Kendrapada: The World Bank authorities have expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in handover of the roadside land required for widening of the 106-KM long Cuttack-Chandballi State Highway in state, official sources said. The funding agency has refused to start road widening work for the Rs 800 crore worth State Highway project as the state government agencies have failed to make the transfer of the 30 per cent of roadside land to the executing agency, sources said.

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has started moves to establish a Directorate of Radiation Safety to regulate the functioning of medical diagnostic radiology facilities like X-ray units mushrooming in cities and towns. The directorate would take over the responsibility of monitoring the radiology facilities from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which is finding it increasingly difficult to exercise control. The board is pushing for decentralisation through setting up of DRS or Radiation Safety Agency (RSA) at the State level.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as sewerage and drainage projects of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar planned under the Integrated Sanitation Improvement Programme, are scheduled to be completed in two years, the work is very sluggish. Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik reviewed the progress of the externally- aided projects at a high-level meeting here recently. The meeting revealed that detailed engineering plan had been completed and there was no requirement of additional land for the projects. Project clearance from different Government agencies is being obtained.

Move to ease pricing pressure on ferrochrome and stainless steel players. Beginning second quarter, Odisha's state-owned mining firm will e-auction chrome, an ore essential to make stainless steel. By resorting to auctions, Orissa Mining Corporation is preempting a similar move for iron ore linkages, but more immediately addressing a long pending demand from its suppliers to address the high prices for chrome.

BHUBANESWAR: In a major haul, forest sleuths seized at least nine truck loads of timber from an illegally running depot-cum-carpentry unit in Deulasahi near Bidanasi area of Cuttack in the wee hours of Wednesday. The value of the seized timber could run into ` 12 lakh. Acting on a tip off from City Division DFO Jayant Kumar Das, a team was waiting at Deulasahi where a Mahindra pick-up van arrived to unload timber on the premises. When the driver and helper saw the team, led by Jobra Range Officer Pranab Mohanty, they fled leaving the vehicle.

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has prepared draft amendment to make provisions under the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act, 1972, more stringent. The draft amendment is done on the lines of laws framed by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments and the proposed amendment suggests collection of hefty rent from unauthorised occupants of Government land till their eviction, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro told the Assembly on Tuesday.

Cuttack: The Odisha High Court has completed hearing on a PIL that has challenged the alleged unauthorised constructions on the Mahanadi islet at Hadiapatha here for the purpose of an intake well that would facilitate supply of water for the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) oil refinery in Paradip. The Division Bench of Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice BN Mohapatra, which has been adjudicating over the PIL since November last year, however, reserved its order that is likely to be pronounced on February 27, informed petitioner-advocate Nishikant Mishra.

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday said that it has already set up five temporary shelters for homeless people in three cities and was looking for sponsors for building permanent shelter homes in the state. Replying to a question on a report of the Supreme Court's commissioners, chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik told reporters that while two temporary shelters were operating each in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, one such facility had been made in Puri.

CUTTACK: Even as the denizens of the millennium city continue to writhe under the sting of a severe mosquito menace, the use of larvicide is now at the centre of a tussle between the civic administration and the State Health department. While the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has trained its guns on the Bacillus Thruingiensis Israelensis (BTI) molecule used as larvicide, terming it ineffective in the local conditions, the State Public Health authorities are not yet ready to buy the allegations.

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government declared 17 of the 30 districts as drought-affected on Thursday. The announcement comes a day after Opposition Congress and BJP slammed the BJD Government for the alleged delay in providing assistance to the affected farmers.

The decision was taken after receiving reports on possible crop loss of 50 per cent or more in 12,046 villages under 113 blocks and 100 wards under 25 urban local bodies in the 17 districts, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro informed the Assembly.