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Botched sterilisation surgeries in Chhattisgarh
AAP wants minister to be booked
Irani rejects demand to make Sanskrit mandatory
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Army gets new system to train shooters
Healthcare crisis deepens, 99% hospitals reel under staff crunch
Muzaffarnagar riots: Delhi cop among 13 chargesheeted
Focus on development, Art 370 as din ends for J-K phase-I polls
Two killed, 28 injured in Assam blast
Mulayam pulls up Akhilesh govt over project delays
Parrikar for zero tolerance to lapses in coastal security
Lankan navy arrests 14 TN fishermen
Focus back on India-Pak ties as Modi readies for SAARC meet
Digvijay dares Chidambaram to run for Cong chief’s post
Business of film-making at centre of discourse
Burdwan blast
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Botched sterilisation surgeries in Chhattisgarh
Bilaspur, November 23 “The medicines which were provided to the affected women at the camps were found to be substandard and traces of poisonous substances were also found in it as per the medical reports,” Health Minister Amar Agrawal told reporters here last night. He said the reports of samples of medicines and viscera have been received from all the laboratories, including Delhi and Kolkata, and were handed over to police for further action. “All reports have been received and it is now clear that poison-contaminated medicines caused the deaths of women,” he said. However, the minister did not specify the kind of poisonous substance and in which medicine it was found. Agrawal also did not rule out negligence on the part of doctors who conducted the procedure and supervised the camps. “Doctors had allegedly violated the standard protocol of operation, therefore we can’t say that they are not guilty. They operated upon several women together within a short time. They should have taken care of disinfection and cleanliness of the operation theatre and equipments in the camps too,” he said. Medical reports will be further handed over to the state-constituted judicial commission probing the incident and after a thorough probe things will be clearer, he added. Earlier, Principal Secretary of Health Department Dr Alok Shukla had said that medicines contaminated with zinc phosphide, used as a rodenticide, could have led to the death of 13 women who underwent tubectomies. While 12 of the 83 women, who were operated upon at Nemichand Jain Cancer and Research Centre at Pendari village of Takhatpur block on November 8, died, a protected Baiga tribe woman was the lone casualty at Pendra block, where around 56 women underwent surgeries at three different camps on November 10. More than 130 women had fallen ill after surgeries were performed on them. — PTI
The findings
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AAP wants minister to be booked
New Delhi, November 23 The party further asked the Raman Singh government to make the inquiry report public explaining how medicines with contents of rat poison were supplied to the medical camps at Bilaspur and given to the victims. It questioned the BJP leadership for allowing Amar Agrawal to continue as the Health Minister even two weeks after the incident, especially when he has been reportedly changing his statements and allegedly shifting blame on the doctors. “The probe report has nailed the lies of the state government, which had initially stated that the deaths had taken place due to negligence of doctors who conducted the sterilisation surgeries earlier this month. It is found that the state government acted with extreme negligence, and poor women were treated like guinea pigs by a negligent health regime in the state,” the party said following an on-the-spot assessment by AAP team led by party’s chief spokesperson Yogendra Yadav and colleagues from the state unit. “The Chhattisgarh Health Minister is neither repentant nor has he assured that such incidents will not be repeated in future,” the party said.
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Irani rejects demand to make Sanskrit mandatory
New Delhi, November 23 “Those who accuse me of being an RSS mascot or representative possibly want to deflect the attention from the good work that we have done... this agenda will be flagged and I will be whipped for as long as there is a need to keep attention diverted away from the good work. I am ready for it. I have no problem,” she said today. On the controversial decision to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in 500 Centrally-run Kendriya Vidyalayas, Irani said teaching of German under an MoU signed in 2011 had been in violation of the Constitution. An investigation has already been launched to find out how the MoU came to be signed. Responding to demands that Sanskrit be made a compulsory language, the minister said the three language formula was very clear that any of the 23 Indian languages listed in Schedule 8 of the Constitution could be opted for. She reiterated that German would continue to be taught as a foreign language. “We are teaching French, we are teaching Mandarin, we teach German the same way. For the life in me, I can’t understand why people are not understanding what I am saying,” she said. Irani had earlier defended the decision to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language, saying the existing arrangement was in violation of the Constitution. Dismissing charges that efforts were being made to saffronise education, the minister said she had never tried to explain herself on the “basis of secularism with respect to saffronisation in terms of education” while citing examples of choosing heads of institutions irrespective of their religion. Irani said while rolling back the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme of Delhi University, she never had in mind which region or religion they (the students) had come from. In this context, she defended the decision to roll back the programme, saying the degrees offered had no “legal sanction”.
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Army gets new system to train shooters
Chandigarh, November 23 Christened Dhvani, the target training system, has been developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories for accurately determining the location of bullet impact and providing real-time feedback to the shooter. It has undergone field trials at Army ranges in Bengaluru, Secunderabad and the Infantry School, Mhow. The manual system currently used by the Army involves the marksman firing shots at the target and subsequently walking up to the target (up to 300 metre) and identifying whether the shots were a hit or a miss. This required not only high turnaround times but was also inconsistent, unreliable, inaccurate and subjective. Furthermore, the marksmanship training systems available from foreign sources are mostly based on old technology of 1980s, which also have exorbitant cost of ownership as they are not customised for the Indian environment and necessitate expensive after-sales service. Dhvani is tailor made to meet the requirements of the Army at a cost lower by 40 per cent of the cost of similar systems available elsewhere in the world, an official statement has claimed. The whole process from firing a shot to displaying of results at the shooter end takes less than half a millisecond. At the shooter end, a multi-functional interactive software on a laptop displays the results. A comprehensive database containing personnel details, shots fired and performance statistics ensures comprehensive logging for later analysis is also possible. The system is based on basic principles of gas dynamics and aero-acoustics. The point of impact of the bullet is determined accurately by using an array of sensors to record acoustic pressure rise due to the passing shock from bullet.
Real-time feedback for shooter
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Healthcare crisis deepens, 99% hospitals reel under staff crunch
New Delhi, November 23 Over 60 per cent hospital heads contacted for the survey say they fear the situation will get worse with recruitment of specialists armed with the right talent becoming difficult. The study, which involved interviews with CEOs, Medical Directors and Human Resource heads in over 30 hospitals in North India alone, revealed 99 per cent of these (public and private set ups) are grappling with shortage of doctors. The trend poses several challenges — 47 per cent hospitals are finding it hard to align the right professionals to deal with the growing patient load; 20 per cent are outsourcing specialists at a much higher cost; 31 per cent are compromising on quality and others are hiring doctors trained in the Commonwealth of Independent States. A significant finding of the study is that more than 60 per cent Hospital and HR heads do not believe the situation will improve in the coming years. Reacting to the study titled “Healthcare Talent Issues Study” released at the recently held national seminar on Evolving Talent Landscape in Healthcare, AIIMS Director MC Mishra said: “As the study suggests, hospitals are finding it hard to recruit top-line experts. Talent crunch is one problem and finding the right talent is even bigger.” As per the government estimates, India’s doctor-patient ratio is 1:2,000 with the official commitment being to reduce it to 1:1,000 by 2020. The latest study shows the progress in that direction is very slow. Current annual intake of medical graduates in India is just 43,000. The study reveals other startling statistics, including 70 surveyed hospitals saying they had specialist positions vacant for two to six months with a bigger problem emerging when it came to hiring senior doctors. Eighty-eight per cent hospital authorities said they were taking two to eight months to fill up senior positions and 87 per cent acknowledged taking 15 days to three months to fill up even junior positions. When questioned about reasons behind these trends, majority (94 per cent) hospital heads blamed the shortage of doctors in the first place. The rest said specialists were more interested in running their own clinics. Many hospital managers blamed limited hospital budgets and high salary expectation of doctors for the service crunch. Asked how they negotiated the shortage, most recruitment heads said they got visiting doctors on board or hired freshers and trained them. “This is not a problem we can solve overnight but we can handle it at multiple levels. We can start with the creation of central database of specialists which allows hospitals to identify relevant talent,” said Arvind Pandit of VIA Health Resources who led the study.
What the new survey says
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Muzaffarnagar riots: Delhi cop among 13 chargesheeted
Muzaffarnagar, November 23 SIT inspector Ram Raten Singh who investigated the case filed the chargesheet in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate against 13 accused last evening. The accused have been charged under Sections 395 (dacoity), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the IPC. They are: Delhi Police constable Anuj Kumar, Rajender, Kala, Dharmender, Bijender, Rishideve, Kirshan, Bittu, Lokender, Nisu, Brahma, Amit Kumar, and Narender. All were found involved in alleged cases of arson and loot during the riots. — PTI
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Focus on development, Art 370 as din ends for J-K phase-I polls
Srinagar, November 23 The two regional parties - the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - campaigned on a wide array of issues. They sought votes for development, protection of state's special status and promised to work for the political solution of the K-issue. Fifteen Assembly segments will go to polls in the first phase. During the high-profile campaigning, regional as well as national parties accused the opponents of harming the state's interests and hampering its economic development. In Ganderbal, which has been a bastion the Abdullah family, the contestants sought votes in the name of development. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who decided not to contest from this segment, promised that Ganderbal would always get his special attention. Campaigning in Ganderbal, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed urged the people vote for change. Mufti said the PDP would continue to act as a "facilitator for resolving" the K-issue and other issues confronting the state. He said the party would carry forward its agenda of "political resolution, economic development, good governance, justice and merit". In the Bandipora constituency, Congress president Sonia Gandhi criticised the BJP as well as Congress' partner in the coalition government - the NC. While she accused the BJP of carrying out "slow" relief and rehabilitation work in the flood-hit Kashmir, she said the NC was not implementing the Congress-led UPA government's "revolutionary policies". Addressing rallies in the Kangan and Sonawari constituencies, Omar vowed to protect the state's special status and accused the Congress and the PDP patron of eroding Article 370. In the Ladakh region, the NC is contesting two seats, PDP three and the Congress and the BJP all four. Campaigning here was focused on the development of the remote region which remains cut-off for most of the winter. In Leh, where the BJP and the Congress are locked in a straight contest, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Article 370 as an "obstacle" in implementing schemes and projects in the state. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad campaigned for the party's candidate in Ladakh's Zanskar constituency and promised to accelerate development in the region. Omar also addressed a rally in the Ladakh region and went to Nobra constituency where he summarised his party's achievements saying it has increased connectivity in the region and brought the administration closer to the people by the creation of new units.
Major arms haul in Valley
J-K witnessed the biggest arms haul of recent times on Sunday. The Army recovered 18 AK-47 assault rifles, a sniper rifle, seven pistols, 47 grenades and two bombs from two locations in north Kashmir. An Army spokesman said the alert troops deployed along the LoC in the Keran sector recovered large arms haul while being smuggled to this side. Besides, the security forces busted a militant hideout in the Hajibal forest area in Baramulla district.
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Two killed, 28 injured in Assam blast
Guwahati, November 23 The injured were shifted to the Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH). The deceased were identified as Monilal Gupta and Iqbal Hussain. Police and security forces launched massive search operation in the area after the blast. They were trying to find out whether it was a grenade blast, a crude bomb or an IED. "The blast took place underneath a truck, where people were loading goods. So, there is a possibility of blast in the engine. Everything will be confirmed after thorough investigation," a police officer said. There was a crowd at the blast site because of the weekly Sunday market. (With agency inputs)
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Mulayam pulls up Akhilesh govt over project delays
Lucknow, November 23 “During my tenure as Chief Minister, whenever I laid the foundation of a project I ensured that a date for its inauguration is fixed the very same day,” said the party patriarch at a function to start work on the 302-km Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Speaking as the chief guest at the function, Mulayam did not mince words to express his unhappiness at the slow pace of completion of projects. “I had learnt this practice from former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal to fix the inauguration date so that everyone responsible for the project is under pressure to complete it as per scheduled,” said Yadav. He asked officials from private companies responsible for construction of five sections of the highway to commit a date for the completion of the highway. Mulayam rubbished Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachch Bharat’ campaign by asserting that poverty was responsible for lack of cleanliness. “Where do you spot garbage and dirt? It is at the doorstep of the poorest and the underprivileged. Just eradicate or even reduce poverty and see how cleanliness is ensured” declared Yadav. The approximately Rs 15,000 crores Agra-Lucknow Expressway being built from resources raised by the state government is a 2012 poll promise. The Akhilesh Yadav government is planning to showcase it as the major achievement of its government when it goes to polls in 2017.
PM copying my schemes: SP chief
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Parrikar for zero tolerance to lapses in coastal security
New Delhi, November 23 He also called for zero tolerance to error in the coastal security network and admitted that the surveillance network still has gaps which needed to be plugged. Parrikar was referring to the gaps despite the high technology. Primarily, 30,000-odd small fishing boats, which are less than 20 metres in length or less than 300 tonnes, do not have automated identification system (AIS) and emit no signal for Navy ships and shore-based controllers to identify them at sea. Finding and locating the rogue among such boats is a challenge. Parrikar's remarks came at the inauguration of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurgaon. Though he did not name China, the Defence Minister made it clear where he was pointing a finger at. “Some of our neighbours were trying to get their navies in the Indian Ocean and the Indian Navy must be watchful of their activities… we have to protect our interests in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)”. The EEZ extends to 200 miles from the coast. “We do not want to be offensive but we must be strong enough to deter our enemies from casting an evil eye upon us”, he said explaining the Indian stance. People’s Liberation Army (Navy) of China has been using its fleet of 60-odd submarines to silently patrol the Indian Ocean. The IMAC will get real time feed from locations of Indian interest. A special software will amalgamate information from 46 coast based radars, sensors, high-resolution cameras, ship based radars, air borne surveillance planes, satellites and UAVs. Information will be assessed and then passed on in real-time to 51 Naval and Coast Guard stations located all along the 7,516 km-long coast line and the islands of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep. The IMAC, a Rs 450 crore network, is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communications and Intelligence Network (NC3I Network). A Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) is being planned after pilot study by Navy. The Ministry of Shipping is also conducting a pilot study on fitting the AIS on the fishing vessels of less than 20
metres.
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Lankan navy arrests 14 TN fishermen
Rameswaram, November 23 They said three boats of the fishermen had been seized. The fishermen had been taken to Karai Nagar in Jaffna, they said. The arrest comes days after five Indian fishermen on death row were released by the Sri Lankan Government. They were arrested in Lankan waters in November 2011 on charges of drug trafficking. A group of fishermen were chased away by Lankan navy personnel while fishing in the Palk Strait, officials said. The navy chased away more than 20 fishermen fishing midsea near the maritime borders, officials and a fishermen association functionary said. Rameswaram Fishermen Organisation chief S Emiret claimed the fishermen were not aware whether the area was Indian or Sri Lankan. — PTI
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Focus back on India-Pak ties as Modi readies for SAARC meet
New Delhi, November 23 The 18th SAARC meeting is underway in Kathmandu and Prime Minister Modi will be reaching there on Tuesday for the November 26-27 summit meeting, six months to date when he received the SAARC leaders here for the swearing-in of his government on May 26. Yet, there is no clarity on a possible PM Modi and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif meeting on the sidelines, signalling a thaw in the India-Pakistan relations that turned frosty after New Delhi cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks in August objecting to the Islamabad envoy here meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders. Since then border firing escalated even as many prominent citizens on either side have been advocating that the dialogue process be restarted. While announcing that the Prime Minister is interested in having a meaningful dialogue with as many South Asian leaders as possible in Kathmandu, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin elaborated, “This would mean taking into account all aspects of relations. It (fixing bilateral meetings) is a work in progress.” However, in response to a specific question whether Pakistan had sought any meeting, the spokesperson said no such offer had been received. To another question on how New Delhi views Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif urging US President Barak Obama to take up the Kashmir issue with India, the spokesperson reiterated that the bilateral dialogue would have to take place in the framework agreed under the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. “There is a simple two-way street to promote peaceful cooperation through meaningful bilateral dialogue. Any deviation is not going to lead to a common destination”. In response to a question on PM’s visit to Nepal, he said during his last visit to Kathmandu, Prime Minister had expressed a desire to visit Janakpur, Lumbini and Muktinath to highlight strong civilisational links between the two countries. “There has been widespread interest in Prime Minister’s schedule in the upcoming visit to Nepal for the SAARC summit. Due to Prime Minister’s unavoidable domestic commitments and pre-scheduled travels within the country, he will travel only to Kathmandu to attend SAARC summit.
Will he meet Sharif?
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Digvijay dares Chidambaram to run for Cong chief’s post
New Delhi, November 23 It was today the turn of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh to reignite the leadership debate in the party by daring former finance minister P Chidambaram to run for the post of Congress president in the internal elections starting January and culminating with the election of party chief in July 2015. “P Chidambaram should contest elections for the post of Congress president. He should apply,” Digvijay today said in an evident reaction to Chidambaram’s recent comments that a non-Gandhi could be a chief of the Congress. Clearly, there are divisions within the party on whether top posts and even others should be up for grabs by way of direct elections within the organisation. In recent meetings with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi about ways to revive the Congress, several senior leaders, it is learnt, urged Rahul Gandhi to do away with his obsession with elections. Janardan Dwivedi, Congress general secretary in charge of organisation, says, “Consensus is the best form of election.” Digvijay Singh in his views is also closer to Dwivedi so are several other senior leaders. Singh’s latest statement today is being seen by party insiders as an attempt to corner Chidambaram and his son Karti who have of late been striking discordant notes.
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Business of film-making at centre of discourse
Panjim, November 23 Presence of eminent names of regional cinema like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, the doyen of Malayalam cinema and national award-winning director Shaji Karun, who has designed a signature film for the IFFI, as well as talented actors like Marathi actor Mrinal Kulkarni continued to lend substance to the festival. With or without the stars, IFFI remained a star attraction for many people from around the world. A distributor from Turkey, who has bought the rights of some Indian films, turned up to check the pulse of Indian audiences. The inauguration of a section, 'Celebrating Dance in Indian Cinema', with the screening of Tamil movie 'Sringaram' marked the festive Sunday. A troupe from Odisha, which promoted film 'Aadim Vichar' with a dance and song performance, kept the whole day rolling. While the IFFI centre continued to showcase films in a host of sections, noted filmmakers like Vidu Vinod Chopra, Dibakar Banerjee and internationally acclaimed director Shekhar Kapoor kept their date with NFDC's Film Bazar held at Marriot Goa. Film Bazar has over the years become the hub for the business of making movies, co-production, finance and much more. Interacting with mediapersons at IFFI, Rajat Kapoor, director of ‘Aankho Dekhi’ — one of the films selected in the Indian panorama of IFFI, was candid enough to confess that as far as international distributors were concerned, the space that once IFFI provided was taken over by the Film Bazar. At the Film Bazar, distributors and financiers get to see the films at different stages and much before it is made. What goes on in the making of a film, too, was brought to light in an interesting session of the NFDC on recreating cities in films. National Award winner Dibakar Banerjee, whose upcoming film ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ is set in the 1940s of Kolkata, shared what it took to get the period look right and create a whole city from a bygone era. Here he along with his team gave details about the hard work, research and creative vision that went behind the scenes. Production designer Vandana Kataria revealed some of her trade secrets too. From putting tissue paper and flour on walls and then heating it up using blown dust, she employed a host of tools and techniques to transform the set created in Mumbai into Kolkata of yore. Ideally, Banerjee would have liked to shoot the entire film in Kolkata but was constrained by many factors, including the fact that it was unsafe to shoot in the old buildings of the City of Joy.
Recreating cities from bygone era
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New Delhi, November 23
Lucknow, November 23
New Delhi, November 23
