layman's space

Wednesday, 05 September 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA         SHARE T T T T 0 Ask any functionary in a panchayat office about whether the Aadhaar has brought anything good to the Public Distribution System (PDS), the answer will be in the positive. “Yes, a lot of good,” they say. Ask them to name some of the good results and they will immediately retort, “Pilferage has been checked to a considerable extent.” But if you ask how much pilferage, they would go clueless and fumble. On the contrary, if asked about the problems people are facing, there would be many answers. A Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) of Komna block in Nuapada district says, “Pilferage at pancayat level was very insignificant in terms of ghost PDS cards. Aadhaar seeding to check those small leakages has brought many other problems.” The PEO’s reluctance to speak against Aadhaar fades away when he is asked to think in terms ...

Monday, 10 September 2018   |   AJIT PANDA   | NUAPADA An inactive administration accompanied by self-seeking political leadership on the one hand and an indifferent intelligentsia on the other can cause a great loss to public good. One can go through the following instances to get a glimpse of such unwanted happenings that have caused great loss to public assets and stalled development in Khariar town of Nuapada district. The Government has allotted Rs 2.5 crore for construction of a new CHC building (Rs1.68 crore) and drug distribution center (Rs 50 lakh) and a post-mortem house in Khariar town. In addition, there is also a sanction of above Rs 4 crore in the FY 2018-19 for construction of 17 staff quarters, a 1,000 feet compound wall with gate and two public toilets. The fate of these funds hangs in balance due to negligence of the district administration in providing encroachment-free land to the Health Department. The construction of the Mother and Child...

Friday, 07 September 2018   |   AJIT PANDA   | NUAPADA The long unending queues in front of the doctors in different health centres in Nuapada district reveal a pitiable state of the health services in the district. The CHC in Khariar, which is one of the two First Referral Units (FRUs) of the district, is the most crowded one due to inflow of patients from Boden and Sinapali blocks of Nuapada district, besides from three other blocks of neighbouring Balangir and Kalahandi. The average number of outdoor patients usually remains between 250 and 300 daily, the number exceeding 400 at times during the peak periods from June to October. One doctor here attends to 70 to 80 patients a day, which does not include the patients admitted in the IPD and those visiting the doctors at their residences. No one knows how these doctors maintain medical accuracy at such frenetic a pace. “A doctor normally can handle average number of 25 to 30 patients a day, larger-than-avera...

Monday, 03 September 2018   |   AJIT PANDA   | NUAPADA Thousands of farmers of Nuapada district who had deposited their hard-earned money as premium to insure their crops in 2017 and were waiting to be compensated for the heavy crop loss of that year now feel cheated as some of the panchayats have totally been left uncovered under the much touted scheme of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). “The National Agricultural Insurance Company and the concerned Government departments are to be blamed for this exclusion,” the farmers said. Nine gram panchayats of the district which have suffered the drought most have totally been deprived of the coverage. The Panchayats are Bargaon of Khariar block, Nilji, Snapali, Godal, Kenduguda and Ranimunda of Sinapali block, Nuagaon of Komna block and Amanara and Darlimunda of Nuapada block. “This is a conspiracy cooked up by the district administration, the State Government and the insurance company to cheat the people,...

Monday, 27 August 2018   |   AJIT PANDA   | NUAPADA The funds allotted under the UNNATI scheme for all-round inclusive development of the urban bodies in Nuapada district are lying unutilised due to squabbles between political parties to have greater shares in work contracts. The Works Department codes for implementation of Government projects prescribe floating of tender, but the Collector of Nuapada has directed the executing agencies to implement the works departmentally. “You know the reason, this being an election year and the ruling party eyeing not to dishearten its cadres,” explains a district official. “When the Rural Works Division of Khariar was given the responsibility to execute the project, the concerned Executive Engineer (EE) had clearly expressed his inability to execute it departmentally and suggested for floating of tender. But, keeping the general and Assembly elections in mind, the party in power seems to have forced the district administ...

Wednesday, 15 August 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA The General Administration and Public Grievance Department acting on the draft charges submitted by the Nuapada Collector has issued a memorandum to institute an inquiry against Gopalswami Naidu, OAS (SB) on various grounds of misconduct during his incumbency as Khariar Tehsildar. The Collector, Nuapada, in March, 2017 had submitted draft charges against Naidu. “I am to appraise that, Gopalswami Naidu during hisincumbency as the Tehsildar, Khariar has committed gross negligence and dereliction in Government duty, gross misconduct and insubordination, misappropriation of Government money and misutilisation of official power and position for ulterior motive and sustaining loss to Government exchequer,” the Collector had stated in his letter dated March 18, 2017 to the GA Department. Acting on this, the GA Department has proposed to hold an inquiry against Naidu under rule 15 of the Orissa Civil Services (Classifica...

Tuesday, 14 August 2018  |  AJIT PANDA  | NUAPADA Urmila Bag of Khariar town in Nuapada district is a widow with three children. She is homeless but cannot get a house under Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban)  because she is landless. She has taken shelter in a single-room mud house provided by a household in Ward Number 8 of Khariar NAC on rent of Rs 500 per month. Urmila works as a maid servant in different houses and earns roughly around Rs  4,000 per month. “I have admitted my children in a Government primary school, otherwise it would have been difficult for me to provide them two square meals a day with such a meagre income,” said Urmila. Her children, however, hardly get interested in their schooling, albeit the attraction of the MDM. Gayatri, the eldest one, reading in class VI sometimes stays home to cook food for the whole family when her two younger brothers abstain from school. Urmila owes about Rs  18,000 to her e...