A few hours after Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik was ousted from the BJD for his alleged involvement in a loan scam, the EOW of the Odisha crime branch on Thursday searched the office of the media group run by him.

The BJD has said the expulsion of MLAs Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Sudhansu Sekhar Parida from the party has sent a strong message about chief minister Naveen Patnaiks zero tolerance towards wrongdoing.

An associate of BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda allegedly got a threat call for Pandas life.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday announced to have expelled two BJD MLAs Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Sudhansu Sekhar Parida from the party. A party statement later cited their involvement in anti-people activities as reasons behind the action.

The trial run was conducted with eight coaches from Rourkela station at 2.10 pm. The train stopped at Jharsuguda, Sambalpur City, Kerejanga, Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road and finally in Puri station at 9.40 pm. Sources said the Vande Bharat Express will depart from Puri station on September 23 at 5 am and will reach Rourkela at 12.45 pm.

Alarmed by a spurt in drowning incidents in rivers across the state, the Odisha government has, for the first time, decided to put up fencing nets around river ghats.