State

Chhatrapur: Brahmapur Vigilance officials Saturday arrested ICDS Supervisor B. Uma Patro and Junior Revenue Assistant (JRA) Narasingha Behera, posted at the CDPO office in Hinjilikatu, for allegedly demanding and accepting a 30,000 bribe. According to Vigilance officials, the accused demanded the money from an Anganwadi...

Phulbani: Police in Kandhamal district have arrested a man who allegedly posed as a Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI), extorted money from motorists and sexually exploited women by promising to marry them, police said Saturday. The accused has been identified as Dharmendra Kumar Behera, alias Nikhil...

Patrapur: A headmaster at a primary school in Ganjam district has been suspended for closing the school ahead of scheduled hours, an act that also brought wider irregularities to light. Biswanath Pradhan, headmaster of Jagannathpur Primary School under Gundura panchayat in Patrapur block, was suspended...

Baleshwar: Fakir Mohan University (FMU) marked International Coastal Cleanup Day 2026 with a cleanup and awareness campaign at Chandipur Beach, bringing together more than 200 students, teachers and non-teaching staff. The programme was organised under the Swachh Sagar Surakshit Sagar 5.0 initiative in association with...

Brahmapur: A court in Odisha's Ganjam district Saturday sentenced five men to three years' rigorous imprisonment for their involvement in a mule bank account fraud case. The Judicial Magistrate First Class court at Khallikote convicted the five men -- Sushant Sahu, Sudam Patra, Pabitra Sahu,...

Jayapur: Vikram Dev University in Jayapur, Koraput district, Saturday postponed its second-semester undergraduate Ability Enhancement Course (AEC 1.2) English examination after a question paper circulating on WhatsApp was found to match the paper scheduled for the day, university officials said. The examination was scheduled to...

Brahmapur: Odisha Fire Service personnel Saturday fished out the body of a student who was missing during the immersion of the Ganesh idol in the Rushikulya River in Ganjam district. The deceased was identified as Sumit Kumar Mishra (17), a Plus III (last year) Science...

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government, along with a discom, is using 'nukkad nataks' (street plays) to create awareness among people on rooftop solar power generation, an official said Saturday. The state government, along with TP Southern Odisha Distribution Limited (TPSODL), this week launched the drive in villages...

Nabarangpur: The Nabarangpur Divisional Forest Officer has suspended Bipin Kumar Harijan, a forester posted in the Maidalpur Section under Dabugaon Range over allegations of unauthorised tree cutting and financial irregularities. The action was taken after Harijan’s response to a show-cause notice issued by the forest...

By SUBASA CHANDRA PADHY, OP Brahmapur: Dilapidated classrooms, a lack of safe drinking water and a severe staff crunch plague many schools in Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) area, with Balbadi Primary School standing as a stark example of government apathy toward primary education. Balbadi Primary...