Jharkhand.org.in | The public website of Jharkhand State

Hot issues of Today

Feb 28, 2007

Essar Power firms up Rs 13K cr investment for 11th Plan period

Mumbai, Feb 27 Essar Group, which is hogging the limelight for its ongoing moves to sign partnership deal with Vodafone, has been simultaneously pursuing its plans through its arm Essar Power to investment over Rs 13,000 crore in power and mining projects during 11th plan (2007-12). The company proposes to set up 1,000 mw each coal based power projects in Maharashtra and Jharkhand while it has launched development of 1,200 mw pit head coal based power project in Madhya Pradesh.

The company last week has been allotted a captive coal mine at Chakla, Jharkhand with the potential coal reserves of 110 million tonne while Essar Power in joint venture with Hindalco has launched development of captive coal mine alloted in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh last year with the coal reserves of 180 million tonne.

In case of Madhya Pradesh mining venture, Essar Power and Hindalco would contribute 50% equity each in the total 30% equity while raise 70% debt. The entire project entails an investment of Rs 400 crore and the JV company would be able to start coal production from 2010.

Essar Power would use 60% coal while the balance 40% by Hindalco. Essar Power Sources told FE the company would develop Chakla coal mine on its own and it would need an investment of Rs 400 crore. The coal to be produced from this mine would be use for its proposed 1,000 mw pit head coal based project in Jharkhand. The proposed power project with 1,000 mw capacity would be located near the mine. According to sources, the company has already written to the Maharashtra government for the setting up of 1,000 mw imported coal based power project at Vile Bhagad in the coastal Raigad district.

The state government had initially signed memorandum of understanding with Tata Power Company for similar site.

However, TPC has withdrawn from the Vile Bhagad site and has proposed to develop 1,600 mw project at Shahapurvg in Raigad district. Sources said that its talks with the state government for the Vile Bhagad project were at the advance stage. Moreover, the company has projected that it would be able to commission 600 MW of the 1,200 MW project in 3 years in Madhya Pradesh. The second phase would be commissioned in 42 months.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=156232

Power rides Gardih model

Ranchi, Feb. 27: After Gardih in Bokaro, it is now the turn of Hudwa village in Hazaribagh to experience the joy of electricity.

The Union ministry of new and renewable energy has given its nod to the state to electrify about 100 households in the non-descript tribal village.

Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA), the nodal agency for the project, will begin work on the project in April. And the process of electrification in Hudwa, an extremist-hit and virtually inaccessible hamlet, will be the same as it was done in Gardih.

"The Centre was quite happy the way in which we implemented the pilot project at Gardih where the villagers are using oilseeds to generate electricity," said the project officer of the agency, P.K. Das.

Last year, the Union ministry allotted pilot projects to five states, including Jharkhand. The state's implementing agency chose Gardih for the project. It is 100 per cent centrally-assisted project, which costs about Rs 18 lakh.

The funds were utilised in setting up a generator set, a storeroom for oilseeds, erecting lamp-posts, wiring of the households. Initially, the agency faced hurdles in giving shape to the Gardih project as the conventional generator sets had to be modified so that it could operate with the bio-fuel oil, unlike petrol or diesel. After frantic search, a Karnataka-based company agreed to change some parts of a generator set to make it functional with oilseed.

Meanwhile, BIT, Mesra, has agreed to lend R&D assistance to the agency to see to it that the equipment meant for generating electricity at Gardih runs without any problem. The institute will offer suggestions whether there is any need to alter or modify the machinery for generating power. Two professors of the mechanical engineering department will visit Gardih along with Das on March 8.

Such projects using oilseeds, said the agency officials, would gain more popularity in days to come.

"So far our thrust area was electrification of villages using solar energy. But the success of the Gardih project has given us more options for lighting up mud huts by non-conventional way," the officials said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070228/asp/jamshedpur/story_7450951.asp

Shopping at petrol pumps

Ranchi, Feb. 27: Residents in rural pockets of Jharkhand and Bihar can from now on drop in at petrol pumps to shop for their daily provisions and much more.

The pumps, to be opened by Indian Oil, will sell vegetables, provisions, fertilisers and even stationery items like pencil and erasers. The list, of course, is not exhaustive and items like revenue stamps, agricultural tool, water pumps will also be housed in the outlets.

Sivasis K. Dey, senior divisional retail sales manager-cum-state level coordinator of Indian Oil, told The Telegraph that these petrol pumps have been officially christened as Kisan Seva Kendras and will target a clientele comprising the rural populace only.

By March 31, Dey further said, at least 20 such kendras will be opened in the rural areas in Ranchi, Dumka, Sahebganj, Pakur, Giridih, Palamau, Lohardaga and Hazaribagh.

The company is soon planning to drop anchor at every block in Jharkhand, Dey added.

"These kendras will be strategically located near the block headquarters, so that they are always within the reach of common people," he said.

One distinct advantage that the shops will have over their rural cousins is their location on the main roads, which will help them stay afloat during monsoons.

"While many villages remain submerged and cut-off during the monsoon, the KSKs, which will be located on the main thoroughfare, will be able to negotiate high waters," Dey also said.

The shops will also accommodate two small petrol and diesel outlets with a capacity of 10,000 litres each. "That will remain the core business. It is just that their ambit will be widened and a number of non-fuel provisions will also be sold," the sales manager clarified.

Other utility add-ons in the pipeline include internet kiosks, communication facilities and ATM booths.

Indian Oil is mulling tie-ups with reputed companies and brands to ensure that only quality products are sold through these outlets. "Talks are on with reputed companies to ensure quality supply of all non fuel items from the petrol outlets," Dey said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070228/asp/jamshedpur/story_7451038.asp

Marriage, a ruse to sell wives

Pinki, a minor was pregnant when the police sent her to the Alwar Child Helpline in June 2004. A truck driver had brought her from West Bengal after 'marrying' her. But the 'marriage' lasted as long as it took to reach Alwar. She was then sold to another man, who sold her again. Her third 'owner' Ratiram Ahir a Meo from Alwar's Kishangarh tehsil, was caught, charged and sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment. Pinki was sent to her village.

Rehana (name changed) was first 'married' in Haryana. But she refused to put up with the exploitation, and went back to Jharkhand. Meanwhile Mushtaq, a resident of Alwar lost his wry. He needed someone to take care of his two children but was too poor to afford marriage to a local girl. A fellow villager offered Rehana's match. It has been three months now, and she is happy at being respectably married.

The Mewat belt, stretching from Alwar to Faridabad, is full of such stories. Girls from Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and even Madhya Pradesh are brought to the region in large numbers on the pretext of marriage. The poor families in these states find it hard to marry their daughters. Even a rickshaw puller in Bihar/Jharkhand expects a dowry of Rs 50,000, explains Nooraisa, who hails from Chatra district and is married to a Meo in Alwar. The Meos are the Muslims of the Mewat region.

When someone wins the trust of such families and offers to marry their daughter without dowry, they are more than happy. They feel the girl would be 'settled' at last, even if hundreds of kilometers away. Many such 'husbands', however, have other things on their mind - sex and money. They keep the girls for a few weeks. Then they look for some poor villagers wanting to marry and sell them a wife.

Fakruddin (name changed) has been in the business of bringing and selling girls for many years. His second 'wife', in fact, has stayed for eight years now simply because he couldn't make a deal for her. She has borne him four children already "Those people (in the eastern states) are too poor to marry their girls locally, while the men here have no money to get a local match. It's simply a case of supply and demand," says Fakruddin.

The grooms in Mewat are expected to shell out over 20 grams of gold as 'meher' (bride's security) while marrying a local girl. While this practice is more common among Meos, there have been cases where Hindu men 'married' poor Muslim women by pretending to be Muslims.

Recently three girls raised a hue and cry when they realised they had to live with Hindu men and were sent back to their village. "Usually truck drivers bring the girls on the pretext of marriage. After using them for 15-20 days, they sell them for Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000," Fakruddin says.

Fakruddin knows two brothers who bring one girl every month. The Alwar Child Helpline gets at least four to five such cases every month. These minors are from the eastern states and are usually unable to communicate with the police and social workers, reveals coordinator Purushottam Kumar "At any given time, there are 15-20 girls ready to be sold in Alwar alone. There would be more in Haryana," says Virendra Vidrohi, secretary of the Matsya Mewat Shiksha Evam Vikas Sansthan, an NGO that has done extensive research on the issue.

Why doesn't the administration do anything about this trading of women? "There is an element of consent in these cases. Though the girls are exploited, most of them finally get married and settle down. Then they prefer to keep quiet about what they went through," a senior official said, off the record.

These girls, having escaped the stigma of a sexually exploited woman, are content being a 'Paro' an outsider in local dialect. At least it's more respectable and they have a home and hearth to call their own.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1940672,0008.htm

West Bengal Govt, flays Union Budget

Kolkata, Feb. 28 (PTI): In a critical observation of the Union Budget, the West Bengal government today said that the 2007-08 budget had failed to address the two basic problems of unemployment and inflation now afflicting the majority of common people.

"We don't find any special reason to be enthused with this year's Union Budget", State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said in his reaction.

Apart from routine constitutionally mandatory devolution of state's share of central taxes, the states, particularly West Bengal, had not received any "significant dispensation", he noted.

In curbing inflation, Dasgupta said, the Centre should not only self-critically examine its previous decision of allowing corporate houses, including FDI in retail trade (with monopolistic price jacking inflation), but also come out with complete course of action in closely interacting with the state for extending overall public distribution system in essential commodities.

He said that in the Centre-State relations, no significant proposal for debt relief related to past small saving loan to the state had been mentioned.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200702282078.htm

Faking disability in Orissa district

Kendrapara: If one has the right connections at the right place and possesses the capability to grease the palms of the authorities, obtaining a disability certificate is easy even if he is physically fit and fine. Such a nefarious trend of persons endowed with perfect health profile sneaking into the list of enumerated disabled persons has become the order of the day in Kendrapara district of Orissa. Nearly 100 cases of persons faking physically challenged status have been detected in the district.
While the government used to provide succour like monthly pension, reservation of seats in educational institutions, monthly scholarship, free disabled aid such as hearing aid, tri-cycle and walking stick, travel concession besides income tax rebates, many able persons figure in the list of disabled. Thanks to official patronage mainly by medicos, their number has swelled in arithmetic proportion.

If the district social welfare department and health department sources are to be believed, unusually high ratio of more than 3 per cent of the population in this district languish in physical disability of various forms. As against 10/1000 national average, more than 30 are found to be physically challenged out of 1000 population in Kendrapara.

While the district has more than 13 lakh population as per the latest census, 39330 of them are afflicted with physical deformity of some form or the other. This is as per the official statistical record prepared on the enumerated disabled persons by the district social welfare department, health department of Cuttack and Kendrapara districts. Prior to 1993, Kendrapara formed the part of the undivided Cuttack district.

The disability detection is done by social welfare department by intensive district-wide surveys. Besides the medical board especially constituted for the purpose certifies the disability status of individual cases, according to official sources. The lists of enumerated disabled persons include orthopaedically handicapped, hearing and speech impaired and visually impaired.

Kendrapara District Magistrate Kashinath Sahu when asked on high disabled ratio said cases relating to persons faking disability enrolling themselves in government survey list have come to the notice of the district administration. As per preliminary report, nearly 100 such cases are believed not to be genuine. The matter is being inquired into by the district social welfare department and necessary action on the alleged lapses would be initiated after the submission of inquiry report, he added.

The departmental sources confided that more than 50 per cent of the enumerated persons do not qualify to come under disabled category. The medical examination of the disability-afflicted persons was either conducted haphazardly or the medical board constituted for the same resorted to foul play. This apart, the periodic 'disabled' survey conducted by the social welfare department may have been done on pen and paper only leading to massive upswing of disabled population in coastal district, sources revealed.

http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070227_Faking_disability_in_Orissa
_district.htm

Caste bias deep-rooted, won't change with a law

Delivering Zakir Husain Memorial lecture, UGC Chairman urges youth not to lose perspective of issue

Unlike slavery, discrimination has not ended by merely passing a law on it. SCs and STs were marginalised because of the social order that existed," said Prof Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman of University Grant Commission while delivering the XIX Zakir Husain memorial lecture-2007 today.

Professor Thorat said, "The social mechanism makes sure that the ground reality does not change because of the philosophical justification provided by Hindu religion to the same. This leads to educational, political, social and economic deprivation that in turn leads to inequality."

He urged the youth not to lose the perspective and see the problem in its historical context. He asked them to realise that whether they like it or not, they are reaping the benefits of past discrimination. They can't be held responsible for it but nevertheless they must hold a sensitive view and realise that indeed a section of society has been marginalised, said Professor Thorat, who heads the committee probing the alleged anti-SC, ST happenings in AIIMS.

Professor Thorat further said that exclusion could be seen as active or passive. "Active exclusion is what is done in the open while passive is in terms of unintentional damage. An example of the latter would be the Singur issue in West Bengal or that of Narmada dam. This will lead to unwanted deprivation."

"Another way to look at it is the unfavourable exclusion or unfavourable inclusion i.e. either the opportunity is never given to a certain section or it is given with discriminatory terms and conditions attached to it," Professor Thorat said.

"And this discrimination has been happening irrespective of the economic status or merits of the individual. Economic status cannot be made the basis of providing reservations because social ostracisation has to be taken into account along with economic deprivation," added Professor Thorat.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=222392

200 schools to be set up for SC/ST students

NEW DELHI: The paucity of funds for education has not deterred the government from furthering the agenda of increasing equity and access to education for the marginalised. The government has proposed setting up 200 secondary schools for SC/ST students. In the 2007 Budget, some Rs 175 crore will be earmarked for this expansion programme.

The proposed schools will be part of the Navodaya Vidyalaya set up. These schools will be established in districts with a high population of SCs and STs. In order to improve access for students from these backward communities, 50% of seats will be reserved for SCs/STs depending on which of the two is numerically dominant in the district.

The remaining 50% of the seats will be filled by general category students and SCs/STs. The reservation quota will be followed as well. In other words, in a district which has an overwhelming SC population, the Navodaya Vidyalaya will reserve 50% seats for SCs. For the remaining 50%, 7.5% seats will be set aside for STs. No further reservation will be made for SCs. It is not clear, how this proposal will pass muster, as the total percentage of reserved seats will be more than 50% at any given point.

The Supreme Court in its judgement on the Indira Sahwney case set an upper limit of 50% for reservations. Though the case made references to institutes of higher learning, it is unlikely that things will be different for schools as well.

The task of identifying the districts was undertaken by the Planning Commission that used the 2001 Census data as the basis for identifying the 200 districts, which will house these schools. Admission to these schools will be undertaken in the same way as it is for other Navodayas. The Planning Commission has been in favour of expanding the Navodaya Vidyalaya network

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/200_schools_to_be_set_up_for_SCST_students/
articleshow/1630233.cms

Hot issues of Today

Report News

Music Video

Email Support

Be a Volunteer

Complain us