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Cong, SP to come together on common platform
Hampi set for facelift
Bundelkhand poor to get 15 kg free wheat every month
LTTE influx: Security up in TN areas
Bird flu spreads its tentacles
Rhino, calf killed in Kaziranga
Raids at power corpn officials’ houses
Documentary on Kalam launched
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India launches Israeli spy satellite
Hyderabad, January 21 The indigenously developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C10), carrying the advanced 300-kg satellite TECSAR or Polaris, lifted off in a flawless launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9.15 am as scheduled, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement. Unlike the previous launches, the present operation was kept under wraps. The Israeli commercial satellite, believed to be the most advanced in its category, had a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that could take pictures of small targets under cloudy and foggy conditions (day and night) and all weather imaging. The satellite was placed in the polar orbit in 19 minutes 45 seconds after a perfect lift-off, ISRO said. The first pictures are expected to be beamed in about two weeks. The satellite was placed on its intended orbit with Perigee (nearest point to earth) of 450 km and Apogee (farthest point to earth) of 580 km. “The TECSAR is the first satellite of its kind developed in Israel, and ranks among the world’s most advanced space system,” according to a statement by Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI). The satellite is expected to give a boost to Israel’s intelligence gathering capabilities and help keep an eye on its hostile neighbours. The ISRO release said the launch was executed under a commercial contract between IAI and Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Israel had decided three years ago to take India’s help in launch its spy satellite. This is the second time that a foreign satellite has been put into the orbit from the Indian soil. In April 2007, an Italian satellite Agile was launched from Sriharikota Centre.
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India, UK to join hands on terrorism, climate change New Delhi, January 21 The two Prime Ministers, Manmohan Singh and Gordon Brown, in a press conference immediately after their hour-long one-on-one and 30-minute delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House, stressed that the two countries will jointly work in every conceivable way to further boost their “strategic partnership of equals”. Brown disclosed that business deals worth £10 billion were under negotiation between the two countries and expected to be signed “in the coming months”. A big chunk of these deals are understood to be in the infrastructure sector. The two Prime Ministers agreed to establish a new bilateral dialogue on terror funding. The UK reiterated its support for India’s full membership of the Financial Action Task Force. Bilaterally, the UK and India agreed to build on existing co-operation including in the protection of critical national infrastructure, mass transit systems and the security of major sporting events/UK, and expand it further in the fields of civil aviation security and crisis management. “We can and must do more to make our global institutions more representative and I support India’s bid for a permanent place, with others, on an expanded UN Security Council. And I support changes to the IMF, World Bank and the G8 that reflect the rise of India and Asia,” Brown said at an event hosted by the CII and the FICCI earlier in the day. Brown also used his speech to call for greater international cooperation in the fight against terrorism, to ensure that there is “no hiding place” for terrorists. Addressing the problem of failed and failing states, the Prime Minister proposed the UN should appoint a powerful envoy to struggling nations to coordinate peacekeeping and recovery after conflict. A joint statement, signed by the two Prime Ministers said the UK supported the Indo-US civil nuclear co-operation initiative with all its elements, including an appropriate India specific exemption to the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines. “As two countries with advanced nuclear technology, India and the UK agree to promote co-operation in civil nuclear energy and will work expeditiously towards a bilateral agreement for this purpose, in line with their strong commitment to non-proliferation. The two sides will also continue to encourage their scientists to develop closer links and to co-operate in research in this field. The two sides also welcome the opportunity for their scientists to work together in the context of ITER,” the joint statement said. The document also gave a flavour of Indo-British cooperation in infrastructure and education as follows.
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Cong, SP to come together on common platform New Delhi, January 21 The two estranged parties are inching towards each other as they have both found a common target of attack in Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati. The Samajwadi Party is all set to join a demonstration being organised by the Congress in Muzaffarnagar tomorrow to protest the witch hunt launched by the Mayawati-led government against the BSP’s political opponents. The UP Congress has charged that false cases have been slapped on its Muzaffarnagar MLA Pankaj Mullick by a pliant administration. “We have organised a demonstration in Muzaffarnagar tomorrow and other political parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have extended support to us....what’s wrong with that,” UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said here today, adding that the Congress had no objection to joining hands with the Samajwadi Party or any other party on such issues. Joshi said the Congress had also come out in support of the Samajwadi Party when its former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal were arrested recently. She, however, refused to say anything when asked if this could mark the beginning of a new relationship between the two parties. “That’s for you to say...I am not saying anything,” Joshi said. It is early days yet but tomorrow’s joint effort cannot be dismissed outright as a one-off event. There has been a perceptible change in the Congress attitude towards the Samajwadi Party in recent days as its relations with the Mayawati-led BSP have come under strain. The BSP chief had recently accused Congress leaders of conspiring to eliminate her and threatened to withdraw support to the UPA government at the Centre.
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Bilkis to continue her struggle
New Delhi, January 21 “The judgement has proved that justice actually exists somewhere,” she said. “Its not just me who has received justice but so many other persons who were killed and women who were raped just because they were Muslims.” While refusing to tell her whereabouts, Bilkis is still scared to go back to her village, Randhikpur. Five years ago pregnant Bilkis was gangraped during the Gujarat communal violence in 2002. Bilkis had put charges against 20 persons. Her case was also shifted to Mumbai as she feared that her witness could be harmed in Gujarat. However, after 13 persons were convicted by the Mumbai court on Friday, Bilkis plans to take up the rest of the seven persons as well, which includes five police officers and two doctors. “I owe my victory to a large number of friends and supporters who have been with me and gave me courage when I thought I could not go on,” said Bilkis. “I have been examined in the court for 20 days.” She extended her thanks to all her supporters, including Harish Salve, senior Supreme Court counsel, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).“My husband has stood right next to me all this while,” she said. “Now I want to live a peaceful life and educate my children.”
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Hampi set for facelift
Vidyanagar (Bellary), January 21 The restoration work, which is currently on at the Chandramouleshwara temple, also seeks to restore Krishna and Soumya Someshwara temples, both of which are part of the core zone of the world heritage site. This restoration work is becoming a reality due to the efforts of the Hampi Foundation, which invited experts to discuss ways and means to ensure holistic development of the heritage site and held a conference “Taking Vijaynagara’s past into the future”, which ended here yesterday. The foundation, in a first for any private organisation in Karnataka, has been successful in getting matching grants from the Global Heritage Fund and the World Monument Fund to create a Rs 20 crore corpus for initiating restoration work in Hampi. Work at Chandramouleshwar includes weeding out shrubs and trees, which have permeated the temple, besides strengthening its walls and surrounding retaining walls considering that it is perched right close to the Tungabhadra River. At the Krishna temple, the foundation will like to help restore the upper brick and plaster decorated towers that have been seriously affected over the period of time while the Soumya Someshwara temple work also includes cleaning up and strengthening the temple. Foundation chairperson Sangita Jindal says work on the other two temples can start only when clearances are given by the state and Central governments. She says the ASI has yet to give permission for carrying out the restoration work at the Krishna temple. “The ASI is helping us but it is very slow”, says Sangeeta Jindal, adding it has already been a few years since the foundation is pushing files to get a chance to work on the temples. If the restoration of the temples is a major work area of the foundation, its founders Jindal Steel Works (JSW) is also offering to do the state government’s job -- build a road between the 60 km Bellary-Hospet stretch from where Hampi is another 13 km. Michael Tomlan, a historian at Cornell University, who is also on the foundation, says easy access is of utmost importance and covering the 60 km stretch in more than two and a half hours was limiting tourists. Jindal Works has submitted a proposal to relay the road and is awaiting permission to go ahead. Lastly, the foundation is also concerned about development, which it feels is unwanted. The construction of a bridge at Talarighat aims to link Anegundi on the other side of the river with Hampi. UNESCO and conservationists feel it will bring in economic activity into the core zone, which will be harmful for the heritage site. Dr Anila Verghese, historian and Principal of Sophia College for Women, Mumbai, feels if the bridge is completed it will change the character of the site and could result in unplanned development and tourism, something Hampi does not need.
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Girls take charge of their lives
Vidyanagar, January 21 There seemed nothing better to do living amidst poverty and an arid landscape in her village on the Tungabhadra Dam site near here. Presently, she is working on a computer and making Rs 2,500 per month and dreaming of a further education and a better lifestyle for herself and her family. The revolution that has changed 19-year-old Vijaylakshmi’s lifestyle is a rural woman BPO established by Jindal Steel Works in its township here. The BPO, which started operations in 2005 with 20 systems, has graduated to the level of a 100 seater and is soon to be expanded further and will become a unisex BPO in its new avatar. Women or girls actually are not the only thing unique about the BPO. What is truly unique is that all girls working at the BPO had never set their eyes on a computer before coming here. Also most of them are matriculates only. This meant the girls had to be taught typing skills for two to three months before they could be put on dummy projects. Most of these 300 girls have gone on to be certified as the BPO does not believe in showing the door to anyone and now the newcomers are supervised by their peers who also belong to the villages situated close to this steel township. Rafia Sultana is one such supervisor who is earning Rs 4,500 per month. She was also afflicted with polio. However she overrode all obstacles to learn typing and computing and is now a supervisor who manages 20 girls. “It is presently taking five to six months for a village girl to get on a live project”, says Shyla Lobo, who is in charge of administration and operations at the BPO. Shyla told TNS that during this six-month period, the girls were given a scholarship of Rs 1,500 per month. She said after six months to one year, the girls were given a salary of Rs 2,000 plus bonus based on their performance. Presently, girls at the BPO are earning between Rs 2,000 and Rs 7,000 per month depending on their experience and efficiency. The BPO, which is run as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity of the company, is presently running in a loss with revenue only being Rs 2 lakh against an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh. But efforts are being made to change this. “For one we have tied up with IGNOU and an English language institute to upgrade the skills of the girls so that they can get better and more paying projects”, said CSR head Raviprakash MS. He said computers were being provided in schools in villages near the township so that the girls could learn typing schools before they enrolled in the BPO. It has also been decided to enroll boys also. “With these steps in place we aim to make the present rural BPO a training centre and open a new 300-seat centre which can be a commercial success too”, says Raviprakash. Success is on the mind of the mason’s daughter Vijaylakshmi too. “I want to improve my qualifications and get a better job and am hoping for a better life for my two younger sisters and brother for whose study I am contributing my bit. Marriage will come later”, she adds which just about surmises the contribution of the rural BPO in a district where 15 is the traditional age to get married.
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Bundelkhand poor to get 15 kg free wheat every month
Lucknow, January 21 This was one of the significant decisions taken at a high level meeting chaired by agriculture production commissioner Anis Ansari today. Now, the villagers will be informed villagers in the time-tested manner that food grain banks have been set up to provide food to the destitute and helpless people of all gram sabhas of the nine drought affected districts. As an emergency relief measure, the Mayawati government has ordered each pradhan to store a quintal of rice and wheat. However, this was kept secret and it has not made any impact so far. Today, it was decided to publicise this measure and specify that every hungry person was entitled to at least 15 kg of wheat free of cost a month. The mid-day meal scheme of providing a wholesome cooked meal to school going children in the primary and junior schools is now to be extended to every destitute in the villages of Bundelkhand as an emergency relief measure. In fact, till winter lasts the needy can even carry their evening meal home. After that they will be provided dry ration for the evening meal and a cooked meal for lunch till drought conditions continue. This innovation in the Community Kitchen Scheme has also been accepted in principle today. More than a dozen principal secretaries and commissioners handling drought-related departments took cognisance of a report submitted by the UP adviser to commissioners N.C. Saxena and Harsh Mander in the Supreme Court case, PUCL vs Union of India and others case. The report had described the prevailing condition in Bundelkhand as a “nutritional emergency”, particularly impacting the most vulnerable sections of society -- children, single women, disabled and abandoned old people. A team led by UP adviser Arundhati Dhuru and comprising director of the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, Prof Pradeep Bhargava and other NGO representatives working in the region had travelled to the districts of Lalitpur, Mahoba and Banda earlier this month and submitted a report to Saxena and Mander as well as the state government. According to sources, today the state government accepted in principle most of the recommendations by the team to address the “nutritional emergency”. The report had observed that almost half the children whose blood samples were tested were facing grade III malnutrition having haemoglobin levels between 6.5 to 8 g/dl. This had lowered their immunity making them more susceptible to any disease in the coming months. To bring this specific group under the food security net the state government has accepted the suggestion to let the 0-5 age group children in Bundelkhand attending the ICDS-run anganwadis to be eligible for cooked meal at the school. Additional dry ration will be provided to the MDM scheme for these very young children, lactating and pregnant mothers. Additionally, every destitute family as identified in a fresh lekhpal survey will be given 15 kg of wheat every month till the situation improves. As Bundelkhand as a political issue gets hotter by the day, these measures may provide the much-needed balm to the hunger pangs of the area. If this happens it may blunt much of the opposition’s shrill outcry.
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LTTE influx: Security up in TN areas
Rameswaram, January 21 They are not only monitoring the influx of refugees as LTTE cadres might sneak in due to heavy bombings and attacks by the Sri Lankan military but also keeping a watch on hospitals and private nursing homes in this area. The “Q” branch of the state police, which deals with terrorism, is carrying out a check as some injured LTTE militants might sail across from Jaffna, as this is the closest point in India to Sri Lanka, for medical help. Said an intelligence officer, “All the medical facilities are kept under watch but we have intensified the surveillance, particularly after there has been a renewed war in Sri Lanka and the LTTE has suffered heavy casualties.We are verifying the antecedents of the people who recently got admitted to these medical facilities.” He said the LTTE was finding it extremely difficult to provide medical assistance to its injured militants and might seek the help of fishermen in this area to smuggle out medicines and even doctors.“We are also maintaining a tab on doctors.Till date, we have not found cases of injured LTTE men admitted in hospitals but we cannot rule out the possibility,” he said. The intelligence agencies and the police are also concerned over the fact that since the beginning of the month many decomposed bodies have been washed ashore in this district. The bodies could not be identified since they did not have uniform on them but likely to be of Sea Tigers, the LTTE’s naval wing, which also came under heavy attack from the Sri Lankan Navy recently. In the high seas only the Indian Navy is now carrying out patrolling at night. Only this month three boats probably belonging to the Sea Tigers fired on Indian Navy patrol boats but escaped under cover of darkness.
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Bird flu spreads its tentacles
Kolkata, January 21 The adjoining Bankura and Purulia districts were also affected by the odd disease. But in north Bengal, there was no further spread of the bird flu after it’s presence in south Dinajpur and the border district in Coochbehar. In Kolkata, as such there was no report of the bird flu. However, some migratory birds flocking together at the lakes at Calcutta Zoo were suddenly found dead this morning. But the zoo authorities did not think the death was due to the bird flu since the death of birds at the zoo was not uncommon. Still the authorities had taken extra precautionary measures against the bird flu in the zoo. So far, there was no report of death anywhere due to the consumption of the bird flu infected chickens and ducks, which are still being sold in the shops and markets in the affected districts and the people were also buying them, despite the warning and restrictions by the local BDOs and the anchal pradhans. A group of ornithologists and zoologists today visited the lakes at the bird flu infected Purbasthali in Burdwan, where many migratory birds were still flocking together. Neither the animal husbandry department nor the health directorate had any knowledge about the bird flu and the causes of its sudden outbreak in the districts. The union minister of state for health and planning Panabaka Lakshmi, who was visiting the affected districts in the last five days, also did not have any knowledge about the disease. She said she was carrying back with her the samples of the dead birds and chickens for testing them at the central laboratory in New Delhi. The union minister today returned to the capital after making an on-the-spot study of the bird flu situation in several districts and the steps taken by the state government to combat the disease. She said she was quite disappointed at the state’s tackling of the problem. At many places she received complaints from the village people that no compensation had been given to them after forcibly killing their chickens and ducks. The state animal husbandry minister Anisur Rahman admitted initially there were some problems in the allotment of the compensations prices (Rs 40 for each culled bird) to the owners of the culled birds and chickens, but now everything was systematised and the respective district magistrate was personally monitoring the culling process and the allotment of compensation. The state minister Surya Kanto Misra said so far six districts came under the grip of the bird flu where 5,00,000 chickens and birds had been culled. He said there was nothing to be worried about and the state government was taking appropriate measures in handling the situation.
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Rhino, calf killed in Kaziranga
Guwahati, January 21 The National Park’s Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Bankim Sharma said the female rhino and her calf were pounced upon by poachers late Saturday night near the Methoni tea estate at the eastern fringe of the 900 sq km sprawling national park, the most famous abode of the endangered Asiatic rhinoceros. The poachers fired upon the female rhino to immobilise her before gouging out the horn. The critically injured and bleeding rhino was admitted to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of the Wildlife Trust of India located at Panbari near the national park on Sunday. The rhino died today despite an all-out effort by a team of veterinary doctors to save her life. The poachers also shot dead the three-year-old calf of the rhino. Wildlife officials, who were informed about the incident by employees of the Methoni tea estate on Sunday morning, recovered five empty cartridges of .303 and .315 rifles from the site of killings. The national park has been reeling under serious threat from poachers since last year. As many as 16 rhinos were killed in the park last year. The figure is inclusive of total 21 rhinos killed all over the state last year. The Saturday night incident happened to be the second incident of rhino killings in the national park so far this year. Earlier on January 7, a gang of poachers shot dead a male rhino in the Bagori Range of the national park. The park was estimated to have 1,855 rhinos, according to the census carried out in the year 2006. The park DFO today rued the severe shortage of manpower to facilitate proper manning of the over 900 square kilometre wildlife habitat. He saaid the state government had not increased the strength of the front line wildlife staff in the rhino habitat though the area of the park was extended from earlier 429 sq km to about 900 sq km during the last couple of years. The park official said a new breed of poachers armed with sophisticated weapons, cell phones, wireless sets was on the prowl in the national park, posing a serious challenge to the ill-equipped wildlife authority in the national park. The Park official did not rule out the involvement of certain militant groups in the growing incidence of rhino poaching.
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Raids at power corpn officials’ houses
Guwahati, January 21 NEEPCO is a public-sector power generation company with its headquarters in Shillong. According to CBI sources, the raids were conducted in connection with anti-corruption cases relating to an ‘anomalous insurance contract of assets of one of the corporation’s thermal plants based in eastern Assam.The insurance contract was awarded to a private company flouting norms. CBI sleuths conducted raids at the residences of former NEEPCO CMD SC Sharma at Delhi, former executive director PK Deka, present GM (Finance) Venkatesh and Director (Finance) M R Ghosh since last evening and seized several documents. The NEEPCO officials were accused of forging documents while awarding the contract of NEEPCO’s thermal power plant at Bakuloni near Duliajan in Tinsukia district of Assam to a private insurance company. The Rs 1500-crore thermal-based plant at Bakuloni was commissioned in 1998 with a total installed capacity of 291 MW. It has nine units - six gas-based and three steam-based turbines. The plant has been generating 235-240 MW presently. Meanwhile, NEEPCO officials based in Shillong and Guwahati have remained tight-lipped about the development. It is suspected that an estimated Rs 3 crore changed hands in the process of out- of- turn allotment of insurance contract of the thermal plant to the private company.
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Documentary on Kalam launched
Chennai, January 21 The English film, scripted in the style of “story-in-story”, was produced by Minveli Media Works. It was scripted and directed by P.Dhanapal. “Importance of Education”, is the theme of the film, which contains sound and video bytes of important people associated with Abdul Kalam. His contributions to science and technology and India Vision 2020, his interest in music, poetry and art had also been captured in it.
— UNI
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