The Task Force headed by former Odisha DG Police, Abhay, will formulate a state policy within the context of National Policy on Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 2012, the State home department said in a resolution.
The mandate of the Task Force will be to coordinate, suggest action in drug demand reduction, raise community awareness, increase community participation, and intervention in schools, colleges, and among youth.
In Odisha, it is imperative to give a serious push to efforts to contain drug abuse and drug trafficking, so that the emerging problem is nipped in the bud. This can be done by a combination of demand reduction, supply reduction, and harm reduction measures, it said.
As per the government, Odisha has emerged as a major centre for drug trafficking over the last few years with cannabis grown in erstwhile Maoist-affected areas being smuggled all over the country.
According to official figures, while 198 quintals of cannabis were seized in 2015, it has increased to 1,600 quintals in 2021.
There will be a multi-departmental coordination committee headed by the Chief Secretary and co-chaired by the State Task Force's Chairman, the resolution said.
The coordination committee will comprise secretaries of home, health and family welfare, social security, excise, school and mass education, higher education, information and public relation, and information technology departments.
The Chairman can also constitute smaller sub-committees of the Task Force to study any aspect in detail and make recommendations.
Reviewing the status of investment in the industrial sector as per the promises made by the companies at the recent Make In Odisha Conclave at the State Secretariat here, the chief minister directed the concerned departments to form an inter-ministerial committee to be headed by the Industries minister as its chairperson with the ministers of Mines, MSME, Forest and Environment and IT as members.
“To expedite the process, the meeting decided to entrust the responsibility to senior bureaucrats. A task force comprising of senior bureaucrats would be formed. The task force would be headed by the chief secretary with secretaries of 12 departments would be the other members. The chief minister gave 3-year time to the officials to ensure minimum capital investments to the tune of Rs1.5 lakh crore in the state,” Industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra told media persons after the meeting.
According to reports, Dipesh Shah, a businessman from Ahmadabad had climbed the Taladhwaja chariot of Lord Balabhadra in the wee hours July 8. After having the darshan of the Lord, he had gone to the Nandighosa chariot for the darshan of of Lord Jagannath. While climbing the chariot, he was detained by the police. Following a complaint lodged by the Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), police arrested Shah yesterday after examining the CCTV footage.
Talking to media persons, IIC of Kumbharapada police station Krushna Chandra Sethi said CCTV footage showed Shah climbing Taladhwaja chariot at about 3.40 AM on Friday. Jagannath Temple Police (JTP) and local police caught him while he was trying to climb Nandighosa chariot.
"Police has registered a case against Shah under section 188 of the IPC and section 30 of Shri Jagannath Temple Act,” the IIC added.
To a question on the action to be taken against a woman devotee who was seen climbing the chariot with a servitor, he said the police will take action only after the SJTA takes a decision in this regard.
Bhubaneswar: Modalities for implementation of recommendations of the task force constituted to look into allotment of plots and flats under discretionary quota have got approval from the State government today.
After the task force’s recommendations come into force, total allotments of 6,001 flats and plots by BDA, CDA, Housing Board and GA since January 1, 1995, would be cancelled.
The State Vigilance would probe into more than one allotments under discretionary quota.
On April 20, Estate director Ramnarayan Das had said, “Though the State Cabinet had approved the task force report, modalities as sought by the law department for implementation of the recommendations were sent to the government for approval. We are expecting within 7-8 days the approval will be given.”
BJP and Congress had slammed the government over the letter written by the Housing and Urban Development department to BDA, CDA and Odisha State Housing Board asking them not to hand over the files related to allotment of plots and flats to Vigilance department. Leaders from both the Opposition parties also questioned the effectiveness of the report of the task force constituted to look into allotment of plots and flats under discretionary quota.
The Cabinet had approved the task force report on December 18, 2014.
"With the 2019 elections coming, we are pulling together a group of specialists to work together with political parties," Richard Allan, Facebook's Vice President for Global Policy Solutions, told the media here.
Facebook has also set a goal of bringing a transparency feature for political ads -- now available in the US and Brazil -- to India by March next year, Allan informed.
With the new ad architecture in place, people would be able to see who paid for a particular political ad.
In May this year, Facebook announced that all election-related ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US must be clearly labelled -- including a "Paid for by" disclosure from the advertiser at the top of the ad.
When users click on the label, they would be taken to an archive with more information such as the campaign budget associated with an individual ad and how many people saw it - including their age, location and gender, Facebook had said.
The social media giant later introduced the transparency feature in Brazil.
The introduction of the same feature in India would help users identify political propaganda easily.
"The task force for India will have security specialists and content specialists, among others, who will try to understand all the possible forms of election-related abuse in India," added Allan during a workshop on Facebook's "community standards" in the capital.
Allan explained that while the disinformation linked to real-world violence is checked by the team mandated to maintain Facebook's community standards, other forms of disinformation are handled by a different team of fact checkers.
"The challenge for the task force in India would be to distinguish between real political news and political propaganda," Allan noted, adding that the team would be very much based in the country and would consist of both existing human resources working on these issues within the company and new recruits.
Facebook came under intense scrutiny of policy makers in the US after allegations of Russia-linked accounts using the social networking platform to spread divisive messages during the 2016 presidential election surfaced.
Since then, it has stepped up efforts to check abuse of its platform by bringing in more transparency in the conduct of its businesses, including in advertisement policies.
Echoing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's earlier comments on elections across the world, Allan said the social media platform "wants to help countries around the world, including India, to conduct free and fair elections".
In April, Zuckerberg said Facebook will ensure that its platform is not misused to influence elections in India and elsewhere.
"Our goals are to understand Facebook's impact on upcoming elections -- like Brazil, India, Mexico and the US midterms -- and to inform our future product and policy decisions," he told US lawmakers during a hearing.
Facebook uses a combination of technology, including Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and reports from its community to identify violating content on the platform.
The reports are reviewed by members of its "Community Operations" team who review content in over 50 languages in the world, including 12 from India.
"By the end of 2018, we will have 20,000 people working on these issues, double the number we had at the same time last year," he said.
"We are also working to enhance the work we do to proactively detect violating content," Allan said.
Speaking at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here later in the day, Allan said Facebook was cooperating fully with the investigating agency (Central Bureau of Investigation) in India with regard to the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal.
The British political consultancy firm was in the midst of a huge controversy for allegedly inappropriately harvesting data from about 87 million Facebook accounts.
Without giving details of the impact that the Cambridge Analytica scandal had on India, he said that the impact was probably limited and that most users in India need not worry that their data was stolen.
"Yes, we have a responsibility to keep data safe. We employ some of the best security engineers in the world. When we notice a breach, we let people know immediately," Allan said at the summit.
"We are investing more and more in countries outside the US so that they can tell us how our services should be designed," he said, adding that India was an important market for Facebook and that it was strengthening the team in India to understand the local forms of hate speech.
Some time at the beginning of the 1990s, an acquaintance offered this author a piece of land near Bahai Bhavan, close to the already bustling CRPF Square, for Rs 10, 000. Even after making allowance for the fact that the ‘offer’ was made over two and a half decades ago, this was a ridiculously low amount for a piece of land that was large enough to have a 3-4 bedroom house and still leave enough space for a badminton court! More alarmed than excited, I asked the man, “But who owns the land?” Pat came the nonchalant reply; “No one, actually. It belongs to the government. All you need is to construct a house and check in. You can rest assured no one is going to so much as raise a finger.”
If you think it was an empty boast, you are wrong. This man himself had ‘bought’ a piece of land in Nayapalli, not far from the land he was offering me, constructed rows of low-roof single-room structures and had let them out on rent without anyone asking a question! [To the best of my knowledge, he continues to enjoy possession of these premises and collects his ‘rent’ even now though he has moved into a more ‘respectable’ accommodation in IRC Village, just across the national highway.] Law-abiding citizen that he is, this columnist did not take the bait. But someone else did and has perhaps been living on it happily ever after.
If OTV’s ‘Maha Khulaasaa’ (It is no ‘khulaasaa’ actually, just the worst kept secret of our times) aired on Wednesday is anything to go by, things have not changed much in the 27 years since then. If anything, the ‘offers’ have become more lucrative coming as they do with the promise of electricity and water connection. At Rs 40, 000-60, 000 for a piece of land measuring 800 sq ft , the rates have become even cheaper than they were in the 1990s even as actual market rates have gone skywards.
[As if to prove that Bhubaneswar does not have a monopoly on the fine art of land grab, the Puri collector announced an investigation into the encroachment of 16 acres of land earmarked way back in the 1920s for Swargadwar, the holiest cremation ground in the state, the same day that OTV ran the exclusive story on the land grab in Bharatpur on the outskirts of the capital city.]
Also Read: Did He or Didn’t He? The Mystery of the May 29 ‘Coup’!
The alacrity with which the administration got going after the story on land grab in Bhubaneswar was broadcast on OTV was amusing. Barely hours after the ‘khulaasaa’, a joint team of the General Administration (GA) department, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) descended on the site and announcement was made over the public address system about the demolition of the structures constructed illegally on Tthursday. The promptness with which the administration acted on Wednesday only served to highlight its monumental failure to act earlier despite having all the powers, the manpower and infrastructure to identify such illegal construction and carry out the demolition. The response of Debendra Mohapatra, the Director, Estates, of the GA department, to the disclosure by OTV was laughable to say the least. “We never sit idle and take legal action whenever we find such illegal activities. Eviction is on at many places,” said Mohapatra while informing that the Revenue Inspector (RI) had been asked to inquire into the matter.
The administration would like us to believe that it was just a ‘stray’ case that somehow managed to escape its attention. But I am afraid it is much more than that and a case of complicity. How on earth can rows upon rows of houses, complete with boundary walls, roads and even dugwells, come up within the city limits- and not just in Bharatpur - without any of the multiple agencies getting wind of it? What could be more ironical than the fact that the concerned officials, who should have been the first to know when the first encroachment took place, have been asked to ‘inquire into the matter’? Far from being entrusted with any inquiry, they should have actually been suspended for dereliction of duty before any inquiry began!
The Task Force headed by former bureaucrat Tara Dutt gave us an idea about the scale and audacity of land/house grab in the Twin City. And the state government’s response to its recommendation of cancelling all discretionary allotments made after 1995 gave us a glimpse into the government’s extreme reluctance to act in such matters. Though the two cases look outwardly different, they point to the same malaise: the official machinery acting as willing facilitator of land/house grab.
What the acquaintance told this columnist two and a half decades ago – “No one owns this land. It belongs to the government” - holds good even now. Government land, it seems, belongs to everyone but the government.
The new direct tax code is set to replace the existing Income Tax Act.
The aim is to reform the complex income tax laws into simpler tax codes with reduced rates, fewer exemptions, and tax slabs.
"Task Force is already working on finalising the report on a new Direct Tax Code which is required to be submitted by July 31. The government will receive the report and we shall take a call on it," she said while replying on the debate on the Finance Bill 2019.
Earlier, the task force was supposed to submit its report by May 31, but the then finance minister Arun Jaitley gave two months extension to complete the exercise.
The Finance Ministry in November last year appointed Akhilesh Ranjan, Member (Legislation), CBDT, as convenor of the task force after the retirement of Arbind Modi.
Other members of the task force include Girish Ahuja (chartered accountant), Rajiv Memani (Chairman and Regional Managing Partner of EY), Mukesh Patel (Practicing Tax Advocate), Mansi Kedia (Consultant, ICRIER) and G C Srivastava (retired IRS and Advocate).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the annual conference of tax officers in September 2017, had observed that the Income-tax Act, 1961, was drafted more than 50 years ago and it needs to be redrafted.
The task force was assigned to draft direct tax laws in line with the norms prevalent in other countries, incorporating international best practices, and keeping in mind the economic needs of the country.
The panel was initially supposed to submit its report to the government, within 6 months, by May 22, 2018, which was further extended till August 22.
Following Arbind Modi's retirement on September 30, 2018, Akhilesh Ranjan-led panel was tasked to submit report by February 28, 2019. It was then extended till May 31.
The formation of the Task Force headed by Jaya Jaitly was announced in a gazette notification issued on Thursday.
The Task Force will submit its report by July 31. Other members in the team are Member (health) Niti Aayog Dr. V K Paul, secretaries of higher education, school education, health, women and child development, legislative department apart from academicians Najma Akhtar, Vasudha Kamat and Dipti Shah.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had during her budget speech for 2020-21 proposed to appoint the task force to review the minimum age of marriage for women, study its implications on maternal health and submit its recommendations within six months.
The Finance Minister had said, "Women's age of marriage was increased from 15 years to 18 years in 1978, by amending erstwhile Sharda Act of 1929. As India progresses further, opportunities open up for women to pursue higher education and careers.
She added: "There are imperatives of lowering MMR as well as improvement of nutrition levels. Entire issue about the age of a girl entering motherhood needs to be seen in this light. I propose to appoint a task force that will present its recommendations in six months' time."
The task force is trusted with examination of correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being and nutritional status of mother and neonate, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
It will also suggest measures for promoting higher education among women and suitable legislative instruments to support the recommendations of the Task Force.
The Task Force will also work out a detailed roll-out plan with timelines to implement its recommendations.
(IANS)
The 18-member task force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, informed Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha on Tuesday.
He said it will submit the master plan to the government within six weeks.
Arukha said that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has always stressed upon endeavours for reduction of man-animal conflict in the state.
It is, therefore, essential to prioritise the activities and streamline different interventions to reduce man-animal conflict and have a master plan for three years so that funds under different schemes are spent as per the master plan, he maintained.
In addition to the department schemes, funds under site-specific wildlife plans for forest diversion cases, Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and District Mineral Foundation (DMF) can be effectively utilised for habitat development, digging of trenches and other protective measures, including IEC campaign.
The minister said that DFOs should have standard operating procedures with railways, National Highways Authority of India, state highways, irrigation officials, electricity distribution companies with an institutional arrangement of regular monitoring and review at the circle, district and division levels.
(IANS)
Apart from this, the State government has decided to deploy extra manpower and machines to bring the blaze under control, informed Task Force Chairman Sandeep Tripathy today.
According to Tripathy, Odisha Chief Secretary today reviewed the incidents of frequent forest fire with district collectors and SPs and forest department officials. The Chief Secretary has directed officials to intensify night patrolling.
The State government has also directed concerned district-level functionaries for an all-out effort to combat the forest fire and prevent further proliferation by intensifying night patrolling and attending to fire alerts promptly.
“In order to tackle the situation in more effective way, the State Government has decided to engage more man power and equipment. It has been decided to put additional 100 squads, beyond 600 different squads. Each squad comprises 10 persons and a vehicle. Besides, additional 700 blowers are being procured to put in to work,” said Tripathy.
Further, it has been decided to incentivise 3000 Forest Fringe Villages to take action to prevent occurrence of forest fire and prevent its proliferation by involving VSSs/EDCs to contain the menace. In addition to that the PRI institutions have been urged upon to mobilise their human resource to sensitise the forest fringe localities to prevent intentional and unintentional fire.
“Due to continuous and quick action of field staff, the number of Fire points have shown considerable decrease as Fire Alerts have come down to 3258 on 08.03.2021 from 6258 on March 7. More than 95% of fire points located have been abated/attended during last 24 hours of reporting. NO damage to wildlife or human has been reported by the field staff,” Tripathy added
(Edited By Ramakant Biswas)
As per the statement released by the Task Force chairman, Sandeep Tripathy, forest fires have been witnessed at 1048 points in the State as per the satellite data compiled by the Forest Survey of India (FSI). On Wednesday the total number of fire points recorded in the State stood at 497.
However, the wildfire situation has improved in the Similipal National Park where only five fire points were reported today as against the total 24/26 fire points two days back.
It is pertinent to mention here that parts of Similipal sanctuary has been witnessing intermittent spell of rainfall activities for the last two days.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also predicted intermittent rains in most parts of the State in the next three days which is likely to play a crucial role in forest fire mitigation, senior officials said.
“Though the fire position is under control, the State is on full alert to combat any reoccurrence of fire given that major forest fire season is still left,” read the press release.
Earlier, the Odisha government had cancelled the leaves of all forest field staff and clear instructions were issued to intensify night patrolling and prompt action for attending forest fire points in different parts of the State.