Home Minister P Chidambaram is understood to have spoken to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and urged him not not to set precedent by striking a deal with the Maoists that would pressure on other governments in future in any similar situation, sources said.
The private bus, on its way to Cuttack from Talcher, crashed into the railing of the bridge and plunged 30 feet down into the dry riverbed, they said.
With the Centre showing readiness to spend on development to counter Left-wing insurgency, getting more of their districts declared Naxal-affected seemed to be a common idea across state chief ministers at today's National Development Council meet.
Uncertainty prevailed over beginning of a joint operation against Naxalites in Orissa with the state government today accusing the Centre of not sending adequate paramilitary forces for the purpose.
The central government on Wednesday got a helicopter to conduct surveillance in the riot-hit areas of Orissa as the Christian community expressed apprehension of violence during Christmas. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and asked him to take necessary steps for protecting the lives and property of the people.
With Christians in riot-hit Kandhamal afraid to perform midnight mass in churches located in remote areas on Christmas eve, Orissa government on Tuesday promised adequate security to ensure a peaceful festival this time, official sources said. "We have made elaborate security arrangements in Kandhamal and elsewhere in the state," Home Secretary Aditya Padhi told reporters after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The Orissa government on Friday said the fate of any special anti-Maoist operation in the state would be clear only after five more battalions of the central para-military force arrive.
Anti-incumbency is fast losing relevance as an election factor in India.
Vowing not to give an 'inch of land belonging to Lord Jagannath of Puri' for the proposed Vedanta University in Orissa, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international secretary General Pravin Bhai Togadia on Wednesday said his outfit would fight tooth and nail to protect the 'land of the Lord'. "We vehemently oppose the move of the Naveen Patnaik-led government to hand over thousands of acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath and the VHP," he said.
Congress said another Mahabharat would be fought over proposed amendments in the land acquisition act.
Declaring that its erstwhile coalition partner in Orissa, Biju Janata Dal, and the Congress are its prime enemies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has threatened to expose the 'misdeeds' of the Naveen Patnaik government. "Being part of the coalition, we know the misdeeds of the Naveen government and have enough material against it, which would be made known during electioneering in phases," BJP said. It dubbed BJD as 'a great betrayer'.
With Orissa set to witness simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls, the decision on an alliance between Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party would be taken soon, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Monday.
In a bid to woo villagers to benefit from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Orissa government on Tuesday decided to offer health insurance and a house under the Indira Awas Yojana to each labourer who completed 100 days work in a year, official sources said.
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's office on Thursday received a fresh e-mail threat from suspected Maoists.According to the Orissa police, the e-mail threatened to carry out a Dantewada-type massacre in the state. This is the second e-mail threat received by the Orissa chief minister's office over the past fortnight. On March 27, the Orissa CMO received an e-mail threat, which warned about plans to blow up Patnaik's residence and important monuments in the state.
Demanding deployment of at least 2,000 personnel of paramilitary force in riot-hit Kandhamal till the end of the coming general elections, Orissa government on Tuesday said it was severely handicapped by lack of resources. Though Patnaik informed the conference that situation in Kandhamal was under control, he said complete normalcy could be restored only after all persons in the relief camp returned to their villages.
Bowing to pressure from various quarters, the Sangh Parivar on Friday night called off their proposed Orissa bandh on Christmas day following talks with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The state-wide bandh had been called by Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati Sradhanjali Samiti in protest against alleged failure of the state government in arresting the culprits and conspirators involved in the killing of Swami Laxmanananda in Kandhamal district.
Vowing to combat the Naxal violence with "full vigour," the Orissa government on Tuesday said Maoists must realise that their anti-national activities can't go on.
The Odisha government on Friday renamed the WheelerIsland in Bhadrak district as Abdul Kalam Island.
Even as spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar virtually offered to act as a mediator in the proposed talks with Naxalites, the Orissa government on Tuesday said it was not possible unless the ultras give up path of violence.
Describing Communist stalwart Jyoti Basu as an icon and towering personality in Indian politics, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday said his demise had marked the end of an era.
The Missionaries of Charity has been assured by the Orissa government of strong measures being taken in troubled Kandhamal district, its Superior General, Sister Nirmala said on Tuesday.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
'Parties which supported me were all threatened. This could hardly have been called a fair election.' 'This is Modi's India.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to project senior leader Dharmendra Pradhan, 40, as its chief ministerial candidate in Orissa after its alliance with the Naveen Patnaik led Biju Janata Dal came to an end on March 7.The BJP's central election committee on Friday cleared its six sitting MPs to seek re-election, with the exception of Pradhan's constituency Deogarh, leading to speculations that he will be the party's CM candidate for the assembly elections.
The new political alignments in Orissa are not a sudden development. Low-key consultations between Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik and Communist Party of India - Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury had been on even before March 5, though it was on that day the two leaders spoke to each other directly.However, the two leaders decided not to interact for the next few days fearing that their high-profile meetings would alert the BJP.
The Bhartiya Janata Party would spend Rs 35 crore, sending SMSes to the electorate to woo them. The party described the turn about by Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik as "most unfortunate."
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was directed by Governor M C Bhandare on Sunday to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly on March 11 after his coalition government was reduced to a minority following Bharatiya Janata Party's withdrawal of support ending their 11-year-old alliance.
In a major blow to the National Democratic Alliance, the Biju Janata Dal announced on Saturday that it had split from the Bharatiya Janata Dal, over failure to reach a seat sharing deal for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls."The BJP-BJD will contest separately," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters, adding that 'winnability' was the reason behind the break up in the decade-old alliance.
The plan includes raising the capacity of its aluminium smelter to 2 million tonne, Lanjigarh alumina refinery capacity to 5 million tonne per annum and generation of 4,000 MW power in the state. About 700 small and medium enterprises can come up in the proposed aluminium park. Vedanta will not only supply the metal required for these units, but also supply them power from its 4,000 MW power plant in the locality.
President Ram Nath Kovind along with First Lady Savita Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and other leaders joined the fellow citizens on Sunday to express their gratitude towards all those who are safeguarding the health of the nation in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Chief ministers of five mineral-rich states, including Chhattisgarh, will meet Home Minister Shivraj Patil in New Delhi tomorrow to demand rejection of the recommendations of the Hooda Committee on mining.
The Orissa government on Tuesday said that it would take the help of para-military forces like the Central Reserve Police Force to face the challenge. "We will initiate action through para-military force and the local police to stop children from joining Maoists," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said. The banned CPI-Maoist had targeted poor children and school dropouts to expand their base in the area.
The tribal leader, India's youngest president at 64 and the first to be born after Independence, took oath of office in the name of god to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law'.
While as many as 3,000 IT professionals were now busy working at the first Infosys project in the state, he said about 5,000 workers would get placement in its second project.
It is remarkable that all three states that had assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim have re-elected the parties that were running their governments till now.
There is no one in Telangana to match KCR's stature and he believes he has outgrown the state, observes Aditi Phadnis.
According to the latest assessment, 800 houses were damaged in the violence since December 24 with 580 families, including 336 below the poverty line, affected.
Protesters torched 24 houses in Kandhamal on Saturday as the death toll in the week-long communal violence rose to 14, with the recovery of two more bodies in the Orissa district.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was headed for the curfew-bound district to review the situation in the affected areas and the Ashram at Jalespeta, where Vishwa Hindu Parishad Laxamanada Saraswati was gunned down along with three others on August 23, leading to the violence.
The chief ministers of five mineral-rich states on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for local value addition in the National Mineral Policy (NMP). They also argued that foreign firms must not be allowed to grab control of prized natural resources. The team consisted of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chhatishgarh CM Raman Singh, Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Rajasthan's Vasundhara Raje.
India is not evolving towards a bipolar polity, but towards a complex multipolar system, in which regional and caste-based parties are indispensable to government formation at the Centre. The Left may shrink in size but will have a place of its own, which cannot be ignored.
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