The State Government has set a target to improve 2,158 km of State Highways to two-lane standards during the 12th Plan period.

Odisha has 1.8 billion tonne of bauxite reserve which is nearly 55 per cent of the country's deposit.

The State Government on Wednesday decided to provide pipe water supply to 1,048 tribal villages in the next three years.

Alleging that dust particles released by Toshali cement factory situated at Koraput's Ampabali under Pottangi block is polluting the atmosphere, tribals locked the factory for the second consecutiv

Heavy rainfall for the last three days has severely hit normal life in Odisha, particularly the southern parts, with at least three villages marooned in Kalahandi district.

The state government on Thursday said it has succeeded in achieving immunization coverage for 88 per cent children in Odisha in the age group of zero to five years.

KORAPUT: Traffic was hit for nearly five hours on the road leading to Nalco mining area at Damanjodi following a road blockade staged by villagers at Mathalput demanding supply of drinking water by the company on Wednesday. No Nalco employee was able to enter the mining area during the agitation.

The agitating villagers alleged that they used to get water from pipes laid by Nalco in Mathalput but all of a sudden Nalco authorities blocked the pipelines on Tuesday. "The Nalco authorities have deliberately blocked the pipeline. We demand immediate restoration of drinking water supply to Mathalput," said Suresh Saunta, president of Panchpatmali Peripheral Progressive Union (PMPPU).

Tribal development must for curbing Naxal growth, says Jairam Ramesh

For the residents of this tiny non-descript village in Odisha’s Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region, it was a rare celebratory occasion on Sunday when they got back the rights that had been snatched away by the British rulers nearly a century ago. The official transit passbook for cultivation and harvest of bamboo was handed over to the Jamguda Gram Sabha by Orissa forest officials. Union Rural Development and Tribal Affairs Ministers Jairam Ramesh and Kishore Chandra Deo and Odisha Revenue minister Surjya Narayan Patra attended a Tribal Rights festival organised by the Gram Sabha to mark the event.

Villagers from Mali Parbat are willing to compensate state for its loss in royalty from bauxite mines

Villagers protesting against Hindalco’s plan to mine bauxite at Mali Parbat in the Koraput district in Odisha have come up with a unique proposal that offers to compensate the state for its loss in revenue from royalty. Forty one villages from the district, two thirds of whose largely tribal population live below poverty line, have proposed to soon pass panchayat resolutions promising to pay . 35 crore, or what they estimate will be the royalty Hindalco is likely to pay the state over 15 years of the project’s life. Hindalco estimates that its industrial activity in the backward region will earn the state three to four times as much.

Sharing the concerns of the Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri in Kalahandi district whose protests had put a halt to Vedanta’s bauxite mining plan two years ago, over hundreds of tribals, under the

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