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Indian police, mob caught on video beating alleged thief |
NEW DELHI: Indian police and a mob of civilians punched and kicked a man accused of stealing a gold chain, then tied him to a motorcycle and dragged him down a street in an incident caught on video and broadcast Tuesday.
The beating spotlighted the widespread problem of police brutality in India, where officials often tout the country's democratic credentials and respect for the rule of law.
In the video, the rail-thin suspect — wearing only tattered trousers, his hands bound behind his back — is repeatedly punched in the face and kicked in the stomach, chest and back by a mob on Monday in the eastern city of Bhagalpur.
One man can even be seen whipping the suspect, identified only as Salim, with a belt.
At one point, Salim was tied to the back of what appeared to be a police motorcycle and dragged down the street. At least two policeman could be seen in the video.
The CNN-IBN television news channel, which was among the stations that broadcast the footage, reported that Salim survived the beating but had been seriously injured and was being treated at a clinic in the city.
A woman was shown in the video holding the gold chain Salim allegedly stole, but there was no word on whether he had been charged with any crime.
A police spokesman in Bihar, the state where the incident occurred, condemned the beating. "The policemen, they have gone beyond the call of duty and they have not acted in a legal manner," said spokesman Anil Sinha.
He did not elaborate or provide any further details, but police said at least two officers who took part in the beating had been suspended.
Indian police are routinely accused of beating suspects, especially poor ones, and tens of thousands of incidents of police brutality have been documented over the years in India.
In many cases, the victims are from the lower reaches of India's complex and rigid social hierarchy. Better-off Indians often cheer on the police.
Police in Bhagalpur, the site of the beating broadcast Tuesday, blinded 31 alleged criminals in the early 1979 by pouring acid into their eyes. The officers said they were trying to control crime, and won plaudits from many residents tired of the city's perceived lawlessness.
Bihar is considered a particularly lawless Indian state, with corrupt politicians, murderous police officers, underworld bosses and ordinary criminals making life miserable for residents.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/28/asia/AS-GEN-India-Police-Beating.php |
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Tatas plan Rs 100cr social initiative |
Jamshedpur, Aug. 27: Tata Steel has pledged Rs 100 crore to a social initiative programme as part of its centenary celebrations. It will involve two projects — a comprehensive land and water management scheme and schools for tribal children.
The first and more ambitious of the two will run for five years. It will be dedicated to the economically weaker sections of society in and around Jamshedpur and the states where Tata Steel operates.
B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, announced the project yesterday at the Tata Steel Archives in Jamshedpur. “We always believe in giving back to society many times over than what we take,” he said.
Tata Steel will take on land and water management projects in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa and touch 40,000 tribal households.
The company wants to create these blocks into models of excellence that may be replicated both by the government and corporate houses that participate in community development.
The project will create irrigation facilities for tribals, set up water user co-operatives, develop wastelands and promote horticulture and agro forestry.
The project will also encourage agricultural improvement through technological upgradation.
Tata Steel has signed a memorandum of understanding with The Ratan Tata Trust for providing technical support to the project.
At the Tata Tea annual general meeting held earlier this month in Calcutta, Ratan Tata had suggested that those supporting the cause of farmers should do something for them and the propaganda should not be politically motivated.
Tata Steel will depute the Tata Steel Rural Development Society, Jamshedpur as the nodal agency for implementing the project.
The agency’s operational area has grown from 32 villages to more than 700.
The second project involves setting up all-day schools for children from scheduled caste/tribe families in backward districts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The schools will be able to enrol 1,000 children each.
Muthuraman has also announced two major projects for Jamshedpur
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070828/asp/business/story_8244937.asp |
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Tata Steel Plans New Jamshedpur Airport |
India’s Tata Steel, which celebrated 100 years in business this weekend, is building a new airport to link the steel city of Jamshedpur in the east to other parts of the country.
“We believe in green-field projects that serve long-term requirements rather than to meet short-term demand. Tata Steel will continue to upgrade the infrastructure in Jamshedpur and a new airport is part of the blueprint,” Tata Steel Managing Director B. Muthuraman told the media in Jamshedpur.
The city, in the mineral-rich Indian state of Jharkhand, is also home to companies like Tata Motors (nyse: TTM - news - people ), Lafarge Cement (nyse: LR - news - people ), Timken (nyse: TKR - news - people ) India, Tata Robins Fraser and Indian Steel and Wire Products.
On Sunday, leading low-cost airline Air Deccan launched a daily flight from Calcutta to Jamshedpur, where Tata Steel produces about 6 million tons of steel.
Tata, India’s largest private steel maker, plans to underwrite a percentage of the seats on each flight to make operations viable for Air Deccan, which travels to the largest number of Indian destinations of any airline. (See: “ Taking India Aloft”) Jamshedpur already has an airport, but Muthuraman was quoted as saying there were restrictions preventing upgrading it, so the company had decided to build a new one.
As Indian companies spread their operations beyond the major cities, the lack of transportation infrastructure is a huge obstacle. India’s congested airports are estimated to need $9 billion over five years to expand.
Tata Steel, which is the world’s sixth-largest steel maker after acquiring Anglo-Dutch giant Corus in January for $12.9 billion, will soon submit its construction proposal to the Jharkhand state government. The airport will have a runway of about 7,500 feet to enable larger Boeing and Airbus aircraft to taxi in.
Jamshedpur, India’s first planned industrial township, was renamed after Tata Steel founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1919. Tata Steel operated India’s first steel plant, with a capacity of 100,000 tons. The company’s annual production is now 26 million tons, and it plans to double that by 2015.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/08/27/tata-steel-airport-markets-equity-cx_rd_0827markets01.html |
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Bokaro official in trouble for touching Soren's feet |
Ranchi, Aug 28 (IANS) The Jharkhand government Tuesday issued a show cause notice to Bokaro deputy commissioner Praveen Kumar Toppo for touching the feet of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren.
'I have asked the chief secretary to issue a show cause to the Bokaro deputy commissioner for his act,' Chief Minister Madhu Koda told reporters here.
He, however, defended Toppo saying that he was new to the job and would gradually learn the gravity of the post.
On Sunday, Toppo had touched the feet of Soren in full public view at the Bokaro airport upon the JMM leader's arrival there to meet his family members after his release from jail.
Meanwhile, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officers Association has taken the issue seriously.
'The act of the Bokaro deputy commissioner was not appropriate and we have not words to condemn the incident,' said R.S. Sharma, secretary of the IAS Officers Association here.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1348800.php/Bokaro_official _in_trouble_for_touching_Sorens_feet |
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Politics Over Policy |
Uttar Pradesh was the first state to declare an agriculture policy that sought to link farmers directly to the boom in organised retail. But within days of the announcement, chief minister Mayawati has rolled back the policy. Intelligence reports indicated that farmers were against contract farming and the entry of private companies in agribusiness, she said on Friday. So, what really happened? Did farmers in the state take lessons in swadeshi economics? Or did middlemen in the farm sector educate the CM and her team about their economic clout and political muscle? The UP policy promised a new deal to the farmer. It sought the entry of big retail companies in agriculture and a direct link between the producer and the consumer. That would have ensured better prices for both the farmer and the consumer.
Nearly 40 per cent of India's farm produce is lost in transit as it travels from the field to the mandi, and later to neighbourhood shops. Nobody, not even middlemen, benefit from this colossal waste of foodstuff. The performance of agriculture, which employs two-third of India's workforce, continues to be a drag on the economy. That is because agriculture has failed to take advantage of the changes in the economy. The modes of production and distribution have remained the same for decades. Mayawati's announced agriculture policy had the potential to address these issues and transform the sector. Of course, such changes invariably impact a few people adversely in the short run. And these are the people who seem to have forced the issue in UP.
Vested interests resist change and people holding public office rarely resist them. Mayawati is not an exception to this trend. Mobs claiming to represent small retailers have ransacked retail shops of business houses in UP and Jharkhand. Rather than confronting the lawbreakers, the UP government has taken the easy option of closing down retail outlets. Earlier, the Kerala government had banned big retail outlets.
India's growth story depends on bold and consistent public policies. A small minority will always oppose change, even if it is good for the country. They need to be coaxed and persuaded. Consensus-building is an essential part of good governance. Smart change management is as crucial for governance as making bold public policy announcements.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/Politics_Over_Policy/articleshow/2312643.cms |
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Usha Martin acquires distribution company in Netherlands |
Usha Martin Limited through its wholly owned subsidiary in UK viz Usha Martin International Limited has acquired the business of DE Ruiter Staalkabel B.V, Netherlands which is a distribution company having warehouse and rigging facility. The total value of the acquisition is around Euro 3 Million.
This company has a strong brand equity in high end rope and allied products for shipping, port and oil field applications and this acquisition will help the Company to widen its reach in the European market.
Usha Martin is a leading producer of speciality steel and one of the world’s largest wire rope manufacturers. It has manufacturing facilities in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Hoshiarpur in India, UK, Thailand, UAE and USA.
It has a worldwide distribution, service and marketing network spread across the US, UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/pressmarket/usha-martin-acquires-distribution-companynetherlands/18/01/300093 |
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India’s middle class failure |
Jaya Mary is a cleaner. Tall and thin, with some English, and at least two Indian languages, she quietly challenged her main employer, a medium-sized company, when it recently threatened to fire her without the pension to which she is entitled. When she works in a private house, she has no contract, and depends on the goodwill of the householder. She is a Christian, but also adheres to many cultural expressions of Hinduism. Her husband left her with two small children, and she relies on the support of her mother and brother. Her boy is in a local-language state school, but her clever daughter is in a private English-language school, which costs Jaya 20 per cent of her income. She has an empty bank account, but acquired a mobile phone from her scooter-driving brother (whose wife, a sworn enemy of Jaya, has just left him). Languages, religions, integrity, suffering, family stresses and ties, education, dependence, global aspiration—she encompasses them all, she is a Mother India. (And she is a very real person.)
As the actual Mother India celebrates the 60th anniversary of her independence, there is—as in Jaya Mary's life—both surging optimism and crushing despair about her future. As the saying goes, everything and its opposite is true in India. The seven Indian Institutes of Technology rank near the top of global surveys, and job offers to graduates from the Indian Institutes of Management rival those to graduates of the famous US business schools; yet a third of the country is still illiterate. Three hundred million Indians live on less than $1 a day—a quarter of the world's utterly poor—yet since 1985, more than 400m (out of a total population of 1bn) have risen out of relative poverty—to $5 a day—and another 300m will follow over the next two decades if the economy continues to grow at over 7 per cent a year. Population growth, even at a slower pace, will mean that there will still be millions below the poverty line, but the fall in number will be steady. At the other end of the scale, India has the largest number of dollar billionaires outside the US and Russia.
Historical success led India and China to their current demographic challenges. Their populations grew into the tens of millions because they were so economically advanced at the start of the first millennium—at a time when even the Roman empire lagged behind. By the time of the birth of European modernity, when technology provided leverage for smaller populations to improve their lives, India and China already had too many people for this to be possible. The legacy of this early success underlies both India's scale and the polarity of opinion over what the place is all about. India is near the top, or the bottom, of most international economic tables. To grapple with such extremes, and to peer into the country's future, we must above all try to understand India's rapidly growing middle class.
For a country that was born of partition, has had a history of separatism, and that encompasses such linguistic, ethnic, social, religious and geographic variety, it is strange that even critics talk of India as if its legal unity was sufficient guarantor of its actual unity. Statistics that combine the city of Chennai, in the stable southern state of Tamil Nadu, with a village in newly constituted Jharkhand state, in eastern India, are likely to deceive as much as those that try to encompass both Denmark and Kosovo.
"India" could have been many other things—an even larger, undivided India, but also a much smaller one, or just a cluster of ancestral formations. Only the British empire and then the resolve of the leaders of the independence struggle ensured that the ancient yet amorphous idea became a single nation state. Sixty years later, there is a functional Indian state that is a rising world power despite its huge variations—but there is also a dysfunctional Indian state that cannot realise the social purpose that the idea of national citizenship is meant to provide.
In Tamil Nadu, half the population lived below the poverty line in the mid-1960s, but effective contraception, female education and primary healthcare led to population stability and a consequent drop in poverty by the end of the century. But in Bihar, which had the same percentage of people below the poverty line in the 1960s, the population still grows at a staggering pace, making anti-poverty measures hard to pursue. Both Assam and Punjab have histories of political violence and a poor school system, but the latter's infrastructure allows for a standard of life far ahead of the former.
Among the middle class, in much of the media, in the malls and airports, in houses (however small) with water and electricity, there is still a commitment to an India which plays a decisive role on the international stage—but now, instead of through "non-aligned" solidarity and ancient history, it is through software and finance. Ten years after the buzz caused by the nuclear tests, the middle classes take India's new status for granted; they simply assume it is India's due to be treated as the "equal" of the US and the rest, and move on to talk of economic opportunities. This commitment to their own idea of India and their central role in its economic rise makes the middle classes sure of themselves. But at the same time, their sense of citizenship is weak: they do not, on the whole, extend a sense of solidarity to the poor; they often do not acknowledge the role of the state in their own rise or its capacity to solve any of the country's problems; and they are, in general, politically apathetic.
What explains this introversion? Middle classes at all stages of development, whether in 19th-century Europe or now, distrust those who have not risen with them. Yet in more homogeneous societies, the better off are more likely to care for the worse off. Highly diverse societies, like India, find it more difficult to institutionalise such fellow feeling. The key to the diversity of Indian society is the
jati system—intermarrying among consanguineous groups with hereditary (if often notional) occupations. But these groups are also placed within the ancient hierarchy of the varna, or "caste," system—the fivefold division of society on the axis of ritual purity from priests to warriors to merchants to labourers to those beyond the possibility of purity and therefore untouchable. Over the centuries, there have been many efforts to extend a sense of common humanity across castes. The caste system has also allowed for unparalleled pluralism of belief and practice; according to the logic of purity, the Brahmin priest has no control over practices beyond his realm, making for a thrilling diversity of temples, festivals and deities. Nonetheless, the varna concept that people are intrinsically pure or impure has blighted the idea of citizenship on the subcontinent. And while the 1950 Indian constitution sought to end such division (which the British had exploited), caste sentiment still drives rural violence and the separation of privileged groups.
The social distance of caste is echoed in religious difference—above all in the existence of a large Muslim minority which makes India the largest Muslim country in the world after Indonesia. While some hostile Hindus still question the Indianness of Muslims, the middle class contains about the same percentage of Muslims as does the population as a whole: about 13 per cent. (Caste distinctions that combine older Hindu divisions with newer Islamic social stratification prevail in Indian Islam, and middle-class Muslims tend to come from the traditional ashraf or "noble" sections of Muslim society.) But despite—or because of—constitutional guarantees of special rights for Muslims, there is a perennial worry over Muslim economic progress.
Aside from some extreme Hindu nationalists, I have never met a middle-class Indian who did not acknowledge the political equality of all Indians. The pride that middle-class Indians take in their democracy requires them to have an inclusive sense of Indianness, but not of citizenship. Middle-class Indians who feel little obligation to the poor tend to believe that they have made their contribution simply by becoming middle class. They focus on their own needs because they have overcome a great deal to get where they are and still fear slipping back. Moreover, they say, why give to the state when the money will just be wasted by corrupt politicians?
Charity, civic duty and pressure on both the state and the private sector to sustain anti-poverty programmes are rare. Where there is philanthropy, the scale is impressive: large corporate groups like the Tata, Birla and Bajaj, as well as IT billionaires like Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy, are big givers. Young IT professionals often cite these people as their models. And it is not only the very rich who give. MN Janardhan, a second-generation owner of medium-sized hotels in Chennai, has put many of the children of his rural employees through higher education, so that in one generation they have become middle class. Meanwhile, small charities oriented towards children and women are sprouting up across the country. But life expectancy at birth across India as a whole—62 for men, 64 for women—is lower than in poor Latin American countries like Guatemala and Nicaragua, and the poorest rural families eat less rice than they did five years ago. And no statistic can capture the agonising sight of a barefoot, ragged four year old doing somersaults at a traffic light to earn a rupee.
Prosperous India has not yet provided sufficient social infrastructure to make the country less brutal for those at the bottom. This is partly because the state apparatus for tax collection was for a long time a shambles, and evasion the norm. (One welcome consequence of liberalisation and rapid growth is that the software and human resources for effective collection have improved.) But the economist Nimai Mehta argues that another reason for the poor fiscal performance of the state is the Indian people's ingrained preference for private rather than public provision, a pattern evident since colonial times.
How should the Indian middle class be defined? According to the Indian National Council of Applied Economic Research, the term "middle class" applies to those earning between $4,000 and $21,000 a year ($20,000-$120,000 in purchasing power parity terms). But this definition suits only about 60m (under 6 per cent) of the population. Nevertheless, there seems to be an underlying intuition about the "middle class-ness" of those moving up from $5 a day to $10. A recent study by CNN-IBN and the Hindustan Times suggested a "simple consumer-based criterion" for membership of the middle class: ownership of a telephone, a two or four-wheel (motorised) vehicle, and a colour television. Under this definition, the middle class makes up nearly 20 per cent of the population—200m people. With such numbers, one can see why the global market thinks of the Indian middle class as a separate country; why else would Mercedes Benz, Louis Vuitton and Rolex bother with a country whose annual per capita GDP is still around $750? Around 10m Indians can buy the world's most expensive brands, but another 50m can aspire to the cheapest in a range, and yet another 140m can seriously think of Levi's jeans and Swatch watches.
Consumerism—the shifting of expenditure from needs to wants—is what distinguishes the Indian middle class most sharply from the middling social groups of the past. But there are more general patterns of bourgeois modernity, with which India's middle class largely conforms. Consider Raghunath. His parents are typical of the lower-middle class of the previous generation: they come from a high-caste background but without economic status. The father is a classical musician, but unlike the more comfortable middle and upper-class families, who learn music as an art while acquiring a professional education, he has been on the staff of All India Radio, the state-run broadcaster. He made sufficient money to buy a small house in Bangalore, in a warren of badly constructed buildings occupied by people of similar means. Raghunath, too, is a trained classical musician, but his "day" job (often involving night shifts) is in the business process outsourcing office of Microsoft, where he has moved rapidly up the hierarchy. He speaks English with American inflections, and says dreamily that he would love to visit the west—but not live there. He has the latest MP3 player, and listens to the south Indian classical canon on it. He looks forward to marrying, but would not think of moving from the family home. His future will lie in a middle class that is both recognisably Indian and global.
The middle class uses education to improve the earnings of the next generation, and then, if successful, to pursue more elusive goals of self-fulfilment. Middle-class lives involve a tussle between individuality and community: seeking novel self-expression in new jobs and leisure or taking risks with autonomy (the divorce rate is growing, from a low base), but also attempting to keep a sense of community, with dutiful support of parents (a high number of IT professionals buy cars for their parents) and strenuous attempts at maintaining a social circle (oriented around alcohol, movies, resorts and restaurants).
One problem with making sense of the Indian middle class is that while it clearly relates to caste, it is not clear how: an important development in India over the past 60 years has been the disentangling of caste from its occupational base and its reconstitution as a form of political identity. Upper-caste elites have, in recent decades, become used to those below them in the hierarchy accruing economic power, especially since liberalisation in the early 1990s. The new middle class argues that since it had no help from older elites, its success is self-made and ought to be the model for the poor. But the poor are still usually from castes traditionally lower than those of the new middle class—and this acts as an obstacle to their advancement.
In India's complex constitutional categorisation of hereditary identity, the traditionally privileged castes—from the Brahmin, Ksatriya (warrior) and Vaisya (trading) communities—are called the "forward" classes. However, it is in the interests of various communities to emphasise their "backwardness," in order to take advantage of higher education places and public sector jobs reserved for lower-caste groups. The result is that there are constant challenges to the system of classification under which the same caste can be forward or backward in different states. In any case, a CNN-IBN/Hindustan Times survey found that 37 per cent of the forward classes were part of the middle class, as were nearly half of Indian Sikhs and Christians (who each form about 2 per cent of the population). The Sikhs are known for economic success, but the size of the Christian middle class is more surprising, since some of the most marginal social groups are Christian Dalits. Parsis and Jains are usually too wealthy to count as middle class at all.
Caste discrimination becomes clearer when considering the "backward" castes. The most deprived, the "scheduled" castes—largely Dalits—who are listed in the schedule of the Indian constitution and make up some 16 per cent of the population, barely figure in the middle class. Only 13 per cent of the middle class come from the "other backward classes"—caste groups not specifically named in the constitution, who make up around half of the Indian population. Still, while more disadvantaged groups take longer to work their way into the middle class, the fact that it is happening at all—and faster since the liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s—indicates that its borders are porous. On the other hand, as we have seen, aspiration typically goes hand in hand with a distrust of "losers." It is normal for servants in middle-class homes to come from shacks in areas where there is no electricity or running water. A humane middle-class householder gives gifts to her cleaner; a little local organisation seeks to teach and feed the labourers' children. But these are token gestures against the essential injustice of things. Without drainage, water, electricity, decent housing and access to medical treatment, many will live in misery.
Middle-class scepticism about the capacity of the state is understandable, but is also at the root of India's troubles. The assumption of many in the middle class that they owe nothing to the state is simply wrong. Edward Luce, in his recent In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, makes the point that India has boomed economically partly as a result of the huge investment in higher education—to the detriment of primary education—made by successive Indian governments, dating back to Nehru. The assumption that India ought by rights to have a highly developed higher education system was one that came easily to the old middle classes who built independent India. The new middle class has benefited directly from this.
Unlike in many postcolonial countries, power in India was not concentrated in traditional landed elites or resistance fighters, but in the old middle class—educated, professional, upper and intermediate castes from across the religions. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, represented this class. Although rich enough to have studied at Harrow and Cambridge, he did this on the money made by his lawyer father rather than revenue from inherited land. So did the deputy prime minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, from a mercantile community; successive presidents of India—Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain (the first of three Muslim presidents)—were all middle-class intellectuals. Even the great BR Ambedkar, who rose from the poverty of a Dalit family to be the leading author of the Indian constitution, created a middle-class background for himself through becoming a lawyer.
But notwithstanding its success in higher education—and, crucially, in the green revolution in food production in the 1960s—the Indian state is spectacularly inefficient. Many visitors to India, hearing all the talk of "Chindia" and the dual rise of China and India, are shocked by how ramshackle everything looks. India cannot dream of an Olympic bid for the foreseeable future, while China rigorously sticks to its 2008 schedule. A more efficient—if perhaps smaller—state requires dedicated political engagement from those driving its globalising economy.
It is where the Indian state is absent from the daily lives of the poor—where there is no micro-credit, no market-sensitive subsidy and no tax revenue ploughed back into irrigation or roads—that political agitation explodes into violence. In those most blighted rural areas of central India, the farmers commit suicide (although the WTO's discrimination in favour of rich western farmers is also to blame) and the Maoist Naxalites gather strength.
The political apathy of the middle class owes something to the differences in the way 21st-century India and 18th/19th-century western Europe developed. Whereas the growth of free-thinking western bourgeois culture preceded universal suffrage, Indian democracy is nearly half a century older than the birth of an economically vibrant middle class. So, whereas fighting for political power was a crucial element of early western bourgeois culture, in India political rights were taken for granted and are now neglected by those who see their prosperity as a result of their own economic wherewithal. Politics for the middle class is an intellectual preoccupation, not an urgent ethical imperative. Polls routinely show that compared to poorer sections of society, the middle class treats voting and other political activity as low priorities. In a recent focus group I ran with the polling company ACNielsen, young IT professionals dismissed political activity as dishonest, and said they preferred donations to their own company charities as the way to make a difference. The Indian middle class behaves more like the contemporary consuming classes of the west, relentlessly concentrating on expanding its choice of lifestyles while taking political parties to be as bad as each other and non-party politics to be hopelessly idealistic.
The possibility of political change is better realised by those who have not—yet—had the opportunity to concentrate on consumption. Often the most politically active in India are those who are poor without being destitute: the $1-to-$5-a-day people. It is they who tend to give majorities to political parties. This is because it is their lives that are most likely to be transformed by state action. If there is no decent school in the neighbourhood, if lower castes face discrimination, if a child falls ill and requires medicine, if there is drought, if the market price of an agricultural product collapses, then they are exposed—but these are areas where an effective state can make a difference. Investment in healthcare in Tamil Nadu, education in Kerala, roads in Maharashtra, targeted agricultural relief in West Bengal have all helped the working poor, and political parties that have delivered have thrived over several electoral cycles.
There are now effective movements of marginalised groups and opportunistic social coalitions in many states. In the most striking of recent developments, earlier this year, a Dalit politician, Mayawati Kumari, led her party to a big majority in the largest state, Uttar Pradesh, with a novel coalition of Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims. Although she faced charges of corruption, and led a party with as many convicted criminals as those of her opponents, Mayawati demonstrated that politics might be the scene of resistance to the inequities of the market.
Indeed, political parties that focus on social reform—including the Congress-led alliance that won the 2004 general election—are winning power in many parts of the country. The problem is that India's democratic institutions are developed enough to tempt politicians to embed themselves in them rather than radically change them; so we must wait and see whether the electoral success of those outside of the middle class can make the state more responsive to their needs.
But for all the potential for transformation that an optimist might see in the political activity of the poor, it still likely that the sheer pace of economic growth is what will matter most in the coming decades. The democratic Indian state could not impose a country-wide population control strategy, in contrast to the clinical efficiency of communist China. But now it is clear that China will grow old long before it grows rich, while India's young population will enjoy much more sustained growth well into the century. The question is whether new forms of economic and political activity will combine to make development less a matter of luck and unintended consequences and more a matter of moral urgency and strategy. Despite an army of passionate development economists drawn from the middle class, this has not yet happened.
In the middle of celebrations to mark the 60th year of India's independence, there is much to despair about. The middle class is the cause of both the celebration and the despair. What matters now is what happens to those who look to both state and market to make their lives more like those of the middle class.
Lakshmi, a 45-year-old woman living in Bangalore, is barely literate, and that makes her work as a cook difficult, since she has to order provisions. But with help from two of her employers (revealingly, women, whom she calls "akka," or elder sister) she is putting her three daughters through state schools, and has even got one into college. From a remote village, with no education—and, truth to tell, not much culinary skill either—she has charted a path for her daughters straight into the middle class. (Her husband drinks and cannot hold down work.) She asks for money to help them study, because her earnings can do no more than feed and clothe them. "Those girls are going to finish their studies and take real jobs," she says. She gestures around the confines of the kitchen. "Brother, tell me, can this be all there is to life?" The fact that there can indeed be more is going to be important to her girls, to the middle class, and to India itself.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9776 |
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Chuck De Jharkhand |
I have watched this movie two times and found that, director of this movie sounds quite confused about regional-racial differences. At one time Hero (Kabir Khan – Screen Name) in this movie has been talking about national integrity on the other side in scenes related to Jharkhandi Girls – 1. => Bihari Babu (Mr. Shukla - Screen name) was just said to Jharkhandi Girls, Soi Moi Kerketta and Rani Khispotta (screen names) at the time of arrival registration – ‘why you came here, are you coming from zoo etc. until the Jharkhandi Girls showed him official letter of national hockey team. Was it a good humor or Joke to greet arrived national level team player? 2. => a Punjabi player in National Hockey team depicted that, she doesn’t know – what is Jharkhand. She guessed there might be bushes so it’s called Jharkhand, later on Jharkhandi player told her that – in Jharkhand we have Jungle. Then, that Punjabi player replied to Jharkhandi Players – ‘So you reside in Jungle, you must be Jungli then, do you eat Snake etc.?’ Doesn’t find the producer-director Yash Copra to Jharkhand Born other Bollywood girls, Priyanka Chopra & Tanushree Dutta like a Junglee or snake eater? Also, No one would believe that, An Indian national team player General Knowledge’ would be that much weak; she doesn’t know how many states are in India
3. => a Punjabi player asked Team coach why Jharkhandi player doesn’t understand Punjabi, she repeated her dialogue many times - Maine pahle hi kaha tha in Jangliyon Ko team me mat khilao (Already I had said that, don’t let play to these Junglees {Jharkhandi girls} in national hockey team). 4. => Many times Jharkhandi Player seems in movie to saying HO HO in replay of every question. The truth is that such players (Jharkhandi) come from the interiors of Jharkhand region, go to government and missionary schools. By the time they are groomed by Sports Authority of India and become national players, they speak decent Hindi and more than sufficient English. They certainly don't say, Happy Diwali, in reply to a good luck greeting. As it was seen in movie Soi Moi Kerketta said to Australian player - Happy Diwali, in reply to a good luck greeting. The problem isn't about the length of their roles but the way it has been conceived and the subtext it represents. Doesn’t it hurt feeling of Jharkhandi? No matter producer-director Yash Chopra is Punjabi or else. In last month when Jharkhandi Health minister said to a Punjabi political buddy based in Jharkhand that – “I will remove your turban & send you back to Punjab” Then entire Punjabi community came on street to protest against Jharkhandi minister? Sudesh Kumar
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Jharkhand/message/696 |
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GRAND CONTRADICTION: Chuck De Jharkhand |
For many years now, girls from the tribal belts of Jharkhand and Orissa have been notable performers in Indian women's hockey. Jyoti Sunita Kullu, Sumarai Tete, Marystella Tirkey, Helen Soy, Adline Kerketta, Ferdina Ekka, Masira Surin, Annarita Kerketta, Binita Toppo, Binita Xess, Asunta Lakra, Suniti Kispotta, Poonam Toppo are some players who have turned out for India with distinction at senior and junior levels.
But in Chak De! India, a brave Bollywood flick that challenges and demolishes several gender stereotypes, Soi Moi Kerketta and Rani Khispotta (screen names) are merely glorified extras reduced to raising a few loutish chuckles. Admittedly it is not possible to flesh out the characters of all players.
But the problem isn't about the length of their roles but the way it has been conceived and the subtext it represents. The movie creates the stereotype of the 'ignorant' tribal. During team registration, one of the tribal girls replies 'Ho ho' (what a laugh, ha, ha) to every question asked. Apparently she doesn't understand either English or Hindi. While there is nothing wrong in not knowing either of the langu-ages, the inaccurate representation ends up reinforcing the stereotype.
The truth is that such players come from the interiors of Jharkhand and Orissa and go to government and missionary schools. By the time they are groomed by Sports Authority of India and become national players, they speak decent Hindi and functional English. They certainly don't say, Happy Diwali, in reply to a good luck greeting. One also wonders why the script doesn't offer any leadership role to the Jharkhand girls.
Especially since India has seen at least two captains from the tribal heartland of Jharkhand and Orissa in recent times: Jyoti Sunita Kullu and Sumarai Tete. Is it because the areas they come from are inconsequential markets that can be given the short shrift even at the cost of ignoring reality?
Is this why the main characters are mapped to suit the more cash-rich, multiplexed areas in the country? And why does a Bengali girl - it is hard to recall when someone from that state played for the national team - finds a place in the squad? Undeniably Chak De! India is a stirring movie. If only it was fair to Jharkhand!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/GRAND_CONTRADICTION_Chuck_De _Jharkhand/articleshow/2305432.cms |
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Political equations may change in Jharkhand |
RANCHI: As soon as the news of JMM chief Shibu Soren's acquittal trickled in, Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda announced that he would vacate his chair if the UPA decides to put the "desum guru" in his place.
"I am happy with the acquittal of Guruji. This will strengthen the UPA even more," Koda told reporters. JMM is one of the mainstays of the UPA government in the state. "Shibu Soren had been pleading innocence and has finally got justice," Koda said.
Celebrations apart, Soren's return could lead to significant changes in existing political scenario in Jharkhand. Political pundits say it is possible that both JMM and Congress will demand that Soren be made CM.
This is because Koda is already in trouble, with Opposition continuing to heap charges of corruption against him and his ministerial colleagues. All this has made political survival difficult for Koda.
Even on Wednesday, the day Soren was acquitted, the assembly was adjourned indefinitely after the Opposition, led by Arjun Munda, stalled the proceedings over Koda's alleged proximity to one Vinod Singh, who allegedly became a millionaire after Koda became CM.
Sources in the UPA say Soren, who was Union coal minister when he was convicted in 2006, may demand the CM's post this time. However, Koda's press advisor Sandeep Verma rejected this as idle speculation.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Political_ equations_may_change_in_Jharkhand/articleshow/2302492.cms |
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XLRI signs wide-ranging MOU with AB Freeman School, Tulane University |
Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur (XLRI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with US based AB Freeman School of Business, Tulane University to initiate an exchange program between the two schools.
The MOU covers exchange programmes for both students and faculty. The two institutions are also planning to conduct joint executive management programmes.
On the occasions of signing the MOU at XLRI on August 17, Dr Angelo DeNisi, Dean, Tulane University and Dr. John Trapani, Vice-Dean and head of International Programs, Tulane University were present. Also present was Dr. Arup Varma, an alumnus of XLRI and Professor at Loyola University, Chicago, who facilitated the process.
XLRI says that the two sides plan to extend the arrangement whereby AB Freeman faculty will conduct courses as per XLRI's Management Development Program for working executives. They would also come together to conduct joint Management Development Programs at XLRI's centers at Dubai and Singapore. XLRI will also contribute to and gain experience from the Faculty Development Program at the AB Freeman School.
According to XLRI, keeping in mind AB Freeman faculty's expertise in the field of finance, the two institutes have also plans to conduct joint Master's programs in finance and strategy.
As part of the student exchange program, students from XLRI would spend a semester at the AB Freeman School of Business and vice versa. Students of XLRI's General Management Program are expected to visit Tulane this year as part of the international exposure component in their program, for which the expenses will be borne by the institute.
The A B Freeman School of Business was founded in 1914. The Freeman School is recognized as a leading business institutions. It offers a wide variety of programs from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. With a strong focus on finance and entrepreneurship, its specialized programs like the Faculty Development Program are also acclaimed and in high demand. As part of the exchange programs, the AB Freeman School has ties with universities in Latin America and Asia, and receives almost 100 international students annually.
http://www.mbaunive rse.com/innerPag e.php?id= ne&pageId=490 |
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2010 power plan loses shine as problems pile up |
NEW DELHI: If you have been counting days for your power woes to get over by the Commonwealth Games, think again. The power ministry's efforts to light up the Capital by 2010 run the risk of tripping owing to problems in transporting coal to power stations, technical snags and delays.
The ministry had prepared a plan to supply additional electricity to the tune of 10,000 MW to Delhi in time for the Games. Essentially, the plan centred on expanding the identified coal-fired generation units of Central utilities in Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, and setting up a new plant in Haryana.
At a meeting to monitor the progress of these projects, it surfaced that at least two expansion projects - Damodar Valley Corporation's Kodarma unit in Jharkhand and NTPC's Dadri phase-II in UP - could starve of fuel. This is because the coal ministry has identified mines far away in other states for supplies to these projects, while the Railways say it does not have enough tracks, locomotives and rakes to move coal.
The two projects together are to have supplied an aggregate of 2,000 MW, or a little over half of what the Capital consumes now. The coal ministry had designated Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd in Orissa as the supplier for Kodarma and Central Coalfields Ltd in Chhattisgarh for Dadri. In both the cases, coal has to be moved through three or more railway zones, creating administrative and infrastructure problems while pointing to gaps in planning.
"It is surprising that the power plants being set up in Jharkhand would be getting coal from outside the state despite the fact that the reason for setting up power projects in Jharkhand has been the availability of large quantity of coal in the area," power secretary Anil Razdan said at the meeting.
He suggested the coal ministry and Railways sort out the issue by changing the allocation and ensuring projects get coal from nearby mines.
The fate of expanding Delhi's Badarpur unit, aggregating 1,000 MW, has also been sealed. NTPC has cited "technical reasons" to say it is not feasible and will supply the same quantity from Korba in Chhattisgarh and Farakka in Bengal. But question still remains over whether these stations can sell power on a short-term basis or how this power is to be wheeled to Delhi.
NTPC has also asked for more time to construct the 1,500 MW plant at Jhajjar in Haryana, saying the stipulated timeline is "too tight and has never been achieved". The company's Sipat and Kahalgaon expansion projects are also running late.
DVC too is no better off. It has said that it will not be able to add 500 MW capacity to its Bokaro plant in Jharkhand before the Games and wants to supply additional power from the Durgapur plant in Bengal.
http://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/India/ 2010_power_ plan_loses_ shine_as_ problems_ pile_up/articles how/2289571. cms |
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Jharkhand tribal girls take to sculpting as a career option |
Jamshedpur, Aug.9: Jharkhand's adolescent tribal girls are being trained at a Tribal Culture Centre (TCC) here to be master sculptors in the world of fine arts.
At least sixteen girls are presently being trained at the centre, which functions under the auspices of the Tata Group.
The girls hail from backward tribes like the Santhal and the Ho, which are confined to remote regions like Parsudih, Karandih and Jamtada. The training is aimed at empowering tribal women free of cost.
Students are being encouraged to learn the nuances of sculpting for use in a vocation at a later stage in their lives.
Today, these students say they can comfortably sculpt deities of Ganapati and Durga in a fortnight's time.
'I am lucky that I have got an opportunity to learn this art. I have learnt to make paperweights and coasters, besides statues of Hindu deities,' said Gayatri Purti, a student.
Most of the students wish to share their expertise with others in due course of time.
'I have decided to teach other girls of my village the art of stone statue making, and I will take it up professionally to earn a living,' said Mannu Sundi, another student.
The girls are also being taught creative arts such as how to make whittle grain-soft stones and design different decorative shapes like pen stands and flowerpots etc.
Ajit Ojha, a faculty member at the TCC, said that the year-long training is aimed at economically empowering the girls.
'These girls are coming from Jharkhand to learn the art on the advice of women empowerment organisations (Mahila Mandals).They can earn up to rupees 10,000 rupees per month,' claimed Ojha.
The TCC would help the girls to get exposure through exhibitions and marketing of their creations at national and international events.
The TCC was set up with the objective of improving the economic status of tribals in Jharkhand.
--- ANI
http://www.newkeral a.com/july. php?action= fullnews&id=52720 |
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Scripting new chapter |
Ever heard of a weekly called Deen Dalit'? Odds are invariably against it with its existence now becoming 21-year-old story. But it seems one Gauri Shankar Razak is scripting a history in journalism with his zest for news dissemination and all zing and zeal of a reporter. He is a hawker as well as the editor-cum-propriet or of the same, depending on a roadside laundry for sustaining his journalistic pursuit.
No kidding. Duly registered by the office of registrar of newspapers for India, Deen Dalit is probably the country's isolated weekly available in hand written form!
Proudly displaying his manuscript, Gauri Shankar Razak (now in his early 60s) says, "I am doing this for a social cause not for business. In fact, life is not permanent. Somehow it will go on. But at the end, it is not how you lived it but what you did shall matter. And I believe that Deen Dalit has given a voice to the people standing at the lower echelon on the society, wherein reports about crime, corruption and exploitations against them at mofussil level have found prominence. I don't know how long this can continue, but I feel it's a divine force that is guiding me. My pursuit will stop only if the divine force deserts me.
"What prompted him to bring out weekly in manuscript? Gauri Shankar says, "It's because of monetary reasons. I wanted to bring the bitter truths of the society to the fore but I had my own financial limitations. But then I could not afford to ask donation for my endeavour."
Going down memory lane, Razak further said, "over two decades back, I had been to a officer's residence on Sunday and to my utter surprise, I found a peon being pressed into doing menial work at the officer's residence. This was an eye-opener for me and later I found newspaper as an effective tool to expose such type of exploitation rampant at mofussil level but going unnoticed. Since I could not afford the printing cost, I resolved to bring out a weekly in hand written form. Efforts bore fruits and 'Deen Dalit' came into being on October 2, 1986, much to my satisfaction."As things stand today – a simple matriculate, Razak sets out from his home on bicycle carrying loads of clothes each morning for laundering in his hometown Dumka (in Jharkhand). "But he always keeps his eye and ear open. He never shrinks away from his responsibility of a patrakar (journalist) . He writes and edits his weekly himself and pushes it in the market for sale after getting some 100 xerox copies of the same.
Sometimes people buy it on their own, sometimes they have to be persuaded. But in one way to ensure it reaches down to the grassroot, he invariably pastes each issue on walls of Dumka and adjoining villages," says Dushyant Kumar, a Dumka-based journalist. Razak's dedication can be discerned from the fact that he has already edited as many as 610 (by the time of filing this report) handwritten issues of Deen Dalit in past 21 years. Though it is a weekly, Razak admits that edition of his manuscript becomes irregular at times owing to financial crunches.
"In fact, each issue of Deen Dalit exacts a minimum Rs 200. But a meagre sum like this too becomes difficult as the weekly draws its sustenance purely on the earning from my laundry. I don't need any advertisement or monetary help for my manuscript from any quarter," boasts Razak whose wife and four sons have been extremely supportive. Curiously, Razak religiously sends his weekly to the Prime Minister and President of India and has earned accolades from former President K R Narayanan for his unique endeavour.
http://www.deccanhe rald.com/ Content/Aug19200 7/finearts200708 1819950.asp |
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Jaharkand HC asks Centre,EC and DC to reply on delimitation by Sep 5 |
The Jharkhand High Court has directed the Centre, Election Commission and Delimitation Commission (DC) to file an affidavit by September five in connection with the notification of the Delimitation Act, 2002.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Muthuswamy Karpagvinyagam and Justice Narendranath Tiwary passed the order while hearing a writ petition by veteran politician Salkhan Murmu.
Mr Delip Jerath appearing on behalf of the petitioner challenged Sections 4, 8 and 9 of the Delimitation Act 2002.
Under the said Section, delimitation of the constituencies was done on the basis of population percentage of Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes, he argued.
Mr Jerath contended that the Act was against Article 14 of Constitution and was contrary to the Fifth Schedule enacted to safeguard the interests of the tribals.
The tribals were being penalised imposing family planning on them as the percentage of tribal population steadily decreased.
In 1946-47 their population was 80 per cent but now they had decreased to 27 per cent of the total population, the court was informed.
Under these circumstances no reserved seat would be left for the tribals in next 20-25 years, Mr Zerath argued.
Assistant Solicitor General Mukhtar Khan appearing on behalf of Union government contended that Delimitation Act had ben constituted in the interests of the SCs and STs only.
According to Section 9(1) (d), the constituencies dominated by the SC and ST population would be reserved for them.
The Act, which had few amendments in 2003, was based on 2001 census.
(UNI)
http://www.indlawne ws.com/493C7F891 FB45475082784144 7A56E05 |
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BHEL bags Rs 6,500 cr orders from DVC |
New Delhi, Aug 21 : State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) today said it has secured mega trunkey contracts worth Rs 6,500 crore from Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).
As per the order, the company will set up two units of 500 MW each at Koderma Thermal Power Station (TPS) in Jharkhand and two units of 500 MW each at Durgapur Steel TIPS in West Bengal, both on turnkey basis.
The projects will add 48 million units every day to the Grid on commissioning and will supply power to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, a statement said.
BHEL's scope of work in the contract includes manufacture, supply, erection testing and commissioning of steam turbines, generators, boilers, associated auxiliaries, balance of plant and electricals.
BHEL is also planning to introduce 800 MW thermal sets with supercritical parameters. It has equipped itself to produce thermal power equipment for 800 MW sets and using Indian as well as imported coal.
In addition, the company is shoring up its capability for higher rating hydro sets and advanced class gas turbines to cater to upcoming market requirements.
With an aim to equip itself to meet the country's power capacity, addition targets in the 11th plan and beyond, BHEL is enhancing its manufacturing capacity in the next three years, from the current level of 6,000 MW to 15,000 MW per annum, with a total investment of about Rs 3,200 crore.
--- UNI
http://www.newkeral a.com/july. php?action= fullnews&id=55212 |
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Jharkhand tribals worship during Mansa festival by piercing their bodies |
Panchparanga (Jharkhand), Aug.19 : About a hundred tribals in Jharkhand's Panchparanga area body-pierced themselves with sharp objects to please Goddess Mansa during the annual Mansa Festival.
Over 500 tribals had congregated at Tamar hamlet, 70 kilometres from Ranchi to mark the Mansa Festival held in Jharkhand and also in some parts of West Bengal on Saturday (August. 18).
The body-piercing act is part of a local ritual being followed by the tribals for ages here. It is done to look ardent devotees of the Goddess.
Many tribals believe that giving such a harsh punishment to one's body enables them to have special affection of the Goddess, who, in return, will protect them from snakebites rest of the year.
Basant Kumar Banerjee, a priest, said: "The prayer is being done to get free from snakes and the tradition is in practice for long. We all believe that if prayed with full devotion then there would not be any scare of snakes."
The ceremony was attended by hordes of people, who were chanting and dancing to the beats of drums and crowded around a village pond to bathe. It is mandatory before lining up to get one's body parts pierced.
Ajay Kumar Gupta, one of the devotees, said: "The piercing ritual is miraculous. Even after piercing a person doesn't need any medicine or doctor's help."
Though most of the people celebrate the Mansa Festival by observing fast and worshiping before Mansa, known to be the Goddess of serpents, but many tribals opt for body piercing.
Tribal men perform the body piercing while returning in a religious procession after taking the customary bath from a pool. It all ends when the procession reaches the Mansa Temple where the men with pierced bodies take out the objects and worship the Goddess.
These individuals smear normal vermillion, as an 'anti-sceptic' on the bleeding parts.
Mansa festival is marked in many parts of Jharkhand that include Ranchi, East Singum and others. In West Bengal, the areas marking the festival include Purlia, Bakura and Midnapur area beside a few other places.
On this day, women keep fast and eat only at mid-night after worshipping the Goddess Mansa.
Legend has it that Mansa was a daughter of Lord Shiva, also known for ruling the beasts and spirits, apart from being the destroyer of the evil.
These religious practices, however, are carried out under poor hygienic conditions and threaten the health of minors as well as the adults participating in it.
Despite being looked upon with discomfort by city dwellers, the body piercing or similar acts are viewed a part of centuries old tribal customs.
--- ANI
http://www.newkeral a.com/july. php?action= fullnews&id=54853 |
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Doubts over timely implementation of delimitation process |
New Delhi, Aug. 19 (PTI): The exercise to delimit constituencies across the country has got caught in a political quagmire, raising doubts over whether the process will be completed before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
While the RJD and JMM have openly opposed the exercise in Bihar and Jharkhand respectively for a variety of reasons, the talk in political circles is that there are many who have reservations to the move.
The RJD wants the process to be stopped, while the JMM in Jharkhand has expressed fears that seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Parliament and the state assembly would be obliterated.
This is because several leaders fear the loss of their original constituencies which they have nurtured for long.
In fact, the Delimitation Commission recently pleaded with the government to come out with a Presidential Order for implementing the readjustment in respect of 513 Lok Sabha and 3,726 assembly constituencies in 25 states, for which the process has been completed.
Senior BJP leader V K Malhotra said the government was required to call a meeting of all political parties to discuss the Commission's work. He alleged that the ruling Congress appeared reluctant to implement the Commission's recommendations.
"The constituencies as they stand now are carved out on the basis of the 1971 census. It is now 2007 and a change is required," he said.
http://www.hindu. com/thehindu/ holnus/001200708 191057.htm |
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Jharkhand schools to introduce lightning prevention lessons |
New Delhi, Aug. 21 (Xinhua): Authorities in eastern Indian Jharkhand state are introducing school lessons on lightning prevention and protection, the Telegraph reported Monday.
Jharkhand's Human Resource Development (HRD) department said the move was being initiated on the basis recommendations of a committee set up by the state's high court in May this year. The committee was constituted after a rise of lightning deaths was reported, the Telegraph newspaper said.
"Apart from including a chapter in the school syllabus, we are also seriously thinking of generating mass awareness through radio, television and billboards. These programs will focus more on rural areas due to its susceptibility to lightning," it quoted an unnamed senior state HRD official and a committee member as saying.
A study has found that Jharkhand is highly prone to lightning because of its high altitude -- about 222 to 1,142 meters above the sea level, a state university expert said, according to the report.
http://www.hinduonn et.com/thehindu/ holnus/004200708 210340.htm |
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Essar to invest Rs 5,000 cr in Jharkhand plant |
The Essar group is planning to invest over Rs 5,000 crore to set up a 1200-MW power plant in Jharkhand. The group has set up a special purpose vehicle — Essar Power (Jharkhand Ltd), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Essar Power Holdings — to set up the plant.
The company will set up two coal-based projects with a generation capacity of 600 MW each. "We are planning to have a 6,000-MW power generation capacity over the next five years. In Jharkhand, we have been allocated a coal mine in Chakala. Right now, we are working on the financial closure, which will be finalised by the end of this fiscal," Essar Power Managing Director Arun Srivastava said.
The coal mine will provide captive coal over the next ten years, he said. The group has started acquiring 1,500 acres of land for the power project, which has been named as Tory Power Project.
Essar Power is in the process of completing a detailed project report for tying up the finance. The project will have a debt equity ratio of 3:1 and is scheduled to be completed in four years, Srivastava said. The company has decided to invest another Rs 5,000 crore for a 1.200-MW power plant in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh.
At present, Essar has five operational power plants at Hazira, Vadinar and Vishakhapatnam with a total generation capacity of 1200 MW.
The gas-based plant at Hazira has a generation capacity of 515 MW, out of which 315 MW goes to the Gujarat Electricity Board, while 200 MW is used by Essar Steel for captive consumption. The company has another 500 MW plant in Hazira, which currently generates 315 MW for Essar Steel. Besides, it has a 120-MW co-generation plant in Vadinar for the captive power purpose of the refinery and another 35 MW coal-based power plant in Vizag for the steel plant.
"Most of these existing projects cater to the captive power requirements of our group companies. But from Jharkhand, we will supply electricity to the grid," Srivastava said. The group will supply power from Jharkhand at Rs 2.10 per unit electricity
http://www.hindusta ntimes.com/ StoryPage/ StoryPage. aspx?id=d1d0519b -183a-46fd- a907-d877c969d92 8&
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503&Headline=Essar+ to+invest+ Rs+5%2c000+ cr+in+Jharkhand+ plant |
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Ulfa catches govt unawares |
NEW DELHI: Even as the Centre on Monday rushed its security brass to Guwahati to review the situation in the wake of spate of killings of Hindi-speaking migrants, it may only have itself to blame for failing to foresee the attacks despite the close precedent of Ulfa's targeting of non-Assamese ahead of the Republic Day this year.
The serial killings of Hindi-speaking minorities in the state in the run-up to the Independence Day were perhaps just waiting to happen. Ulfa, following the botched-up peace attempt with the Centre last year, had regrouped and was fighting the Army — which was forced to suspend operations during the cease-fire — with a renewed cadre and arsenal. Their recharged firepower was on display in January this year, when the insurgent outfit, in a spate of high-casualty strikes ahead of the Republic Day and the following National Games in February, killed nearly 80 people.
Ulfa has repeatedly followed the pattern of stepping up attacks just before national events like the Republic Day and the Independence Day.
It's also becoming increasingly clear that Hindi-speaking migrants, who often live in hamlets spread far and wide, are an easy target not just because of their vulnerability but also because of the growing perception that Ulfa has become soft towards Bangladeshi immigrants and doesn't want to harm the Assamese for fear of losing local sympathy. According to security experts, these were enough indications that the outfit could repeat the pattern of targeting Hindi-speaking residents in the run-up to the Independence Day this year as well.
But the Centre and the Assam government — the latter, ironically, has been selling the idea of reopening negotiations with Ulfa, this time directly inviting the top leadership — seem to have ignored the obvious warnings and were caught unawares when Ulfa started killing non-Assamese.
Had they had the foresight to see the attacks coming, pre-emptive measures like shifting the non-Assamese to temporary camps for better security and increasing deployment around their hamlets could have been helped minimise the casualties. With the opportunity of being prepared for a fresh Ulfa onslaught around the I-Day wasted, the Centre and the state government are now picking up the pieces and on Monday put their heads together for a Unified Command meeting in Guwahati.
The situation was reviewed at the meeting — chaired by the chief minister and attended by senior home ministry officials and the Army, BSF and CRPF brass — and decisions were taken regarding setting up of temporary security camps to guard the Hindi-speaking migrant families. The migrants are likely to be told to put up in the camps at night, as that is when Ulfa, which has now been working with Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF), usually surfaces. However, they would be free to go to their place of employment during the day.
Union minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal will be visiting the state on Tuesday to meet the kin of the those gunned down by Ulfa and KLNLF over the past week. He will be meeting Mr Gogoi in Guwahati after visiting the sites of Ulfa attacks in Karbi-Anglong.
http://economictime s.indiatimes. com/News/ PoliticsNation/ Ulfa_catches_ govt_unawares/ articleshow/ 2278967.cms |
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Many states still ill-equipped in bomb disposal |
New Delhi, Aug. 10 (PTI): As terrorists go hi-tech using remote-controlled devices, many states in the country continue to be ill-equipped to diffuse bombs, say experts.
Most states in the country are ill-equipped in carrying out bomb detection and post blast investigation and the country has only one -the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) at Maneshar in Haryana which is a specialised centre, says a retired army official.
Apart from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Addhra Pradesh, the remaining states in India are still following the traditional ways of bomb diffusing process, he adds.
"We are still backwards when it comes to bomb diffusing technologies. If you compare with USA or UK, they are far ahead of us. Even they use robots to diffuse the bombs," he says.
Colonel Ajay Ahooja, Director,National Security Guards (NSG), declines to comment on the present condition of BDS of other law enforcing agencies but says that NSG has all the facilities and equipment to fight the menace.
London BDS acted on time and diffused the bombs in jeep driven by Kafeel Ahmed with a great sense of planning and perfect implementation in the recent terror plot which took the whole world with surprise. But, on the other hand, Indian policemen looked helpless and without clue in diffusing bombs kept in tiffin boxes in the Hyderabad Mosque blast.
Newspaper pictures, which showed them diffusing bombs without having mask and cover, was a classic example of bravery and misfortune, experts say.
Two bomb disposal squad personnel of the CID were killed while defusing a bomb at the Maoist-infested Jhitka area under Lalgarh police station in West Bengal's West Midnapore district on September 21, 2006.
The blast occurred when a bomb concealed in an aluminium tiffin box found on a road, was being defused by the bomb disposal squad. Police and eyewitnesses said the bomb disposal squad personnel were using their bare hands and a chisel and a hammer to break open the tiffin box. Neither were they wearing protective jackets.
A similar blast was engineered by the maoists two years earlier at Bankisole in the same district killing six Eastern Frontier Rifle personnel.
"There are states using the modern equipment such as optical fibroscope for their Bomb Disposal Squad. They are Delhi, UP, Chhattisgarh, Orrissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jammu Kashmir," says an official of a company which provides equipment to the BDS of different states.
There were 295, 354, 372 and 233 bomb explosions in the country during the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, according to a study conducted by the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC).
The NBDC has been collating, analysing and disseminating information on bombing incidents to all government agencies. The NBDC forwards advisory reports to the states based on the lessons learnt from the various post blast investigation and analysis.
Now terrorists use (Improvised Explosive Devices) IEDs, which have been responsible for hundreds of casualtties in the terrorism affected areas of the country. In 2005, out of the national total of 233 bombing incidents, J-K dominated the national scenario with 97 incidents followed by Assam, Manipur and Jharkhand.
According to a security expert, naxal affected Jharkhand and Chattisgarh taken together witnessed more blasts in 2006 than J-K. Compared to 78 IED blasts in J-K in 2006, a total of 91 explosions took place in these naxal affected states.
Modern technology has enabled the terrorist groups to plan and execute over a larger canvas killing large number of people and presenting challenging task to the government agencies and that's why it can be easily seen that the number of blasts in the last few years have gone down but number of casualties have gone up. There has been growth of explosives made out of innocuons items such as fertilizers or plaster of paris.
"Till recently, terrorism was considered a regional phenomenon but with globalisation and advancement in science and technology, terrorists have now trans-national reach and their operations have become more lethal," says Brigadier (Retd.) Virender Kumar. "Behind every blast, the terrorist's basic aim is to cause injuries, create confusion. In most of the cases, BDS gets information regarding the bomb after the blast has already taken place," he says.
On policemen diffusing bombs without wearing mask or cover, Brig. Kumar says, "They are morons. They should wait for the full BDS team having sniffer dogs, endoscatic mirrors, video cameras and portable X-ray devices."
Suspected actuating mechanism of bomb explosion can be Anti Handling (device set off by handling), Command wire (device connected by long wire), Timed (device set to detonate at a predetermined time) and landmines.
An official of BDS team in New Delhi says, "our ninety per cent work is of Anti Sabotage Cell (ASC). We check the venue and the roads to which a VVIP is expected. A large number of the policemen are into safeguarding the life of these important personalities. There are very few people in the team who are experts in handling the bomb disposal. Most of the time we get hoax calls about bombs.
"In Orissa, the main security threat is of Naxalites. They use RDX, landmines and even some conventional bombs like nitro-glycerin, trinitrate, RDX C3, C4 and TNT," says a senior official of Orissa Intelligence.
The arms and explosive wing of German military developed high-stexplosive called trinitrotoluene' (TNT) in 1902 by the action of nitric and sulphuric acid on Toluene.
Then after manufacture of TNT, research and development explosive (RDX) was developed. Named chemically as yclotrimethylene trinitramine, it is cast with some amounts of TNT 40 to 45 per cent and is used where the highest degree or power of shattering effect is needed.
In Hyderabad Mosque blast, which claimed nine lives during Friday prayers, a highly sophisticated bomb with deadly RDX and TNT was used. The bomb disposal squad recovered 300 gm of RDX and TNT after defusing the unexploded IED.
Malegaon explosion that claimed 38 lives at a graveyard on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat in the textile town in Nasik district of Maharashtra, RDX was used in all the four bombs that rocked the communally sensitive town.
"Our BDS is divided into two wings- one looks after the security forces threat and the other for the safety of VIPs. Recently central government has granted a huge fund for the establishment of BDS at every police station in the state. We are working towards providing bullet proof vehicles to the BDS, which is now only available to the VIPs," he adds.
Bomb Disposal is an emcopassing term to describe the separate but interrelated functions in military (Explosive ordinance disposal) and public safety (public safety bomb disposal).
http://www.hindu. com/thehindu/ holnus/004200708 100322.htm |
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The state goes into hiding on Maoist terror |
As many as 153 security personnel were killed in 2005 in Naxal-hit states and 62 till April 30, 2006. On the other hand, 223 Naxalites were killed in 2005 and 93 till April 30, 2006.
About 281 persons including security personnel were killed in Naxal attacks till April 30, 2006, while the fatal casualties in terrorist acts in J&K totalled 141. According to the government while 516 civilians were killed in 2005 in 1,594 incidents of Naxalite violence, 219 civilians were killed in 550 incidents during the first four months of 2006.
Over 6,000 persons have been killed in different parts of India in Naxalite-related violence in just over a decade. Landmines, improvised explosive devices, targeted attacks on the police and civilian personnel are employed extensively.
Talking platitudes and clichés has become the normal norm of our rulers. If any terrorist incident happens, you can predict, almost in a word, their speech of condemnation and calling the whole episode a cowardly act. Rarely or few and far have been cases, where criminals have died by the hands of the law. They have been eliminated by the hands of other men. Our politicians, when dealing with any problem, double speak.
The Army was directed to abandon anti-ULFA operations mid-way to create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue. It only helped ULFA to group and reorganise, who have rejected all the government initiatives.
For the first time since Independence, the Chhattisgarh state assembly held a secret sitting on July 25, 2007. No visitors, no journalists and no cameras were allowed. The secret session was called to discuss the Naxalite menace, described by the Prime Minister as the "biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country".
The Chief Minister said that the in-camera session was to allow members to discuss the issue "openly and freely". In other words, the elected legislators avoid speaking out, either about the Naxalites or measures to be taken publicly. Otherwise, they would be targetted and even killed. All members had been briefed not to speak about the session. Even minutes of the discussion will be kept under a veil of secrecy.
It underscores that the menace of Naxalites and Maoists is no less than a war. People have not forgotten the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 or October 30, 2001 attack on J&K Assembly. Taking the logic of attack on Parliament and J&K Assembly, should Legislators have gone into hiding, as a sign of surrender? As per the Union Home Ministry, Maoists, Naxalites and other Left-wing extremism-related incidents are outnumbering terror strikes in Jammu & Kashmir. As many as 550 incidents of Left-wing extremism were recorded in the affected states as compared to 466 terrorist attacks between January 1 and April 30, 2006.
In the same period, as many as 281 persons including security personnel were killed in Naxal attacks till April 30, 2006, while the fatal casualties in terrorist acts in J&K totalled 141. According to the Government while 516 civilians were killed in 2005 in 1,594 incidents of Naxalite violence, 219 civilians were killed in 550 incidents during the first four months of 2006. As many as 153 security personnel were killed in 2005 in Naxal-hit states and 62 till April 30, 2006. On the other hand, 223 Naxalites were killed in 2005 and 93 till April 30, 2006.
The Naxalites have grown from 156 districts in 13 states in September 2004 to 170 districts in 15 states by February 2005. In fact total paralysation of the administration and the country is the aim of the Naxalites and Maoists. They have warned, that Maoist guerrillas, numbering more than 20,000, could target industries and the Railways in a bid to bring mining activity in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand to a standstill.
Many experiments have been tried to bring concord, amity and harmony with a number of terrorist groups, including the repeal of strict laws like POTA and TADA, unilateral ceasefire by the Government of India in J&K and engaging in talks with Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh, as well as with a conglomerate of separatists organisation called Hurriat in J&K, ULFA in Assam and Naga groups in North-East, the Prime Minister's efforts to rope in ULFA for talks have been rebuffed, despite two rounds of talks with People's Consultative Group. The Army was directed to abandon anti-ULFA operations mid-way to create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue. It only helped ULFA, to group and reorganise, who have rejected all the government initiatives.
Populism, just before Assam elections, in 2006, ensured that the foreigners act and rules, were amended to make it compulsory for all illegal immigration cases, to be tried by tribunal. In the confusion, not a single deportation has taken place since July 12, 2005 when the Supreme Court struck down the controversial IMDT Act. Same story is repeated in Naga peace dialogue too.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Naxalite used the ceasefire period in 2004 to regroup and rework out their strategy. The result is there, for all to see: The Maoists, having regrouped, during the peace accord talk period, when a ceasefire was declared by the Andhra Pradesh. Maoists have carried out l,533 attacks in 2004 and 1,594 in 2005. Nearly a decade plus, long terrorism in Punjab was dealt with a crushing blow without an interlocutor, which are in plenty, on various fronts. If any interlocutor is to solve the problem, then pray what for the Prime Minister, Home minister and their bloated Ministries with officers, even looking after the cleanliness of bathrooms of their offices exist. Irrespective of what men may talk about peaceful resolution of any problem, the ultimate reason for the peace anywhere in the world is the use of force. King Frederick once said "Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings."
Talking platitudes and clichés, has become the normal norm of our rulers. If any terrorist incident happens, you can predict, almost in a word, their speech of condemnation and calling the whole episode a cowardly act. Rarely or few and far have been cases, where criminals have died by the hands of the law. They have been eliminated, by the hands of other men. Our politicians, when dealing with any problem, double speak. On one side, they will say that terrorism would be eliminated and on the other, they would talk of peace process. Charles De Gaulle rightly said, "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word."
Many people say that some problems can be solved by the experienced politicians, but there is another view which says that "Experience to a politician is like experience to a prostitute—not much to recommend them. Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first… Politicians may think prostitution is a grim, degrading life. But prostitutes think the same of politics."
Dilly dallying and double talk, have adverse and negative effect on those tackling the executioner, murderers, assassins and slaughterers, by whatever name they may be called or known. Security forces, are the ones fighting on the ground level. They bear the brunt of the guns, armaments and fire power of the terrorists or Naxalites. They get an impression that their lives are expendable, as the leaders send different signals on every day of the month. The treatment of the malady should not be delayed when force is inescapable and necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. At the same it must be backed by strong legislative measures and protection for those on the forefront of the battle. As the laws stand now, and the standard of proof demanded, to convict a terrorist or a Naxalite or Maoist, is impossible to get. For instance, you need a proof, and a witness, not only as to who might not only have seen them committing a crime, but also be able to identify them and further be foolhardy and foolish enough, to depose against them in an open court. Apart from that he must be willing to go again and again to the court, as it is not uncommon for the lawyers to demand adjournments, till the witnesses get fed up. Again, he must be willing not to expect any magnanimity or charity from those against whom he might have deposed. He must also be stupid enough to expose himself to their wrath and be willing to manage without any protection, as there is no witness protection programme in our country.
Over 6,000 persons have been killed in different parts of India in Naxalite-related violence in just over a decade. Landmines, improvised explosive devices, targeted attacks on the police and civilian personnel are employed extensively.
Intelligence agencies have evidence of large-scale extortion by the Naxalite groups from targeted individuals and organisations. For instance, documents recovered from the Andhra Pradesh coastal region by the police in 2005 contained accounts of money extorted from a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party (Rs 5,00,000), beedi leaf contractors (Rs 60,000), from lorry owners (Rs 20,000) and from an administrative block officer 5,000). This is only a sample and a tip of the iceberg. Maoist seizing powers in Nepal has only emboldened and encouraged their ideological companions, that they can have a similar ambitions in India. Already the Indian terrorists have made no secret of this desire. The government needs to adopt a two pronged strategy of talking peace, but at the same time, keeping its powder and suppressing violence with a firm hand. It is the duty of the Government, more at the Centre and also at the state level to ensure that citizens are not harassed and they are well protected.
(The author is an IPS (Retd.), former Director, CBI)
http://www.organise r.org/dynamic/ modules.php? name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=197&page=7 |
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Amnesty International to support Tribal Rights Act |
Amnesty International is observing International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples : 9 August 2007 to support the urgent demands for adivasi/indigenous peoples right to full implementation of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)Act, 2006, to a life free of the threat of evictions and displacement, and the release of humanrights defenders.
These demands have come to a head due to the case of Narmada, Kashipur, Singur, Kalinganangar, Nandigram, Chhatisgarh, Rewa and many more, where state repression of movements and their leaders; culture of torture, unlawful killings and impunity have been continuously carried on in the name of development and 'national' interest.
On this day, in the cities of Delhi (New Delhi), Kolkata, Durgapur, Jalpaiguri and Purulia (West Bengal), Jalna, and Aurangabad (Maharashtra) , Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Palakkad and Cochin (Kerela), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Poonch (J&K), Mohali and Nawashar (Punjab), Banda, Amroha, Moradabad, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Jamshedpur, Madhupur and Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Raipur and Durg (Chhatisgarh) , Rourkela, Berhampur (Orissa), Lanka (Manipur), Pauri Garhwal (Uttaranchal) and in other places there will be seminars, round table meetings and press conferences, signature campaigns, silent marches and candle light protests.
In India, we are at a juncture where after a long struggle by adivasi groups and movements, The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, has been passed. The GOI while framing the Forest Rights Act has for the first time admitted the historic injustice done to adivasis. This Act is a result of collective struggles of Peoples' and mass tribal organizations and movements. It draws out the individual and community rights of tenure, rights ofaccess, rights of ownership over forest, right to in situ rehabilitation including alternative land in the case of illegal eviction or displacement.
Firstly, the Act should be implemented fully and immediately. Secondly, the Draft Rule circulated by the Govt. should end its discrimination towards non-S.T populations who are mainly Adivasis (non scheduled in many states), Pastoral communities (O.B.Cs and Muslims) living in forest areas and are being demanded 75 years of proof of residence.
Thirdly, the powers of Gram Sabhas should not be diluted in the Rules while Forest Department is privileged. There are no mechanisms to protect adivasis/indigenous people from the Forest Department utilizing the situation to create divisions among the communities and perpetuating the process of 'Historical Injustice'.
Fourthly, the concern is that the government's ceaseless sanction of SEZs and other industrial projects in the adivasi heartland are bound to conflict with the bundle of rights conferred by the Act. This will force adivasis into confrontation with state, corporates, or any force that government may deem to use. Additionally, in most of the adivasi areas, the free and prior consent of people have not been sought for projects, compensations have not been fair, nor has rehabilitation by the state been legally assured in comprehensive and substantive manner.
In the light of this, we demand an end to further displacement in adivasi areas. Fifthly, adivasi leaders have been beaten, detained, rearrested when released by the court, rallies have been disrupted by corporate sector goondas, adivasi/indigenous women have been sexually assaulted with little action taken against this by the government against perpetrators. These extra-legal activities are having a toll on the right to life, freedom of expression and freedom of association, in adivasi/indigenous areas.
To ensure that adivasi/indigenous people's rights to life, forest, land and rehabilitation, life with dignity and human rights safeguards are assured in practice, SUPPORT the demands for implementing The Scheduled Tribes and OtherTraditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)Act, 2006; demand to stop evictions and to release human rights defenders.
For more information
Amnesty International India
C-1/22, 1st floor, Safdarjung Development Area,
Hauz Khas, New Delhi—110016
Phones: 011-41642501, 268854763.
E-mail:membership@ amnesty.org. in , admin-in@amnesty. org |
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A tale retold, yet unheard |
NEW DELHI: A special film about the struggle of the Adivasis against mining and land grabbing was screened at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan here earlier this week.
Made by Grass Roots Media Pvt. Ltd in partnership with Equations, 'Mahua Memoirs' takes viewers on a journey through the lives of the many Adivasi communities who live in the mountain tracts and forests of the Eastern Ghats across Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Laying bare the hollow claims of some policymakers that mining brings in employment and prosperity to their region, the documentary showcases the loosing battle that indigenous tribals have been fighting against the private companies, which acquire their land for exploiting rich mining reserves.
The film was seen by Union Tribal Affairs Minister P. R. Kyndiah, the chief guest at the function. Speaking about the thought-provoking film, Mr. Kyndiah said it would go a long way in creating awareness among people about the sufferings of Adivasis. "There is lack of awareness about the problems and challenges faced by the tribals. I know this because I come from the Northeast," said Mr. Kyndiah, adding that Members of Parliament have been raising their voices against exploitation of the tribal people.
Mr. Kyndiah expressed concern over displacement of the tribes from their ancestral land. ``The land in which the tribals have been residing for centuries is now being taken away from them.
The Government will soon formulate a national tribal policy that will bring about changes in the life of the tribal people. We are still in the process of finalising the policy."
Since the early 1990s thousands of mining leases across the country have been issued, giving away prime Adivasi lands to national and global private mining corporations.
This happened despite there being a number of Constitutional safeguards to protect the interests of these vulnerable communities and their ecologically rich environs with which they share a symbiotic relationship.
http://www.hindu. com/2007/ 08/11/stories/ 2007081161171100 .htm |
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Two children sacrificed in Jharkhand |
Two children were sacrificed by an occult practitioner Tuesday in Latehar district of Jharkhand, police said Wednesday.
Jhari Oraon, a resident of Kusumtola village that is about 130 km from here, attacked six children with a sharp weapon to appease a tribal god, police sources said.
While five-year-old Raju and four-year-old Sushma died on the spot, the other four were injured. Two of the injured children were admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science here.
Police said Oraon escaped into the nearby Chadawa jungle after killing the two children. Villagers said he lured the children with toffees and chocolates and took them to an isolated place to sacrifice them.
Two children died on the spot while four others were seriously injured. Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Oraon.
Tribal occult practitioners in the state sacrifice children for good harvest, prosperity and spiritual power. In the last six years, nearly 20 children have been reportedly sacrificed in the state.
http://www.indiaene ws.com/india/ 20070808/ 64568.htm |
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Maoists tap school kids in Jharkhand |
Hundreds of schoolchildren in the forested areas of Jharkhand's Palamau district took out a rally and shouted slogans demanding that police reveal the whereabouts of top Maoist leader Madanji who was arrested last month.
'Police, bring Madanji before us. Reveal where Madanji is being kept,' the children shouted at the rally, which was reportedly organised by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) rebels in Palamau, around 240 km from here.
Patna police arrested Madanji, a central committee member of CPI-Maoist, along with two other rebels last month when he had gone to the Bihar capital for medical treatment. Police have kept his arrest a secret and not revealed where he has been lodged.
Maoist rebels, who want police to reveal where he has been kept, are putting pressure on police to make Madanji's arrest public.
'Madanji has done a lot of things for the state. Police should make his arrest public and tell where he has been kept,' said Pintu, a school student who participated in the rally.
Echoing his sentiment, Sangita, another student, said: 'Police are deliberately not disclosing his whereabouts. They may kill him in a fake encounter.'
Police officials say the protest by schoolchildren is the handiwork of the CPI-Maoist to put pressure on the government.
'The arrest of Madanji is a big catch for us and a setback for Maoist rebels. We hope he will reveal many things which will help us in our combing operation against Maoists,' a police official told IANS.
Maoist rebels had called a state-wide strike last week to protest the arrest of Madanji.
Maoists are active in 16 of the 22 districts in the state. Around 830 people, including 320 security personnel, have been killed in the last six years in Maoist-related violence.
http://www.indiaene ws.com/india/ 20070809/ 64735.htm |
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Negligence kills patient ahead of surgery |
A patient bled to death in an operation theatre here because junior doctors did not attend on him after cutting open his stomach as the senior surgeon was away, media reports said Saturday.
Deerju Mistry, 60, had been suffering from intestinal bleeding and doctors at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) cut his abdomen for a surgery.
He died Thursday after no doctors attended to him for more than 12 hours after that, the reports said.
RIMS director N.N. Agrawal said: 'A probe has been ordered into the incident. Anyone found guilty will not be spared.
'After cutting open the patient's stomach, the junior doctors waited for the senior surgeon to arrive but he didn't turn up. The patient bled to death after sometime,' Agrawal added.
http://www.indiaene ws.com/health/ 20070811/ 65021.htm |
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Five women die in Jharkhand temple stampede |
At least five women pilgrims were crushed to death and 11 seriously injured Monday in a stampede at the Baba Baidyanath temple in Jharkhand's Deoghar district.
According to police, at least 300,000 people were in a serpentine queue, many waiting since overnight, and trying to get inside the temple when the stampede occurred. The injured were admitted to a hospital in Deoghar.
One of the victims has been identified as Shanti Devi, a resident of Gorakhpur district in Uttar Pradesh.
According to eyewitnesses, one woman slipped on the temple stairs that led to other women also falling on the steps, resulting in a stampede.
http://www.indiaene ws.com/religion/ 20070813/ 65316.htm |
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