Tag: odisha

Eight states showing rising trajectory in Covid-19 cases: Health ministry | India News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states and UTs, including Delhi and Maharashtra, while Kerala is showing a declining trend, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry said Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 76.22 per cent of India’s total active caseload, with Maharashtra contributing to 62 per cent of such cases, while Kerala and Punjab account for 8.83 per cent and 5.36 per cent of active cases respectively.
The top five districts in Maharashtra recording the highest number of cases are Pune (37,384), Nagpur (25,861), Mumbai (18,850), Thane (16,735) and Nashik (11,867).
The top five districts in Kerala recording the highest number of cases are Ernakulam (2,673), Pathanamthitta (2,482), Kannur (2,263), Palakkad (2,147) and Thrissur (2,065).
The top five districts in Punjab recording the highest number of cases are Jalandhar (2,131), SAS Nagar (1,868), Patiala (1,685), Ludhiana (1,643) and Hoshiarpur (1,572).
“A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana. Kerala is showing a consistently declining trend,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry further said that five states account for 81.38 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 70, Punjab followed with 38 daily deaths and Kerala reported 17 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, fifteen states and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Assam, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh, Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
The ministry further said India has scaled a significant peak in its battle against COVID-19 pandemic. The total vaccination coverage has surpassed 4 crore.
“About 4,20,63,392 vaccine doses have been administered through 6,86,469 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 77,06,839 healthcare workers (HCWs) (first dose), 48,04,285 HCWs (second dose), 79,57,606 frontline workers (FLWs) (first dose) and 24,17,077 FLWs (second dose), 32,23,612 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (first dose) and 1,59,53,973 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years,” it said.
As on day 63 of the vaccination drive (March 19), 27,23,575 vaccine doses were given. Eighty per cent of the 27.23 lakh vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hours are from 10 states.
Of the total, 24,15,800 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 38,989 sessions for first dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 3,07,775 HCWs and FLWs received second dose of vaccine.
The ministry said eight states account for 60 per cent of the cumulative vaccine doses given so far. They are Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

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Odisha govt begins reviewing paddy procurement after irregularity claims

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The Odisha government has announced that it has started reviewing the procurement procedure of paddy across districts to ensure maximum procurement from all registered farmers. The move comes after allegations of irregularities in the procurement procedure raised by the opposition.

“There has been a bumper harvest but we ensure that paddy from all the registered farmers from the state will be procured by March 31. We have already procured 61.24 lakh metric tonnes of paddy. The total procurement so far is nearly 18 per cent more compared to the procurement in Kharif season last year,” State Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain said on Friday.

“Even if any MLA points out any specific irregularity from their constituencies, efforts will be made to resolve the issues at the earliest. The government has already started reviewing the procurement procedure in each district to resolve all the issues, if any, being faced by the farmers,” Swain added.

On Monday, a delegation of BJP MPs requested Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Piyush Goyal to ask the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to pick up more rice from Odisha’s warehouses — which are running out of space to store foodgrain procured from farmers of the state.

In their memorandum, the MPs had said, “The movement plan for the month of March 2021 has been reduced substantially. At this pace, the surplus 30 lakh of rice cannot be evacuated by the start of the next kharif marketing season or till the start of the next calendar year, which will greatly hamper the ensuing Rabi procurement and the next Kharif procurement. If, like, previous years, FCI lifts only 17 lakh tonnes of rice, then 13 lakh tonnes of rice will be left with Odisha. Long storage of rice will lead to discolouration and then, even FCI will then not accept it. Loss of 1 lakh tonnes of rice due to deterioration in quality would mean a loss of about Rs 320 crore and the state would lose Rs 4,160 crore this way.”

The next day, on Tuesday, a delegation of BJP MPs led by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan had met Goyal, requesting him to ask the Odisha government to expedite the process of procuring unsold paddy in the state.

Pradhan later tweeted: “The State Govt. of Odisha is misleading the farmers on issues of paddy procurement and has been conveniently trying to belie its own systematic failure in governance and in providing allied agricultural services to Odisha’s farmers. Despite this years’ better-than-expected harvest of paddy due to a favourable monsoon, farmers in Odisha are suffering due to the State Govt. apathies, administrative inefficiencies and long-standing malpractices.”

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Number of Olive Ridley Turtle Mortality Declines in Odisha This Year: Official

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The number of deaths of Olive Ridley sea turtles along the Odisha coast has come down this year as the state forest department has taken various measures for the protection of the endangered marine species and their habitats, an official said. Around 2,575 carcasses of Olive Ridleys have been counted in the current year so far, while 6,320 fatalities were reported in the 2019-20 nesting season.

”The decline in the number of turtle deaths is encouraging as the forest department has been taking measures to protect the marine species,” the official said. However, the Orissa High Court has recently directed the state government to enforce a prohibition on fishing activities by trawlers near the mouth of Devi river and along the coast to protect the marine species.

Based on a report submitted by a committee, the court observed that there is ”incidental killing of turtles due to suffocation in fishing nets or by injuries inflicted by the propellers of the trawlers”. The Olive Ridley turtles turn up in millions for mass nesting along the Odisha coast every year.

Gahirmatha beach in Kendrapara district is acclaimed as the world’s largest-known nesting site for the endangered marine species. Apart from Gahirmatha, turtles turn up at the mouths of Rushikulya and Devi river for mass nesting.

Around 7.30 lakh olive ridley turtles had turned up for their annual sojourn of mass nesting in the 2019-20 season.

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Two litterateurs to get Akademi awards

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BHUBANESWAR: Two litterateurs Ramachandra Nayak and Chandrasekhar Hota from Odisha were selected for Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2020 and Yuva Puraskar 2020 respectively for their literary creations.

Nayak will receive ‘Bal Sahitya Puraskar’ for his stories ‘Bana Deula Re Suna Neula’, while Hota will get ‘Yuva Puraskar’ for his collection of essays ‘Chetanara Anwesana’.

Books of 11 Odia authors were shortlisted for the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2020, while eight books were shortlisted for the Yuva Puraskar.

The authors will receive the award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a special function to be held at a later date.

Kendra Sahitya Akademi, nation’s National Academy of Letters, confers on authors of the most outstanding books published in any of the major Indian languages every year.



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Odisha Exempts 7-day Home Quarantine for RRB Candidates Coming from High-risk States

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In a major relief for candidates appearing in the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) examinations, the Odisha government on Tuesday announced relaxation of the mandatory 7-day home quarantine norms for people coming from five high-risk states, officials said. Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, P K Mohapatra in a letter to all district collectors and municipal commissioners said: ”A person establishing his/her identity with a copy of the RRB examination admit card will be exempted from the home quarantine requirement, but strict COVID appropriate behaviour should be adhered to by all candidates appearing in the examination.”

The state government’s decision to relax the norms came after the Chairman of Railway Recruitment Board, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh informed that around 10,500 candidates are scheduled to appear for examinations at Bhubaneswar from March 3 to March 31. The admit cards for the candidates have been issued much earlier, the RRB said.

Mohapatra said that keeping in view the RRB’s concern, the state government has decided that the home quarantine norms will not be applicable for the candidates coming from high risk states. Earlier, keeping in view the upsurge of COVID-19 cases in some states, Odisha government had issued directions to district authorities to ensure that people arriving from the five high-risk states – Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – complete the seven-day home isolation upon their arrival.

The asymptomatic passengers with RT-PCR negative report or a Covid vaccination final certificate were exempted from the home isolation.

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