Odisha News At 8 PM @ July 4

1) Nuapada MLA Basant Panda was unanimously elected as the Leader of BJP Legislature Party at a meeting, which was skipped by Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray, who was the strong contender for this post. The BJP has 10 MLAs in Odisha Assembly. It is believed that Mr. Ray skipped the meeting after it became clear that he won’t get the final nod. The meeting was attended by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.

2) Senior Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer Anita Patnaik, has been appointed as the Additional Deputy CAG. She is the daughter of former DGP Late Kishore Chandra Patnaik.

3) As part of the ‘Green Odisha Mission’, the Odisha government is planning to plant 45 crore saplings by 2017. The government will plant over 12 crore saplings in 2014. Nearly 35 lakh saplings will be planted on July 7.

4) Dr. Dhaneswar Mohapatra has been chosen for the Atibadi Jagannath Das Award 2013, while Santanu Kumar Acharya will get this award for 2014.

5) The Airfield Police in Bhubaneswar, has seized nearly three quintals of ganja and arrested five people from a flat at Hi-Tech Plaza near Sundarpada. A scorpio and two bikes were also recovered from the culprits.

Basant PandaDhaneswar MohapatraHi-Tech PlazaOdisha BJPOdisha NewsSantanu Acharya