layman's space

FOUR ARRESTED IN PALM CHOPPING CASE Thursday, 19 December 2013 | AJIT PANDA/PNS | NUAPADA/BHUBANESWAR | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Finally, the Nuapada police on Wednesday arrested four persons from Kotamal village under Khariar block in Nuapada district suspecting their involvement in chopping off the right palms of two migrant labourers of Kalahandi district. The four persons were identified as Arta Dundi, Parabeswar Dundi, Bana Majhi and Baikuntha Rout of Kotamal village under the Khariar police station. “After nabbing the culprits from their village, we handed them over to the Kalahandi police for further investigation,” said Khariar IIC Sibaram Sahoo. Meanwhile, the District Press Club of Nuapada conducted a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issue of torture and exploitation of migrant labourers in the district. The members of the Press Club submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, demanding a concrete policy to chec...

N’PADA LABOURER FROM AP KILN DIES IN TRAIN MISHAP Wednesday, 18 December 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Bidyadhar Gahir (25) of Kusmal village of Nuapada district was crushed to death under wheels of train at Muniguda railway station. Bidyadhar was returning from a brick kiln in Andhra Pradesh with his wife Bhanumati and two children. “We were to get off the train at Titlagarh station, but thinking Muniguda as Titlagarh, my husband asked me to get off. He took the younger child and got off although the train was on the move. I stayed back with my elder child in the train,” said Bhanumati. The passengers in the train being alerted by Bhanumati pulled the chain and the train stopped at a little distance. When Bhanu got off the train, she found the child in the platform and her husband on the railway track. “The people in the platform said me that, my husband threw the child to the platform while slipping in to the line,” added Bh...

the pioneer STATE EDITION ‘INCOME OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME CAN PREVENT DISTRESS MIGRATION’ Thursday, 28 November 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar About 60,000 poor people of Nuapada district, constituting about 10 per cent of its total population, are migrant labourers. The hapless lot resorts to distress migration as a coping mechanism to escape poverty and marginalisation at home. The migrants neither have any objection to the unfavourable terms of engagement of the employer, nor can challenge the living conditions in the workplace. Gradually, increasing migration in the district represents many social and economic processes, including a degree of social and political mobilisation of the poor, who want to escape from the cycle of poverty and inhumanisation. But, migration does not provide them any respite from the vicious cycle of poverty. These were the observations made by the participants of a consultation on livelihood planning for the migrant and bo...

the pioneer RED TERROR STRIKES BIHAR, ODISHA Sunday, 01 December 2013 | PNS | PATNA/ NUAPADA/ NEW DELHI 1 In a daring attack, armed Maoists on Saturday shot dead three GRP jawans and injured two others, besides looting five automatic rifles from them in the running Sahebganj-Patna InterCity Express in Bihar’s Munger district. In neighbouring Odisha, two security personnel were killed during an encounter with Maoists in Sunabeda area of Nuapada district. The Munger incident took place in the running train near a tunnel between Jamalpur and Ashikpur railway stations this evening, Jamalpur’s Railway Superintendent of Police Amitabh Kumar Das said, adding two other GRP jawans sustained bullet injuries. The Maoists looted five rifles from the GRP jawans before fleeing. The deceased GRP jawans have been identified as Hawaldar Ashok Kumar, constables Bhola Thakur and Uday Singh, Das said adding that the bodies were being sent for post-mortem. The injured GRP jawans ar...

the pioneer, STATE EDITION GOVT ENTITLEMENTS ELUDE POOR KHARIAR FISHERS http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/govt-entitlements-elude-poor-khariar-fishers.html Thursday, 21 November 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Iused to do fishing when I was an able bodied person. Now I am old and weak, unable to move anywhere. We don’t have the right to fish in the ponds in Khariar town because they have been leased to contractors. We don’t have money to take the ponds in auction. We have lost our source of living,” lamented Ugresan Kaibarta of Ward No – 3 of Khariar town. Ugrasen, who is now above 70 years’ of age, literally broke down and cried, when he narrated his experience of running to the officials and the elected representative of the Notified Area Council (NAC) office for support. “They never listened to the poor like us,” he said. Ugrasen lives with his 65-year-old wife in a dilapidated mud house in...

The pioneer, state edition http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/low-wage-major-mgnregs-handicap-in-nuapada.html LOW WAGE MAJOR MGNREGS HANDICAP IN NUAPADA Wednesday, 13 November 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar         0 A group of seven labourers led by one Nilamani Ghibela of Khariar block worked in a road improvement project under MGNREGS in Padmapur village under Badi gram panchayat (GP). After 14 days of work, the group excavated 12,678 cubic feet (cft) of earth but instead of being paid their actual due of Rs 29,209 in total, they were paid only Rs 14, 014 by the panchayat authorities. Likewise, another group headed by Rajindra Bag with six labourers excavated 9,556 cft in 14 days and were paid Rs 12,012 instead of Rs 22,016 which was their actual due as per measurement of the excavated pits. There are 15 such groups in Padmapur village with 61 labourers, who have excavated about 9.5 lakh cft but h...

the pioneer, state edition DIARRHOEA HITS NUAPADA: ONE KILLED, 50 AFFECTED Wednesday, 16 October 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar         0 More than 50 persons of Ranipur village under Khariar community health centre (CHC) have been affected by diarrhoea. When one Trinath Darjee succumbed to the disease on October 12, another 50 persons were still suffering.  As many as 10 affected people had been admitted to the CHC and a team of health officials had been stationed in the village to treat the affected persons. Sources said the disease broke out due to drinking of contaminated water from dug wells in the village. “As the tube well water contains high content of fluoride, we are forced to drink the tube well water,” said the villagers. Although the medical officer of the Khariar CHC claimed that the situation was under control, the villagers were still afraid of the further spread of the disease and the possibility of ...