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Sathe urges
Congmen to NAGPUR, Sept 25: Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Vasant Sathe has called upon party legislators in Maharashtra, especially those from Vidarbha, to pass a resolution for creation of a separate state for the region during the winter session of the State Assembly commencing here from November 27........more
Supreme Court upholds NEW DELHI, Sept 25: The Supreme Court today upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement quashing the decision of Punjab Government headed by Prakash Singh Badal to appoint Harbans Rai as the Lok Pal of the state.......more Community based water BHIMTAL (UP), Sept 25: A nondescript village in the Kumaon hills of Uttar Pradesh, Simayal, was once in the throes of perpetual water shortage, until....more Leftist’s Puja gift
for PINGLA (MIDNAPORE), Sept 25: A seven member parliamentary delegation of the Leftists has said the people......more |
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Aggarwal
appointed NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Rohit Aggarwal, former secretary of Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress, has been ........more
Differences surface in CHENNAI, Sept 25: Differences within the AIADMK-led secular front in Tamil Nadu surfaced again today, ....more
Vajpayee to address annual conference of DGPs, IGPs NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Challenges pertaining to national security, terrorism, insurgency, cyber crimes ........more Chewing tobacco NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Cancer-causing substances in tobacco damage a crucial tumour ......more |
Sathe urges Congmen to pass Vidarbha resolution NAGPUR, Sept 25: Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Vasant Sathe has called upon party legislators in Maharashtra, especially those from Vidarbha, to pass a resolution for creation of a separate state for the region during the winter session of the State Assembly commencing here from November 27. ‘The impression in Mumbai and Delhi is that Congress leaders from Vidarbha are selfish and attracted to power, they do not have courage to take a firm stand in the interest of people of Vidarbha and to sacrifice their seats if necessary’, Sathe said in a release here today. He said, the day these Congressmen show courage, the high command would support the creation of Vidarbha state. Vidarbha was never part of Maharashtra even during the British rule, he claimed, adding that people from Pune and western Maharashtra have no justification in opposing the legitimate right of the people of Vidarbha for statehood. On the issue of economic viability of a new state, Sathe said it did not have much validity as ‘today most of the states are in a deficit and one also has to take into account the potential of Vidarbha’. He urged Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to get rid of false impression that the demand for statehood to Vidarbha was to break Maharashtra. (PTI) |
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Supreme Court upholds
quashing of appointment NEW DELHI, Sept 25: The Supreme Court today upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement quashing the decision of Punjab Government headed by Prakash Singh Badal to appoint Harbans Rai as the Lok Pal of the state. A bench comprising Justice B N Kirpal, Justice M B Shah and Justice Ruma Pal said that the High Court came to the correct finding that there was no consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court as per the rules on appointment of the Lok Pal and quashed the same. "It is open for the State Government to proceed to appoint a new Lok Pal as per the rules and regulations," the bench said. Solicitor General Harish Salve with advocate Rajiv Dutt contended that Badal had appointed Rai as Lok Pal after consulting the then Chief Justice orally though nothing was there on the High Court records to show that it was done. The bench said it was an established precedent that all consultations on such sensitive issues were done in writing and not orally and added that the High Court has committed no error by holding that Rai’s appointment was done without following an important regulation. The State Government has challenged the High Court judgement which had also quashed all the reports submitted by Rai regarding corruption charges against certain politicians. Salve submitted that though the Government appreciated the finding that no proper consultation was done before appointment of Rai, it would not be correct to quash the reports submitted by the former Lok Pal. The bench said during the pendency of the petitions, the High Court order quashing the reports submitted by Rai would be stayed. Looking at the delay in appointment of a new Lok Pal, the bench observed that "everyone seems to be happy not to have a Lok Pal." Earlier, Salve said that Badal had fixed an appointment with the then Chief Justice to consult him on appointment of Rai and the said meeting took place at latter’s residence. The bench asked as to why Rai, who has already headed five to six commissions, has been favoured and how many of such appointments were made by the Akali Government. Salve, after perusing the records, replied that though Rai, who is a distant relative of the present Chief Minister, had been earlier appointed to head five commissions, all those appointments were made by the Congress Governments. (PTI) |
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Community based water supply— Future stream BHIMTAL (UP), Sept 25: A nondescript village in the Kumaon hills of Uttar Pradesh, Simayal, was once in the throes of perpetual water shortage, until a Rs 285 crore World Bank aided project came to its rescue, bringing in its wake other benefits as well. Today, not only is there water at the doorstep of each house, but fruit and vegetable output of the region multiplied with a well-established market taking care of the produce and the women organising themselves into self-help projects, including "inter-loaning" scheme. Same is the story of some 1000 villages in 19 districts of the state, 12 in Kumaon and Garhwal hills and seven in Bundelkhand region under the World Bank aided Swajal project, implemented by the Department of Rural Development. World Bank has invested around 52.37 million dollars in the rural water supply and sanitation project in Uttar Pradesh, as part of an integrated development programme, which involved the local communities as well as NGOs. With the total cost of the project estimated at 63.77 million dollars, the World Bank’s share is 82 per cent, State Government’s six per cent at 3.8 million dollars and the community’s 12 per cent at 7.6 per cent, the Bank officials said. "There is a paradigm shift in this project to people’s ownership," Swajal Director Arun Tyagi told visiting reporters noting that the commitment on the part of the local community meant addressing their problems as well as ensuring the project’s long term sustainability. The community paid one to five per cent of the capital cost upfront in cash, depending on the scheme chosen, as evidence of commitment and an indicator of demand for services, tyagi said adding that the remainder would be paid in the form of labour — digging and refilling of trenches. "The entire operation is documented and with such deep involvement on the part of the people, maintenance levels are very high," said Pawan Kumar, senior team leader from a rural action group NGO Chirag, that was the support organisation at Simlyal. The villagers were totally involved in the planning of the project, right from selection of the water supply scheme to implementation, he said adding that as there was no permission needed to be sought nor any agreement to be signed, the project was totally in the community’s hands. The project, conceived to support a package of demand-driven investments in selected districts of Uttar Pradesh and a process of policy reform in the state, was expected to not only deliver sustainable health and hygiene benefits to the rural population through improved water supply and sanitation, but also promote the long-term sustainability of the rural water supply and sanitation sector. Traditional rural water supply systems in Uttar Pradesh, where 30 per cent of the habitations receive less than the prescribed level of 40 LPCD of potable water, range from open wells and handpumps to piped water, with a very high operation and maintenance cost, Tyagi said. "The capital cost of these schemes as well as Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs are fully subsidised, yet at any given time at least one third of the rural water supply systems would be out of operation," Tyagi added. Initially, only single village schemes were taken up,the three basic criteria being water availability less than 15 LPCD, over 2.5 hours’ time taken to fetch water and turbid water consumed by the village. Shortlisted NGOs were the support organisations assisting village communities in planning and construction of the water supply schemes, with the project cycle around 33 months. Awareness campaigns in the form of wall paintings and pamphlets were simultaneously launched to spread the message to other villages, Tyagi said adding "the people are walking pamphlets, advertising our work through word of mouth." The water supply scheme was also directly linked to other rural development projects like non-formal education, women’s self-help groups, including "inter-loaning" scheme. Being an integrated rural development project, one of the main areas tackled was afforestation as this had a direct bearing on availability of water, Rajesh Thadani, Executive Director of Chirag said. Health was another area that benefited as not only did clean drinking water and sanitation ensure lesser incidence of diseases but interactions with the local bodies facilitated better health services. (PTI) |
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Leftist’s Puja gift for panicky Pingla PINGLA (MIDNAPORE), Sept 25: A seven member parliamentary delegation of the Leftists has said the people of trouble-torn Pingla and Sabong, allegedly evicted by the Trinamool Congress "goons", will be rehabilitated before Durga Puja. The MPs, who were acccompanied by a number of media persons, announced that the two places would be free of terror on the eve of the festival in the same way as Garbeta and Keshpore. They said the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister would be apprised of the unending torture of Trinamool Congress workers on CPI(M) supporters in these areas and peace would be restored at all costs. They said the district administration and the police should instil confidence among the people who were constantly being threatened by the Trinamool Congress activists. Reports said police took three Trinamool Congress workers into custody for allegedly terrorising people at the two villages asking them to leave the places before the arrival of the delegation. Mr Biplab Dasgupta (CPI-M), who led the delegation, regretted that BJP president Bangaru Laxman during a visit here on Saturday did not mention any relief measures for midnapore and several parts of the state under flood waters. "It is very shocking that the president of the party which is leading the NDA Government at the Centre only tried to justify the unjustified clamping of President’s rule in the state at these critical juncture," Mr Dagupta observed. Holding Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee responsible for the unabated violence in Midnapore, the members said that they would urge Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee to dissuade her from "inciting violence, from wanton and deliberate violation of law and from setting up a parallel administration wherever she goes". ‘’We hope that the Prime Minister will ask her to forsake the path of violence and to abide by the laws of the country that apply to all the citizens, to conform to the principles of the cabinet and desist from subverting district and sub-district administrative and police machinery," the delegation members said. The delegation comprised Mr Biplab Dasgupta, Mr Basudev Acharya, Lakshman Seth and Miss Sandhya Bauri from the CPI(M), Ajoy Chakraborty of CPI, Manoj Bhattacharya of the RSP and State Relief Minister Satya Mahata from the Forward Bloc. (UNI) |
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Chewing tobacco carcinogens
damage tumour NEW DELHI, Sept 25: Cancer-causing substances in tobacco damage a crucial tumour suppressing gene in most Indian chewing tobacco users at an early stage of oral cancer, a new study by Mumbai-based researchers has found. A group of genes called oncogenes are responsible for excessive growth of cells leading to cancer whereas another group called Tumour Suppressor Genes (TSG) retard cell proliferation. The tumour suppressor gene P53 is inactivated in 50-70 per cent of all human cancers. As the aberration in the P53 gene occurs early in the premalignant stages of oral cancer in Indians, people in this group too come in the high-risk category, Dhananjaya Saranath from Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in Mumbai told PTI. Saranath, CRI’s Anita Tandle and Tata Memorial Hospital’s Vikram Sanghvi and Murad Lala studied about 200 oral cancer patients. The findings were presented at an American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) meeting last month in San Francisco. Molecular level analysis found one-fifth of the patients had lost either of the two P53 gene bands present on the two strands of a single chromosome pair. Twenty seven per cent of them had abnormal P53 expression indicating P53 abnormalities might be an early event in oral cancer. The findings would make surgical removal of a tumour more precise and safe by analysing which cells in the tumour margin (a one cm external boundary is removed while removing a tumour to play safe) have alterted P53 gene, Saranath said. Though oral cancer accounts for only four per cent of all cancers worldwide, 11 per cent of all cancers in India are of this type. (PTI) |
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