Its Naveen versus Rahul

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may have tried to steal the thunder from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik with his Niyamgiri meeting in August after the MoEFs halt Vedanta order,but the BJD boss was quick to retaliate.

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Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may have tried to steal the thunder from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik with his Niyamgiri meeting in August after the MoEFs halt Vedanta order,but the BJD boss was quick to retaliate. On December 5,Naveen addressed the BJDs youth-wing rally in Bhubaneswar,exhorting students to join his battle against the Centres anti-Orissa attitude. Though Naveen has been repeatedly protesting the Centres apathy towards Orissa,this rally was significant as it came just three days before Rahuls Orissa tour on December 8 and 9. Naveen stepped up his anti-Centre chorus at the rally. Taking a dig at Rahuls call that he was a sipahi of the tribals,Naveen said the Centre was trying to keep Orissa poor in the name of environment. The CM said it is about time the youth rose in protest against the UPAs stepmotherly attitude towards the state. The BJD plans to organise more rallies and meetings in Bhubaneswar and elsewhere to expose UPAs callous attitude towards the state.

Rebels targeting civilians

On December 6, hundreds of Maoists killed three tribals in Sundargarh district,accusing them of being police informers. Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army abducted three people,including a ward member and a teacher,from Topadihi near Rourkela and took them to Serenda forests. Later,their bodies were found near a railway line. The incident took place about a week after the Maoists triggered a landmine blast targeting an ambulance in Kandhamal district that killed five people. The Maoists,subsequently,apologised for their mistake by saying that they had actually targeted a police vehicle. The police say the increased number of civilian killings by the rebels on charges that they were police informers show that the Maoists are desperate.

No evening courts: Lawyers

The Supreme Courts move to start evening courts in Orissa has hit a massive wall of protest. Judicial activities in the state,including that of the Orissa High Court,were crippled recently after lawyers boycotted courts in protest against the introduction of evening courts. Following instruction of the SC,the state government had opened evening courts in selected cities on an experimental basis to reduce pendency of cases. These courts began functioning in Cuttack on December 6. But the lawyers of Cuttack HC Court Bar Association opposed the move by saying that evening courts would mean that there would be no time left for them to prepare for the cases scheduled for the next day. Besides,it would be difficult for them to travel back to their homes in the absence of proper transport.

Trouble for micro finance?

The micro-finance institutions are under intense pressure. There are 43 MFIs working in Orissa. Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadia recently said that the state government has decided to enact a law to have control over private investors operating in Orissa. For this,a committee headed by regional Director of NABARD has been formed. At an urgent meeting organised by the Orissa chapter of Sa-Dhan,the Indian microfinance industry association,the MFIs apprehended that the state government may amend the Orissa Money Lenders Act 1939,which may be more draconian than the Andhra ordinance that ensures jail terms for coercive collections by MFIs. Some MFIs have now offered to bring down interest rates and stop evening collection.