BHUBANESWAR  THURSDAY  JANUARY 02, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION EXPECT WARMER JANUARY THAN NORMAL IN MOST PARTS OF INDIA: IMD Minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to be above normal in most parts of India, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said BELOW NORMAL WINTER RAINFALL IN THE NORTH LAST YEAR WAS WARMEST SINCE 1901 Apart from some areas in eastern, northwest, and west-central regions, other parts of the country will see minimum and maximum temperatures above normal, the IMD said. States in north India are most likely to receive below-normal rainfall from January to March. This may affect the growth of rabi crops, which depend on winter rainfall ■ ■ Monthly rainfall over the country as a whole during January is most likely to be more than 118% above the long-period average, IMD said The meteorological department said 2024 was the warmest on record in India since 1901, with an annual mean temperature of 25.75 degrees Celsius, 0.65 degrees above the long-period average 31.250C WAS THE AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE IN 2024 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Govt outreach to put fertiliser rates on leash Cabinet’s first decision of the New Year on farmers; crop insurance schemes extended M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi AT a time when farmers in Punjab are on the war path, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday allocated up to `3,850 crore for a one-time package to subsidise the di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser and approved a one-year extension of two crop insurance schemes. In a post on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “(Govt’s) first decision of the New Year is dedicated to crores of farmer brothers and sisters of our country. We have approved increasing the allocation for the crop insurance scheme. This will provide more security to farmers’ crops and will also mitigate their concerns about any damage.” The decision on DAP will ensure farmers get it at affordable prices, he added. The DAP subsidy aims to keep retail prices at `1,350 per bag of 50 kg, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said during a media briefing. Last year, the Centre announced a one-time special package on DAP at `3,500 per tonne, valid from April 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, with a financial implication of `2,625 crore. The package was over and above DAP SUBSIDY `3,850 crore Kerala to spend `750 cr to rehabilitate Wayanad victims E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ T’Puram KERALA Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday unveiled the plan to build two township projects in Wayanad to rehabilitate the victims of the July 30, 2024 landslides. Estimated to cost `750 crore, the townships will come up on 58.5 hectares and 48.96 hectares of the Nedumbala Estate in Kottapadi village and Elstone Estate in Kalpetta village, respectively, in Wayanad. The cabinet decision comes possible. “Activities are ongoing so that the final list of disasteraffected families is released by January 25,” he said. Families that lived in houses ‘Write off debts’ Pinarayi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority to consider the state’s request to write off debts of landslide victims Farmers to get DAP at `1,350 per bag of 50 kg Market rate of DAP is over `3,000 per bag of 50 kg Total fertiliser subsidy burden on govt A N U R A A G S I N G H @ Bhopal `11.90 LAKH CRORE the nutrient-based subsidy fixed by the government on non-urea nutrients. Besides, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) have been extended to align it with the 15th Finance Commission period, Vaishnaw said. The outlay for PMFBY and RWBCIS has been enhanced to `69,515.71 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26, up from `66,550 crore for 2020-21 to 2024-25. For targeted infusion of technolog y in crop insurance schemes, the Cabinet also approved a separate fund with a corpus of `824.77 crore. NEW YEAR RUSH AT RAM TEMPLE A huge rush of devotees to offer prayers at the Ram Lalla Temple in Ayodhya on the first day of the New Year on Wednesday. This is the first New Year celebration at the Ayodhya shrine after its consecration early last year. According to local administration estimates, more than five lakh devotees paid homage to the deity of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on Wednesday | PTI E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Puri BANGLADESH UNREST INFILTRATORS COMING TO INDIA TO WORK IN TEXTILE MILLS: SARMA P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati A huge gathering of devotees in front of the Srimandir on Wednesday | EXPRESS stroke of midnight, they burst firecrackers and welcomed the New Year. After taking a dip in the sea, the pilgrims offered prayers to the rising sun and rushed to Srimandir for darshan of the holy Trinity . As planned, the temple gates were closed by 11 pm on Tuesday and opened after two hours. Priests performed daily chores of the deities. Chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Arabinda Padhee, collector Siddharth Shankar Swain and SP Vinit Agarwal remained present in the temple to look after the arrangements. marked as ‘no-go’ zone will also be rehabilitated, he said. A study done after the disaster had identified certain areas surrounding the affected places as landslide-prone and classified the houses as ‘no-go’ zone. Pinarayi said the beneficiaries will keep ownership of their land in the disaster-affected areas even after relocating to the township, and also get ownership of the respective properties in the township with a rider on the cut-off date for resale. Meanwhile, training guns on the BJP, Pinarayi said the Centre’s delay in declaring the landslide as a disaster of ‘severe nature’ deprived Kerala of the chance to avail funds from UN agencies and NGOs. “Though the Inter-Ministerial Central Team recommended the Home Ministry to declare the tragedy as a disaster of ‘severe nature’ within a month of the incident, no action was taken for two months. The inordinate delay denied us opportunity to secure additional assistance,” he charged. Toxic Union Carbide waste exits Bhopal after 40 years One-time special package Half a million arrive at Puri for Lord Jagannath’s darshan, chaos follows WITH half a million pilgrims thronging the Shree Jagannath Temple on the first day of the year, chaos descended on the Grand Road as devotees broke security barricades to make entry into the 12th century shrine on Wednesday . The rush was so intense that devotees from outside the queue barged through the barricades at Singhadwar (Lion’s Gate). While many managed to enter, about six devotees sustained minor injuries. Later, police restored the barricades and the injured were discharged after first aid. Despite elaborate measures to keep the process in order, controlling the large number of devotees seeking blessings of the three deities was a herculean task as the barricaded line on Bada Danda ran for over a kilometre with thousands packed in the queue. Tired of waiting since the wee hours of the day, pilgrims jumped the barricades and ran helter-skelter as a stampede-like situation ensued. Devotees who had descended in huge numbers camped at Puri beach on Tuesday At the . five days after the Kerala High Court dismissed the pleas of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd and Elstone Tea Estates Ltd against land acquisition. According to the project plan, each family will get either five cents of land at Elstone Estate or 10 cents at Nedumbala Estate, calculated on the basis of the land value. Each house will have 1,000 sq ft built-up area. No timeline has been specified for the project but Pinarayi said the government would strive to complete it as early as The administration had made elaborate arrangements for smooth conduct of the New Year celebration. At least 60 platoons of police including 200 officers were deployed to maintain law and order, particularly to regulate huge vehicular traffic in the pilgrim town. Scores of lifeguards deployed to prevent drowning in the sea had a tough time due to the massive congregation at the beach. Till the filling of this report, no case of drowning was reported. Though security arrangements for VVIPs were in place, surprisingly no one turned up. ASSAM Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday dropped a bombshell claim that a section of India’s textile industry is illegally “importing” cheap labourers from Bangladesh where the industry has taken a hard hit in the aftermath of the unrest that brought down the government of Sheikh Hasina. “The Assam Police are detecting 20 to 30 infiltrators every day and an equal number of people are seen in Tripura also. When we tried to understand why this is happening, we found the textile industry in Bangladesh has virtually collapsed after the unrest,” Sarma said. He alleged that many textile factory owners in India were making use of the situation and are incentivising textile workers there to come to India and work in facto- ries here with better pay. “We have to strike at those industrial houses that are incentivising people to come to India in the form of cheap labour,” Sarma said, adding the Centre is taking the issue seriously . He said he has discussed the matter with counterparts in the Northeast and West Bengal. “I have also discussed it with Home Minister Amit Shah in my last meeting,” Sarma said. However, industry representatives in Tamil Nadu denied Sarma’s claim. “After a similar alert in August, we verified the documents, including Aadhaar, of workers working in knitwear manufacturing units. The police are also actively investigating. However, no illegal entries were found,” K M Subramanian, president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, said. He added that units are not incentivising such workers either. FOUR decades after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy killed thousands of people, some 337 tonnes of toxic waste lying at the defunct Union Carbide factory were on Wednesday night moved to another site in Dhar district. The Madhya Pradesh government is shifting the hazardous waste out of Bhopal to comply with a MP High Court order, which on December 3 had directed it to shift the toxic waste within four weeks. The state government has to file compliance report before the next hearing on January 6. Officials said the toxic waste has been sent to Pithampur Industrial Area, 250 km from Bhopal, for disposal. A dedicated green corridor has been created to transport the hazardous material in one night. Twelve specially designed trucks with leakproof, fire-resistant, and GPS-enabled containers are carrying the waste—toxic soil, pesticide residues, and chemicals. The process of collecting, packing, and loading of the waste, which was lying at a sealed shed within the closed factory, had started on Sunday under the supervision of experts. Over 200 trained workers were deployed, each of them operating in short 30-minute shifts following strict safety measures, including wearing PPE kits. The entire process—unlocking the waste, its secure and safe packing, and loading on to the secured containers—was videofilmed and recorded. “The incineration process could take 3-9 months, depending on the speed (feed rate),” Swatantra Kumar Singh, director of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Directorate, told this newspaper. The move comes amid stiff protests from activists who claimed the incineration process would pollute the soil and ground water in the villages around Pithampur, a charge refuted by the authorities. Indore mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava, who is a BJP leader, has also voiced concern, saying the decision to destroy the waste should be reviewed. Reinforced container trucks transporting hazardous waste collected from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal to Pithampur Industrial Area, on Wednesday night EXPRESS READ Govt’s push for OPELIP Phase-II raises posers US truck-ramming attack kills 10 Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government’s push for implementation of the second phase of Odisha PVTG Empowerment and Livelihoods Improvement Programme (OPELIP-II) with International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) funding has raised questions since it has a loan component | P3 New Orleans: A man drove a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year in Florida’s New Orleans’ on Wednesday, killing 10 people before being shot dead by police. The FBI is investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”. Investigators were combing New Orleans’ French Quarter for potential explosive devices, an official said | P9 Majhi puts govt recruitment on fast track; Jeypore to get OPSC centre EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar GST KITTY DEC MOP-UP RISES 7.3% YEAR-ON-YEAR Gross GST revenue of the Centre and states stood at `1.77 lakh crore in December 2024, up from `1.65 lakh crore recorded in the same month of 2023 | P10 IN a move to expedite the recruitment process to fill up all vacant posts in administrative departments, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday advised the chairpersons of three service selection commissions to increase the manpower of the government for better public services delivery . Chairing a high level meeting attended by chairpersons of Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) and Odisha Sub-ordinate Staff Selection Commission (OSSSC) at Lok Seva Bhavan, Majhi specifically instructed that vacant positions in departments providing essential services such as health, home, education and agriculture be filled up as soon as possible so that the critical departments function efficiently and effectively . He emphasised the need for a transparent, fair and impartial recruitment process in the state. The government has set a target to employ 1.5 lakh people over a period of five years and fill up 65,000 vacant posts in the first two years. Currently , there are 1,10,557 vacant positions in various departments across the state. The CM directed all departments to submit proposals for recruitment to vacant posts to respective service selection commissions by March 31. He instructed departments to conduct special recruitment drives within a specified time frame to fill up the vacancies reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Majhi said there is no need to take approval of empowered committees concerned to fill up Group-B posts. He directed for reconstituting the empowered committee currently functioning in the Finance department to oversee selection and reservation for recruitment of persons with disabilities (PwDs) to include representatives from the Social Security and Empowerment of There is no need to take approval of empowered committees concerned to fill up Group-B posts Mohan Charan Majhi, Chief Minister Persons with Disabilities department. In order to facilitate candidates from the undivided Koraput district, the chief minister also proposed establishing an examination centre of OPSC at Jeypore. Currently the OPSC , has five examination centres. Apart from OPSC chairman Arun Sarangi, OSSC chairperson Abhay and OSSSC chief Lalit Das, chief secretary Manoj Ahuja, additional chief secretary to CM Nikunja Bihari Dhal were present.