Kendrapara

Kendrapara, Jan 20 (LocalWire) Sabita Giri (15) and Purnima Giri(16) of Nipania village under Mahakalapada block in Kendrapara district have been selected for the ICCW National Bravery Dhruva Awards-2019 on Tuesday.

They have been nominated for their heroic rescue operations near river Nipania, a tributary of Mahanadi when their boat capsized near the village of both the girls last year on 2nd January 2019 evening.

Both the girls risked their lives to save 12 people including five children from drowning in river.

They were in their house near the river when they heard shrieks of people drowning and immediately jumped into the crocodile- infested river and swam fast towards them.

Both of them rescued as many people as they could and brought them to safety one after another, said Gita Siddhaartha, the president of ICCW in a press release from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Sabita and Purnima along with 22 children – 10 girls and 12 boys of 12 states have been selected for the National Bravery Award -2019.

The girls said “We are delighted after it was announced that we have been selected to get the prestigious awards”.

“The exemplary courage of both the girls and their presence of mind saved the lives of many people from the jaws of death.

We are delighted that they have been selected to get the prestigious award, said Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, the MLA of Mahakalapada.

LocalWire

Kendrapara, Jan 20 (LocalWire) A 50-year-old man who was arrested about two months ago in Kendrapada district for assaulting a villager, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself, police said Monday.

Keshab Jena was arrested on 18th November 2019 for attacking a villager with a knife, sub-divisional police officer Rajiv Lochan Panda told LocalWire.

He was released on bail on Saturday after his family members furnished a surety bond for him.

He was visibly upset after spending two months in the jail and committed suicide, Bharat Jena, one his relatives said.

Jena was found hanging from a tree at Darabola village, under Derabish police station. No suicide note was recovered at the spot.

The investigation is underway, Jena said.

LocalWire

Kendrapada, Jan 20 (LocalWire) Several boats are operating in water bodies of Kendrapada district with blatant disregard to the safety rules putting riders lives at risk, eyewitnesses said on Monday.

The operators are ferrying passengers in unsafe country boats and not providing the riders life jackets.

The government had banned fishing boats and unsafe vessels to carry tourists to Hukitola, Light House, Agaranasi, Madali and other islands in the Bay of Bengal after a boat tragedy in January last year killed 10 tourists including eight children.

They were drowned while returning from Hukitola island in an overcrowded fishing boat.

Several fishermen have converted their fishing boats into passengers vessels to facilitate tourists to see Hukitila after the government banned sea fishing from 1st November to 31st May during Olive Ridley sea turtles nesting season, a boat owner told LocalWire.

They rent their boats to tourists in this winter season for venturing Hukitola and Batighar islands to earn good money”, said Arjun Haldar a boat owner of the seaside village Jamboo.

Century-old Hukitola building and lighthouse at Batighar island under Mahakalapada block are the major attraction for the tourists in the winter season.

Scores of private boats are not designed to carry tourists. Untrained youngsters are operating the boats in risky weather conditions, the eyewitnesses said.

“We have warned all private boat owners to provide life-saving jackets to travellers. We have also appealed the tourists to refrain from getting on boats without wearing life-saving jackets”, forest range officer Sahaji Charan Biswal said.

“We will take stern action against the boat owners who violate the safety norms” he added.

LocalWire

Kendrapara, Jan 18 (LocalWire) Local residents on Saturday appreciated the central government decision to mark Bhitarkanika national park as critically vulnerable.

A cross-section of people including fishermen, forest dwellers and environmentalists welcomed the decision during a public hearing organised by the local administration here.

The public hearing was held for preparing the draft of the district’s coastal zone management plan.

Previously, the government had notified 100 meters land area from the high tide line from the tidal rivers and creeks under the coastal regulated zone act that restricts different construction activities near beaches.

Later the union government reduced it from 100 meters to 50 meters. In the public hearing, many coastal residents supported the reduction area, divisional forest officer Bikash Ranjan Dash told LocalWire.

In the public hearing, some fishermen, prawn farm owners and others demanded the publication of proper coastal regulation maps.

“We informed them that the state-run Odisha Space Application Center (OSAC) is preparing the map”, he said.

Kaliprasan Nayak a retired teacher of Rajkanika urged the government to de-notify some villages from the area of the national park as these are situated at a distance.

Some prawn farmers from Rajkanika and Rajnagar alleged that they registered their prawn farms but the officials are demolishing their farms.

LocalWire

Kendrapara, January 11 (Localwire): Basanti Mallick (53) of Bachara village within the Pattamundai block in Kendrapara district is a worried woman and these days she and other family members are glued to the TV, to get more news on the latest situation in Iraq and Iran.

Every time there is news about the disturbance in Iraq, her heart sinks in fear and anxiety, worrying for husband Golakh Mallick (55) who has been working as a plumber with a construction company in Baghdad for last five years.

“We are worried about the recent development in Iraq.

We do not know the reason behind the problem, but many people have told me that there is a war-like situation in Iraq. Our mobile phone is the main link with my husband.

I talked with him on Saturday and he stated that the situation in Iraq is grave but he along with other workers of Halo International Construction Company is safe. Now, we are praying for his safety in Iraq,” Basanti said.

Talking to LocalWire from Baghdad, Golakh confirmed that though the situation in Iraq was tense, he was safe.

“We are staying near the Green Zone of Baghdad, which is heavily fortified and in the center of the Iraqi capital that served as the headquarters of successive Iraqi regimes.

We are hearing blasts and sirens in the Iraqi capital. Recently, a large number of protesters attacked the United States Embassy in Baghdad near the green zone which really frightened us,” he said.

Golakh also urged LocalWire to publish his mobile number 00-96-47827854186 to draw the attention of the Indian authorities.

Similarly, 62-year old Sadashiva Rout of Madanapur village and 64-year old Sakil Khan of Gogua village are also a worried lot.

While Sadashiva’s son Bhaskar works as a plumber in Najaf city, Sakil’s son Kayum is working as a mechanic in a motor garage in Tehran.

Basanti, Sadashiva and Sakil are not alone in these moments of tension and despair.

According to Babaji Parida, a trade union leader from Pattamundei, there are over 200 persons from Kendrapada district are working in Iraq and Iran, many of them as plumbers and the unrest there has brought about the fear of social and economic insecurity to the families in Pattamundai, Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks of the district.

When contacted Kendrapara district labour officer (DLO) Ramachandra Nayak said that though many people from Kendrapada area work in many countries, and the government has set up a toll-free number 18003456703 for overseas workers to seek help from the government, they have so far received any information or request from people working in Iran and Iraq.

“We have not received any information about the plight of the workers of the district in Iran and Iraq. We will help them once we get information from them or their relatives,” he said.

LocalWire

Kendrapara, Jan 10 (LocalWire): Residents of Lalitagiri village in Kendrapara district today paid rich tributes to Dr Pranaballava Das, who passed away in Wales on Wednesday.

A United Kingdom-based doctor, Dr Das (76) had spent Rs 1.18 crores in reconstructing the Lalitagiri High School in his village in 2003 after the supercyclone had razed it to the ground.

‘He also provided funds to purchase furniture, equipment for laboratory and computers. The new school building was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on in July 2003,’ said Ajaya Beberta Das the younger brother of the deceased.

‘Dr Das had studied in this school and was very attached to it. He transformed it into a model school by funding a new building.

We are always grateful to him. The school has 320 students. He visited the school two years back,’ said Rabindra Kumar Sahoo, the headmaster of the school.

LocalWire

Kendrapara, Jan 9 (LocalWire): Forest officials arrested 18 marine fishermen and seized two trawlers on Wednesday night from the waters near Gahiramatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapara district.

Gahirmatha beach is the largest rookery of Olive Ridley turtles in the world and the government banned all types of fishing for seven months from 1 November to 31 May to save the endangered marine species, Debashis Bhoi the forest range officer of Gahiramatha marine sanctuary, said.

Forest guards have been deployed to arrest fishermen who dare to enter the marine sanctuary areas.

In 1997, the government declared the Gahiramatha marine sanctuary a protected area to save the marine turtles that came in lakhs to Gahiramatha to lay eggs, added the forest officer,

‘We established 16 turtle protection camps including three offshore camps at Agaranashi, Barunei and Babubali islands to protect the sea animals in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.

The policemen of marine police stations at Kharinashi and Paradip and coast guards are helping the forest officials to prevent illegal fishing this year,’ Bhoi added.

Due to the fishing ban imposed by the authorities, around 4.70 lakh turtles laid eggs from 26 February to 5 March 2019 at the Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 islands within the Gahiramatha marine sanctuary, added the forest officer.

Kendrapara, Jan 8 (LocalWire): Normal life was disrupted across Kendrapara district following the Bharat bandh called by the Opposition and trade unions in protest against the rising prices of essential commodities and against the Union government’s disinvestment, privatisation and labour reform policies.

‘The 12 hour-bandh passed off peacefully in Kendrapara,’ said Rajiv Lochan Panda, the Sub- Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Kendrapara.

The bandh was total in the district and long and short-distance buses run by the state transport corporation and private bus owners’ association remained cancelled. With no vehicular movement, the district witnessed a complete shutdown.

Commercial establishments, educational institutes, banks and non-governmental offices remained closed. Many ATMs were shut down by the bank authorities during the bandh causing problems for people.

Thousands of vehicles were stranded on national highways and state highways passing through the district.
The protesters organised rallies and sit-ins at important junctions of several towns.

They blocked national highways at various places and did not even allow private vehicles to pass through.
However, patients, doctors and medical shops were out of the ambit of the bandh.

LocalWire