Forecast station waits for upgrade

MANOJ KAR

Paradip, April 27: Stalemate persists over the much-awaited Doppler project in Paradip.

Commissioning of the Doppler radar project for generation of foolproof weather data, especially regarding advance information about cyclones, storms and cloudbursts, is going to be further delayed. The procurement of indigenous brand of radar has emerged as a stumbling block for the project. Incidentally, the Rs 24crore project was scheduled to get operational by December 31 this year.

Earlier, the defence ministry had put brakes on the installation of the China-made Doppler system. The ministry had sought for its replacement with indigenously manufactured radar on the grounds of national security.

“We have been officially told that the Doppler system, manufactured by the government-run Bharat Electronics Limited, would be installed in Paradip. We are expecting its arrival shortly,” said Sarat Kumar Sahu, state director of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

From routine temperature predictions to chasing mighty storms, the Doppler station would meticulously predict adverse weather conditions in advance. The system would have a digital image of the weather condition of a particular region, thus projecting a clear and accurate weather forecast.

“The Doppler radar station would be of use to the natural calamity-prone Orissa coast as it would make accurate forecasts about the changing weather patterns, cyclones, storms and cloudbursts,” said Sahu.

“The China-made Doppler radar system is still in our possession. After the Union defence ministry directed us not to install the China-made equipment, it is now under lock and key and has not been put to use. The building and other infrastructure are ready for launching the state-of-the-art weather station. We are yet to be provided with the indigenous Doppler system,” said Sahu.

“Since the radar meant for the Paradip meteorology wing is manufactured in China, security concerns have been raised by the defence ministry. It was apprehended that the in-built chips in the radar might help pass on vital information to the manufacturing country,” Sahu said.

The Doppler radar station in Mumbai had faced similar defence-related problems in using the China-made radar equipment. However, now it has become operational with the installation of an indigenously built Doppler system.

At present, the meteorology station in Paradip is equipped with a less improvised analogous radar system.

(sourced from the telegraph)

Waste project locked in land tangle - Piled up garbage leads to pollution and unhygienic conditions in Paradip

MANOJ KAR

GARBAGE DUMPED NEAR BANGALIPADA WASTELAND ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF PARADIP. TELEGRAPH PICTURE Paradip, April 21: The World Bank funded solid waste management project under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme (ICZM) in Paradip is locked in a land tangle. The Rs 16 crore project requires 22 acres of compact patch of land within the port town. However, the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) is hit by scarcity of land for its infrastructure expansion programme. The port town still goes without an urban solid waste management and treatment system with accumulated solid wastes sparking off pollution and unhygienic condition. Huge volume of solid waste that is generated everyday is being disposed off in a dumpyard on outskirts of the township. As mechanism to waste treatment is absent, its hazardous effect is largely felt in some localities near the dumpyard in Bangalipada. “The project is of great significance to a growing industrial township like Paradip. According to the project, the state-of-the-art solid waste treatment plant would be installed to treat and process waste and garbage in a modernised technology,” executive officer of the Paradip Municipality Surath Mallick. “We have identified the suitable land patch at Kansaripatia within the municipality area. The land is owned by the PPT. The port trust authorities have been requested to hand over it so that the much-needed project could be implemented at the earliest,” Mallick said. “The PPT is suffering from acute scarcity of land. Owing to the port’s infrastructure development, we badly require more government land. We have written to the state government for providing us with more land as we are planning to relocate the township to a new place,” said said secretary of the PPT Pravat Kumar Nanda. “However, still we are looking forward to allotting land to the municipality so that the waste management project could be implemented,” Nanda added Everyday, 48 metric tonnes of solid waste and garbage are generated from the municipality jurisdiction. As the enormous quantity of solid waste is getting deposited, there is a need to treat and process it to maintain hygiene. However, the ground reality remains on the contrary. The filth and garbage fill the air with stench smell. Moreover, the dumpyard has turned into a congenial breeding ground for mosquitoes. Paradip, April 21: The World Bank funded solid waste management project under Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme (ICZM) in Paradip town is locked in a land tangle. Rs 16 crore worth ICZM project is in requirement of 22 acre stretch of land within the port town. But the root of the problem is that Paradip port trust is hit by severe dearth of land for its infrastructure expansion programme. There is hardly the availability of land within the port town for execution of such ambitious World Bank project. The bustling port town still goes without an urban solid waste management and treatment system with accumulated solid wastes sparking off pollution and unhygienic environment. Huge volume of solid waste that is being generated everyday from the port town is presently being disposed off in a dump yard on the outskirts of the port township. As mechanism to treat the wastes is conspicuous by its absence, it’s hazardous effect is largely felt in sum localities, located nearby the dumping yard near Bangalipada. “The project is of great significance to a growing industrial township like Paradip. As per the ICZM project, the state-of-the-art solid waste treatment plant would be installed to treat and process the waste and garbage in a modernised technology” Surath Mallick, Executive Officer, Paradip Municipality. The project is in requirement of at least 22 acre stretch of compact patch of land. We have identified the suitable land patch at Kansaripatia within the municipality. The said land is owned by PPT. The Port trust authorities have been requested to hand over the same so that the much-needed project could be implemented at the earliest, Mallick, municipality executive officer maintained. “The PPT is in acute scarcity of land. For infrastructure development of the port, we badly require more government land. We wrote to the state government for providing us with more land as we are planning to relocate the existing port township to a new place. Still we are planning to allot land to the municipality as the solid waste management project is an important national coastal management programme”, observed Pravat Kumar Nanda, Secretary, PPT. Everyday, 48 metric ton of solid wastes and garbage is being generated from the municipality jurisdiction. As enormous quantity of solid wastes is getting deposited every day, there is the need to treat and process it for maintenance of hygiene in the port town. But the ground reality remains on the contrary. The filth and garbage fills the air with stench smell. Besides the dumping yard has turned into a congenial breeding ground for mosquitoes. (sourced from the telegraph)

Jumbos forced to beg on Paradip streets - Mahouts from Bihar remain ignorant of wildlife laws, drive their pets in Orissa during summer

MANOJ KAR

A mahout drives his pet elephant to street begging on NH-5 (A). The jumbo extorts crews of cargo-laden trucks stranded at the highway. Telegraph picture

Paradip, April 18: Hordes of pet elephants from Bihar have turned into itinerant street beggar in Paradip, thanks to their ignorant mahouts.

The jumbos are extorting crews of ore-laden trucks stranded on NH-5 (A).

As per the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, using elephants to beg on streets is a punishable offence. Moreover, the mahouts by exposing the jumbos to stride on tar roads amid scorching heat are committing an offence under the prevention of cruelty to the Animals Act. However, forest personnel have shied away from booking the offending mahouts. Earlier, mahouts from Uttar Pradesh were arrested for putting to use their pet elephants for street begging. But the move backfired as the animal had stopped taking food, as if to protest against its master’s arrest. The starving elephant had forced the forest officials to pray before the local court for bailing out of the arrested mahout.

“The mahouts are in possession of valid permission from the concerned state’s forest department for animals’ seasonal migration to Orissa. But they are breaking law by forcing the pets to street begging. Keeping in view the past incidents, we are yet to arrest the mahouts under legal provisions,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division.

“Forest officer of the Kujang forest range has inspected one of the male itinerant elephant and found out the animal healthy. But, the mahout is breaking law by using the elephant for street begging. Unless he mends his ways, we will be forced to arrest him under the wildlife law,” said Mahapatra.

Owner of the tusker Sambhu Kumar from Gaya was caught unaware of the wildlife laws. “I have got six month’s permit to take the pet to Orissa. During summer, we fall short of water and leaves to feed the animal. That’s why we migrate to Orissa every year. People here love and pay respect to the elephants. Most people in rural Orissa bow their head to the elephant and offer things such as, grains and bananas. Some of them donate money also. My elephant requires a minimum of 300 to 400 litres of water a day during the summer. There is ample source of water in Orissa than in Bihar,” said Kumar.

“In our state there are hundreds of captive elephants under private ownership and duly permitted by the state forest department. We never abuse and ill-treat our pets,” he said.

“Elephants born and brought up in captivity never adapts to natural habitats. That’s why official permission for private ownership of pet jumbos is given despite the fact that the animal is accorded the Schedule-1 security status under the Wildlife Protection Act with strict conditions. By violating the conditions, pet elephants are forced by their owners to live and work in inhospitable urban environment. The owner or handler makes money by forcing the elephants to perform tricks for people’s entertainment. Moreover, the animals are rampantly used in street begging,” said wildlife activist Bijoy Kumar Kabi.

(sourced from the telegraph)

Steel crores in land labyrinth

SUBHASHISH MOHANTY AND MANOJ KAR

Bhubaneswar, April 19: Posco India Limited has so far spent Rs 3,000 crore in its proposed steel plant near Paradip though the project still remains stuck with the company yet to take possession of even an inch of land at the site.

The company’s investments came to light during an ongoing review meeting chaired by steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty.

Posco India Limited had signed an MoU with the Orissa government on June 22, 2005 to set up a steel plant in an area of 4,004 acres. Due to stiff opposition by Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), a people’s outfit, the state government has not able to acquire the land. The company, according to available information, has disbursed Rs 1.36 crore towards land acquisition. The amount was disbursed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO) of Orissa on behalf of the company to 97 people for the acquisition of betel vines in Gadakujang gram Panchayat for the Rs 52,000 crore project. Posco officials could not be contacted.

Around two acre of forestland under betel vine cultivation had been taken possession of by IDCO when the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) put brakes on the land acquisition process.

“This apart, 651 acre litigation and encroachment-free revenue land has already been leased out to the Posco-India by the Orissa government against a payment at the rate of Rs 25,000 per acre. The lease term extends to 99 years,” said Sujeet Das, project director (rehabilitation and resettlement) for the Posco project.

Sources said Posco India has so far given direct employment to 53 persons and indirect employment to 20. The state has got Rs 4.41 crore as taxes from the project that continues to hang in the balance with questions being raised with regard to settlement of forest rights of people in the project. The Union environment ministry has now asked the state government to look into the claims made in this regard by PPSS.

The Orissa government today began a two-day review of the progress of projects in the steel sector. The state has signed MoUs with 50 industrial houses. The review revealed that acquisition of encroachment-free government land and free access to government land in different districts were the major bottlenecks in the execution of the projects.

Sources said the progress of nearly 11 projects was reviewed today. Most company officials said they were not getting the required support from the state government.

However, steel giant Tata Steel Limited has so far invested Rs 1818.12 crore in its proposed plant at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur. The company plans to invest Rs 15,400 crore to set up the six-million-tonne plant. While the state has so far received Rs 13.78 crore, the Centre has received Rs 38.12 crore as tax from this project.

There hasn’t been much progress in ArcelorMittal’s proposed steel plant in Keonjhar though it signed an MoU with the state government on December 21, 2006, land acquisition seems a problem. The validity of the MoU will expire on December 20, 2011.

Steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty said: “Steps are being taken to acquire land for the plant. They have assured us that they are not going away from Orissa.”

The extension of the MoU of Essar Steel Orissa Limited is under consideration of the state government. Out of the proposed investment of Rs 10,721 crore in the company’s six-million tonne plant at Paradip, Rs 5,077 crore has already been invested. Jindal Steel and Power Limited has so far spent Rs11,283.24 crore in its proposed plant at Angul.

 (sourced from the telegraph)

POSCO site: Tribals trying to prove their existence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34_LlfTDRYg&feature=player_embedded#at=313Save India's coast: The residents of Dhinkia in Orissa are out to prove their existence after the state government assured the Environment Ministry that there were no tribals or traditional forest dwellers living or farming on the proposed site of the $12 billion POSCO project.

AIDS patients refuse pension

MANOJ KAR

The government-run HIV diagnostic centre in Paradip. Telegraph picture

Paradip, April 15: Fear of getting identified haunts the HIV positive patients of Jagatsinghpur district. Here, barring a few, majority of the HIV/AIDS carriers are shying away from receiving their monthly pension introduced by the state government.

Of the 462 persons diagnosed as HIV/AIDS carriers, tiding over social stigma, only 38 persons have come forward to receive their cheques of the Madhubabu pension scheme. Of them, around 13 persons are from urban areas, while 25 others are from rural areas. The rest have opted to live in anonymity as the disease carries with it stigma and threats of social ostracisation.

If civil society activists are to be believed, the virus-infected persons of both the urban and rural areas think it prudent to skip the miserly Rs 200 monthly incentives. Receiving the sum means exposing themselves to identification as AIDS patients in front of other villagers.

On April 1, 2008, the state government had launched the Rs 200 monthly pension for HIV infected people. The scheme was named after Madhubabu, a prominent nationalist Oriya leader.

“It is a matter of concern that AIDS patients are keeping themselves away from social security pension scheme. According to reports that we are receiving, it is a fact that fear of exposure has distracted them from availing pension,” said Bijoy Kumar Swain, deputy director, Orissa State AIDS Control Society (OSACS).

“The fear of identification might have led these people to skip their monthly pension. It is a disturbing trend. We are looking into it. In some cases, the infected persons wanted the pension to be sent to their homes. But it could not be disbursed as they gave wrong postal addresses,” said Sudhakar Biswal, medical officer of the government-run Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC).

(sourced from the telegraph)

Living and chirping in Bhitarkanika - House sparrows make national park permanent home as it suits their adaptability needs

MANOJ KAR

In other parts of the state house sparrows are disappearing fast and their sighting has become rare. File picture

Kendrapara, April 15: The idyllic wetland and meadows within the Bhitarkanika national park continue to be a conducive habitat for house sparrows, a specie now on the verge of extinction.

Although sparrows were once present everywhere, these pint-sized birds are incidentally not listed in any schedule of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Over the years, they are disappearing fast and its sighting has become rare.

In such a scenario, it is heartening that the sparrows have made Bhitarkanika their permanent home.

“The human habitations thriving on the fringes of the national park have turned out to be blessing for the house sparrows. The villagers have built many straw thatched houses. Twigs from the straw come handy for sparrows’ nesting. They feed on the grains from the crop fields,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer (DFO), Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division.

In most other areas the grains and insects the sparrows feed on have gone out of sight due to man-made factors. The birds used to throng the countryside and the urban landscape. The increasing use of pesticides in agriculture fields mainly has spelt doom. These birds steadily perished as grain-feeding birds failed to withstand toxicity. Urbanisation and fast disappearing traditional straw-thatched houses have contributed to the shrinkage of their habitat.

However, farmers in Bhitarkanika grow saline-resistant paddy. There is less use of pesticides here. Sparrows are averse to eating grains grown through application of pesticide. Thus grains here suit the food chain of these birds.

“We have sighted many nests of house sparrows near the tourists rest sheds of the sanctuary. Large groups of sparrows have been seen in various places of Bhitarkanika,” Mahapatra added.

(sourced from the telegraph)
 

PARADEEP MUNICIPALITY LIBRARY

News cutting-The Dharitri dt14th April 2011
(click on pic to enlarge)

'Orissa to renew MoU with Posco-India soon'

The Orissa Government said on Thursday it would soon renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korean steel major Posco for its proposed steel plant near Paradip.
"The Steel and Mines department has already received the recommendation of the Law department in this regard. The nodal department will soon invite Posco for renewal of the MoU," Orissa's Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty told reporters here.
The MoU signed between the state government and Posco-India on June 22, 2005 had expired after completion of the fixed five years tenure on June 21, 2010.
Though nine months had since passed, the state government had not been able to renew MoU with Posco-India mostly due to addition of some new clauses, sources said.
This apart, the minister said that the department was also considering whether to fix the tenure of MoU for five years or extend it. 


sourced from  The INDIAN EXPRESS

Paradip port in expansion mode

BHUBANESWAR: Paradip Port has laid out a major plan to expand its cargo handling capacity from the present 76 million tons to 237 million by 2020 on PPP mode, according to its chairman G J Rao.

Speaking to media persons here on Sunday, Rao said after completion of the capacity expansion work Paradip port would be one of India's top most port.

He said efforts are on undertake massive dredging of the channels and improvement of other facilities in order to handle bigger ships of 1.25 lakh Dead Weight Tonnage (DWT). He said the port would award construction works to any Central PSUs or state organizations based on their expertise in the field.

The chairman admitted fall in total cargo handling by the port from 57.01 million tons in 2009-10 to 56.03 million tons in 2010-11 and attributed the lower performance to recession and imposition of a 20 per cent tax on export.

The port had set a target of 63 million tons, which could not be possible, one of the major reasons being drop of 14.29 per cent in iron ore traffic.

Paradip handled 13.85 mt of iron ore last year compared to 16.16 mt the previous year.

The chairman further said neither the expansion of the Operation area of Kolkotta Port nor the proposed Posco captive port would affect the Paradip port. He however said the private Dhamra port might hit its business.

"The Dhamra port may affect the business of Paradip port. But it is good because we welcome competition and that it would improve our efficiency as well."

The PPT chairman said the port had signed an agreement with the Paradip municipal authorities for maintaining the township including developing civic amenities. Since Paradip town is growing in population, steps had been initiated to bring water directly from Cuttack.

sourced from The Times of  India

Cops bust criminal gang

Paradip, April 4: The son of a port trust employee, who allegedly ran a well-knit crime syndicate and unleashed lawlessness in Paradip and adjoining areas, was arrested today by local police.

The arrest of 24-year-old Siba Prasad Mallick has revealed disturbing facts of how educated youths from decent family backgrounds have begun making foray into dark alleys of crime. The police are looking for his associates.

The gang led by Siba Prasad Mallick is alleged to be involved in cases of extortion in the fast-growing Paradip township and industrial zones around it. The police said that the gang had been collecting money from contractors, builders and real-estate agents by issuing threats.

“Mallick’s father is an employee in the public health engineering wing of the port trust. Mallick is a graduate and has been living the quarter allotted to his father in Madhuban locality. His parents and family members seemed to be unaware of his criminal antecedents,” said Shantanu Kumar Das, sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Paradip. Though Mallick did not have any criminal records, the police had maintained close watch on his activities for some time. “We had received conclusive feedback that he was operating a racket of criminals to terrorise the traders, real estate businessmen, builders, contractors and construction companies,” the police said.

A revolver and live cartridges were seized from his possession. He was charged with offences of extortion and carrying illegal arms, and was forwarded to court.

Mallick’s link with a crime syndicate based in Kendrapara has been established. Police are looking for his associates. The area of operation of the band of criminals led by Mallick was mostly concentrated in the Indian Oil Company Limited’s project area near the port town.

“With construction work of the project going on in a big way in that area, the private farms engaged in the project works were becoming soft target of these criminals. Mallick and his associates used to extort them at gunpoint,” SDPO Das added.

(sourced from the telegraph)