ROURKELA: It was a year of contrasts for Sundargarh. If law and order issues, rising crime and resurgence in Maoist violence troubled security agencies in the district, the year saw Rourkela’s growing technological and research prowess acknowledged far and wide.
After a lull of nearly seven years, the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit saw its resurgence in Rourkela. On May 27, armed Maoists looted a truck laden with around five tonne of industrial explosive from a forest under K Balang police limits.
Next month, during a joint search operation, an ASI of 134 CRPF Battalion Satyawan Kumar Singh (34) attained martyrdom in an IED blast at Silkuta forest near Banko of K Balang. The third Maoist violence of the year saw a 37-year-old railway trackman Atua Oram killed and a fellow worker injured in a similar blast near Renjda of K Balang in August. The resurfacing of Maoists led to redeployment of CRPF at strategic points.
On a positive note, the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) was selected as one of the seven hub institutions of the country under the prestigious Partnerships for Accelerated Innovation and Research programme of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation of the Central government.
Similarly, Adani Enterprises plan to set up an Rs 84,000 crore coal-to-chemical plant and NTPC SAIL Power Company Limited’s proposal to establish a floating solar project with an investment of Rs 710.27 crore brought cheers for Sundargarh.
In January, the Rourkela Steel Plant(RSP) started work for the new coke oven battery 7 at an estimated cost of around `2,317 crore and February saw a 2 MTPA Pellet Plant project get off the ground. The year had begun with an industrial tragedy when an overhead boiler coal bunker with huge stock collapsed in Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd’s Rajgangpur complex. Three workers died after being trapped in the debris. In April, a tribal protester died at Barkani during an agitation to halt the second rail line project of RSP.
The month of February saw a complex crime when Rourkela-based businessman Binod Daruka was murdered soon after his office maid Pasumarthi Deepa was found killed. The prime accused turned out to be Deepa’s younger sister Radha Swain who believed that her elder sibling was in a relationship with the businessman. She and five other accomplices planned to extort Binod by using Deepa’s help. When Deepa did not agree, she was killed. Later, the six kidnapped Binod for extortion but when their plan went awry, they shot Binod dead.
Rourkela police was rocked by six murders in six consecutive days in April. Yet, as a silver lining, the police modernised and digitised its processes. It also launched the predictive policing initiative called Project SHIELD (Smart Habitual-offender Intelligence & Early Law-enforcement Detection) which uses advanced technologies of AI, data analytics and ground intelligence to prevent crimes before they occur.
Man-animal conflict continued as a leopard was poisoned to death by a villager in Tamra range of Bonai forest division in retaliation to a cattle kill. In September, an adult female elephant was killed after being hit by a train in Rajgangpur.