layman's space

PAYMENT DELAYS WEAN WORKERS AWAY FROM NREGS Monday, 29 April 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar Basanti Sagaria of Kusmal village in Nuapada district is one of the beneficiaries of land development work under MGNREGS. An amount of Rs 30,000 has been sanctioned for development of an acre land which was devastated due to sand casting during the flood of 2008. Land development under MGNREGS came as a great relief for Basanti, because without this support, she would not have reclaimed the land. “The programme is good, but the payment is not made in time,” says Basanti. “I have taken a loan of Rs 15,000 to pay wage to the labourers, who were employed in the land development work. The Junior Engineer has not yet taken the measurement, although I have completed the work,” she laments, adding that because of the delay in getting the project cost from the Government, she would have to pay interest at Rs 3 per month to the money lender. The development work in Bas...

LOWER INDRA FACES RESISTANCE DUE TO FAULTY RAHAB Friday, 10 May 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar The cost of creating an irrigation facility per hectare of land has reached to Rs 5 lakh in case of the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) located here This will continue to increase, because the project is still incomplete. The State Government has submitted a proposal for an additional budget of Rs 500 crore to the Central Government for completion of the project. If the resistance of the displaced families is a reason for delay in completion of various dam projects in India, it was not so in the case of the LIIP. The project was started in 2000 with the active support and cooperation of the affected people. They were assured of land against land as compensation. Land amounting to 1,368 acres was also identified in three different tehsils of Nuapada and Balangir districts. But these lands located in different 15 villages were encroached lands which coul...

KIDS SUFFERING MALNUTRITION EVADE REHAB Wednesday, 01 May 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Sasmita, a three- year- old daughter of Banamali Punji of Gumabahal village weighs about 7 kg. She was identified as a child with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). Sasmita was provided treatment in the CHC at Boden and was referred to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) at Nuapada, 90 km from Sasmita’s village. Sasmita’s parents declined to take her to the NRC. “How can I stay at such a long distance alone with the child for long one month?” asks Chanchala, mother of Sasmita. Gopinath Mali, one-and-a –half- year-old son of Remati and Bhajan Mali of Dahanapali village of the district is another child with SAM. She has been advised twice by the doctor for admission in to the NRC. But, Remati would not go, because she has three other children at home, who can’t be left uncared for. Verification of records of the Anganwadi Centres...

RESENTMENT BREWS AMONG LOWER INDRA PROJECT-HIT Tuesday, 18 June 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhopal 1 2 3 4 5 0 The basic livelihood facilities have been withdrawn from most our villages since 2009. The Government has not provided us full compensation and rehabilitation although we extended active cooperation for the construction of the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP). When we are now fighting for our rights, the administration is threatening us of legal action, say the displaced persons of LIIP at a Press conference at Khariar on Sunday. The Lower Indra Bistapit Sahayata Samiti (LIBSS), which is the frontline organisation of the project affected persons (PAP), had been on a strike since December 9 last. They had erected a brick wall on the entrance of the project. The project authority has demolished the wall two days ago in the presence of the police and lodged a FIR against 15 unknown persons of the LIBSS under various Sections of the IPC be...

the pioneer PADDY SEED SHORTAGE HITS NUAPADA FARMERS Thursday, 20 June 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar Buti Majhi is a marginal farmer of Khariar block in Nuapada district having one and a half acres of land. He had cultivated 1,001 variety of high yielding paddy last year. The yield was less because the seed was not good. He had been storing seeds of high yielding varieties for last four years and the seeds had lost their potential. "The seeds had been provided by the Government. Considering their low quality, I had to change them every three years," he says. But, seed is not sufficiently available this year.  Sanjay Tiwari, a big farmer of the block, has stored seed from last year's crop. "This is my fourth year, but I have no other option," says Sanjay. Ghanashyam Bhitria has exchanged his Swarna variety of paddy with another farmer for the same variety. The farmers of Nuapada district are facing shortage of p...

the pioneer STATE EDITIONS TRIBAL WOMEN LEFT IN LURCH AS JANANI SCHEME FAILS Saturday, 22 June 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) has completely gone off the track in Nuapada district with many tribal women failing to get any benefit and suffering most during the pre and post delivery stages. A visit to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) of Sunabeda panchayat unraveled the bitter truth. About 270 bottles of sodium chloride, 40 bottles of sodium and dextrose injections, 50 small bottles of albendazole oral solutions, 100 metronidazole injections, hundreds of packets of ORS and oral hydration salts and thousands of metronidazole tablet strips and many other medicines worth lakhs of rupees were lying scattered on the ground of the hospital. All the medicines had crossed their expiry dates, which the officials had not been able to distribute among the patients. The junk dressing beds and operation tables were lying in a corner. “...

N’PADA NREGS SCAM: PROBE DELAYED ON FLIMSY GROUND    5/14/13   The Pioneer    www.dailypioneer.com/print.php?printFOR=storydetail&story_url_key=npada- nregs-scam-probe-delayed-on-flimsy-ground&section_url_key=state-editions 1/2   An inquiry on allegation of corruption in MGNREGS was not conducted in Nuapada district despite several allegations were lodged. The officials cited the lurking threat of the Maoists as the reason for not being able to move the inaccessible areas in the district.  However, the locals are not prepared to buy the story as they alleged that the officials were deliberately trying to delay the probe since they often visit various parts of the district for work supervision and conducting Palli Sabhas. Assistant Programme Organiser (APO) of Boden block Jitendra Sahu in his letter points out, “I was deputed to enquire into the allegation regarding corruption in the MGNREGS work in Patdarha village of Bhainsadani...

Chhatar Majhi and Ujal Majhi are two marginal farmers of Kusumkhunta village in Boden block. Chhatar has a family of six members and Ujal has five. Both work hard in their lands to earn their livelihood. Like all other poor farmers of Nuapada district, they also depend upon wage work for a living. A year back, income of these two families was too low from their monsoon dependent agriculture. Chhatar and Ujal, along with other eight farmers of the village, were selected by the Palli Sabha to get support under MGNREGS to dig farm ponds under Mo Pokhari Yojana in their land. The sanctioned amount was Rs 20,000 each. After deduction of the material costs and collateral expenses, each got about Rs 14,000 to Rs 15,000. Chhatar dug a pond in four decimals of land. He made a fence around a 66 decimals plot adjoining to the  farm pond and started cultivating vegetables. He cultivated onion in 45 decimals, tomato in 10 decimals and ladies finger, sunflower and some other local vege...

NUAPADA VILLAGERS CREATE SELF-STYLED IRRIGATION The Pioneer.  Monday, 20 May 201 3 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA www.dailypioneer.com/print.php?printFOR=storydetail&story_url_key=nuapada-villagers-create-self-styled-irrigation&section_url_key=state-editions 1/2 Budhuram Paharia is a tribal of Bhainsadani village in Nuapada district. He has two acres of land. This year, he has produced about 30 quintals of paddy from the two acres. “But it was not so before a year ago,” says Budhuram. “I was waiting for the arrival of the rain for tilling my land to sow seed. If the rain arrived late or there was a dry spell during the season, the crop used to fail. Usually, I was getting less than eight quintals in total previously,” he adds.  The situation in Bhainsadani village changed after the water of a nearby stream was diverted to the village through PVC pipes. Entire two acres of land of Budhuram now get irrigated. As second crop apart from paddy, Budhuram cultivat...

KIDS SUFFERING MALNUTRITION EVADE REHAB Sasmita, a three- year- old daughter of Banamali Punji of Gumabahal village weighs about 7 kg. She was identified as a child with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). Sasmita was provided treatment in the CHC at Boden and was referred to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) at Nuapada, 90 km from Sasmita’s village. Sasmita’s parents declined to take her to the NRC. “How can I stay at such a long distance alone with the child for long one month?” asks Chanchala, mother of Sasmita. Gopinath Mali, one-and-a –half- year-old son of Remati and Bhajan Mali of Dahanapali village of the district is another child with SAM. She has been advised twice by the doctor for admission in to the NRC. But, Remati would not go, because she has three other children at home, who can’t be left uncared for Verification of records of the Anganwadi Centres in 10 Gram Panchayats of Boden block reveals that there are more than 232 SAM chi...