanta Kumar Mohapatra officially inaugurated “Bhanjabani”. The vice-chancellor appreciated the efforts on part of the staff and students in this and also highlighted the decisive role of campus radio as to how it promotes one to be an effective communicator. He further encouraged the students to take part and gain much out of this opportunity. Third semester student Sulachana Nayak was the anchor of the day. Rajeev Lochan Rathan and Sangram Kesari Das Mohapatra, being at the desk, furnished news collected by the students. Mohapatra has also announced to set up a multimedia lab for the department by March 2011. Laxmi Narayana Rout, chairman of the post graduate council, encouraged the students to avail of the opportunity. Sunil Kant Behera, J.S. Giri Rao, Pradeep Mohapatra, Jaganmohan Mohapatra and Sanat Panda guided the students in running the campus radio.

Source: The Telegraph

Tele-monitoring of schools to prevent absenteeism in Koraput

In an effort to prevent absenteeism in schools, the Koraput district administration has launched 'tele-monitoring', using a database of mobile numbers of all teachers.

On each working day, teachers of at least 20 randomly-selected schools would be called up to find out their whereabouts, District Collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil said.

"There have been frequent complaints that teachers remain absent from schools and this programme aims at checking their non-attendance," he said.

Officials from the district headquarters would call these teachers on their mobile phone and ask questions on various school-related issues like number of teachers present, attendance of students and functioning of the mid-day meals.

The teacher would then be asked to give the phone to a student, who would be asked about facilities like lavatories, drinking water, hand-washing and attendance of teachers etc, Patil said.

The calls would be made between 10.30 am and 4 pm.

Official sources said the new programme would add teeth to the prevailing 'rapid monitoring system' in the district in which two officials randomly visit selected gram panchayats to find out if the schools and 'anganwadi' centres are open, if the people get essential commodities under PDS and work and wage under MGNREGA among other services.

Source : Press Trust of India