Excelsior... Nation

25 dead in Bihar flood, 3 districts cut off

PATNA, July 12: The flood situation in Bihar aggravated further today with swollen rivers inundating fresh areas in the state hitting about 60 lakh people in 11 districts as 25 people were reported to have lost their lives so far, official source said.

Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and Sheohar were cut off from the rest of the state with menacingly rising rivers submerging fresh areas in these three districts and also Muzaffarpur and east and west Champaran districts, official sources said.

Train services on Samastipur-Darbhanga, Samastipur-Jhanjharpur, Samastipur-Narkatiaganj, Saharsa-Forbesganj, Jhanjharpur and Nirmali remained paralysed Divisional Railway Manager (Samastipur) V K Bahmami said.

A Darbhanga report said flood water had entered almost all the wards of the north Bihar town which were under knee to waist deep water. The airstrip of the Indian Air Force was also submerged.

The Army continued to assist the local administration in providing relief and evacuating those marooned. Three Army choppers have been pressed into service and two more were expected to join in relief and rescue efforts later today.

Three columns of the Army, each comprising around 60 men and eight motor boats, are already engaged in evacuating people to safer places and providing relief and five more are scheduled to arrive today.

The flood-hit districts are Sitamarhi, Sheohar, east Champaran, west Champaran, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Araria, Katihar, Khagaria, Supaul and Banka.

The details of the death toll were yet to be known.

Road links between Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga and Darbhanga and Samastipur have also been snapped with flood water either overtopping the roads or washing them away.

According to a Central Water Commission Report, most major north Bihar rivers were rising alarmingly and crossed the danger level at several places.

While the Bagmati was flowing above the danger mark at Benibad, Kosi was above the red level at Basua and Baltara. Gandak was flowing above the danger level at Khadda, the Burhi Gandak at Lalbagiaghat, Samastipur and Rosera, the Adhwara at Ekmighat, Kamla Balan at Jhanjharpur and the Mahananda at Dhengraghat and Jhaba, the report said. (PTI)

Rs 1000 crore damage in flood: Barpeta, Nalbari worst-hit

GUWAHATI, July 12: The Assam flood situation turned devastating today with vast tracks of human habitation and cropland getting submerged as the state continued to remain cut off with the Government estimating Rs 1000 crore loss of public assets and infrastructure.

Lower Assam areas, particularly in Barpeta and Nalbari districts, continued to be worst-affected as lakhs of flood victims including infants and women were forced to stay on the elevated stretch of national highways under the open skies.

With the Government unable to reach relief materials due to overtopping of national highways by more than five feet of water, the situation has turned worse for the 25 lakh people affected by flood.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi making a statement in the State Assembly, which postponed its budget session by a week to enable legislators to visit affected areas, said current flood damage to public assets and infrastructure will be not less than Rs 1000 crore though detailed assessment could not be made yet.

The Chief Minister mentioned that the situation had worsened with the sudden surge of flood waters due to breach of dams in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan where damage to the Kurisho river dam had led to high inflow of water in Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts.

Gogoi said the state was "facing unprecendented floods with most of the districts badly affected" and 58 embankments breached of which 24 were major.

The official toll in the calamity remained at 13 with no fresh deaths reported today.

Gogoi said many more breaches were likely to occur as the water level of Brahmaputra and its tributaries in the Brahmaputra valley and Barak river in Barak valley continued to rise alarmingly.

All rivers flowing down from Bhutan through Udalguri and Darrang districts were in spate and cut through embankments inundating large areas, he said.

The heavy rains in Bhutan caused the Puthimari river and other adjoining rivers to inundate large tracts of land in rangiya sub-division in Kamrup district, he said.

Demanding that Centre should take all possible measures to help the state to tide over this "gigantic problem", Gogoi said he had discussed the matter over phone with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and appealed to the Red Cross and other voluntary organisations to assist the flood victims.

"As post-flood situation will require urgent repair works, we have requested the Centre to sanction funds as hundred percent grant for urgent repair of breached embankments and anti-erosion measures," he said.

The Centre has been requested to urge Royal Bhutan Government to ensure adequate measures to safeguard its dams, he said.

He said an all-party delegation will soon go to New Delhi to apprise the Centre of the flood problem. (PTI)

Punjab can’t circumvent SC order on SYL: Chautala

CHANDIGARH, July 12: Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today said if Punjab Government made any effort to circumvent the Supreme Court order on construction of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, Haryana would approach the Apex Court again to get justice.

"The Centre will have to ensure the construction of SYL canal in Punjab territory even if Punjab Assembly passes some resolution to circumvent the Apex Court order," Mr Chautala said while responding to reporters’ queries at a "meet-the-press" programme at Chandigarh Press Club here.

He said Haryana would approach the Supreme Court again in case Punjab made any effort to put an obstacle in the completion of the SYL canal.

Mr Chautala’s statement came a couple of hours before commencement of a special one-day session of the Punjab Assembly to discuss the SYL matter. It has been widely speculated in the media that the punjab assembly would come up with a resolution which could help the Centre circumvent the Supreme Court verdict on SYL.

The Congress Government in Punjab, he alleged, had no knowledge of Constitution and that’s why it had been making repeated efforts to avoid construction of SYL through meanigless litigation. "But all its pleas and petitions have been rejected by various tribunals and courts."

Taking a dig at Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s royal lineage, he said Mr Singh did not believe in democracy since he belonged to a royal dynasty.

Mr Chautala, however, expressed the hope that the Centre would implement the Supreme Court’s older on SYL "in letter and spirit" and Haryana would get its due share of waters to irrigate an additional area of 7.5 lakh acres in the state.

The Centre, he pointed out, had directed the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to start the construction of the canal and a high-powered committee had also been constituted to monitor the progress of work of the canal.

He said the residents of Kapuri in Punjab, where then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had launched the digging of the syl canal, were demanding early construction of the canal because the water table in the area was falling.

Asked whether he was in favour of the implementation of the Rajiv-Longowal accord, Mr Chautala said the accord did not exist now. (UNI)

Minister wants public input on judicial corruption cases

NEW DELHI, July 12: Law and Justice Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj has invited the public to "come forward fearlessly and write directly to me if they have come across any cases of corruption in judiciary," British Broadcasting Corporation reported today.

"Cooperation of public is required in removing corruption from the courts," Bhardwaj said appearing on programme Aap Ki Baat BBC Ke Saath. "If anyone spots anything like this, then it should be highlighted.

"I appeal to the public of the country to come forward fearlessly and write dirtectly to me if they have come across any cases of corruption in judiciary."

Exempts released by the BBC quoted Bhardwaj as saying, "the Government is worried and I assure we are determined to restore the faith of the public in judiciary."

He did not appear to agree with a listener from Patna who asked why "big-names" are "let off easily" by the Indian courts and why scams involving "big names" do not reach judicial decision.

"See the democratic roots of our country are so strong, that any name however big is brought before the law," Bhardwaj said, adding that "such names try to evade the law, but they do not succeed."

But the minister cited the "big names" factor in response to another question.

Asked why those guilty of communal riots— Gujarat and Babri instances— got away without any punishment, Bhardwaj replied, "see, there were problems in the Babri Masjid demolition case, as big names were involved in that, and attempts were made to delay the case.

"And the shameful Gujarat riots also put a question mark on the country, but see the Supreme Court of the country intervened and removed the obstacles in those cases.

"Since our Government has assumed office we have decided that shameful incidents as Gujarat riots would not be allowed to be repeated in this country... I assure you that such shameful acts would not be allowed and the way the rule of law and the judicial process was manipulated and made helpless by the previous government, we are firmly looking into it and (it) would be solved to the satisfaction of the Indian public."

Reminded that the Supreme Court intervention was only in one case while more than 400 riots cases were pending in Gujarat, Bhardwaj said, "see what the Supreme Court has said with regard to Gujarat riots, that those who were constitutionally responsible for running the judicial process— the police, the administration— they did not actively fulfil their duties and we would probe why they remained passive during that period and who was responsible for that."

"This is our responsibility, which in normal circumstances would have been the duty of the State Government, but because there was a total collapse of the state’s responsibility towards law, that is something under consideration."

He regretted the Gujarat situation in which the people have lost faith in the state’s judiciary and no longer feel safe. "We are worried over this and since this is a very serious matter, it would be solved after careful and serious consideration."

Asked why he wants to abolish fast track courts considering the 20 million plus pendency in courts, Bhardwaj said, "what is required is filling up the posts of judges in High Courts throughout the country which have been lying vacant during the past five years, about one-third posts of High Court Judges in the country are vacant at the moment.

"Within a month of coming to power, our Government has filled up the vacant posts of High Court Judges in three states— Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Delhi. We are determined to keep this pace, and we are dealing with the vacancies of one High Court every month to clear this backlong.

"What the previous Government had termed as fast track courts were in fact not on the fast track. The money given by the Finance Commission was handed over to the states by the previous Central Government, and they were asked to appoint retired judges who were to decide 14 cases a month.

"But since a long time, there have been recommendations of the Law Commission which clearly say that the requirement of judicial manpower should be looked in every two-three years, and the required numbers of Judges should be provided by the Government.

"The then Chief Justice at the time of the previous Government had asked for more Judges, but this was not done. Now what we are saying is that keeping the Law Commission report in mind, we should be able to provide the requisite number of Judges, if not more."

Asked why he thought the common man in India is afraid of the courts, Bhardwaj said, "on the contrary I would say the common man in India trusts only the courts. What he is afraid of is the long process, (our legal process is two centuries old) that causes delays, and the cost involved in litigation.

"These are the two things which make the common man fear, and this is a problem being faced by many civilised societies. When I was in the Law Ministry last time, we had drawn up a 20 point programme, in which we tried that solutions could be reached in other ways than leaving everything to the courts, and after amending the laws these solutions were conciliation, arbitration and mediation."

Asked about the issue of rampant corruption in judiciary which many Chief Justices have raised, Bhardwaj said, "there is a lot of noise about corruption in judiciary, especially in recent years.

"I have drawn the attention of the Chief Justice of India towards this. Cooperation of public is required in removing corruption from the courts, if anyone spots anything like this, then it should be highlighted.

"So far as this practice in Judges is concerned, we are going to talk to the Chief Justice and we are working swiftly in this regard, as in the past people of the country had immense faith in the judiciary and it has to be restored back to the same level.

"When the public says there is something wrong with the judiciary, then judiciary should realise this, and whatever help judiciary needs the Government is ready to provide. We must all understand the judiciary of the country must be free, fair and transparent, then only would the people of the country be able to trust the law, the courts fully.

"We are worried and concerned over this, I met the new Chief Justice of the country as soon as I assumed the charge of the Law Minister, both of us have discussed this matter.

"I appeal to the public of the country to come forward fearlessly and write dirtectly to me if they have come across any cases of corruption in judiciary. The Government is worried and I assure we are determined to restore the faith of the public in judiciary."

Asked about bringing down litigation costs which help big businesses get away with fraud or crime, Bhardwaj referred to the national legal services law which entitles women and the weaker sections to free legal help. "We are also in the process of setting up mobile courts for speedy disposal of cases."

On a National Judicial Commission for appointing Judges, Bhardwaj said it was not a good idea. "The present system of appointment of Judges is a good procedure. The present procedure has important components of careful scrutiny and consultation.

"Presently appointments are done after the Chief Justices of High Courts discuss with the fellow Judges, with State Governments and also consult the Supreme Court Chief Justice. After due care only the names are sent to the President.

"Now this idea of a Commission would only lead to deadlocks and fights, which I think is not good for the judicial image. This idea does not seem workable, and I feel that this procedure which we have been following since past five decades is a good one based on consultation and it works."

Asked if fund the system satisfactory, Bhardwaj emphasises, "I am fully satisfied with this and it works, this I am saying this with my experience in the Law Ministry." (UNI)

Fernandes says he never met Telgi

NEW DELHI, July 12: Rejecting the charge that he had any links with the mastermind of multi-crore fake stamp paper scam Abdul Karim Telgi, former Defence Minister George Fernandes told Lok Sabha today that he had never met him in his life.

Making a personal clarification on the charge made against him by RJD members in the house last week, Fernandes said "there is no substance whatsoever in this accusation. Since the accusation is born out of the photographs taken on the occasion of a public function in Dhule in Maharashtra (on July 3,1999), let me put the facts before you and the House."

Recalling he was invited in June 1999 by Anil Ghote, the then MLA on behalf of the organising committee set up to build a memorial for Param Vir Chakra winner Abdul Hamid who laid down his life in the war against Pakistan in 1965, Fernandes said he accepted the invitation.

He attended the function on July 3,1999 in which the then Chief Minister Narayan Rane, the then Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani were present. After the function, he left for Delhi by an Indian Airlines flight at 8 pm the same day.

"I had no clue about the people who were on the dais at the function except Mr and Mrs Ghote. If a photograph shows Abdul Karim Telgi on the dais, a person whom I have never met in my life, to call this as links is, to say the least, unjust," Fernandes said.

He had known Ghote since the time he and Sharad Joshi had joined together and had launched "Shetkari Sangathan" which fought for the rights of the farmers through innumerable struggles, for which they were beaten and jailed on several occasions. "When the Shekari Sangthan collapsed, I lost touch with both of them," Fernandes, who is also the JD(U) president, said.

Ghote had invited him along with the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Jethmalani in October 2002 to unveil the statue of Pandurang Suryavanshi, a martyr of Kargil war from Dhule, and the statues of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Lord Buddha and they attended the function on October 26,2002, he added.

Immediately after Fernandes gave the clarification, BJP chief whip Vijay Kumar Malhotra demanded an apology from RJD members.

The RJD members had raised the issue last week flaunting copies of a newspaper daily which had carried the report and the photograph. (PTI)

Unsung Edisons and Watts of India

AHMEDABAD, July 12: Their innovations may not have the steam of a James Watt engine but they do make a difference to a few people’s lives.

For Remya Jose, a schoolgirl from Palakkad in Kerala, life was easy-going till her mother fell sick. Apart from her studies, she now had to take up the responsibility of household chores.

A washing machine, she felt, would ease some of the burden, but was beyond the family’s means.

So she designed one herself.

It is a box with a rotating strainer drum and two pedals. The drum rotates as one moves the pedals, like in a bicycle. All at a cost of just Rs 1500 what’s more, it can be used to trim yourself too.

Far away in Assam, Dodhi Pathak too pedals a unique creation—a bamboo cycle

With his family barely managing to make ends meet, a bicycle was way beyond his reach. But that did not dissuade him from dspiring to own one.

Through painstaking efforts, he put together a bicycle made of bamboo, abundantly available in his state. Barring the tyres and tubes, each part of his cycle — the valve, piston etc— was made of bamboo.

A tiny hamlet in Chikmaglur district of Karnataka tells the story of how it went from being virtually "powerless" to becoming a village buzzing with mixer-grinders, fans, pumpsets and television sets, all thanks to a villager, G K Rathnakar.

He hit upon the idea of devising a turbine light. His hydro-turbine machine generates electricity by making use of the available water and caters to the local needs.

These are unique innovations by faceless heroes, who maybe unlettered or school dropouts, unaware of their own talents, but who have made their daily lives and that of their neighbours a little better.

There are several such people "but it is difficult to locate these innovators, who may have achieved their feat overcoming a lot of hurdles. Our society initially scoffs at them. They have to face financial problems too," national innovation foundation national coordinator (information technology and dissemination), Sandeep Sharma told UNI here.

The foundation is doing its bit to help these grassroots innovators by documenting, adding value and protecting their intellectual property rights.

"The NIF enables these innovators to build linkages with formal science, technological experts, convert the innovations to enterprises and pursue intellectual property rights protection," said Mr Sharma.

The NIF set up by the Government of India four years ago under the chairpersonship of Dr R A Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, helps these unsung heroes find a platform to showcase their knowledge.

With the help of its partners, the honey bee networks, a voluntary organisation, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and various local NGOs, NIF scout for such innovations and traditional knowledge.

The foundation also takes the help of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad to give the innovations a touch of design, Mr Sharma said.

"An Amateurish three-wheeled 10 hp tractor designed by Bhanjibhai Mathukia has been made to look sleek by NID. The institute has also given a new look to various sprayers designed by these grassroots innovators—like replacing the tin can with plastic ones or making the nozzles adjustable," he said.

"The challenge before us is to help incubate these technologies to generate commercial and non-commercial opportunities," Mr Sharma said but admitted that commercialising these indigenous innovations has been a difficult proposition.

"That is the tragedy. There are very few enterprises which are ready to take these innovations to the masses," he says.

He, however, pointed out that several of these innovations have been replicated in the local areas or the neighbouring villages.

For instance, the high-yeilding Cardamom variety developed by a school dropout, Sebastian Joseph, from Kerala’s Spice District, Idukki, is being planted in over 80 per cent of farms in the area. It had won him a cash prize of Rs 100,000 in the first campaign organised by the NIF.

Similarly, a pulley with a Ratchet, invented by Amruthbhai Agrawat of Junagadh, been put in the public domain. The innovater claims it stops the pail from racing back into the well when water is being drawn from it. So women can stop midway during a haul for a chat or a breather.

Agrawat, who has come up with a series of innovations like a wheat planting box, a multi-purpose tool bar and a peanut digger, is known in Gujarat for his bullock-cart with a tilting bed, just as in the big tipper trucks.

Many products have been developed by mechanics in their own small workshops. Mansukhbhai Jagani, who dropped out of school, has transformed his bullet motorcycle into a complete machine system by fitting it with various attachments for tilling, weeding and sowing.

De-husking Arecanut Betel nut has always been a messy task but with Narasimha Bhandari’s patent automatic machine, one can process 20 kg in an hour. He was honoured by the NIF for his path-breaking innovation.

So also was Kalpesh Gujjar of Gujarat whose oil expeller can crush many seeds including the doughty cotton seed. The machine has a novel gear box designed by him. It is small in size and low on power consumption.

While several innovators have got financial support, others are not so lucky. Arvindbhai Patel was paid Rs 3,50,000 by a licensee for his water cooler that uses no power but cools through natural evaporation.

While Gujjar landed a grant due to efforts of NIF’s grassroots innovations augmentation network for improvements to his expeller, Mansukhbhai Patel got a loan to perfect his cotton stripper machine.

M-cam m-cam.Com , a technology marketing firm in the US, has successfully sold a license to a Virginia-based company for the manufacture of a foot operated spray pump developed in Gujarat, the NIF Coordinator said.

But Usha Shankar Bhattacharya of Kolkata who developed a kerosene stove that saves 50 per cent on fuel is struggling to find a financier and a marketeer.

Listing out various interesting innovations, Mr Sharma said Dulal Choudhury of Assam has developed an umbrella made from ‘mooga’ silk, which gives protection from ultra-violet rays.

He also cited the example of a simple device designed by Khimjibhai Kandaliya of Gujarat that can be used by women carrying water to transfer the load from the head to the shoulders.

K D Kharkangar of Meghalaya has reported a practice of putting dead crabs in containers to protect paddy crops from bugs or the ‘Gandhi bug’ as it is commonly known there. The attention of the bug gets diverted to the dead crabs.

Amrita Gupta of Uttar Pradesh has given shape to a refrigerator that works without electricty. She has used wood, blanket, perforated iron sheets, charcoal and hemp fibres and the principle involves evaporation, capillary action and water as refrigerant.

In her neighbouring state Uttaranchal, Ravindra Mishra has learnt to make use of termites. He carves sculptures out of infected tree parts, and gives them a polished finish. His innovations include a statue of Mother Teresa and a map of India.

Prakash Shende of Maharashtra has made a spectacle frame with solar batteries with two bulbs covered with heat shields at the bottom of the frame. "One can switch them on when you have some discreet reading to do," Mr Sharma said.

To make bicycles run faster on bumpy roads, Kanak Das from Assam has attached a battery of six springs beneath the pedals, which converts the vertical energy generated by the bumps into horizontal energy to propel the rear wheel. Thus, every time the rider jumps in his seat because of the bumps in the road, the cycle runs faster

Rajesh Ranjan put a dynamo and a gear in the sole of his shoes. When he walks, the rotor of the dynamo rotates generating electricity and rechargeable batteries could be charged.

Duraisamy, a farmer who was unhappy that food went cold by the time his wife brought it from home, used the heat wasted through the exhaust of pump engine to reheat the food.

He took a pressure cooker and made two holes at the bottom. On the top of these holes, inside the cooker, he sealed an inverted container, which acted as a heat exchanger. Now the cooker was ready to even cook food through the heat of compressed air.

A simple practice has been thought up by Nandakumar to increase mango yield by planting sunflower on the bund of mangroves.

Sunflower seeds are sown in the first fortnight of October. When the plants bloom in the first week of December, mango trees attract the honeybees and this increases the pollination in sunflower. Fragrance of the sunflower repels hoppers that attack mango flowers and tender mangoes.

"Dont they say necessity is the mother of all inventions?" Mr Sharma quipped. (UNI)