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Orissa, India

The Rajnagar police on Saturday arrested one Niranjan Pradhan ,the Village Education Committee (VEC)member of  Siddha Marichani Nodal Primary school of Sanamarichapalli village under Rajnagar block in Kendrapada district, on  the alleged charge of his involvement in preventing two Dalit cooks to prepare mid day meal for the school student on last  19^th January by forcefully  confined the two Dalit women in the kitchen room along with the cooked stuff, said Maheswar Sethy , the IIC of Rajanagar Police station.

The arrested person was booked under Section 442,294,506 IPC ;3 SC & ST Prevention Act after one of the Dalit victim women ,Ketaki Sethy, lodged an FIR at Rajanagar Police Station on last 22^nd January against Niranjan Pradhan,said IIC of Rajnagar PS..

The arrested person was on Saturday produced before the JMFC court of Pattamundai where he remanded into jail custody after his bail petition was rejected.

On the otherhand, the upper caste  students of Siddha Marichani Nodal Primary school of Sanamarichapalli village,on Saturday , skipped from the school as once again a Dalit  prepared meal on Friday  for the student .

According to locals , the upper caste guardians are hell bent not to send their wards to the school till the local administration would not take steps to prevent the Dalits from  preparing midday meal in the school.

It may be noted here that since last 19^th January, the Mid Day meal was stopped after tension prevailed in the area between upper caste and Dalits  following the VEC member , Niranjan Pradhan, allegedly restricted two dalit women Ketaki Sethy and Sebati Sethy ,who were entrusted to cook Mid-Day Meal in Maa Siddhamarichani Nodal Primiary school, not to prepare mid day meal and threatened them to quit their jobs. When the two Dalit women denied to quit their jobs , they were allegedly forced to remain inside the kitchen room with the cooked stuff as the VEC members of the school , confined them by locking the room from outside .

But,on Friday , one Dalit woman , Saraswati Sethy, the secretary of  Maa Ambika Self Help Group (SHG), after getting green signal from the local administration  prepared Mid Day meal for the students .But out of 111 students present in the school only 28 students, including 13 girls, came to eat the Mid Day Meal that was prepared by the Dalit Woman on yesterday.

Even on Friday a meeting was organized between the Dalits and Upper caste people in this regard to settle the matter amicably, but when the matter was worsened in the meeting ,police arrested the VEC member, informed locals.

It may be noted here that a team of Supreme Court State adviser on Right to Food on last  week visited the  Sanamarichipali village to investigate about the atrocity on dalit women cooks ,who were prevented by  upper caste villagers and school authority to cook midday meal for the student in the school.

Meanwhile ,the district  administration and the school teachers are trying their best to take the parents of the upper caste students into confidence to resolve the matter, informed. the District Magistrate , Sisrkanta Panda.

Rajesh Kumar Behera, Kendrapada, Orissa

While everyone is busy in destroying the forest, which stands as a barrier against the catastrophe, in order to construct sky-touching buildings and also converting into home stead land, but here is an exception in coastal Kendrapada district ‘the House of Natural fury ‘, where you can find a 25 years old youth  with his sheer will and determination has committed himself to  shape all his surroundings by covering greenery   by spending money from his own purse only to save his area from the Natural Fury .

Meet the 25 –years old youth , Pradatta Behera , the son of a farmer, of sea erosion prone Prasannapur  village under Brahmanisahi Panchayat of Rajnagar block  has taken a challenge with his own to shape his village and his adjoining surroundings with greenery cover only to save his village from taking watery grave due to the onslaught of  Bay of Bengal, which is heading towards their habitation , and perhaps to save his area from Natural calamities, climate change and global warming.

He is a commerce graduate and preparing himself for competitive examination. But his mania to plant saplings to  save his area from natural calamities has made him an extra ordinary personality in his area . Now the locals called him Pradatta –the Greenman .

He has made barren government patches into a mini forest without any financial assistant from Government sectors nor from NGOs. But asked him ,had he left his mission on the midway due to paucity of funds , the iron determination poverty stricken person will definitely say “no”.

According to Pradatta, the idea of growing trees came to his mind when he came  to know that forest plays an important role against natural calamities and also for water conservation.He had started his noble mission in 2007 and had planted the saplings in the unused government land.

Pramod Behera, the elder brother of Pradatta, who is supporting financially for the noble mission of his younger brother, stated that  his brother Pradatta has planted 6000 plants in a government land at Prasannapur village ,which was lying unused for years, and converted  into a mini forest .Besides that his brother  also planted 500 saplings at sea erosion Pentha village , 500 at Kahandamara , 400 saplings at Brahmanasahi , 300 trees at Dera , 200 numbers of trees at Junupangara ,400 saplings at Mahulia UP School and 600 saplings at Astha Sambhu Mohavidyalaya. In several places , the trees, which were planted by his brother,  have grown much to attract one’s attention .

According to Pradatta , “ I do not  belong from a  well-to –do family  , rather I am  an ordinary youth ala others  .Bit I have decided to save my village  from marauding sea for which I have taken a step to see all my nearby areas covering with greenery look .And my elder brother ,Pramod Behera, is the key of inspiration in this regard and encouraging me to convert the area by planting tree .He has been supporting me financially except him  none but a single person come forward to help me in my  mission”.

His elder brother,Pramod  ,who is working at Bhubaneswar, have co-operated him a lot in his mission of  planting the saplings and barricading the areas .

According to Pradatta, he has not planted trees for his own publicity rather to protect the area from the devastated cyclones in the years to come.

He rued with the fact that neither the government nor the NGOs officials have ever  thought it wise to pay a visit to the  mini forest in order to boost encourage in his noble mission to erect more greenery in his areas  .

In 2010 , Pradatta has an aim to plant  5000 sapling at the coast of  pentha and prassanapur to protect the area from the ever changing course of Bay of Bengal.

By Akhand in Bhubaneswar, Orissa

Orissa High Court today asked the police authorities of all the districts of the state to ensure that red lights were removed from the vehicles of ‘unauthorised’ persons.

The bench of Acting Chief Justice I M Quddusi and Justice Sanju Panda also ordered the Orissa government to file a report on the steps taken against unauthorised use of red lights by some “influential and powerful persons atop their vehicles”.
The directions came in response to a public interest litigation filed by Utkal Vidyarthi Parishad, which alleged that the rules on use of red light on official vehicles were blatantly violated in the State. The Flag Code of India and the Orissa Motor Vehicles Rules have specified the persons and authorities who are entitled to use red beacons on their vehicles.

In Orissa, the authorised personalities include Governor, Chief Minister, members of the State Cabinet, Judges of the Orissa High Court, Lok Pal and the Advocate General. But in gross disregard of the rules, not only officials of the Government from senior level to even subordinate ones at the district level but also political appointees, elected representatives are openly flaunting red lights on their vehicles.

In other states, senior Government officials and judicial officers of subordinate judiciary are authorised to use blue lights.

While calling for strict measures to curb misuse of red lights by unauthorised persons, a provision should be made for allowing use of blue lights by others, they appealed.

Rajesh Kumar Behera, Kendrapada, Orissa, India

The Indian Navy along with all the stakeholders on Wednesday embarked upon a two-day-long innovative mock exercise on encompassing possible infiltration of terrorists both by land and sea at  Orissa sea coast, which is one of the vulnerable point regarding unabated exodus of Bangladeshi immigrants round the year, and how to respond to infiltration bid by terrorists.

The coastal security exercise would help assess efficacy of coastal security structure of the State. The State agencies would get opportunity to utilize the skills of reacting to emergency situation.

The joint exercise kicked off under the leadership of Commodore MVS Kumar (VSM), the Naval Officer In-charge of Orissa. Six war ships, 4 aircrafts and 25 marine commandos of Indian Navy and Coast Guard, besides State police, Marine Police, intelligence , Central Industrial Security Force, port officials, customs, fisheries, department jointly took part in this exercise which started on Wednesday, said Indian Navy sources.

While Indian Navy and Coast guard were in the attacking team, State security agencies like Police, marine police customs and the coastal people were in the defender team members.

Indian Navy sources informed that during this exercise, which would continue for more than 48 hours, mock infiltration bid by terrorists from seaward sneaked into the mainland  simulated on Wednesday at Puri and  requiring reaction from police, other officials have also been exercised on real time.

If sources are to be believed, in a part of Mock exercise, four sailors, disguised as ‘terrorists,’ tried to sneak into the Puri city via sea in a rickety  boat were ‘nabbed’ by police . While one terrorist  was nabbed inside the Puri temple by the state police  another three were nabbed in the city. Later, the ‘terrorists’ were identified as sea warriors in civvies as part of the drill.

The sources said security was stepped up at all coastal districts in the State and in the city as part of the drill. police personnel were mobilised as part of the exercise which would help the police assess their strengths and weaknesses while dealing with emergency situations. Apart from mounting a strict surveillance on all vital installations, Quick Reaction Teams, patrol vehicles and manpower were strategically guarding important places. Gun-totting policemen were seen deployed all along the 482-km-long coastline in Orissa.

According to Naval sources, this year the coastal security has been tightened up than the last year . Last year , it was a cake walk to sneak into any coastal village of the state via sea route .But this time , the security has been tightened up and necessary arrangements have been taken for which our sailors were nabbed while they were trying to enter into Jagannath temple at puri . .

After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Indian Navy and the Indian Coastguard have joined hands to step up coastal security through constant patrolling of the territorial waters.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to undergo routine medical evaluation. Several tests were conducted for cardiovascular assessment, as a follow up to his re-do coronary by-pass graft surgery which was performed on him a year ago. All the tests were found to be normal.