Pappu can dance now. This is what the Opposition parties in Orissa have started to believe after a decade of political humiliations and subjugation by the ruling BJD headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Wasting five precious years in using various tactics, including use of police force, to acquire land for the proposed Rs 52,000-crore Posco project, the Orissa government on Thursday finally mellowed down its stand and agreed to hold talks with the anti-Posco activists.

Warlike situation prevailed on Monday at Kalinga Nagar industrial estate and Posco project site in Orissa with the armed police forces making their last efforts to clear the areas of the local residents to facilitate establishment of steel projects.

Finally the mission was accomplished. After two successive failures, India on Monday successfully flight-tested Agni-II intermediate range surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

India is most likely to test-fire its nuclear-capable Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile from Wheelers Island near Dhamra off the Orissa coast on Monday morning, defence sources said.

The Orissa government, after successfully evicting tribal residents from Kalinga Nagar industrial estate in Jajpur district by use of force, on Saturday made a similar attempt to turn out local people residing in the proposed Posco steel project site at Paradip, nearly 130 km from here.

The Orissa government has decided to take steps to clear procedural hurdles to operationalise Sukinda chromite mines.

Suspected Maoists on Wednesday killed two village guards (chowkidars) at Katma village in Gajapati district, nearly 300 km from here, even as a group of CRPF jawans was engaged in a fierce gunbattle with the rebels in the Serenda forest in Sundergarh district.

Waking up to the dire straits of sugarcane growers and the difficulties faced by the domestic sugar producers in the country, the Union government is planning to come out with a “concrete package” for the sector in the near future.

Kalinga Nagar Industrial Estate, India’s upcoming steel hub, on Wednesday plunged into turmoil with the death of a tribal man allegedly due to police firing. Tension gripped Chandia, Gadpur. Bamiagotha and other adjoining villages as Laxman Jamunda, a 65-year-old tribal, fell to the police bullet. The locals informed that Laxman, a resident of Chandia, was fired from behind while he was trying to flee the village carrying his granddaughter on his shoulder to escape the “police atrocity.”