This Week Orissa: BJP frets at Advani hint

BJP frets at Advani hint

What L K Advani said during the Orissa leg of his yatra has upset the BJPs state wing. He dropped broad hints that he is not averse to reviving ties with the Biju Janata Dal. The Orissa BJP would,however,rather not. After the BJD had broken off an 11-year-old alliance in March 2009,a few weeks before the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls,an enraged BJP leadership had vowed revenge. No one has forgotten how the top BJP leadership including Advani was snubbed. Now Advanis hints have made BJP leaders task difficult ahead of the panchayat polls. They had been keen to pin down the BJD on the NREGS and mid-day meal scams,and said it would be difficult to make people understand how their bitter enemy can again be an ally.

Flood of complaints

The twin floods in the Mahanadi,Brahmani and Baitarani river systems,which led to over 80 deaths in September this year,are being described as not a natural disaster but man-made. Opposition parties have already been saying the floods could have been avoided,and now the National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Orissa government asking it to submit a detailed report on the man-made floods. The notice follows a petition by Bhubaneswar-based India Media Centre,an NGO. Earlier,Governor Muralidhar Bhandare had asked the government to constitute a inquiry committee that would go to the roots of the flood.

Ash worry

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The navaratna National Aluminium Company,Indias leading producer and exporter of alumina and aluminium,has been asked to explain a fly ash leak. Around 7,000 tonnes of fly ash is generated at the 1200MW captive power plant in Angul everyday. This is mixed with water and the slurry disposed of through pipelines to the companys ash ponds spread over 600 acres. On October 10,ash water started leaking from one of the ponds. The leaks were plugged and Nalco maintained no pollution has been caused to villages,agricultural land or waterbodies. The Orissa State Pollution Control Board has,however,directed it to show cause why restrictions on power generation should not be imposed until the ash pond system management and disposal mechanisms are improved.

Privatisating healthcare

Corruption watchdog Transparency International has expressed reservations over the governments plan of handing over the management of 13 public health centres in tribal districts to NGOs. It says this would spell disaster for poor people,making healthcare unaffordable. The government has issued advertisements inviting tenders for a PPP project. In a letter to the Chief Minister,Transparency International India board member Biswajit Mohanty said,The locals who are tribal people are illiterate and can easily be exploited by greedy private operators. It would be indeed a very foolish decision to go ahead and allow PPP arrangements for such PHCs when the government should be running them directly.