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Advani questions Cong concern for “aam aadmi”
Rickshawpuller loses kidney
Life limping back to normalcy in Cuddalore
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Metro rail for Patna too?
Burglars damage oil pipeline
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Advani questions Cong concern for “aam aadmi”
New Delhi, December 24 Addressing the 78th Annual General Meeting of FICCI, Mr Advani said though his party had lent support to the government’s reform policy, the picture of Indian agriculture, small-scale industry and the informal sector did not “fill him with a lot of cheer.” “I wonder, where is the government’s concern for the aam aadmi (common man) in whose name the ruling party sought votes in the last parliamentary elections.” “How much attention is the government paying to the plight of our farmers. Where is the focus on fishermen, on those engaged in animal husbandry, on crores of workers in the construction industry. What is being done for slum rehabilitation and for drinking water in both rural and urban areas?” In an apparent reference to projects like Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, he took a dig at the Congress saying that “big schemes with attractive names are being announced and more often than not they are named after members of a particular family But where is the commitment and attempt towards their implementation? Determined to keep focus of his attack on the Congress, Mr Advani criticised the harsh decision to expel the MPs found guilty of taking money for asking questions in Parliament, when no action was being taken on the “far more serious” Volcker and Mitrokhin-II disclosures. “The punishment is “non-commensurate” with the offence. I feel that they could have been offered a lighter penalty like suspension for a session,” he said. Mr Advani stressed that Parliament had come down heavily on the erring MPs, taking away their membership and “awarding a capital punishment.” Mr Advani condemned the lack of action following the “far more disgraceful exposures made by Mitrokhin Archives II and the UN probe panel report on Iraq’s Oil-for food’ scandal which classified former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and the Congress as ‘non-contractual’ beneficiaries.” “While the former Foreign Minister, who dubbed the Volcker Report ‘bunkum’ was made to quit his post, there was no action as far as the Congress was concerned,” Mr Advani said. He said after the surfacing of Volcker report, the Opposition expected the government and the Congress to take action, but there was no sign of accountability at all. “The Volcker documents are serious and the matter should be pursued to its logical end and principles of justice should be followed,” he stressed. Mr Advani also urged the captains of industry, business and finance to start investing in Bihar at the earliest, stating that ‘’jungle raj’’ in the state had ended. Referring to the recent elections in Bihar, he said one of the ‘least developed and worst governed states in India has just received democratic deliverance’ ending 15 long years of “jungle raj”. He said the new government headed by Mr Nitish Kumar had won a decisive mandate and the BJP was a partner in the government. |
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Rickshawpuller loses kidney
Patna, December 24 Surendra Das, who was born with one kidney, had found it missing after he was recently operated upon by a doctor having a fake medical degree and assisted by an unlicensed local chemist at Mehnar, 30 km from Patna, to remove his appendix. According to DSP, Mehar, P.K.Das, "It was not a case of kidney smuggling but of accident as the quack did not know what he was doing." The police said after the operation the doctor had left the kidney behind in a jar. They further informed that six days after the operation, Surendra Das found that his kidney was missing, when he was brought to the government hospital in Patna by his family members for test, following severe pain. The poor rickshaw puller could neither afford dialysis nor bear the pain. His life now depends on arranging a kidney donor and making financial arrangements for operation in a speciality hospital, which are unimaginable for him. Dr B.K.Singh, Head of the Department, Nephrology, Patna Medical College, admitted to the media that facilities in the hospital had eroded over the years. Recently, there was a hue and cry in the medical fraternity, when the NDA government in the state invoked the 'Bihar Prevention Specified Corrupt Practices Act, 1983,' for the first time since its enactment during the then Congress regime. The act aimed at taking legal action against errant doctors, including registration of FIRs, for clinical negligence of duty. The state Health Minister Chdramohan Rai was also contemplating stringent laws to regulate the functioning of private nursing homes. But even before the reasons behind the ailing health sector in the state were properly diagnosed, Surendra Das had to pay a heavy price for putting his faith in a private clinic and a fake doctor, as public hospitals in Bihar, by and large did not function properly. The fake doctor and the unlicensed chemist, however, had gone missing. |
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Life limping back to normalcy in Cuddalore
Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu) December 24 Cuddalore is 202 km from the state capital of Tamil Nadu and was the second worst affected coastal district in Tamil Nadu with 617 tsunami deaths and 99,704 people, mostly fishermen, affected as they lost their homes and fishing boats. He said during the initial months after tsunami the fishermen were scared to venture into the sea and they could not as they had lost their boats. He said, “However, the Tamil Nadu government granted Rs 26 crore for purchasing fishing boats for the fishermen and from June fishing started full fledged. In fact, the catch was much more at 120 tonne a day compared to the usual average of 105 tonne per day.” There are 26,500 fishermen across the 57 km-long coastline in Cuddalore district. Because of the destruction of boats during tsunami fishing has undergone a change and now it has become efficient and safe. Mr Bedi said: “In tsunami around 250 mechanised boats were destroyed which have been replaced with new ones. Each mechanised fishing boat costs Rs 20 lakh. Earlier, there were around 5,000 country boats in which fishermen ventured out into the sea. Now instead of 500 fibre reinforced plastic boats fitted with motors, which were there before tsunami there are more than 2,000 of them. Fishing has become not only more efficient but safer.” He said another positive side of the after effects of tsunami was that the fishermen community which was living in their own areas and did not interact with the outside world had now been exposed and stopped fighting amongst themselves. “Crime and fights among the fishermen have drastically reduced,” Mr Bedi said. He said Devanampattinam, the largest fishermen’s village in Tamil Nadu with a population of 5,000 people was a problem as no NGOs were willing to work as the fishermen were comparatively richer and their demands were on the higher side. Mr Bedi said, “Today 648 concrete houses costing Rs 2,00,000 each will be completed next month and they will be shifted from their temporary shelters. The houses have two rooms, a kitchen and an adjoining toilet with electricity. We decided to add a staircase outside the house to enable people to climb to safety in case of floods or another tsunami. The houses are more than 500 metres from the sea. Their destroyed huts were too near the sea before tsunami,” Mr Bedi said. Seventyone play parks had been built to let tsunami-affected children play and gradually forget the trauma of tsunami. There are 158 children in the state government-run orphanage and not a single tsunami-orphaned child had been allowed to be adopted. The state government had invested Rs 5 lakh for each tsunami-orphaned child for their future education and so the authorities did not want to take any chances with adoption by people with vested interests, Mr Bedi explained. He admitted there had been many problems in rehabilitation of the tsunami survivors but life is limping back to normalcy. “We had never seen a natural disaster of such high magnitude like the tsunami and we were neither experienced nor prepared to combat such a disaster. Today we have a full disaster management plan in place,” he said. |
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Metro rail for Patna too?
Patna, December 24 The prospects have further brightened following the state
government`s recent decision to explore the possibility of running a Metro rail in the city. The rail experts too welcomed the move. Incidentally, the rail portfolio now belongs to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and the general perception is that once Mr Nitish Kumar and Mr Lalu Prasad work in tandem on this issue, Metro rail may not be a distant reality for Patnaites. According to technical experts, the best corridor for the Metro rail could be the area along the banks of Ganga— between Danapur and Fatua, a distance of about 30 Km. According to experts, the feasibility of an underground (tunnel) Metro rail in Patna was remote because of the geography of the city. This proposed ambitious project would cost about Rs 300 crore, according to sources. It would be better, therefore, if both the Railways and the state government make a joint venture to turn this dream project into a reality for the people of the state. |
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Burglars damage oil pipeline
Jaipur, December 24 Administrative and police officials of the area reached the spot and authorities of the Indian Oil Corporation owning the pipeline also joined them. While the IOC officials have started work to repair the tempered pipeline, police officials are probing the incident. Preliminary investigations say the thieves had inserted a nearly 3-feet-long valve to obstruct the flow in the pipeline and tried to siphon the expensive fluid out of it in large quantities. But because of faulty operations, this resulted in seepage and the oil collected inside started overflowing. |
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