AN INSULT TO OUR TRICOLOUR

In the city of Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh, at one of the most prominent 'chowk', the Bhagat Singh Chowk one can see the statue of Bharat Mata riding four lions.Very well. The glaring mistake is the Ashok Chakra ,the most important National symbol is missing from the flag.

Really surprising it hasnt been noticed, or worse still , noticed and forgotten.The Chief Ministers and other VIP residences are just a stones throw away....

Even the watchful opposition has failed to bring it to the notice of the media??

Who is to blame for this grave mistake??

WELCOME BAN ON SMOKING

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is ready to implement the ban on smoking at public places in India from October 2onwards. The ministry issued the notification for the ban under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution), Act 2003.

At first glance, it’s very clear that the law will make the smokers incapable of smoking anywhere they like. But the question is whether this law will prove more effective as compared to the previous law or not? Central Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had said that according to the GSR 417(E) declaration of May 30, 2008, the new law, which is going to be implemented from October 2, 2008, is a renewal of the old one. That means the old was not much effective in controlling ‘public smokers’. Then what will be the end result of the new one?

The law imposes strict ban on the smoking at public places like auditoriums, hospitals, health centers, parks, hotels, pubs, government offices, courts, educational institutions, libraries, roads, shopping centers, malls, theaters, stadiums, bus stops, railway stations, coffee houses, bars, airport lounges etc. This time the law is quite hard and anyone caught smoking in public places or private organisations will be fined Rs 200, which may rise to Rs 1,000. Persons in a position of responsibility in institutions shall be authorised to impose and collect the fine against the violation of section 4. The law will also allow any individual to detain people found smoking in public places and take them to a magistrate. So if you find anyone smoking in the bus stop you can make him lose Rs 200. But states like Bihar and Maharashtra have expressed their inability to implement the ban. Now, if a state is unable to implement the law then what can a mere citizen do? Only one or two will raise their voice. So a special squad to find law breakers is necessary. Otherwise, the law would be like the closed circuit cameras placed in public places of Delhi, which were found ‘switched off’ at the time of serial blasts.

The best advantage of the new law is that, from October 2 onwards, common people would be unable to light a cigarette outside their houses. If one wants to smoke, he/she should go to a hotel or an airport having ‘smoking zones’. But, for a long time in most of the hotels and public/private offices there has been a ‘No Smoking’ board. Then who would be ready to make ‘smoking zones’ (except some profit making bars, hotels etc having regular ‘smoking’ clients) as now the law gives them power to say “leave the cigar.” If anyone is found smoking inside companies or offices included in the ‘ban’ list, the penalty should be paid by the owners/mangers/supervisors of concerned organisations. Also, in public places, no one should be allowed to provide ashtrays, match boxes, lighters or anything, which smokers can use.

Central Health minister had said that in the last ten months in England around 45,000 people have quit smoking and he expects something like this to happen in India soon. But the population of smokers and social situation existent in India is quite different as compared to England. So there should be a strict enforcement of the new law. Cigarettes contribute 85 per cent to the total excise revenues collected from the tobacco industry, amounting to Rs 8,500 crores. So the question is whether Ramadoss is ready to cut these profits, given that more than twice that amount, is spent by the citizens of India to cure the diseases caused by tobacco every year. There is no dearth of laws in India. Most of the laws are helpful but fail due to slack implementation. Let’s hope that the new law, which is coming into effect from Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary proves effective for the better health of the nation.

Source:merinews.com

TOWARDS DISASTER

Film shows how man made problem turned the direction of river leading to

Inter-state conflict and how Industrial pollution and big dams has increased

problems by disturbing basin ecology and violating the reparian rights. Shot in

Bastar region and western Rajnandgaon of Chhattisgarh.

Watch :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P6hYdIitys

A FRIEND OF THE TRIBALS....REMEMBERING VERRIER ELWIN

Verrier Elwin, one of the most interesting Englishmen to have worked in India this century, came to his adopted country when he was only 25. A few years later, he moved to a tribal village in the heart of India. He lived most of the rest of his life among the tribals of India, whom he loved and worked for, and about whom he wrote beautifully, intensely and extensively.

His friend, W.G. Archer, who was in the Indian Civil Service before becoming a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, had asked about Elwin: "What makes a man change his nationality, abjure civilization, and, in the upshot, become a blend of Schweitzer in Africa and Gauguin in Tahiti?" That question cannot be answered, but it prompts curiosity about his life.

Elwin was born the son of an Anglican bishop. He graduated from Merton College, Oxford, with a first in English literature and won a scholarship to support his degree, which the family tradition directed to be in theology. A doctorate in divinity had prepared him to be ordained as a priest, but his associations and interests had turned Elwin, while at Oxford, into a mild Indophile, with his heart turned wistfully towards Tagore and Gandhi. At a Students' Christian Movement meeting, which Elwin had attended at Stanwick, he met J.C. Winslow, who had come back from India to recruit young men for his Christian mission. Winslow, a product of Eton and Balliol, had gone to India to spread the gospel, and was so awed by the astonishing richness of Hindu spiritual and cultural heritage and ideas that he thought that Jesus could "take all those elements that were of permanent value and bring them to a richer completion".

Elwin was already looking eastwards and was easily seduced into joining Winslow's Christa Seva Sangha, which drew its inspiration from the traditional ashram ideal of the Hindus, as reinterpreted and actualised by Gandhi's ashram at Sabarmati, a centre of abstinent and religious life, dedicated to the service of the poor.

After a view years of living in the tradition of service to the church and in compliance with the Gandhian ascetic ideals, Elwin felt impelled to break all links with his past. He decided to work among the lively, sensuous, forest-dwelling tribals - materially the poorest of the poor in India, but blessed with a capacity to endure much and enjoy life fully.

They were rich in their capacity to love, in their sensitivity to beauty, in their delightful songs and dances, and in their ability to make fine, strong and beautiful things.


Elwin had not planned on anything other than being of service to these people when he and his lifelong volunteer colleague, Shamrao Hivale, moved to a Gond tribal village in Central India to have their own ashram. The events that followed - shifting their base deeper into the forests, establishing a home for lepers there, doing research work among the tribals as a friend and helper, practicing a "philanthropology" that brought with it a need to defend the tribals against all external aggressions, cultural or economic,and writing volumes about them - appear, with the benefit of hindsight, to be Elwin's unfolding destiny, as were his becoming an Indian citizen, receiving one of the country's highest honours, and becoming a friend and advisor to Jawaharlal Nehru.

Elwin had begun his work in India as a very unusual Christian missionary with Gandhian leanings, unacceptable both to the British Raj and to his own church in India. He soon became disenchanted with the pretentious aspects of Indian spirituality and with Gandhian puritanism and self-righteousness. India's "primitive" tribals won his heart, eventually; and he gave his brilliant mind and devoted his enormous energies, towards helping them, writing about them and defending their rights and their waysof life.

His beginnings were those of an earnest, somewhat uncertain and self-doubting but deeply religious man, and, although he later rejected all formal religions, he never could choose any other than a selfless, dedicated way of life. But the roles he took on were always nonconformist. Consequently, he had to fight powerful opposition and persecution from organized, conventional people all his life.

Although Elwin was able, in his lifetime, to have some influence on India's policies towards its tribal peoples, one fears that, with time, much of what he lived and stood for is in danger of being ignored, misunderstood or forgotten.

Courtesy: Sunil Janah on Guhas book

This great man was born on 29th August......remembering him on his birth anniversary

THE JASWANTGARH WAR MEMORIAL

For any soldier of the Indian Army ,the famous memorial of 1962 war between India and China at Jaswantgarh stands taller than even the 14000 ft high Sela Pass along the steep, serpentine mountainous road to monastery town at Tawang in western Arunachal Pradesh.

It is not because of the altitude of its location but for the inspiration it gives to Indian soldiers guarding the frontier with China.

A journey towards the picturesque Tawang through pristine hills of Arunachal Pradesh can't be complete without a stopover at Jaswantgarh Memorial that stands testimony to an Indian soldier's unparallel bravery.

And for Indian Army jawans and officials, it is a must-visit site to pay obeisance to Rifleman Jaswant Singh, Maha Vir Chakra, of 4 Garhwal Rifle, who laid down his life resisting the Chinese Army's march for about 72 hours along with two other soldiers during the 1962 war.

Singh was then captured and hanged at the same place where the memorial now stands, by Chinese invaders. The memorial is about 14 km away from Sela Pass.

It is more of a temple than a war memorial for Indian Army soldiers. The Army has put a section of its soldiers at round the clock duty at Jaswantgarh to look after the memorial which is located about 500 kilometers away from Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast in Assam.

The temple-like Jaswantgarh memorial has a garlanded bronze bust of Jaswant Singh who is referred as Baba by soldiers, a portrait of the war hero and his belongings including the Army uniform, cap, watch, and belt. The earthen lamp before the portrait of Jaswant Singh burns round the clock.

For his six caretakers from 19 Garhwal Corps of Indian Army, Baba Jaswant Singh, MVC, still exists. They serve Baba bed tea at 0430 hrs, breakfast at 0900 hrs and dinner at 1900 hrs, oblivious of the reality that that the war hero is no more alive.

They make his bed for him, polish his shoes and deliver the mail sent by his admirers. They even clear the mails the next morning after 'he has gone through them'. They change his bed sheets every Tuesday.

These soldiers not only serve Baba. They reneder yeoman service for travelers along the hazardous portion of mountain terrain. Besides coming to rescue of travelers in trouble, they run a snack store where they serve tea, coffee and delicious samosas and pakoras to refresh the tired tourists, charging a nominal price that goes to upkeep of the war memorial.

The Indian Army sentinels at Jaswantgarh complain about the lack of electricity at the war memorial. It is lit up only for two hours in the evening through a diesel generator. They also fear that the roadside portion of the memorial is under severe threat from landslide.

One of the three historic bunkers at Jaswantgarh has already been damaged due to landslide while another one is in imminent danger unless something is done urgently to save it.

For the heroic effort of Rifleman Jaswant Singh, of the 4 Garhwal Rifle was awarded battle honour Nuranang, the only battle honour awarded to any Army unit in the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

Source:The Hitavada

HABITAT OF THE JERDON'S COURSER SAVED

The only known habitat of one of the world's rarest birds has been saved from destruction. Thanks to a compromise between environmentalists, villagers and the Andhra Pradesh government, the 400km Telugu Ganga Canal, which will stretch from Srisailam in central Andhra to Chennai, will be diverted around the only remaining habitat of the Jerdon's courser, a striking, nocturnal bird, the size of a lapwing and found only in one region of Andhra Pradesh. At the urging of the Bombay Natural History Society, an NGO, the state irrigation ministry has agreed to reroute the canal. The government has agreed to add 3,000 acres of adjoining land to the courser's sanctuary. Thrilled by the development, Dr Panchapakesan Jeganathan, a scientist at BNHS who has been fighting the battle for the courser's habitat for the last eight years, said, "This bird is more threatened than the tiger. Now, there is a very good chance that it will survive."

Source: The Times of India

PAINTINGS OF TRIBALS ON TOILET WALLS

One often sees pictures and figures of tribal men and women adorning gardens, homes,hotels govt. offices in Chattisgarh.Ever heard of them depicted on walls of toilets.?? In Raipur you get to see them . The walls of the Sulabh Toilet complex in Tikrapara , Raipur has paintings of the Bastar tribals, the Bison horn madias decorating them. Is it the idea of the artist who painted these walls or of some intellectual?What I fail to understand is why tribals in such a filthy place?? Why not the face of some political goon or a corrupt neta? Looks like Bastar is the hot topic today..be it govt. websites, text books, politicians speeches or lastly even toilet walls!
I'm sure hundreds of people have used these toilets till date.Why hasn't somebody raised a voice? A particular Indian community in London protested because symbols associated with their community were printed on a restaurant menu card.They protested so vehemently that the cards were withdrawn immediately with an apology. If it can happen in a foreign land why not here..and we have all the reason ..Toilets are no place to depict tribal culture and dance!