Cuttack, Odisha, May 15, 2013: The Orissa High Court on Monday  directed the State Government to file an affidavit on the physical safety status of public lavatories and toilets within Cuttack city.
Acting on a PIL filed by lawyer Pradip Routray, a division bench of Chief Justice C Nagappan and Justice P K Mohanty directed the Secretary, Housing and Urban Development department, Commissioner, Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Chairman of Sulabh International to file affidavits in the matter.
Routray had filed the PIL seeking  a review of the condition of the

Bhuvaneshwar, May 7, 2013: The Naveen Patnaik Government has no resources for development of its urban population which includes ever growing slum dwellers. For 31 per cent of its population which lives in the towns and cities, the Odisha Government spends just three per cent of its annual budget.
Of Rs 60,303 crore State Budget for 2013-14, outlay for Housing and Urban Development Department stands at Rs 2,385 crore.

Bhuvaneshwar, May 7, 2013: Children of around 20 per cent households in the city are still deprived of toilet facility for which they resort to open defecation.

Bhubaneswar, Apr 23, 2013: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed to spend Rs 4.84 crore for construction of  27 public toilets across the city.
The long pending proposal of the BMC to construct public and community toilets in the city got the approval of BMC Council on Monday. The public toilets will be constructed in a phased manner.
Around 11 toilets will be constructed in the first phase and according to an estimate, Rs 1.80 crore will be spent.

Bhubaneshwar, Apr 10, 2013: The state has done poorly as far as implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act is concerned, say educationists.

Jeypore, Odisha, Apr 1, 2013: Malaria is spreading at an alarming rate in different parts of Jeypore municipality area with around 100 cases being reported everyday due to poor sanitation in the localities. Many areas have not been sanitised with pesticides for months together by the municipal authorities.
According to reports, most of the drains in Pailo street, Madala street, RajaNagar, Raju street, Jayanagar and Paik streets under the municipality are choked by overflowing garbage and filth due to cleaning drive by the municipality staff.

Charangul, Odisha, Mar 3, 2013: , a little village with 160 households in Semiliguda block of Koraput district was all set to mark its presence in the state map for being the second village to have fulfilled the target of having an individual toilet for each household under the convergence of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan(NBA) with MGNREGS, said Manoranjan Mali , executive engineer of RWSS, Koraput on Saturday.
Under this convergence plan, a sum of Rs.4,600/- was shared from NBA while Rs.4,500/- was allotted under MGNREGS.
With a plan to construct the individual househol

Cuttack, Mar 6, 2013:  The inordinate delay in the integrated sanitation improvement project work may prove costly for the city. While the project funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for overhauling the sanitation system was announced in 2007 at an estimated cost Rs 757.44 crore, it has now almost doubled to Rs 1,500 crore.
People are skeptical about JICA agreeing to bear the extra burden.

Sagada, Odisha, Mar 5, 2013: You’ve probably heard of Puri, the sea-side resort in Odisha. But have you heard of Sagada, a tiny village in Puri’s Nimapada block? Kabita Nayak (44), strong and gritty, hadn’t heard of Sagada either, until she came to the village as a young bride in 1985. India was taking slow steps towards liberalisation but Sagada stood out for reasons no one would ever want to advertise.
Imagine a village, an entire village that did not have a single toilet that even its women could hide behind.