Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has replied to Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh’s letter regarding the “state government’s inability” to spend funds under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme. Naveen has written that Rs 102 crore has been spent till September 2011 for the programme and the delay took place as the funds reached the state government in the last week of March, which was the end of the financial year 2010-11. Bhubaneswar: A four-member team from Korean Broadcasting Service on Monday met the state’s chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and enquired about the progress and fate of the proposed Posco steel plant project. Chief secretary Patnaik explained to them that the forest clearance for the project was obtained a few months ago. He asserted that the inhabitants of five out of the seven villages to be affected by the project were in favour of the steel plant. Bhubaneswar: At least four persons were killed and four others, including a child, were injured in three separate road accidents across the state on Monday. In the first case, two people were killed and four others were injured in an accident on the Daitary-Paradeep Express Highway near Osara village under Dharmasala police station of Jajpur district in the afternoon. A cyclist was crushed to death after he was run over by a truck near Balichandrapur on the same highway. In another case, a 35-year-old man was killed in a road accident at Katani under Rairakhol police limits in Sambalpur.
Monday, 09 February 2026
