MKCG medical college gears up for golden jubilee celebrations

Courtesy:  http://bmsada.blogspot.in (Dr. Jitamitra Mishra)

Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati (MKCG) medical college of Berhampur would celebrate its golden jubilee this year. Preparations are on to have a grand ceremony to mark the golden jubilee of this only medical college and referral hospital in south Odisha. According to the chairman of the golden jubilee celebration committee of the medical college, Sonamali Bag, who also happens to be its dean and principal, the five-day golden jubilee celebrations would start in the first week of December. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has confirmed his participation in the five-day event. Efforts were on to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other political leaders and senior officers of the state too, said N.C. Padhi, chief advisor of the core-committee. An organising committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the dean and principal of MKCG medical college. Former MKCGians, as well as faculty members, had been invited to mail their suggestions to the gic2012mkcg@gmail.com and gic2012mkcg@yahoo.com, Padhi said.

“An amount of Rs 1.2 crore would be spent for the function. We plan to raise the funds through contributions from doctors. We would mark the names of doctors in golden letters for contribution of Rs 50,000, in silver letters for Rs 25,000 and in bronze letters for Rs 10,000,” said organising secretary, Sachidananda Mahanty. Oratory, quiz, cultural programmes and academic lectures by doctors on strategic subjects will be organised. Over 5,000 delegates and guests are expected to attend the celebrations. “The college has produced nearly 6,000 medical graduates and postgraduates over the past 50 years. They are now well-settled, working in different parts of the state, country and even abroad. We hope many of them will attend the event,” said Padhi. The registration fee for the event is Rs 2,000. Bharati Mishra, the financial advisor, said more than 200 saplings had been planted on the campus since August 15 as ‘golden jubilee’ trees. “We would organise a mega health and blood donation camps on November 1,” she added. Kamala Kanta Panigrahi, associate advisor of the core-committee, stressed that it would be a social get-together of ex-MKCGians and faculty members.

The government medical college and hospital is named after the late Maharaja of Paralakhemundi. It is the only major medical institution in south Odisha that serves as a referral hospital. This college is said to have the largest campus of all three government medical colleges in the state.

Source: The Telegraph and The Hindu

Equipment arrival begins for Tata's Gopalpur Industrial Park

Source: The Sambad

The first consignment of equipment for Tata Steel's Ferro Chrome Plant at the Gopalpur Industrial Park has arrived. The equipment that has arrived include heat exchanger, bag filters, receiving hoppers, damper, diffuser and pneumatic headers (for Furnace gas cleaning plant). Besides, the Company has already placed orders for other equipment like main furnace, furnace electrode, Furnace Transformer and Briquetting plant . As anchor investor at the Gopalpur Industrial Park, Tata Steel initially will set up a 55,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) capacity Ferro Chrome Plant and 400,000 TPA Steel Rebar Mill at an estimated cumulative investment of Rs 1,000 crore. Both the units will generate employment for about 1,000 people. Work on the project is slated to begin soon. The Union Ministry of Environment & Forests has accorded environmental clearance for the said initial anchor investments by Tata Steel.A desalination plant is also proposed to be set up. The plant will treat sea water such that it can be used to meet the requirements of industries that will come up at the Gopalpur Industrial Park. The Gopalpur Industrial Park, will primarily attract investments from steel and allied downstream industries, engineering, chemicals products, among other sectors. The cumulative investment envisaged at Gopalpur Industrial Park has been envisaged at Rs 10,000 – 15,000 crore. The Gopalpur Industrial Park will also create employment opportunities for around 10,000 people. It will also facilitate industrial development of the region.

Source: OrissaDiary

TATA’s Gopalpur Industrial Park gets green nod

BERHAMPUR: The Ministry of Environment and Forests has accorded the much-awaited environment clearance to a group of mid-scale projects of Tata Steel at its upcoming industrial park at Gopalpur in south Odisha. The projects include a 55,000-tonne per annum (TPA) high carbon ferrochrome plant, a 400,000-TPA rebar mill and a desalination plant to meet the water requirement of the industrial park.  “While the preliminary work for these projects has already started, the actual work will pick up momentum from the next month. The plants are expected to be completed by the end of next year,” said A K Ojha, general manager, Gopalpur project. As the key investor of the industrial park, Tata Steel would invest about Rs 800 crore on these projects, which would initially create employment for 1,000 people. Tata Steel had acquired about 2,800 acres of land at Gopalpur in mid-1990s for setting up of a mega steel plant. But the company later shelved the project and decided to set up an industrial park there. This would be the fourth ferroalloys plant of Tata Steel in Odisha. The company is currently operating three ferroalloys plants at Joda, Bamanipal and Athgarh (through its subsidiary Rawmet) with capacities of 50,000 tonnes per annum each.

Source: Business Standard

IREL applies for mining of rare earth in Puri coast

BERHAMPUR: Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), which comes under the Department of Atomic Energy, has sought permission for rare earth mining in the coastal stretch in Bramhagiri in Odisha's Puri district. "We have already applied for a prospective license from the Odisha government for mining in the coastal areas of around 2,500 hectares at Bramhagiri in Puri district," IREL Chairman and Managing Director R N Patra said. The Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, Hyderabad, a constituent unit under the DAE, has conducted survey and found huge deposits of rare earths minerals in the coastal stretch of Puri. The coastal stretch in Puri will be the second area off Odisha coast where deposits of the minerals are found after the coastal areas in Ganjam district.

In order to harness the huge deposits across a mining area of 24.64 sq km from Ganjam coast, IREL has set up Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM), one of its units at Matikhola near Chhatrapur, Patra said. The company has been mining and separating heavy minerals like ilmenite, rutile, zircon, silimanite, garnet and monazite from beach sands which are high in demand in internal and foreign countries which are used in the manufacture of white pigment, ceramics, polishing glass and TV tubes. "There is a good deposit of rare earths minerals in the Bramhagiri stretch. So we applied for the prospective license," IREL chief said. The IREL has taken lease of around 2,400 hectares off Ganjam coast for mining and to separate the heavy minerals from the sand. The mining was completed in around 35% of the leased areas so far.

Source: Business Standard

State neglect halts Greater Berhampur dream

Barracks Stadium, Berhampur

Berhampur: The process to form Greater Berhampur consisting of Berhampur, Gopalpur, Chatrapur urban areas and 139 adjoining villages is moving at a snail’s place because of the absence of a comprehensive development plan. On January 1, 2009, the state government declared Berhampur the third municipal corporation of Odisha and the gazette notification had proposed increase of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation jurisdiction. “The corporation has no role to play for the increase of its area. The state government must take initiatives,” said commissioner of the civic body Akshya Kumar Mahanty.  Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik, local BJD MLA, said the proposal was under consideration and “Greater Berhampur will be beneficial to the people and a political boost is needed to implement the proposal”.  “Preparation of the plan is necessary for development of the proposed Greater Berhampur,” said Kailash Rana, chairman of the Berhampur Development Area.  The Town and Country Planning Organisation, the technical advisory body of the Union urban development ministry, is preparing the plan with the help of the Odisha remote sensing application centre, town planning department of the state government and the Berhampur Development Area. “The advisory body called the vice-chairman and planning member of the Berhampur Development Area to New Delhi to discuss about the plan this month and we expect that it would be ready soon,” Rana said. The plan preparation would cost around Rs 1,09,75,000. Sukanti Sahu, zilla parishad member and former chairman of the Nimakhandi panchayat, said though three years had gone, the elected panchayat bodies, which were to be included in Greater Berhampur, had not received any communiqué regarding their proposed inclusion in the Berhampur Municipal Corporation.

Source: The Telegraph

Jayshree Chemicals to source salt locally

BERHAMPUR: Caustic soda producer Jayshree Chemicals Limited (JCL), an S K Bangur Group company, has agreed to procure locally produced salt from Bahuda Salt Production and Sales Cooperative Society (BSPSCS) based in Ganjam district. JCL was mainly sourcing salt from Gujarat owing to inferior quality of the local salt. Initially, the company will procure 1,000 tonnes of salt from the cooperative society on an experimental basis. If the salt is found to be suitable to run the plant, some 40 km from here, the company will go for further procurement. This was decided at a meeting between the officials of JCL, BCPSCS and the district officials, presided over by Ganjam collector Krishan Kumar.

Source: Business Standard

UGC sanctions fund for marine research in Berhampur University

Berhampur University, India

BERHAMPUR: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has sanctioned Rs 74.80 lakh to Berhampur University's marine science department to undertake research on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). The five-year project was sanctioned under the UGC's special assistance programme (SAP), said Bhanja Vihar vice chancellor JK Mohapatra. The history and Odia departments have also received Rs 39 lakh and Rs 85 lakh respectively under the UGC's scheme to conduct research on people's history and folk and tribal studies in southern Odisha. "The sanction of the research project on the ICZM by the UGC assumes importance in the backdrop of a long coastline of about 482-km in the state. Several lakhs of people in the state depend on the sea for their livelihood," the vice chancellor added.

Management and conservation of coastal marine ecosystems in recent years was made mandatory for all maritime states worldwide after the Earth Summit at Rio de Janerio a decade ago, he said. "We will carry out the research on the coastal biodiversity, conservation and management, coastal pollution and water quality management and the erosion under the project", said head of the marine science department Kali Charan Sahu. While equipments worth around Rs 32 lakh would be purchased for the project, Rs 4 lakh would be spent on collecting satellite data from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad, Sahu said. The students of the oceanography and marine biology would be entrusted to their filed studies in the project, while two full time research assistances, which were sanctioned by the UGC, would be appointed, Sahu said.

Meanwhile, the university has submitted a proposal to the UGC for establishment of a "centre for extension services on coastal zone management" in the university under its 12th five year plan. The university has sought Rs 15.50-crore for the centre, which would create awareness among sea users, conservationists and different self help groups in the coastal area on protection and conservation of different biodiversity hotspots, minimization of pollution and to develop the eco-tourism projects.

Source: Times of India

Is Rushikulya dying a slow death?

River Rushikulya near Tara-Tarini Hill Shrine

Heavy siltation of the Rushikulya river has led to increased conductivity of the water and the river bed has risen up to the land level making it unfit for consumption and even cultivation. Around 60 per cent of arable land in Ganjam district receives water from this river. According to a report by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the ability to conduct electricity (conductivity) of Rushikulya is 20 times more than the ideal 2,250 micro mhos/cm, which is highest in the State. The high electrical conductivity may adversely affect the yield per hectare in the district. The river is considered lifeline of the farmers in Ganjam. The river’s mean conductivity has been estimated 10 times higher at over 20,786 micro mhos/cm and is among the few in the country to exhibit such conductivity. The CPCB report states that high conductivity would increase the corrosive characteristic of the water, hence it would become unfit for use. Experts of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology stated that concentration of dissolved salts in the water increases the conductivity. They said dissolution of salts would either be through groundwater or inflow of surface water into the river. Conductivity not only affects the harvest but also the quality of the soil. Worse still, water availability for the crop would reduce greatly. This would be catastrophic for the district that has around 80 per cent of its cultivated area under irrigation during kharif season. Surface water has been the mainstay of irrigation in the district. “Except for a patch work, no steps were taken to renovate the riverbed. The water is unfit for drinking and irrigating,” alleged social scientist Chitaranjan Dash. He urged the Government to take steps to reduce the conductivity and called for research on the effect on humans if they consumed this water.

Source: New Indian Express