Contaminated water sources and the virtual absence of health care claim dozens of lives in the State, now in the grip of cholera. COME monsoon and the backward regions of Orissa are in the grip of water-borne diseases. This year too has been no different. According to official figures, 150 people had died of cholera and diarrhoea in the State as on September 15. Unofficial reports put the toll at more...

The green hills -- those that once used to soothe the entire region through the stilly silence, and fill it with the great wonder of multitudinousness -- have suddenly turned into a valley of death. First Diarrhea and then Cholera, the quiet bosom of the picturesque Raygada district is today torn by the screams of pain and loss of lives. People are dying like flies and hundreds are lying on...

A three-member central team reached the cholera-hit Rayagada district today to review measures being taken by the authorities to check the epidemic. The team visited Kalayansinghpur, the worst-affected block of the district. More cases of cholera deaths were also reported from across the district. While the official death toll stood at 40, unofficial sources claimed that the epidemic had already claimed more than 75 lives in Rayagada district alone. The number...

Vedanta has initiated efforts to get mining rights in other areas of the state to run its 1-million-tonne plant at Lanjigarh but the Congress has vowed to block the handover of at least one of the alternative sites. The company’s rethink crystallised after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi hinted on August 26 that the Niyamgiri hills would not be given for mining to Vedanta Alumina. During the past two days, the chief...

Over the past three years, the number of attacks on schools has seen a steep rise. The argument advanced by the Naxals is that schools have become police stations and security forces take cover here. To substantiate their claim they have never attacked a school when children were in it and attacks have always taken place when the school premises were closed. Security personnel who battle the Naxals however claim that...