SC rightly passes stricturess
The Supreme Court recently took serious note of alleged exploitation of devotees by the ‘Sevaks’ at the 12th century shrine in Puri and issued a slew of directions to prevent any such malpractice and mismanagement. The directions have come at a time when there is just one month left for the commencement of the Annual Rath Yatra. The Government of Odisha having been embroiled in a controversy over the loss of keys to Sri Jagannath Temple’s Ratna Bhandar, the directions of the Supreme Court have come as an embarrassment. The apex court has even directed the Odisha Government to study the management schemes of other important shines such as Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Kashmir and Somnath Temple in Gujarat. However, the Sevaks of the temple ought to be compensated by legitimate remuneration as may be determined by the authority concerned and appointed senior advocate Gopal Subramanium as amicus curie to assist the court in the matter. To ensure transparency, the court ordered the temple administration to ensure that no direct collection of offerings is made by any ‘Sevak’ and all the offerings are made either in the ‘hundi’ or are deposited and accounted for and properly utilised. Meanwhile, the recovery of duplicate keys of the Ratna Bhandar has posed a question about the original keys. Pradeep Kumar Jena was replaced by Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra as the temple administrator, but the opposition parties say this is only to divert public attention. The missing links of the key will come to the fore after the probe report of Justice Raghubir Das Commission is submitted and disclosed.
4.5-MTA capacity of RSP an illusion
The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) invested Rs 12,000 crore in its expansion and modernisation programme which was inaugurated recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his last visit to Rourkela. Country’s first blast furnace ‘Parbati’ was being rebuilt to enhance its production capacity. When production capacity of Parbati was planned to be enhanced, how come the plant engineers could not visualize full utilisation of hot metal in the downstream units, especially the steel melting shops! Now even the steel melting shop-2 with all its state of the art technology cannot accommodate the hot metal quantity and therefore the workers unions have raised demand for the 3rd SMS. The excess hot metal will simply turn into pig iron and that is not a part of the product-mix of RSP. The Executive Association, however, pleads for a balancing act by taking shutdown of other furnace to keep hot metal production at the requirement level notwithstanding the fact that a 3rd SMS has become apparent if the plant has to reach its 10 million production capacity. Started from .5 million ton capacity, the plant reached to one million ton in its usual course but later went into an-expansion phase up to 1.8 million tone capacity which it never reached before embarking on a Rs 4,000 crore modernisation scheme. Even after the modernisation scheme got completed, there was a marginal increase in its capacity. But the 4.5 million ton capacity of the plant expected after the last expansion cum modernisation programme at a massive cost of Rs 12,000 crore is also eluding at least for now. So, the RSP has always carried a tag of under capacity utilisation despite accolades of high performance from its mentors. Needless to say, the 4.5MTA capacity utilisation is sure to wait for another expansion or modernisation of the plant.
let NITR graft be probed by CBI
An institutional head can make or mar the organisation. The new incumbent who replaced Dr Sunil Sarangi as Director of NITR has now come in for a lot of flak as reputation of the institute is on the wane. As the institution is overcast with a shadow of massive irregularities, the faculties themselves have urged for a CBI investigation, even as the NITR was in talk for its rank in national and international level a couple of years ago. Many faculties and staff members who have been denied promotions have moved the Orissa High Court for justice. Even in recruitment cases, the Director is alleged to have soiled his hand by accepting graft. 57 posts of new faculties in the level of Assistant Professors are lying vacant. Rules and regulations have been thrown to the wind and there are allegations of financial irregularities. Financial benefits amounting to crores of rupees have been paid to some specific vendors under transportation services unit of the institute without tendering. The legal expenses of the institute are on exponential rise which has exceeded the total expenditure of last 15 years. Since the institute comes under a Board of Governors appointed by the Union HRD Ministry, the onus is on the latter to conduct a probe into the allegations sooner than later with a direction to its Director to go on leave.
Unfortunate: Naveen evades Niti Ayog meet
Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik’s affirmation that Odisha will benefit to stand in confrontation mode with the Centre bears a negative connotation whereas dialogue not confrontation is the guiding principle of democracy. On the Mahanadi issue, he was advised for a dialogue with his counterpart in Chhattisgarh but he insisted for the tribunal and the reality will come to the fore when monsoon is over and Mahanadi’s river beds become dry once again. Will he be able to force an interim order of the tribunal for release of sufficient water into Mahanadi by the Raman Singh Government, let alone obtaining a stay on construction of barrages in the catchment areaIJ Similarly, by not attending the Niti Ayog meeting what he wants to conveyIJ Does he want to show that if the Centre neglects Odisha’s interest in Niti Ayog then he will use his trump card of joining the combined opposition now shaping up to stop the galloping horse of Modi for a second term. If that is so, then it is sheer black mailing which the people of Odisha will never want and the stand taken may boomerang. Negative stand will always have a negative result.