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Published: October 20, 2011 00:00 IST | Updated: October 20, 2011 04:21 IST

United forum of Koraput raises demand for separate State

Correspondent

In protest mode: Members of Koraputia Jana Surakhya Sangh staging a demonstration in front of the district Collector's office at Koraput on Wednesday.

Koraputia Jana Surakhya Sangh, a united forum of Koraput district indigenous societies, raised a demand for a separate state or a union territory comprising all the tribal dominated districts of the region on Wednesday . In a memorandum to the President of India with copies to the Governor and Chief Minister, the forum alleged that the State government had betrayed the indigenous people living peacefully in the region by giving false promises for a better life over the last many years. While people who were displaced for construction of water reservoirs and companies suffered for the inadequate compensation many of them were struggling for existence in the deep forests in the neighbouring states where they had to take shelter on the face of poverty, Dambarudhar Khilo, president of the combined forum alleged .

Further taking advantage of the innocence, illiteracy and poverty of the residents, some industrialists were pressurizing the government to allow them to grab mineral resources by acquiring the landed properties of tribal people in the name of national development, he added. The government, apart from implementing the PESA Act in its true spirit, land that was un-utilised out of the land which was acquired for the factories and projects in the district be returned back to the previous land owner and lands grabbed by the outsiders with vested interest be distributed among the indigenous people of the land , the forum demanded .

While there were good number of water reservoirs and dams on rivers like Kolab, Duduma and Indravati , producing electricity in the region, most of the villages still remained in the dark for the lack of accessibility to electricity supply. Water in these dams was used more for the interest of industries than for the farmers in the region, the forum alleged. Demanding priority in filling vacancies in the Central University of Orissa, HAL, Nalco and other establishments by maintaining a minimum level of reservation for the permanent residents of the region, the members of the forum had placed demands for proper utilization of funds under corporate social responsibility of all the companies in its peripheral area .

Prafulla Samantray, leading environmentalist from Bhubaneswar, said that while the people were staging a peaceful rally to press their demands, thousands of people were forced to stop at Damanjodi, Semiliguda, Laxmipur and several other places by the police, preventing them from entering the district headquarters.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Focus on primary education

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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2010/06/22/stories/2010062251860300.htm)
Other States
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Orissa
  

Focus on primary education

Correspondent

KORAPUT: New equations seem to have been drawn in Koraput district for ensuring primary education at the grassroots. While 606 teachers from primary and upper primary schools in Koraput have been transferred, 244 of them got transferred in Jeypore.
It is for the first time in the last many years that transfer of teachers in such a high scale has been carried out in Koraput district. Moreover, while the transfers in the past were mostly influenced by the leaders of various political parties and others close to the education department, this time it was done under the direct supervision of district Collector Rajesh Pravakar Patil.
While teachers from the urban areas were transferred to rural areas and vice-versa, efforts were made to see that the woman teachers who were transferred from the urban areas got posting in schools near to the approachable roads in the block areas and especially in the schools where special girls' hostels were opened recently, Mr. Patil said. However for serious gaps like transferring the same teacher to more than one place, transferring some teachers who were engaged in census work and allegedly not maintaining any particular criteria in the process of transfer, the initiative was put under scanner by the critics. Such unwarranted cases and other instances with genuine health concern would be reviewed for correction, Mr. Patil added.
Data bank
According to Mr. Patil, the district should have a proper data bank of teachers at one place to facilitate more transparency in such a situation. Efforts are now in progress to create an elaborate data bank on all the teachers in the district documenting their service over a certain period of time tracking their history, present day's status and their strength and resourcefulness. This will also be placed in the official website of the district for more transparency.

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Three Maoists held

Naxals kill jawan

Forest official dead

Panchayats in Kotpad block facing acute water shortage

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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2010/06/17/stories/2010061759180300.htm)
Other States
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Orissa
  

Panchayats in Kotpad block facing acute water shortage

Ch. Santakar

Villagers in the region seek some measures to tide over the crisis

KORAPUT: Ghasiram Jani of Sahanimunda village in Murtahandi panchayat of Kotpad block in Koraput district had to sell a pair of buffalos and purchase a pair of bullocks as the former was required to be cleaned regularly and thus more water was needed. Water is available in little quantity and the cattle had to be taken to Makagaon, by covering at least five km of distance, for their bath with the water of the Janra river. Ghasiram takes them once in a month to the river.
However, according to Katulu Durua of Malchamal village in the same panchayat, cattle is more often left to themselves even for more than three months at a stretch due to acute shortage of water in the region. Of the two tubewells in Malchamal, one is in working condition. But the amount of water that comes out of it is so little that families have to wait night long to fill their pots for storing drinking water.
Ghasiram owns 17 acres of land. But, for the lack of water he could cultivate paddy only during rainy season. He manages the family with the total output of the land from a single crop. But, the marginal farmers living in the forest area often depend upon the minor forest products. They even migrate to work in the green chilli farms on the other side of the river in the neighbouring State of Chhattisgarh.
Affected by drought
Chatarla, Murtahandi and Chandli panchayats in Kotpad block have been affected by draught last year. Compensation was paid to the farmers. But, the situation could not be changed for anything better even this year for the lack of proper initiatives. These villages are now surrounded by a number of ponds. But none of them has water for use in time of need. While waiting for regeneration of groundwater through these ponds, some of the funds could have been spent on digging a canal to bring water to these panchayats from the Janra river. This might have brought some solution to the water crisis of the region, says Ghasiram.

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