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| Apr 18, 2007 |
Cola major packing bags from Jharkhand
The Beverage industry in Jharkhand is not having the best of times. Days after closing down production at its Jamshedpur bottling plant, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverage Pvt Ltd is reportedly preparing to hand over the leased land back to Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority (AIADA).
Highly-placed sources informed HT that the company has already given Voluntary Retirement (VR) to all its operators in Jamshedpur, while several administrative staff have been transferred to other bottling plants across the country.
"They are in the process of packing up. We have reports that the company will return the land to us," sources in the AIADA said.
Coke consumed in Jharkhand is now supplied from Rourkela, Bhubaneswar and the bottling plants in Bihar.
AIADA secretary HN Ram had earlier said a notice was sent to the company, asking it to return the leased land 'as it was not in use for production purpose.'
"We have learnt that the company is violating norms set for land use. A notice has been served to the company officials posted here. As per the rules, we issue three notices to a company before initiating further action. So far, we have served only one notice on the unit," said Ram.
Sources, however, said the company would probably not wait to be served the notices. There are several legalities, including fate of infrastructure build up on the plot by the company, which have to be discussed before the land is finally returned.
When contacted, the company officials said they were yet to receive the AIADA notice. "Once we receive the notice, we would act lawfully," they said.
But, what has led to the cola major winding up production in Jharkhand? "High cost of production, and negative propaganda against the brand have taken its toll," sources said, adding, "The Yoga Gurus of late have targeted Coke, bringing down its sales considerably."
Basant Kumar, spokesperson of the Pepsi bottling plant at Adityapur, also admitted that conditions for the beverage industry in Jharkhand were not favourable. "Unlike Coca Cola, we are not closing down, but the situation on the whole is not favourable."
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=560a13e1-f9f3-4e64-a8fd
-23aa059e59a3 &
Jharkhand schools become police camps
With security worries utmost on mind, the Jharkhand government has converted 25 schools in the state into police camps.
Many schools have been closed in the last five years as the buildings are used as police camps. Estimates put the number of affected students at 12,000.
When anti-Maoist operations are launched, the security personnel are shifted into school buildings. In some schools, the personnel live in the building while teaching takes place under the open sky.
As a result, a primary school in Ghure village of Latehar district is closed since 1990 and Maoist guerrillas have attacked the building thrice.
Education in the Chatrapur Middle school of Daltanganj has also been affected since 1990 for similar reason.
"For many years now, classes are taking place outdoors as the school building has been given to security personnel. Studies are badly affected by the movement of the security personnel but we cannot do anything about it," complained a teacher in Jhumra Hill of Bokaro district.
Another teacher of a school in Kurkura, Gumla district, said: "Student lives are always under threat due to Maoists. The rebels sometimes attack the police camp and the students studying in the open air are vulnerable to such attacks."
However, police officials pledge helplessness in the face of the state decision.
"We need places to house the security forces. The government has asked us to convert schools into camps. What can we do? We are just doing our job," said a police official.
Maoists are active in 16 of the 22 districts of the state. At least 600 people, including 290 security personnel, have been killed in Maoist related violence in the last six years.
The state government's order to convert 25 schools into police camps to counter Maoists attacks has affected about 12,000 students.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=a2b76812-4a67-46a7-a7bd
-3bd2f6a7b464 &
Luxury unlimited for Jharkhand ministers
Ranchi, April 18 (IANS) There seems to be no limit to the goodies that ministers in Jharkhand can get - more and fancier cars, luxurious homes, hiked salaries, additional security and the other trappings that go with the job.
Official figures estimate that the expenditure on the 12 ministers in the state cabinet in 2007-08 will be much higher than the money spent on 26 ministers in 2004.
The number of ministers in the state cabinet went down from 26 to 12 when the central government bill on the reduction of ministers was enforced in Jharkhand in October 2004.
Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers, including the chief minister.
In 2004-2005, the total expenditure on 26 ministers amounted to Rs.33.7 million, which went down to Rs.29.2 million in 2005-06 for 12 ministers. In 2006-07, expenses on the same number of ministers rose to Rs.32.9 million. And in 2007-08, the expected expenditure on the ministers is likely to go up to Rs.41.3 million.
In 2004, a minister got one Ambassador car, 10 security guards, two personal secretaries and two peons. Just three years later, a minister gets an Endeavor worth Rs.1.6 million, besides an Ambassador, 32 security guards (black cat commandos of the Jharkhand Armed Police), two personal secretaries, four peons and other perks.
A minister's salary in 2004 was Rs.22,000 a month. The present salary is Rs.39,500, which will go up to Rs.48,500 in the current financial year.
On an average, Rs.4 million was spent on renovating each minister's bungalow. Some ministers wanted more face-lifting work on their houses besides this.
Most of the ministers here are covered under 'Y' category security due to Maoist threats. So, each is provided with two security vehicles and 12 guards.
'Ministers are just wasting public money and have nothing to do with the people of the state,' P.N. Singh, state Bharatiya Janata Party president, told IANS. 'Even I was minister for four years after the formation of the state but we never asked for such luxurious vehicles etc.'
He added: 'These ministers keep the government on tenterhooks by threatening to withdraw support and in the process loot the state exchequer.'
Even the Congress, which is supporting the Madhu Koda government in the state, is unhappy with the Jharkhand ministers. 'The ministers cannot work without taking commission for development works. They are like cancer,' said Manoj Yadav, a Congress legislator.
http://www.andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=21893
The new battles
Last week, at Jagatsinghpur near Paradip port in Orissa, a tense stand-off developed between 12 platoons of the state armed police and 4000 families belonging to three gram panchayats located in the middle of the proposed project area for the 12 million tonne steel-making complex of the South Korean steel giant, POSCO.
The villagers are resisting the acquisition of their land for the project and have erected bamboo barricades and even cut off an embankment road to prevent the police from entering the area. The MOU for the project was signed two years ago and Posco is now chafing at the leash at the delay.
However, fearing a Nandigram-like replay, the state government is reluctant to take any direct action against the agitators. It may come as no surprise if POSCO ultimately opts out of the Indian project and takes the Rs55,000 crore investment to another country. Orissa, incidentally, is ruled by the Biju Janata Dal.
Political parties looking on with unconcealed glee at the discomfiture of the CPM-led government in West Bengal following the Nandigram SEZ debacle may soon have to shed their grins. For, this isn't the first time in our country that rural landowners and the police have clashed violently over land acquisition proceedings. As the above instance shows, it won't be the last either.
Way back in December 2000, policemen deployed at the site of the Utkal Alumina International Ltd in Orissa had to open fire on a crowd of tribals protesting the acquisition of their land for the mines of the company. Three persons died. That project, which was given the green signal by the then Congress-ruled state government as far back as 1993, has never got off the ground.
In February this year, 15 people were injured when tribals in Lohandiguda village in Jharkhand attacked a government team which had come to survey land to be acquired for another Tata steel project. Jharkhand is governed by a BJP-led coalition.
As the examples quoted above make amply clear, the Nandigram fracas is but one pixel of a bigger kaleidoscope. And the contagion is rapidly spreading. The fight is not about SEZs alone. It is a part of a greater war that is being fought across the country. Ranged on the two sides in this war are the forces of stasis and development.
On the side of stasis is a motley group comprising NGOs, opportunist politicians, academic intellectuals, and Leftist insurgents. On the side of development are arrayed the state and Central governments, politicians, administrators, industrial establishments
and others.
In this war, during the early decades after Independence, the forces of development were strong and the land needed for giant industrial, infrastructure and irrigation projects could be acquired without much fuss. However, the last two decades has seen the balance of power shift to the forces of stasis. This has come about due to fragmentation of political power, enactment of more stringent environmental legislation, increased foreign funding of NGOs leading to strengthening of their organisations, and, of late, the spread of the Naxal network.
Aiding and abetting them is a mainstream media which revels in being anti-establishment. On the other hand, the forces of development have become weak due to rampant corruption in the body politic as well as in the administration, and the entry of entrepreneurs who have no sensitivity to social issues.
If allowed to continue, this war can debilitate the economy of the nation in the future. The solutions are there for all to see: market rate compensation for land acquired, employment guarantee in the project for one person from each displaced family, setting up of industrial training institutes near large project-affected areas, levying a special development cess on all commercial and industrial turnover — the proceeds of which should directly be channelled for improving social infrastructure in rural areas — establishing state-subsidised financing for small and tiny enterprises such as vehicle maintenance, tyre repair, catering, retailing, transport, schools and clinics which will come up as adjuncts to the main industrial projects and result in considerable indirect employment of displaced persons. Involving local NGOs in many of these activities, especially social infrastructure projects, would make them partners and not antagonists in the war and defuse to some extent the lure of insurgency.
The writer is a commentator on national issues.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1091730
IMPLEMENTATION OF NREGA IN BIHAR
In Bihar, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was initially launched during 2006-07 in 23 Districts and has further been extended to 15 more Districts in the current financial year. A total of 12.64 lakh households demanded employment and 12.56 of them were provided employment up to Feb.'07.
The number of person day of employment provided in the State is 370.44 lakh. The average person days of employment provided in a district stands at 16.11 lakh compared to the national average of 36.47 lakh person days. Of them, 16.52% are provided to women, 46.44% to SC and 2.41% to members of ST.
The employment was provided on 49,956 works, out of which 22,971 works have been completed. The average number of works taken up in a district stood at 2,172 against the national average of 3,581. The average number of households provided employment in a district of the State was 54,623, while the National Average stands at 91,685.
An amount of Rs. 485.81 crore was released to the State during 2006-07. Up to February 2007, Rs. 557.66 crore was utilized, which is 48.08% of the total availability.
The expenditure on wages stood at 55.48% , material at 43.90% and on administration 0.006% was spent. The average expenditure on a district came out to be Rs. 24.25 crore compared to the National average of Rs. 35 crore.
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=26956
No literate adult among 26 percent rural families
New Delhi: At least 26 percent of rural families in India and eight percent of urban families have no literate member over the age of 15, says a National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report.
The report - the third of a seven-part series based on employment-unemployment data of the NSS' 61st round - says that in almost 50 percent of rural families there is still no literate woman above the age of 15. This figure is naturally smaller in urban families, says the survey, placing female illiteracy above the age of 15 at 20 percent.
Of the people surveyed, 73 percent belonged to rural India, accounting for 75 percent of the total population covered by the organisation. The literacy rate was 64 percent during 2004-05, the report says, adding that it was 55 percent in rural areas and 75 percent in urban.
Sixty-four percent of rural males and 45 percent of rural females were literate. The literacy rates among their urban counterparts were much higher at 81 percent and 69 percent, respectively, said the report.
The highest incidence of illiteracy among those above the age of 15 is rural Bihar with records showing 38 percent and the lowest is Kerala, recording only three percent.
In urban areas, too, Kerala leads in literacy, with only one percent of the state's population above the age of 15 turning out to be illiterate. Literacy is marginally higher among urban Biharis than urban Rajasthanis, with 16 percent illiteracy in Rajasthan cities as against 15 percent in Bihar towns. West Bengal stands marginally better at 14 percent.
The proportion of non-literates was highest in the bottom monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) class and it decreased gradually as the MPCE increased; this proportion was largely similar in rural and urban areas.
The literacy report, which provides statistics on literacy, attainment of general and technical education, current attendance in educational institutions, covers all of India except parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that remained inaccessible through the year.
The level of literacy in Jammu and Kashmir is adequately high and the situation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is also better than most other states, said government sources.
http://www.indiaedunews.net/Delhi/No%5Fliterate%5Fadult%5Famong%5F26%5Fpercent
%5Frural%5Ffamilies%5F859/
6 garment parks in Bengal soon
KOLKATA, APR18 : West Bengal will have at least two integrated garment parks in two years at an estimated investment of Rs 600 crore. Apart from this, at least four garment parks will come up in and around Kolkata.
The largest park, being promoted by Bengal Integrated Textile Park Ltd, a special purpose vehicle formed for the project, will receive an initial investment of more than Rs 500 crore.
Murari Lal Khaitan, president of the Chamber of Textile Trade and Industry (Cotti), said: "The market for textile fabric and made-ups in West Bengal is almost Rs 25,000 crore, of which 10-15% is produced by the state."
"This leaves us with room for growth," said Binod Nangalia, chairman of Cotti. "The integrated garment parks will be of international standard and will cater to the demands of both domestic and export-oriented units," he said.
Cotti, awaiting the approval of the Union government to include it in the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP), feels the project will house 300 small and medium entrepreneurs. Once approved, the parks will receive a grant of Rs 40 crore towards infrastructure cost.
The Bengal Hosiery Association and the West Bengal Hosiery Association have planned an integrated garment park on 70 acres. The project, filed with the SITP, will receive an initial investment of Rs 40 crore. "We are looking for land in Rajarhat or near the Kona expressway," said Srimay Bannerjee, president of the Bengal Hosiery Association.
The four garment parks include the one that will be developed by the state government. The Eastern Garments Manufacturing Association will construct a garment park in Salt Lake on 13 acres.
The Bengal Hosiery Association is in the process of constructing a park at Belgharia in North 24 Parganas.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=161616
Health sector in the State undergoing radical change
BHUBANESWAR: The rapid expansion and growth of health institutions across cities and towns has opened up new avenues of self-employment for educated youth of the State.
Bio-medical equipment service and repair stands out among the most lucrative enterprise options and with the promise of absorbing a good number of youth who are not finding jobs despite being suitably qualified.
And it offers great promise, particularly for the science graduates and those with some engineering background.
Bio-medical equipment repair and service covers a wide range of machines and appliances used in diagnostics, medical testing, operation theatres, life-saving instruments at different hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic labs.
The equipment include ECG machines, X-rays, microscopes, defibrillator, multiparamonitor, ventilator, surgical diathermy, anaesthesia machines, OT table, OT light, autoclaves, C-arm along with a vast number of other implements.
According to Kailash Nayak, Director of Society for Entrepreneurship Environment and Human Resource Development, the health sector in Orissa is undergoing a fast-paced upward surge.
While new medical colleges are being set up, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic labs are being established even at the grass-root level.
"There was a time, when a patient in a village had to travel to the town to get the simplest of blood tests done. Today such facilities are coming up in the villages too," Nayak observed.
In the evolving scenario, a severe dearth of manpower to handle the breakdown in equipment has begun to be felt.
"For costly and highly sophisticated instruments, the service engineer of the manufacturer can be counted upon but for tools and equipment of regular and frequent use like X-rays, ECG machines, microscopes - to name a few- there has to be someone at the local level to deal with the problems. One cannot be left waiting for days and weeks to get the service engineer come and repair the machine," Nayak said.
An entrepreneur can start his enterprise at an investment of Rs 1 lakh and can garner upwards of Rs 15,000 considering his reach and networking with the medical institutions.
To generate awareness on this speciality sector, SEEHURD in association with the Union Science and Technology Department is organising an entrepreneurship programme on bio-medical equipment repair and service.
The first of its kind training programme is of six week duration and aims to motivate and provide the basic skills to the participants to enable them to start their own enterprise.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070417121843&Page=Q&Title=O
RISSA&Topic=0
Reveal marks to candidates, HC tells UPSC
NEW DELHI: It's a huge leg up for transparency seekers. On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court brushed aside UPSC's arguments of confidentiality and protection of its intellectual property rights and directed the commission to make public the scaling system and cut-off marks for the civil services preliminary examination.
The court order came in the wake of an earlier Central Information Commission order which was challenged by UPSC. Delivering his ruling, Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed said public interest in this case far 'outweighs' any protected interest. He said the ''UPSC being a public body is required to act and conduct itself in a fair and transparent manner''.
The ruling has brought cheer to aspirants of government jobs who feel that they will now get a clear idea of where they stand — what have been the mistakes in case they've failed, and how to improve themselves. Transparency will also remove doubts about the scaling system being used for the advantage of some candidates.
Mistakes by UPSC examiners, if any, will also be exposed. For instance, the Chhattisgarh public service commission had maintained that India's national flower is the rose. That the state commission didn't know it's actually the lotus would have not come to light if the model answer sheets had not been provided.
The court recognised the positives in the CIC order, saying: ''Disclosure of information as directed by CIC cannot harm the interest of UPSC and any third party. The approach of CIC in this matter has been in correct perspective.'' Justice Ahmed also directed UPSC to disclose model answers of the question papers to enable candidates to ''know where they went wrong''.
The UPSC's contention that its scaling system — its method to give a level playing field to candidates from all educational streams — was very confidential and it was their intellectual property that could not be revealed to anybody also failed to impress the court. It pointed out that this system had already been revealed to the Supreme Court and was in the public domain. So, what was the big deal about its secrecy?
After going through the sealed envelope in which Commission had placed its method of scaling system, the court concluded there was nothing special in it and the same system was followed all over the world. ''For scaling system nothing further needs to be done, as in my view the same already stands disclosed by the UPSC in the affidavit filed by it in the Supreme Court,'' Justice Ahmed said.
He added, ''Information sought does not fall within the exception of intellectual property. The data collected by the UPSC is of an event which has already taken place and its disclosure would have no bearing whatsoever on the next year's examination.''
During arguments, the government lawyer had opposed disclosing the scaling pattern followed by UPSC saying it was a ''closely guarded state secret'' and its disclosure could be misused by coaching institutes. Clearly, the court felt otherwise.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi/Reveal_marks_to_candidates_HC_tells_
UPSC/articleshow/1920107.cms
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| Hot issues of Today |
- Apr 17, 2007
- Apr 16, 2007
- Apr 15, 2007
- Apr 14, 2007
- Apr 13, 2007
- Apr 12, 2007
- Apr 11, 2007
- Apr 10, 2007
- Apr 09, 2007
- Apr 08, 2007
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