BJP activists burning effigy of Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout in Sambalpur.

SAMBALPUR: The failure of the Agriculture Minister and Chairman of District Planning Committee, Damodar Rout, to attend the meeting today was condemned by the committee members as well as local leaders.

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to expedite construction of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the State Government today decided to relax norms for leasing out stone quarries for manufacturing stones and chips.

SAMBALPUR: Even as a second bridge over the river Mahanadi here is on the cards, the existing one has virtually become a death trap.

Constructed at Durgapali in 1951 at the immediate downstream of the Hirakud dam project, the 840-metre-long bridge has been the backbone of NH-6.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as there is no respite from the towering inferno in Jaipur, a similar incident is waiting to happen in Sambalpur.

While the oil depot in Jaipur was on the outskirts of the city, in Sambalpur the depots are in the heart of the town. And in case, fire breaks out, the town will be razed.

SAMBALPUR: A visit of a three-member delegation of civil liberties group Lok Nayak Jay Prakash International Research and Development Centre to the villages of Khapsadera, Pradhan Pali and Jamankira in Sambalpur district and Sagarpali in Jharsuguda district where farmers committed suicide, concluded today.

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) has decided to constitute two committees for making the proposed farmers

DROUGHT conditions triggered a pest attack in 12 paddy growing districts of Orissa. The swarming caterpillars (Spodoptera mauritia) ruined crops on 89,000 hectares (ha) of the four million ha under paddy cultivation in the state. Sambalpur district was the worst affected; paddy crops on nearly 33,000 ha were destroyed by the pest, called leda poka in Orissa. In Malkangiri district,

SAMBALPUR: Not much has changed for the people of Kaliapada, situated opposite Shyam DRI Private Limited. Located in Pondloi village along the State Highway 10 in Rengali block, the company is on an expansion mode but will it deliver what the 40-odd tribal families inhabiting the village have been looking for? No, at least this is what the villagers strongly feel.

SAMBALPUR: The recent rains may have given some solace to the farmers panicked by the drought-like conditions. But the worries are far from over. They are fighting the problem of wild grass and attacks by stem borer and blast pests.

Bhubaneswar: Hindalco Industries Ltd, the flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, is all set to set up facilities for aluminium flat and rolled products at Hirakud in Orissa with an investment of Rs 850 crore.

The project, which will have a capacity of 2.85 lakh tonne and employ about 250 persons, has been cleared by the single window committee (SWC) of the Orissa government and.