Bhubaneswar: Incessant rains damaged hundreds of bags of harvested paddy left under the open skies in three Odisha districts of Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput, officials said on Sunday. The rain lashed many parts of the state during the past four days -- as the monsoon set in across the state and a low-pressure belt also formed -- damaging standing paddy crops too in over 1,500 acres in the three districts worst hit.
"At least 500 quintals of paddy kept in the open for procurement have been damaged by the heavy rain that lashed our region on Thursday and Friday," GC Sethi, a senior administrative official at Bhabanipatna, the district headquarters town of Kalahandi, about 430 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, told IANS.
The rains also damaged standing and harvested Rabi crops lying in the fields. But the extent of damage has not yet been assessed, the official said.
Citing a preliminary damage assessment report the government received from the regions, a senior official of the state relief commissioner's office here said the rains have damaged nearly 1,000 houses so far in the three districts....
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05:15 AM, Jun 17, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Terming Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's allegation of Odisha's neglect by the Centre as "baseless" and a ploy to hide his "inefficiency", Congress on Sunday demanded a white paper on central funds released to the state and their utilisation. "The Chief Minister is misleading people with wrong information on central funds to Odisha. This strategy is aimed at covering the BJD government's inefficiency," Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Jayadev...
02:24 AM, Jun 17, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had submitted a memorandum to Pranab Mukherjee demanding special category status for Odisha, on Thursday said the President would go through it and take action accordingly. "The President said he will go through the memorandum and give it to the Government of India," Patnaik said on his return from Delhi on Thursday. Patnaik, along with senior leaders of BJD, had met Mukherjee at Rashtrapati...
01:10 AM, Jun 14, 2013
New Delhi: Bihar is set for political realignment with the Janata Dal (United) all set to break its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The acrimony between the two parties saw Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi skipping his office on Thursday and refusing to sign government files. Sushil Kumar Modi has clearly told his officers not to bring files to him for his signature. He...
05:50 PM, Jun 13, 2013
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday kept up the pressure on the NDA and said that he can't rule out the possibility of a Third Front. Hinting that the JD(U) could be open to supporting the Congress in future if the demand for Bihar's special status was met, Nitish said, "I can't say that it has taken a solid form yet but can't rule out the possibility in...
10:59 AM, Jun 13, 2013
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is confident of sailing through even if he splits with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar. The process of garnering support in the Bihar Assembly is on so that JD(U) government stays in power in Bihar. JD(U) leaders have reportedly been asked to contact independent MLAs and get their support. Three MLAs have already vouched to back the JD(U), say sources. The JD(U)...
02:08 PM, Jun 12, 2013
New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal will on Wednesday push the Centre to grant a special category status to Odisha. The party is holding a 'Swabhiman Samabesh' at the Ramlila Maidan on Wednesday, which will be a culmination of the BJD's 'Swabhiman Yatra'. The campaign for a special status has managed to get the support of 1 crore signatories. BJD chief Naveen Patnaik will also be present at the rally....
10:18 AM, Jun 12, 2013
Bhubaneswar: BJP on Tuesday alleged that BJD's remarks against Narendra Modi was allegedly because of a deal with Congress to escape possible CBI action in the state in the coal scam. "Naveen Patnaik is reported to have stated that Modi is not acceptable at the national level...his statement is obviously because of a deal between BJD and Congress," BJP Odisha unit general secretary and spokesman Suresh Pujary alleged at a...
12:32 AM, Jun 12, 2013
New Delhi: As the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party battle it out over the coal scam and internal crisis, Third Front leaders are stepping up. Speaking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told CNN-IBN that both Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi don't make the prime ministerial cut and that the Third Front's time has come. "Let me make it quite...
03:48 PM, Jun 11, 2013
New Delhi: Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday accused the Centre of playing politics in fund allocations to states and neglecting Odisha's long pending demand for special category status. "Getting special category status is the genuine rights of the state. It is not a mercy, but the right (of the state). The state deserves the special category status as it fulfils all the criteria...," BJD vice-president and state...
12:57 AM, Jun 11, 2013
New Delhi: Ten days after the deadly Naxal attack in Chhatisgarh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called an internal security meeting of the Chief Ministers of all states. Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Madhya Predesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah are the non-Congress CMs who will be attending the meet on Wednesday. Some...
08:35 AM, Jun 05, 2013
Bhubaneswar: BJP on Tuesday slammed the ruling BJD in Odisha, saying the judicial probe ordered by it into the chitfund scam was a ploy to buy time even as the party activists held statewide demonstrations and burnt effigies of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other ministers. By ignoring the demand for a CBI probe into the scam and ordering a judicial inquiry, BJD is aiming only at delaying the process,...
12:50 AM, Jun 05, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Alleging rampant corruption and plundering of BPL rice, minerals and from gullibles through chitfund during BJD rule in Odisha, Congress on Sunday claimed it would capture power in the next polls by dumping the Naveen Patnaik government in Bay of Bengal. Addressing a function to accord a reception to the new OPCC President Jayadeb Jenan, senior party leaders including Union Minister Srikant Jena slammed the BJD government of failing...
03:10 AM, May 20, 2013
Bhubaneswar: With the BJD intensifying its anti-Centre tirade accusing it of neglecting Odisha, opposition Congress on Monday said the ruling party was trying to "exploit" the sentiments of the people by making such allegations. "BJD is simply exploiting the sentiment of people by taking name of special category state status for Odisha and alleging Central negligence," Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik told reporters. Claiming that the BJD's...
03:00 AM, Apr 23, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Saturday said its leaders would meet President, Prime Minister, Finance Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to press for special category status for the state. "We will meet Prime Minister, Congress resident and others to press Odisha's demand of a special category state status," OPCC President Niranjan Patnaik told reporters after the ruling BJD called for a 12-hour bandh demanding special category status...
10:58 PM, Apr 20, 2013
Cuttack: After running from one hospital to another, parents of an 11-year-old girl with burn injuries staged a dharna in front of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's residence in Cuttack. The incident took place on Friday when the parents of the child were unable to admit their daughter to a hospital. The child was later admitted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital here with over 50 per cent burn injuries...
10:50 PM, Apr 20, 2013
New Delhi: Most Chief Ministers on Monday chose to miss a high-level conference, convened to thrash out challenging issues on public order and policing, with only seven state leaders attending it. The conference of Chief Ministers, convened by the Home Ministry, saw attendance of only Chief Ministers of Odisha (Naveen Patnaik), Assam (Tarun Gogoi), Uttarakhand (Vijay Bahuguna), Tripura (Manik Sarkar), Arunachal Pradesh (Nabam Tuki), Meghalaya (Mukul Sangma) and Nagaland (Neiphiu...
03:00 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Leaving no scope for the BJP to duck the issue, the Janata Dal (United), one of its key allies, demanded that the party announce its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election by year-end. It also added that the candidate should have 'secular credentials'. But former ally, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD Leader Naveen Patnaik, ruled out giving any help to the BJP in its hour of crisis. Reflecting ...
02:13 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Bhubaneswar: With the CAG slamming the Odisha government over allotment of valuable land in Bhubaneswar city, the Congress today held Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik responsible for flouting of law in the process and demanded an independent probe into the matter by an independent agency like CBI. "The CAG report shows that the chief minister is solely responsible for allotment of valuable land by violating the law and misusing power. There...
03:59 AM, Apr 09, 2013
Berhampur: Opposition Congress on Monday said the newly-launched Odisha State Youth Policy would have no impact on the electorate and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was trying to fool the people of the state. The policy was launched by Patnaik on Sunday. "It is too late. The central government has already announced the policy. The state government should have launched this policy two years back had it been serious about development...
01:15 AM, Apr 09, 2013
