States News and Discussions

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 06 Jun 2012 18:37

The non-INC state governments are slowly being drawn under CBI rule

Mohapatra accuses Patnaik in mining scam, dares him to order CBI probe

Bihar govt seeks CBI probe into Ranvir Sena chief’s deat

We already have Karnataka (Yeddi), Tamil Nadu (DMK as well as AIDMK), Andhra Pradesh (YSJ), Uttar Pradesh (Mayavati and Mulayam) etc., under CBI investigation that never ends and reflects the political needs of INC system of that day.

member_19686 · Post by **member_19686** » 07 Jun 2012 17:58

‘Love’ ignites communal tension in Uttar Pradesh
Sanjay Pandey Lucknow, June 4, 2012, DHNS

Blossoming love affair between a dalit youth and a Muslim girl has triggered a communal tension in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, with the dalits being asked to leave the village.

On Sunday, the house of the dalit family, whose boy had eloped with the girl a few days back, was torched and they were asked to leave the village failing which they will have to face serious consequences. As the villagers were trying to douse the flames, a letter asking the dalits to leave the village was recovered from the spot triggering further tension.

According to reports, the boy Prateek had eloped with his lover, a Muslim girl of the same village, last month after a brief affair.

Complaint lodged

The members of the girl's family had lodged a report with the police. The couple who got married, were recovered from Loni area in Ghaziabad district a few days back.

When the duo were produced before a court on Saturday last, the girl, insisted on living with her lover. The court sent Prateek to jail and the girl was sent to “Nari Niketan” (women's shelter).

Members of the dalit community have sought security from the district administration and security personnel in strength have been deployed in the village to prevent any further flare up. A large number of dalit males have fled from the village fearing for their lives.

A case has been registered in this connection. “We have deployed police personnel in strength at the village. The guilty will be sternly punished,” said Arun Sirohi, circle officer.

Against love

The powerful “khaps” (caste panchayats) have declared that will not allow love marriages. Many lovers, in the past, have been subjected to torture and have also been killed by their families.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/254 ... uttar.html

Madarssa toppers get laptops
PTI | Jun 6, 2012, 09.18PM IST

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government today awarded laptops to thirty students who topped the Madarssa examinations in the state.

The laptops were given from the state minority affairs department and Madarsa education department to students who had topped Alim, Fazil and High Madarssa exams this year.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee who felicitated the students at the state secretariat said, "We want them to become doctors, engineers and even Moulvis. Their education will not be affected due to money".

The students were also given meritorious certificates.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 871710.cms

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 07 Jun 2012 20:18

Surasena wrote:
‘Love’ ignites communal tension in Uttar Pradesh
Sanjay Pandey Lucknow, June 4, 2012, DHNS

Blossoming love affair between a dalit youth and a Muslim girl has triggered a communal tension in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, with the dalits being asked to leave the village.
Against love

The powerful “khaps” (caste panchayats) have declared that will not allow love marriages. Many lovers, in the past, have been subjected to torture and have also been killed by their families.

Islam has no caste and untouchability is a characteristic of Hindu religion only. Yes it remained even after the people converted 1000 years ago.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 07 Jun 2012 21:04

An excerpt from yesterday's Andhrajyothy (A telugu news paper) editorial. This is interesting not only because of its content but also because if its writer - Sri Kancha Ilaiah (why I am not a Hindu?)

Current Telangana is not a democratic region. This is a jagir given to TRS by central Congress party. In the past two years the Telangana people came down to eating grass. Who should be responsible for this? During YSR days the state is for the enjoyment of victors/YSR (Rajyam Veera-Bhojyam), and after Dec9,2009 the political movement became banquets. It is interesting to see how we get out of this situation.

There are many political knots in ruling a nation. To untie a knot sometimes we may have to put another knot somewhere else. An example of this is Bindranwale of Punjab. It took a long time to bring back normalcy in Punjab. Indira Gandhi sacrificed her life in the process.

We are seeing a similar situation in Andhra Pradesh. After YSR's death in 2009, K Rosiah became the CM. YSR's son Jagan and YSR's friend/advisor KVP made all preparations to bring down KR's govt in 2009. If that happened, nearly 30 of 33 Congress MPs would have joined YSJ. That would have put the UPA2 govt in danger.

To come out of this danger INC put KCR (of TRS) in action. He started his fast unto death. We know wat happened since then. It is filled with declaration of T-process by PC, JACs, Krishna commission, bi-elections after bi-elections and so on.

After Jagan was arrested, a state-wide bundh was called for. The interesting this is that there is not even small impact of it in T-region. Where as every time TRS or T-JAC called for bundh the govt ensured that the bundh was successful by doing its part. The mandate of TRS is to ensure YSJ's control in T-region until 2014 elections.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 08 Jun 2012 07:59

Meanwhile in the wonderful land of WB....

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... ms?curpg=1

The state government wants Nokia Siemens (NSN) to shift some of its mobile network gear production lines from its Chennai plant to Kolkata to prevent a shutdown of its Kolkata unit and job losses. At present, NSN manufactures only landline equipment in Kolkata and the factory has turned unviable in light of dwindling contracts. "We've asked Nokia Siemens to also manufacture mobile equipment in Kolkata like it does in Chennai if its landline gear business is no longer viable. It would be unfair to shut down a factory when there is an alternate means of survival ," said a top bureaucrat in the West Bengal government privy to the developments.

And how many workers does this world beating factory have you ask.... I unfortunately have the answer.

The company had offered its 73 employees in the Kolkata factory a VSS that would cost it roughly Rs 14 crore, averaging a pre-tax payout of Rs 15-20 lakh per employee. Till date, only 10 have accepted the voluntary separation scheme, which closed on May 31.

73. Ooops make that 63 employees. Watching WB is like watching re-runs of 1950s & 1960s TN & UP. There is no hope anymore.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Jun 2012 12:54

educated and capable bengalis are voting the only way they can control - with their feet. BLR and Delhi are big gainers from the bengali outflux.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Jun 2012 19:45

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nandi ... y/953965/0

The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) today signed a memorandum of understanding with Burn Standard Company Limited (BSCL) in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Writer’s Buildings to set up a wagon components manufacturing facility at Jellingham near Nandigram.

The project, described by Mamata as a big leap towards industrialisation in Bengal, is expected to be completed in two-and-a-half years and will employ 300 people, said SAIL chairman C S Verma.

The factory will manufacture steel bogies and couplers to meet domestic and foreign requirements. The project, worth Rs 200 crore, will come up on 50 acres of land currently in possession of BSCL. The land deed will be extended to long-term and discussions in this regard have already taken place, Verma said.

And in the next like Mamata takes political control of Haldia.... ..and appoints a transport secretary to run a Petro chemical plant. Nice...

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/com ... 547062.ece

According to sources, the development caught TCG camp unaware. The board accepted Mr Bhattacharyya’s resignation and appointed former State Transport Secretary Mr Sumantra Chowdhury as the new Managing Director.

HPL has lost Rs 1,920 crore in last four years and is now running at half the capacity due to cash crunch.

As in March 2012, net worth stands at Rs 1,467 crore against a total liability of Rs 5,000 crore. “Our primary objective is now to ensure supply of feedstock. We will approach banks. I will also talk to IndianOil as they have stopped granting us credit on supplies. They are a stakeholder in the project and, ideally they should help us revive it,” he said.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 24 Jun 2012 21:41

Surasena wrote:
‘Love’ ignites communal tension in Uttar Pradesh
Sanjay Pandey Lucknow, June 4, 2012, DHNS

Blossoming love affair between a dalit youth and a Muslim girl has triggered a communal tension in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, with the dalits being asked to leave the village.

I am sure Amir Khan would like to take it up in his Serial Satyameva Jayate. Last time Khap elders were already put to mat in one episode having similar issue

tejas · Post by **tejas** » 25 Jun 2012 01:20

A $40 million investment by a PSU is a big step towards industrializing WB. Please post a warning sign next time, I just spit up coffee all over my keyboard laughing.

manju · Post by **manju** » 25 Jun 2012 06:29

After r2b (return to Bhaarath) I have been doing some travelling.

I was chatting with my friend (a senior in college), who has been working in tribal belt for 2 decades now. I had a change to clarify some doubts I had about this issue- I was always wondering how Naik/Nayakas in Karnataka are grouped as STs.. It was an eye opener.

The now infamous Sriramulu (parnter with the Gali brothers in Ballari) is a Naika (I think) and apparently he is an ST. I was always under the impression the people living inthe forests are the only ST.

Somewhere in the last 10-15 yeras the ST category has been filled with other communities. The real forest dwellers (adivasis) form a small chunk (~2-3 % of population) as compared to the these newer communities (which form a larger percentage- `10% of population). In the background of vote back politics it is clear that the adivasis are not significant in real numbers and on top of that, I am told they are not proactive voters...

As a result all the ST benefits (seats in education and jobs) go to the non-adivasis. The adivasis continue to struggle and are unable to reap the benefits of reservation. The politicians dont give a damn...
I was trying to connect the dots... and was thinking if all the naxal activity (I think maninly adivasis) in malnad (western ghat) karnataka was partly due to this problem..

Any thoughts, and information would be apprciated

member_19686 · Post by **member_19686** » 25 Jun 2012 07:19

Can people stop using loaded missionary coined colonial terms like "adivasi" which is a literal translation of "aboriginal"?

Discussion of the religious status and political rights of the tribals is rendered more difficult by the term commonly used to designate them: âdivâsî. Christian missionaries and secularists have popularized the belief that this is a hoary self-designation of the tribals (unmindful that this would prove their intimate familiarity with Sanskritic culture, as the term is a pure Sanskrit coinage), e.g.: “These peoples are called adivasis, which means ‘first inhabitants’. Like the American continent, India has its Indians.”33

Contrary to a widespread belief, this term is not indigenous. It is not listed in the 19th-century Sanskrit dictionary of M. Monier-Williams, a zealous Christian who would gladly have obliged the missionaries if only he had been aware of the term. The Sanskrit classics attest the awareness of a separate category of forest-dwellers, but used descriptive terms for them, e.g. âtavika, from atavî, “forest”.

Christian authors feign indignation when such descriptive terms are preferred. Thus, A.J. Philip: “In the lexicon of Hindutva, the word adivasi has disappeared. The Sangh Parivar prefers to call them vanvasis (dwellers of forests or jungles). It is just a step away from calling them junglis (illiterate, uncouth and uncivilised). Thus the fall in the status of a people who take pride in calling themselves the adi (original) people of the land is at once apparent. (.) It is all part of a grand project of rewriting history which the Parivar and its affiliates have ventured into.”34 No, the imposition of the term adivasi during the colonial period was itself an instance of replacing facts of history with an imaginative theory.

The history-rewriting, in A.J. Philip’s case, is also in the eye of the beholder. While insisting on the use of the colonial-imposed term adivasi, he manages to give an anti-colonial twist to his story: “The adivasis, whom the anthropologist call the Fourth World or the indigenous people, suffered the first lexical assault when they were brought under the official term Scheduled Tribes”.35 But it was the British themselves, with their race theories, who had redefined the tribals as the “indigenous races”, and who had even introduced the concept of “tribe” as distinct from “caste” (after an initial period when they had used the term interchangealy, e.g. “the Brahmin tribe”).

The colonial term aboriginal, “pre-colonial native”, has been indigenized in India in the 19th century through its literal translation âdivâsî. The term aboriginal had gained currency in the “New World”, where it made good sense from a European viewpoint: a white colonist (or an imported black slave) was a “new inhabitant”, and a Native American, Native Australian or Maori was an “original inhabitant”. This term says one thing about its referent, viz. that he is not an immigrant, and another about its non-referent, viz. that he is an immigrant, a coloniser.

The excluded ones, the non-Adivasis, all the urban and advanced agricultural communities, suddenly found themselves labelled as immigrants who had colonized India and chased the aboriginals to the most inaccessible places. The message of the colonial term Adivasi was that the urban elites who were waging a struggle for independence, could not claim to be the rightful owners of the country anymore than the British could. Likewise, it served to present Hinduism, the religion named after India, as a foreign imposition. The only non-tribals considered aboriginal were the Untouchables, supposedly the native dark-skinned proletariat in the Apartheid system imposed by the white Aryan invaders to preserve their race...

Many people use the term “Adivasi” quite innocently, but the term is political through and through. Its great achievement is that it has firmly fixed the division of the Indians in “natives” and “invaders” in the collective consciousness, on a par with the division in natives or aboriginals and the immigrant population in America and Australia. Thus, an indologist specializing in tribal culture said to me, off-hand: “The Âdivâsîs are the original people of India-well of course, that is precisely what the word âdivâsî means.” The parallel with the American and Australian situations is driven home, e.g. in the title of a booklet on India published by the Dutch and Belgian administrations for development cooperation: “Adivasi, Indianen van India” (Dutch: “India’s Indians”).38 As if the term were not a deliberate modem construction but an ancient witness to an ancient history of aboriginal dispossession by Dravidian and Aryan “invaders”.

Anglicized Hindus, too, have interiorized the parallel White/Amerindian = Hindu/Adivasi.39 However, no conscious Hindu now accepts the ideologically weighted term Adivasi, much to the dismay of those who espouse the ideological agenda implied in the term, viz. the detachment of the tribals from Hindu society and the delegitimation of Hinduism as India’s native religion. Thus, the Times of India complains: “In the Indian context, it is sad to note that, despite the affirmative action promised by the Constitution for the Scheduled Tribes and despite the appellation of adivasi (original inhabitants) being used for them, the government still does not accept that tribals are the indigenous peoples of India. In fact, it is not without significance that the BJP (…) prefers to refer patronisingly to tribal peoples as vanvasis (forest dwellers) rather than adivasis.”40

The assumption that the term “forest-dweller” is condescending is simply not correct from the viewpoint of the forest-dwellers themselves, who hold their forests and the concomitant life-style in high esteem, just as the Vedic people did.41 Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi’s indigenous term for the tribals, Girijan or “hill people”, far from being a condescending exonym, is actually the self-designation of many communities in India. Many Dravidian-speaking tribes have names derived from ku- or malai-, meaning “hill, mountain”, e.g. Kurukh, Malto, and of course the non-tribal Malayali.

Historian and anti-Hindutva activist Gyanendra Pandey writes: “A special number of the RSS journal Panchjanya, devoted to the ‘tribal’ peoples of India and published in, March 1982, is significantly titled ‘Veer vanvasi ank’. The use of the term ‘vanvasi’ (forest- or jungle-dwellers) in place of the designation ‘adivasi’, which had come to be the most commonly used term among social scientists and political activists talking about tribal groups in India, is not an accident Adivasi means original inhabitants, a status that the Hindu spokespersons of today are loath to accord to the tribal population of India.”42

Gyanendra Pandey builds on the accomplished fact of the widespread use of the ideological term Adivasi,-which is “not an accident” either, witness its “common use” by “political activists”. In fact, not just “Hindu spokespersons” but everyone who cultivates the scientific temper would reject a term which carries the load of an entirely unproven, politically motivated theory, viz. that the tribals are “the” (i.e. the only) original inhabitants of India. Nobody is “loath to accord to the tribal population the status of original inhabitants”, certainly not the Hindu nationalists.43 But every objective observer would reject the effective implication of the term Adivasi, viz. that the non-tribals are not original inhabitants, on a par with the white colonisers who decimated the Native Americans...

http://voiceofdharma.com/books/wiah/ch9.htm

AbhiJ · Post by **AbhiJ** » 26 Jun 2012 17:17

Make Mumbai second capital of India

the MPS has described Delhi as ‘stagnant, non-inspirational and showing signs of rigid orthodoxy’ after serving as India’s capital for over a century. Mumbai, on the other hand, ‘is inspirational, vibrant, prosperous and a modern city with a cosmopolitan, intellectual and philanthropic outlook’

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 28 Jun 2012 07:28

Whatever happened to God’s own country?

If you happen to visit Kerala and find men — young and old, educated and uneducated, blue and white collared — lined up in military discipline in front of a store that fills the state’s coffers (read Kerala State Beverages Corporation), you should guess it is ‘hartal’ the next day; not just that, women and children throng the towns to rent pirated CDs to watch favourite movies, and mobile inbox would be flooded with happy hartal messages. These are the harbingers of a hartal day.

most lethargic,lazy, hartal crazy,no respect for women,drunken men etc .

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 28 Jun 2012 07:42

Kerala is country’s most crime-prone state, NCRB statistics show

The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures comparing incidents of crime with the population of a state, notes Kerala is most affected by crime and Kochi is the most dangerous city. Figures compiled till 2010 show that Kerala has a crime rate of 424.1, more than double the national average of 187.6.

Kerala also ranks highest on incidents of rioting and arson with a rate of 26 compared to the national average of 6.4, although Bihar at 8,809 incidents accounts for almost 13% of all riots in the country.

To put these figures in perspective, NCRB has also compiled separate statistics for violent crimes that include murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping and dowry death. On this count too, Kerala's figures are high, inspiring little confidence in the state's government machinery.

Even women are not very safe in the coconut country. The state's rate of crime against women hovers at 27, higher than Delhi at 24.6, which is often called most unsafe place for females. Bihar, incidentally, is one the safest for women recording a crime rate against women of only 8.7 — second only to Goa with a rate of 8.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 28 Jun 2012 08:08

Well, here is what the police got to say about it

Kochi city police ‘set record straight'

Senior officials of the city police are miffed by the interpretation of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics to mark Kochi as topping the list of crimes recorded during 2010.

Talking to The Hindu , City Police Commissioner M.R. Ajith Kumar pointed out that this analysis of statistics could be misleading. “The reported increase was in minor crimes and not in crimes against person and property. The increase in minor crimes shows efficiency in policing,” he said.

The unprecedented increase in the number of cases follows the steps taken by the police to register cases suo motu under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code for rash and negligent driving after the Kerala High Court issued an order that the police cannot initiate cases suo motu under Sections 184 and 185 of the IPC for drunk driving.

“It may be noted that the total number of cases reported in the city in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 were 5,659, 6,608, 7,956, and 8,755 as against 25,716 in 2010,” Mr. Ajith Kumar said.

Citing the same statistics that the NCRB had brought out as a document titled Crime in India 2010, he said the figures put Kochi “at a very low position of 56”.

The document prepared by the NCRB put Kochi, Ernakulam Rural, Thrissur, and Palakkad among the 23 police districts reporting more than 10,000 crimes last year. Citing statistics on cases registered, the document cited that Kochi city recorded a significant increase of 193.7 per cent in IPC crimes during the year when compared with 2009. According to the NCRB, the city reported the highest crime rate of 1,897.8 as compared to 424.1 for the entire State.

Delhi with 45,995 registered cases, which includes 33,829 ‘main' IPC offences and 12,165 minor offences, tops the list followed by Mumbai with 33,932 cases, 26,839 and 7,093, and Bangalore with 32,188 cases, 21,855 and 10,333. In comparison, Kochi has only 25,715 registered cases, with 1,488 main IPC offences and 24,227 minor offences.

“In fact, Kochi is behind Thiruvananthapuram (2,964) and Kozhikode (1,963) with 1,488 cases registered under main IPC offences,” he said.

This category included cases registered under Sections 326 (for grave crimes), 302 (for culpable homicide), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 498 A (harassment of women), 394 (robbery), and 390 (dacoity).

“It will be foolish to think that the crime in Kochi city has grown in 2010 compared to 2009. In reality, it has come down by 100 per cent compared to 2009,” he said.

Citing the crime statistics provided by the NCRB, he added that major crimes recorded in the city actually came down from 4,103 in 2007 to 3,405 (in 2008) and 2,990 (in 2009) and to 1,488 in 2010.

The fact of the matter is, Kochi have the lowest incidents of crime if you remove this "Other Crime" category.

This refutal came in Oct 2011, and now media has picked up a 2010 report and going to town. Conspiracy onlee..

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 29 Jun 2012 06:42

Punsari – Gujarat’s urban village

Sometimes just a vision for change can create an ocean of a difference. When Himanshu Patel was elected Sarpanch of Punsari, a quaint little village in Sabarkanth district Gujarat, in 2006 there was no sewerage connection, no street lights, no pucca roads and, of course, no source of income for the gram panchayat except the grants and funding from various state and Union government schemes.

For female students, bus service is completely free. Women come to deposit milk to milk bank couple of times during a day through this bus. Cost of running the service is managed through ticket sales.

The turn-around happened when we sold part of our grazing land as plotted schemes to various communities. The money is deposited in government coffers,” says the 28 year old Sarpanch. Some funds were also received through various government schemes.The village received rewards from the central government and the state governments recently.

read the rest. worth it.How the village has developed.

Added-- kenya keen to replicate Punsari model

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 29 Jun 2012 06:47

The TOI article is a hatchet job. Why?

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 29 Jun 2012 12:18

The unprecedented increase in the number of cases follows the steps taken by the police to register cases suo motu under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code for rash and negligent driving after the Kerala High Court issued an order that the police cannot initiate cases suo motu under Sections 184 and 185 of the IPC for drunk driving.

Looks like the Hindu got the sections and Acts mixed up. Sec 279 is from IPC (correctly reported), Sec 184 and 185 are from Motor Vehicle Act. People in the socialist republic was all pi$$ed of when the police started going on an over drive on catching drunken drivers. Some one managed to go to court and stop the practise of police registering suo-moto cases for drunken driving. Legal luminaries in K.P then pulled out Sec 279 from Indian Penal Code. So Sec 279 is used as a law point to detain a person, and then let him off on bail after sureties land up at the P.S. And when the case goes to the courts, Sec 185 M.V Act gets added up too (which carries a stiffer fine).

AbhiJ · Post by **AbhiJ** » 01 Jul 2012 17:51

Goa’s economic growth to pick up momentum soon

Panaji, June 30:

Goa’s economic growth will pick up momentum from mid-July as the State Government has cleared all debts accumulated during the erstwhile Congress-led administration, the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, has said.

The debts amounting to Rs 1,200 crore were paid-off by the current BJP-led Government, which took charge on March 9 this year, he said.

“We have a clean slate now. Economic growth will be fast paced from mid-July onwards,” the Chief Minister said, while addressing the Annual General Body meeting of Goa State Industries’ Association here last evening.

“The way the state was handled by the erstwhile Government was terrible. When I took over the reign, I had payable debt of Rs 1,200 crore,” Mr Parrikar said.

He asked businessmen to come up with viable policies and assured Government’s support to push them. “You help me in creating employment for locals and I will help you in earning profits.”

Goa, he said, aims to achieve 12 per cent GDP growth by the end of current fiscal and increase it to 15 per cent in the next financial year. “For this, I need a clear cut support from the business community.”

The Chief Minister assured to look into the problems being faced by ailing industrial units and come up with solutions by the end of second quarter of the current financial year.

Linkis

nawabs · Post by **nawabs** » 03 Jul 2012 12:50

UP: Outrage over Akhilesh Yadav's 20 lakh car offer

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/UP-up- ... .html?HT5=

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday reportedly announced that state MLAs can buy a car worth Rs 20 lakhs from their LAD fund.

CM's announcement has already triggered a political storm in the Uttar Pradesh with leaders slamming the move by Akhilesh.

Uttar Pradesh has over 403 MLAs and spending Rs 20 lakh on purchasing one car each for all the MLAs will cost government a whooping amount of Rs 80.60 crore.

Meanwhile, BSP has opposed Akhilesh's statement on car for MLAs

In June, the SP-led government indicated to enhance the amount of the Legislator Area Development (LAD) Fund better known as Vidhayak Nidhi. The Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the government will positively consider to increase the Vidhayak Nidhi.

More so, the Basic Education and Child Development Minister Ram Govind Chaudhri had even urged the Chief Minister to disband the Vidhayak Nidhi as it was causing disrepute to the image of the MLAs. The minister suggested that the system of area development fund must be introduced in place of Vidhayak Nidhi and the Chief Minister must make the provision of adequate money in it.

AbhiJ · Post by **AbhiJ** » 03 Jul 2012 16:18

In Maharashtra It was just increased to 15 Lakhs.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 04 Jul 2012 03:54

They would steal the money anyway. This way after five years there is a vehicle to be sold for taxi service or some other purpose.

nawabs · Post by **nawabs** » 04 Jul 2012 12:10

UP MLA's can buy laptops worth Rs 1,25,000 from Vidhayak Nidhi(LAD Fund).Link when available.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 06 Jul 2012 00:03

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120705/punjab.htm#5

Water in all villages to be tested: Badal
To check presence of uranium and arsenic
Minna Zutshi
Tribune News Service

Rabbon Uchhi (Ludhiana), July 4
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, while expressing his concern at the increasing problem of ecological degradation and the high level of water pollution across Punjab, today announced at Rabbon Uchhi village in the district that the government had decided to take samples of water from all the villages for analysis within the next three months.

The presence of uranium and arsenic in the underground water was a matter of serious concern, said the Chief Minister. “The salinity in underground water in many parts of the state may jeopardise the chances of bumper food production,” he added. He also referred to the Planning Commission’s apprehension that the salinity content of the water could have serious economic repercussions.

Urging for a collective community-based approach to the ecology-related issues, he said it was imperative for the people to take steps to protect the environment. A tree plantation drive should be launched at the community level, he suggested.

“Each individual in a family could plant at least one sapling,” he added.

Exhorting the youth to opt for vocational training courses and self-employment ventures, he categorically said it was not possible for all to secure the government jobs.

Blaming delayed monsoons for aggravating the power crisis, Badal said the state government was making elaborate arrangements to ensure “uninterrupted power supply” in the state. He added that the state government was purchasing 350 MW power from the Central pool this year also like the previous years. He claimed that there would be no shortage of power within the next two years.

Announcing that a life-size statue of Baba Maharaj Singh would be installed in Ludhiana city and the school at Rabbon Uchhi would be renamed in the martyr’s memory, Badal said Baba Maharaj Singh was among the first freedom fighters of the region. The state government would soon build a state-of-the-art Jung-e-Azadi Memorial at Kartarpur over an area of 25 acre, he added.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 08 Jul 2012 14:33

Missing child returns after living his dream

Amid all the hullabaloo over police inaction in tracing missing children, a 16-year-old boy who went missing in December last year returned home on his birthday on Friday after a whirlwind tour. Sagar Patel, a student of SGVP International, had left home thrice in the past eight months. But the third “escape” turned out to be an escapade. This time, in his own words, he tasted freedom, got lessons in survival and sharpened his business skills. He had left home with Rs 3,500 and made more than Rs 1 lakh in six months. Of course, he splurged most of it and came back with Rs 20,000

Don't know what to say about this. May be this kid got some inspiration from 3 idiots.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Jul 2012 22:45

Maybe he sold the family silver?

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 11 Jul 2012 06:24

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/r ... r-illusion

Rs 1,86,000 cr illusion

In 2004 when the Andhra Pradesh government launched Jalayagnam, the mega irrigation programme was touted as a solution to the agrarian crisis in the state’s drought-prone and backward regions. It was also pitched as a programme that would bring relief to the power-starved state. But going by a draft audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), it seems Jalayagnam, launched ahead of the assembly polls that year, was an election gimmick of the then Congress government of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

The state neither has enough funds nor water to implement the Rs 1,86,000-crore programme, according to the draft CAG report. Jalayagnam envisages 86 irrigation projects mainly on the Krishna, Godavari and Pennar rivers and their tributaries, and aims at providing drinking water to one-fourth of the state’s 80 million population and irrigation to more than half of the state’s rainfed areas. It assumed the importance of a dream project in the backdrop of the fact that more than half of the state’s cultivated area is rainfed. Over the years, there has been sharp increase in groundwater exploitation, especially in the Telangana and Rayalaseema regions that receive scanty rainfall.

But most of the projects were taken up without carrying out feasibility studies, settling inter-state disputes or obtaining necessary clearances (see ‘Projects faltered’), says the draft CAG report. “It appears that Jalayagnam was largely driven by the urgency to award contracts rather than focusing on immediate benefits to targeted beneficiaries,” it says.

Although 12 projects are said to have been completed under Jalayagnam by January this year, they were actually ongoing projects incorporated into the programme. None of the projects were providing water to farmers when CAG prepared the report, despite claims by the government that it has created irrigation potential for 849,000 hectares. Although the government had promised to complete Jalayagnam in five years, 74 projects are still under construction; 49 of them are far from complete. This is despite the fact that the programme received Central assistance of Rs 4,015.26 crore for 22 projects.

The CAG report says the programme is weighed down by ill-planning, which could render it ineffective.

Planned on unavailable water: No comprehensive study was done on the availability of water for Jalayagnam projects. The CAG audit revealed that the water required for successful implementation of the projects on the Krishna and the Pennar is far more than the water allocated to the state (see ‘Overambitious’). The water allocated to the state is already being overdrawn by existing projects. The government planned Jalayagnam projects on the rivers saying it would utilise flood water. But then flood water is available only for a few days—around 30 days in the Krishna—in a year and cannot satisfy the projects’ demands. Several projects, for instance A V R Handri Niva Sujala Sravanthi and Jawahar Nettampadu lift irrigation Scheme on the Krishna, are technically unviable. Projects like Indira Sagar Dummugudem on the Godavari, too, do not have assured water availability, points out the report.

Not enough power: Thirty-one projects under Jalayagnam are lift irrigation schemes where water needs to be lifted from the rivers by use of motors and pumps, which would require about 206 million units of electricity a day. This is when the average power consumption of the state was 160.80 million units a day in 2009-10. This means even if power supply for the entire state is shut down and diverted for the lift irrigation schemes, there would still be a shortage of 44.2 million units a day. The state will thus not be able to operate the irrigation schemes, notes the report. Being a power-deficit state, Andhra Pradesh purchases power from independent power producers at high rates. Even at the minimum Rs 2.60 per unit, the total funds required for the schemes would be Rs 5,533.58 crore a year, it adds.

Benefits inflated to suit contractors: The benefit-cost-ratio (BCR) has been inflated for many projects, says the report. This includes Jalayagnam’s most expensive Pranhita-Chevella lift irrigation project on a tributary of the Godavari. It aims to provide water to seven districts. BCR for the project was worked out based on assumptions, not facts.

The report notes that Jalayagnam appears to be driven by awarding a large number of contracts, without any assurance on completion of works within the envisaged time and budget. The contracts were awarded to favour contractors, putting the state’s interests at risk. “In most cases, the technical sanction was obtained after the bidding, clearly pointing to the possibility of manipulation in favour of certain bidders.” Firms that were not qualified for bidding entered through back doors. CAG’s audit also revealed that parties in joint venture (JV) firms changed their partners several times to form new JVs to bag contracts. In the Pranahita-Chevella project, four firms obtained 16 contracts worth Rs 22,885 crore by forming JVs in 16 different combinations.

High on aspirations, low on funds: The state government started implementing all Jalayagnam projects simultaneously without assessing the availability of funds. As a result, the programme has put huge financial burden on the state. As of April 2011, the state incurred a liability of Rs 1,27,084 crore—87 per cent of the state’s budget for 2012-13. Besides, the government is yet to adequately compensate and rehabilitate the 131,000 families, including indigenous people and farmers, displaced by the projects.

“...the government is saddled with a huge number of projects which are nowhere near completion. The financial burden of these incomplete projects on the state exchequer will be felt for a long time to come,” notes the report. Instead of taking up 86 projects simultaneously, the government should have prioritised projects over medium to long term and focused its attention on a few projects, ensuring that adequate resources are allocated and the projects are implemented properly, observes the report.

The state irrigation department is now in the process of proposing changes in the draft report and preparing explanations to the charges raised in the report. “The draft report has made sweeping statements without going deep into ground realities,” says S K Joshi, principal secretary with the irrigation department. “CAG believes in a step-by-step process whereas the government believes in a parallel process. The government is keen to see that farmers in rainfed, drought-prone regions get irrigation facilities fast, he says. Refuting the allegations regarding inter-state disputes over Jalayagnam projects, Joshi cites the recent agreement between Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra for Pranhita-Chevella project. He hopes the final CAG report will include the proposed changes.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 11 Jul 2012 10:14

So basically Jalnagyam was yet anther loot the treasury scheme. CBN builds good finances which has allowed Aroyogasri and this to be financed, YSR increases liquor consumption and with good MEDIA management and other relevant skills got the credit.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 28 Jul 2012 11:51

Can Gujarat's growth story be attributed to Modi?

Taking these two sets of data together, it is safe to say that if Modi is being hailed as India's future savior by some quarters, it is for reasons other than his role in fostering Gujarat's economic growth. At best he has simply maintained Gujarat's performance in relation to its peer states to put it mildly. And Gujarat's "high starting base" is irrelevant to the argument. Maharashtra has a GSDP 2.5 times the size of Gujarat and is well ahead of Gujarat's growth rate over the last five years.

All other states are catching up with Gujarat and hopefully the trend will continue. West Bengal is a grim reminder that you must reform or stagnate.

Last but not the least, if India is looking to Modi as its next PM, we must examine his ideas about economic reforms [as distinct from his executive ability], and his track record in implementing them. If there is one salient fact to take away from the above data, it is that economic reforms, or the absence thereof, affects growth more than anything else.

Atleast NaMo's governance has been pro-active in bringing more industries and employment to the state. Other's argue that he has been against farmers and more inclined just towards corporates. If we go by same yard-stick then farmers of Gujarat would be still struggling to get water which wasn't possible without Narmada canal. From infrastructure point roads and port connectivity has improved in last 10 years. I remember it was hard to travel even 50km far from Ahmedabad to Sanand in 90's.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 28 Jul 2012 11:59

No skilled hands, sugar factories in South Gujarat go hi-tech

In the last one-and-a-half-year, about 33 hi-tech cane harvester machines have been purchased by various sugar factories in the region to tide over the shortage of skilled hands. The cane cutters, mostly migrant labourers from the Dang and bordering Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, have stopped coming to far-flung areas as they are getting work easily in their native villages.

Sugar co-operatives claim that the dearth has been fuelled by central government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( NAREGA) coupled with unwillingness of the young generation of cane cutters to follow the footsteps of their elders.

prahaar · Post by **prahaar** » 28 Jul 2012 12:55

Gaurav_S wrote:Can Gujarat's growth story be attributed to Modi?

Taking these two sets of data together, it is safe to say that if Modi is being hailed as India's future savior by some quarters, it is for reasons other than his role in fostering Gujarat's economic growth. At best he has simply maintained Gujarat's performance in relation to its peer states to put it mildly. And Gujarat's "high starting base" is irrelevant to the argument. Maharashtra has a GSDP 2.5 times the size of Gujarat and is well ahead of Gujarat's growth rate over the last five years.

An important fact is being missed in the analysis of Gujarat versus Maharashtra numbers, is that it has MUMBAI included in the numbers whereas Gujarat does not - which only points to the more equitable growth in Guj geographically compared to MH. And my point is not to underplay MH performance, it is quite robust given the INC-NCP coalition government, this only proves that once a state's technical infrastructure and social development reaches a threshold level, economic activity in India is self sustaining, operating INSPITE of government.

What is being missed by modi-baiter analysts is that Gujarat started with a much lower social development index than MH. It was only in last 5-7 years that policy driven stress is given to social development (Girl child education, Women's health, universal primary education, etc), Keshubhai et al were not ready to touch the rural masses about changing societal attitudes, it was Modi who started that (with strong backlash). If Modi continues for one more term, it will be of great value to Gujarat, it will have reached MH or TN level of social development.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 08 Aug 2012 04:54

Bihar revenue receipts rise by 130%: CAG.

Bihar government's receipts through tax and non-tax revenues have grown by about 130 per cent at Rs 10.855.38 crore in 2010-11 as against Rs 4544.36 crore in 2005-06, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of india (CAG) report.

The state government collected Rs 9869.85 crore as tax revenue and Rs 985.53 crore in non-tax revenue to generate an aggregate receipt at Rs 10.885.38 crore in 2010-11, it said.

The state's revenue receipts at Rs 10,885.38 crore in 2011 was about 130 per cent higher in comparison to collection of Rs 4544.36 crore that the NDA government had generated in its first full year in the office in 2006-07, the report said.

The CAG report on revenue receipts of Bihar for fiscal year 2010-11, a copy of which was laid in the two houses of the state legislative by the Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, in his capacity as finance minister, further showed that the state government had registered an impressive growth in the revenue receipt from its internal sources on year-on-year basis since taking over power in late 2005.

The state government registered over 20 per cent increase in revenue receipts from internal sources from Rs 4544.36 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 5611.12 crore in 2007-08 and the figure soared by about 30 per cent next year at Rs 7326.06 crore in 2008-09, it said.

The receipts continued to make an upward surge in 2009-10 and it grew by over 30 per cent at Rs 9760.09 crore from Rs 7326.06 crore in 2008-09.

The CAG report noted that there was sustained increase in the receipts from the Centre to Bihar during 2006-07 to 2010-11 from Rs 18,538.83 crore 2006-07 to Rs 33,676.94 crore in 2010-11, a growth rate which was marginally less that revenue receipts accumulated from internal sources.

It, however, took exception to the state government's delay in submission of documents for audit of revenue receipts.

The CAG said it conducted test-check of the records of commercial taxes, state excise, taxes on vehicles, land revenue, non-ferrous mining and metallurgical industries and other departmental officers during 2010-11 and observed under-assessment/short levy/loss of revenue of Rs 1978.35 crore in 1858 cases.

Later speaking to media persons, the Principal Auditor General (Bihar) R B Sinha said the state was significantly dependent on the Centre to meet its expenditure as state revenues comprised only 24 per cent of the total revenue in the fiscal year assessed by the auditor.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 08 Aug 2012 06:35

Narendra Modi's predecessor pledges to rescue Gujarat from emergency like situation

Don't know what kind of "emergency situation" he is talking about:roll:. Its always good to have options at hand but not sure what he wants to gain by creating new GPP. Perhaps he has good support from Northern Gujarat Patel community but I doubt if he will even make any cut in next elections.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 10 Aug 2012 07:24

Illegal iron mining in Karnataka cost India Rs 50,000 crore: SC-appointed panel.

The national exchequer lost more than 50,000 crore because of illegal mining of iron ore in Karnataka, a Supreme Court-appointed panel of experts has said.
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) told the court on Thursday that not only was there illegal mining in the state but also concealment of the actual sale of the ore by private sector companies. The CEC was constituted to probe allegations of illegal mining.

The court would decide on allowing 16 private sector companies to resume mining in the state on August 17.

The committee said in its report that before the court imposed a ban on mining in Karnataka- one of the largest iron ore producers in the country- private companies had declared annual average sale of 50 million tonne (mt) of iron ore. But the committee found that these companies had actually mined 30-40 mt every year in excess of the declared figure.

The CEC said that if these companies had declared mining of 80-90 mt, they would have earned around 18,000 crore. On this, the government would have got at least 6,000 crore by way of income tax and about 1,500 crore as royalty, value-added tax and central sales tax. Thus, the government was entitled to get 7,500 crore a year but these companies paid only 500 crore, the CEC report said. The committee has calculated the cumulative loss to the exchequer at 50,000 crore, people familiar with the matter said.

The CEC report, submitted by its member-secretary MK Jiwraka, said that until July 31, 2012 about 26.58 mt of iron ore from Karnataka was sold through e-auction for 6,416 crore.

"In addition to the sale price, about 1,496 crore has been recovered and paid by the Monitoring Committee to the government towards royalty ( 606.24 crore), forest development charges ( 594.06 crore), VAT ( 270.65 crore) and CST ( 25.11 crore)," the report said. If the private lease holders had sold the iron ore for 6,416 crore, they would have paid income tax of over 2,100 crore. So, the government would have got 3,500 crore from the entire transaction, it further said.

After going through the report, the special three-judge bench, headed by Justice Aftab Alam, asked the state government counsel Raju Ramachandran to file its response.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 12 Aug 2012 12:58

A crisis in highly urbanised Kerala

THE SUNDAY STORY Robust consumption and a growing service sector in the State necessitate a whole new approach to waste management

There is hardly any informed person in Kerala who does not have an opinion about waste being generated in the process of urbanisation, but nobody knows how exactly to manage it.

There is a serious crisis in urban waste management that has manifested itself in the form of deadlocked garbage disposal plans in some municipalities and Corporations in the State. It highlights the gap between accepted standards in solid waste management and their achievement.

Caught in the struggle are the civic bodies, the people and the government. The impasse in garbage disposal and treatment is acutely felt in the Corporations of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kollam, and the municipalities of Kannur and Thalassery.

With an urban population share of nearly 48 per cent, Kerala comes close to the global rate. The hotspots of garbage management crisis in the State are a reflection of the collective failure to devise an appropriate strategy and technology. The crisis has turned local panchayats against municipalities and Corporations on the one hand and the civic bodies against the government on the other.

Transportation of waste to the landfills triggers protests by local residents, who raise the issue of their right to live in a clean environment. The waste disposal systems of the civic bodies are naturally left in a mess, with mounds of rotting garbage in parts of towns and cities.

The no-holds-barred battle between the Vilappil panchayat and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation over a solid waste treatment plant set up there continues with no solution in sight. Even a decade after the plant started functioning, the Corporation is unable to put in place a leachate treatment plant. In spite of favourable High Court pronouncements, the district administration had to abandon two attempts to bring the plant-related equipment and clay to the Vilappil plant in the face of local protests.

C.P. John, member, Kerala State Planning Board, says if the Vilappilsala plant set up with private participation for processing biodegradable waste into manure had not failed because of a dispute over the pricing of the manure, it would have been a perfect model for solid waste management for the entire State. Much of the urban garbage woes in the State, he says, expose the absence of proper urban space planning. Such planning would have come about if urbanisation had occurred as part of industrialisation. But it is the service sector that accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the State’s economy, he says, and some of the service sector activities are waste-generating.

The Kochi Corporation, which faced the wrath of the people at the Vadavukode, Puthenkurishu and Kunnathunadu panchayats protesting against the Brahmapuram garbage treatment plant, appears to have learnt the lessons from Vilappilsala.

The Corporation has engaged a private agency for clearing the garbage that has piled up at its plant site.

The agency can also take the manure produced. As the government is in the process of identifying an agency for a new plant at Brahmapuram, the Corporation is planning to have a tie-up with a Pune-based private firm to set up a plant for treating plastic waste.

The previous Left Democratic Front government issued an order on implementation of Lalur Model Project for Solid Waste Management (LAMPS), a decentralised initiative, but the Thrissur Corporation has not implemented it. Garbage removal in the city has been hit for seven months because of protests by Lalur residents. The situation is no different in Kollam as the Corporation’s modernised garbage treatment plant at Kureepuzha is unable to become operational in the face of protest by residents against the erection of a leachate plant. Six biogas plants set up by the Corporation have mitigated the garbage problem.

Maybe we should have a thread for waste management-both solid and liquid wastes and their impact on environment,water resources.Its going to be a huge problem

nawabs · Post by **nawabs** » 14 Aug 2012 18:17

Don’t ignore Muslims, Mohd Azam Khan tells Congress

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_do ... ss_1726915

Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) minister Mohd Azam Khan on Saturday mounted a scathing attack on the Congress for ignoring the claim of Muslims for reservation.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, the minister said that the intentions of the Congress had been exposed on issues related to Muslims because the Centre was planning to bring a constitutional amendment to give reservation to Dalits in jobs but continued to ignore a similar demand of the Muslims.

Khan, who is the SP’s Muslim face, said that if the Congress continued to ignore Muslims, it would have to pay a heavy price in the next Lok Sabha elections and Muslims would throw the party out of power.

The minister said that the findings of the Sachchar Committee clearly revealed that the status of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. “If this is so, then Muslims have the first claim to reservation,” he said.

In reply to a question, the minister said he was opposing the Congress decision on the constitutional amendment in his personal capacity but this did not mean that the views of the Samajwadi Party were, in any way opposed to his views.

He accused the Congress of betraying Muslims and said that such a decision would prove ‘fatal’ for the party.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 15 Aug 2012 10:51

Less than 90 talukas in Gujarat now scarcity-hit

Gujarat would give 'model' of how to fight drought: Modi

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Aug 2012 10:57

they did have a 100% reservation scheme for muslims.

it was called Pakistan

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 15 Aug 2012 13:49

Mohd Azam Khan wrote:The minister said that the findings of the Sachchar Committee clearly revealed that the status of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. “If this is so, then Muslims have the first claim to reservation,” he said.

In reply t

A simple explanation for why there was a Sachchar committee in the first place.

kapilrdave · Post by **kapilrdave** » 24 Aug 2012 15:22

---- Cross posting from media thread -------

The business of news is at its peak in Gujarat due to coming Assembly elections. Local papers are full of kongi propaganda - to the extent that even the rural people with lesser education are able to differentiate between news and the twisted news. The news papers have turned into "(paid) opinion papers". It seems like con has decided to do ANYTHING to defeat Modi this time so that Rahul doesn't have to face him in 2014. For that they have resorted to their favorite commie tactics. Free house, free land... and what not.