The deceased have been identified as Sanadhara Bhatra of Pujariguda and Priyanka Gond of a nearby village.

According to sources, Sanadhara was a contractual employee of the pump house. Locals found the door of the pump house locked from inside. On peeping in through a window, they found the duo hanging from a single rope.

It is being suspected that the two were in a relationship and died by suicide.

Police have recovered the bodies for postmortem and begun a probe into the matter to ascertain as to why they took the extreme step.

Attending a function of Ama Odisha Ama Nabin at Raighar in the district, Pandian spoke on the government’s measures to ameliorate the condition of the workers at the grasroots level.

Considering the contributions of Anganwadi and Asha workers in the field, the government is working on increasing their salary soon. The cooks working in Anganwadi centres will also get more monthly incentives, he added.

Besides, the salary hike of community centre employees, master book-keepers (MBKs) under livelihood mission and ANMs are under consideration of the government. At the same time, the monthly pension for old people under Madhubabu Pension scheme will be increased, he added.

The meeting was attended by around 10,000 people of Umerkot Assembly constituency in the district.

As per preliminary reports, the body was lying in a pool of blood at Telnadi village under the jurisdiction of Umekote police station in the district on Saturday.

The deceased, identified as Ramsing Jani of nearby Daumal village was suspected to have been stoned to death by some unknown miscreants. Ramsing was on a visit to someone’s house at Telnadi village as a guest along with his wife.

Similarly, one Naresh Dharua and his wife Bhagwati from Niana village had also come to Telnadi village. Both Ramsing and Naresh had left home to consume liquor on December 21. However, Ramsing did not return till late evening the next day.

The worried family members launched a frantic search and Ramsing’s body was recovered from near the nullah on Saturday morning.

While Ramsing’s wife alleged that he was murdered, the exact reason would be ascertained only after a thorough probe. Senior police officials rushed to the spot along with scientific team and launched an investigation into the incident.

The deceased has been identified as a contractor of the Bhratmala road project being implemented in the area.

According to sources, the bear attacked the man while he had gone to the forest near Bikrampur in the morning. The animal dragged him into the forest and mauled him to death.

On being informed, police and forest department personnel rushed to the site. They took steps to chase away the bear and recover the body of the contractor, stated to be a native of Madhya Pradesh.

Following a complaint by an Anganwadi worker that Rajeswari Rajkumari Nag, Anganwadi supervisor of Kodinga Sector under Kosagumuda ICDS was demanding bribe of Rs 5,400 towards payment already made for toys, food and nourishment bills meant for Anganwadi Centres, the Vigilance set a trap.

As per the plan the complainant went to give the bribe to Nag. The Vigilance sleuths nabbed the Anganwadi supervisor while accepting it. The entire bribe money was recovered from Nag and seized.

Following the trap, the Vigilance conducted simultaneous searches on the Nag’s properties at two locations from DA angle.

Koraput Vigilance has registered a case under PC Amendment Act, 2018 in this connection. Further investigation is in going on

The deceased has been identified as Prabhas Jena, a teacher of Umerkote Swami Vivekanand Bidya Mandir.

According to sources, the accident took place when students of several schools along with teachers were on their way to attend the district-level sports event and the driver lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a curve.

On being informed, police arrived at the spot and rushed the injured to Jharigaon Community Health Centre. A probe into the circumstances leading to the accident is underway.