Odisha to miss Swachh Bharat targetIJ
Odisha has constructed about 4 lakh toilets during the current fiscal against the target of 20 lakh. The State is required to construct 16.500 toilets per day to meet the October 2019 deadline set by the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation has released around Rs 200 crore to the State whereas only 12 per cent households or 1.3 lakh individual households have been covered with user ready latrines under the Swachh Bharat Mission since 2014. Now, the BJP has asked the ruling BJD to give details of the Central assistance received and number of toilets constructed since the launch of the mission. This was in retaliation of the State Government blaming the Centre for poor performance in rural sanitation under the Swachh Bharat Mission. While the State is grumbling for time bound financial assistance, the Centre says it will release next dose of financial assistance as soon as the State submits the UCs. Meanwhile, open field defecation continues unabated in the State and the target is unlikely to be met by October 2, 2019. Highlighting such failures of the ruling BJD Government, the BJP is trying to polish the anti incumbency mood of the voters to checkmate the Government in the next general elections, but seems to be trailing in the ensuing Bijepur by-poll.
BJD's grand birthday bash in Puri
Decisions taken at a State Cabinet meeting held in Puri, for the first time outside the State Secretariat, to set up a Heritage Cabinet and a language Commission marked the BJD 20th foundation day ceremony in Puri on January 26 amid scathing attack by the Opposition. According to them, the Chief Minister has again resorted to political chicanery to win votes in the next elections. Speaking on the language Commission, PCC chief Prasad Harichandan questioned the commitment of the Government for promotion of Odia. He said the Government has enacted several laws which are lying in cold storage for more than a decade. Citing the Odisha Public libraries Act, 2002, the PCC chief said it has been more than 15 years the Government has not framed rules under the Act. The foundation day ceremony looks as if the political advisers of the CM have taken a cue from BJP national president Amit Shah imitating his awesome style of organising road shows or his party’s political meet. Fixing of party flag along the 60-km stretch from Bhubaneswar to Puri keeping the in between gap of 2.5 metres comes to around 35,000 flags in simple arithmetic calculation. If the cost of a flag is taken to be Rs 50 as the minimum, the party has spent Rs 15 lakh on this account only. There were also advertisements on the front pages of leading news dailies of Bhubaneswar. Added to this the transportation of men and women to form a sizeable crowd through hired vehicles might have added to a huge expenditure.
Rourkela 4-lane road works fail to take off
The second entrance to Rourkela railway station on its opposite side could be feasible after several rounds of talk with the South Eastern Railway (SER) authorities. But the hurdles are far from over now as the four lane road to facilitate direct access to the second entrance of the station is delayed by a year now. The project with 4 km distance between Doorsanchar Bhawan and Basanti Colony is estimated to cost Rs 13 crore. Before preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR), the SER had agreed for road width of 80 feet but later breached the agreement and asked the PWD to confine the width to 70 feet on two patches of 2,800 metre from the Basanti Colony to Malgodam and the Railway Colony pond to the Doorsanchar Bhawan. For the remaining middle patch of 1,200 metres, the railway authorities instructed to confine the width to 30 feet, including parallel drains till payment of Rs 10 crore. Uncertainty looms large over the disputed middle patch in absence of clearance from the SER, while road and parallel drain works are nearing completion on the remaining portion. Public opinion against the Railways is building up fast because of its dilly-dallying action to get back the 400 acres of encroached land.
Cyber crime slur against Koshali Swabhiman
The emergence of the Kosal Janata Dal (KJD) as a new political outfit which vouchsafes its commitment to fight for smaller States as better option to grow fast, has given vent to an alarming sense of intolerance among the so-called activists of the Kosal movement. Political necessity for the movement having gained currency, the man who had hijacked the movement from western Odisha’s roaring lion Balgopal Mishra is now in jittery. Nothing to write home about, he continues to indulge only in media propaganda to announce his camouflaged commitment for a separate Kosal State and influence the local leaders during election with questionable tricks. The person who had absolutely no contribution to the Kosal movement in the last 20 years is now back to his old game of a misleading campaign. The only difference now is that he is using social media by engaging some misguided youths. He is behaving as if the ground under his feet has been removed. At his behest, one facebook wall in the name of ‘Koshali Swabhiman’ has been engaged to carry propaganda against the leaders of the KJD. As a fallout of such a developement, a complaint has been registered against one Kamal Kumar Sahu, the administrator of the facebook wall at the cyber police station of Rourkela with an urge to take action against the facebook page ‘Koshali Swabhiman’ and all those who have made derogatory remarks in response to the alleged canards spread in the form of a tongue-lashing story.