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Tank tussle hots up
People defy ULFA diktat
Finally, National Nutrition Mission meets
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Greenhouse Emissions
India trying to secure release of workers held in UAE
Hydrology institute devises software for reservoir analysis
Rawat lashes out at U’khand CM
Muslim board fumes at law panel proposals
Govt admits violence during ‘bandh’
HC steps in to check excesses by women cops
Notice to Centre on quota in IIT, IIM faculty
ASHA convention in Assam
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Tank tussle hots up
New Delhi, July 8 Senior functionaries of the DRDO have briefed the minister that capacity exists to manufacturing 500 tanks at the Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi. The Army is to decide on it next set of requirements. The balance is tilted in favour of the Russian tank T-90. Rather the DRDO has informed that 70 tanks are ready for delivery at the Avadi plant and the Army contracted number of 124 tanks would be met in the next six months. Hundreds of crores of rupees have been invested in building capacities at the Avadi plant and more tanks should be purchased. Since the tanks have shaped up very well in the just concluded summer trials there is no reason why more should not be inducted, the DRDO is learnt to have told Antony in the past few days. Notably, the DRDO’s claim that Arjun was a good tank has been buffered by a personal letter, written by the retired Lieutenant General to the defence minister. The Chandigarh-based former Army officer has alleged that the Army was opposing the Arjun tank, as most of the top brass of the Army did not have much experience in a tank battles. Sources said the DRDO had reacted sharply to the Army officers assertion in the media on the status of the Arjun tank and briefed the defence minister. Rather a note is being put up by the DRDO on how the tanks fared in the just concluded trials and how new systems and technologies have been incorporated. Five discrepancies had been pointed out during the winter trials in 2007 that were about the gearbox, the firing accuracy and quality control over some equipment. It may be mentioned that the DRDO has been gunning for comparative trial between the Arjun and the Russian made T-90 tanks. The defence minister and the ministry of defence officials are keen that such comparison be conducted. The DRDO has also reportedly informed the minister that Arjun is a contemporary tank and is far superior to T-54, T-55 and T-72 tanks used by the Army in the past.
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People defy ULFA diktat
Guwahati, July 8 A police source in Kakopathar said people gathered at the community hall at Kakopathar to attend the meeting organised by pro-talks ULFA leaders Mrinal Hazarika, Jiten Dutta and Joon Sonowal who have been on a mission to mobilise public opinion in favour of ‘unconditional peace talks’ between the ULFA leadership and Indian government to restore peace in Assam. Fugitive ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa in an e-mailed message to the media here yesterday called upon the people to refrain from extending co-operation to the three pro-talks leaders from the outfit’s ‘A’ and ‘C’ companies who had been expelled from ULFA for daring to start a suo motu initiative for peace with ‘colonial Indian government’. The pro-talks leaders embarked on the mission after calling unilateral truce with the Indian government defying the diktat of the top leadership of the ULFA unfazed by the expulsion slapped on them by the ULFA chairman. The three pro-talks leaders today addressed the public meeting at Kakopathar, a known ULFA bastion, appealing to the people to pressurize c the ULFA top leadership as well as the government of India to sit for direct and unconditional talks. “We are in the midst of receiving feedback from the people and our mission will end only after informing our central leadership. If after that our leaders want to hand us even death penalty, we will accept it,” pro-talks leader Jiten Dutta told media here. The pro-talks ULFA leaders even raised question about the authority of the ULFA chairman to slap expulsion on them saying that only the central committee of the outfit was empowered to do so. “We are acting in response to the wishes of the people of Assam who are craving for peace. No organisation (even ULFA) can be above the people,” the pro-talks ULFA leader said.
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Finally, National Nutrition Mission meets
New Delhi, July 8 Experts once again stressed “fortification” of food, this time of micronutrients to stem nutrition deficiencies among children. At the helm of affairs was women and child development (WCD) minister Renuka Choudhury, whose views on food fortification are well known and have sparked controversies in the past. The issue of cooked versus fortified food (which Choudhury supports) for supplementary nutrition programmes is yet to be sorted out. By the end of the meeting, the executive committee of the mission decided constituting a task force to look into various aspects of micronutrient fortification. A call was also made to put in place a special intervention from the period of pregnancy to the first two years of the life of an infant. “This needs to be done in particular for high burden districts to prevent under nutrition among children and avoid cumulative irreversible damage,” WCD ministry said, after the mission wrapped up its third meeting in a long time. Though not very useful in terms of policy decisions on the crucial issue of under-nutrition and infant mortality, the meeting threw open some important issues for debate. One among them was introduction of WHO’s child growth standards, yet to be introduced in India. “WHO child growth standards will be soon be introduced in India to effectively track progress, recognise child nutrition as a sensitive indicator or national development,” Renuka said, adding that the Food and Nutrition Board needed to be strengthened. She was firm on the view that a clear priority needed to be accorded to the period from pregnancy to the first three years of life to prevent under nutrition in early stages. A view also emerged on recognising Infant Young Child Feeding (IYCF) counselling as a distinct service under the ICDS with enhanced resources investment. The mission paid extra attention to high impact interventions like maternal and newborn care, early and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, appropriate complementary feeding, vitamin A supplementation and universal usage of adequately iodised salt. These issues are, however, yet to be accommodated in policy recommendations, which are urgent considering India has the largest number of children suffering from malnutrition in the world. As per the UNICEF report titled “Progress for Children”, published in May 2006, out of 146 million underweight children under five years living in the developing world, 57 million live in India. Madhya Pradesh leads the pack, with 60 per cent of children under five years being underweight, followed by Jharkhand at 56.5 per cent, Bihar at 55.9 per cent, Chhattisgarh at 47.1 per cent and Orissa at 40.7 per
cent.
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Greenhouse Emissions New Delhi, July 8 “India cannot be held to any kinds of emission targets,” Pachauri said, responsing to implications related to India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change. Categorically adding that India was an expanding economy and could not levy a cap when millions were living with deprivation, he said “to impose any cap on India at a time when others (industrialised countries) are saying that they will reach the 1990 level of emission by 2025 is disastrous. They (developed countries) should get off India and China's back,” he said. Pachauri also asked countries like the US and Canada to accept responsibilities and show leadership in reducing, adding that G-8 was an opportunity for developed nations to make clean statement that they were going to take the lead. He also came strong on subsidy on kerosene in India, terming kerosene as “incompatible with India’s climate change plan” and the subsidy being provided as “unholy”. He urged the government to instead divert resources allocated to subsidies for non-renewable fuels to promoting renewable energy like solar. “The key aspect of promoting renewable energy is to divert resources allocated to distorted subsidies for non-renewable fuels, particularly if they are being misused. Kerosene subsidies, while having aided the poor to obtain lighting in the past, are not only incompatible with India’s climate change mitigation policy, but also becoming exorbitant in terms of social costs due to rising fuel prices”. Budgetary subsidies to kerosene were Rs 967 crore in 2006-7, with under recoveries of Rs 17,883 crore. A recent study by the ASSOCHAM states that a third of subsidised kerosene was being diverted for black marketing or adulteration, leading to losses of about Rs 5,700-crore, or 38.4 per cent of the kerosene subsidy. Batting actively for promoting solar energy, Pachauri said there were 1.6 billion people worldwide, who lacked access to electricity and of these 25 per cent lived in India. As many as 76-million rural households in India lacked access to power, 65 million of them used kerosene for lighting. To extend the facility of solar lanterns to 65-million rural households presently dependent on kerosene for lighting, an outlay between Rs.20,800-23,400 crore will be required (Rs 3,200-Rs 3,600 per lantern) which is half the total implied subsidy on the kerosene consumed in India annually. Pachauri said with this amount the country could provide clean lighting to all those people who lacked it, instead of keeping them dependent on subsidy. In addition, solar lanterns will also mitigate the 5.9 million-tonne of CO2 emitted from kerosene lanterns, he said.
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India trying to secure release of workers held in UAE
New Delhi, July 8 Most of the workers detained hail from Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and were working in a ceramics-manufacturing unit at Ras al Khaimah. They were protesting against the poor quality of food that was being served to them. Indian ambassador to UAE Talmiz Ahmed confirmed that the employees of the company indulged in arson by burning vehicles and destroying furniture. Talmiz said the workers went on a rampage at their camp over poor quality of food served to them. This is the first time that the Indian workers have been arrested in the UAE for rioting over poor quality of food. There have been strikes over poor working conditions and unpaid salaries in the past. When asked to comment on the reports about the arrests, Vayalar Ravi, who addressed a consultation meeting with state governments on issues relating to the Overseas Indian Community, said the government was trying its best to get the Indian workers released. The Labour Department of the Indian consulate was in touch with the UAE authorities to secure the release of the Indian workers. Earlier, addressing the representatives of the state governments, he said the government has finalised amendments to the Emigration Act and the changes would be in place shortly. He said the law would now provide for stringent action against those indulging in ‘human smuggling’. He hoped that India would soon have a labour agreement with Saudi Arabia for protection and welfare of Indian workers in the region. Such agreements have already been concluded with UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia.
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Hydrology institute devises software for reservoir analysis
Roorkee, July 8 The package named, Software for Reservoir Analysis (SRA) contains modules for different kinds of reservoir analysis that would help in better management of water resource projects. The software can be advantageously used to compute reservoir capacity using sequent peak algorithm, besides it would help in determining the definite power from a reservoir or to simulate the operation of a hydropower project. The devised package could be put in use to simulate the operation of a multi-purpose, multi-reservoir system for conservation purposes and to carry out flow routing through a reservoir using the hydrologic routing methods. The software also assists in establishing the required reservoir storage for a given yield or vice versa and to determine the reservoir operation policy using stretched thread method. In addition to the analysis, the software includes graphical facilities also. After carrying out the analysis for a particular module, the software prompts whether a graphical display of the results is desired. Positive response produces on-screen graphs of the analysis. “Reservoirs account to an important component of a water resources development project and given the fact that in India there is high time and space variability of rainfall, reservoirs play very important role in the planning and management of water resources. More than 4000 major and medium dams have already been completed across the country. Thus, a need was felt to develop comprehensive software for Reservoir Analysis,” says NIH scientist. “A reservoir regulates the natural stream flow thereby, changing the temporal and spatial availability of water for beneficial purposes such as municipal and industrial water supply, irrigation, hydropower generation, and navigation. In view of these reasons it is important that existing reservoirs are operated in judicious manner, for which SRA could be handy," adds scientist.
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Rawat lashes out at U’khand CM
Dehra Dun, July 8 The sweeping allegations came after the inauguration function of the Srinagar medical college by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd) yesterday. Since both Khanduri and Rawat belong to Pauri Garhwal district both had political interest in taking credit for the new
medical college. But Khanduri made Rawat sit on the dais at the function and did not allow him to address the gathering. Rawat took it as a deliberate attempt to insult him. “We have decided that Congress legislators would boycott all the functions where the CM would come, since he has no respect for the opposition in a democratic set up,” Rawat announced today. Reacting to these allegations, Dr Devender Bhasin, chairman of the media advisory committee of the state government, said Rawat had lost his balance. “He is making senseless allegations against the CM,” he said. On the issue of showing disrespect to him, Bhasin said Rawat, as leader of the opposition, was made to sit on the dais. “As per protocol, the local legislator, the local member of Parliament and the CM spoke on the occasion. The CM even praised Harak Singh for his efforts to establish the medical college,” he clarified. However, Rawat was furious. “The work on the college was started by former Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari, but Khanduri is trying to falsely take the credit,” he said.
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Muslim board fumes at law panel proposals
New Delhi, July 8 “The executive committee of the board is totally opposed to codification of uniform Shariat law as it will empower the state to alter, change, amend, add and delete rules of Shariat,” the AIMPLB said in a release here. Such proposals are “ill-motivated, ill-advised and these measures have been suggested to pave the way for enactment of the Uniform Civil Code and to deprive the Muslims of their fundamental right to get family disputes settled according to the rules of Shariat”, it said yesterday. The board asked the Union Law Ministry and the Law Commission to outrightly reject such proposals and publicly declare that there is no such move and that the government and the commission have no intention to effect any changes in the Muslim Personal Law. One proposal recommends that “prohibited degrees in marriage” need not be specified in the law of civil marriages and should instead be left to be determined by the law, otherwise, applicable to the parties. — PTI
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Govt admits violence during ‘bandh’
Bhopal, July 8 Replying to an adjournment notice on riots in Indore and other places in the state moved by Arif Aqueel (Cong) and 21 others, home minister Himmat Kothari said 75 criminal cases had been registered in connection with the violent incidents in Indore, Jabalpur, Dhar, Jhabua, Satna, Gwalior, Ujjain and Bhopal. Amid uproar, speaker Ishwar Das Rohani said the opposition did not seem interested to participate in the debate. In written reply, Kothari said seven people were killed during the violence in Indore. He added that 130 people were arrested so far. The home minister said union minister V Narayanasami and other Congress were not allowed to visit the riot-hit areas of Indore on July 6, apprehending law and order problems during their visit. They were arrested at the airport and released next day.
— UNI
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HC steps in to check excesses by women cops
Chennai, July 8 Justice R Regupathi, hearing a petition submitted by a person yesterday saying he was violently beaten up by a woman police officer in connection with a matrimonial case, observed, “Everyone expected all women police stations would be conciliation centres for reunion. But actual experience revealed even minor disputes due to family misunderstandings are considered as a crime. Helpless women are encouraged to come forward with cases of grave allegations against the husband and his family, invariably dragging all family members to police station and subjecting them to ignominy and disgrace,” he said. — PTI
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Notice to Centre on quota in IIT, IIM faculty
New Delhi, July 8 A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan issued notices to the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the UGC on the contention by an NGO, Citizens for Equality, that implementation of reservations to faculty posts at the level of associate professor and professors, would amount to diluting the teaching standards to accommodate the political mandate. Senior advocate K K Venugopal said these measures were attempted to be substantiated solely on the principle of amelioration of the backward classes. — PTI
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ASHA convention in Assam
New Delhi, July 7 The convention will witness handing over of mobile phones to Auxiliary Nursing Midwifes (ANMs) by Ramdoss and Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi. On the occasion, Mission Director of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) G C Chaturvedi will sign an MoU with Emergency Management and Research Institute. ASHA convention in Guwahati assumes significance in the light of growing focus on the north-east under NRHM. The region has seen 250 per cent increase in investment in health sector in last three years. NRHM provides flexibility to the north-eastern states to address the long neglected manpower shortages and infrastructure gaps. Nearly 300 specialists and doctors, 250 Ayurvedic doctors, more than 4000 ANMs, 1500 staff nurses, more than 400 laboratory technicians have been inducted into the health system in Assam only.
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'Bandh' continues in Manipur for second day
Man commits suicide fearing police action
FSSA to be set up
in 10 days
SLBC Tripura relieves farmers from debt
International conference on Ramayana kicks off
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