Miscreants torched three vehicles of a local contractor and put up fake Maoist posters in Odisha's Kalahandi district. Police suspect the Maoist angle is fabricated and are investigating local involvement.
The headless body of the victim, identified as Rupsingh Majhi of Deypur village under Kalampur police limits, was recovered from a village pond.
Legislators of the opposition BJD in Odisha sprinkled 'Ganga Jal' in the state Assembly, alleging that the House had been "spiritually polluted" by the entry of policemen. The incident follows a protest by Congress members demanding a House Committee to probe crimes against women, which led to police intervention and the eviction of Congress MLAs from the Assembly. BJD members claim the police action was unprecedented and brought shame to Odisha. The Speaker denounced the act, while the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister asserted the House's inherent purity. The opposition also alleged that police prevented BJD MLAs from leaving the assembly premises on the following day.
Chalapathi, a top leader of the CPI(Maoist) and a key figure in the 2008 Nayagarh armoury attack in Odisha, was killed in a gunfight with security forces at the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. He was one of 14 Maoists killed in the encounter, which lasted for two days. Chalapathi, who had been a mystery to security agencies for decades, was eventually identified through a selfie with his wife, Aruna, found in an abandoned smartphone. He was considered an expert in military tactics and guerrilla warfare and had played a significant role in expanding the Maoist network in Odisha.
Nayak had earlier resigned from the BJD and joined the BJP and got a nomination from the saffron party.
Out of the 20 candidates announced by the BJD for the 21 Lok Sabha seats, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's party has nominated at least seven leaders who came from either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress.
The 2000-batch IAS officer, who sparked several controversies and was accused of violating the service rule, had taken voluntary retirement from government service on October 23 this year.
Pandian joined the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) in 2011, and since then, he has been Patnaik's private secretary.
The remarks by the BJP leaders came as 17 opposition parties resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the saffron party and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences. They dubbed the planned alliance as "unholy and opportunistic".
Incessant showers caused landslides and floods in various parts of the country leaving at least 17 people dead on Wednesday while thousands more were forced to move to safety as rivers swelled and water reservoirs filled up fast.
At least 10 villages of Odisha's Kalahandi district were marooned in flood waters due to heavy rains at the catchment areas of river Indravati leading to disruption of road communications in different western Odisha district and halt of power generation from the Upper Indravati Hydel project.
Of 22 eligible voters in the village, 19 persons -- 12 women and 7 men -- attended the gram sabha, despite heavy rains to voice their opposition to the project. Tadijhola, located on the foothills of Niyamgiri, is predominantly inhabited by the milkmen community.
A little bewildered by the turn of events and the sudden attention on him and one who candidly says he does not know what one lakh means, Majhi, who hails from remote Melaghar village in Kalahandi district, has seen his kitty swell to Rs 15 lakh. But he sorely misses his wife.
The high court, however, allowed the company to make a fresh bid to obtain environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest for any further expansion of its existing units.
A delegation of Vedanta Group led by Kumar met Mohanty and urged him to accelerate process of providing alternative source of bauxite after the company was refused permission to start mining atop Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district.
London-based Vedanta Group said it was not going to apply afresh for 'green' clearance to expand its aluminium refinery project in Orissa's Kalahandi district, even after being advised by the Union environment and forests (MoEF) ministry to do so.
Even though Vedanta Resource's proposal to mine bauxite at the sacred mountain in Orissa's Kalahandi district is rejected, for thousands of tribals like Laksa Majhi, who for countless generations have lived in the shadow of Niyamgiri, the insecurities persist.
India's shock defeat against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday claimed the life of a sports enthusiast in West Bengal, while another tried to commit suicide in Odisha.
The Anil Agarwal promoted Vedanta Aluminium (VAL) plans to invest a whopping Rs 60,000 crore in aluminium, alumina and power sector in Orissa by 2013.
Water or mines? The answer should be obvious, but thanks to the pots of gold that lie hidden in them, mines are robbing the countryside of its natural wealth.
The incident took place on Wednesday when locals found Majhi carrying his wife Amang Dei's body along with his 12-year-old daughter.
The Vedanta group's Rs 3,600-crore (Rs 36 billion) alumina refinery in Orissa's Kalahandi district is likely to clear the final hurdle soon.
The company shut down its 1-mtpa (million tonnes per annum) alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district in the state on December 5 due to acute shortage of bauxite to feed its plant.
"They did not provide treatment to my son. They didn't even provide me a stretcher. I was running from here to there carrying my son on my shoulder," a teary Sunil said.
The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a horrific incident of chopping off the right hands of two migrant labourers from Odisha by a contractor from Andhra Pradesh in December last year.
There is little doubt that the Dongria Kondhs are facing their biggest challenge. Being small in number, they need special attention and care in order to fight this deadly virus.
Sourcing bauxite from other states to add Rs 600 crore to cost.
The body should be carried on a stretcher or a cot and it should be kept appropriately in a designated place till all formalities are disposed of, the guideline said.
The project will eventually be rolled out to cover 400 railway stations across India
Moily had last week rejected Vedanta's proposal to mine the Niyamgiri hills after 12 village councils of Dongriya Kondh tribal groups opposed the project in their forests.
Despite all odds, Jaya Alex's daughter chose to teach in a backward and underprivileged district in India.
The Supreme Court on April 18 ordered the villagers be provided with basic forest rights in form of the land titles
All the 12 gram sabhas held in July-August last year had unanimously expressed opposition to the mining operation in the hills saying it would violate their social, cultural and religious rights.
Gandhi accused Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik of being remote-controlled by Modi
The Odisha government stepped up relief and restoration activities as cyclone Hudhud passed to neighbouring Chhattisgarh on Monday after claiming three lives, damaging about 50,000 thatched houses, electrical infrastructure and roads in four districts.
The 30-share Sensex ended up 204 points at 27,215 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 59 points at 8,238.
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At least 16 people have died in flood-related incidents in Odisha, where the situation remained grim even as major rivers were receding on Saturday. Two deaths each were reported from Bhadrak, Jajpur and Nayagarh districts while in worst-hit Ganjam district it remained unchanged at six and four in Jagatsinghpur, Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra told reporters here after the situation was reviewed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Vat Vrikshya -- banyan tree in Sanskrit -- helps tribal women, with absolutely zero formal education, set up businesses.
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