Dear Friends,
Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE!
A year ago FOCUS ORISSA had organized a two-days' workshop on Climate Change on 15th and 16th November, 2008 at the Redcross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar. Since then, while the concerns and actions of civil society and people in general is multiplying to prevent climate change, the world has been witnessing frustrating and non-serious approaches by the world governments including Indian counter part in policy level dialogues and necessary follow ups to reverse the trend. It has been painfully marked that there is hardly any change in the rate of increase of global warming.
You might be knowing that COP (Conference of Parties) 15 – the 15th Conference of United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is going to be held during 7th to 18th December at Copenhagen involving environment ministers and concerned officials of 189 countries to review the progress till now after the its 1st Conference in 1995 at Berlin and to reconcile the protocols on climate change. About 10000 participants including representatives of business groups, non-governmental organizations and others as observers may participate in it.
After 15 years of engagements by world governments, corporations through such COPs; it hardly achieved anything in terms of controlling CFC emissions, global warming and minimizing the trends of climate change. Even, it failed to bring out a consensus among leading countries. Many are not much hopeful about the outcomes of the COP 15 other than some giveaways to corporations and continuance of failed Kyoto protocol. The alternatives by COPs attempted so-far are basically profit based corporate friendly solutions such as Carbon Trading, Green Technology, Clean Development Mechanism, Agrofuels etc. Unfortunately, our country India like China instead of taking a pro-active role in controlling GHG emissions, it is seeking for maximum monetary inflows through the CDM, and the undue importance India is also giving to domestic trading in credits under its mitigation programmes.
In contrast with the approach taken up by India and China apart from G8 countries for letting to hand over the future of the human civilizations in the hands of corporates, now, many climate activists drawing from different countries have raised their voices. They call for changes in the agenda of COPs and policies governments. According to them, there are needs to stop the use of fossil fuels, community control over production, re-localising food productions, reduction of over-consumption by northern countries, respecting rights of indigenous, forest dwelling people, fisherfolks, recognizing ecological and climate debt owed to the people of Global South and making reparations.
In this context, we need to discuss the issue intensively and take a position viewing forthcoming COP 15. We need to inform our concerns as regards to the policies and approaches of the Government of India and participants of COP 15. Keeping this purpose in view and to workout our future action plans, FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE is going to organize a State level Workshop on Climate Justice - Our Message to COP 15 on 6 &18, December, 2009 in Bhubaneswar.
ODISHA
This is widely expressed that Orissa needs to have a Task Force on the Climate Change which has been emerged in a two-day consultation organized by Focus Orissa during 15-16 November, 2008 at Red cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar. It is also consented that to have various research studies and action programs in the line of adaptation and mitigation of climate change. That must be people's focus and environment friendly. At the same time it is very important for having a network of all sections of people to take this campaign forward under the banner of Focus Orissa.
It is mentioned in the conference that Puri, Gopalpur Satabhaya and Kantiagarh sea beaches are mostly vulnerable and prone to sea erosion while Titilagarh, Talcher, Sukinda and Jharsuguda are recorded as the highly warming up areas so far as geographical areas of Orissa is concerned. Unprecedented floods, cyclone, drought and sunstroke are being experienced every year where thousands of causalities and loss of habitats & livelihoods are reported. This concern was widely felt over by the workshop and subsequent needs also emerged to have research upon it for taking up various adaptation & mitigation measures.
Orissa has never experienced any such year where it does not have any natural disaster. So far as the issue is concerned, one hundred disasters are recorded in last 100 years. Orissa Govt. has already installed radar in Paradeep with an investment of Rs 12 crore for Tsunami & cyclone warning assessment with an aim to protect life and livelihood of human being as well as domestic animals. Accroding to govt sources several other projects are also in the pipeline and to be installed in collaboration with Govt. of India. Notebly among the developments as has been claimed by the govt is that the state is now equipped with all technology to enable us to evacuate at least two lakhs of people within a span of 2/3 hours during any disaster waning.
We would take the opportunity to invite you to, please, participate in the Workshop and make your valuable contributions to make a successful programme.
Date: 6 & 18, December, 2009 (10am to 6pm)
Venue: REGIONAL SCIENCE CENTRE, Acharya Vihar, Bhubaneswar, Orissa
Sincerely,
Sudarshan Chhotray
Convenor & Moderator-
FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Mangaraj Panda, Dhirendra Panda, Pranab R Choudhury (co-Convenors)
Advisory/Organising Committee
Dr.S N Patro(Orissa Environment Society),Dr.Bhagawan Prakash(Columinist),Achyut Das(Agragamee),Praffula Sahoo(CYSD),Dr.Shahid Ummer(Sr.Geo-Sciencetist),Binayak Swain(BAT-NET),Amar Jyoti. Nayak(Action Aid),Md.Amin(Adhikar),Tapan K Padhi(NID),Kailash C Dash(RCDC),Prashant Mohanty(Vasundhara),Dhanad K Mishra(HDF),Manas Ranjan(Social Researcher),Dr.Manoj Mohapatra(Social Researcher),Prabhat C Sutar(Kalinga Devlopment Foundation)),Mrs.Gitanjali Swayin(IT Proffessional),Ms.Aurosmita(Actress),Ms.Swapna Pati(Actress),Ms.Monalisha Behera(Bio-Care),Jagannath Chatterjee(Living Farms),Umi Daniel(Aid-de-Action),Bisikesan Jani(Odisha Adivasi Pratishtan),Kishore Patnaik(ODAF),Sai Prassan(JVM),Ashish Senapati(Journalist),Sripati Mohapatra(Coastnet),K. Aleya(Orissa Traditioal Fish Workers Union)
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Civil Society rejects World Bank action plan for Orissa
http://brpbhaskar.blogspot.com/2010/06/civil-society-rejects-world-bank-action.html
Civil Society rejects World Bank action plan for Orissa
The following is a Press Release from the Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong:
The draft Climate Change Action Plan of Orissa (CCAP) prepared at the aegis of the World Bank and DFID does not consider the concern and interest of common odia, neither reflect state’s seriousness towards self-discipline, sobriety and adaptation, rather vociferously reiterates its nexus with neo-liberal lobby which propounds reckless industrialization and unwarranted investment. Notwithstanding the fact that its citizens are either the victims of Climate Change or are the vulnerable lot at coast and the hills, in spite of living a low-emission or net-absorption livelihoods, the authors of the document treat them as the Climate Criminals while allowing the criminals to expand and multiply their crimes. With its focus on promoting investment-intensive mitigation measures as a tool to encourage state’s ongoing unabated industrialization drive, it looks more as an “Inv estment Plan for Industrialization and Mitigation’ offering almost nothing for state’s farmers, fishers, forest-produce gatherers.
Orissa government’s Draft Climate Change Action Plan with a huge budget of Rs. 17,000 crore seeks to help industries more by reducing their expenditure on adapting to climate change, while providing hardly any budget for the victims of climate change at Saatabhayaa, around Talcher and Jharsuguda. It proposes a 15 fold increase in the capacity of thermal power plants at the guise of improvement technology which alone could lead to at least thirteen times higher levels of emission of heat and pollution. One can imagine the hazards that already boiling Talcher and Jharsuguda will face in this scenario. A budget of Rs. 5,500 crore is made for reducing transmission and distribution losses which is only going to help private energy companies sell more electricity and make more money. On the contrary allocation of mere Rs. 4 crore for the establishment of biogas plants can support only about 5000 biogas plants, which is even insufficient for one block.
There is hardly any money allocated for developing small and micro level irrigation facilities or in providing adaptive seeds to farmers. There is no allocation for increasing the supply of electricity to farmers. On the other hand the government has planned for enhancing the fees for irrigation. Over the last ten years, the government has kept on increasing the fees it collects from farmers for supplying irrigation water to them, while allowing industries to use increasing quantities of water, often without formal permission and from sources earmarked for irrigation purposes, without having to pay much.
The plan has more than Rs. 3,000 crore for the forest department, while the villagers who have sacrificed so much to protect their forests under community forest management /joint forest management have been allocated nothing but a small amount of five crore rupees for training purposes. In transport sector, 80% of the allocated budget for this sector is for highways while there is no budget for rail or for promoting the use of non-motorised transport such as bicycles.
Two of the most critical areas climate change impacts are falling production in agriculture, livestock & fishery; and increasing health hazards due to heat related illnesses and accidents. There is no budget under the action plan for something as obvious and basic as preventing and treating heat strokes. The livestock sector is seen by the government less as a victim of climate change and more as a producer of methane. The climate change action plan accuses the farmers of Orissa of not killing old and unproductive cattle due to religious cultural reasons and that this leads to large methane emissions.
An overall reading of the Orissa climate change action plan leads to the following conclusions:
1. It’s a hurriedly drafted document ghost-written by the World Bank and other External Agencies.
2. Notwithstanding the importance and implication of the document, the process of preparation of draft document has not been inclusive. There has been no involvement of civil society and other non-government stakeholders including academia, researchers, legislatures, PRIs, NGOs and the important climate refugees and vulnerable communities from different parts of the state in the drafting processes. Even the comments and suggestions provided by some of these stakeholders who were invited to the hurriedly called 4 stakeholder consultations have been ignored and not incorporated.
3. It treats Orissa as a cause of climate change while Orissa is actually a victim of climate change. Naturally it wants to impose the price of reducing emission of green house gases on the ordinary people of Orissa, who lives either low-emission or net-carbon-absorption livelihoods.
4. In spite of the heat wave conditions that have killed thousands of people in Orissa, the Action Plan seeks to ratify the setting up of large numbers of new thermal power plans which will lead to at least thirteen times growth in emissions and pollutions, thus would risk temperature increase.
5. It accepts that climate change is going to cause erratic monsoons and increased incidence of droughts and reduce agricultural production. However it proposes not increasing irrigation coverage but increase in water tariff collected from farmers.
6. It blames the people of Orissa keeping their old cows and bullocks and encourages that they should allow such animals to die.
7. It pays only lip service to the issue of renewable energy such as biogas or solar powers and allocates very small budgets for these areas. On the other hand it allocates large amounts of public money to help electricity companies increase profits by reducing transmission losses.
8. It tries to peddle false assumptions that bio-fuels will lead to lower carbon emissions. Bio-fuels can only lead to saving in petroleum use but not reduce carbon emissions as when bio-fuels are burnt, that too released green house gases. It encourages the diversion of land to growing bio-fuels which will lead to reduction in the availability of food and fodder.
9. It pays lip service to development of public transport, railways and non-motorised transport. But it does not allocate any budgets for these while allocating 80% of the transport sector budget for highways.
10. It ignores the contribution of community forest management in protecting and developing Orissa’ forests and allocates no budget for helping villages that are protecting their forests to gain access to alternate livelihoods and alternate fuel sources.
11. It pays only lip service to preventing and curing the health impacts of increasing temperatures and makes no budget allocation for preventing or treating heat strokes in spite of thousands of people having died due to heat strokes in the last few years.
It is important that the government have a genuine participatory process where academics, people currently affected severely by climate change, other people under threat of climate change impact, experienced bureaucrats, civil society organisations, people’s representatives debate on the issue of impact of climate change on Orissa in a decentralized manner from below. The principal approach should be to ensure that the state has systems to generate resources from global funds as well as in judiciously directing its own resources for fighting climate change and its impacts. Such resources should be used to reduce the impact of climate change on the people of Orissa, especially the people who are more vulnerable and unable to adapt without external support. It is important that the state should ponder over its industrialization and extractive development trajectory and comes out with a policy based on self discipline, sobriety and temperance in resource use. This draft sh ould be rejected altogether and a new decentralized, inclusive process be initiated from below with multistakeholders participation with a spirit of Odia nationalism rather than under the influence of the World Bank.
Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change
Sudarshan Chhotoray
Dr.S.N.Patro
Achyut Das
Biswajit Mohanty
Bibhudhendra P Das
Dr. J.Panigrahi
Dhirendra Panda
Pranb Choudhury
Manas Ranjan
Kalish Das
Tapan Padhi
Pravat Sutar
Prasant Mohanty
Mangaraj Panda
Bisikesan Jani
Ranjan Panda
Bibekananda Pattanaik
Bidyut Mohanty
Pradip Pradhan
Posted by B.R.P.Bhaskar at 5:29 PM
Labels: Civil Society, Climate Change, Orissa, World Bank
Civil Society rejects World Bank action plan for Orissa
The following is a Press Release from the Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong:
The draft Climate Change Action Plan of Orissa (CCAP) prepared at the aegis of the World Bank and DFID does not consider the concern and interest of common odia, neither reflect state’s seriousness towards self-discipline, sobriety and adaptation, rather vociferously reiterates its nexus with neo-liberal lobby which propounds reckless industrialization and unwarranted investment. Notwithstanding the fact that its citizens are either the victims of Climate Change or are the vulnerable lot at coast and the hills, in spite of living a low-emission or net-absorption livelihoods, the authors of the document treat them as the Climate Criminals while allowing the criminals to expand and multiply their crimes. With its focus on promoting investment-intensive mitigation measures as a tool to encourage state’s ongoing unabated industrialization drive, it looks more as an “Inv estment Plan for Industrialization and Mitigation’ offering almost nothing for state’s farmers, fishers, forest-produce gatherers.
Orissa government’s Draft Climate Change Action Plan with a huge budget of Rs. 17,000 crore seeks to help industries more by reducing their expenditure on adapting to climate change, while providing hardly any budget for the victims of climate change at Saatabhayaa, around Talcher and Jharsuguda. It proposes a 15 fold increase in the capacity of thermal power plants at the guise of improvement technology which alone could lead to at least thirteen times higher levels of emission of heat and pollution. One can imagine the hazards that already boiling Talcher and Jharsuguda will face in this scenario. A budget of Rs. 5,500 crore is made for reducing transmission and distribution losses which is only going to help private energy companies sell more electricity and make more money. On the contrary allocation of mere Rs. 4 crore for the establishment of biogas plants can support only about 5000 biogas plants, which is even insufficient for one block.
There is hardly any money allocated for developing small and micro level irrigation facilities or in providing adaptive seeds to farmers. There is no allocation for increasing the supply of electricity to farmers. On the other hand the government has planned for enhancing the fees for irrigation. Over the last ten years, the government has kept on increasing the fees it collects from farmers for supplying irrigation water to them, while allowing industries to use increasing quantities of water, often without formal permission and from sources earmarked for irrigation purposes, without having to pay much.
The plan has more than Rs. 3,000 crore for the forest department, while the villagers who have sacrificed so much to protect their forests under community forest management /joint forest management have been allocated nothing but a small amount of five crore rupees for training purposes. In transport sector, 80% of the allocated budget for this sector is for highways while there is no budget for rail or for promoting the use of non-motorised transport such as bicycles.
Two of the most critical areas climate change impacts are falling production in agriculture, livestock & fishery; and increasing health hazards due to heat related illnesses and accidents. There is no budget under the action plan for something as obvious and basic as preventing and treating heat strokes. The livestock sector is seen by the government less as a victim of climate change and more as a producer of methane. The climate change action plan accuses the farmers of Orissa of not killing old and unproductive cattle due to religious cultural reasons and that this leads to large methane emissions.
An overall reading of the Orissa climate change action plan leads to the following conclusions:
1. It’s a hurriedly drafted document ghost-written by the World Bank and other External Agencies.
2. Notwithstanding the importance and implication of the document, the process of preparation of draft document has not been inclusive. There has been no involvement of civil society and other non-government stakeholders including academia, researchers, legislatures, PRIs, NGOs and the important climate refugees and vulnerable communities from different parts of the state in the drafting processes. Even the comments and suggestions provided by some of these stakeholders who were invited to the hurriedly called 4 stakeholder consultations have been ignored and not incorporated.
3. It treats Orissa as a cause of climate change while Orissa is actually a victim of climate change. Naturally it wants to impose the price of reducing emission of green house gases on the ordinary people of Orissa, who lives either low-emission or net-carbon-absorption livelihoods.
4. In spite of the heat wave conditions that have killed thousands of people in Orissa, the Action Plan seeks to ratify the setting up of large numbers of new thermal power plans which will lead to at least thirteen times growth in emissions and pollutions, thus would risk temperature increase.
5. It accepts that climate change is going to cause erratic monsoons and increased incidence of droughts and reduce agricultural production. However it proposes not increasing irrigation coverage but increase in water tariff collected from farmers.
6. It blames the people of Orissa keeping their old cows and bullocks and encourages that they should allow such animals to die.
7. It pays only lip service to the issue of renewable energy such as biogas or solar powers and allocates very small budgets for these areas. On the other hand it allocates large amounts of public money to help electricity companies increase profits by reducing transmission losses.
8. It tries to peddle false assumptions that bio-fuels will lead to lower carbon emissions. Bio-fuels can only lead to saving in petroleum use but not reduce carbon emissions as when bio-fuels are burnt, that too released green house gases. It encourages the diversion of land to growing bio-fuels which will lead to reduction in the availability of food and fodder.
9. It pays lip service to development of public transport, railways and non-motorised transport. But it does not allocate any budgets for these while allocating 80% of the transport sector budget for highways.
10. It ignores the contribution of community forest management in protecting and developing Orissa’ forests and allocates no budget for helping villages that are protecting their forests to gain access to alternate livelihoods and alternate fuel sources.
11. It pays only lip service to preventing and curing the health impacts of increasing temperatures and makes no budget allocation for preventing or treating heat strokes in spite of thousands of people having died due to heat strokes in the last few years.
It is important that the government have a genuine participatory process where academics, people currently affected severely by climate change, other people under threat of climate change impact, experienced bureaucrats, civil society organisations, people’s representatives debate on the issue of impact of climate change on Orissa in a decentralized manner from below. The principal approach should be to ensure that the state has systems to generate resources from global funds as well as in judiciously directing its own resources for fighting climate change and its impacts. Such resources should be used to reduce the impact of climate change on the people of Orissa, especially the people who are more vulnerable and unable to adapt without external support. It is important that the state should ponder over its industrialization and extractive development trajectory and comes out with a policy based on self discipline, sobriety and temperance in resource use. This draft sh ould be rejected altogether and a new decentralized, inclusive process be initiated from below with multistakeholders participation with a spirit of Odia nationalism rather than under the influence of the World Bank.
Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change
Sudarshan Chhotoray
Dr.S.N.Patro
Achyut Das
Biswajit Mohanty
Bibhudhendra P Das
Dr. J.Panigrahi
Dhirendra Panda
Pranb Choudhury
Manas Ranjan
Kalish Das
Tapan Padhi
Pravat Sutar
Prasant Mohanty
Mangaraj Panda
Bisikesan Jani
Ranjan Panda
Bibekananda Pattanaik
Bidyut Mohanty
Pradip Pradhan
Posted by B.R.P.Bhaskar at 5:29 PM
Labels: Civil Society, Climate Change, Orissa, World Bank
OTN: MEETING WITH THE CHIEF SECRETARY
http://news.fmota.com/tag/chief
OTN: MEETING WITH THE CHIEF SECRETARY
July 25th, 2010 No comments
The Report is quite comprehensive and deserves appreciation.
However, according to my observation, if we are really serious to save the State from the rampant destruction of environment and ecology then our Slogan should be “No More Mining Projects ( including Coal) in the State”. “Prevention is Better than Cure”
Mining and the mineral ( including Coal) based Sponge Iron Plants, Iron & Steel Complex, Alumina & Aluminium plants, Cement Plants and Coal based Thermal Power Plants are the biggest destroyer of Environment & Ecology of the State, seriously affecting the Climate. We should therefore demand a total ban on new Mining projects and the polluting plants.
Already the State is producing about 100 million tons of Iron Ore/annum , almost 100 million tons of thermal coal/annum, 5 million tons of Bauxite/annum and a host of other Minerals like Manganese, Chromite, dolomite, limestone, etc and a large number of Metallurgical units have been set up in the State. But unfortunately we have not emphasized on the “Down stream Value Addition” utilising plenty of Iron, Steel, Aluminium, ferrochrome, ferro-silicon, ferro-vandium, etc being produced within the State.
Therefore for Industrialization of State we must focus on setting up down stream manufacturing & Engineering units, even with extra sop, in the State. For example we should promote the following Industries , amongst others:
1. Stainless Steel Plant with stainless steel products for Industrial application.
2. Automobiles and Auto Components
3. Cold Rolled Profiles for Roofing and for Pre-Engineered Building System.
4. Electrolytic Coated Sheets and special sheets for Electrical Equipment
5. Galvanized Highway Barriers
6. Galvanised Steel/Stainless Steel fasteners for HVAC and engineering application
7. Electrical Equipment like Transformers, Switchgears, DG Sets, Control Panels, etc
8. Electrical cables
9 Mining & Earthmoving Equipment
10. Structural Fabrication for Buildings, Bridges, Fly Overs,etc
11. Railway Wagons and Coaches.
12.Aluminium Extrusions and Building Curtain Wall Systems
13. Metal Cladding System for High Rise Buildings.
14. Precast Elements for Buildings, Bridges and Fly Overs.
Therefore there should be a total Shift in the State’s Industrial Policy
J.N.Mahanty
Dear Friends,
Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
On behalf of the Consortium consisting of FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,ORISSA ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY and FOOD RIGHTS COLLECTIVE, I met and discussed with the Chief Secretary Mr.Tarun Kanti Mishra today at 4.40pm today and submitted him the response jointly prepared by us (CIVIL SOCIETIES RESPONSE TO THE ODISHA DRAFT CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN-2010).The 25 page document contained detailed analysis and suggested recommendations; clearly outlining the priorities and challenges.
Though, we had sought appointment for a delegation consisting of four persons of different organizations (Pradip Pradhan,Tapan Mahapatra,Biswajit Padhi and Ashish Das), only one; I was permitted/allowed(was asked by the group) to discuss with the CS.
The meeting with CS lasted for 20 minutes,to which we discussed the various aspects of the Action Plan.I raised three important concerns of Civil Society.(1)IT seems WB-DFID has drafted the OCCAP.(2)IT has become fund/project driven.(3)There has been nothing for vulnerable communities,who have nothing to do with Global Climate Change but bearing the burnt.Besides these I have raised/discussed other issues and recommendations.
The CS has promised that- He will ask the secretaries concerned(may call a meeting) to discuss each and every point suggested by us to incorporate those in the final draft.
The meeting was cordial and warm.
Achyutbhai has really contributed a lot in making all these happened during the last few months by sharing his time and inputs besides convening a state level workshop.
We must thank Pranab C. Chaudhury, Bimal Pandia for Compiling the sector wise analysis and Kundan for establishing the links and background.
Special thanks for Manas Ranjan for the first draft of the critique and press release also industry part,Tapan K Padhi for writing the WATER and Coastal sector,Pravat C Sutar for Energy and Urban sector,Dr SN Patro for Forestry, Bimal Pandia for Agriculture,Himanshu on Mining, Dilip Ray on Transport,Nilamanibabu of OVHA on Health and others like Dr. Jayakrushna Panigrahy, Pravakar Rout,(OES) Manohar Chauhan and above all others who have contributed a lot to this process.
Regards, Sudarshan Chhotoray Convenor/Moderator Focus Orissa
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: chief, meeting, OTN, secretary
OTN: MEETING WITH THE CHIEF SECRETARY
July 24th, 2010 1 comment
Dear Friends,
Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
On behalf of the Consortium consisting of FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,ORISSA ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY and FOOD RIGHTS COLLECTIVE, I met and discussed with the Chief Secretary Mr.Tarun Kanti Mishra today at 4.40pm today and submitted him the response jointly prepared by us (CIVIL SOCIETIES RESPONSE TO THE ODISHA DRAFT CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN-2010).The 25 page document contained detailed analysis and suggested recommendations; clearly outlining the priorities and challenges.
Though, we had sought appointment for a delegation consisting of four persons of different organizations (Pradip Pradhan,Tapan Mahapatra,Biswajit Padhi and Ashish Das), only one; I was permitted/allowed(was asked by the group) to discuss with the CS.
The meeting with CS lasted for 20 minutes,to which we discussed the various aspects of the Action Plan.I raised three important concerns of Civil Society.(1)IT seems WB-DFID has drafted the OCCAP.(2)IT has become fund/project driven.(3)There has been nothing for vulnerable communities,who have nothing to do with Global Climate Change but bearing the burnt.Besides these I have raised/discussed other issues and recommendations.
The CS has promised that- He will ask the secretaries concerned(may call a meeting) to discuss each and every point suggested by us to incorporate those in the final draft.
The meeting was cordial and warm.
Achyutbhai has really contributed a lot in making all these happened during the last few months by sharing his time and inputs besides convening a state level workshop.
We must thank Pranab C. Chaudhury, Bimal Pandia for Compiling the sector wise analysis and Kundan for establishing the links and background.
Special thanks for Manas Ranjan for the first draft of the critique and press release also industry part,Tapan K Padhi for writing the WATER and Coastal sector,Pravat C Sutar for Energy and Urban sector,Dr SN Patro for Forestry, Bimal Pandia for Agriculture,Himanshu on Mining, Dilip Ray on Transport,Nilamanibabu of OVHA on Health and others like Dr. Jayakrushna Panigrahy, Pravakar Rout,(OES) Manohar Chauhan and above all others who have contributed a lot to this process.
Regards, Sudarshan Chhotoray Convenor/Moderator Focus Orissa
Civil_Society_Response_25Jul2010_Edited_Version__.doc
OTN: MEETING WITH THE CHIEF SECRETARY
July 25th, 2010 No comments
The Report is quite comprehensive and deserves appreciation.
However, according to my observation, if we are really serious to save the State from the rampant destruction of environment and ecology then our Slogan should be “No More Mining Projects ( including Coal) in the State”. “Prevention is Better than Cure”
Mining and the mineral ( including Coal) based Sponge Iron Plants, Iron & Steel Complex, Alumina & Aluminium plants, Cement Plants and Coal based Thermal Power Plants are the biggest destroyer of Environment & Ecology of the State, seriously affecting the Climate. We should therefore demand a total ban on new Mining projects and the polluting plants.
Already the State is producing about 100 million tons of Iron Ore/annum , almost 100 million tons of thermal coal/annum, 5 million tons of Bauxite/annum and a host of other Minerals like Manganese, Chromite, dolomite, limestone, etc and a large number of Metallurgical units have been set up in the State. But unfortunately we have not emphasized on the “Down stream Value Addition” utilising plenty of Iron, Steel, Aluminium, ferrochrome, ferro-silicon, ferro-vandium, etc being produced within the State.
Therefore for Industrialization of State we must focus on setting up down stream manufacturing & Engineering units, even with extra sop, in the State. For example we should promote the following Industries , amongst others:
1. Stainless Steel Plant with stainless steel products for Industrial application.
2. Automobiles and Auto Components
3. Cold Rolled Profiles for Roofing and for Pre-Engineered Building System.
4. Electrolytic Coated Sheets and special sheets for Electrical Equipment
5. Galvanized Highway Barriers
6. Galvanised Steel/Stainless Steel fasteners for HVAC and engineering application
7. Electrical Equipment like Transformers, Switchgears, DG Sets, Control Panels, etc
8. Electrical cables
9 Mining & Earthmoving Equipment
10. Structural Fabrication for Buildings, Bridges, Fly Overs,etc
11. Railway Wagons and Coaches.
12.Aluminium Extrusions and Building Curtain Wall Systems
13. Metal Cladding System for High Rise Buildings.
14. Precast Elements for Buildings, Bridges and Fly Overs.
Therefore there should be a total Shift in the State’s Industrial Policy
J.N.Mahanty
Dear Friends,
Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
On behalf of the Consortium consisting of FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,ORISSA ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY and FOOD RIGHTS COLLECTIVE, I met and discussed with the Chief Secretary Mr.Tarun Kanti Mishra today at 4.40pm today and submitted him the response jointly prepared by us (CIVIL SOCIETIES RESPONSE TO THE ODISHA DRAFT CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN-2010).The 25 page document contained detailed analysis and suggested recommendations; clearly outlining the priorities and challenges.
Though, we had sought appointment for a delegation consisting of four persons of different organizations (Pradip Pradhan,Tapan Mahapatra,Biswajit Padhi and Ashish Das), only one; I was permitted/allowed(was asked by the group) to discuss with the CS.
The meeting with CS lasted for 20 minutes,to which we discussed the various aspects of the Action Plan.I raised three important concerns of Civil Society.(1)IT seems WB-DFID has drafted the OCCAP.(2)IT has become fund/project driven.(3)There has been nothing for vulnerable communities,who have nothing to do with Global Climate Change but bearing the burnt.Besides these I have raised/discussed other issues and recommendations.
The CS has promised that- He will ask the secretaries concerned(may call a meeting) to discuss each and every point suggested by us to incorporate those in the final draft.
The meeting was cordial and warm.
Achyutbhai has really contributed a lot in making all these happened during the last few months by sharing his time and inputs besides convening a state level workshop.
We must thank Pranab C. Chaudhury, Bimal Pandia for Compiling the sector wise analysis and Kundan for establishing the links and background.
Special thanks for Manas Ranjan for the first draft of the critique and press release also industry part,Tapan K Padhi for writing the WATER and Coastal sector,Pravat C Sutar for Energy and Urban sector,Dr SN Patro for Forestry, Bimal Pandia for Agriculture,Himanshu on Mining, Dilip Ray on Transport,Nilamanibabu of OVHA on Health and others like Dr. Jayakrushna Panigrahy, Pravakar Rout,(OES) Manohar Chauhan and above all others who have contributed a lot to this process.
Regards, Sudarshan Chhotoray Convenor/Moderator Focus Orissa
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: chief, meeting, OTN, secretary
OTN: MEETING WITH THE CHIEF SECRETARY
July 24th, 2010 1 comment
Dear Friends,
Greetings from FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
On behalf of the Consortium consisting of FOCUS ORISSA FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,ORISSA ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY and FOOD RIGHTS COLLECTIVE, I met and discussed with the Chief Secretary Mr.Tarun Kanti Mishra today at 4.40pm today and submitted him the response jointly prepared by us (CIVIL SOCIETIES RESPONSE TO THE ODISHA DRAFT CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN-2010).The 25 page document contained detailed analysis and suggested recommendations; clearly outlining the priorities and challenges.
Though, we had sought appointment for a delegation consisting of four persons of different organizations (Pradip Pradhan,Tapan Mahapatra,Biswajit Padhi and Ashish Das), only one; I was permitted/allowed(was asked by the group) to discuss with the CS.
The meeting with CS lasted for 20 minutes,to which we discussed the various aspects of the Action Plan.I raised three important concerns of Civil Society.(1)IT seems WB-DFID has drafted the OCCAP.(2)IT has become fund/project driven.(3)There has been nothing for vulnerable communities,who have nothing to do with Global Climate Change but bearing the burnt.Besides these I have raised/discussed other issues and recommendations.
The CS has promised that- He will ask the secretaries concerned(may call a meeting) to discuss each and every point suggested by us to incorporate those in the final draft.
The meeting was cordial and warm.
Achyutbhai has really contributed a lot in making all these happened during the last few months by sharing his time and inputs besides convening a state level workshop.
We must thank Pranab C. Chaudhury, Bimal Pandia for Compiling the sector wise analysis and Kundan for establishing the links and background.
Special thanks for Manas Ranjan for the first draft of the critique and press release also industry part,Tapan K Padhi for writing the WATER and Coastal sector,Pravat C Sutar for Energy and Urban sector,Dr SN Patro for Forestry, Bimal Pandia for Agriculture,Himanshu on Mining, Dilip Ray on Transport,Nilamanibabu of OVHA on Health and others like Dr. Jayakrushna Panigrahy, Pravakar Rout,(OES) Manohar Chauhan and above all others who have contributed a lot to this process.
Regards, Sudarshan Chhotoray Convenor/Moderator Focus Orissa
Civil_Society_Response_25Jul2010_Edited_Version__.doc
Odisha Climate Change Action Plan: Draft available to receive more inputs
http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3694
Odisha Climate Change Action Plan: Draft available to receive more inputs
ENVIRONMENT, Odisha govt. action chitta June 25th. 2010, 4:52am
Following is an excerpt from a blog entry in the world bank site.
Lashed by heavy monsoon rains and devastating cyclones with unfailing regularity, the state looked for solutions. In doing so, it also stole a march on the central government, whose National Climate Change Action Plan is still being prepared in fits and starts.
… So, to chart the way forward on development in an era of climate change, the government decided to consult with diverse groups —a participatory approach endorsed by the Bank. The commitment came from the highest levels in the state government. The Bank helped by providing global knowledge and expertise, and mobilizing both national and international experts, as and when needed.
Consultations sought solutions for the coastal areas, tribal regions, mining and industrial areas, urban centers and farming belts. Fishermen, farmers, trade unions, industrial associations, tribal groups and women offered their comments. Not surprisingly, the discussions were often animated and intense.
A diverse set of questions was raised: What should be done to control the growing salination of the coastal belt that is ruining farmer livelihoods? How can we preserve the natural breeding grounds for fresh water fish? And what can be done for the fishermen who, with falling fish stocks, are abandoning their age-old profession and migrating to cities in search of work? Then, what’s the best way to stop fluoride and arsenic from leeching into the drinking water? And, if you’re wondering what happened between the forest officers and the mining ones, let’s just say that the forest officers finally succeeded in extracting a commitment from the mining officials to adhere to sustainable practices and greater environmental monitoring.
The draft plan is now up on the Orissa government’s website to receive more inputs. While the plan may not be perfect, it is innovative and home grown, and open to improvement. And all said and done, by being the first past the post, the little state of Orissa has shown the richer states the way!
shareshareshareshare
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2 Responses to “Odisha Climate Change Action Plan: Draft available to receive more inputs”
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chitta Says:
June 26th, 2010 at 6:58 am
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Following is from http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=19373.
Bhubaneswar: The draft CCAP of Orissa prepared at the aegis of the World Bank and DFID does not consider the concern and interest of common odia, neither reflect state’s seriousness towards self-discipline, sobriety and adaptation, rather vociferously reiterates its nexus with neo-liberal lobby which propounds reckless industrialization and unwarranted investment.
Notwithstanding the fact that its citizens are either the victims of Climate Change or are the vulnerable lot at coast and the hills, in spite of living a low-emission or net-absorption livelihoods, the authors of the document treat them as the Climate Criminals while allowing the criminals to expand and multiply their crimes. With its focus on promoting investment-intensive mitigation measures as a tool to encourage state’s ongoing unabated industrialization drive, it looks more as an “Investment Plan for Industrialization and Mitigation’ offering almost nothing for state’s farmers, fishers, forest-produce gatherers.
Orissa government’s Draft Climate Change Action Plan with a huge budget of Rs 17,000 crore seeks to help industries more by reducing their expenditure on adapting to climate change, while providing hardly any budget for the victims of climate change at Saatabhayaa, around Talcher and Jharsuguda. It proposes a 15 fold increase in the capacity of thermal power plants at the guise of improvement technology which alone could lead to at least thirteen times higher levels of emission of heat and pollution. One can imagine the hazards that already boiling Talcher and Jharsuguda will face in this scenario. A budget of Rs 5500 crore is made for reducing transmission and distribution losses which is only going to help private energy companies sell more electricity and make more money. On the contrary allocation of mere Rs 4 crore for the establishment of biogas plants can support only about 5000 biogas plants, which is even insufficient for one block.
There is hardly any money allocated for developing small and micro level irrigation facilities or in providing adaptive seeds to farmers. There is no allocation for increasing the supply of electricity to farmers. On the other hand the government has planned for enhancing the fees for irrigation. Over the last ten years, the government has kept on increasing the fees it collects from farmers for supplying irrigation water to them, while allowing industries to use increasing quantities of water, often without formal permission and from sources earmarked for irrigation purposes, without having to pay much.
The plan has more than Rs 3000 crore for the forest department, while the villagers who have sacrificed so much to protect their forests under community forest management /joint forest management have been allocated nothing but a small amount of five crore rupees for training purposes. In transport sector, 80% of the allocated budget for this sector is for highways while there is no budget for rail or for promoting the use of non-motorised transport such as bicycles.
Two of the most critical areas climate change impacts are falling production in agriculture, livestock & fishery; and increasing health hazards due to heat related illnesses and accidents. There is no budget under the action plan for something as obvious and basic as preventing and treating heat strokes. The livestock sector is seen by the government less as a victim of climate change and more as a producer of methane. The climate change action plan accuses the farmers of Orissa of not killing old and unproductive cattle due to religious cultural reasons and that this leads to large methane emissions.
An overall reading of the Orissa climate change action plan leads to the following conclusions:
1. It’s a hurriedly drafted document ghost-written by the World Bank and other External Agencies.
2. Notwithstanding the importance and implication of the document, the process of preparation of draft document has not been inclusive. There has been no involvement of civil society and other non-government stakeholders including academia, researchers, legislatures, PRIs, NGOs and the important climate refugees and vulnerable communities from different parts of the state in the drafting processes. Even the comments and suggestions provided by some of these stakeholders who were invited to the hurriedly called 4 stakeholder consultations have been ignored and not incorporated.
3. It treats Orissa as a cause of climate change while Orissa is actually a victim of climate change. Naturally it wants to impose the price of reducing emission of green house gases on the ordinary people of Orissa, who lives either low-emission or net-carbon-absorption livelihoods.
4. In spite of the heat wave conditions that have killed thousands of people in Orissa, the Action Plan seeks to ratify the setting up of large numbers of new thermal power plans which will lead to at least thirteen times growth in emissions and pollutions, thus would risk temperature increase.
5. It accepts that climate change is going to cause erratic monsoons and increased incidence of droughts and reduce agricultural production. However it proposes not increasing irrigation coverage but increase in water tariff collected from farmers.
6. It blames the people of Orissa keeping their old cows and bullocks and encourages that they should allow such animals to die.
7. It pays only lip service to the issue of renewable energy such as biogas or solar powers and allocates very small budgets for these areas. On the other hand it allocates large amounts of public money to help electricity companies increase profits by reducing transmission losses.
8. It tries to peddle false assumptions that bio-fuels will lead to lower carbon emissions. Biofuels can only lead to saving in petroleum use but not reduce carbon emissions as when biofuels are burnt, that too released green house gases. It encourages the diversion of land to growing bio-fuels which will lead to reduction in the availability of food and fodder.
9. It pays lip service to development of public transport, railways and non-motorised transport. But it does not allocate any budgets for these while allocating 80% of the transport sector budget for highways.
10. It ignores the contribution of community forest management in protecting and developing Orissa’ forests and allocates no budget for helping villages that are protecting their forests to gain access to alternate livelihoods and alternate fuel sources.
11. It pays only lip service to preventing and curing the health impacts of increasing temperatures and makes no budget allocation for preventing or treating heat strokes in spite of thousands of people having died due to heat strokes in the last few years.
It is important that the government have a genuine participatory process where academics, people currently affected severely by climate change, other people under threat of climate change impact, experienced bureaucrats, civil society organisations, people’s representatives debate on the issue of impact of climate change on Orissa in a decentralized manner from below. The principal approach should be to ensure that the state has systems to generate resources from global funds as well as in judiciously directing its own resources for fighting climate change and its impacts. Such resources should be used to reduce the impact of climate change on the people of Orissa, especially the people who are more vulnerable and unable to adapt without external support. It is important that the state should ponder over its industrialization and extractive development trajectory and comes out with a policy based on self discipline, sobriety and temperance in resource use. This draft should be rejected altogether and a new decentralized, inclusive process be initiated from below with multistakeholders participation with a spirit of Odia nationalism rather than under the influence of the World Bank.
Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change
(Sudarshan Chhotoray), (Dr.S.N.Patro), (Achyut Das), (Biswajit Mohanty) (Bibhudhendra P Das)
(Dr. J.Panigrahi) (Dhirendra Panda) (Pranb Choudhury) (Manas Ranjan) (Kalish Das) (Tapan Padhi) (Pravat Sutar) (Prasant Mohanty), (Mangaraj Panda),(Bisikesan Jani), (Ranjan Panda) (Bibekananda Pattanaik) (Bidyut Mohanty) (Pradip Pradhan)
*
2
RAJ KAMAL SWAIN Says:
July 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
[Gravatar image]
Professional from all walk of life, specially people related to environment and built environment should make to participate actively …
Editor: Rant deleted.
Odisha Climate Change Action Plan: Draft available to receive more inputs
ENVIRONMENT, Odisha govt. action chitta June 25th. 2010, 4:52am
Following is an excerpt from a blog entry in the world bank site.
Lashed by heavy monsoon rains and devastating cyclones with unfailing regularity, the state looked for solutions. In doing so, it also stole a march on the central government, whose National Climate Change Action Plan is still being prepared in fits and starts.
… So, to chart the way forward on development in an era of climate change, the government decided to consult with diverse groups —a participatory approach endorsed by the Bank. The commitment came from the highest levels in the state government. The Bank helped by providing global knowledge and expertise, and mobilizing both national and international experts, as and when needed.
Consultations sought solutions for the coastal areas, tribal regions, mining and industrial areas, urban centers and farming belts. Fishermen, farmers, trade unions, industrial associations, tribal groups and women offered their comments. Not surprisingly, the discussions were often animated and intense.
A diverse set of questions was raised: What should be done to control the growing salination of the coastal belt that is ruining farmer livelihoods? How can we preserve the natural breeding grounds for fresh water fish? And what can be done for the fishermen who, with falling fish stocks, are abandoning their age-old profession and migrating to cities in search of work? Then, what’s the best way to stop fluoride and arsenic from leeching into the drinking water? And, if you’re wondering what happened between the forest officers and the mining ones, let’s just say that the forest officers finally succeeded in extracting a commitment from the mining officials to adhere to sustainable practices and greater environmental monitoring.
The draft plan is now up on the Orissa government’s website to receive more inputs. While the plan may not be perfect, it is innovative and home grown, and open to improvement. And all said and done, by being the first past the post, the little state of Orissa has shown the richer states the way!
shareshareshareshare
* Trackback-URL
* comments feed for this post
2 Responses to “Odisha Climate Change Action Plan: Draft available to receive more inputs”
*
1
chitta Says:
June 26th, 2010 at 6:58 am
[Gravatar image]
Following is from http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=19373.
Bhubaneswar: The draft CCAP of Orissa prepared at the aegis of the World Bank and DFID does not consider the concern and interest of common odia, neither reflect state’s seriousness towards self-discipline, sobriety and adaptation, rather vociferously reiterates its nexus with neo-liberal lobby which propounds reckless industrialization and unwarranted investment.
Notwithstanding the fact that its citizens are either the victims of Climate Change or are the vulnerable lot at coast and the hills, in spite of living a low-emission or net-absorption livelihoods, the authors of the document treat them as the Climate Criminals while allowing the criminals to expand and multiply their crimes. With its focus on promoting investment-intensive mitigation measures as a tool to encourage state’s ongoing unabated industrialization drive, it looks more as an “Investment Plan for Industrialization and Mitigation’ offering almost nothing for state’s farmers, fishers, forest-produce gatherers.
Orissa government’s Draft Climate Change Action Plan with a huge budget of Rs 17,000 crore seeks to help industries more by reducing their expenditure on adapting to climate change, while providing hardly any budget for the victims of climate change at Saatabhayaa, around Talcher and Jharsuguda. It proposes a 15 fold increase in the capacity of thermal power plants at the guise of improvement technology which alone could lead to at least thirteen times higher levels of emission of heat and pollution. One can imagine the hazards that already boiling Talcher and Jharsuguda will face in this scenario. A budget of Rs 5500 crore is made for reducing transmission and distribution losses which is only going to help private energy companies sell more electricity and make more money. On the contrary allocation of mere Rs 4 crore for the establishment of biogas plants can support only about 5000 biogas plants, which is even insufficient for one block.
There is hardly any money allocated for developing small and micro level irrigation facilities or in providing adaptive seeds to farmers. There is no allocation for increasing the supply of electricity to farmers. On the other hand the government has planned for enhancing the fees for irrigation. Over the last ten years, the government has kept on increasing the fees it collects from farmers for supplying irrigation water to them, while allowing industries to use increasing quantities of water, often without formal permission and from sources earmarked for irrigation purposes, without having to pay much.
The plan has more than Rs 3000 crore for the forest department, while the villagers who have sacrificed so much to protect their forests under community forest management /joint forest management have been allocated nothing but a small amount of five crore rupees for training purposes. In transport sector, 80% of the allocated budget for this sector is for highways while there is no budget for rail or for promoting the use of non-motorised transport such as bicycles.
Two of the most critical areas climate change impacts are falling production in agriculture, livestock & fishery; and increasing health hazards due to heat related illnesses and accidents. There is no budget under the action plan for something as obvious and basic as preventing and treating heat strokes. The livestock sector is seen by the government less as a victim of climate change and more as a producer of methane. The climate change action plan accuses the farmers of Orissa of not killing old and unproductive cattle due to religious cultural reasons and that this leads to large methane emissions.
An overall reading of the Orissa climate change action plan leads to the following conclusions:
1. It’s a hurriedly drafted document ghost-written by the World Bank and other External Agencies.
2. Notwithstanding the importance and implication of the document, the process of preparation of draft document has not been inclusive. There has been no involvement of civil society and other non-government stakeholders including academia, researchers, legislatures, PRIs, NGOs and the important climate refugees and vulnerable communities from different parts of the state in the drafting processes. Even the comments and suggestions provided by some of these stakeholders who were invited to the hurriedly called 4 stakeholder consultations have been ignored and not incorporated.
3. It treats Orissa as a cause of climate change while Orissa is actually a victim of climate change. Naturally it wants to impose the price of reducing emission of green house gases on the ordinary people of Orissa, who lives either low-emission or net-carbon-absorption livelihoods.
4. In spite of the heat wave conditions that have killed thousands of people in Orissa, the Action Plan seeks to ratify the setting up of large numbers of new thermal power plans which will lead to at least thirteen times growth in emissions and pollutions, thus would risk temperature increase.
5. It accepts that climate change is going to cause erratic monsoons and increased incidence of droughts and reduce agricultural production. However it proposes not increasing irrigation coverage but increase in water tariff collected from farmers.
6. It blames the people of Orissa keeping their old cows and bullocks and encourages that they should allow such animals to die.
7. It pays only lip service to the issue of renewable energy such as biogas or solar powers and allocates very small budgets for these areas. On the other hand it allocates large amounts of public money to help electricity companies increase profits by reducing transmission losses.
8. It tries to peddle false assumptions that bio-fuels will lead to lower carbon emissions. Biofuels can only lead to saving in petroleum use but not reduce carbon emissions as when biofuels are burnt, that too released green house gases. It encourages the diversion of land to growing bio-fuels which will lead to reduction in the availability of food and fodder.
9. It pays lip service to development of public transport, railways and non-motorised transport. But it does not allocate any budgets for these while allocating 80% of the transport sector budget for highways.
10. It ignores the contribution of community forest management in protecting and developing Orissa’ forests and allocates no budget for helping villages that are protecting their forests to gain access to alternate livelihoods and alternate fuel sources.
11. It pays only lip service to preventing and curing the health impacts of increasing temperatures and makes no budget allocation for preventing or treating heat strokes in spite of thousands of people having died due to heat strokes in the last few years.
It is important that the government have a genuine participatory process where academics, people currently affected severely by climate change, other people under threat of climate change impact, experienced bureaucrats, civil society organisations, people’s representatives debate on the issue of impact of climate change on Orissa in a decentralized manner from below. The principal approach should be to ensure that the state has systems to generate resources from global funds as well as in judiciously directing its own resources for fighting climate change and its impacts. Such resources should be used to reduce the impact of climate change on the people of Orissa, especially the people who are more vulnerable and unable to adapt without external support. It is important that the state should ponder over its industrialization and extractive development trajectory and comes out with a policy based on self discipline, sobriety and temperance in resource use. This draft should be rejected altogether and a new decentralized, inclusive process be initiated from below with multistakeholders participation with a spirit of Odia nationalism rather than under the influence of the World Bank.
Focus Orissa Forum on Climate Change
(Sudarshan Chhotoray), (Dr.S.N.Patro), (Achyut Das), (Biswajit Mohanty) (Bibhudhendra P Das)
(Dr. J.Panigrahi) (Dhirendra Panda) (Pranb Choudhury) (Manas Ranjan) (Kalish Das) (Tapan Padhi) (Pravat Sutar) (Prasant Mohanty), (Mangaraj Panda),(Bisikesan Jani), (Ranjan Panda) (Bibekananda Pattanaik) (Bidyut Mohanty) (Pradip Pradhan)
*
2
RAJ KAMAL SWAIN Says:
July 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
[Gravatar image]
Professional from all walk of life, specially people related to environment and built environment should make to participate actively …
Editor: Rant deleted.
Memorandum to PM for improved rail services in Orissa
[ ]
Memorandum to PM for improved rail services in Orissa
Various organisations including Agami Odisha, Swabhiman Odisha Manch, Lokasamukhya, Focus Orissa and Khurda-Bolangir Rail-line Kriyanusthan Committee have submitted a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister detailing their demands
VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS including Agami Odisha, Swabhiman Odisha Manch, Lokasamukhya, Focus Orissa and Khurda-Bolangir Rail-line Kriyanusthan Committee have submitted a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister detailing their demands for the welfare of the state especially regarding the railways.
A five-member representative team led by Agami Odisha chief Lalit Mohan Pattnaik handed over the memorandum to the chief engineer, rail project, east coast railway.
Alleging that the railways have always shown a step-motherly attitude toward the state, the representatives said that while north-eastern states of India get special treatment by the ministry, most backward regions of the state like Kandhamal and Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region are often neglected.
"Even hilly region like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand have received special package from the railways, KBK and Kandhamal regions known for their hilly backwardness, tribal populated backwardness and backward due to natural calamities have never considered for similar treatment," the delegation rued.
The railway infrastructure in Orissa is substantially low compared to the national average despite the state being in the profit-making zones, where as railway infrastructure of some neighbouring states are remarkably high though they are in the loss making zones, they said.
"Though the railways earn huge profits by transporting coal, metals, ores and minerals, the state has never got its due," they said.
Khurda road-Bolangir and Lanjigarh road-Junagarh railway lines in Orissa which were approved much earlier than Muzaffarpur-Sitamari and Sultangang-Deogarh railway lines in Bihar, are only 10 per cent complete where as both above projects in Bihar are completed by now, they said.
Their demands included expediting of various railway project works pending in the state, their completion in the 11th plan period and upgradation of the Mancheswar coach repair factory to a coach manufacturing factory.
http://www.merinews.com/article/memorandum-to-pm-for-improved-rail-services-in-orissa/15709850.shtml
Memorandum to PM for improved rail services in Orissa
Various organisations including Agami Odisha, Swabhiman Odisha Manch, Lokasamukhya, Focus Orissa and Khurda-Bolangir Rail-line Kriyanusthan Committee have submitted a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister detailing their demands
VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS including Agami Odisha, Swabhiman Odisha Manch, Lokasamukhya, Focus Orissa and Khurda-Bolangir Rail-line Kriyanusthan Committee have submitted a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister detailing their demands for the welfare of the state especially regarding the railways.
A five-member representative team led by Agami Odisha chief Lalit Mohan Pattnaik handed over the memorandum to the chief engineer, rail project, east coast railway.
Alleging that the railways have always shown a step-motherly attitude toward the state, the representatives said that while north-eastern states of India get special treatment by the ministry, most backward regions of the state like Kandhamal and Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region are often neglected.
"Even hilly region like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand have received special package from the railways, KBK and Kandhamal regions known for their hilly backwardness, tribal populated backwardness and backward due to natural calamities have never considered for similar treatment," the delegation rued.
The railway infrastructure in Orissa is substantially low compared to the national average despite the state being in the profit-making zones, where as railway infrastructure of some neighbouring states are remarkably high though they are in the loss making zones, they said.
"Though the railways earn huge profits by transporting coal, metals, ores and minerals, the state has never got its due," they said.
Khurda road-Bolangir and Lanjigarh road-Junagarh railway lines in Orissa which were approved much earlier than Muzaffarpur-Sitamari and Sultangang-Deogarh railway lines in Bihar, are only 10 per cent complete where as both above projects in Bihar are completed by now, they said.
Their demands included expediting of various railway project works pending in the state, their completion in the 11th plan period and upgradation of the Mancheswar coach repair factory to a coach manufacturing factory.
http://www.merinews.com/article/memorandum-to-pm-for-improved-rail-services-in-orissa/15709850.shtml
Focus Orissa Summit-2008=FROM PRAGATIVADI
http://www.pragativadi.com/250408/other_news.htm
Focus Orissa Summit-2008
Bhubaneswar: Focus Orissa Summit 2008, a two-day national conference would begin be held by at Hotel Bari International
behind ISKCON Temple here on Friday.
The Focus Orissa in association with Agami Orissa would organize the conference that aims at strengthening the development campaign in the state.
Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai would inaugurate the summit.
Representatives of all the political parties would participate in the debate.
Thirty papers on four thematic areas like development, financial inclusion, governance and mass media will be presented
during the conference.
The conference, scheduled between 9 AM to 6 PM, would be concluded with a political session at 5 PM on Saturday.
Focus Orissa Summit-2008
Bhubaneswar: Focus Orissa Summit 2008, a two-day national conference would begin be held by at Hotel Bari International
behind ISKCON Temple here on Friday.
The Focus Orissa in association with Agami Orissa would organize the conference that aims at strengthening the development campaign in the state.
Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai would inaugurate the summit.
Representatives of all the political parties would participate in the debate.
Thirty papers on four thematic areas like development, financial inclusion, governance and mass media will be presented
during the conference.
The conference, scheduled between 9 AM to 6 PM, would be concluded with a political session at 5 PM on Saturday.
WHAT OTHERS WRITE ABOUT-FOCUS ORISSA
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FOCUS ORISSA
Submitted by pritamsinha2007 on Sat, 06/20/2009 - 14:08
FOCUS ORISSA group has been discussing on issues emerging in the social, political and economic areas for the past three years. The objective of this GROUP is to convey e-group discussions in a coherent and simple way to the common man who is not part of web-world. FOCUS ORISSA has the membership of 571 members drawn from Media, Academic, Administration, Politics, Film, Art& Literature, Students, NRIs, and Industry etc. It is among first among e-groups to break news on happenings in grassroots level and events and developments from state capital.
http://contentxchange.in/category/e-news?page=1
e-News
FOCUS ORISSA
Submitted by pritamsinha2007 on Sat, 06/20/2009 - 14:08
FOCUS ORISSA group has been discussing on issues emerging in the social, political and economic areas for the past three years. The objective of this GROUP is to convey e-group discussions in a coherent and simple way to the common man who is not part of web-world. FOCUS ORISSA has the membership of 571 members drawn from Media, Academic, Administration, Politics, Film, Art& Literature, Students, NRIs, and Industry etc. It is among first among e-groups to break news on happenings in grassroots level and events and developments from state capital.
http://contentxchange.in/category/e-news?page=1
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