Orissa not to have a premier IIT institute: state government calls it unfortunate
By Deepak Kumar Mohanty
Views:80, Delhi, May 11:
The people of Orissa have expressed the central government’s decision for not setting up an Indian Institute of Technology IIT in the state as unfortunate. In the parliamentary session, on Tuesday, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D.Purandeshwari, confirmed that the centre had no plan to set up an IIT in Orissa. From a long time the people of Orissa have demanded a premier institute but the present UPA government has undermined the state government’s demand and also the will of the people, which can be realized as against democratic set up. Though the UPA government has approved to set up three new IIT institutes at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar but it has sideline the same for Orissa state. The fact that despite the state attracting huge amount of foreign investments for its mineral resources has not been helped with proper infrastructure is really unfortunate. Orissa is going to have India’s highest FDI with Korean steel maker POSCO and apart from it Mital Steel has also signed an agreement with the state government. Under these developments, the demand for IIT is unavoidable. Earlier the state government informed the centre to provide 300 acres land and forwarded a proposal to set up an IIT in the state. Even IIT-Kharagpur has made a proposal for setting up an extensive campus in Bhubaneswar. The centre did earlier approve the proposal but the present government has ruled it out. The BJD-BJP coalition government in the state and the people of Orissa see it as ignorance on the part of central government. The BJD and BJP MPs have already shown their dissatisfaction inside and outside parliament. Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, has also written a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard. The Biju Janata Dal in the state is trying to provide for the positive results in future as far as vote bank is concerned. The Congress Party’s position is really worse in the state; and such ignorance can further weaken its position in the state.

Orissa protesters hold Posco officials hostage
May 11, 2007, 16:00 GMT
Bhubaneswar, May 11 (IANS) Hundreds of villagers protesting South Korean steel major Posco\'s plan to set up a plant in Orissa Friday held two officials of the company hostage and damaged their vehicle, police said.At least four officials including a driver and a woman employee of the steel major had gone in a four-wheeler to Nuagaon village in Jagatsinghpur district to talk to villagers for land acquisition for the $12 billion steel plant, coming up under the largest foreign direct investment in India.However, hundreds of villagers opposed to the project obstructed them in the afternoon, damaged their vehicle and took them hostage, a senior district police official told IANS.They later released the driver and the woman while the other two were in still confinement, he said late in the evening.The two officials under confinement at Patana village, some 100 km from here, were identified as Pranab Das and Debesh Swain. While Das works as a local public relation officer for the firm, Swain is a senior executive at the local level.The villagers demanded a written consent from the company and the administration that no land for the project will be acquired from their village.Posco, one of the world\'s biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to set up the plant near the port town of Paradeep in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur by 2016. There has been no significant progress on the project since then, due to local opposition.More than 20,000 people from about 15 nearby villages including Dhinkia, Gada Kujanga and Nuagaon are opposing the project saying it will displace them and ruin their betel leaf farming.Posco says the plant would affect only 500 families but it would create thousands of jobs.© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service';
Bhubaneswar, May 11 (IANS) Hundreds of villagers protesting South Korean steel major Posco's plan to set up a plant in Orissa Friday held two officials of the company hostage and damaged their vehicle, police said.
At least four officials including a driver and a woman employee of the steel major had gone in a four-wheeler to Nuagaon village in Jagatsinghpur district to talk to villagers for land acquisition for the $12 billion steel plant, coming up under the largest foreign direct investment in India.
However, hundreds of villagers opposed to the project obstructed them in the afternoon, damaged their vehicle and took them hostage, a senior district police official told IANS.
They later released the driver and the woman while the other two were in still confinement, he said late in the evening.
The two officials under confinement at Patana village, some 100 km from here, were identified as Pranab Das and Debesh Swain. While Das works as a local public relation officer for the firm, Swain is a senior executive at the local level.
The villagers demanded a written consent from the company and the administration that no land for the project will be acquired from their village.
Posco, one of the world's biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to set up the plant near the port town of Paradeep in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur by 2016.
There has been no significant progress on the project since then, due to local opposition.
More than 20,000 people from about 15 nearby villages including Dhinkia, Gada Kujanga and Nuagaon are opposing the project saying it will displace them and ruin their betel leaf farming.
Posco says the plant would affect only 500 families but it would create thousands of jobs.

India : Orissa Govt proposes facilitation centre for export promotionMay 11, 2007
Anita Agnihotri, Secretary of Textiles and Handloom of Orissa Government attended a workshop on ‘Export promotion of handicrafts from Orissa’ on May 9, at Bhubaneswar organized by city based voluntary organisation Samay.Anita proposed to set up a facilitation centre at the Directorate of Handicrafts in Bhubaneswar, so that queries of handicraft exporters can be solved.The facilitation centre would meet buyer-seller requirement, assist in organizing visits for exporters and guarantee their participation in trade fairs.Subjects of export pricing, procedures, documentation and incentives in handicrafts for export promotions were discussed during the workshop.The Textile Secretary also invited state industrialists to invest and establish production base here for development and promotion of artisan clusters.

Orissa villagers detain POSCO executives over steel plant
Sat May 12, 2007 1:05 AM IST
BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Two Indian executives of South Korean steelmaker POSCO were detained on Friday by Orissa villagers angry at plans for a $12 billion project on their farmland, police and officials said.
Hundreds of villagers confronted the officials when they went to Govindpur village to try to persuade farmers to sell their land in Orissa.
Police identified the detained as senior executive Debasis Swain and public relations officer Pranabananda Das. Another executive was released after a few hours.
"They were detained this evening," Y.K. Jethwa, police chief of Jagatsinghpur district where the village is located, told Reuters. "However, the protesters allowed the woman executive to go back. The other two have been detained."
Police hope for a peaceful settlement to the stand-off. POSCO spokesman Shashank Patnaik said negotiations were in progress.
Abhay Sahu, president of an anti-POSCO front, said: "We will ask them (the executives) to give an undertaking that they will not come here again."
The project - India's single largest foreign investment - has faced stiff opposition from some villagers who say thousands would be displaced. Other villagers support the project and clashes between the two groups injured 50 people in March.
Activists say the POSCO project could displace around 20,000 people and there are also environmental concerns.
The government says the plant would affect only 500 families and create thousands of jobs. Orissa's government says its rehabilitation package is among the best, offering cash and a job for at least one member of each family losing its land.
POSCO has also promised to help find plots for displaced landowners.

Preparatory work for private port in Orissa on schedule
Bhubaneswar, May 12 (PTI): Preparatory work on the proposed Rs 2,400-crore major port in the private sector at Kirtania in Orissa's Balasore district is going on as scheduled, official sources said.
The promoter of the project, Chennai-based Creative Port Development Pvt Ltd, had completed the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on March 14 last and had appointed the public-sector RITES for preparing the draft concession agreement by next month.
The location of the port as also the 30-km long railway corridor for the project had also been identified.
The company has already signed an MoU with the State Government for the purpose and work was expected to commence after the concession agreement was signed with the government.
The progress of the project was reviewed at a meeting here on Thursday chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and attended by the private company's Joint Managing Director Ramani Ramaswami who made a presentation about the same.
The company would require over 1,000 acres for the project on the banks of Subarnarekha river, most of which was without any human habitation, the spruces said.
The project would be taken up under the build, own, operate, share and transfer (BOOST) route in three phases with the first phase expected to be commissioned by 2010.
Two other private companies are now engaged in setting up a greenfield port at Dhamra in Bhadrak district and expanding the Gopalpur port into an all-weather port in Ganjam district.

Rural beats urban in Bihar on spend
Asit Ranjan Mishra / New Delhi May 12, 2007
Rural Bihar appears to be doing much better than urban areas in the state, if one goes by a recent National Sample Survey Organisation report.

The consumption expenditure of a household in urban Bihar is the least in the country. However, rural households in the state spend more than the average rural consumer.

The national average of urban consumption expenditure stands at Rs 1,052 per month, as against Rs 699 per month for Bihar. The consumption expenditure of rural Bihar stands at Rs 699 per month, higher than the national average of rural consumption expenditure, which is Rs 559 per month.

Angry Orissa villagers release POSCO executives
Sat May 12, 2007 10:32 AM IST
BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Two Indian executives of South Korean steelmaker POSCO were released on Saturday by villagers protesting against a proposed $12-billion project, police said.
Hundreds of angry villagers, some armed with iron rods and sticks, had surrounded the officials on Friday when they went to Govindpur village to persuade farmers to sell their land for the planned POSCO steel plant in Orissa.
The villagers freed the two officials following an assurance by POSCO its staff would not visit the area again.
"They are safe and unharmed and consequent to the incident we will proceed with caution from now," POSCO spokesman Shashanka Pattnaik told Reuters from Bhubaneswar.
Another company official was released on Friday after being held for a few hours.
"We have taught them a lesson and they have promised they will never come back," Abhay Sahu, president of an anti-POSCO group in the state, said.
The POSCO project -- India's single largest foreign investment -- has sparked fears among villagers that their farmland and livelihood would be taken from them.
Some villagers support the project and clashes between both groups have left dozens injured since March.
The issue of acquiring farmland for industry in India -- whose economy has been growing rapidly in the past few years -- has become explosive, with farmers protesting against planned projects that would require agricultural land.
In West Bengal, which neighbours Orissa, 14 farmers were killed in clashes with police while protesting against a planned chemical hub in March.
POSCO officials said the company was ready to "forego" land in volatile areas of Orissa and look for alternate sites.
"It is now upto the district administration to provide us alternative land for the project which is very much on," spokesman Pattnaik said.
Activists say the POSCO project could displace around 20,000 people. The government says the plant will affect only 500 families and create thousands of jobs.

33 killed in accidents in Bihar and Orissa(Reuters, IANS)12 May 2007
PATNA — At least 33 people were killed and several injured in two separate road accidents in eastern India yesterday, officials said.
A bus carrying 38 passengers skidded off a bridge and fell into the Ganges riverbed in the state of Bihar, killing 22 people, an official said. Most of the passengers were asleep when the accident occurred near the state capital, Patna. The accident took place near the Gandhi Setu bridge
“As the bus fell into a dry area of the river, we could manage to save lives but everyone has serious injuries,” Virendra Kumar Sinha, a state official, said.
"The casualties may rise because the condition of some of the injured people was serious," a police official said.
The bus was coming from Raxaul in East Champaran district bordering Nepal — and heading to Patna — when it plunged more than 80 feet to fall on the dry riverbed near pillar number seven, 18 km from here, when the driver lost control and the vehicle crashed through the railing of the bridge, officials said.
The bus belongs to the state-owned Bihar State Road Transport Corporation.
In neighbouring Orissa, at least 11 people were killed and five injured when their jeep collided with an oil tanker in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district early yesterday.
The accident took place near Chadeigol village, 130km from the district headquarters of Baripada and 380 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, a senior police official told IANS over the phone. The passengers were going from Katinapada village to Bargaon village in the same district to attend a family function, he said.


CPDL, Orissa pact in June to develop Kirtania port
STATE BUREAU, Posted online: Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 0000 hours IST
BHUBANESWAR, MAY 11: Chennai-based Creative Port Development Private Ltd (CPDL) and the Orissa government are expected to sign a concession agreement in June 2007 for the development of the Kirtania port project on the mouth of the River Subarnarekha in the Balasore district.
“The concession agreement for the Kirtania port is expected to be signed some time next month,” said state transport and commerce minister Jayanarayan Mishra.