Ganjam

Berhampur, Oct 23 (LocalWire): Hinjili Municipality in Ganjam district has decided to impose a penalty on residents of the town for urinating and defecating in open.

In a public notice issued on Friday, the civic body authorities said that anyone found urinating in the open will be fined Rs. 50, while Rs. 200 will be charged for defecating in the open.

The penalty will be implemented with immediate effect, the notice said. The fine would be imposed under the Solid Waste Management Rule, sources said.

“We have advised the people not to urinate or defecate in the open. Instead, they should utilize the public or community toilets and public urinals set up by the municipality free of cost,” said the executive officer of the civic body Manoranjan Sahu.

The civic body has set up five urinal points, including one for females. Similarly, it has also set up one public toilet and five community toilets.

Sanitary napkin disposal machines have been installed at one urinal point and at the public toilet meant for females, he said.

“We have also decided to install the disposal machines in at least two community toilets for the safe disposal of the sanitary pads of the females,” he said.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 23 (LocalWire): Panic gripped the residents of Gajapati district with three new COVID-19 deaths being reported in a single day on Friday, when the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border district was on the path of recovery from the deadly virus.

Three male persons having ages between 45 to 60 years have succumbed to the disease while undergoing treatment in different COVID Hospitals, sources said.

One of the deceased was suffering from hypertension, sources said.

With this, the death toll in the district has increased to 27, official sources said.

Rushing to the hospital in a serious condition is one of the main causes of the death of COVID-19 patients, said collector Anupam Saha.

“This is why we urge people to come forward for COVID-19 test if anybody observes any symptom of the coronavirus. Early detection aids treatment and helps save lives,” he said.

Meanwhile, the district’s COVID-19 tally increased to 3801 with the detection of 11 new cases on Friday.

While 3716 patients have been cured of the disease, only 57 patients are undergoing treatment.

The number of active cases in the district was lowest among the districts in the state. Moreover, the condition of most of the active cases is good, sources said.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 23 (LocalWire): Forest personnel seized a leopard hide and arrested two persons, including the hunter of the animal, from Mallik Sahi under Phulbani forest range in Kandhamal district on Thursday.

The accused were identified as Tirtha Nayak of Janmeni, the poacher of the animal and Arjun Ganda of Jakrehu village, an auto driver, who illegally transported the leopard hide.

The nails of the leopard and a country-made loaded gun were seized from the hunter, while the auto used to transport the skin was also seized by the forest staff, said divisional forest officer (DFO) Phulbani Laxmi Narayan Behera.

A leopard skin measuring 3.9 feet long and 2.1 feet wide was seized from the vehicle, he said.

During interrogation, Nayak confessed to having killed the leopard in Sudrukumpa jungle two months ago. He was sending the hide to the middleman for sale, after processing it.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 22 (LocalWire): The infrastructure facilities in Tara Tarini, one of the famous Shakti shrines in the state located on the bank of river Rushikulya, are likely to be boosted as works worth Rs. 10 crores will commence there soon.

The tourism and planning departments have sanctioned Rs. 5 crores each, while the tender process for the first phase of the development work was completed on Wednesday.

An interpretation center, bhog mandap, diya house, yagya mandap, and meditation center will be constructed near the temple with the funds of the tourism department, said district tourist officer A K Sethi.

Similarly, a toilet complex and hill-view as well as a bathing mandap (snan mandap) will be developed near the temple using the funds of the planning department.

“All this work will be executed by the public works department and is likely to be completed in the next nine months,” said executive engineer, Berhampur division-11 Tapan Kumar Panigrahy.

Besides, a gabion wall nearly 60 metres high is under construction with an investment of around Rs. 23 crores.

Apart from protecting the temple from landslides, the gabion wall would also beautify the site, as the stones have been packed on the wall in a unique method, said superintendent engineer, rural development (works) Ram Krushna Moharana.

Nearly 13 metres of the gabion wall has been done so far and we expect the work to be finished by March, he said.

The design aims at making it one of the most attractive religious tourist sites of the country, as announced by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, said the secretary of the Tara Tarini Development Board (TTDB).

“When the proposed plans are completed, Tara Tarini will become one of the best and most attractive religious tourist places in the country,” he said.

District collector Vijay Amruta Kulange reviewed the progress of the different works in the shakti shrine and asked the engineers to expedite the works and complete all the works in time.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who has visited the 17-century temple several times, had announced the developmental project last year in order to make Tara Tarini the most attractive religious tourist place in the country.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 19 (LocalWire): While the usual revelry of the Durga Puja celebrations was missing in the Silk City, the spirit of artistry was kept alive as a city based artist made many miniature idols of the Goddess Durga.

Satya Maharana, a 37-year old artist, has made miniature idols of the Goddess in stone, wood, chalk, pencil and clay.

The height of the two wood idols is between 1.3 to 1.8 cm, while the height of two stone idols is 1.3 cm. The head of the idol measures 6 mm. Similarly, the height of the idol made in chalk and pencil is around 1 cm and 3 mm respectively, he has made another idol in clay with a height of 1.7 inch.

“I have made these by carefully carving the wood, stone, pencil and chalk,” said Maharana, a businessman. The wood polish, however, was painted on it to make the idol more attractive, he said.

Moharana, who has a habit of making miniature idols of different Gods and Goddesses on major festivals, said he had taken around ten days to make all the idols,and he had given the finishing touches to all the idols on Sunday.

Except the chalk and pencil, the idolswere made through collecting the waste materials collected from street-roads, he said.

As the district administration has imposed a ban on Durga Puja in public places this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that the idols would not be displayed for the public view.

“I will display these idols in my drawing-room. The people can witness these miniature idols in the future,” he added.

Though he had made the miniature idols of different Gods and Goddess earlier, but for the first time, he made the small idols of the Devi Durga, this year.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 12 (LocalWire): The Gajapati administration shifted around 500 persons of at least twelve hill-top and landslide prone villages in Ananga panchayat of R Udayagiri block on Monday as rain started to lash the Odisha – Andhra Pradesh border district under the influence of the depression over Bay of Bengal.

The shifted persons have been housed in the school at Bhuyan, about five-km from their villages and a free kitchen has been provided to them, sources said.

Similarly, nearly 130 families of four hilltop villages in Rayagada block have been shifted to the newly constructed colonies in the plain areas, keeping in view the heavy rains, sources added

The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) has issued yellow and orange warnings for Ganjam and Gajapati districts on Monday and Tuesday predicting heavy and very heavy rainfall under the influence of the depression.

Squally weather with surface wind speed reaching 45-55 kmph, gusting to 65 kmph is very likely to prevail in the districts, the Met department warned.

“Though the district has not experienced heavy rainfall, we have started shifting the people from the vulnerable villages to safer and plain areas as a precautionary measure,” said Gajapati collector Anupam Saha.

The district administration has identified as many as 81 vulnerable villages in five blocks. The villagers will be shifted to the safer places if and when required in case of heavy rainfall, he said.

“We have already alerted the villagers to be ready to shift if and when needed. Nodal officers and vehicles have already been deployed in demarcated areas to shift the people to safer places,” said collector.

“We have taken all the precautionary measures and are prepared to face any eventuality,” said collector.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 12 (LocalWire): A tribal village in Gajapati district (Madaba), which had been completely wrecked by the cyclone Titli on Oct 11, 2018, has been relocated and set up again under the Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY).

Titli had damaged the houses of all 74 families of the hill-top village.

The district administration has rehabilitated the villagers in the plains, and the village is now called New Madaba.

On the eve of the second anniversary of Titli, Gajapati collector Anupam Saha inaugurated New Madaba, with around 40 families settling into their newly constructed houses.

The houses have been constructed under the Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (BPGY) with an estimated cost of Rs 83.20 lakhs, while other infrastructure facilities like toilets, water supply, road and electricity were funded by different schemes.

While almost all the work has been completed, other residents in the old village will shift to their new village very soon, said collector.

Suresh Bhuyan, one of the residents of Madaba who shifted to his new home on the eve of the second anniversary of the Titli, heaved a sigh of relief.

“Life is very difficult in the old village. Heavy rainfall can cause landslides there, which was a huge worry for us,” he said.

“It’s impossible to forget that day, when the landslide totally wiped out the village,” said Anant Patta Majhi.

Like Madaba, the district administration had shifted as many as 12 hill-top villages with 540 families in Rayagada and R. Udayagiri blocks to safer places after their villages had completely wiped out in the landslides. These villages have been identified as the most vulnerable for landslides.

Gajapati had borne the brunt of Titli which wiped out almost 20 villages and claimed at least 48 lives.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 10 (LocalWire): Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) will launch door to door health screening of the people in areas under its limits to identify suspected cases of COVID-19 and co-morbid persons from Monday.

It will be the seventh-round of health screening undertaken by the civic body since the outbreak of the deadly disease in Ganjam district on May 2.

“We have decided to conduct another door-to-door health screening of the residents to identify the suspected patients and to contain further infections in the upcoming festival season,” said BeMC commissioner Siddheswar Baliram Bondare.

As many as 120 personnel, including rapid response teams, paramedics, Asha, anganwadi workers and Swachha Sathis will be engaged in the door-to-door survey, which will be completed on October 20, he said.

Micro-containment zones will be set up in the critical areas to restrict the movements of the residents, if positive cases are found in the particular area to contain the further spread of the virus, he said.

Presently there is no micro-containment zone in the city, while the civic authorities have barricaded some areas for crowd management.

The civic administration has decided to crack down on the violators of the COVID regulations and mask-less persons in coordination with sub-collector (Berhampur), tahsil and BeMC, till the end of the month.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 10 (LocalWire): Supporters of the Bhartiya Janata Party on Saturday staged demonstrations in front of the K. Nuagaon police station in Ganjam district demanding the arrest of the persons involved in the alleged murder of a 22-year old girl at Dekhali village, five months ago.

The deceased was identified as Pramodini Nayak, daughter of Ladu Nayak of Dekhali village, and the incident took place on May 10.

The police have registered a murder case and started investigation from different angles, said a police officer. Police, however, ruled out the possibility of the girl being raped before the murder.

Five months have lapsed since the incident took place, but the police have not made any breakthrough in the case.

“We have demanded that the investigation of the incident be handed over to the crime branch police, as we have no faith in the local police,” said Srikant Padhy, local BJP leader.

Earlier, the family members of the deceased had met with the DIG (southern range) Satyabrarta Bhoi, SP (Berhampur) Pinak Mishra seeking immediate arrest of the accused persons.

Police however said they have been investigating the case from different angles and the accused persons would be arrested soon.

According to the sources, the deceased along with her mother had gone to the farm at 8 AM on May 10. At about 10 AM, she was going to Kanteijodi nala in the village to wash the clothes.

When she did not return for a long period, her mother searched for her and found her body floating in the water.

Initially, the police had registered a case of unnatural death. After getting the post-mortem report, they registered a murder case when doctors suggested it might be a case of homicide, sources said.

LocalWire

Berhampur, Oct 9 (LocalWire): No towering pandals replicated to represent famous historical places will decorate the towns this year during the long-awaited Durga Puja, which is slated to begin from October 17 this year.

While the puja organizers have sought a minimum of 10,000 sq. ft of area to erect makeshift pandals for the puja, the district administration has restricted the maximum carpet area of the mandap to only 250 sq. ft.

Moreover, puja organizers have to submit an affidavit to the sub-collector (Berhampur) that they will abide by the COVID guidelines of the government in letter and spirit.

“The puja will be conducted without the participation of the public, and only the rituals will be observed, owing to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation,” said the sub-collector (Berhampur) V. Keerthi Vasan.

Vasan has discussed the arrangements with the officials of the puja committees and also appealed to them to follow the guidelines issued by the government, while organizing the puja.

He has asked the puja organizers to install CCTV cameras inside the makeshift puja pandals to oversee the activities inside the mandap and to guard the COVID-19 regulations.

As per the government’s guidelines, while the height of the idol should not be exceed four-feet, more than seven persons, including the priests would not be allowed inside the pandal.

Priests and other persons present in the pandal have to wear gloves mandatorily while the area will be disinfected daily.

Fire-safety measures have to be ensured by the organizers and boards displaying dos and don’ts have to be displayed near the entrance of the pandals.

LocalWire