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Three Indian shorts get Common Wealth vision awards NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Close on the heels of India bagging the green oscar for the third time for environmental films, .....more Treat authors well says publisher exemplar NEW DELHI, Nov 29: He dared to publish - - and changed the face of the publishing world. .....more Selja suggests rental housing for housing problem NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation .....more Two-year NCC training should be made compulsory: Kalam NEW DELHI, Nov 29: President A P J Abdul Kalam today suggested that a two-year NCC......more |
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UCC/DOW, MP Govt faulted in disaster handling: Amnesty NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, a human rights ...more Youth fashions beautiful sculptures from waste metal scrap THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov 29: One may not see anything special in an ordinary .......more Railways put in place emergency support plan for Home Ministry NEW DELHI, Nov 29: The Railways Ministry has devised an Emergency Support .....more Kanchi Seer has revealed his complicity: Prosecution CHENNAI, Nov 29: Kanchi Mutt Seer Jayendra Saraswati, arrested as prime accused in the Sankararaman murder ......more |
Three Indian shorts get Common Wealth vision awards NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Close on the heels of India bagging the green oscar for the third time for environmental films, three documentary films from this country have won awards at the Common Wealth vision awards. India’s Neeraj Bhasin and Rupalli Mehraa won the first and second prize respectively in the 2004 Common Wealth vision awards, presented over the weekend at a Gala awards ceremony held at the Royal Common Wealth society in London. Former BBC broadcaster and politician Martin Bell, recipient of the order of the British empire, presented the awards in the presence of Common Wealth Secretary-General Don Mckinnon. Along with Rupalli Mehraa, Vandana Sood of India and Timothy Senaviratne of Sri Lanka also received the highly commended award. After the awards ceremony, Ms Mehraa who works with the television news channel NDTV said "to me this award is a step towards achieving my goal of making television features and documentaries. My film education for all...All for education is on a theme that is very close to my heart. I feel the ones who have had the privilege of education should contribute in spreading it." Elspeth Duncan of Trinidad and tobago and Australian filmmaker Christine Saunders were each awarded the commended prize. The nine other short-listed entries came from: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Pakistan, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and Fiji islands. Mr Mckinnon said the Common Wealth vision awards show how the power of images can create opportunities and expand horizons for young people throughout the Common Wealth. (UNI) |
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Treat authors well says publisher exemplar NEW DELHI, Nov 29: He dared to publish - - and changed the face of the publishing world. Dina Nath Malhotra, the founder of hind pocket books who ushered in a paperback revolution in India, now comes out with his memoirs, ‘dare to publish’, to be released tomorrow. But the publisher exemplar prefers not to call it an autobiography. "It is my journey in the world of publishing," he says in an interview to UNI. Five months it took him to retrace that journey on paper - - half in his own handwriting, half through dictation - - a journey that began in Lahore before partition when he took up lectureship in Srinagar after a first class and a gold medal in his Post Graduation at Punjab University. "I was teaching political science and international law to graduates and post graduates, and wanted to buy basic books in these subjects. But I couldn’t. The books were too expensive. I wanted everybody to have his own library with affordable books. And so I decided to publish cheaper books myself," he says. Thus was born the idea of low-priced editions. "At that time the thinking in UNESCO was that the emerging nations should not concentrate on railways and big dams, but on developing human resources, and books were the handy medium in achieving that objective." Fired by the zeal to make India a book-reading nation, Mr Malhotra plunged head on into his family publishing business. "During my tour of Europe, what touched me was the paperback editions brought out in Germany, England and Scandinavian countries. And I came to the conclusion that if any country is fit to publish paperbacks on a mass scale, it was India with its large population, and literacy rate of 30 per cent at that time." And so he founded Hind pocket books in 1958. He also deserves credit for introducing the first-ever mail-order book club, which at its pinnacle had half a million members across the country. Though he had left teaching long time ago, the teacher in him never died. The set of ten books he brought out for the first time contained works of top authors such as Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Gitanjali and ‘Dewan-e-Ghalib’, all translated into Hindi. "I published 6,000 copies of them because to sell books at low price, the production should be on a large scale. The one rupee books sold out within three weeks." At that time when other publishers were bringing out 2,000 copies, Mr Malhotra was publishing 30,000 copies. "Everybody thought I was crazy," he says. And in 1971 he set a landmark. He published 500,000 copies of ‘Jheel Ke Us Paar’, a romantic novel that was later made into a film. "I thought when UNESCO can bring out one million copies of a book, I can publish at least half." Mr Malhotra even got the copyright of Premchand’s novels from the son of Hindi’s greatest writer. Then from Hindi, he switched to publishing in Punjabi and Urdu, and brought out the works of Amrita Pritam and Shair Ludhianvi, among other top writers of that time. Few years ago they started publishing in Malayalam. "My job brought me in close contact with the top writers of my times and I was rubbing shoulders with the likes of R K Narayan, Nayantara Sehgal, and Shivani because of my educational background." That background helped him in dealing with the director of Wheeler Co, and the roadside hawkers, who played an important part in selling hind pocket books. "I used to have tea with roadside hawkers, and they felt gratified." But the ones who should be grateful to him are the Indian publishers. As the first Chairman of the Joint International Copyright Committee of UNESCO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Mr Malhotra fought for the rights of the Indian publishers, and helped them get those rights. In 1998, he was given the UNESCO’s prestigious international book award, becoming the first Indian and the second Asian to receive such an honour. However, his battle for lowering postal rates on books continues. "It’s strange that a book which cost Rs 60 in Delhi, will attract Rs 35 as postal charges... I have met communcations ministers in the past to bring down postal rates," he says. Meanwhile, his memoirs hit the stands. It’s a story of a man who made available affordable books for the literate in the largest democracy of the world. The joys, successes, failures, the exhilarating events of his life and the disappointments-these are all written with disarming candour and honesty. Relating one incident of his life, he says he was travelling from Rome to Milan, and did not have a booking in the train. So he asked the conductor to give him a seat who coolly obliged, but with 500 lire as tip. "Midway, two people entered the train, and as they had no reservation, I allowed them space near my feet, next morning I found my wallet gone, but luckily I had money in bag also," he says. ‘However, my faith in human beings never diminished." "Once in a while such thing happens, just laugh it off," he says. And for the publishers he has this simple advice: "Treat authors well." (UNI) |
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Selja suggests rental housing for housing problem NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja today suggested rental housing to meet housing demand in the country and emphasised on launching a major rental housing programme through private participation on the lines of Europe. "India has a major market for rental housing as more than 50 per cent of the formal housing is accessed through rents and hence it is necessary to create appropriate enabling environment for creation of more housing stocks which can be rented out," she said, while opening a two-day conference of state housing ministers here. She said social housing on rents for the weaker sections and low income groups was an important instrument for providing housing at affordable prices and Maharashtra had made commendable effort in this direction by allocating surplus Government, municipal lands to developers to create housing stocks for the poor by using land as resource and cross subsidising from free sale market component. While housing finance disbursement grew from around Rs 5,000 crore in 1995-96 to over Rs 50,000 crore in 2003-04, Kumari Selja however regretted that access to finance for the weaker section and low income groups was still a matter of concern as major funding under the housing finance sector had gone to the middle and higher income groups except the mandated contribution of HUDCO, Kumari Selja said. She said that with massive urbanisation housing problem had assumed alarming propotion, more so for the weaker section, low income groups, disadvantage, marginalised and the poor. "Out of the total housing shortage of 22.4 million units in urban areas, 80 per cent was needed for weaker sections and low income groups. The critical inputs for housing needs of the weaker section is access to land and infrastructure on affordable terms and housing finance at reasonable rates," she observed. Regarding legal reforms needed in housing sectors she underscored the need for the states to carry out the repealing of urban land ceiling act and state rent control laws within a definitive time frame. While expressing her concern over of increase in the cost of building construction, Kumari Selja said there was need to adopt appropriate, cost effective building materials and technology. Minister for programme implementation and statistics Oscar Fernandes, in his key note address, said housing sector had tremenduous potential to contribute towards employment generation and growth and urged State Governments to take advantage of various Central schemes. He said that except hudco other financial institutions were not showing much interest in financing dwelling units in rural areas and asked the delegates to look into this. While emphasising on the need for giving more attention and support to north-eastern states, including Sikkim, he observed that Hudco’s presence in those states were negligible. (UNI) Two-year NCC training should be made compulsory: Kalam NEW DELHI, Nov 29: President A P J Abdul Kalam today suggested that a two-year NCC training be made compulsory for school and college students as he felt it would lead to elimination of corruption from the society, promote discipline and help protect the environment. "In my view, two years’ NCC training must be made compulsory for all eligible students, both for boys and girls at the school or college level," Kalam said delivering the National Cadet Corps lecture here. "This may work out to cadre strength of 20 million students for the NCC. I realise the NCC budget needed for this will increase substantially. However, the output in terms of societal development and peace will adequately compensate through the availability of young disciplined human resource," he told NCC cadets and officers who had come from across the country to participate in its 56th founding day celebrations. Kalam said 540 million youth below the age of 25 were the "prime resource" for transforming India into a developed country by 2020. He said he was confident that if 10 million trained NCC cadets were "injected" into the society with a mission every year, it would have a positive impact by promoting righteous life, eliminating corruption, improving efficiency, augmentating a clean environment and ensuring disciplined and committed action on the part of the cadets. "The mission of the NCC rightly fits into the evolution of enlightened citizens needed for developed India mission," he added. "Dynamics of the nation with a billion population are becoming complex day by day. Every year, 10 million educated youth are injected into the society who are looking for employment opportunities. They need productive employment, otherwise instability in the society will set in," Kalam said. The President also had a word of advice for political parties, asking them to "compete with each other" to determine how the country could be developed faster in quality and work for providing higher standards of living for the people. Kalam said of the estimated 20 million cadets trained by NCC since its inception, about 30 per cent had joined the armed forces. "A special research should be taken up by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with Indian Institutes of Management to Study and analyse how the balance 70 per cent have made an impact on society through their chosen area of work and their work ethics, ethos, performance and career path," he suggested. He said the "new role" of the NCC should be to demonstrate that the Government could utilise the power of the youth for national development cutting across political and geographical barriers. Kalam said integrated action in core competence areas -agriculture and food processing, reliable electric power, transport, education, healthcare, information and communication technology and strategic sectors - was necessary to make India a developed nation. Speaking on the occasion, NCC Director General N C Bhandari said in a few years, girl cadets would move to "responsible positions" in the largest uniformed youth organisation in the world with 13 lakh cadets. (PTI) |
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Kanchi Seer has revealed his complicity: Prosecution CHENNAI, Nov 29: Kanchi Mutt Seer Jayendra Saraswati, arrested as prime accused in the Sankararaman murder case, has revealed his ‘complicity’ in the offence in very clear terms, the prosecution argued while opposing the bail to the Seer in Madras High Court today. Arguing against bail to the Seer before Mr Justice R Balasubramanian, the prosecution, which made a startling revelation about the involvement of a woman with whom the Seer was in touch in the case, also said in the counter that much could not be stated at this stage but the entire interrogation of the Seer was available. The prosecution was willing to submit it for the perusal of the court, investigating officer S P Sakthivelu, who filed the counter, submitted. He submitted that prosecution had "credible and unassailable material evidence" through witnesses which confirmed the meeting of minds between the first accused—the Seer—and the other accused in the crime. "If this honourable High Court so feels, such material available with the prosecution, as revealed by witnesses, can be produced," he submitted. This would speak volumes against A-1 to A-4, who are deeply involved in the conspiracy to murder Sankararaman, the prosecution submitted. The prosecution also submitted that one of the key accused in the case, Kathiravan, had retracted his statement made under 164 CRPC only after three of his advocates had interviewed him for two hours on Novemebr 22. Two of the advocates had met him again the next day. Enough material was available to prove that Kathiravan had retracted his statement on clear legal advice, the prosecution submitted. It submitted that Kathiravan’s statement that he was beaten up at the police station and that the police had forced him to read a statement as dictated by them, forced him to make a statement under section 164 of CRPC was tutored by the advocates. The prosecution also said two of the advocates had also met Rajini alias Chinna on November 23. Following this, Rajini had made a false allegaton that his teeth were broken during interrogation. This was also tutored by the advocates. Earlier, neither Kathiravan nor Rajini had made any complaint to the Kanchipuram Judicial Magistrate nor before the doctors attending on them, of any ill-treatment or injury. This clearly establised that their allegations were false and made as a pre-plan with ulterior motive. This was proved by the repeated assertion by these accused that their statements must be recorded by the Magistrate, the prosecution submitted. The prosecution submitted that some of the advocates on the defence side were juniors of a senior advocate who regularly appeared for Appu, the kingpin of the gang which murdered Sankararaman who was also associated in the bail petition of the Seer. This was not a mere coincidence, the prosecution submitted. The prosecution also strongly opposed the bail on the ground that even while in judicial custody, he was able to influence the accused and witnesses, to support him. The conduct of the Seer in organising fake surrender after the murder of Sankararaman spoke volumes about his intention to sabotage the case, it submitted. It was evidently clear that the petitioner (Seer) was already set to sabotage the witnesses, the prosecution submitted adding if let out on bail, the prosecution would be greatly prejudiced. The prosecution submitted that the Seer had also influenced his employee Sundaresan to give him a good conduct certificate by filing a false affidavit before the High Court and the way in which some of the accused had retracted their statements given under section 164 (CRPC) making false allegations against the police, clearly established that the Seer wielded great power and influence. "If he (Seer) is released on bail not only the investigation but also the whole justice system will suffer," the prosecution submitted. (UNI) |
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SC sets aside conviction of Thackeray in contempt case NEW DELHI, Nov 29: In a major relief to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, the Supreme Court today set aside a judgement of the Bombay High Court sentencing him to seven-days imprisonment for allegedly making false corruption charges against a Judge of the court in 1996. Allowing an appeal by the Shiv Sena chief, a three-judge bench comprising Mr Justice Y K Sabharwal, Mr Justice D M Dharmadhikari and Mr Justice Tarun Chatterjee also directed the High Court to refund the fine of Rs 2,000 that was imposed on him. Holding that the High Court was wrong in proceeding with the case which was intiated by private parties without obtaining a mandatory sanction from the Advocate General of the state, the bench further directed all High Courts to formulate rules for dealing with such contempt cases. Since the petitioners — Congress leader Pinpalkhute and another — had not obtained the mandatory prior sanction from the Advocate General of the state, the petition was not maintainable, the Apex Court said while dismissing the High Court order on technical grounds. The matter would have been different if proceedings against Mr Thackeray for making the alleged false corruption charges against a Judge of the Nagpur bench of the High Court were initiated on the motion of the High Court itself, the court said. The Apex Court refused to go into the merits of the case as the proceedings in this case was initiated in 1999 by Congress leader Pinpalkhute and another without obtaining the required sanction. On this aspect, the court directed all High Courts to formulate guidelines in this regard and asked the Registrar General to forward copies of the judgement to the Registrar Generals of all High Courts. While addressing a public meeting at Shivaji Park on the occassion of Dussera on October 21, 1996, Mr Thackeray had levelled the alleged corruption charges against the High Court Judge. On the contempt petition moved by the petitioners, the High Court had convicted and sentenced Mr Thackeray and a reporter of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna who reported the alleged contemptuous speech. The reporter has already undergone the sentence. After depositing the fine imposed against him with the High Court, Mr Thackeray challenged his conviction and sentence before the Apex Court. (UNI) Project to scoop out TN-Lanka
seabed NEW DELHI, Nov 28: An ambitious project to scoop out the seabed between Tamil Nadu coast and Sri Lanka to create a channel for ship navigation is worrying environmentalists and a section of the scientific community. "The safety and stability of the canal project is a matter of concern," warns a 71-page report by `doctors for safer environment,’ a Coimbatore-based voluntary group. The proposed Rs 2,000 crore Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP) involves cutting an 83-km-long channel 800 metres wide and 12 metres deep across the palk bay situated between Tamil Nadu coast and Sri Lanka. It will allow ships to sail from India’s west to east coast on its own territorial waters (avoiding circling of Sri Lanka) thereby cutting short the distance by about 730 kilometres and saving up to 36 hours of sailing time. But this perceived advantage has to be weighed against "unknown and unconsidered" environmental and ecological costs, warns Radakrishnan Ramesh, author of the report. He and his team have analysed a pile of published oceanographic, meteorological and geological data to show that the project is ill-conceived and unsafe. Creation of the navigational channel would require the removal of about 88 million cubic metres of dredged material and its dumping somewhere else nearby. The material, equivalent to seven million truckloads, can completely fill the Chembarambakkam lake in Chingleput district, the largest natural lake in Tamil Nadu. Critics of the project allege that such a quickly dug big trench will cause a sudden tilt, drift, and a gravitational pull and instigate other violent geological processes that might drastically alter the 5 to 20 million-year-old (miocene) limestone bed of northern Sri Lanka and its islands thereabouts. These are only "a subject for speculation," admits Richard Cathcart, a renowned US geographer specialising in macro-engineering. "But questions concerning the geology of the palk strait, disposal of huge quantities of excavated material, stability of a high-cut of several meters in such environments, etc are still to be discussed and debated by geo-engineering experts of this region and others," he says. "All valid public fears concerning future negative structural geologic and various uncommon geomorphic event-processes must be allayed (before undertaking the project)," Cathcart wrote in "current science," a journal of Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Science. The SSCP is the longest seabed-dredging project planned so far in India and the first to be located 30 to 40 km away from the coast. The Shipping Minister T R Baalu after visiting the Panama and Suez Canals announced on November 8 that an agreement is likely to be signed with the Suez Canal authority for technical collaboration. Ramesh says the Government has rushed this Mammoth project simply on the basis of one single report from Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) without debate by a broader spectrum scientific and engineering community. (PTI) Tanvir focusses on subjects closest to his heart NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Ever since he made his first feature film nearly a decade ago, Tanvir Mokammel, one of the brightest directors in Bangladesh’s fragile parallel cinema, has almost always focussed on subjects closest to his heart —fight against fundamentalism. And he is back with the same message in his latest work ‘Lalon’ which is one of the 60 entries in the Asian Competition Section of 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) starting in Panaji tomorrow. But unlike in the past when stories of his films were derived from easily and abundantly available facts of not so distant history, Tanvir has travelled farther back in time choosing for ‘Lalon’ the life of Lalon fakir, the doyen among bauls of Bengal. According to Tanvir, the bauls of Bengal with their mysticism are a "very special sect and in their thoughts one finds the influence of Buddhism, Vaishnavism and Sufism." Baul songs, depicting asceticism and transience of life, have expressed the pathos and pangs of a caste-ridden rural populace in Bengal, he said. Lalon Fakir, who died in 1890, has composed more than 1,000 songs which have profound depth and mesmerising music. His secular ideas and enchanting lyrics have left an imprint on successive generations of different trends of bauls of Bangladesh and West Bengal, said Tanvir. Tanvir’s uncompromising opposition to fundamentalism has at times led to his brushes with the censor board as in the case of his debut feature film in 1995 ‘Nadir Nam Madhumati’ (the river called Madhumati) which was released uncut only after a Bangladesh High Court order. His second film, ‘Chitra Nadir Parey’ (quiet flows the Chitra) in 1998 had been recalled by the censor board. Ironicially, it went on to win seven national awards including for best film and best director. The Director says his film seeks to capture the life and persona of Lalon and the milieu he lived and some leading personalities like Jyotirindra Nath Tagore and Mir Mosharraf Hossain, who came in contact with Lalon, figure in the movie. For Tanvir, the feature film on Lalon was a step forward from his 60-minute documentary ‘Achin Pakhi’ (the unknown bard) made on him in 1996. But given the fact that some aspects of Lalon’s life are still shrouded in mystery, making a feature film has proved more difficult for Tanvir than say his debut project ‘Nadir Nam Madhumati’, a deconstruction of the hamlet theme in the backdrop of Bangladesh’s Liberation War or ‘Chitra Nadir Parey’, showing the ordeal of a Hindu family during the partition, on which a lot of facts are readily available. (PTI) UP Govt to bring controversial Jauhar varsity bill again LUCKNOW, Nov 28: The Samajwadi Party-led Government in Uttar Pradesh will for the third time bring the controversial Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University bill in the Assembly tomorrow even as the Congress and other opposition parties would vehemently oppose the same in its present form. The Congress along with BJP and BSP are opposing nomination of State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohd Azam Khan as a lifetime pro-Chancellor of the proposed varsity to be set up at Rampur. The university is supposed to be developed as a hi-tech institution for specialisation in medicine, engineering and other studies. Earlier, the SP had to defer the bill following objection by State Governor T V Rajeshwar on August 6 and later on November 17 the Government deferred it without any clarification. Mr Khan said here SP-led Government was committed to bringing the bill in the present form and refused to concede to demands of the opposition and Congress. He, however, blamed the Congress for the ‘deadlock’ in bringing the bill twice in the past, but asserted it would be passed in the current Assembly session. "The Congress is threatening us on a daily basis on different issues, while the Governor is acting to the dictates of the Centre," he added. "How can the Congress oppose the proposal of my name for life-time pro-Chancellor of the varsity, when Congress leader Sonia Gandhi can be permanent head of the Rajiv Gandhi foundation and Indira Gandhi Prathisthan," he questioned. Meanwhile, the Congress, an ally of the State Government, has moved an amendment to the proposed university bill authorising the Governor to appoint the pro-Chancellor, while limiting the tenure to three years. Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari said they were not opposed to the university but would not allow any person to become a lifetime pro-Chancellor. "We will impress upon the Speaker to take our amendment for discussion and if it is not allowed by the treasury bench then appropriate decision to counter it would be taken at that moment," he added. Meanwhile, BJP state president Kesri Nath Tripathi said here his party was totally opposed to setting up a separate university for minorities. Mr Tripathi, a former Speaker of UP Assembly, observed if the post of a lifetime pro-Chancellor was indeed required, it should be given to an educationist rather than politician. "By setting up university on communal lines, the UP Government would force division in the society leading to resentment among the majority community," he claimed. Similar views were also aired by BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who lamented the present bill would degrade education and lead to interference of politics in the field. On August 6, the Government abruptly withdrew the bill in the monsoon Assembly session after the Governor had objected to nominating Mr Khan as lifetime pro-Chancellor. Mr Khan at that time had said it was unfortunate that some people sitting on the ‘top-post’ had opposed the bill which was for the benefit of minorities. According to section 9 (1) of the bill, Mr Khan would be lifetime pro-Chancellor of the varsity which had irked the opposition and even the Congress, this reportedly leading to the bill’s withdrawal. The Government had introduced the bill to set up the university costing around Rs 93 crore at Rampur and in the budgetary grants the Government had sanctioned Rs 12.30 crore as first installment for the purpose. (UNI) |
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