Cuttack Apr 25 PTI The Orissa High Court Monday directed three Union secretaries and the Chairman of the Railway Board to resolve the crisis of coal supply to National Aluminum Companys smelter plant at Angul and its Alumina refinery at Damanjodi in 24 hoursA Division Bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar ordered since the essential dispute concerns two Central PSUs-MCL and NALCO and also involves the role of the Railways the court considers it appropriate to direct that the Secretary Power the Secretary Coal the Secretary Mines and the Chairman Railway Board will sit together in virtual or hybrid mode with the Managing Directors of the MCL and NALCO not later than 6 pm April 26 to find the way for resolving the crisis to ensure that the smelter plant of NALCO at Angul and its Alumina refinery at Damanjodi are not pushed to the brink of a shutdown The dry fuel scarcity issue was brought to the notice of the High Court by the Nalco Officers Association and the court had directed the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited MCL last week to consider the request of the countrys biggest aluminium manufacturer on a priority basisWhen the matter came up for adjudication on Monday counsel for the NALCO informed the Court that coal supply from the MCL had come down by 60 per cent of the contracted demand and coal stocks available with the alumina major can keep its units going only for three more daysOn the other hand counsel for the MCL submitted that the coal company should not be compelled to supply dry fuel only to NALCO through rakes as MCL is also required to supply the fossil fuel to other power plants as wellThe MCL counsel also urged the Court to direct NALCO to lift coal from MCLs pit at Bharatpur about 20 km from the smelter plant either by road or by Merry Go Round MGR a dedicated rail line connecting the coalmine pit head with NALCOs smelter plantMeanwhile the HC received two other writ petitions in which the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and District Small Scale Manufacturing Enterprises expressed apprehensions that MSMEs in the state would suffer if the power supply was reduced due to the non-availability of coal for thermal power plants PTI COR AAM MM MM

Cuttack Apr 22 PTI Orissa High Court on Friday directed East Coast Railways to consider on priority basis if any request is made to it by the Nalco for the transportation of coal to its smelter plant in Angul The direction was issued by a bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice R K Pattanaik while adjudicating over a petition If a request is made by Nalco to East Coast Railway to allocate four rakes per day to transport coal from MCLs Bharatpur mines to Nalcos plant at Angul such request should be considered by the East Coast Railway on a priority basis the HC ordered and adjourned the matter to be heard again on April 25 The High Court also issued notices to MCL ECoR and Nalco and asked their counsel to get instructions from their respective authorities and file counters to the petition Facing coal scarcity at its smelter plant at Angul the aluminium is arraigned as an opposite party in a writ petition filed by Nalco Officers Associate in Orissa High CourtPTI COR AAM KKKK KK

Cuttack Mar 29 PTI The Cuttack Municipal Corporation has told the Orissa High Court that discharge of untreated sewage into a major distributary of the Mahanadi river would stop soonThe court was hearing a writ petition filed six years ago by Khan Nagar Khapuria Puja Committee which sought judicial intervention on the release of untreated sewage water into the Kathajodi riverThe assurance came after the State Pollution Control Board SPCB expressed grave concern about the quality of water at the point of discharge into the riverThe sewage of the city will be diverted to the sewage treatment plant in Matagajpur henceforth through an underground line a CMC official told the courtThe sewage will undergo requisite treatment before being discharged into the river to control pollution he saidThree treatment plants are currently functioning to check the inflow of sewage into the Kathajodi riverThe bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar had asked the SPCB and the CMC last week to conduct a quality test of the river water at the discharge point and submit a report PTI CORR HMB RBT RBT

Cuttack Jan 20 PTI The Orissa High Court on Thursday said police excesses must be stopped immediately at Dhinkia the site of the proposed JSW steel plant and directed the state government to submit to it a status report on the situation there after the Jagatsinghpur district collector failed to do so The status report should be submitted by a senior officer of the home department and detail the ground realities of the area with reference to the grievances mentioned in two PILs filled by a local woman and three advocates alleging police atrocities on villagers who had protested against the demolition of their betel vines Police excesses highhandedness and brutality in any form by the local police have to be immediately stopped a division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar said after hearing the petitioners advocates The bench directed Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija to ensure that the status report is filed in the form of an affidavit and posted the matter for hearing again on January 31 The advocate general who appeared in person during the analogous hearing of the two PILs informed the Court through memo about the present situation at Dhinkia village and denied the allegations leveled against the district administration particularly against the district police He also informed the Court that a steel and a cement plant would come up in the area which would immensely boost its economic condition He however admitted that some locals had objected to the land acquisition which triggered a clash between the police and the protestors Three advocates of the High Court petitioned the court that the normal lives of the residents of Dhinkia village have been severely affected since the violent clash between the villagers and the police on January 14 due to the excess action by the force Many villagers are still hiding in the jungles nearby and are not able to gather courage to return to their homes the petition said Forty villagers including children women and elderly persons were injured in the clash in which five police personnel were also injured The other petition alleged highhandedness by the police and the district administration and urged the HC to direct the government to withdraw the force from Dhinkia Taking note of the petitions the court directed the state government to ensure that the villagers are allowed free movement in the area for gathering their essential provisions like ration and medicines Meanwhile a delegation of political leaders drawn from over 12 opposition parties met Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal at the Raj Bhavan during the day and submitted a memorandum to him requesting his intervention to stop the police atrocities on villagers in Dhinkia PTI COR AAM KK KK KK

Kolkata Dec 26 PTI Former union minister and Trinamool Congress leader Babul Supriyo who joined TMC three months back on Sunday took a swipe at his former party predicting five disgruntled saffron party MLAs who quit the BJP West Bengals MLA WhatsApp group may now sever their links with the party However one of the five MLAs Ambica Roy on Sunday expressed his desire to rejoin the WhatsApp group stating he had made a mistake and wished to remain a loyal soldier of BJP Supriyo however tweeted in Bengali one wicket after another is falling in BJP Five more gone today Shiv Babu national General Secretary Shiv Prakash who had overseen BJP campaign before assembly polls must have gone to Mount Kailash by now euphuism for retirement If you want to find Bengali crabs who will pull you from behind go to Muralidhar lane the address of the state BJP The five MLAs Mukutmoni Adhikari Ranaghat South Subrata Thakur Gaighata Ambica Roy Kalyani Asok Kirtania Bongaon North and Asim Sarkar Haringhata from the politically powerful Matua community had apparently left the WhatsApp group disgruntled over being left out various committees formed by the BJP state party unit BJP state President Sukanta Majumdar said none of the five MLAs will be left out We will accommodate them in new committees They have to be a little more patient Majumdar didnt want to attach much importance to Supriyos tweet on the MLAs leaving the saffron party The Matua community constitutes a large chunk of the states Scheduled Caste population It has considerable clout in at least four Lok Sabha seats and 30-40 assembly seats in Nadia North and South 24 Parganas districts Earlier former BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu had exited a WhatsApp group of the party after being axed from the state committee PTI SUS JRC JRC

Cuttack Dec 22 PTI The Odisha government Wednesday informed the high court it would withdraw a reservation notification issued for the panchayat elections realising that it was faulty The court was hearing a petition challenging the October 1 notification for reservation of seats It had asked the State Election Commission SEC to submit an affidavit detailing the reservation policy to be adopted for the elections scheduled to be held early next year The government counsel informed the court that a fresh notification for reservation of seats will be issued next Monday and objections will be accepted till January 3 said Sukanta Dalei the petitioners advocate After hearing the objections on January 5 the government will submit the final reservation list to the SEC on January 7 Dalei said A division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar is adjudicating a case filed by Birendra Das The petitioner had maintained that if October 1 was implemented then the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would completely lose their constitutional and statutory rights The governments notification was also contrary to the 73rd constitutional amendment of 1992 Das said PTI COR HMB RG RG

Cuttack Nov 22 PTI The Orissa High Court Monday directed the State Election Commission SEC to submit an affidavit detailing the reservation policies to be adopted for the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections in the state The direction came from a division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar while holding preliminary hearings of a writ petition challenging the state governments notification issued in this connection on October 1 2021 The petitioner has stated that the notification issued by the Panchayat Raj secretary if implemented will completely take away the Constitutional as well as Statutory rights of Scheduled Caste SC and Scheduled Tribe ST people The state government notification is also contrary to the Constitution 73rd Amendment Act of 1992 which came into effect in April 1993 the petition said Among other anomalies the government notification is aimed at changing the percentage of reservation of the seats for SC and ST candidates and it will also alter the rotation principle of reservation of seats the petitioners counsel Sukanta Dalei said He said the Court has fixed December 20 for the next hearing and the SEC was asked to submit its affidavit by December 14 PTI COR AAM MM MM

Cuttack Sep 17 PTI The Orissa High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by a puja committee and others against the governments decision to restrict the maximum height of Durga idols to four feet in the state observing that the matter cannot be singled out as an essential aspect of a tradition or practice without which the festival itself may not have significance A division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar said the petitioners were not able to convince the court that if the height of the idol is restricted to four feet then somehow the sanctity of the occasion the devotion and fervour associated with the festival and the religious sentiments of the people would be interfered with in a manner contrary to tradition The observations by the bench came on the petition filed by the Balubazar Puja Committee in Cuttack and three of its office bearers against the governments order It also said none of the other Durga Puja committees had found the restriction to be hurtful of public sentiment or interfering with their celebrations The Odisha government had on August 9 directed the puja organisers to ensure that the height of Durga idols would be less than four feet in light of the threat to health and safety of people due to the COVID-19 pandemic Appearing for the petitioners senior advocate Pitambar Acharya had argued there was no justification in the state governments restriction on the height of Durga idols as this had no nexus to the danger posed by the pandemic The high court had on Thursday completed hearing on the petition and reserved its verdict Durga Puja festival itself is a combination of several elements of celebration and the idol is but one important component In respect of these many elements there has had to be some amount of restriction on the scale and size the bench said It also said relaxing the restriction for just one Durga Puja committee would trigger similar demands all over making it difficult for the government to strictly enforce the measures when the state is still in the grip of COVID-19 The height of Durga idols cannot be singled out as an essential aspect of a tradition or practice without which the festival itself may not have significance the court said These may be matters of perception but will have to be balanced against several countervailing interests and factors which concern the health and safety of the public at large it added PTI HMB BDC BDC