Bhubaneswar in race for World Heritage Site as the 1st city in India

 The state government's efforts to get the TempleCity (Bhubaneswar) nominated to Unesco's World Heritage List received a much-needed fillip with the specialized agency of the United Nations agreeing to consider the proposal. It has also agreed to verify the state's suggestion to enlist Chilika Lake.

The development assumed significance as Unesco top officers had visited Odisha in June 2010 and assured chief minister Naveen Patnaik that they would consider the state's recommendation to include Bhubaneswar in the World Heritage List. The Sun Temple of Konark is the lone monument from the state to have got the coveted tag in 1984.

On Wednesday, the tourism department sent dossiers on Bhubaneswar and Chilika Lake to the Union culture ministry's advisory committee on world heritage matters, which is involved in preparation of the tentative list of heritage sites from India. "We had sent eight heritage sites for nomination. The UN agency has shortlisted Bhubaneswar and Chilika for its tentative list. For a site to get the world heritage tag, it has to first make it to the tentative list," tourism secretary Arvind Padhee told TOI. "We are hopeful both places will be considered to be cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value," Padhee said.

If Bhubaneswar qualifies, it would become the first Indian city to be included in the list. Though the list includes several monuments of different states, no city of the country figures in it, official sources said.

"Bhubaneswar deserves the Unesco tag as it is home to many temples, monuments and tanks. The coveted recognition would boost our tourism potential worldwide," said Debasis Mahapatra, a tour operator. "But maintenance of the temples and monuments is the need of the hour. Though Sun Temple was identified as Unesco's world heritage site, the destination lacks basic amenities," he added.

Mining companies has to pay Rs. 57,904 crores to Odisha government

While lot of commotion going on about the illegal mining licenses in Odisha and the allegation about Naveen Patnaik's government  being in hands in glove with the mining mafias, now the Odisha government has come up with a novel idea. With this idea the government wants to hit two goals with a single arrow. While this new strategy will make the Odisha government to follow the M B Shah findings, at the same time it will also help it to fill its exchequer. 

As a fallout of the MB Shah Commission report on illegal iron ore mining in Orissa, the state government has levied a fine on 27 mining firms, including for captive mines held by state-owned Steel Authority of India and the private sector Tata Steel, totalling around R57,904 crore. According to the state government, these companies had mined in excess of the quantity permitted under various statutory clearances during 2001-10 and, therefore, need to pay the price of the excess ore mined.

However, sources in the Orissa government said the state has no plans of cancelling the mining leases of these firms, so there’s no immediate threat of any crisis in terms of supply of iron ore to the steel industry, for which it is the chief raw material. This is crucial because Orissa contributed around 62 million tonnes (mt) of iron to the country’s overall production of 140 mt during FY13.

The central government has also said that rather than banning production of ore or cancelling mining leases, a more prudent approach would be to look into alleged violations on a case by case basis. For instance, the Orissa government has said that action has already been taken against illegal mining in the Joda circle. Similarly, the railways will look into and take action in cases where excess ore was transported by rail by evading freight and other duties.

Industry sources told FE that almost all the companies that have been fined by the state government under Section 21(5) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, have challenged it before the mining tribunal under the Union mines ministry.

The companies contend that there were no regulatory violations by them.

Young Sarpancha Arati Devi from Odisha will represent India at US meet

A 28-year-old MBA graduate from Sikkim Manipal University who quit her job as an investment banker at IDBI Bank in Berhampur, Orissa, to become a sarpanch in a backward panchayat of Ganjam district in 2012, will represent India in the International Visitors Leadership Programme on State and Local Governments in the US next month.

Arati Devi became sarpanch of Dhunkapada grampanchayat under Polasara block at 27, becoming the youngest female sarpanch in the country. Her achievements were highlighted by The Indian Express in March 2013.

The IVLP is one of the US government’s prestigious professional exchange programmes for foreign opinion leaders and has so far hosted more than 130,000 participants. Former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and Atal Bihari Vajpayee have participated in the programme.

“It’s a major achievement for me. I never expected that I would be travelling to US and meeting the President. It would be a huge learning experience for me. In about a year, I have managed to do a lot of welfare work for my panchayat which I would share at the programme,” said Arati.

Too late, too small a aid for Odisha from the center for cyclone Phalin

Here is another effort from the Congress ruled government at the center to woo the people of Odisha keeping an eye on the forthcoming general election. But such help is too late and too small considering the severity of cyclone Phalin.

Just few days back the center also announced another major grant for construction of NH5 running in Odisha. It has to be seen whether such generous gestures by the center is really going to help them in the forthcoming elections.

The Centre on Sunday announced an assistance of Rs 915-crore for reconstruction of areas affected by cyclone Phailin and subsequent floods in Odisha, and rehabilitation of victims. It also declared setting up of two new National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) battalions in Uttarakhand and at Silchar in the Northeast.

On the occasion of the ninth raising day celebration of NDRF at Munduli, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde lauded the unprecedented relief and rescue operations undertaken during Phailin which hit the state's coast in October. A high power committee of the National Disaster Mitigation Authority (NDMA) has decided to give Rs 915-crore to the state for reconstruction work, he said.

Shinde said Japan, which had fought hard to overcome the damage caused by tsunami and the Fukushima plant disaster, has praised the evacuation work in Odisha, the largest ever in India.

The central funds will be used for development of agriculture, rural infrastructure and acquisition of modern equipment to combat disasters in future, he added.

Shinde stressed on better coordination between the Centre and the state and noted that different countries are facing not only natural disasters, but also industrial mishaps like Fukushima nuclear plant blast. The NDMA is taking steps to upgrade technical skills of NDRF to face challenges of chemical, biological and nuclear disasters, he added.

Shinde informed that NDRF, which came into existence in 2006, has 10 battalions in various states and many more battalions would be raised in other parts of the country to face the challenges of various types of disaster. He advised NDRF bosses to institute a national award for disaster mitigation to raise the morale of civil defence forces in the country.

After the function, Shinde told mediapersons that he would soon write to all chief ministers asking them to scrutinize expeditiously cases pending against youths of various minority communities languishing in jail for more than 5-10 years.

Addressing the function, chief minister Naveen Patnaik urged the Union home minister to enhance the technical capability of NDRF.

761 crore NH 5 of Odisha runing Jharpokharia-Baripada-Baleshwar

While the central government run by the Congress party has shown ambivalent gesture towards development activities in Odisha in the near past, here is a good news. The central government today approved a Rs 761 crore road project in Odisha under its flagship National Highways Development Project. 

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA) has given its approval for four-laning with paved shoulders of Jharpokharia-Baripada-Baleshwar section of NH-5 in Odisha," an official statement said. 

The cost of the 80.6 km project is estimated at Rs 760.73 crore, including land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and pre-construction activities. 

The project will expedite improvement of infrastructure in Odisha and reduce the time and cost of travel on the Jharpokharia-Baripada-Baleshwar route, according to the statement. 

"Development of this stretch will also help in uplifting the socio-economic condition of this region," the statement said, adding that it will also increase employment potential for local labourers for project activities. 

Such kind of grants are very rare from the central government because in the state BJD, a regional party is ruling since last one decade. Observers believe this generous funding might be a game plan by the Congress keeping the forthcoming election in mind. In earlier days, Congress mostly visit Kalahandi and Koraput and takes poverty as the only election plank so far Odisha is concerned. Such developments are good for democratic politics in India.

Can Modi make an impact in Naveen Patnaik's land ? What the civic poll results of Odisha say?

The BJP's hopes to shore up its fortunes in Orissa by banking on the charisma of its PM candidate Narendra Modi are belied if results of the urban polls in the Capital are any indication. The much-touted Modi magic did not work for the party in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation elections where it won just four of the 67 wards. The only consolation for it was that it fared better than the Congress which bagged only two.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) swept the polls with its candidates winning as many as 49 wards. Moreover, a majority of the 12 successful independents are also likely to join the party. 

"We will analyse the results and see what went wrong," said BJP national general secretary, Dharmendra Pradhan apparently shocked by the results in Bhubaneswar as the polls were seen as a virtual dress rehearsal for the assembly polls likely to be held sometime in April. 

The prestigious BMC polls had followed elections to 86 civic bodies in other parts of the state in September and November last year. Performance of the BJP was disappointing even then with the party getting majority only in three of these urban bodies.

The Congress had won 13 against 64 of the ruling BJD. Modi, who is likely to visit Orissa next month, had dominated the party's municipal poll campaign with posters all across the state. Party candidates, too, invoked his name to woo the voters but the masses, who are still under Patnaik's spell, appear to have ignored the Gujarat strongman so far. 

State BJP chief, K.V. Singhdeo, however, sought to put up a brave face saying the Modi factor would work in favour of the party in the general elections. BJP's popularity in the state has nosedived since the break-up of its alliance with the BJD in 2009. In the 2009 Assembly polls, which the party fought alone, it won only six of the 147 seats.

Posco's Odisha plant got environmental clearance after 8 years delay

The $ 12.6 billion Posco steel plant in Orissa, the biggest foreign direct investment in India finally has got go ahead from the center that was stuck in a eight years long delay due to environmental concerns. The proposed 12 million-tonnes-per-year plant has been stuck for more than eight years due to delays in getting clearances and acquiring land.

Top sources confirmed that the steel plant got the green signal after it was delinked from the port project. It is learnt that the green nod came after South Korea’s ambassador to India called on Moily last week to suggest that the plant and port projects be delinked in respect of clearances, so that at least the former could take off.

“It was felt that there was merit in this argument, and there was no rationale for holding up one project because of another. So with all requisite conditions, the Posco steel plant has been granted approval. The issue of the port will be examined separately,” a senior source in the environment ministry said.

The revalidation of the lapsed environmental clearance comes days before South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye visits India for four days starting January 15. Posco’s integrated steel plant and port project was to originally come up on some 4,000 acres in the coastal town of Jagatsinghpur in Orissa. Strong opposition over land acquisition issues has, however, forced the project now to a 2,700-acre site. While the Orissa government signed the deal with Posco in 2005, so far no more than the boundary wall for the project has come up.

The environmental clearance has been strongly supported both by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the Prime Minister. Posco India had only last month written to the Cabinet Committee on Investment requesting that the long delayed project be fast-tracked.

The breakthrough comes within three weeks of Moily replacing Jayanthi Natarajan as environment minister. Moily is learnt to have cleared around 15 projects since taking over on December 24. Among them are the Tawang II hydel project and the Teesta IV hydroelectric project and, now, Posco.

A Reuters report on Thursday said Posco could also hear some good news on its request for a licence to explore iron ore. Orissa will reply within a “day or two” to the union mines ministry on granting an iron ore exploration licence, the state’s mines director Deepak Kumar Mohanty told Reuters.

How the go ahead comes with certain conditions. It has been suggested that POSCO must spend 5% of its total investment on “enterprise social commitments”, POSCO-India spokesman I G Lee told Reuters. This will mean the project’s cost will go up by $ 600 million to $ 12.6 billion.

LEE said, “Though an additional burden has been put on us, we are happy with the revalidation (of environmental clearance). It means the removal of a hurdle for us.”