It’s clear: Bargarh farmer's suicide due to failed crop
The claim of the State Government that a spat between Khainu Bagarty(Hadu) and his wife led to the former committing suicide is baseless and unfounded, if a report which is ready to be placed in the Assembly is to be believed. The report is prepared by a seven-member fact finding team comprising lawyers of Balangir, Bargarh and Barpali at the behest of the leader of Opposition (loP) Narasingha Mishra. Bargarh, Attabira, Bheden and parts of Barpali blocks are irrigated by canal system under the Hirakud dam project but eight more blocks are non irrigated and depend on rain and bore well for cultivation. As such, bore wells are lifeline for farmers and but they failed Khainu, forcing him to end his life. There is no denying that bore well for irrigation has failed to provide the much needed succor to the farmers in the rain fed areas in the district. The Government's crude denial of the fact which was based on the concocted report of the officials is unfortunate. The intensity of water stressed condition of Bargarh can be imagined from the fact that against a target to dig 2,622 bore wells, 2,341 are functional and the rest 281 have failed. Similarly out of 718 bore wells dug up in the 2015-16 fiscal, 378 are awaiting power supply to become functional. Bargarh farmers are intelligent enough not to be swayed away by such blatant and misleading statement of Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy.
Vegetable-rich Bargarh dist has no cold storage
Farmers of the State, particularly from Bargarh district, are forced to go for distress sale of cabbage, tomato and chilly and now it is the turn of potato. Price of potato soared last year when truck loads of potato were stopped near the West Bengal-Odisha border. Maybe for a short term, this artificial shortage should have opened the eyes of the Government and the minimum support price (MSP) should have been fixed. Under the Potato Mission, besides providing incentive for potato seed, the State Government also committed to give capital subsidy for new cold storage as per the Agricultural Policy of 2013. It was also mooting subsidizing power tariff for existing and new cold storages till March 31, 2018. Plans were also sketched to maintain better stock to deal with short term scarcity situation and a target was set to bring 60,000 hectares of land under potato cultivation by 2017-18. Vegetable rich Bargarh district has no cold storage and the officials advise the farmers to avail the facility in Sambalpur. Potato is now sold at Rs 2 to Rs 3 per kg whereas in the open market the price varies between Rs 8 and Rs10. The farmers who had put all their hopes on potato and looked forward to make up for the loss from the previous seasons are all in despair.
Abolition of Township Act must for greater RMC
With Independent MlA George Tirkey's case for exclusion of some panchayats from Smart City jurisdiction pending in the Odisha High Court, abolition of Industrial Township Act should be taken up on an urgent basis because the steel city is faced with a complex territorial jurisdiction since April 1995 after creation of the Rourkela Industrial Township of the RSP. For long, various quarters have been demanding abolition of Industrial Township Act for formation of greater RMC jurisdiction as RMC cannot independently take up any development work on areas of RSP or the South Eastern Railway (SER) where numerous slum settlements are deprived of basic amenities. The Rourkela Industrial Town (RIT) with 2.3 lakh population has exclusive land jurisdiction of the RSP while the other part including two railway colonies of SER has 3.2 lakh population. The Rourkela Smart City limited Chairman R Balakrishnan has discussed the land issues in the presence of Housing and Urban Development Secretary G Mathi Vathanan and RSP Chief Executive Aswin Kumar where nothing much could be achieved to remove the technical hurdles. The RSP is reported to be reluctant to allow development of slums or other projects on its land. Can Balakrishnan help the ice to melt is a million dollar question. Regardless of what may happen in future, the Smart City objective of planned growth would not be achieved without rehabilitation of slums on areas of the RSP and the SER.
Women's Day: Fair sex still tortured, abused
The International Women's Day was celebrated across the State amid stories of fresh torture on women coming to the fore. The case of Reena Mallik (25) who belonged to Banshdhara Ghumsar North Division of the outlawed Communist Party of India (CPI) related to one such disgusting incident. She is a suspect in five incidents of Maoist violence between 2009 and 2016. Refusing her leader's call for abortion, she surrendered before the Rayagada police and described the traumatic circumstance that forced her to call it quits. She was asked to eat crushed bangles which is said to be used as crude method of abortion but she remained steadfast in her refusal. Reena also brought to the fore issues of gender discrimination in the Maoist camps as women members were asked to perform sentry duties, cooking and cultural activities besides exposing the prejudiced functions rife within the Maoist outfits. One can understand the torture of women in the Maoist camps but what about a girl who was assaulted and paraded on streets allegedly on a stealing case in BalangirIJ In Pardhiapali under Balangir Sadar police limits, a tribal girl was beaten up and paraded on the street after her hair cut off by a villager. The ugly incident took place over stealing of a mobile phone which she purchased from the daughter of one Basanta Tripathy, neighbour of Byasa, the owner of the mobile set. The incident triggered sharp reaction from the Zilla Adivasi Sangh that threatened to launch stir if stern action is not taken against the accused.