New Delhi, September 12
September 11, 2001, is scarred in the minds of most people the world over in blood, this is the day that catastrophe undertook the world’s most powerful nation unleashing terrorism in the heart of the US. Yet, from the murky pages of history another fact emerges on this very day, that is, September 11, 1906.This is also the day on which Mahatma Gandhi began his famous non-violent mass movement against the British—satyagraha.

Across space and time these two dates stare at each other when two opposite trends emerged on the globe on the same day: one favouring violence and the other non-violence.

This Monday, the Swarajpeetha Trust decided to go ahead and celebrate the legacy of September 11, 1906. The day on which the concept of non-violence was introduced to the world in a big way. Luminaries present on this occasion included Samdhong Rimpoche, Dr Saiyid Hamid, Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri and Prof Anand Kumar. Prominent on this occasion were white kurta-clad youths from the hinterland as also Gandhians who had come in from the West to participate in the celebrations.

Rajiv Vohra explains: ‘‘For the past four years Swaraj Peeth has undertaken a new experiment to help in building dialogue on the social and communal front dwelling on the role of non-violence in public life currently. Our work is centered around Mahatma Gandhi’s seminal text, Hind Swaraj, which was written in 1909 as a response to the extremists who favoured terrorism to drive out the British. Here Gandhiji presented in its purest form his vision of a truly free India, rooted in its own civilisation and liberated from the modern culture that has enslaved it.’’

To tackle growing violence in society today the Swaraj Peeth has organised groups of young workers as Shanti Sainiks or warriors of peace. These groups are attempting to prepare the ground-work for non violent responses to their communities’ conflicts. These trained Shanti Sainiks have been taught to bring about non-violent intervention in situations of social and communal conflicts.

The Shanti Sainiks are working in Saharanpur, Biharigarh, Bijnor, Rampur, Bhojpur and Moradabad districts of UP. 

Amethi, September 12
The Congress Party now has the star campaigner it was desperately looking for to pep up its forthcoming election campaign in UP. Today Rahul Gandhi finally expressed his readiness to step out of Amethi to campaign for the party “as and when required”.

Virtually coinciding with the Congress party’s decision to go it alone in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls the Amethi MP declared: “I am ready to go to other parts of the state if the party wants”.

Speaking to the Press, Rahul who is on a four-day visit to his constituency, however downright refused sister Priyanka Gandhi accompanying him when he ventures out of Amethi.

Commenting on the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Malegoan the first time Congress MP said that the objective of the terrorists was to disintegrate our society.

“We must ensure that we do not politicize the issue and allow them to succeed in their nefarious designs”, he said. 

Lucknow, September 12
Writhing in pain 25-year-old Shiv Kumari with her stitched up abdomen is still not out of danger. Unable to bear labour pains for four continuous days she had slit her abdomen by a blade in an attempt to perform a cesarean section on herself. The severe pains made her deliver her sixth child instantaneously.

Making a mockery of the state government’s claims of safe institutional delivery, a heavily bleeding Shiv Kumari was brought to the King Geroge Medical College University’s trauma centre on Monday evening by villagers, including the gram pradhan after her crude attempt to self deliver her child.

A team of doctors headed by head of the general surgery department, Dr Ramakant, stitched up her uterus and abdomen and are “doing everything possible” to save her. “We may have to resort to iron therapy if we can not arrange for at least 3 to 5 bottles of rare A (negative) blood”, pointed out Dr Ramakant

If she had been brought even half an hour late she may not have survived and would have succumbed to excess bleeding, admitted Dr Ramakant who still does not consider her completely out of danger as her hemoglobin level at 5 gm per cent is still alarmingly low.

According to Dr Ramakant, the cut made by the woman was comparable to a surgeon’s incision. “It was vertical and so deep that she had even slit her uterus causing the excessive bleeding”.

A resident of Bhaundari village of Mohanlalganj block on the outskirts of Lucknow, Shiv Kumari, an OBC, kept requesting her daily wage-earning husband Kishan Pal to take her to the doctor.

Speaking to TNS in a barely audible whisper an extremely weak Shiv Kumari said: “He earns 40 rupees a day and assured to take me to a doctor when he manages to save some money in a few days time ”.

The only other adult member of her family, her aging mother-in-law was equally helpless. The village dai who visited her expressed her inability to help her as according to her Shiv Kumari was very weak and the child was ‘sookha’ and therefore she could not help her deliver.

On Sunday night when she could bear the pain any more Shiv Kumari slit her abdomen and the pain made her have a normal delivery. She passed off soon thereafter. On hearing the child’s cry her husband came in from the courtyard where he was sleeping. The blood probably made him nervous. With the help of villagers he first took her to a private clinic that referred the heavily bleeding woman to the KGMU. The male child has survived and is being looked after by mother-in-law while Shiv Kumari recovers in hospital.

The case of Shiv Kumari is not only a tale of utter negligence on part of her family but also the complete absence of any state health care. She says that all her six children were born at home. No auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) ever visited her to administer the much touted tetanus injection, provide her with iron, folic acid tablets or even supply her information about contraceptives.

The children have survived despite the absence of routine immunization. She says that during one of the last rounds of pulse polio campaign she refused to let her children have the drops as a mark of protest.

When the doctor summoned her to the PHC to enquire why did had refused polio drops for the children she frankly told him that she will allow polio drops only if her children are registered at the anganwadi centre for food supplement.

Following her protest two of this gusty woman’s children have started getting food supplement under the ICDS programme.

New Delhi, September 12
Any future combat operation will be won by the armed forces which are able to concentrate their war fighting effort at the points of decision, at the right time and before the opposing forces can do so. And this will depend on how well networked those armed forces are.

The Corps of Signals of the Indian Army, is all set to take a giant leap ahead in creating the requisite ‘Infostructure for a network enabled Army’ with the launch of ‘Mercury Thunder’ which would be inaugurated by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow.

The network has a vast reach covering the length and breadth of the nation, including the inhospitable terrain of the northern and north eastern parts of the country. Various units and formations of the Indian Army will now have access to ‘triple play’ services which include voice, video and data.

According to Corps of Signals officers digitisation of the battlefield and the ever-increasing degree of battlefield transparency demands a robust, reliable, secure, survivable and flexible “Infostructure” backbone. The launch of ‘Mercury Thunder' would provide the Army with the capability of transporting large sharable bandwidth, seamlessly across the country where the network has been laid, using optical fibres, microwave radios and a satellite overlay network.

‘Mercury Thunder’ has been put up with the state-of-the art, commercially available technology. It is a fully automated secure digital network, providing highly reliable and secure communications.

Its nerve centres are high speed state-of-the-art switches. At the heart of the network is a powerful and intelligent network management system.

Self-healing optical fibre rings provide resilience and survivability. The satellite overlay network being the space segment greatly enhances its flexibility and survivability. There is a hope that such a system would greatly enhance the Indian Army’s capability of providing valuable information to its men simultaneously across the country.

New Delhi, September 12
With the quality of service a major area of concern even as teledensity has touched 14.80 per thousand, the former TRAI chairman, Justice S.S. Sodhi, today called for a ombudsman in the sector to enable the consumers to reap the benefits of communication revolution.

He said the telecom operators were not paying much attention to the quality of service being provided and there was an urgent need to for appointing ombudsman in the sector.

According to the latest TRAI survey, nearly 60 per cent of the operators do not meet the benchmark criteria for standard quality of services.

The former head of the regulatory body, who had to wage constant battle for setting standards in the incipient sector, said: “for competition to be truly competitive, there is a need for number portability.”

He said the present structure forced the customer to be tied to an operator, even though they might not be satisfied with their quality of service or tariff structure.

Justice Sodhi, who had to use his legal acumen to fight the cases regulatory body had to face as it “snatched” the powers of DoT, said judiciary needs to undergo an in-house study to deal with the new sets of laws.

Laws enacted to meet the changing needs of the time like cyber laws, intellectual property rights, competition laws, needed new ways to address the issue from the judicial point of view, he said while releasing a book entitled “India’s Telecommunications Industry” here.

He said the telecom sector in the country grew in a topsy-turvy manner rather than independent regulator being appointed first, followed by the granting of licenses and clear road map laid for the sector to proceed.

Justice Sodhi said telecom as the success story of reform agenda concealed more, than what it actually revealed.

Participating in the discussion, which followed the book release, former Union Communication Minister Arun Shourie said the attitude of judiciary towards the telecom sector was too legalistic and there was a need for the industry and the regulatory body to engage with the judiciary.

Judicial interventions, he said, were legalistic rather than structuring solution for the growth of the young sector.

Criticising the approach of the regulatory body, he said the TRAI should foresee technological development while framing the regulations.

Mr Pradeep Baijal, former TRAI head, said stupendous growth of the sector had largely been confined to the urban centres and the rural areas have been by and large ignored by the telecom operators.

He said subsidy to the tune of Rs 9000 crore for the rural telecom infrastructure could infuse growth in the countryside and usher in 10 per cent teledensity by 2010 compared to Rs 40,000 crore investment in urban areas for increasing four per cent teledensity growth.

New Delhi, September 12
Dressed in blue uniform holding batons and fiberglass riot shields, over a dozen women position themselves in a circle, training in anti-riot operations.

Other female police officers of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were being given refresher training in baton wielding, lobbing teargas shells and handling weapons, besides unarmed combat.

They are part of the 125 member all-women CRFP officers’ contingent being sent on a UN peacekeeping mission to civil war afflicted African country Liberia.

Led by Commandant Seema Dhondiya, the contingent is currently undergoing the final stages of their training in India and will leave for Liberia in October. They will make up a specialised unit known as Formed Police Unit (FPU).

Although women officers have been part of UN police units, this is the first time a standalone, all woman force is being sent to undertake peacekeeping job at international level.

“I am confident they will do a good job there and be an ambassador for India,” CRPF Director General J K Sinha told The Tribune.

He, however, admitted that there was initial hesitation in sending an all-women contingent. “There was some initial hesitation on part of CRPF to send an all-women formation with no Operations support from our men contingent, but our women officers and other personnel were very confident that they can handle the challenge,” he said.

“They have been doing a fabulous job in many insurgency prone areas in our country, so we finally decided to send them after getting full situation report from the UN and a visit by our team to Liberia,” Mr Sinha said.

The UN has hailed India’s move to send the CRPF unit as “unprecedented” and has hoped that it will inspire other nations to send more female units to police the world’s restive zones.

The CRPF officers are expected to be deployed to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, and are currently also learning about human rights law and Liberian history, culture and society.

The contingent will also be carrying with it huge amounts of logistics like bullet -roof vehicles, riot control vehicle Vajra, arms and ammunition, night vision devices, GPS, etc.

The contingent will have three components - firing, tear smoke and baton wielding. This force will be expected to undertake joint patrolling and general area domination, riot control, training police officers of Liberian National Police and other related duties.

The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) took over peacekeeping duties from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) in October 2003 and all peacekeepers are now under UN command. Composed of about 16 ethnic groups, the country poses a challenge to the contingent, as there has been ethnic strife for the last 20 years.

Liberia has also entered a new phase of democratic experience, and for the first time the country has an elected women President, Ms Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

New Delhi, September 12
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today rejected the Punjab Government’s statement that Coca-Cola and Pepsi had been found “safe” by its state food laboratory, terming it as an “effort aimed at misleading consumers in the state”.

Reacting sharply to Punjab Health Minister Surinder Singla’s statement at a Press conference where he said that Coca-Cola and Pespsi were the safest drinks sold in Punjab and that the CSE’s pesticides-in-cola study was false, CSE Associate-Director Chandra Bhushan told The Tribune that “this put a question mark on the intentions of the state government. I would like to see the report on the basis of which the Punjab Government has made this statment”.

“The amount of pesticides vary from place to place and batches to batches. Moreover, the state Health Minister is believed to have said that pesticide levels found in Coca-Cola and Pespsi from the 100 odd samples collected from various parts of the state were 0.62 ppb and 0.65 ppb, respectively. First of all, how can they just give two figures for 103 samples. Besides this, even if these figures are correct, this still means that the pesticide residue limits in colas in Punjab exceeds the safety limit set by the Bureau of Indian Standards. And anything that breaches the highest safety limits, which in this case is 0.5 ppb, cannot be not safe for human consumption,” he added.

Mr Singla today told mediapersons that the State Health Department had collected 103 samples of soft drinks and got them tested at the State Food Laboratory, Chandigarh, and at the Punjab Agricultural Univerisity, the reports of which showed that the pesticide contents did not pose a serious health hazard.

Mr Chandra Bhushan also reacted sharply to Mr Singla describing the CSE report as ‘’false’’ by saying that CSE had conducted the tests using the same methodology as cleared by the Joint Parliamentary Committee in 2003 and there was no way that its tests could be wrong.

Hyderabad, September 12
Even as the threat perception from Maoists has increased, the Congress government has scaled down the security cover for Opposition leader and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Mr Naidu has been accorded Z plus security status since the NDA days in view of the Naxalite threat to his life. The elaborate security detail which included Black Cat commandos was further beefed up after the abortive attempt on his life by Maoists in 2003.

After a security audit last week, the state government has now reduced the number of staff, protecting Mr Naidu’s residence, from 90 to 60, leading to protests from TDP leaders. The reduction of men was done at boom barriers placed at three locations en route his house at Jubilee Hills.

This is the third time that security cover has been scaled down for Mr Naidu in the past two years, after the Congress came to power. The TDP chief had more than 180 security staff in addition to 30 Black Cat commandos after the assassination attempt.

His security apparatus included seven vehicles - two bullet-proof cars, two escort cars, a pilot car, a patrolling car and a car to carry the jammer. In fact, he survived the claymore mine attack at Alipiri in the foothills of Tirumala because of the protection provided by the bullet proof Ambassador in which he was travelling.

After he lost power, the security staff manning the barriers to his residence was reduced. Then, the Advance Security Liaison (ASC) involving the Superintendents of Police and Collectors visiting the site of his visit in advance and assessing the security concerns was withdrawn.

Later, the Movement Monitoring to inform the police communications network about the movement of the VVIP and his destinations was also withdrawn.

Mr Naidu continues to be on the hit list of the CPI (ML), as his government adopted a tough policy against the Naxalite violence. The ultra left party recently reiterated that Mr Naidu continued to be their target, though out of power.

While a concerned TDP cried foul at the scaling down of security cover to Mr Naidu, Home Minister K Jana Reddy said the decision on security cover was taken by officials concerned from time to time. He, however, offered to consider scaling up the cover if Mr Naidu requested the government.

Meanwhile, alarmed by the recent seizure of rocket launchers which were on their way to Naxal hideouts, the state police decided to ramp up the security and fortify the official residence-cum-camp office of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. 

New Delhi, September 12
As per the results of a Government of India-UNICEF survey conducted in 43 districts across the country, there are striking disparities in the state of children and women between states and even districts within the same state.

The survey points out that barely 5 per cent children were fully immunised in Gaya district of Bihar and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh against 90 per cent in Tumkur district of Karnataka. However within Karnataka itself, Raichur could immunise only 23 per cent of its children.

The baseline survey covered 2,580 villages on sample basis from 43 districts of 14 states, which are the focal districts of the Government of India-UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation Cycle of 2003-2007, released here recently. The data for the survey was collected between March and May 2005.

Regarding population of children below 18 years, the polarities were stark with South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal reporting 2,179,000 youngsters while in Dangs district of Gujarat their number was only 94,000.

Altogether 57 per cent of the children up to six months of age were exclusively breastfed in the 43 districts surveyed, 68.7 per cent of the infants up to their second year.

Institutional deliveries lagged in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, Dangs of Gujarat and Koraput of Orissa, all tribal districts, as less than 10 per cent deliveries occurred in institutions. On the other hand, the percentage of institutional deliveries was as high as 84 per cent in Tiruvellore district of Tamil Nadu.

Regarding the percentage of children in the 12 to 35 months who had received immunisation in the 43 districts it stood at 47 at the all-India level, with 71.2 per cent receiving BCG, 58.1 per cent getting DPT 3 vaccine and 63.9 per cent Polio 3 immunisation.

In the matter of birth registrations for children less than a year old, the contrast was again stark. Eleven districts showed sub-10 percentage levels with Muzaffarpur and Gaya in Bihar reporting 1.1 and 1.2 percentage birth registration.

On the hygiene front, 90.6 per cent of the households in the districts surveyed used improved drinking water source though the figure was a dismal 20.5 percentage of the households using toilet facilities.

The main objective of the survey was to provide key indicators of the well-being of children and women ranging from village infrastructure and service facilities covering sanitation, hygiene and drinking water. Besides the health of children and mothers, schooling and educational attainment of children especially of girl’s education, child protection and knowledge, aptitude and practices about reproductive tract infections/sexually transmitted infections (RTI/STI) and HIV/AIDS in the rural areas were also looked at.

New Delhi, September 12
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has extended greetings on the occasion of tribal environmental festival Karma Mahotsav and said the government was committed to preserving their rights over forestland and empower them for conserving “ecology”.

“I am glad to know that the Scheduled Tribes Department of the All-India Congress Committee is organising a national convention from September 10 on the occasion of Karma Mahotsav. “On this occasion I extend my greetings and good wishes to all those associated with the convention for its success,” he said in his message yesterday.

The Prime Minister said with their unique culture and heritage, “tribal brothers and sisters constitute a significant section of our population and are in the forefront of the movement for protection of our bio-diversity. Their progress and development has been the top priority of the government which is committed to protecting their rights over forest land and empower them to preserve their surroundings which are of utmost importance for conserving our ecology”.

Addressing the Mahotsav, Union Tribal Affairs Minister P. R. Kyndiah promised to take necessary steps for the welfare of tribal people.

New Delhi, September 12
The BJP high command appears to be favouring former Minister for Road Transport in the NDA government Bhuvan Chand Khanduri as it chief ministerial candidate for the Uttaranchal Assembly elections scheduled to be held early next year.

Though BJP state unit chief and former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari is also in the race but the party bigwigs appear to be favourably disposed towards Maj-Gen (retd) Khanduri whose track record as the Minister for Road Transport has left a positive impression on both former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, sources said.

The party is smelling victory in the coming Assembly elections and one small indication was the turnout at the party’s rally held last Friday in the parade ground. Despite rains and an inclement weather, the ground was full to capacity.

Apart from the anti-incumbency factor that appears to be favouring the BJP, Uttaranchal Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari’s neglect of his own party has demoralised the Congress cadres, a BJP leader said giving reasons for the party’s upswing in the popularity perception.

Every national leader, including Mr Vajpayee, Mr Advani and TV actress of Saas Bahu fame Smriti Irani, referred to Mr Khanduri in their speeches.

Mr Khanduri is being preferred over others because the BJP leadership is keen to project the BJP as a party of governance and the former minister in the Vajpayee government fits the bill for that, party sources said. But Mr Khanduri would not be projected as a chief ministerial candidate as it would divide the state unit, sources said.

New Delhi, September 12
A Pune-based clinic has become the first centre in India to install Siemen’s MVision, Asia’s first image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) solution.

In doing so, Ruby Hall Clinic of the Grant Medical Foundation, Pune, has joined the select league of 14 other medical centres across the world that offer this IGRT solution. This is no small achievement for a clinic that started as a two-bed nursing home in 1959.

Chris Amies, vice-president, Innovation, Siemens Medical Solutions, USA, Inc, says that the unique thing about the treatment is that it enables a person see a three-dimensional image at the time of treating the patient. This ensures precision in treatment planning.

MVision is a unique, online imaging solution enabled with 3D/4D IGRT technology for accurate positioning of the patient during radiation.

Amies says they are optimistic that five to 15 per cent higher dose and accuracy of dose delivery ensured by the IGRT will contribute to survival rates.

Dr Christopher D. Koprowski, Chairman of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, Newark, Delaware, US, says MVision ensures additional benefits as less side effects, better quality of life and less burden on caregivers.

Since MVision technology was commissioned on August 18, Ruby Hall has treated four cancer patients, including a child.

The installation of the MVision technology has given Dr K.B. Grant, founder of Ruby Hall Clinic, a rare sense of satisfaction.

According to Dr Kumara Swamy, Chief Radiation Oncologist, the establishment of the world cancer centre was one of the last wishes of Dr Grant’s wife, Tehmi Grant, who died of lymphoma at the age of 70 a few year back.