South Odisha Road Connectivity Boosted; Vigilance Actions & Green Sticker Rules Detailed

The rest... will be expanded... Road connectivity will improve. There will be average development in South Odisha. Especially in the districts of Gajapati, Rayagada and Koraput, development will be accelerated, Union Minister Ashwini Baishnab said after the meeting. This project will make it easier to transport goods to Gopalpur port and nearby industrial estates. Connectivity to Jaipur airport and other railway stations will be easier. Travel time will be reduced by about 3 hours. Road safety will be ensured. Along with this, industry, education, tourism and socio-economic development in this region will get a boost. Improved road connectivity will increase access to markets, healthcare, education and accelerate employment. As a result, the local community and industry will benefit. Along with this, tourism will also increase. This is a big step towards the progress of Odisha, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, state Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari for approving the project. He said that this project will improve connectivity in the tribal deprived areas of South Odisha. On the other hand, the 374 km Nashik-Solapur (Aktalakot) corridor will cost Rs 19,142 crore. A 6-lane Agnes-controlled green film highway will be constructed under this project. It is a part of the Surat-Chennai High Speed Corridor, which connects western India with the southern region. The corridor will pass through the districts of Masik, Ahalyanagar, Dharashiv and Solapur. The construction period will be 2 years. This project is being considered as the costliest boat bill-operate-transfer (BOT) project so far. It is expected to accelerate domestic investment. In the year... one Chief Engineer, 2 Superintending Engineers, 17 Foresters, 2 DFOs, 6 Tehsildars, one Joint Commissioner, 5 Doctors, 22 PR-DW officers and 16 police officers were also arrested. Vigilance has registered 11 fewer cases of disproportionate assets than the previous year. In 2024, 60 cases were registered. In 2025, the Vigilance registered 49 cases of disproportionate assets. In this case, immovable property worth Rs 120 crore was seized. Vigilance raided the house of Chief Engineer Baikuntha Nath Sarangi in connection with disproportionate assets. Rs 2.56 crore was recovered from his house. The vigilance raided the house of Malkangiri Jalachya Deputy Director Shantanu Mohapatra and found Rs 2.8 crore in cash. Rs 1.43 crore was found from the house of Jaipur Deputy Ranger Ramachandra Nayak. In 2025, the vigilance registered 97 cases of bribery. The vigilance arrested 114 people. Out of these, 105 were government employees. Rs 2.5 lakh 27 thousand in bribe was seized from the arrested persons. The highest amount of bribe was seized from IAS Dhiman Chakham of 2021 BAT. When he was the Deputy Collector of Kandhamal, the vigilance was caught taking a bribe of Rs 10 thousand. The biggest thing was that Rs 4.7 lakh was found during the raid on his house. In 2025, the Vigilance seized a total of 153 houses, 18 kg 300 grams of gold, 714 plots, 12 farm houses, and bank deposits worth Rs 18.36 crore 69 lakh in various cases. This year, the government dismissed 23 people from their jobs and stopped the pension of 50 people. The Vigilance Special Court sentenced 108 people. It continued till March 31. Regarding the controversy over the green sticker, the minister said that putting up the green sticker is not mandatory. It will act as an indicator while filling oil at the petrol pump. If no green sticker is displayed on the vehicle, no action will be taken. Green stickers will be given to all RTOs in future. Those who have done PUCC can collect the green sticker from the RTO office. The minister said that the certificate was earlier asked for by February 1. But keeping in mind the harassment of motorists, we have decided to give another 2 months. Complaints of fraud were received from all over the state regarding fake pollution certificates. The State Transport Authority (STA) had directed all the RTOs to take strict action. So far, the licenses of 42 centers have been cancelled. In addition, the Transport Department is giving priority to opening new centers. If anyone applies, the center will be approved within 24 hours. As the day progresses, the crowd at the pollution testing centers is increasing. People are standing at the centers for hours. Every day, many pictures of pollution certificate fraud are coming to the fore from all over the state. Paying multiple fines is becoming an additional burden. Due to which dissatisfaction is increasing among the vehicle owners. It is hoped that the additional 2 months will ease this hardship to a large extent. Sanjiv Sanyal, the manufacturer of the Bali... ship from Odisha and a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Committee, said. After Sanjeev made such a comment on a national level talk show, a discussion has started