Sandeep Sahu

It simply doesn’t add up. On February 19 this year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik boasted before a delegation of representatives from various UN agencies that Odisha had brought a whopping eight million people above poverty...

As I watched the kaawariyas file past on National Highway No. 5 (now NH 16), dragging their feet along and occasionally letting out a muffled cry of ‘Bol Bom’, year after year, I often wondered...

Laxmidhar is distraught. The man from Tigiria, who looks after his family of five with the paan-cum-tea shop he runs below the under-construction Lingaraj Vihar flyover in Bhubaneswar, is about to be squeezed out of...

The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has been frequently pilloried and ridiculed for being a ‘jumla sarkar’ – and justifiably so. But surprisingly, the fact that the Naveen Patnaik dispensation in Odisha has been...

Let us not get distracted by the ugly and shameful tug of war among the three major political parties to corner – and deny – credit for the inordinately delayed Gurupriya bridge. Instead, we should...

It’s the fabled rabbit and tortoise story all over again. In a move that was in refreshing contrast to the lazy, laidback way it normally moves, the Odisha government was first off the blocks in...

As the circumstances leading to the death of Rakbar Khan, who was lynched by a ‘gau rakshak’ mob in Alwar in Rajasthan on Saturday night on suspicion of illegally carrying cattle, come to the fore,...

The ‘Smart City’ had never seen anything like it before. Marooned people being rescued by fire and ODRAF personnel; bikes, cars and even buses with passengers floating in water bang in the middle of busy...

The mask has fallen off. The slip is showing. And the jumla of ‘equi-distance’ now lies in tatters. By chickening out of the debate on the no confidence motion moved by the Opposition on Friday,...

As the sordid details of how gangster Syed Usman Ali alias ‘Tito’ built his Empire of Crime unravels layer by layer, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Kendrapara don flourished with active political patronage...

Naveen’s minders must be finding it hard to suppress a chuckle. After all, their sustained efforts to take the wind of out of the sail of Bhasha Andolan, the unique, three-year long movement to press...

Had he not been forced by circumstances to enter politics, Naveen Patnaik could certainly have made a great career in event management. The longest serving Odisha Chief Minister has few competitors among contemporary politicians when...

In its stupidity, the proposal to utilise the ‘vast stretch of vacant land’ at Kalinga Studios to build a sports complex in Bhubaneswar is on par with the ill-conceived idea of having the second campus...

Is Dutee Chand a VIP? Going strictly by the definition of the term, which stands for Very Important Person, she certainly is one. After all, she is the fastest woman athlete in the country at...

When in trouble, tug at Odia pride. That was exactly what the president of the contractors’ association Prabhat Das was trying to do when he laid the blame squarely on the alleged love for non...

Going to bed at 1 AM and getting up at 3.45 AM is not exactly how you would like your day to begin, especially when you are on vacation. But that is what happens when...

The initial portents were not very encouraging. “Sorry Sir, there are no rooms available here,” said the hassled looking middle aged man at the counter at the Aranya Guest House run by the Assam Tourism...

Will the provision of death penalty end the rape of children below 12 in the country? Unpalatable though it may sound, the harsh truth is it won’t. If harsher laws were enough deterrence for potential...

To use a cricketing term, it came against the run of play. Just when detractors of Prasad Harichandan were beginning to reconcile themselves to working under him at least till the next elections came the...

If the first one in 2016 was announced on TV by no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the current round appears to be an ‘undeclared’ demonetisation. Mamata Banerjee’s claim about a ‘financial emergency’ in...