After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that the truth would not emerge through existing mechanisms and called for a probe, several opposition leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge backed her demand.
A section of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders in Odisha are expressing discontent over the party's decision to support the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. The issue has sparked internal turmoil, with young leaders submitting a memorandum to party president Naveen Patnaik, urging him to address the situation. Patnaik has held meetings with senior leaders, assuring them that necessary action will be taken to mitigate the fallout and maintain the party's secular image.
While BJD leaders held a marathon meeting at Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, the BJP leaders had a similar meeting in the national capital, discussing election matters, including a potential alliance.
The proposed Vedanta University is likely to get chairman of National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda as its first Chancellor, Orissa's higher education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said on Thursday.
The incident happened on Sunday night when the woman, an undergraduate student at a private college, went to the beach along with her boyfriend, who is a classmate, on the occasion of the Raja festival, they said.
The incident took place as a large number of people congregated on Badamba-Gopinathpur T-Bridge on the occasion of Makar Mela, a police officer said.
Amid a row over change in stand over voting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday asserted it is a secular regional outfit and maintains equal distance from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance bloc led by the Congress.
The Odisha assembly has a strength of 147 MLAs while there are 21 Lok Sabha MP seats in the state.
The social and educational conditions of 208 OBC communities enlisted by the state government will be collected during the survey, which will be followed by a special drive to ensure that none were left out across the state, an official said.
Kumar had also made it clear that he was in the process of uniting the non-BJP leaders.
The survey will encompass various indicators of backwardness such as occupation, educational qualification along with the type of educational institutions attended by members of the households to gauge the social and educational conditions of the backwardness in Odisha, the official said.
Naveen Patnaik, who steered the Biju Janata Dal to a landslide victory in the Odisha assembly elections, was on Wednesday sworn in as chief minister for a fourth consecutive term.
The 'Invest Odisha' mobile app is currently available on the Android platform.
A large chunk of the Rs 8.8 lakh crore of investments the Patnaik government had attracted is in uncertain territory.
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