Ganjam job fair lifeline for the unemployed

A mega job Mela brings a ray of hope to hundreds of unemployed youth in Ganjam district. The proposed fair, to be held at Bhanjanagar on November 28, promises to offer opportunities to job seekers across the board - from under matriculates, degree holders to information technology (IT) professionals. Around 30,000 to 35,000 job-seekers are expected to participate in the day-long Nijukti Mela, jointly organized by the district administration and State Employment Mission (SEM) for the first time in the district. Some 35 different companies, most of them from outside the state, are supposed to conduct the recruitment drive, offering jobs ranging from security guards to BPO and IT professionals, said a senior district official. Selected candidates are expected to get the appointment letter on the spot. Block development officers have asked job seekers to register their names in their respective blocks, said district collector Krishan Kumar. The registration of the candidates will start from Tuesday and will continue till Friday, said Berhampur employment assistant director, R M Khillana. Bhanjanagar, the sub-divisional headquarter town, has been selected as the venue of the fair to facilitate candidates from interior tribal villages to have easy access to the event, the district collector said. Source: ToI 

Famous Gopalpur beach festival from January 11 to 15

Gopalpur beach festival would be held in January this time rather than in December like earlier years. This five-day beach festival would be held from January 11 to 15. Earlier date of this beach festival used to coincide with Christmas. This decision was taken at the first preparatory meeting for the beach festival held in Berhampur city. This beach festival is organised every year jointly by the Ganjam district administration and Ganjam District Hoteliers' Association (GDHA) to promote tourism at this beach resort and to show case cultural heritage of South Odisha. The preparatory meeting was chaired by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) southern division, Laxmi Narayan Nayak. It was attended by Ganjam Collector Kishan Kumar, MLAs of Gopalpur and Berhampur and many office bearers.

Decision to shift dates of the beach festival was taken at the request of the GDHA. The GDHA felt holding of beach festival during festive tourist season was putting extra pressure on the small beach resort. Added to it large crowd that gathers up for the beach festival and clogged traffic was also causing problems for the tourists who check in hotels of the beach resort during that time. Holding of this beach festival during January would add up another tourist season for the beach resort, felt GDHA. This famous beach festival had been started during 90s by the GDHA and this famous beach is just 9km away from Berhampur city. 

OTDC comes out with package tour to Tara Tarini Hill Shrine

The Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) has come up with a package tour to promote the famous Tara Tarini hill shrine in Ganjam district. This tour would be taken up around five times in a month to enable devotees and tourists from other parts of the State to have a comfortable luxurious trip to this famous hill shrine. As Bhubaneswar would be starting pint of this tour it would enable tourists coming to visit golden triangle, Puri-Bhubaneswar-Konark, to opt for a visit to another chunk of Odisha.

The Tara Tarini Development Board (TTDB), Berhampur has decided to provide all possible assistance for this project of OTDC, said secretary of TTDB, Pramod Panda. According to him this package tour would be on Tuesdays along with the day of Sankranti. These are most preferred days for devotees to visit this hill shrine. Mr. Panda said this package tour for Tara Tarini was being provided at affordable price of around Rs 640 per passenger. Tourists would start from Bhubaneswar in air-conditioned luxury buses and reach Tara Tarini hill shrine just before noon.

The TTDB authorities would welcome the passengers and provide them all possible hospitality. These tourists would be provided ‘Prasad' of the temple as lunch which is part of the package. Along with accompanying guide the troupe of tourists would get a chance to move around scenic spots around the hill shrine during their stay there. Ropeway between the hill top and the foot hill was also part of the tour package, Mr. Panda said. According to him this project of OTDC would help in promotion of this hill shrine as a major tourist destination.

Mr. Panda said the second hill top road to the shrine was almost completed and it would be ready for use by public by the end of the year. This new road starts from Keshpur junction. Work was also under way for construction of a ring road around the Tara Tarini hill. The ghat road to the hill top is being widened further for easy driving. In some places gradient of steep slopes have been reduced.

To beautify adjoining areas embankment of Rushikulya River that flows around the Tara Tarini hill is being beautified. “We are planning to increase parking space on the hill top by cutting down and leveling some more portions on the hill top,” Mr. Panda added. During past few years the TTDB has made a complete face lift of this hill shrine that includes erection of a complete new temple in place of the old temple. This new temple is based on ancient Rekha style temple architecture of Odisha.

For further information, OTDC officials can be contacted on mobile phone number 99383-74772.

Source: The Hindu

Online buying hits sales at Berhampur book fair

Online marketing has affected sale of English books in book fairs as well as in book shops.

In the 15th Berhampur book fair that is continuing in the city there seems to be dearth of English books in comparison to past years. Most of the avid readers like Pradipta Das do not feel this a major hurdle.

According to them now it is easy and economical to buy English books of major publishers through online shopping. “Earlier I used to visit book fairs to buy recent English fiction and non-fiction, but now I find it easier to buy them online,” he said.

One of the major reasons behind new generation readers opting for online shopping of books is the price. No bookseller agrees to provide discount of more than ten per cent on the printed price of a book in a book stall or in a book fair. But online shopping portals provide up to fifty per cent discount on price of books.

Internet shopping

With internet banking it has become easy for readers to shop books online at lower price which are delivered within a week without any shipping charge.

During the Berhampur book fair a visitor approached a book seller to buy up a recently published English non-fiction priced Rs. 500. The bookseller was reluctant to give him more than Rs. 50 discount. Immediately the customer took out his smart phone and checked up the price of the same book on an online shopping portal. The portal was selling the same book for Rs. 350 along with free shipping. When he showed it to the bookseller, he got the answer that they were also providing similar discount but only to down-the-line booksellers rather than general readers. According to him general buyers are not provided any discount at their shop and they provide ten per cent discount only during book fairs. Without discussing any further the buyer preferred to buy up the book online rather than paying for it at the book stall.

Pramod Panda of Berhampur book fair committee also accepted that this recent trend has started to affect market of booksellers. According to him it is high time book sellers thought about this disparity in price as most English language readers are also internet savvy.

But there has been good sale of Odia books during this book fair. It may be noted that most Odia publishers have not yet opted for online marketing. So, for readers book fairs are the best places to search for Odia books which are yet to reach out the internet. Source: The Hindu