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PM announces Rs.500 crore for flood-hit Assam

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently announced an aid package of Rs.500 crore for Assam, which has been severely hit by floods, causing an estimated 65 deaths and inundating large stretches of land, including cropland.

The announcement came after the prime minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi undertook an aerial survey of some flood affected districts of the state.

“The Rs.500 crore is sanctioned for immediate relief of the state. A central team has reached the state and will start assessing the total damage of the floods in the state and all the required financial assistance will be extended to the state government based on the assessment of the central team,” said the prime minister, while reading out a statement before the media at LGBI International Airport near Guwahati.

According to the state Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), the floods, affecting all 27 districts of the state, killed at least 65 people recently. Another 16 people were killed in the past two weeks due to landslides, caused by heavy flooding and incessant rainfall.

The prime minister, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam, also assured the state of efforts to restore the railway line in the Lumding-Badarpur Hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

The railway ministry has already been instructed to take up immediate steps to restore the railway line as it is a lifeline for the people in Assam’s Barak Valley, as well as neighbouring Mizoram and Tripura.

With the flood waters receding at some places, Manmohan Singh said the primary focus now would be on rescuing people who have been left marooned in flood-hit areas and providing relief to them.

The prime minister had earlier announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.1 lakh each to the relatives of those killed in floods and landslides. Besides, the state government will also pay Rs.2.5 lakh each to the relatives of the victims.

He also noted that over 700 army personnel, and 16 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), comprising over 600 personnel and 71 boats, have been pressed into service for carrying out relief and rescue operations across the state.

“So far, a total of 4,000 people have been rescued across the state and 20 tonnes of relief material has been airlifted by the Air Force to help the marooned people,” the prime minister added.

“A total of 4.84 lakh people, who have been rendered homeless by floods, have taken shelter in the 768 relief across the state. All the required help was given to the inmates of the relief camps,” he said.

Manmohan Singh said that the state government has adequate stock of food grain but the central government will provide additional supplies of grain and other materials as and when required.

Meanwhile, Assam’s opposition parties, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the package announced by the prime minister.

AIUDF leader and Leader of Opposition Sirajuddin Ajmal said that Rs.500 crore is not sufficient as immediate relief as there has been huge devastation and loss of human lives and property in the floods.

BJP state unit spokesman Santanu Bharali also echoed similar sentiments, and also criticised the response of the state government.

“With the waters starting to recede, now the major problem will start in the form of diseases. However, we have not seen any alertness on the part of the government to deal with the situations that normally arises after the floods,” he said.

World’s only Sanskrit daily holds out against odds

Sudharma, possibly the only Sanskrit daily in the world, is struggling for survival as it approaches its 43rd anniversary later this

In the face of dwindling interest in a language that many feel has no future, and lack of financial support from advertisers, the husband-wife team publishing the single sheet daily from Mysore is disillusioned, but

“We will continue to run the paper against all odds, as it is a mission with us,” said editor Sampath Kumar, returning after two months in hospital for a mild heart

“There’s no question of looking back, despite the gross indifference of the state government and the Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity (DAVP) to release advertisements to us,” added Jayalakshmi, s subscription base is shrinking. The contents are a mix of news

“We have close to 4,000 subscribers that include institutions and individuals, academics and religious bodies. It’s a pity the powers-that-be do not realise the historic role of Sanskrit, which has now been globally recognised as a scientific and phonetically sound language,” Sampath said.

According to Jayalakshmi, a study of Sanskrit is helpful as its knowledge improves pronunciation.

Lots of people who meet the duo wonder why they bring out the newspaper when it is not financially viable.

“My answer is that it is our shared responsibility and commitment to posterity not to let the language die, even as proglobalisation forces are promoting use of English in a big way,” Sampath explained.

Jayalakshmi reacted sharply to the charge of Sanskirt being a dead language.

“Who says Sanskrit is dead? Every morning, people recite shlokas, conduct pujas...ceremonies like marriage, childbirth and death are in Sanskrit. India is united by Sanskrit, the mother language sustaining so many languages... and now even IT professionals are saying it is useful,” says Jayalakshmi.

Sudharma was started on July 15, 1970, by Sampath’s father, Varadaraja Iyengar.

“On his (father) deathbed he made me promise that I would not let Sudharma be shut down. I am trying to keep the tradition and fire alive,” Sampath stated.

Sudharma’s annual subscription is Rs 400. The daily mostly contains articles on the Vedas, yoga and religion, as also on politics and culture.

Sampath recalls that his father took the initiative to get All India Radio broadcast regular news bulletins in Sanskrit.

Mysore has become an important centre for Yoga and Sanskrit learning. Thousands of students from all over India come to learn Yoga at the 40-odd centres in the city.

According to Sampath, interest in alternative medicines like Ayurveda has also helped increase interest in Sanskrit.

Beginning as manually printed, Sudharma now has a computerised printing facility. An e-paper too is available online, making its reach international.

Lamenting the lack of official patronage, Sampath said: “Being in Sanskrit, Sudharma never had sufficient revenue from advertisements. Despite ample lip service and appreciation, no concrete help comes our way. But constraints have never deterred us and we will continue to keep alive this glorious tradition.”

The modest office in Agrahara has been visited by ministers, governors, Shankaracharyas, and other dignitaries. Sampath showed his vast collection of messages from politicians, scholars, intellectuals and business leaders.

The signs may not be too hopeful, but perhaps the paper, like the language it is published in, will be able to survive the test of time.

Organic basmati the new buzz among Jammu farmers

With an eye on growing national and international demand, Jammu’s agriculture department has begun cultivating organic basmati rice in the region.

“The organic paddy is produced using organic manure and no chemical fertiliser or pesticides are used in their growing,” said Jammu Agriculture Director Ajay Khajuria recently.

Ranbir Singh Pura, also called R.S. Pura, is considered the rice bowl of Jammu as it produces top quality basmati rice which has a particular flavour and aroma.

“There are 35,000 hectares of land under basmati production in the region, of which the department has begun cultivation of organic paddy in 200 hectares in villages around Suchetgarh in the R.S. Pura sector, about 35 kilometres west of Jammu,” said Khajuria.

The growing trend worldwide of shifting from chemical to organic farming, higher prices for organic agricultural products and higher remuneration for growers has prompted the department to start organic rice farming.

Pointing to salient features of organic rice cultivation, Khajuria said “manures used are Vermi compost, bio-dynamic compost, microbe-mediated compost, besides slush of bio-gas units. The agriculture department is providing assistance for production of such manures.”

“Cow urine is one of the best pesticides which is substituting the chemical pesticides,” the official said.

Organic basmati rice fetches 25 percent more for farmers than the normal variety, which sells for about Rs.28,000 to Rs.29,000 per quintal. R.S.Pura produces 550,000 quintals of basmati rice.

“By introducing organic farming on commercial, scientific and organized lines the farmers can harvest rich dividends here and farming can become sustainable,” the official said.

According to Ajay Khajuria, the adaptation and certification by the union commerce ministry is given after three years of observation.

“This is our first year and hope we can do better than other states in northern India.”

Jammu’s main competitors in basmati rice exports are Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

“Their rice is definitely slightly longer in size but the aroma and flavor of Jammu basmati is much richer,” Khajuria said.

After Jammu and Kashmir lifted the ban on export of basmati in 2010, about 630 quintals of the rice was exported from the Jammu region during 2010-11 to the US and Middle East, which increased to 1,350 quintals in 2011-12.

“The exports are going to increase manifold once the organic basmati of

Jammu hits national and international markets,” Khajuria said.

Fateh Singh, is one of the farmers in Suchetgarh, where 200 hectares of land have been brought under organic basmati cultivation.

“I used to earn sufficient amounts from basmati but now I am happy that organic basmati will hopefully fetch me better prices,” said Singh, two hectares of whose land has been brought within the state’s organic basmati rice programme.

Empowering villagers through turtle conservation

Turtle conservation, mainly of the endangered Olive Ridley species, in Maharashtra’s coastal regions has moved to a new level - of empowering village communities to take the cause ahead, along with youth, students and ordinary volunteers.

“We have set the ball rolling and now we plan to empower the local village communities to take the cause ahead, along with youth, students and volunteers,” said Bhau Katdare, president of NGO Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra.

The venture, initiated by the Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra (SNM) with little or no resources, has now attracted international attention, besides financial help from other environmental groups, the state government, corporates and trusts.

As a first step in the SNM’s attempts to involve the local villagers in a big way, a variety of community activities are conducted round the year, especially during the annual turtle festival.

“There are awareness camps, film shows, dedicated cricket matches, nature walks, talks and competitions on environment, nature conservation and a computer training institute,” Katdare said.

For outsiders, a workshop on turtle conservation techniques and hatchery management was conducted by the Kasav Mitra Mandal at Velas in Ratnagiri district, where 40 participants from all over Maharashtra had converged.

Explaining the reasons behind the legacy, Katdare said the SNM and other groups successfully saved and released this year 3,555 turtle hatchlings into the Arabian Sea at various points on the Konkan coast.

Though the conservation now spans 36 villages in Raigad and Ratnagiri, 10 coastal villages were identified for attracting a large number of turtles.

They include Velas, Kelshi, Anjarle, Kolthare, Dabhol, Guhagar and Tavsal in Ratnagiri district and Diveagar, Maral and Harihareshwar in Raigad, with the direct and indirect efforts of a population of nearly 25,000 (in the 10 villages).

“This year, besides Velas (Ratnagiri), where the annual three-month turtle festival during the breeding season has been a major attraction, we organised a small two-day festival at Maral (Raigad) to create awareness of the cause,” Katdare said.

Last year in December, a similar turtle festival was held for the first time in Vengurla, Sindhudurg district in southern Konkan, by the Kirat Trust.

“Now, we want the local villagers to be actively involved in this and next year onwards. The people of Velas shall organise the annual turtle festival between February and April. Of course, we shall be there to provide them any technical, administrative, logistics or expert assistance, but it will be the villagers’ own effort,” smiled Katdare, who has been spearheading the Chiplunbased NGO for 22 years, including the turtle conservation project for the past 10 years.

Discussing the success, a young village volunteer, Supriya Uke, said that in the past decade, the efforts have resulted in saving nearly 39,000 turtle hatchlings in over 700 nesting sites from natural and human predators. This includes 3,555 hatchlings from 68 nests this year in the targeted villages.

Velas leads the pack of villages showing good results in turtle conservation with the entire village community involved in the initiative - this year, 736 hatchlings were released from 17 nesting sites on its beach.

“Virtually every household contributes to the effort directly or indirectly and are also getting extra income from around 2,500 tourists who throng during the festival,” Katdare said.

In a morale booster, the Maharashtra government has chipped in Rs.8.90 lakh donation to be used for two years (from this year), while the Tata Consultancy Group gave Rs.1.25 lakh. The Shri Shankarlal Pokarna Charitable Trust, Pune, has donated Rs.2.25 lakhs.

The people from Velas and other villages also contributed 10 percent of their income, a modest Rs.18,000 - derived from the tourist traffic - to the turtle conservation efforts, Supriya said.

Villagers provide basic lodging and boarding to the hordes of tourists and environmentalists who converge there during the turtle festivals.

A major highlight this year was the training of 75 volunteers from Raleigh Expeditions, Mangalore, an international NGO which provides trained manpower support to conservation efforts in several countries.

“Both international and national volunteers from Raleigh Expedition, along with the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), visited the marine turtle conservation project in Velas, in five batches from November 2011- April 2012,” said Katdare.

“They included volunteers from India, Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Holland, Scotland and the United States of America,” he added.

The volunteers learnt the entire process of turtle conservation, including hatchery construction, stone gates, levelling paths leading to the nesting, nest relocating, creating artificial nests, locating nests in the sand, handling eggs and placing eggs back, in the sand and covering them with sand.

“Lack of manpower is a major problem for SNM to patrol the entire 720-km- long state coastline.

Fortunately, many nature lovers, youth and students are keenly interested in our work; so the future is bright. We are confident that the villagers have matured enough to take on from here,” Katdare said.

Sunita Williams heading back to space again

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams is all set to return to the International Space Station, where she spent a record six months in 2006.

Daughter of an Indian American father from Gujarat and a Slovenian mother, Williams is currently making final preparations for a July 14 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to a NASA announcement.

She will be a flight engineer on the station’s Expedition 32 with Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. On reaching the space station she will take over as commander of Expedition 33.

Williams and her colleagues will be aboard the station during an exceptionally busy period that includes two spacewalks, the arrival of Japanese, US commercial and Russian resupply vehicles, and an increasingly faster pace of scientific research, the US space agency said.

Williams is the second woman of Indian heritage to have been selected by NASA for a space mission after Kalpana Chawla and the second astronaut of Slovenian heritage after Ronald M. Sega.

She holds three records for female space travellers: longest spaceflight (195 days), number of spacewalks (four), and total time spent on spacewalks (29 hours and 17 minutes).

A 1987 graduate of the US Naval Academy, Williams served in various roles as a Navy officer before being selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1998. She received a master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.

IanS

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