Tag: Columnist Ashutosh Mishra

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Former Congress MP, Pradeep Majhi was recently caught on camera asking someone over phone to keep petrol and diesel ready and set things on fire once instructions were issued. The video showing Majhi making the call was apparently shot during the Nabarangpur Bandh organised by his party to protest the alleged […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Maoist rebels recently ransacked the camp office of a road contractor in the Jagdalpur area of Rayagada district, torching JCB machines engaged in road construction. The radicals left behind posters threatening villagers who cooperated in the project work. This has become a pattern with the ultras who appear determined to oppose […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: A countrywide debate is raging over Meerut SP (city) Akhilesh Narayan Singh’s alleged ‘ go to Pakistan ’ comment made during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). It has come to light via a video purportedly shot during the protests in the communally sensitive city of Uttar Pradesh. The video, […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: The suspension of an IAS officer in connection with graft is likely to restore people’s confidence in the government’s resolve to tackle corruption in high places. Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, who holds the Home portfolio, has been facing criticism for being soft towards the officers of the elite administrative service while […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Fuelled by grinding poverty trafficking of women from different parts of the state has emerged as a major challenge for the law-enforcing authorities. The social dimension of this inhuman trade is just as shocking as its criminal aspect. In most cases, young women are practically sold by impoverished families to middlemen […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: The good news is that Odisha’s forest cover has increased. The latest India State of Forest Report, as quoted in a section of the media, says that the state has added 274 sq km of forest in the last two years. Currently, our forested area extends up to 51,619 sq km […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Koraput administration recently organised a mega awareness camp at one of the villages under the disputed Kotia panchayat bordering Andhra Pradesh to inform people about the various social security schemes of the state government. Old age pension was distributed among the eligible beneficiaries and health check-ups were also carried out. The […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Among the major tourist attractions of the state the beaches at Puri and Gopalpur have been rated as the second and fourth most clean in the country respectively in a survey conducted by the National Centre for Coastal Research ( NCCR), an institute functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Finally the residents of Dhuliput and Maliguda, the two remote villages under the Chitrakonda block of Malkangiri’s once infamous “cut-off” area, rechristened as Swabhiman Anchal following the inauguration of Gurupriya bridge in 2018, have a metalled road. Cut off from development these villages have for decades been part of a benighted […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: The TV visuals of an Odisha MLA shaking and convulsing eerily during a religious celebration organised recently in Angul district must have caused a lot of mirth among viewers. The incident has, however, raised some awkward questions with reports in a section of the media suggesting that the legislator’s behaviour convinced […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Bird census in Bhitarkanika national park and Athgarh forest division has shown a jump in the number of winged guests. This is great news primarily because it confirms that feathered beauties have now begun to favour many more water bodies in the state in addition to Chilika, Asia’s largest brackish water […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Newspapers have reported about tourism minister, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi standing in a queue with other patients at the Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital, Bolangir, recently to consult doctors for an orthopaedic problem. The minister, who was on a visit to the hospital to review the facilities as part of state […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Not so long ago parent-teacher meetings (PTMs) were seen as an exercise typical of English medium schools. In a way, they distinguished the elite from the hoi polloi. Such distinctions are now getting blurred with governments willing to invest more in education and adopt healthier practices such as PTMs that make […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Recently a portion of the geo-synthetic tube wall erected at Kendrapara’s Pentha village to combat sea erosion was damaged in a fire. Media reports suggest that 30 gabion boxes of the wall that is made up of water-permeable geo-textile tubes filled with sand slurry were gutted in the mishap. This is […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Odisha government’s move to construct in-stream storage structures (ISS) in major river basins, if successful, will ensure that the state’s future water requirement is met without much difficulty. There is no denying the importance of such a project as the bulk of water from the major rivers of the state is […]