For Sale

Oct 14. The station will have five entry and exit structures so that public can access the station easily and extra staircases of much wider width are being provided so that more people can be accommodated easily,” Delhi Metro spokesman Anuj Dayal said recently. “The staircase width, which is normally 2.4 metres in other stations, will be as much as 4.25 metres at the Stadium Metro station to accommodate the extra rush. There will also be four escalators connecting the concourse with the platform,” he added.

According to Dayal, the station at the stadium can deal with a crowd of 4,000 passengers per minute in peak time and has been designed to accommodate a total traffic flow of 80,000 persons per hour in the platform area of 1,800 sq. metres.

There will be 20 automatic fare collection (AFC) gates instead of eight AFC gates normally provided at most stations.

“The operations department of the DMRC is preparing a special plan and procedure for clearance of commuters who will be coming for the opening and closing ceremony by Metro trains, with high frequency of Metro trains to ensure very fast clearance at the platform to avoid crowding,” he said.

“Volunteers and Sahayaks (helpers) will be posted to assist passengers at all the important points of the station such as the AFC gates, escalators, platforms and entry and exit points where first-time Metro users may face difficulty,” Dayal added.

A special control room will be established at the Stadium Metro station from where public announcements will be controlled and LED signs will be displayed for guidance of passengers.

Railings will be installed and there will be extra lighting for good visibility.

The Delhi Metro will provide easy Metro connectivity to 10 out of 11 venues of the Commonwealth Games 2010. These are the Games Village, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi University, Thyagaraj Complex, Siri Fort Sports Complex, National Stadium, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, Talkotora Indoor Stadium, Yamuna Sports Complex and R.K. Tennis Complex.

***

Defence Minister A.K. Antony asked Pakistan to shut down 42 terrorist camps he said were functioning in its territory if India-Pakistan talks were to succeed.

“Pakistan has not made any serious attempt to disband the camps that are functioning close to Jammu and Kashmir. The decision for bilateral talks has been made consciously and it was not an ad hoc one,” Antony said. “Though there was no breakthrough (in the foreign secretary talks), being a conscious decision the process (of talks) will continue,” he added.

The minister said the central home ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir government had evolved a formula to check infiltration and help terrorists to return to normal life.

“Many have surrendered too. With the conditions becoming normal, there is an increase in tourist arrivals in Kashmir. Attempts for terrorist infiltration are there and the armed forces are maintaining vigil on the border,” he said.

On the US supply of arms to Pakistan, he said Washington should make sure that the weapons were used against Islamist militants on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and not targeted at India.

He denied that the government had any information that the Chinese were covertly helping Indian Maoists.

“The army will give logistic support to the state police (of Maoist-affected states). Paramilitary forces will be used for training the state police,” said Antony.

He said the acquisition of defence equipments and aircraft had increased considerably in the past five years.

“The process for acquiring the Kiev-class aircraft, Admiral Gorshkov, from Russia is in the final stage,” added Antony.

He said that after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the threat through sea had increased. The armed forces were engaged in coordinated efforts to prevent similar attacks.

“One of the positive aspects is that even fishermen have become alert and are giving valuable tip-offs to the (security) forces,” said Antony.

Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai in November 2008 by the sea and went on a killing spree over three days. They slaughtered 166 Indians and foreigners.

***

South

Vietnam - the bloody stage for a 30-yearwar with France and then the US - was once home to a bustling Hindu settlement devoted to Shiva and Vishnu. Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, was the business hub of the South Indian Chettiyar community that set up money-lending businesses.

“The relation between India and Ho Chi Minh city dates back to more than two centuries when the Chettiyars, the trading community from south India, first came to the city to establish their money lending business. Subsequently, when they flourished, they entered the retail trade and formed a place for themselves in local society. They were followed by several other trading communities and religious groups from India,” writes veteran journalist, scholar and social activist Geetesh Sharma in his new book, Traces of Indian Culture in Vietnam

Ties between India and Vietnam date back to more than 2,000 years when Hindu traders from the Bhagalpur region established the ancient Champa kingdom in central Vietnam, Sharma says.

The book, was released by ICCR president Karan Singh in New Delhi recently.

The 77-year-old Kolkata-based writer, who has visited Vietnam 13 times, had been researching the historical ties between the two nations since 1982.

“Vietnam - once a household name in Kolkata made popular by Communist slogans such as ‘tomar naam, amar naam, Vietnam’ (your name, my name is Vietnam) - captured my imagination in the 1970s when I attended demonstrations against the Vietnam war in the city. I realised that Vietnam shared a lot with India - and Bengal,” the writer said.

“The first lot of people who migrated to Vietnam during the first and fourth century AD were temple artisans and traders from Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. Hindu culture is still alive in Vietnam. Several communities of ethnic Cham people in the country speak a tongue that is a phonetic blend of Devanagari and Sanskrit. I also came upon a local theatre troupe which performs a version of Ramayana,” Sharma said.

The Vietnamese adaptation of Ramayana, ‘Ms Sita’, is woven around the lives of local prince Po Liem, a local version of king Rama and his wife Sita.

“The king dies and the crown is passed on to the king’s ex-wife’s son. Liem and Sita are forced to live in the forest. Demon Riep (Ravana) falls under the spell of Sita’s enchanting beauty and forces her to become his wife. Po Liem rescues Sita with the help of General Hanuman,” Sharma said, narrating the story.

But the Vietnamese Ramayana ends with a twist in the tale. Sita refuses to return to the palace with Rama and pledges that she would see him only in death. “She enters the imperial palace to die in Po Liem’s arms”.

Sharma has toured 17 ancient Hindu sites across Vietnam.

“Vietnam has at least 200 Hindu temples. Mysol, a Unesco World Heritage Site, alone had 40 temples before the Vietnam war; but bombings reduced their number to 20. The remaining temples have been restored,” he said.

Sharma also quotes new research to prove that Hindus had settled down along the banks of the Mekong river in southern Vietnam.

“It is an incontrovertible fact that by the time of the establishment of the Hindu Champa kingdom in central Vietnam, a large number of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and traders had settled down in southern parts of Vietnam.

“The Hindu caste hierarchy in Vietnam was free of Shudras. Recent excavations in a large area of the Mekong delta have unearthed relics of Hindu gods and goddesses - mostly Shivalingas and yonis,” he said.

Sharma said the Fu Nan dynasty, the ruling dynasty in the Mekong delta, was established by a Brahmin named Kaundinya from India.

“According to a Chinese version, Kaundinya, who came to Vietnam from India via Cambodia, married a local princess Nagi and founded the dynasty. Shiva commanded supreme obeisance among the Hindus followed by Vishnu and the Buddha. Subsequently, the Buddha replaced Shiva,” Sharma said. ***

India assured Sri Lanka of its support in resettling nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the civil war in the islandnation and pushed for a political settlement when Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.

Rao met Rajapaksa over lunch at Janadhipathi Manidiraya and congratulated him on his landslide victory in the Jan 26 presidential polls.

This was the first high-level contact between New Delhi and Colombo since the Sri Lankan presidential polls.

“She expressed India’s willingness to continue assisting Sri Lanka in the resettlement of the IDPs (internally displaced persons),” an official statement from the Sri Lankan presidential secretariat said in Colombo.

“India was also keen to assist in the complete restoration of the railway line in the north,” it said.

The statement said that in her meeting with Rajapaksa, Rao was of the view that Sri Lanka had made considerable success in resettling the displaced families in the north and the east, with the number now standing at less than 70,000.

In her discussions, Rao stressed the need for a political settlement and devolution of powers to address the aspirations of the Tamil minority, official sources said in New Delhi.

The two sides discussed problems faced by fisherman from both countries, the proposed coal-based power generation project in Trincomalee, and the necessity for understanding between India and Sri Lanka on the protection of the environment and the eco-systems, the statement in Colombo said.

Rao, who had earlier served in Colombo as India’s high commissioner, conveyed an invitation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Rajapaksa to visit India soon. India has allocated Rs.500 crore for the relief and rehabilitation of the war-hit Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.

President Pratibha Patil buried a ‘Time Capsule’ on the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) campus on the occasion of its golden jubilee celebrations and also unveiled a nanosatellite developed by the institute.

The capsule, which is made of a special metal, contains pen-drives, chips, images and several other documents related to the landmark achievements of the IIT-K. Lauding the nanosatellite Jugnu’s development team, Patil said it projects the complex nature of tasks that the students there were equipped to handle.

Congratulating IIT-K students and faculty, Patil said that the institute has come a long way in its 50 years of its existence, and also called upon the institute’s students and faculty members to develop such devices that can harness energy in efficient ways with minimal negative impact on the environment.

“It (IIT-K) had made an impact on technical education within the country, while its students through their innovations, have played an important role in India, as well as around the world,” the president said. Jugnu, developed by a team of 50 IIT students, will help in collection of information related to floods, drought and other natural calamities.

According to IIT-K officials, ISRO, after conducting a series of tests, will launch the

170,000 Olive Ridley turtles lay eggs in Orissa’s Gahirmatha

At least 170,000 endangered female Olive Ridley turtles have laid their eggs in the protected Gahirmatha sanctuary, a famed nesting site in coastal Orissa, during the past 11 days, an official said recently.

The turtles came ashore from the Bay of Bengal and laid their eggs in the south beach of Nasi Island-2 in Gahirmatha, located in the coastal district of Kendrapada, Divisional Forest Officer P.K. Behera said.

“The turtles began mass nesting on Feb 24 and since then every day large numbers of turtles were arriving for nesting. On March 6 too, about 1,000 turtles nested there,” Behera said in a phone interview from the nesting site.

“All the turtles have nested along a one kilometre-long and 60 meter-wide area of the beach,” he said.

The Gahirmatha sanctuary is one of the world’s largest turtle nesting sites, where more than a half million endangered Olive Ridley turtles nest every year.

The turtles arrive and congregate in the shallow coastal waters in October and nest between December and March. Most hatchlings emerge by May.

“Last year around this time at least 180,000 turtles had nested,” Behera said. Conservation measures have helped bring down the turtle casualties this year, he said. Last year, around 2,000 turtle carcasses were found on the beach. This year, so far only 1,700 carcasses have been found, he said. However, Biswajit Mohanty, coordinator of the turtle conservation group Operation Kachhapa, disputed the figure and said the number of turtles found dead this year could be about 5,000.

The state has two other turtle nesting sitesalong the Devi river in Puri district and the Rushikulya river in Ganjam district. Turtles have however not yet begun their mass nesting in those sites, a state wildlife official said.

Like tigers and elephants, the Olive Ridley turtles are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Trapping, killing or selling of this species could result in a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment. In spite of the several protection measures taken by the government, thousands of turtles get killed every year mostly by mechanised trawlers.