Development news of orissa and India

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Odisha Government calling for a report within four weeks on a complaint alleging that thirty houses of dalits were destroyed and burnt by some persons belonging to upper castes in Lathore village of Bolangir District in Odisha on the 22nd January, 2012.

Reportedly, after the incident, the affected families of dalits were kept in temporary camps. The complainant had requested a high level inquiry in the matter, legal action against the accused and adequate compensation to the victims.

The pilot project “Youth to the Edge” was launched today in a function held at Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi, by Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region. The project is aimed to promote adventure activities in the remote areas of North East Region (NER). The volunteers from National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports will participate in the adventure activities under the project.

The states in the North Eastern Region offer tremendous potential for various adventure / outdoor activities viz. Mountaineering, Trekking & camping, Rock climbing & Rappelling, Jeep Safaris, Cultural Tours, Village / Home stay, community tourism, Bird watching, Angling, water skiing, White Water Rafting / Canoeing / kayaking, etc.
Taking advantage of this potential, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, under the pilot project “Youth to the Edge”, proposes to promote adventure activities in the remote areas of North East Region, in which around 2000 youth (1500 from North Eastern Region + 1500 from other States) will participate in adventure and cultural activities. On a trial basis, 03 trekking trails (02 in Arunachal & 01 in Nagaland) have been planned for the volunteers from National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The pilot scheme is being launched with the Motto “Adventure to the Paradise Unexplored”.
Under the Capacity Building of NER youth, they will be trained through the National Mountaineering Institutes and other adventure training organizations. After completion of the courses, they will get opportunity to work as escorts / guides on their own.

Bhubaneswar: Demanding unconditional release of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha advisor Gananath Patra and withdrawal of false and fabricated cases instituted against him by the police, Utkal Khadi Mandal (UKM) president Baishnav Das and chief of Baji Rout Chhatrabas and Sarvodaya leader Krishna Mohanty on Sunday said that they would organise all mass organisations under one banner and resort to state-wide agitation to exert pressure on the state government for his release if it did not meet their demand at the first instance.
Briefing newsmen at the Lohia Academy here, Das described Patra as a man believing in non-violent methods of action and termed the police depicting him as a Maoist as most unfortunate.
Patra was a brilliant student and a good professor. Though he subscribed to Leftist ideology, he was a staunch believer in non-violence. He was working in democratic ways for the poor adivasi farmers whose lands were usurped by big farmers. Big farmers, police and the local administration collectively dubbed him a Maoist which he is not, he said.

Balangir: The Ordnance Factory at Badamal in Balangir district is likely to get a new project to manufacture Pinaka rocket.

This was indicated by the Director General of Ordnance factories and Chairman Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) S D Dimri here during his visit on Saturday.

The new project on Pinaka is likely to come to the Ordnance Factory here at Badamal, Dimari said at the sideline of a function here.

Dimri was here to attend the 41st All India Ordnance and Ordnance Equipment Factories Athletic Meet.

Stating that Pinaka rocket is only produced at Ordnance factory at Chanda having annual production capacity of only 1,000, Dimri said that the defence ministry has decided to increase production of the rocket.

Accordingly, the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has given a proposal to the ministry of defence to set up a new Pinaka project at the Ordnance factory, Badamal, Dimri said.

Pinaka is a multiple rocket launcher produced in India and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Army.

The system has a maximum range of about 35 km and can fire a salvo of 12 HE rockets in 44 seconds, neutralizing a target area of 3.9 square km.

It is mounted on a truck for mobility.

Pinaka was successfully utilised in the Kargil War, where it could neutralise enemy positions on mountain top.

The capacity of proposed project will be 5,000 rockets per annum.

The proposal is under active consideration of the ministry of defence, he added.

India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India is organizing a National Seminar on Nowcasting (Location Specific Weather Forecast for next 6-12 hours) during 30th to 31st Jan., 2012 at New Delhi. The main aim of organising this important event is to give a thrust for development and implementation of a 24×7 Monitoring and Nowcasting system in India especially with respect to high impact weather events. There were demonstration and discussion today on various tools/ techniques and other recent scientific advancements in this area.

Weather forecasts are issued for various spatial and temporal domains to meet demands of different users. Location specific forecasting of high impact weather events e.g. severe rainstorms, sudden dense fog, severe heat/cold spells, severe thunder storms etc for a very short time range still remains a challenge for the meteorological community worldwide. When any high impact weather event strikes any metro city or any other urban and rural pockets affecting lives of common people severely, we try to find out whether it could have been forecasted, atleast a few hours, if not days, in advance. It is common knowledge that manifestations of internal dynamics within a given boundary condition are extremely complex and vitiate the outcomes on the small spatial and temporal scale of extreme weather. Operational forecast procedures mostly fail to forecast exact timing and location of any high end weather event. Further research on various tools used for issuing such forecasts e.g. empirical and NWP Models and their ensembles, also have high limitation in predicting high variability at 12-24-hours time scales.

Modern observing and analytical systems now in place for use in real time operations are expected to improve the accuracies of monitoring and forecasting of high impact weather events. A technology driven system of 24X7 Monitoring and Nowcasting is the need of hour. It should be able to predict the time of start, minute by minute progression and final cessation of the event. Such a Monitoring and Nowcast System will minimize the loss of invaluable lives and also property

A number of Forecast Demonstration Projects (FDP) conducted in different parts around the world have demonstrated that the only way to improve the forecasting accuracies of “high impact very short period (0-6hours) events” are by introducing a range of monitoring strategies viz. developing a MESONET over the area, including a dense network of DWR coverage and high resolution satellite pictures/products etc. In addition, very high resolution NWP and autonowcast systems would also be required as was done during Oklohoma Mesonet and Nowcast system, Beijing Olympic 2008 Forecast Demonstration Project and Delhi Nowcast for 2010 Commonwealth Games.