Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Bengalis, Gujaratis celebrate Durga Puja in Silk City
Adi Shakti Tara Tarini near Berhampur, Odisha |
BERHAMPUR:
They are living far away from their homelands. But, Bengali and Gujarati
settlers of Berhampur have been celebrating Durga Puja in their traditional way
for years. The Bengalis started celebrating puja for the first time in the Silk
City around 79 years ago. "Durga
Puja is an integral part of Bengali culture. We celebrate the autumn festival
wherever we reside," said A K Sarkar, president of Adi Durga Puja
Committee in the town. The rituals started on Sunday. "As we started the
Durga Puja in the town for the first time, we named it Adi (first) Durga
Puja," said Narayan Saha, a member of the Bengali community. Some Bengali
employees of the erstwhile Bengal-Nagpur Railway organized the first Durga Puja
of the community in the railway station area in 1932.
The
Bengalis have already established a permanent pandal at Chatterjee Lane, near
Old Bus Stand in Barracks. "We have been celebrating the puja on the
pandal since 1938," said Ashok Kumar Jana, a member of the puja committee.
"Not only Bengali families in the town but also people of other faiths
gather here during the puja," said Deepa Rani Chakladar, a Bengali. It's
also an occasion for a get-together of all Bengali families in the town. A
large chunk of Bengali families are living in the Silk City. "Even though
we are living away from Bengal, we are not alienated from the Bengali
culture," said P K Sarkar, secretary of the committee. Priests and artists
to make the idol are brought from West Bengal. "Our aim is to keep the
tradition alive," said Susanta Ghose, another Bengali.
Similarly,
Gujaratis celebrate Navaratri too. Gujarati girls perform "Garaba
raj" and "Dandia" dances during the period. "We celebrate
the festival in our traditional manner even though we have settled here since
long," said Naresh Vagheal, a Gujarati the community which has a strong presence in the city.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Modern flower market and training centre for floriculture inaugurated in Berhampur
A modern flower market and training centre for floriculture was
inaugurated at Ambapua area of the city by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on
Friday. The project was aimed at promoting floriculture in six districts -- Ganjam,
Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kandhamal, Boudh, and Nayagarh. It was established
at a cost of Rs. 2.55 crore. Out of it, Rs. 1.92 crore was sanctioned under the
Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojna and the remaining amount was invested by
Regulated Market Committee (RMC), Digapahandi. Members of Ganjam District
Flower Growers’ Association (GDFGA) welcomed establishment of the centre. They
said it was their long- standing demand and finally their dream came true. The
modern flower market at the centre would provide all facilities for proper marketing
of flower collected from growers to increase their profit.
Flower grading
It has a receiving dock, flower grading area, modern cooling chamber
for preservation of flowers, and a florist-flower distribution area. It has
packing centre where flowers would be packed in scientific process so that they
could be transported to far off places. The centre also has a dormitory for
flower growers coming from outside, an auction hall, and a well-facilitated
conference hall. GDFGA secretary Sridhar Verma said the flower market was on
par with any modern flower market centre in the country.
Training
Mr. Verma said it was planned to train 5,000 farmers of six districts
regarding intricacies of floriculture during the first phase. During the
training, farmers would be trained in hi-tech floriculture. They would be
provided indepth knowledge about plantation, micro irrigation, flowering plant
protection, and their management by experts during the training process. Flower
growers, who attended the inaugural function, felt the centre would give a
fillip to commercial floriculture.
Source: The Hindu
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Berhampur keen to host a neat & clean puja
BERHAMPUR: The Berhampur Municipal
Corporation (BMC) has asked puja committees and traders in the town to keep
their surroundings clean during Dussehra as the Silk City recently saw an
outbreak of dengue. "We have asked puja organizers to ensure the pandal
surroundings are clean. Similarly, business establishments have also been asked
to dump garbage only in dustbins. Sweepers of the BMC will collect the garbage
from their doorsteps," BMC commissioner A K Mohanty said.
"Sanitation is essential as
thousands of people visit the city every day during Dussehera to have a glimpse
of decorated pandals and idols, as well as for shopping. We have also talked to
officials of Ganjam Chamber of Commerce (GCC) in this regard. We will write to
them again so that the traders put up dustbins at their establishments, at
least during the Puja period," the commissioner said.
A meeting between the BMC officials
and puja organizers was held here on Wednesday. The town will have at least 60
community pujas. While rituals have already started at some of these pandals
since Mahalaya, at some places puja will begin from Mahasthami.
Mayor S S Das said the civic body
would extend all possible cooperation to the puja committees in order to keep
their pandal premises neat and clean.
Ganjam district malaria officer U K
Mishra said almost 50 per cent of the dengue positive cases in the district
were reported from Berhampur. In view of this, maintaining cleanliness during
the puja is a must.
The BMC commissioner also said
anti-mosquito fogging drives would continue in the town during the puja. At
least four fogging machines had already been pressed into service, he added.
Source: Times of India, Business Standard
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The rise of Berhampur
Construction of multi-storied
residential apartments has gained pace in cities such as Berhampur, Sambalpur,
Balasore and Jharsuguda, which boasted only of standalone houses built by
individual owners till recently. Contrary to real estate development centered
around the Cuttack-Puri-Bhubaneswar triangle alone earlier, several residential
projects are coming up in Berhampur, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Balasore, among
other towns. Apart from individual merits of certain towns because of
industrial activities around them and their strategic locations, apartment
culture is picking up across Odisha towns, industry insiders said.
Around 50 apartments with a total
of 10,000 dwelling units are under different stages of construction in
Berhampur alone. "People prefer apartments and planned constructions to
buying land these days. Salaried employees have disposable money but don't have
time to construct a house by employing a contractor on their own. They are the
large clientele here," said P K Rajeev, a developer in the south Odisha
town.
Berhampur with its good road and
rail connectivity is a gateway to south Odisha, making it a preferred
destination for people from neighbouring districts to invest and own a house
here. The real estate price here is now as high as Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 per sq
ft, only a little less than the price in Bhubaneswar .
Jharsuguda, an emerging
industrial town, where the government is planning the state's second airport,
is coming up as another real estate hub. "Besides apartments, simplex and
duplex houses, there are huge takers for plot schemes here," said Sajid
Hussain, a developer there. Sambalpur is witnessing similar vertical and
horizontal expansion with multiple developers undertaking huge projects.
Developers said with land price
skyrocketing in Bhubaneswar ,
housing cost in the city is exceptionally high. "This is ruling out a
substantial section of low middle class families from buying a house in Bhubaneswar . These people
can easily afford houses in the regional and district towns. Many others who
have money tend to own houses both in the state capital and in their native
towns," said Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India
state president D S Tripathy.
Source: Times of India
Saturday, October 6, 2012
JSPL keen on captive port in Bahuda-Muhan in Ganjam; to have stake in Gopalpur port
Jindal
Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has ruled out the possibility of acquiring
controlling stake in Gopalpur Ports Ltd (GPL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV),
developing the seasonal port at the beach town near Berhampur city in south
Odisha into an all-weather port. JSPL had evinced interest in acquiring stake
after the Hong-Kong based Noble Group exited the SPV. Initially, GPL was
floated as a consortium of three partners with the other two companies being
Odisha Stevedores Ltd (OSL) and Delhi-based Sara International Ltd (SIL). The
port's total capacity was envisaged at 54 million tonne per annum (mtpa) and it
was to be developed at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. "We are not keen on a
controlling stake in GPL as the majority equity will be held by the two
existing partners- OSL and SIL. Also, JSPL has not decided the percentage of
stake it will have in GPL”, said a top JSPL official.
GPL
has already claimed to have achieved financial closure of Rs 1,400 crore for
the first stage of Phase-II of the deep sea port, with the signing of loan
agreement with a consortium of 11 banks. Meanwhile, JSPL said it is committed
to develop its captive port proposed at Bahuda Muhan in Ganjam district,
located within 50 km radius of the Gopalpur port. “We have already given a
presentation to the state government regarding our plan to establish a captive
port at Bahuda Muhan. After we pick up stake in GPL, we will have the first
right of refusal for developing a port at Bahuda Muhan as the site is within 50
km radius of the Gopalpur port”, said the JSPL official. The port involves a
capital cost of Rs 1424.4 crore while the operational cost of running the port
would be to the tune of Rs 152 crore per annum.
Source: Business Standard
Arvind Padhee takes over as RDC Southern Division
Arvind
Padhee took over as the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), southern
division, in the city on Thursday. After taking charge Mr. Padhee issued an
order to all district administrations in south Odisha banning use of gutka,
smoking and chewing of pan on office premises.
Source: The Hindu & Tathya.in
World Tourism Day celebrated in Berhampur
Source: My Berhampur.Com |
A
rally was taken out in Berhampur city to mark the World Tourism Day. It was
flagged off by Berhampur Sub-Collector Ajit Mishra from Berhampur stadium. The
rally included a ‘paryatan rath’ depicting cultural heritage and tourist places
of Ganjam district. Folk dance troupes of Ganjam district like ‘jodi sankha’,
‘ranapa’, ‘bagha nacha’ participated in the rally along with people of all
walks of life. A seminar on improvement of communication network for
development of tourism industry in Ganjam district was also held at conference
hall of RDC, southern division. Berhampur MLA R.C.C. Patnaik and Gopalpur MLA
Pradeep Panigrahy attended the seminar as guests.
Source: The Hindu