STATE

Life crippled in riot-hit Kashmir valley

Srinagar: Life in Srinagar and other major towns of Kashmir valley remained crippled on June 25 due to a spontaneous strike against alleged use of force by police against those protesting transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) for the third straight day.
One person was killed and nearly 100 others, including 22 policemen, have been injured in police firing and clashes between stone pelting demonstrators and law enforcing agencies during the past three days in the city.
Although no organization has given a call for strike, shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed while public transport remained off the road in Srinagar and Ganderbal districts paralyzing life, official sources said.
In the absence of transport, attendance in the govern-ment offices and semi-government institutions was thin, they said.
Reports said groups of youth at Nowhatta, Khanyar and Bemina pelted stones at police and paramilitary forces on June 26. However, there were no reports of injuries after police used tear-gas shells and lathis to disperse them, the sources said.
They said that as per reports from other districts and major towns of the valley, partial to complete hartal was observed in South and North Kashmir with shops and business establishments remaining closed.
The row between coalition partners Congress and PDP over forest land transfer to the Amarnath shrine board has snowballed into a major controversy with the PDP protesting the diversion of 39.88 hectares of forest land to SASB.
Outgoing Governor Lt. Gen. (Retd.) S.K. Sinha is in the eye of the storm since the land transfer was affected by him as SASB chairman.

Water comes at premium for upper castes

Bundelkhand: To be lavishly washing dishes used to be a luxury in a Dalit house in Bundelkhand a few months ago. But now with water available in abundance, the 400 Dalit houses in Sakrar village of Bundelkahnd don’t have to worry about where the next drop will be coming from.
Earlier, these Dalits had to travel 10 kilometers to a well in another village to fill buckets of water. But now, things have changed. Every morning, six water tankers come to the village supplying each house with 200 liters of water.
A resident of Sakrar, Kamlesh Ahirwal says: “Ever since Behenji (Mayawati) has come to power, we have no worries about water.”
In a land that has witnessed drought-like conditions for the past several years, water comes at a premium, but Dalit villages like Sakrar don’t have to worry anymore - at least not while Mayawati’s there.
Immediately after the Dalit Chief Minister came to power, Bundelkhand — and specially the lower castes in the area —became a priority issue for her.
Tankers were sent to the furthest corners of Bundelkhand to quench parched houses that had voted her to power.
Vote-bank politics and the battle for water go hand in hand in Bundelkhand. While Dalits have been rewarded for their loyalty, the upper castes are witnessing what they call is a complete upheaval of an age-old social order.

Kerala monkey doubles up as a shepherd

Pallakad (Kerala): Compare him to the goats and he may look small, but Mani the monkey, shepherds nearly 100 goats in Nelliyampathy, Palakkad. The goat’s ear is how he controls them. He makes the goats turn right or left by tugging gently at their ear. And he attacks anyone who ventures near the goats.
Manager Greenland Farm-house, P. J. Martin says: “I got this monkey three years ago, bleeding all over. I applied medicine and left it with the goats. Afterwards he was always with the goats. He does all works as a man does it.”
Three-year-old Mani effortlessly shepherds the goats through the coffee plantations. He even eats his food sitting on top of a goat. The tourists, who visit the farmhouse, watch Mani with awe.
A tourist, S. Snehalatha, says: “We came here on a holiday and heard about this monkey that is a shepherd. We have been watching him for the past few minutes and he seems to do his job better than a man would.”
And you’re in trouble if Mani catches you watching the goats. But then again, he’s got a job to do.

WB flood victims wait for rescue

Kolkata: Over 600,000 flood victims were still waiting to be rescued in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district, state’s Relief Minister Mortaja Hossain said on June 25 evening.
‘’Over 600,000 persons are yet to be rescued from Panskura, Bhag-wanpur and Patashpur — the worst-hit areas of the district,’’ Hossain told reporters after an all-party meeting at the district magistrate’s office.
‘’Till now Rs. 230 million has been spent as relief in East Midnapore. Fifty-seven medical camps have been set up in the district. We will soon start rebuild-ing the dams,’’ he added.

No power, no marriage for men in UP village

Lucknow: Most of the men at Anmolpur village near here are unmarried - no, not by choice or for any religious reason but due to the lack of power supply.
No one wants to marry off their daughters to youths from the village, about 20 km from the Uttar Pradesh capital, as it remains non-electrified even after 60 years of Independence, villagers say.
“Marriage proposals do come but as soon as parents of prospective brides come to know that there is no electricity in the village, they never return,” Atul Awasthi, a member of the block development committee, said.
Awasthi, who is a post-graduate and studying law, feels that he would have to remain a bachelor if he continues to reside in the village.
“No one wants to send their daughters as brides here as there is no electricity,” said Dinesh Shukla, a farmer with around 20 bighas of land.
Over 75 percent of the youths in Anmolpur are unmarried, according to residents.
Though the village, having a population of around 1,500, was selected as an “Ambedkar village” in 1998-99 and included in integrated development project in 2004-05, there was no change in the fortunes of the “lonely” youths.
“An exercise to electrify the village was initiated in 1973 and electric poles were erected with power lines. But power supply was snapped after some years due to reasons unknown to us. There are only seven poles left now in the village,” said Awasthi.

World’s biggest jail in Lucknow

Lucknow: With the number of criminals and incidents of crime registering a sharp growth in Uttar Pradesh, it is only to be expected that Lucknow should now boast of the world’s largest prison for under trials.
The Rs. 100-crore project will take off next month on the Mohanlalganj-Gosain-ganj border on the city’s, not far from where the present jail is located. Spread over 200 acres, the prison will be able to house 3,000 inmates.
A senior official said that the project was part of the state government’s plan to decongest prisons in Uttar Pradesh in a phased manner over five years. A majority of UP’s jails now hold inmates far in excess of their capacity, and this leads to frequent clashes between prisoners.
There are plans to construct five new central jails for convicts, 11 new district jails for under trials and to relocate 12 other prisons located in the middle of major cities. The Kanpur jail, for instance, is in the heart of the city, almost next to the Green Park Stadium, and is now viewed as a major security threat. The Naini central jail in Allahabad is currently UP’s biggest jail, with a capacity of 1,000.
The proposed new prison in Lucknow will have state-of-the-art security equipment, including closed-circuit television cameras in the barracks and courtyards, a centralized control room, double-storey barracks and a large hygienic community kitchen. Other amenities for prisoners, including a playground and gym, are also planned. There will be separate compounds for women and children, which will be totally segregated from the main unit.

Crime growing in Navi Mumbai

Mumbai: The recent murders of TV executive Neeraj Grover in Mumbai and the Noida double murders have focused attention on the suburbs. So are the suburbs safe and are the police equipped to deal with crime?
The satellite township of Navi Mumbai is growing by leaps and bounds but the law and order situation is taking a back seat.
Khargar is one of the fastest growing hubs of Navi Mumbai with swanky malls, fancy apartment complexes, a power plant, and steadily climbing real estate prices.
But to keep the place safe, Khargar does not even have a single police station with the nearest one is there in Kalamboli.
Not far away, in Vashi’s plush Sector 8, earlier this month, P.V. Sriram awoke one on June 22 morning to find his Mahindra Bolero stolen from inside his building compound.
Police told him it was the eight such thefts in this area in recent months.
Motor vehicle theft, robbery, and housebreak are the biggest problems plaguing this satellite township. Such incidents have increased by almost 30 percent last year leaving only some families untouched.

Another Bihar MP gets life imprisonment

Begusarai: Controversial Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP from Balia, Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan Singh, and his two associates were on June 25, given life imprisonment for killing a farmer 16 years ago.
Fast-track Court Judge R. P. Dubey pronounced the three guilty of killing Rami Singh at Madhurapur-Purvatola village in Begusarai district on January 16, 1992.
A total of six persons, including Surajbhan, were named as accused in the case.
Surajbhan is the third serving member of current Lok Sabha from Bihar after RJD’s Mohammed Shahabuddin and Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu, to have been awarded life sentence for murder.

Govt. insures common man, forgets to tell him

New Delhi: The UPA government never shies away from promoting its schemes for the common man, its core constituency. But there is one scheme the government has forgotten all about.
The Aam Aadmi Beema Yojana was started eight months ago to provide insurance cover to 43 lakh people. Strangely, none of the 43 lakh people have pressed for any claim though states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh have paid a premium of Rs. 43 crore to the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
The NDA government already had a similar insurance scheme called the Janashree Beema Yojana but the UPA wanted its own policy to tom-tom about.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said he would have to check with the LIC to find out if the 43 lakh people had been informed that they have been insured.

One mango tree has 300 different varieties on it

Lucknow: Three hundred varieties of mango on a single tree may sound unbelievable but in Malihabad, the famous mango belt of Uttar Pradesh, it is a reality.
Haji Kalimullah Khan, one of the best-known mango growers in this belt, is credited with this miracle.
The tree in Khan’s mango grove is almost 100-year-old and it took 21 years of grafting to achieve the feat.
“Almost every branch in this tree bears a different variety of mango. Since I have carefully grafted each variety into the tree, I can easily identify the different varieties and even point out the branches on which it has grown,” he said proudly.
Khan has already been awarded the Padma Shri and also finds a mention in the Limca Book of Records.
Though most of the varieties of mangoes on the tree have been named after his own family members, who were also in the mango business, Khan is most excited about a “new and delicate” variety of mango that he has named “Aishwarya.”
“This variety of the fruit is slim, delicate and extremely sweet, just like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and my children insisted that we should name the variety Aishwarya,” he said.
This, incidentally, is the first season when Aishwarya has ripened on the tree.