layman's space

Monday, 25 February 2019  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 The Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) in Nuapada district, whose construction started in the year 2000 and the schedule date of completion was March 2004, is yet to be completed even after nineteen years. The delay has led to a lot of problems, apart from the escalation in cost to about ten times of the initially planned expenditure. The number of displaced persons (DP) has increased to over 10,000. The Lower Indra Bisthapit Sahayata Samiti (LIBSS), which was established by the project to support the rehabilitation and resettlement programmes put the blame on the project authorities and the Government. "The problems of the DPs are yet to be solved even after a decade and a half of their eviction from their respective villages. About 2,500 households out of the 2,937 initially enumerated have not been given their rig...

Tuesday, 30 October 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 Farmers of Khariar block led by the BJP held a rally at Khariar and gheraoed the block officer on Monday demanding crop insurance, ration card and input subsidy, etc. The rally started from the Samaleswari temple and ended at the block office where the demonstration and a public meeting were held. The leaders alleged that the farmers of Nuapada district are facing discrimination in the BJD regime. “The Naveen Patnaik Government has failed in every front; farmers have not yet been paid the insurance against crop failure of 2017-18; thousands of poor households have been deprived of getting ration cards; poor are migrating to distant places under distress condition due to lack of employment; NREGS has failed to address the problem of migration due to delay in wage payment; and, moreover, the delay in completion of the Lower I...

Khariar Indra project yet to be completed Saturday, 06 October 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 Construction of the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) in Khariar block of Nuapada district is yet to be completed, but problems are surfacing in the earth dams on both sides of the spillway, the recent one being the vertical subsiding of soil in an area of about 100 square metre between 450 to 525 RD on the right side of the spillway. "It was expected because the construction company has committed a lot of flaws during the earth fill," said a local contractor and further elaborates how the quality of the work has been compromised in the construction process. "Firstly, the soil collected for the earth fill was not from the borrow area. Soil samples from different places had been collected for testing of the soil's capability to achieve good compaction density and aborrow a...

Thursday, 04 October 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 The Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) at Khariar of Nuapada district is running temporarily in the building of the Raja AT High School, Khariar for last eight years. While the KV is facing a lot of problems due to shortage of space, the high school also has much difficulties by allowing a complete block of eight class rooms to the KV. The problem would have been solved had the Revenue Department alienated the land in favour of the KV identified in Badi gram panchayat. But the RDC, Brahmapur is said to have returned the proposal for land alienation to the district administration four times on different grounds. The first proposal was rejected due to wrong proclamation process. The 10 acres of land identified in Badi gram panchayat belongs to two Mauzas, but proclamation was done only for one Mauza. Thus, the proposal was returned...

Monday, 24 September 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 Fluoride in groundwater of Nuapada district is a menace for its people. Suffering due to this contamination is gradually increasing. About 60 per cent of the tube-wells here, which are the main sources of drinking water, contain more than the permissible fluoride level of 1.00 mg per litre. The RWSS department has tested water samples of 352 sources between April and August and it was found that all these sources have fluoride contamination of more than 1.50 mg/L. It is a matter of concern that 58 of these 352 sources are located either in schools, Anganwadi Centres or inside the health centres. Samples of 707 sources tested between September 2017 and March 2018 also have similar findings. Out of these 707 sources having fluoride content of more than 1.5 mg/l, 115 are located inside educational and health institution...