Prime Minister-promised Rourkela projects still nonstarters
Construction of the second bridge on the river Bramhani at Rourkela is a PM promised project which will begin its work any time from now. But nobody is in a position to pin point the exact date of its beginning. Rourkela’s BJP MlA Dilip Ray has expressed his anguish and surprise over its commencement and has blamed the Centre for its unusual delay. This has been followed by a letter written by CM Naveen Patnaik to Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari only to record his concern when he came to know that the project is in the final stage and work might begin anytime. The Ray camp is jittery camp because of the undue delay in two PM promised projects with which the local MlA is sentimentally attached with. Not only is the second bridge on the river Bramhani, converting the IGH into a super specialty hospital with a medical college is awaiting SAIl’s clearance with Steel Minister Choudhury Birender Singh virtually sleeping over it. Ray’s political future is intrinsically linked with these projects as failure will spell his doom. Even as the local Congress has demanded his resignation on account of the failure to get these projects started, let alone its completion, the stand taken by Ray to pressurize the Centre to begin the projects has been welcomed far and wide.
Nalco heading towards privatisationIJ
The Nalco was floated by the Central Government in the 1980s to meet the growing demand of aluminium required for making wide range of products starting from a syringe to plane with assistance of technical know-how from France. It was a milch cow for the Central Government for quite some years. Virtually, there was no competitor for the Nalco and the company took advantage of the situation. But the Central Government sold its share at regular intervals and as much as 34.63 per cent share of the company has already been sold. Only a meagre 16 per cent is left to be disinvested and the company will go out of the Government control with doors open for any private company to take over. Not many years ago, Balco was also a Government controlled company before it was sold to Birlas. Privatization of this company is now opposed by a conglomerate of 14 trade unions grouped under the umbrella of Nalco Coordination Committee. The process of disinvestment had already begun during Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s regime. During 2013-14 the UPA Government again disinvested 6.22 per cent share but the process did not stop there. The NDA Government in two phases disinvested 15.56 per cent share. Chief convener of Nalco Coordination Committee Prasanna Kumar Mallick who is also the general secretary of Nalco Officers Association, recently in a release said that Nalco privatisation is not very far off. It can be crystallized any moment. Vice president of Nalco Officers Association has warned that privatisation of the company will be opposed tooth and nail. The Nalco management, however, is maintaining silence on this issue. The situation is fast moving towards a lull before the storm.
Titilagarh: Distress sale of onion still on
Titilagarh, known to be a hot chamber of Odisha during summer, is also called the Nashik of Odisha where onion is grown over a 20,000 hectares patch, including in Titlagarh, Muribahal and Bongomunda. The sub-divisional town finally got a pack house commissioned on May 15 this year. It took two years for APICOl to instal a 750 KV transformer, besides electricity supply at a total cost of Rs 20 lakh, though the integrated pack house costing Rs 5 crore was ready for commissioning by the end of 2014. While distress sale of onion is not a new phenomenon in the region, the authorities were in no hurry to commission the pack house. Retail price of onion being Rs 14 per kg across the State, traders purchase onion at Rs 3 per kg and hoard it till prices soar so that they can make profit. As such, onion growers had to sustain loss due to distress sale of their produce for three seasons. Now the Centre has blamed the State for failure to check distress sale of onion and expressed surprise as to why it could not take resort to Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to provide remunerative price stating that MIS is implemented on specific request of the State willing to share the loss with the Central Government on 50-50 basis. It seems the State is not keen to take the financial burden to protect the farmers, said Union Minister for Agriculture Radhamohan Singh. Titlagarh pack house with 900 MT storing capacity was commissioned only on May 15 which means there was no storage facility till then.
Participants hopeless at R’kela institute meet
The Rourkela Institute of Technology is on a comeback trail. A feedback session involving members of the civil society of Rourkela was organised last week. The effort of the organisers was praise worthy as numerous suggestions came from the participants involving a cross section of the society. The truce between the warring factions was welcomed by one and all present amid apprehensions of permanent peace prevailing in the Kalunga campus where the institute is situated. Students were invoked for reposing faith in quality teaching by experienced faculties with a local flavor under the watchful guidance of their parents. Placement of passed out students was also said to be comparatively higher to get benefit from. It was genuinely felt that the institute is perhaps affected by a slump in the job market which has affected the country as a whole, let alone Rourkela or Odisha. But one point was incomprehensible as to why the event was named ‘Awareness Programme on Professional Education’ when the professional aspects of education, per se was never discussed during the two hour long session. That is why it fell short of expectation of those who participated with all eagerness.