India News
Patnaik writes to PM, wants IIT in Orissa
May 11, 2007, 8:00 GMT
Bhubaneswar, May 11 (IANS) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that a greenfield Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) be set up in Orissa during the 11th Five Year Plan.
The move for setting up the premier institute was initiated during the National Democratic Alliance government. Minister of State for Human Resource Development M.M. Fatmi had announced in Patna last year that Orissa had been included in the proposed three greenfield IITs in the 11th plan.
But on Wednesday, Minister of State for Human Resources D. Purandeshwari told parliament that the government had no IIT plans for Orissa.
'It is indeed painful that the decision has now been reversed,' Patnaik said in his letter to the prime minister late Thursday.
It appears the proposal to open a branch of IIT, Kharagpur, at Bhubaneswar, for which the state government had promised 300 acres of land, has also been turned down, the chief minister added.
Over 300 activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged demonstrations in front of the governor's residence here Thursday over Orissa not getting an IIT. Hundreds of students and political activists also joined in the protests.
Students of Rupalli Vidyapitha, a residential school in the city, launched a signature campaign to press for the establishment of the premier educational institute.
Orissa does not have any institute of national repute like the IIT or the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). The government did not keep its promise of setting up an IIT here, said BJP leader Samir Mohanty.
Members of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and BJP had staged a demonstration outside the parliament after the Centre made clear that there was no proposal for an IIT in Orissa.
'We will continue our fight against the step-motherly attitude of the central government towards Orissa,' BJP MP Jual Oram told IANS.
India currently has seven IITs located at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and Roorkee.

Road accident kills 10 in Orissa
Indo-Asian News Service (Bhubaneswar , May 11, 2007)
At least 10 people were killed and five injured when their jeep collided with an oil tanker in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district early on Friday.
The accident took place near Chadeigol village, 130 km from the district headquarters of Baripada and 380 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, a senior police official said.
The passengers were going from Katinapada village to Bargaon village in the same district to attend a family function, he said.
After the accident, hundreds of local residents blocked the local road, demanding adequate compensation for the victims.

Orissa villagers face criminal case for blocking roadMay 10, 2007 - 10:59:48 PM
Normal movement of traffic was restored after the blockade was cleared, he said.
By IANS, [RxPG] Jajpur -, May 10 - Police have registered criminal cases against over 200 people for causing inconvenience to local people by blocking a road in Orissa's Jajpur district in protest against the death of a minor in a road mishap, official said Thursday.On Monday, hundreds of residents of Chandama and Kanheipur villages including students of a local school staged road blockade at Kanheipur on the national highway-215 on which the boy was run over by a speeding truck.Debasish Samal, a resident of Kanheipur village, was a student of the school.As the news of his death spread, local people blocked the road and demanded immediate ban on plying of trucks during daytime. Thousands of iron ore-laden trucks were seen stranded along the road following the blockade, a district police official said.The blockade caused inconvenience to public for over six hours as traffic movement on the highway came to a grinding halt, he added.Normal movement of traffic was restored after the blockade was cleared, he said.We have registered a criminal cases against 200 people under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, an official of the Jajpur road police station said.