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Apr 10, 2007

Recovered explosives a can of worries for Jharkhand police

The huge cache of explosives seized by the Ranchi police on Saturday has opened a can of worries for the Jharkhand police, as the consignment has been traced to the Government Ordnance Factory at Wardha, Maharashtra.

The seizure holds special significance, since this has been the first occasion when the Maoists' link with Maharashtra to procure explosives has been exposed. So far, the Maoists in Jharkhand were found procuring explosives through different means from the Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), and from the local crusher operators.

"The seized explosives were found good enough to plant over 100 lethal landmines in Jharkhand. This was also the intent of the Maoists, who got the materials transported from Wardha through a Bihar-based conduit," Ranchi SSP Manvinder Singh Bhatia told HT on Tuesday.

"In fact, in terms of fuse wires and the detonators, the seized explosives could have done a bigger damage," Bhatia said. The recovered haul included 6,460 pieces of gelatin sticks besides 12,500 meter long safety fuse wire and 2,000 pieces of electronic detonators.

"The Ranchi police will send a team to Wardha to check the factory's records including the inventories of the registered buyers to get to the bottom of the explosive traders," Bhatia said.

"The Ranchi police also want to procure the list of the explosive buyers, and the network will be crosschecked by a special team," said an officer.

Similarly, a separate team is to be sent to Bihar from where a middleman is said to have channelled the explosives to Jharkhand.

The police, however, concede that the biggest bottleneck is the fact that the recovered gelatine sticks do not have batch numbers punched on them, and this may hamper the investigations because without them the factory cannot provide pinpointed information about the particular buyer.

A State Home Department official said the department may also take up the issue with its counterparts in Maharashtra and in the Union government to make the Ordnance Factory see reasons.

There are also suggestions to introduce a liquid-based explosive and on-the-site mixing of the components to prepare it, a senior IPS officer said. "In fact, the coal companies have also agreed to phase out the stick-based gelatine explosives. This, however, is a long term solution," the officer added.

Besides, there are suggestions to mix substance with strong odour into the explosive substances. "This would be handy both for the sniffer dogs as well as for the police personnel to trace the unauthorised stacking of explosive materials," said an officer.

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Naxals: United in violence

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 (New Delhi): If the Kuki rebels are coming together in Manipur, in India's heartland the dreaded Naxal militants are also forging new links, which many say is behind the new and bloody chapter of Naxal violence.

But is the unity real or is it to conceal personality clashes and competing violence between these groups in India's red corridor?

Inside the forests along the borders between Jharkhand and Orissa, Naxal leaders from across the country are once again displaying their new unified strength.

In September 2004, the two biggest Naxal groups, the People's War led by Andhra Naxalites and MCC or Maoist Communist Centre, the Jharkhand based Naxal outfit, formally merged.

The merger created the CPI Maoist - an umbrella Naxal force stretching from Andhra, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa to Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh - literally a red corridor through the heart of the nation.

This comes after decades of factionalism in the Naxal movement.

Armed revolution

The Communists in West Bengal soon after coming to power in 1967 faced a revolt by the radicals.

Opposed to electoral politics and inspired by Mao's violent revolution, leaders like Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar triggered strikes - the first one in the village of Naxalbari.

What was born was Naxalism or a call for armed revolution that intially organised as CPI-ML.

Later, the CPI-ML did an about turn, returning to parliamentary politics.

But by then, the Naxal upsurge of West Bengal had spread to several other states.

The People's War Group, born in Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, has for decades struck terror in the forests of Chhattisgarh and bordering Maharashtra.

But in Orissa, it's restricted only to the southern districts as in the north, the rival Naxal outfit, the MCC, has been making inroads.

Intelligence sources say, post merger, the two have been working together - the PWG relying on the MCC for arms supplies.

"Post merger, the two Naxal groups have begun working in tandem," said Amaranand Patnaik, DGP, Orissa.

Propaganda?

But many believe this new found Naxal unity is nothing but propaganda - an attempt to conceal a history of personality clashes and splinter groups, each trying to be more radical and violent than the other.

In Orissa, a third Naxal group, the CPI ML Janshakti, is believed to have been involved in extremely violent incidents, including extortion. It is condemned by both the People's War Group and MCC as mindless and unwanted.

In fact, for long, the debate has raged over whether Naxal violence is less about organisation and more about anarchy.

Whether it's the murder of an MP in Jharkhand or the killing of more than 50 policemen in Chhattisgarh or speculation that Naxals were also present in the mobs in Nandigram: Is this evidence of a regrouped, unified and strengthened Naxal force?

NDTV met Naxal leaders in Jharkhand a few days after MP Sunil Mahato was killed. This is what they had to say:

Q: Doesn't the guerilla zone come under your committee?

A: We formed the Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa border area regional committee. We took the decision along with them to eliminate Mahato and they executed the decision.

Many believe dialogue between Naxal leaders is easy to achieve, but uniting military might may not be.

Or at least that's what intelligence agencies are hoping in what's become India's bloodiest internal war, which in the last one year has left more than 600 people dead.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070008293

AN EDUCATED SKILLED, HEALTHY EMPOWERED PEOPLE ARE AN ASSET

Shri Arjun Singh, Human Resource Development Minister has said that an educated skilled, healthy empowered people are an asset and the challenge before us is to ensure that each and every citizen of India is an asset. Shri Singh was inaugurating the Conference of State Education Minister here today. Ministry of HRD has convened a two-day conference of State Education Ministers (April 10-11) in New Delhi. The conference will deliberate on issues concerning the entire gamut of education such as elementary, secondary, higher and technical education so that maximum possible progress can be achieved during the XIth Plan in the education sector in terms of access, equity, quality and efficiency.

The recent initiatives of the Central Government for the XI Plan such as the extension of Mid-Day Meal Scheme to the upper primary stage and increasing the Central Plan outlay for Secondary Education, bulk of which will go as assistance to State Governments are some of the areas where Centre would look forward to the feedback from the States.

Following is the full text of the speech:

"I am delighted to welcome you all to this Conference. We had organised a Conference of State Ministers of Higher Education in Bangalore in January 2005 and had also met at meetings of the CABE, in the same year. Today we are meeting at the commencement of the XIth Plan, and the main objective is to jointly take stock and to plan ahead so that we achieve maximum possible progress during the XIth Plan in the education sector in terms of access, equity, quality and efficiency.

2. Our Prime Minister has recently stated, "For too long we have viewed the size of our population as an economic and social liability. However, an educated skilled, healthy empowered people are an asset. The challenge before us is to ensure that each and every citizen of India is an asset."

3. We live in the era of Globalization. Liberalization and privatization are held out as the keys to economic progress. However, we are clear in our mind that when more than 40% of our population is in the age group of 6-24 and when education has been identified as the most crucial element in the national developmental effort, the role of the government in providing education has necessarily to increase and not diminish.

4. Some Major Achievements

I would like to say a few words on what we have been able to achieve in the Xth Plan, especially since the assumption of office by the UPA Government.

· The Plan Budget of the HRD Ministry has been substantially raised from about Rs.7025 crores in the year 2003-04 to Rs.20745.5 crores in 2006-07 and now for the year 2007-08, in the budget, a Plan outlay of Rs.28674 crores which is an increase of 38.2% over previous year, has been proposed.

· Central assistance to States for elementary education, notably for the flagship programmes of SSA and MDM which was around Rs.4647 crores in 2003-04 has been increased massively to about Rs. 16893 crores in 2006-07.

· With the help of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meals Scheme, as also their own schemes, States have managed to substantially reduce the number of out-of-school children at the elementary stage. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the elementary level in 2004-05 stands at 93.5%. Infrastructure and teacher pupil ratio at the elementary level are also improving where SSA has contributed by opening 2.40 lakh schools, constructing over 98,000 classrooms and appointing 7.38 lakh teachers, all of which should hopefully have a salutary effect on quality.

· 2180 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas have been sanctioned upto March 2007, which includes 1000 new KGBVs in 2006-07. 88 % of KGBVs have been operationalised. A major national evaluation conducted this year has shown that the scheme has received 'high priority and political attention in all States and has been launched in record tine with a clear commitment to reach out to out-of-school girls. The programme has been very well received by the community and has responded to diverse poverty situations including remote inaccessible locations.'

· The nutritional norm for the mid day meal programme was revised from 300 calories to 450 calories, 12 grams of protein and micro-nutrient supplementation. The cooking cost norm was revised to Rs 2 per child per school day with central assistance of Rs 1.80 for the states in the NE Region and Rs 1.50 for other states and UTs. In addition, keeping in view safety and hygiene norms, central assistance was provided for construction of cooking sheds and purchase/ replenishment of kitchen devices. I am happy that in the year 2006-07 we were able to provide assistance for construction of kitchen sheds in 1.94 lakh schools across the country.

· We had circulated a Model Bill on Right to Education for comments from the States. 18 States and UTs have forwarded their comments. We would be happy to receive the views of the remaining States and UTs on the model bill.

· 17 Regional Engineering Colleges and 3 other State Colleges have been converted into National Institutes of Technology, fully funded by the Centre. A Bill to grant statutory status to NITs is now before Parliament .

· To give a boost to education and research in science, three Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research , at Pune, Kolkata and Mohali, have been sanctioned, of which the first two have already started functioning. The third one at Mohali is expected to start functioning from this academic year 2007. The UGC is also taking action to implement the recommendations of the 'Prof. M.M.Sharma Task Force on Strengthening Basic Science Research in Universities'.

· Article 15 of the Constitution was amended by near unanimity by the Parliament in January 2006 to enable reservation for SCs, STs and other Socially and Economically Backward Classes in admission to educational institutions. To follow up on this, I had requested all Chief Ministers in January 2006 to enact State-specific legislations. According to information available with us, 6 States (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) have so far done so while Rajasthan has issued an executive order. We would look forward to getting feedback from Hon'ble Ministers of other States in this behalf.

· As regards Central institutions, the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act has been enacted and notified in January 2007. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has in its interim order stated that it would be desirable to keep in hold the operation of this Act so far as it relates to Section 6 thereof for the OBCs. The Government is examining all legal options to resolve this issue at the earliest.

· Plan assistance to State Universities has been made into a separate budget item under UGC assistance since 2006-07. The allocation under this head in 2006-07 was Rs. 755 crores which has been raised to Rs. 1193 crores in 2007-08, which is a major jump. I would urge State Governments to work intensively with UGC to fully avail of this enhanced allocation for the development of their respective Universities and other educational institutions.

· Through Central Acts passed in 2006, the Rajiv Gandhi National University, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura University have been converted from State to Central Universities, while a new University of Sikkim is being established. With this, all States in the North East would now have a Central University each.

With a view to increasing support to women's education, the UGC has raised the amounts available for the construction of women's hostels from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 2 crores in metro cities and Rs. 1 crore elsewhere and I am happy to state that in the last year about Rs.130 crores was spent by UGC for Women's hostels and in the current year, further impetus would be given to this item of work.

· With a view to attract talent and encourage research, UGC has announced a substantial increase in the fellowship amounts for the NET qualified PhD students from the existing Rs. 8000 per month to Rs. 12000 per month along with the existing percentage of HRA and contingencies. Further, corresponding enhancements have also been announced for the subsequent years as well as for Research Associates. Even for the Non-NET qualified candidates, the existing amounts of PhD fellowships which were introduced at the rate of Rs. 5000 per month in the year 2006 in the Central Universities, are proposed to be enhanced by almost 50%, besides increasing the coverage by including all State Universities with Potential for Excellence, all University Departments with Centres for Advanced Studies (CAS) and Special Assistance Programmes (SAP), all Departments assisted by the Fund for Infrastructure for Science & Technology (FIST) and all autonomous colleges and institutions having NAAC or NBA accreditations and having been running PhD programmes for at least the previous five years. This will be applicable from 1.4.07.

· The HRD Ministry has launched a very comprehensive learning portal called "Sakshat" in October 2006. Some details regarding this portal would be presented in the course of this Conference. "Sakshat" is a major step towards our commitment to bring education within reach of every Indian, regardless of his or her age, using the best of modern technology.

· A statutory National Commission on Minority Educational Institutions has been established, which is also empowered to adjudicate on complaints relating to denial of minority status to educational institutions.

· A Committee headed by my colleague, Sri M.A.A.Fatmi has given its recommendations for giving a boost to Minority Education in the light of the Sachar Committee Report. These recommendations are under consideration .

5. Major Initiatives for 2007-08 and the XI th Plan

As you are aware the National Development Council has considered the Approach Paper to the XI Five Year Plan and the consequential exercise to formulate the XI Plan is currently in progress. Your inputs at this juncture will be extremely timely and useful as it will be our endeavour to factor in your valuable inputs in our XI Plan proposals. The Central Government has already taken certain initiatives and identified certain thrust areas for the XI Plan, some of which are:

· The Centrally sponsored Mid-Day Meal Scheme, which was so far limited to children of the Primary stage, is being extended to the Upper Primary Stage in educationally backward blocks, with suitably modified nutritional and funding norms.

· For the first time in decades we have received significant funding for Teacher Education. The Teacher Education outlays have been enhanced from Rs 180 crores in 2006-07 to Rs 500 crores for 2007-08. We hope that we will be able to provide support to the states for opening DIETs or DRCs in districts that do not have them. We also hope to be able to inspire you to initiate systematic and relevant training programmes to address the problem of untrained and para teachers in the country. The XIth Plan will, indeed, be a Quality Plan. Content specific training for teachers, especially at the secondary stage and training for educational administrators to address systemic problems will consequently be the thrust area for the XIth Plan period.

· Central Plan outlay for Secondary Education has been increased in a big way from Rs. 1,087 crores in 2006-07 to Rs. 3,164 crores in 2007-08. The bulk of this will go as assistance to State Governments to universalize access to, and improve quality of secondary education. I had requested Chief Ministers to take preparatory steps in this regard , and would look forward to your feedback on consequential action being taken.

· In view of the fact that existing intake capacity in polytechnics is only about 3 lakhs which is about half of that in engineering colleges, a scheme is proposed, though polytechnic education is primarily a State subject, for establishing polytechnics in districts which have no polytechnic at present as well as to strengthen the infrastructure of polytechnics in special identified districts. The Community Polytechnic scheme is proposed to be revamped during the XI Plan and your valuable inputs in this regard, would go a long way in coming out with a very meaningful scheme.

· It is proposed to establish two more Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (at Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal) and 3 new IITs (in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan). A seventh IIM is being established at Shillong. 2 new Schools of Planning and Architecture are also proposed to be started at Vijayawada and Bhopal. A new IIIT (Design and Manufacturing) will be established at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. Establishment of another 20 IIITs is also under consideration so as to cover all major States, with preference being given to States not having an IIIT at present. Planning Commission has suggested that this may be done in the Public-Private Participation mode. While stating the above, I am painfully aware of the fact that all States wish to have an IIT/IIM/IIIT/IISER etc., but it may be appreciated that it can be got done in a phased manner only depending on the availability of resources. We have to also ensure that the Quality and Brand of our institutions of excellence do not get compromised in our anxiety to increase the number of such institutions.

· We have also decided, in principle, to provide assistance towards upgradation of 5 Engineering Colleges to the level of an IIT, and name them as Indian Institutes of Science and Engineering Technology, subject to the concurrence of the concerned State Governments to hand them over to Central Government for declaring them as Institutes of National Importance.

· We have concentrated on expansion in Technical education given its scope and relevance for our youth. I am glad to announce that AICTE has decided to permit 10% increase in the existing intake on a voluntary basis subject to the condition that the increased number of seats would be awarded in the ratio of 2:3:1 to meritorious women, economically weaker sections and differently abled students without charging any tuition fees.

· The quality of higher and technical education would be considerably enhanced if all our institutions of higher learning get networked. The Ministry would consider providing some assistance to State Governments towards non-recurring costs of networking their institutions provided States prepare good, viable plans in this behalf, and agree to bear all other costs. I would also like all the States to direct the institutions under their control to provide high speed internet facilities to all their faculty members which will go a long way in updating the knowledge of their faculty leading to enhanced quality of teaching.

· Pursuant to the consensus evolved in the Conference of State Ministers of Higher Education at Bangalore in January 2005, our draft Bill to regulate foreign education providers is ready. We hope to introduce the Bill in Parliament very soon. We also hope to finalize and introduce the Distance Education Council Bill soon.

6. Some Major Issues for discussion

There are, of course, several major issues which need to be continuously discussed between Central and State Governments. I would however like to flag a few important ones for consideration in this Conference.

· Despite our various achievements and the increased financial outlays, we are still quite some distance away from the goal of every child completing eight years of good quality education. What should we now do to accomplish the goal of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) by the end of the XIth Plan? Specifically, how, towards this end do we optimize resource use, improve implementation of SSA and MDM, motivate and train teachers adequately, improve attendance rates and make elementary education truly child-centred?

· Surveys of attainment levels of our school-children do not give much cause for satisfaction. How do we improve achievement levels of children in elementary and secondary schools, especially state funded ones?

· CABE had approved the National Curriculum Framework formulated by NCERT in September 2005. Since then NCERT has formulated syllabi and developed new textbooks for use by the CBSE schools. The challenge is for States and UTs to begin the process of curricular reform. I would be happy for feedback on how States and UTs are meeting this challenge.

· What action is being taken by States to meet their enhanced share under SSA in the XIth Plan?

· Though much has been achieved, many States such as West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, MP, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa and Bihar, still need to open large numbers of upper primary schools so as to provide adequate access. What steps are these States taking in this regard?

· A target of increasing the literacy rate to 85% by the end of the 11th plan has been set. The gender gap in literacy is aimed to be lowered to 10 percentage points. This would in effect mean a target for male literacy of 90% and of 80% for female literacy. The 35+ age group will be the focus of adult education activities in the XIth Plan. The use of ICT for literacy has been emphasized. The schemes of ` Literacy Campaigns and Operation Restoration' and `Continuing Education' have been merged and renamed `Adult Education and Skill Development.' Skill development is also the focus of the schemes for Grants in aid to NGOs and Jan Shikshan Sansthans now merged and renamed as ` Support to NGOs/
Institutions/ SRCs for Adult Education and Skill Development.' The NLM in its revamped strategy for the 11th plan has focused on literacy linked with Livelihoods Governance and Rights. There is need for renewed emphasis on adult education if our literacy targets are to be met.

· What steps should be taken to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio for higher and technical education from the present about 10% to at least 15% by the end of the XIth Plan?

· Despite increased outlays, we are still quite far from the goal of spending 6% of GDP on education, which has been reiterated in the Approach paper to the XIth Plan. How best can this responsibility be equitably shared between the Centre and the States?

· How do we improve quality of higher education, especially in State-funded colleges and Universities? I understand that more than one third of teaching posts in State Universities are vacant. In many States, this is, perhaps, due to a ban on fresh recruitment, which needs to be urgently reviewed. The UGC, on its part, has tried to facilitate your filling up of the vacancies by waiving NET qualification for PhD candidates for teaching at post graduate level and for M.Phil candidates at the undergraduate level. We have recently decided to raise the retirement age for teachers in Central higher educational institutions from 62 to 65 years. States may wish to consider following suit, to address faculty shortage.

· State Universities need to consider educational reforms by introducing the semester and credit systems, and adopting/adapting UGC-approved curricula with a view to improving the quality. It may be desirable to encourage all State level educational institutions of higher learning to go for NAAC accreditation or NBA accreditation in case of technical institutions. With a view to encourage accreditation, UGC reimburses the full cost of the NAAC accreditation process .

· What further steps should be taken to bridge the existing gap in the participation and achievement rates of disadvantaged groups, notably girls, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, minorities and the differently- abled? During the next two days, we must, in my view, come up with some concrete steps to ensure that all our institutions, at every level, become compliant with the Central law to make them barrier free besides being energy efficient and environment friendly.

· In the interest of promoting Minorities' education, I would urge States to be far more proactive in seeking central assistance under schemes of Madrasa modernization and appointment of Urdu language teachers. Special efforts will have to be made in the States to mobilise the minorities so that they avail of the educational facilities being provided by the States. Of course, in this regard, especially for encouraging minority girls, States are requested to have more women teachers, create more hostel facilities for girls, create more educational institutions in the minority concentration blocks and arrange for teaching of modern subjects in Urdu medium.

· What steps should be taken in the field of vocational education, polytechnic education and higher and technical education so that we produce adequate employable manpower with high degree of relevant skills to meet the needs of our growing economy and to provide suitable avenues of gainful employment to our youth?

· One essential step towards increasing the number of skilled persons is increased State investment in polytechnic education. A recent study has shown that while 80% of all degree granting engineering institutions are in the private sector, the corresponding figure for the polytechnic sector is lower than 20%. States must both increase investment in this essential sector and also encourage private investment. It is also necessary to better utilize the existing available infrastructure in the engineering colleges and polytechnics by having additional evening courses.

· Several emerging areas in Engineering require very good knowledge in Science. The specific areas include Biotechnology, Material Science and Engineering, Electronics, Nano-technology and Polymer Science & Engineering. Good B.Sc students currently do not have opportunities to enter into these areas of technical education. To enhance their employability and to pursue research and innovation in these emerging areas. AICTE has recently approved lateral entry for B.Sc passed students in the 2nd year of undergraduate programmes in engineering and have recommended starting of Integrated M.Tech programmes of four years duration for B.Sc students with Mathematics as one of the subjects. The admitted students will get two degrees, a B.Tech and a M.Tech together at the end of four years.

· An exercise done by us late last year revealed wide variations in availability of seats in technical education institutions per lakh population across States. I accordingly wrote to Hon'ble Chief Ministers of 12 large States, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, UP, Rajasthan, Orissa, J&K, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, in November last year to take urgent steps to rapidly augment intake in technical education in their respective States so that they catch up with the national average and their students are not deprived of the opportunities of technical education in their home states. We are still waiting for substantive responses to the above letter, and I would look forward to getting some feedback from the Hon'ble Ministers of these States on this subject during the session on Technical Education.

· How can we maximize use of ICT, including EDUSAT to widen access and improve quality of education at various stages? It is rather unfortunate that at present, the usage of EDUSAT is highly inadequate. Only 14 States have till now executed tripartite agreements with ISRO and this Ministry, for the utilization of EDUSAT. I urge the rest of the States and UTs to expeditiously sign the tripartite agreements and operationalise State-level Hubs and Sub-Hubs besides establishing Satellite Interactive Terminals (SIT) and Receive Only Terminals (ROT) in the educational institutions.

· Ministry of HRD has been implementing the INDEST-AICTE consortium since 2002-2003 with the objective to procure e-journals and other electronic resources for academic activities through a centralized subscription process, for redistribution among its members. The University Grants Commission is implementing a similar scheme, namely INFLIBNET . State Governments may kindly encourage Universities/technical institutions in their States to join these consortia. This access to copyrighted journals would give impetus to research resulting in higher number of research publications and patents, etc.

· The Indira Gandhi National Open University ( IGNOU) has an extensive reach across the States; however this could be greatly strengthened if institutional premises could be made available to IGNOU for the setting up of study centers and other uses. Such partnerships could also lead to double-degree programmes. IGNOU would be happy to reimburse all variable costs and also will be willing to pay honoraria to those teachers who would be willing to put in extra hours of work on this account without in any way compromising with their normal work.

6. There are also some general points which feature on our agenda and to which I would like to call attention.

· We have informed State Governments that starting 1 July 2007, they must assume full responsibility for the work of authentication of educational certificates (and that we will cease to perform this function) so that their candidates do not have to travel all the way up to Delhi for this routine work. State Governments, which have not yet done so, must put all necessary systems into place before 1st July.

· Educational statistics, which should be the basis for any sound planning, are generally in a poor shape. This needs urgent attention and we seek your cooperation in this regard and would request you to also strengthen and revamp your statistical agencies.

· We have not been able to fully utilize allocations under certain Centrally sponsored schemes due to non-receipt of requisite Utilisation Certificates (UC) from State Governments. I regret to note that even funds meant for scholarships have lapsed on this account. State Governments and their Universities and other agencies need to give special attention to timely submission of UCs.

· States may also urgently consider setting up State Councils of Higher Education. According to available information, only Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have done this so far.

7. I recognize that Hon'ble State Ministers will have a lot to say on these issues mentioned by me as also other issues of their interest. However, as we have a very heavy agenda before us, I would request them to be brief in their interventions and to stick to the issues being discussed in each session so that everyone gets a chance to speak and enrich the discussions. Hon'ble Ministers who have brought printed speeches may please get them handed over to us for distribution instead of reading them out. All such speeches will form part of the proceedings of this Conference but in the interest of time management, they may be taken as read.

8. I hope that with your cooperation and valuable inputs our deliberations will be fruitful and will help all of us to come up with a very meaningful XI Five Year Plan."

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=26753

Woman panch paraqded naked in Bihar

A woman 'panch' of gram kutchehri, Chania Khatoon, was reportedly stripped and assaulted by a 'powerful' person of the village, Maulana Alauddinin Siswa village under Banjaria police station of Motihari. She was chased on the road and beaten up by the accused.

Her onlly fault was that she did not allow Allauddin, her neighbour, to build a house on the plot of land where her hut was located. Alauddin reportedly wanted to grab the land located adjacent to his house.

A case has been lodged in this regard, said Ram Pukar Singh, officer-in-charge of Banjaria police station, on Sunday.
Khatoon said that Allauddin and her henchmen had threatened her in the past also. She raised the issue with the authorities but they did not take any step to prevent them.

Although, Chania Khatoon is an elected member of the gram kutchehri, this mother of two minor children earns her livelihood working as a maidservant in the neighbouring houses. Khatoon's husband has also abandoned her.

Police have registered a case and launched a manhunt for Khatoon's tormentors, who were absconding. "We have prayed for the issuance of warrant in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate. We would seek the property attachment orders in a day or two, if the accused could not be arrested," the officer-in-charge said.

It is not the first time when a woman was stripped in full public view and assaulted. In the recent past, several such cases have been reported from different parts of the district. On every occasion, the victims were either stripped and paraded naked or their heads tonsured. Some of them were even forced to eat human excreta in front of co-villagers.

Before the Siswa incident, a woman, Vidya Devi, Bhelahi under Palanwa police station, was paraded naked following a land dispute. And despite orders from the then SP, the FIR could be lodged about three weeks after the incident.

Under the same police station, a woman was publicly assaulted and forced to eat human excreta for allegedly practicing witchcraft. Similarly, in two different cases lodged with Patahi police station, Parvati Devi and Lakhi Devi were gang raped, assaulted and abandoned in village fields. Most of these cases could be registered after prolonged agitation.

Some of the victims had to compromise due to pressure and police inaction, lamented Kiran Sharma, central chairperson of Vishwa Nari Jagriti Manch, here on Monday. Besides, three more cases of the similar nature were also reported from Dumariya Ghat, Adapur and Pakridayal areas during the past couple of years.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=fe0dadf9-9855-43dc-ad75
-36185ab52b25&MatchID1=4443&TeamID1=4&TeamID2=3&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1
=1104&PrimaryID=4443

Battling For Her Daughter

Thousands of young girls are sold into prostitution in India every year. Many are abducted into the job when they reach puberty and never escape it.

But one mother has decided to fight back. Sky's India correspondent Alex Crawford has been to India's poorest region, Bihar, to join her attempt to save her daughter.

"Occasionally you meet people who make a real difference. In Meena, Ruchira and Tinku, the Sky News team met three.

Meena is a rarity. A woman sold into a modern day sex slave trade, still thriving in the economic phenomenon which is India, but who managed to break free. Ruchira and Tinku are the two charity workers who she turned to for help - and who would challenge the system, pull the strings and fight for justice for Meena.

Meena - like so many others - found herself 'sold' into bonded labour while still a child. For a few rupees she was bought by a family who put her into prostitution. They were part of a secretive and little-known group called the Nutt community, where every female is put into prostitution. Here a girl child is welcomed, unlike throughout the rest of India, because of the money she can earn the family by selling her body. Grandmothers, mothers and their daughters are all involved in the family business. What they earn can keep an entire extended family alive.

All Nutt women are prostitutes Meena remembers being locked in a completely dark room for what seemed like weeks. If she resisted, she was beaten, starved, denied everything. There simply was no other way. She worked as a prostitute and she lived. If she didn't, she died. All her earnings were handed to the brothel keeper and she was just one of a number of young women working in the house.

She was eventually 'married' to the son of the brothel keeper and bore him two children. One was a boy, the other, crucially a girl. But Meena ran away. She managed to escape but she left behind her two young children. Her daughter was only five years old. She managed to rebuild her life, married and had a further two children, both girls. But she couldn't forget her other children. She knew her daughter Naina would be reaching puberty now. For the past two years she has been travelling back to that house, the house where she was imprisoned, to try to rescue her daughter.

Each time she's been beaten by the brothel keepers and her own daughter has renounced her.
Naina won't even recognise her as her mother. She feels abandoned and she's told repeatedly her mother only wishes her harm, wants to sell her body too. Sky's Alex Crawford And then Ruchira and Tinku come into her life. Ruchira Gupta is a ferociously tenacious woman who founded the anti-trafficking non-governmental organisation Apne Aap.

Her organisation runs shelters for trafficked women, has creches for children of Nutt families and tries to educate and inform the women about alternatives. Ruchira and her doughty co-worker Tinku Khanna are determined to help Meena and no amount of Indian bureaucracy or corruption is going to stand in their way.

First they have to persuade the Superintendent of Police in Katihar to mount a raid on the brothel. No easy task.

No mount a raid, one has to admit there is a problem and although the red light area is just a half a mile from the police station, the police deny its existence.

Secondly, once a raid has been organised, they have to ensure it's kept secret because a last-minute tip-off could mean the girls are spirited away.

Thirdly, they have to gain custody of the girl and any others found.

In the past, Ruchira's organisation has organised police raids only to discover the morning after that the girls have 'disappeared'; freed, due to a hefty bribe paid by the brothel keepers.

Naina is taken from the brothel So, after hours of negotiations, a raid is organised. The Sky News team film everything - a presence Ruchira later says gives the NGO workers protection from both the brothel keepers AND the police.

They are far less likely to be attacked with a Western film crew rolling all the while.

Meena marches straight into the house and despite the pitch dark, manages somehow to hone in on her daughter who struggles to pull away from her.

She is pushed down the steps by a determined Meena and walked to a car by a sari-clad female police officer.

Two other young girls are picked up. They both say they were only visiting and don't live there.

One of them is pregnant and has a five-year-old daughter. All of them are loaded into the police truck. This is just the beginning. Once at the police station, Ruchira and Tinku argue the young women should be held in separate rooms to the brothel keeper.

She is an elderly woman who is claiming to be Naina's grandmother. Her son, the real master of the brothel, has managed to escape.

Despite their prostestations, the girls are all kept at the police station for another four hours before they are allowed to see a doctor and be medically examined.

They are all showing signs of being drugged - a common way of subduing the girls and creating a dependency.

Naina seemed to be drugged Meena refuses to be separated from her daughter and is constantly talking to Naina, trying to gain her confidence.

She doesn't even have any shoes and on the way to the hospital, as they walk through puddles of rainwater and mud, Meena hands over her own shoes.

At the hospital, Ruchira and Tinku are constantly on their phones talking to contacts in the state and district government urging help, calling for advice, begging favours.

They insist Naina is seen by a female doctor which necessitates another wait. Two hours later, she is examined and the doctor pronounces, yes, she has suffered much internal abuse - probably for about a year. She has a deep wound on her backside and swabs are taken for sexual diseases and Aids. She is reluctant to talk but eventually tells the Sky producer Neville Lazarus she can remember the first day she was given a client.

He paid 3,000 rupees (under £30) considered a lot as she was a virgin. What is remarkable about Naina is her lack of emotion. She has learned - through years of abuse - to mask her feelings. She is only 14, still a child, yet there are no tears, there are no smiles, just blankness. We spend the day in court with Ruchira and Tinku battling to get a magistrate to hear their case. Naina re-united with her brother They manage to get five minutes with the Chief Judicial Magistrate who shoos their lawyer out of court.

Ruchira tells him she won't leave until he hears her out. He is a wise man and does.

"You will get custody by half-past four," he says. It proves an empty promise. The junior he delegates the task to says there is a powercut. He can't see well enough to take the statement so it will have to be done in the morning.

Even so, everyone leaves with a sense of achievement. Meena believes she has won. Naina is introduced to the two half-sisters she has never met before. Her brother is there too. We think it is all over. We are so wrong. Next morning, the decision we think is a foregone rubber-stamped conclusion, goes against Meena and Apne Aap. The Chief Judicial Magistrate has been informed Naina's father is contesting custody.

He says Meena is a prostitute so he is reluctant to handover custody of a young girl to her for fear she too will be put into the trade again. He orders Naina be sent to a remand centre in Patna. The charity is distraught. They fear she will be handed back to her father and disappear into the Bihar countryside again. An agonising few days go by. Ruchira is pulling out all the stops. She simply won't give up. One has to wonder what would happen if there wasn't a redoubtable charity fighting for this girl. This story does have a happy ending with mother and daughter reunited but so many do not. Thousands upon thousands of girls are on their own, imprisoned in sex slavery with no-one to help them."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13576170,00.html

A recent study shows that West Bengal is a leader with respect to redistribution of land to Dalit and Adivasi households.

IN the heat of the current debate on land acquisition in West Bengal, and in the aftermath of the violence in Nandigram, some critics have questioned the basic character of development in the State. They have attempted variously to portray the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Front as organisations of upper-caste elites whose interests, by implication, are distant from those of the socially oppressed, or West Bengal as a State where the plight of the Dalit and Adivasi masses, under globalisation and liberalisation, is no different from their plight elsewhere in the country. Even preliminary research on Dalit and Adivasi households in village economies and their access to land in West Bengal shows that such views have little basis in the reality of the post-land reform West Bengal countryside.

West Bengal is a State where policy efforts have been directed to distribute land to the landless and the poor, and specifically to Dalits, Adivasis and other deprived social groups, and also to issue joint title deeds to men and women. Some of the social-distributive effects of the land reform programme show up in recent village-based research and analyses of secondary data. These show that West Bengal is a leader with respect to the distribution of agricultural and homestead land to Dalit and Adivasi households, and also with respect to the purchase of agricultural land by the rural poor, including Dalit households.

The village-level data come mainly from a series of village surveys conducted by Vikas Rawal and others in 2005 in seven villages in different agro-climatic zones in West Bengal (a study in which this writer participated).

After the boro harvest in a village in Malda district. Recent village-based research has helped clarify the social-distributive effects of the land reform programme.

The villages studied were: a predominantly tribal village of West Medinipur district, two villages from the agriculturally prosperous Barddhaman district, two traditional agricultural villages from Malda and Koch Bihar districts, a village in Uttar Dinajpur where tea is grown on individual holdings, and a prawn-cultivating village in the estuarine region of North 24 Parganas.

First, let us consider the redistribution of crop land to the landless and rural poor. In five of the seven villages the redistribution of land was an important component of land reform. For each of them, this writer constructed a simple Index of Access to agricultural land. This Index measures the share of Dalit households (or other social groups) in total land ownership, weighted by their share in total population. Thus, if Dalit households constitute 20 per cent of the total population and they own 20 per cent of the land in the village, the Index of Access is 1. Where the Access Index is less than 1, it represents a situation in which the proportion of Dalit households in the population is greater than the share of total land that they own.

Our data show that in three of these five villages, the Access Indices for Dalit households were 1.49, 1.28 and 1.21; in other words, their share in land ownership was greater than their share in the population. In the predominantly Adivasi village in West Medinipur, more than 60 per cent of Scheduled Tribe households gained agricultural land and almost 75 per cent of households gained agricultural or homestead land through land reform. In the last village (in Malda district), the Access Index was lower, that is 0.5, because the main recipients of land in the village were income-poor households from the Tanti caste, which is classified as an Other Backward Class (OBC).

By way of comparison, according to data from the Land and Livestock Holdings Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the Access Index for Dalits in rural India as a whole was only 0.5. The NSSO data tend to confirm our village results, since they show that the Access Index for Dalit households in West Bengal was 0.8 (unfortunately, the most recent data in this regard are from 1992; more recent results from the 2003-04 survey are yet to be released). This is the highest Access Index for Dalits among the States of India after Tripura (where the proportion of Scheduled Castes in the rural population is smaller than in West Bengal).

Secondly, let us consider the distribution of house-site or homestead land, which is an important component of land reform in West Bengal. Ownership of homestead land means not only a place to live and a changed position in society, but also represents access to a new source of potential nutrition and livelihood support as a result of house-site and kitchen-garden cultivation. In all the seven study villages, we found that the Dalit and Adivasi households were the major beneficiaries of this aspect of land reform. Out of 210 households that gained homestead land, 21 per cent were Dalit, 46 per cent were Adivasi, 24 per cent were Muslim, and 10 per cent belonged to other caste groups. Of the last group, a majority belonged to the OBCs.

Thirdly, let us consider the participation of the poor in land markets. A 2001 study by Vikas Rawal of land markets in two West Bengal villages published in the international journal Economic Development and Cultural Change reported noteworthy results. The study showed that while empirical studies in other States had found that the net buyers of cultivable land were large landowners and the net sellers of agricultural land were small landowners, the trend was quite the opposite in the West Bengal villages that were studied. The major buyers in these two villages of Bankura district were landless households and small landowners. The paper attributed this difference to the increased purchasing power among the poor in West Bengal facilitated by land distribution, tenancy reform, higher wage rates, and access to credit.

The present study confirms and adds a new dimension to this conclusion. Five villages of the seven have significant Dalit populations. In four of them, Dalit and Muslim households were net buyers of land, while caste Hindus were net sellers. The acquisition of ceiling-surplus land by the Government of West Bengal for redistribution was and still remains a major disincentive for large landowners to purchase land.

The recent policy document on land use of the Government of West Bengal says that the State is poised for "advance into a new phase of industrial modernisation... and diversification into different forms of non-agricultural economic activity." If such a policy is indeed to succeed, West Bengal will have been among the few States of India where industrialisation and economic diversification are based on the achievement of a socially broad-based land reform.

The author is a Junior Research Fellow at the Indian Statistical Institute working on issues of household incomes in rural West Bengal.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20070420001404200.htm

Ship-building

India has got mu-ch of the global outsourcing business for services, but very little for labour-intensive manufacturing.

Two major culprits are inflexible labour laws and the continuing reservation of many items for manufacture by small-scale industries. However, i see signs of one major labour-intensive industry shifting from Western countries and East Asia to India. This is ship-building and ship-repair.

With little fanfare, several corporations are building huge shipyards across the coast of India, from Kutch to West Bengal. Ship-building consists mainly of riveting of steel plates to form a vessel, followed by internal fittings. This cannot be done on an assembly line by robots. It has to be done manually by skilled welders and fitters.

Ship-repairing is even more labour-intensive and skill-intensive. Every repair job requires individual analysis and customised solutions. It involves less material and far more labour than ship-building.

India is well placed to supply cheap skilled labour that can compete with the best in the world. Yet, for decades ship-building has languished despite massive subsidies.

Why? Because, historically, the big shipyards — civilian and military — were inefficient public sector monopolies. A few private sector shipyards were licensed, but only for small vessels.

However, with the abolition of industrial licensing in the 1990s, new shipbuilders like Bharti Shipyard and ABG Shipyard came up. They faced difficult times when the Asian financial crisis led to the collapse of demand for ships. But the regional and world economy recovered sharply after 2003, and the demand for ships is now booming.

This has encouraged several companies to take the plunge and embark on construction of big shipyards, some of which will be world-scale.

ABG has set up a major shipyard costing Rs 1,600 crore at Dahej, Gujarat, and is flooded with orders worth over Rs 1,300 crore. It will build up to 25 ships a year, making it a major Asian player.

Sea King, owned by Nikhil Gandhi, is setting up a shipyard at Pipavav, Gujarat, to build ships of up to 300,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt), almost thrice as large as the biggest ships built by the government's Cochin shipyard. It is far cheaper to transport oil to deep-water Indian refineries using big tankers. Gandhi claims that his Pipavav Shipyard will be among the ten biggest in the world. It has bagged two advance orders worth $720 million to manufacture ships for Z Schifenbau of Germany and B F Shipping of Cyprus.

Takeover specialist PK Ruia, who in recent years has taken over Jessops, Dunlop, and Falcon Tyres, now proposes a mammoth shipyard at Haldia costing over Rs 3,000 crore. It will be among the biggest in the world, building 12 ships a year of Panamax size (the maximum size that can go thro-ugh the Panama Canal). The project will include ship-breaking and ship-repair units, as well as a mini-steel plant and captive power plant. It will employ as many as 16,000 workers, more than major auto manufacturers such as Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto.

The Adani group is setting up a Rs 1,000-crore shipyard at Mundra in Kutch, adjacent to its new deep-water port there. This can be expanded to rival the Pipavav shipyard.

Tata Steel plans a shipyard at its new coast-based plant in Orissa. Steel sheets and plates from its steel plant can go directly by conveyor belt to the shipyard, saving time and transport costs. Tata Steel has just formed a joint shipping line with NYK of Japan, and the shipyard will be a link between its steel and shipping business.

A major new development is the decision of the ministry of defence to source the bulk of its annual spending (around Rs 13,000 crore) from the private sector. This has been the main spur for L&T to expand its shipbuilding business, which includes warships. It is already building parts of submarines and soon plans to build entire submarines. Other private sector defence suppliers include the Tatas and Mahindras, both of whom could conceivably get into naval vessels and equipment.

Indian business is convinced that India has a major comparative advantage in ship-building that has been masked all these years by an inefficient public sector notorious for high costs and time overruns. The labour cost per worker in India is estimated at $1,192 per year, against $10,743 and $21,317 per worker in leading shipbuilding countries like South Korea and Singapore. Apart from skilled welders and fitters, India has world-class naval engineers and architects. These, along with top-class management, can make India a global power.

Ship-building was dominated by Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the '60s Japan's cheap skills enabled it to become the top ship-builder. Soon afterwards South Korea , Taiwan and Singapore emerged as major builders. However, all these have now become high-income countries. So, ship-building is shifting to China.

Logically, it should shift to India too. China and India have the skills and cheap steel to make the best, cheapest ships.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Columnists/Swaminathan_A_Aiyar/Ship-
building_Indias_next_ star_industry/articleshow/1872044.cms

Chhattisgarh on Maoist alert after intelligence warning

Raipur, April 10 - The Chhattisgarh government is gearing up to ward off fresh Maoist attacks on police bases and government installations following intelligence reports warning of deadly militant activity.

Fresh intelligence inputs suggest that Leftist guerrillas have suddenly stepped up their movements in the Bastar region's Bijapur, Bhopalpattanam, Kutru, Chintanpalli and Narayanpur areas, a home department official said Tuesday.

Senior police officers met Monday in the backdrop of alarming intelligence reports. Security, including night patrolling, has been beefed up in and around police posts, outposts and government installations in areas vulnerable to Maoists' attacks.

The reports come in the wake of one of the deadliest attacks by the guerrillas on a police post in the state's southern Bijapur area in which 55 cops were butchered March 15.

'The inputs have been passed on to senior police officers deployed in the insurgency-hit Bastar belt and top commanders of the Central Reserve Police Force, Nagaland Armed Police and Mizo battalion deployed in Bastar's interiors,' official sources added.

Security has also been tightened at a dozen government-run relief camps where 50,000 people, mostly tribals, have ben sheltered for the past two years following threat to their lives.

http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/Chhattisgarh-on-Maoist-alert-after-intelligence-warning
_23149.shtml

Understanding India

Hailing from Germany, Dr Martin Kampchen has been in India since 1973. A postgraduate in Indian Philosophy from Madras University, he holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion from Santiniketan. Acclaimed as a translator, an author and editor, he is also the cultural correspondent of the German national daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Apart from writing and publishing, he has been involved in raising the living standards of two Santal villages near Santiniketan. He has been the recipient of Rabindra-Puraskar, Rabindranath-Tagore Literature Prize, and the Order of Merit of the German Government.

You have lived in India for 30 years now. Have you settled down here permanently?

Settled? That would mean that I'd have taken Indian citizenship or owned a house or married here. None of these has happened, I would say, quite consciously. While I was doing my Ph.D. in Santiniketan, I developed an interest in the works of Sri Ramakrishna and Rabindranath Tagore and started translating them directly from Bengali into German. This I could do only in India because I needed the support of friends and the appropriate cultural atmosphere. And finally I got interested and involved in the development of two tribal villages near Santiniketan. But at no stage have I pulled down the cultural "bridges" that link me with Europe.
What kind of experience have you had in India?

Indians welcome those who come here as guests for a few weeks or months. Things get a bit more difficult if the guest wants to stay longer and be integrated into the local population. Many Europeans, who live in big Indian cities, give themselves up to grand lifestyles with an extremely high level of comfort and services, which they could have never dreamt of back home. They make use of the cheap labour and the feudal traditions still existing in the country. I personally find this simply disgusting. This is a reversion into the colonial mindset, which first makes human being unequal and then exploits this inequity to one's own advantage.
Then, what kind of life do you lead in India?

Right from the beginning, I couldn't have thought of a different kind of life in India from the one I lead now. The simple people here have always interested me. They accept me as I am, as a friend who wanted nothing but togetherness, a feeling of belonging. At the same time, this has brought me numerous disappointments. I was cheated, threatened, humiliated and denounced.
Have you ever been discriminated against or abused because of your ethnic origin?

India is culturally so diverse that it has to absorb numerous internal tensions and conflicts in order to exist peacefully. Above all, the difficult process of self-discovery and the population explosion have strengthened its defence mechanism against all that is alien. As a foreigner I was not allowed to teach at Santiniketan University. Add to this the natural discrimination an unmarried person faces in a strongly family-oriented environment. Social interaction takes place not as an individual, but more so as the member of a family. An individual person cannot be easily integrated here.

How do Indians view the West?

The West, including Germany, is rather glorified in India. However, it is a very imbalanced view: the high living standards, the relatively high social security, the tourist attractions and the glamour of a booming entertainment industry are the things in the West are known and sought. But what about Germany's civilisational achievements like democratic equality, a strong civic sense, a lively cultural life, public cleanliness and discipline, environmental protection and so on?
Should development in India be at the cost of the marginalised and have-nots?

For me, development is neither industrialisation nor agricultural reform. For me it would be a change of mindset. The governments in the last few decades have not done enough for education. Now they find it difficult to make the semi-literate masses understand the need for change. Uneducated, poor people will rarely appreciate the reasons for change.
You have been actively involved in the development of two Adivasi villages near Santiniketan. What is the nature of that work?

For 20 years I have been helping two Santal villages near Santiniketan — Ghosaldanga and Bishnubati — evolve an alternative model of development. I always remain in the background as a motivator giving young men and women the chance to develop their own ideas and function as the real motor of development. My goal is to strive for a "holistic" model of development, not just economic development. Young people should get a chance to actively shape the development suited to their needs.

What are your observations regarding India's social and political development?

I feel the greatest problem is the unrestrained population growth. India has to absorb an additional 15 million people every year. This may be possible for a while because of the excellent family traditions, which borders on self-sacrifice. But no self-sacrifice will help when vital resources like water become scarce.
On the other side, significant progress has been made in the field of technology. India has to be understood and meaningfully shaped not only in the context of its geographical size and large population, but also through the cultural and religious models it offers to the world. In the final analysis, the development of India poses a great challenge to the entire world.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/03/18/stories/2007031800070500.htm

news@jharkhand.org.uk Jharkhand News Network www.jharkhand.org.uk

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