Retirementage of govtstaff raisedby 2 years

UNDP appreciates ForestDepartment's livelihoods worksBhopal: A team of United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) touredSidhi forest division's Churhat circle andappreciated projects being implementedthere. Led by Su Eugenia Katsigris, Texas,America, the 5-member team visitedvillages Badhwar,Maldeva, Padkhuri,Kolhudeeh,Madila, Gandhi Gram,Madwasetc and undertook minute study ofbamboo production, bamboo rhizomes,women's SHGs manufacturing incensesticks, sowing of grass, bio-dynamicorganic farming technique,manufacture ofhandicraft from Seesal fibre,manufactureof ropes with rags, bio-gas plants,production of lac by beneficiaries andother activities.Su Eugenia Katsigris wrote in her report

that she has been much impressed bylivelihoods activities at Gandhi Gram inSidhi district. Su Katsigris said that newrelations developed in the midst of junglesand bamboo rehabilitation has impressedher a lot. Another team member Gujarat'sformer Principal Chief Conservator ofForests Khanna also appreciated women'senthusiastic participation in livelihoodsprogrammes and cooperation beingextended for increasing families' economicstatus in villages Maldeva, Gandhi Gramand Kolhudeeh.The inspection teaminspected project's documents at villageBadhwar, bamboo rhizomes and bamboomeadows,women's self-help groups atvillage Maldeva, bio-dynamic organicfarming activities at village Madila,community training centre and incensestick women's SHG at village Kolhudeeh,manufacture of incense sticks and ropeswith rags, bio-dynamic organic farmingactivities and fish farming at village GandhiGram.The team members held separatediscussions with beneficiaries and trainers.The team inspected lac production inMadwas and Energy Forest in Khajuriha.From Madhya Pradesh, the inspection

team comprised Additional ChiefConservator of Forests and UNDP ProjectDirector, Bhopal Ravi Vastava, ChiefConservator of Forests Dhirendra Bhargavaand UNDP's Project Manager S.D. Burman.

We FEBRUARY 10 TO FEBRUARY 16, 2014

Online edition available at wethestate.com and wethestate.blogspot.inVol-02. Issue-20. Bhopal. Monday Page-12. Price-5/-

he StatePublished simultaneously from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh

POSTALREGD.MP/BHOPAL/4-323/2013-15

NEWS MAX

1106

10

0902

07

"No harmony

between

what Rahul

and party

practices"

AAP's rebelMLAs can'ttopple govtimmediately

Uttarakhandgets new CM,but nochange incalamitypreparedness

Tiger Woods

arrives for

date with

Delhi Golf Club

Miley Cyrus

says Good Bye

to cigarettes,

weed,

marijuana!

Bhoj farmers reject pesticidesto save Sarus cranes

RAJIV TIWARI

Helping conserve theworld's tallest flying birds,farmers around Bhoj wet-

lands in Madhya Pradesh - a Ram-sar site and an Important BirdArea (IBA), are shifting to organicfarming to save sarus cranes fromharmful effects of pesticides. Awatch group 'Sarus Mitra' has alsobeen created to keep the cranessafe from other anthropogenicthreats.Once seen in hundreds, the saruscrane population has drasticallydeclined from the Bhoj wetlands.As per reports, around 160 individ-uals were counted in 2001 whichreduced to 24 in 2008. This year,only 10 have been counted.Alarmed by the drastic decline,the Bhopal Birds - a local organisa-tion supported by the WildlifeTrust of India and CAF-India, car-ried out a Rapid Action Project tosave these birds."The people of Bhoj - including afew tribes people - worship thecranes, as they consider their fi-delity to their partners a virtue,and would not knowingly harmthem," said Dr Sangeeta Rajgir, ofBhopal Birds. "However, over theyears, over-grazing, fishing, desil-tation, pesticide use and pollutionwas taking a toll on the birds."The RAP began last Octoberwithdetermining the population ofSarus cranes in the area, monitor-ing their populations, holding con-sultative meetings with locals anddeveloping a systematic strategyfor the conservation of the species."One of the biggest killers, whichwas discovered early on, was theuncontrolled use of pesticide bythe farmers - especially on theirvegetable crops that the birds feedon," said Debobroto Sircar ofWildlife Trust of India's Wild Aiddivision. "Therewas an immediateneed to shift from the use of chem-

icals in the area, to something or-ganic."Accordingly, awareness campswere carried out in Goragaon andBishenkhedi villages. Agricultur-al scientists from Krishi VigyanKendra (KVK) and other agricul-ture research organisations spoketo the farmers, students and localsabout the ill-effects of chemicalfertilizers on people. The expertsrecommended organic farming,which would not just benefit peo-ple consuming the products butalso the Sarus cranes."Every awareness session wasfollowed by a feedback or interac-tive session that aimed at ensuringthat problems faced by farmers inthe eventual shift are inegated. Weeven gave out organic fertilizersfor them to try out," said Dr Rajgir.Early this year, five farmers fromGoragaon village took the leap,

making a permanent shift to or-ganic farming. Following them, 30more, of the 60-odd farmers in thearea have begun making the tran-sition to organic farming. A sur-vey among the farmers that endedin November 2013 also revealedthat 80% of the farmers were keento permanently shift to organicfarming.Dawarka Prasad, a farmer whohas only a fewmonths ago stoppedusing chemicals on his farmlandsaid, "A few people here had takento this method, and people fromBhopal Birds told us the benefitsof organic farming. A little exper-imentation, and over time, I haverealised it is so much better interms of our health, cost of mate-rials and helps save the environ-ment at the same time - do youneed any more reasons?"Sangeeta added, "This is a huge

step - and is only the beginning.The people have understood thebenefits in terms of their ownhealth, and more farmers areshowing an interest in making theshift."A group of village youth fromGoragaon have also formed theSarusMitra, translating to 'friendsof sarus cranes', to monitor thebirds throughout the year.The volunteers not only keep awatch over the cranes and theirnests but also carry out rescue ofindividuals in distress. Only a fewmonths ago, the group found a ju-venile crane that was injured,treated it and successfully rehabil-itated it with the rest of the Saruscranes. Dr Rajgir said, "Our expe-rience with the project demon-strates that it is possible to re-es-tablish a bond between famers andnature."

HHooww WWEE llooookk iitt !!

...Cartoon by K G OJHAkgojha@rediffmail.com

Growth rate ofChhattisgarh'seconomy slips

to 7.05%RAIPUR: The state's economygrew at 7.05% to Rs 1,75,961cr.However, it slipped compared tothe previous year where thegrowth was 7.56%.

According to Economic SurveyReport (ESR) for 2013-14 for Chhat-tisgarh if the past trends are anyindication experts feel the growthrate could fall well below 7%, asprojections are always on thehigher side.

Incidentally, growth rate projec-tion for 2012-13 ESR was 8.5% butit fell short by nearly 1%. Howev-er, even with the projected declineit'll remain much ahead of India'sgrowth rate, which is projected at4.9%. But nevertheless, the state'sperformance has been muchabove India's overall average, as itclocked a higher growth rate inagricultural, industrial and serv-ice sectors.

Chhattisgarh's service sector toogrew at a rate of 9.09% as com-pared to the all India figure of 7%.Presenting the report in theHouse, chief minister Dr RamanSingh said the per-capita incomein state increased by Rs 6,186 to Rs50,691 in 2012-13, as compared toRs.44,505 in the preceding year.

As this year's estimates is likelyto rise to Rs 56,990 during 2013-14.

The report states that growth inAgriculture sector (Agriculture,Livestock, Forestry and Fishing),Industry sector (secondary sectorand mining sector) and servicesector are expected to be 2.62%,6.07% and 10.18% respectively in2013-14, over the previous year. Ascompared to India's growth pro-jections the state would fare bet-ter, as nationally industry is ex-pected to grown merely by 0.7%and services by 6.9%. However,Chhattisgarh's agriculturalgrowth rate is going to less thanthe national projection of 4.6%.

As per advance estimate, thegross state domestic product(GSDP) at current price is likelyto increase to Rs 1,75,961Cr. in theyear 2013-14 from Rs 1,53,621cr asestimated for the year 2012-13. Inthis period, agriculture sector(agriculture, livestock, forestryand fishing) is expected to in-crease from Rs. 34,097 to 36,841 cr,industry sector (secondary sectorand mining sector) from Rs 57,306cr to Rs 64,864 cr. and Service sec-tor from Rs. 62217 cr. to Rs. 74256cr.

Incidentally, while the achieve-ments are significant, they fellshort of the projected growthrates, particularly in the serviceand industrial sectors. State wasexpected to see service sector riseby 12.06% and the Industrial by6.74%. However, it only managedto achieve a growth of 9.09% and5.38% respectively.

02 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Chhattisgarh Explore

Retirement age of govt staff raised by 2 yearsRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh assembly has passedan amendment bill to raise retire-ment age of state government em-ployees from 60 to 62 years. Pilot-ing Chhattisgarh government em-ployees (superannuation) amend-ment bill 2014, chief minister Ra-man Singh said all government of-ficers, employees and officers andemployees of corporations,

boards, urban bodies and othergovernment and semi-governmentinstitutions would be benefitedwith the increase in retirementage.

Satya Narian Sharma (Congress)said the bill concerned could havebeen brought much earlier, but thegovernment preferred to bring anordinance earlier for politicalgains, but now it was trying to re-place it with the amendment bill.

Naya Raipur to begreen, eco-friendly

RAIPUR

Naya Raipur Development Author-ity (NRDA) plans to make the newcity green and eco-friendly and useadvanced technology to save ener-gy. The street lights of Naya Raipurcould be switched on and off withthe help of GPRS system whichwould be monitored by an operat-ing staff at the control room.

This web based software will actas remote monitoring system,which alerts at the time of theft orwhile voltage faults take place. Dai-ly information about voltage, cur-rent power supply will be main-tained. However, with the setting ofastronomical clock, LED streetlights will be switched on after sun-set and will switch off with sunriseautomatically. This will save morethan 40% power energy.

Naya Raipur Development Au-thority (NRDA) is launching In-dia's first ever LED street lightingproject across the entire city ofNaya Raipur. NRDA chief execu-tive officer Amit Kataria said,"With nearly 2,000 LEDs, NRDAaims to illuminate a stretch of74km of Naya Raipur road ofwhich 450 units have already beeninstalled in the first phase andmore than 1,550 are scheduled un-der the second phase."

Costing up to around Rs 31.7crore, these LEDs would save up to40% energy and hence reduce theelectricity bill by 40%. Interesting-ly, all the new street lights would becontrolled through a GPRS controlsystem via SMS and internet,which will be set automatically fordimming and brightening of LEDsas per the requirement, Yashwant

Shiledar, chief executive engineersaid.

Explaining about the electricityconsumption bill, Yashwant saidthat while on one side the costingreaches to Rs 1,33,312 with sodiumvapour lamps, the cost wouldplunge to Rs 79,430, hence savingup to Rs 53,882 every month. Ex-plaining further, he said, "For in-stance, during the peak hours be-tween 7pm and 10pm street lightswould brighten 100%. This wouldfurther be dimmed to 70% from10pm to 12am, leading to less ener-gy consumption. After 12 to sun-rise, brightness would be reducedto 50%." He said there were manycities which have few patches andtownships illuminated throughLED street lights, but this is thefirst time in country that a city lev-el project is coming up.

Pvt schoolssubvert RTE,

deny admissionto poor kids

Prominent private schools inChhattisgarh are subvert-ing the Right to Education

Act (RTE) to deny admission topoor and under-privileged studentsfrom their respective areas. AmitJogi raised the issue in the state as-sembly.

Jogi said 25% seats in all schoolshave to be reserved for under-priv-ileged and poor students but mostof the prominent schools are deny-ing admission to them. He saidschools were not fulfilling their le-gal obligation and the state govern-ment was not taking appropriateaction against erring educationalinstitutions.

Jogi said a leading private schoolin the state capital gave admissionto a poor student, residing in thevicinity of the educational institu-tion, only after intervention of thehigh court. "There are many otherschools, which are denying admis-sion to poor students on one pre-text or the other," he said andsought to know from the govern-ment as to what action the govern-ment has taken against such insti-tutions.

In his reply, school educationminister Kedar Kashyap said near-ly 31,000 students have been admit-ted to different schools under theprovisions of RTE as against thetarget of 35,000 admissions. How-ever, Jogi maintained that the lead-ing private schools are providinglip service as far as RTE is con-cerned and only about 4% admis-sions were being given to poor stu-dents.

Novel initiativeto eradicatemalnutrition

BHOPAL

For the first time in MadhyaPradesh, a novel initiative hasbeen taken to eradicate malnutri-tion in children. Under the initia-tive started with cooperation ofCare India and BBC Media, aware-ness will be created among preg-nant women and lactating mothersabout nutritious diet throughgames like Snake and Ladder. Preg-nant women and lactating mothersare being informed that two yearssince birth are very important forgrowth of child. Mother's milk isthe best for child for first 6 months,but if child is not given supple-mentary diet with mother's milkafter 6 months he is gripped bymalnutrition.

Integrated Child DevelopmentDepartment has taken this novelinitiative for effectively offsetting aserious issue like child nutritionon the occasion of National Nutri-tion Week-2013. For this game 'JeetZaroori Hai' has been developedwith the cooperation of Care Indiaand BBC Media, which is based ontraditional Snake and Laddergame. Through this, initiative hasbeen taken to create awarenessamong women regarding benefitsof supplementary diet and socialrestrictions.

Orientation training for this hasbeen arranged for all Project Offi-cers and Supervisors in the State.Through these master trainers, allAnganwadi workers have trainedabout supplementary nutritiousdiet. These workers are apprisingpregnant women and lactatingmothers about nutritious diet.

Through Snake and Ladder game,a new concept has been given totraditional methods of nutritionthrough which Anganwadi work-ers are providing health and nutri-tion-related information to women.This novel initiative of Directorateof Integrated Child DevelopmentService of Women and Child De-velopment Department is creatingawareness about malnutrition

03(MP&CG) February 10 to February 16, 2014 Bhopal

Gujarat Model to be applied to tribal educational institutionsBHOPAL

SC and ST Welfare Minister GyanSingh has stressed the need forearnest efforts for improving trib-al students' higher education leveland quality. Gyan Singh was ad-dressing a meeting of Board of Di-rectors of Madhya Pradesh TribalWelfare Residential and AshramEducation Institutions Societyhere today. Principal SecretaryTribal Welfare P.C. Meena, Com-missioner Tribal Welfare UmakantUmrao, Board of Directors mem-ber Dr. Prem Bharti and othermembers were present on the occa-sion.

Gyan Singh said that attendanceof students and teaching staff isvery necessary in tribal residentialschools. Singh directed for bio-metric attendance system to in-crease presence of students andteachers. It was also decided to ap-ply Gujarat Model for ensuringtransparency in conduct of educa-tional institutions under Tribal

Welfare Department, discharge ofwork without hurdles and promptsolution to visitors' problems.

The Minister said that strict ac-tion will be taken against thoseteachers of Eklavya residentialschools exam results of whoseschools have not been satisfactory.He directed to immediately invite

applications for posting of guestteachers on PGT and TGT posts.

The Minister sought informationabout facilities like free uniform,books, sports material, beds etc.provided to students. He directedto ensure that from next session,students get these facilities in Oc-tober's first week.

The meeting also considered aproposal to constitute a committeecomprising regional educationalinstitutions for quality of schools.The committee will suggest waysto improve class X students' educa-tional status, teaching level, examand evaluation process so thatclass XII results can also be im-proved. Minister Gyan Singh ap-prised himself about variousschemes to tribal students andgave necessary guidelines to en-sure that benefit of these schemesreach students properly.

Commissioner Tribal WelfareUmrao apprised the meeting aboutagenda and minutes of meeting.He informed that 36 out of 47 pettyworks of Tribal Welfare Depart-ment schools have been completedand directives have been given tocomplete remaining 11 works withquality within time-limit.

It is noteworthy that the societyruns 20 Eklavya residential modelschools and 13 girls educationalcomplexes in the state.

Civic body to develop forest nearIndore, plans to attract visitors

INDORE

The Indore Municipal Corporation(IMC) is planning to provide morefacilities at underdeveloped cityforest to ensure proper care oftrees.

The civic body will lay down PVCpipelines across the forest for wa-tering over 3000 saplings plantedover a 30-acre land. The land hasbeen earmarked to convert it into alush green patch. IMC HorticultureWing has been assigned the task fordeveloping the man-made forestnear Bicholi Mardana area.

The pipelines will help in water-ing the plants as the civic body hasdug three tube-wells to provide un-interrupted water supply neededfor the plantation. Black soil hasalso been transported here to en-

sure speedy growth of plants.The civic body holds plantation

drive at regular intervals. The au-thority has planned to plant at least15,000 saplings in association withthe forest department in the nextmonsoon. The corporation is con-structing a hut in the forest to facil-itate the visitors in case of suddenrains. The hut will have the capaci-ty to house nearly 100 people. Thecivic body will also construct aparking area at the entrance of theforest.

Besides, instructions to repairroad leading to the site, installationof a gate and to construct a parkingarea at the entrance of the foresthave been already issued to the of-ficials concerned.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to at-tract more tourists to Ralamandal

Sanctuary near Indore. The 278-hectare sanctuary will have a mixof adventure, education and enter-tainment for the visitors. Sayschief conservator of forest, R ROkhandiar: "Our aim is to ensurethat the people who visit the sanc-tuary are able to spend at least fourto five hours of quality time in thesanctuary."

The Ralamandal will be dividedinto two sections. One will be thefour-hectare area earmarked foreco-tourism. This area will boast ofa butterfly park housing hundredsof types of butterflies. "Nowadaysthe people in the city hardly get tosee butterflies and it will be a visu-al delight for everyone and also ed-ucational one as there will be fulldescription of the butterflies," saidOkhandiar.

Krishi Karman Awardto MP for consecutivesecond yearBhopal: Government of India hasannounced Krishi Karman Awardin overall food grains productionincrease category for year 2012-13to Madhya Pradesh consecutivelyfor second year. For this award, pol-icy-related efforts for excellent im-plementation of farmers' schemesare also taken into account apartfrom evaluation of states' agricul-ture production. Andhra Pradesh,Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Mad-hya Pradesh were selected as majorcompetitors for the award for year2012-13. Finally, Madhya Pradeshwas selected for the prestigiousaward for year-round innovative ef-forts, expansion of area under foodgrains and pulses' production andtheir productivity and outstandingachievements. The award carriesRs. 2 lakh, memento and certificate.

The award is the result of ensur-ing farmers' welfare and success ofthe strategy for continuousprogress of agriculture whilemaintaining high agriculturegrowth rate. Apart from farmer-ori-ented policies of the state govern-ment its credit also goes to farmers'untiring efforts and adoption of in-novative practices. To top it all, thebiggest matter of pride is thatstate's contribution is constantlyincreasing to meeting food grain re-quirements of country's rising pop-ulation.

Sharp rise in food grains produc-tion A well planned strategy is be-ing implemented in MadhyaPradesh for increasing productionand productivity of crops. For this,corrective steps have been ensuredin every component of farming andat every stage. Food grains produc-tion has increased remarkably dur-ing the last 5 years.

04 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Raipur Trail

RAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh governmenthad issued an alert to the districtand police administration acrossthe state to keep a close watch onthe activities of chit fund compa-nies. The order came after ReserveBank of India had asked the stategovernments to remain vigilant ofall non-banking financial compa-nies (NBFCs).

The meeting of the Reserve BankCo-ordination Committee was heldin Raipur recently. In the past fouryears, chit fund companies inChhattisgarh have duped over 3000people of a whopping Rs 124 crores,which makes an average of over Rs41 lakh per head. Home Minister,Ramsewak Paikra has said be-tween 2009-13, 96 cases of chit fundscams had been registered and 174accused were arrested. He saidchallans in 73 cases had been filedin various courts. The Home Min-ister said the total number of peo-ple duped in these scams was about3717 and the amount involved wasnearly Rs 124 crores.

He said, while 16 cases are pend-ing and seven cases were closeddue to the absence of adequate evi-dence. The minister also disclosedthat at present 16 chit-fund compa-nies were operating in the state.Expressing concern at the fraudscommitted under the garb of run-ning chit companies, the ministersaid more steps would be taken toensure that such fraudsters arebrought to the book.

RAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh Government ispromoting three mega industrialareas in Bilaspur, Raigarh andRaipur districts with a view to at-tracting investments in the state.The focus is on developing clustersfor metal, herbal and medicine,food processing and gems and Jew-ellery.

In this regard Chhattisgarh StateIndustrial Development Corpora-tion Limited (CSIDC) wants to ap-point a consultant to lookinto infrastruc-tureplan-ning,

identify projects, provide transac-tion advisories and promote invest-ments in the state.

CSIDC is a Government of Chhat-tisgarh Undertaking under Com-merce and Industry Department. Ithas been instrumental in develop-ing various industrial growth cen-tres and industrial areas namelyUrla, Sarora, Bhanpuri, Amaseoni,Rawabhata, Siltara in Raipur Dis-trict; Borai in Durg District, Sirgit-

ti, Tifra, Rani Durgawati

in Bilaspur District.To meet increasing requirement

of land for new industrial units,CSIDC is setting up three Mega In-dustrial Areas in Bilaspur, Raigarhand Raipur Districts, spreadingover 4740 hectares.

Integrated Infrastructure Devel-opment Centres have been estab-lished in the districts of Kabird-

ham, Mahasamundand Surguja. Work on

In-

frastructure Development has beenstarted in these IIDCs.

In addition, work has started fordevelopment of an Apparel Park atBhanpuri in Raipur District. Alsoeffective steps have been taken forestablishment of Metal Park,Herbal and Medicinal Park, FoodProcessing Park and Gems andJewellery SEZ.

CSIDC has effectively implement-ed Public Private Partnership inupgradation and maintenance of

existing Industrial Areas inUrla and Siltara, Dis-trict Raipur.

Chit fund companiesduping investors:Govt issues alert

Chhattisgarh to promote 3 mega industrial areas

Preparations for annual Rajim Kumbh mela in full swingRAIPUR

Preparations are in full swing forthe annual Rajim Kumbh melastarting from February 14. Make-shift roads are being constructed inthe sands around Triveni Sangam.Temporary houses for Naga saintsand grass sheds for religious exer-cises at various places are beingprepared, besides making efforts toremove the shortcomings that oc-curred in the last Kumbh Mela.

Preparations are on for installingdifferent types of exhibition stallsin the huge sandy ground. Beforethe arrival of saints, for the dailyand Shahi Snan of saints and Ma-hamandaleshwars, Shahi Kund hasbeen prepared and now the banksof the pond are being constructedwith sand sacks. One side of thepond has been linked to Pairy andSondule rivers and on the otherside, nullah has been constructedfor water exit, so that regular waterfilling could be made in the pond.

According to estimate, besidesShahi Snan on Magh Poornima andShivratri, the pond has capacity oftaking dip of 30 to 40 thousand peo-

ple daily. After construction of thepond, now, it is being made secureby barricading on all the sides. Un-der PWD Abhanpur 3, along withthe road construction work fromNavapara, work has been started

for construction of two bridges onMahanadi.

In addition to that tender hasbeen opened for construction ofroad near Kuleshwar Mahadev un-der Dhamtari district and work has

started. Painting and whitewash-ing of the three bridges of TriveniRajim bridge, Choubebandhabridge and Belahighat Trivenibridge and maintenance of street-lights are being done. For the reli-

gious programme of Satpal Ma-haraj, construction of boundarywall around the land reserved nearmango garden in front of LomashRishi Ashram and gate is going onat war footing.

05(MP&CG) February 10 to February 16, 2014 Madhya Pradesh

e-Panchayats in MP to have public facilitiesBHOPAL

Under e-Panchayat Programme, all23 thousand 6 Gram Panchayats inthe state are being converted to e-Panchayats. E-Panchayat rooms arebeing constructed in the Gram Pan-chayats which have buildings. Fa-cilities under Panch ParmeshwarYojana, Performance Guarantee,Self-Taxation Scheme, IntegratedDevelopment Scheme, BRGF, RGFetc. will be provided in e-Panchayatrooms where ultra-small banks arealso being set up. Services includ-ing caste and income certificates,copies of khasra, maps etc. will alsobe delivered within time-limit here.The ultra small banks establishedhere will ensure swift transfer offunds to beneficiaries under vari-ous schemes like social securitypensions, scholarships of studentsand Janani Suraksha Yojana.

For smooth implementation of e-Panchayat system, societies consti-tuted at district-level are purchas-ing and providing computer materi-al to all 23 thousand 6 Gram Pan-

chayats. Every computer will beloaded with MS Windows-7, homebasic operating system, MS Office-2013 and Indic productivity soft-wares. Every e-Panchayat will beprovided a scanner, laser printer,UPS, 40-inch LCD TV, 8-port laneswitch, 3 patch cards and 8 GB pen-drive. Details of all material pro-vided to e-Panchayats are being up-loaded on website through mobileapps. Directives have been given tosnap photographs of hardwarewith mobile camera and geo-tag it

through mobile apps. Through thissystem, tracing of stolen computermaterial will become easier.

Panchayats & Rural DevelopmentDepartment has directed to handover responsibility of safety ofcomputer hardware and related ma-terial for e-Panchayat system toGram Panchayat Secretary, GramPanchayat Coordination Officerand Sarpanch. In case of theft ofthis material, FIR will have to belodged with concerning police sta-tion. If stolen material is not recov-

ered, its cost will be realised fromGram PanchayatSecretary/Sarpanch. Guidelinesand directives have also been issuedto ensure insurance of computermaterial using 10 percent reservedfunds of Panch Parmeshwar Yojanaand pay annual premium.

Smooth power supply is being en-sured in the Gram Panchayatswhere computer appliances havebeen installed. Payment of electric-ity bill will also be made using 10percent reserved funds of PanchParmeshwar Yojana and if notavailable under this head then byusing Performance Grant Fund. Ex-penditure on broadband connectiv-ity will also be made through theseheads. Internet connectivity will betaken from BSNL or any other in-ternet service provider (ISP). Forbroadband connectivity, 512 KBPSspeed will be compulsory. It will bebased on Wi-Max or OFC technolo-gy. Delivery of prescribed public fa-cilities is being ensured in the e-Panchayats where internet connec-tivity is available.

Deadline over, lessthan half food

business operatorsregistered

BHOPAL: It is a move that wouldimpact some seven lakh food busi-ness operators (FBO) in MadhyaPradesh from Puri Bhandars toplush restaurants, school canteensand even small time street vendors.After nearly two years of delay, allFBOs will have to obtain registra-tion from the Government-run cen-tral food authority Food Safety andStandards Authority of India (FS-SAI). The deadline for obtainingthe licenses already ended on Feb-ruary 4, after which FSSAI willhave the authority to randomlycheck any eatery and if it is foundwithout the license, FSSAI can pe-nalise the restaurant or even havethe outlet shut down.

However, only about 2.5 lakh foodbusiness operators (FBOs) havebeen registered in MadhyaPradesh, according to state Foodand Drugs Administration (FDA).State FDA is in the process of reg-istering another two lakh FBOs.Implementation of FSSAI Act of2011has been postponed manytimes over the last two years. Themove stirred a hornet's nest for therestaurant industry in 2012 and ledto a hotels and restaurants downshutters to protest new FSSAI act.

In a bid to reduce opposition, thestate government has been permit-ted to relax rules on packaging. Forinstance, sale of open edible oil,not allowed under FSSAI, has beenpermitted until May 2014 and issubject to further extension. Twoyears on traders are in no mood torepeat protests, feels Bhopal Hoteland Restaurant Association Presi-dent, Tejkul Singh Pali. "Nearly80% of established FBOs adhere tonew norms. There are some issuesof infrastructure which need to besorted in association with civicbodies," he said. FBO businesswith a turnover of Rs 12 Lakh (es-timated 20% of all FBOs) require alicense. For every restaurant inevery city, a separate license willneed to be issued. In addition, therewould a central license required tobe obtained from the head office ofthat particular food business firm.

Healthy society can be built onlywith good education and etiquettes

BHOPAL

Energy and Public Relations Minis-ter Rajendra Shukla has said thatdistortions can be removed to builda healthy society only when chil-dren are imbued with good educa-tion and etiquettes. Shukla was ad-dressing a programme held at BalakMandir Higher Secondary Schoolrun by Madhya Pradesh ElectricityBoard Women's Club at Jabalpur re-cently. MLA Tarun Bhanot, MPPower Management Company'sManaging Director Manu vastavaand Eastern Region Power Distribu-tion Company's MD Sukhbeer Singhwere also present on the occasion.

The Energy Minister said that im-parting education is regarded as thebest donation in Indian culture. It is

matter of pleasure that ElectricityBoard Women's Club is also ensur-ing education of poor childrenalong with affluent ones. Club'sPresident Pragya Richa vastava in-formed that the school is being runfor the last 35 years with number ofstudents reaching 1400 now. At theprogramme, children's band gaveguard of honour to the chief guest.The Energy Minister also planted asapling on the school premises.

Energy Minister Shukla laid thefoundation stone for 2nd phase ofschool's expansion including bound-ary wall and cycle stand. The workswill cost Rs. 23 lakh 25 thousand.The Energy Minister also inaugu-rated 3 rooms constructed underPPP mode at a cost of Rs. 24 lakh.Meanwhile, cycle rallies were taken

out throughout the state as part ofpublic awareness campaign for ma-ternal and infant health security.Over 50 thousand persons partici-pated in the rallies.

Principal Secretary HealthPraveer Krishna started the rally atJP Hospital, Bhopal on Sunday at 9am by pedaling a cycle. Along withhim, Commissioner Health Dr.Pankaj Agrawal and Director Dr.Sanjay Goyal also gave message ofawareness through cycling.

People and children of various so-cial, educational, voluntary andnon-government organisations par-ticipated in the rally. Chief Medicaland Health Officer Dr. Pankaj Shuk-la thanked participants of the rally.A number of doctors of JP Hospitalalso took part in the cycle rally.

Namkeen cluster inIndore to be in linewith global standards

INDORE

With reverse osmosis (RO) waterfilter plant that can ensure hy-giene and quality, products fromthe Namkeen cluster that is beingset up in Indore are likely to be inline with international safetystandards. The proposal for ROplant was made by manufactur-ers of the Namkeen productsthemselves.

A project envisaged by MSMEDevelopment Institute Indore, theNamkeen cluster is being devel-oped by Audyogik Kendra VikasNigam (AKVN) Indore. Whilehelping promote small and medi-um industries by increasing theirexport opportunities, the indus-trial cluster will also help takethe famous Namkeen products toa world market.

The cluster when functional isexpected to double the annualturnover to Rs 1,000 crore in twoyears. It will house a quality testlaboratory cold storage, ware-house, piped gas line, and em-ployees training centre. As manyas 50 companies are expected tostart production in the firstphase.

The cluster is spread across12.71 acres of land, with an in-vestment of Rs 10 crore and anadditional Rs 10 crore for com-mon area facilities. Chief Minis-ter Shivraj Singh Chouhan hadlaid the foundation stone forNamkeen cluster in Bhourasalavillage near Sanver Road indus-trial area in October 2012.

Bhopal: Urban Administrative De-partment has approved Rs. 13,000crore Light Metro project for Bhopalcity. The new project is going to cov-er a track length of 78 kilometres andis expected to be complete in nextfour-to-five years. The government dismissed the high-ly successful Delhi Metro and the re-cently launched Mumbai Monorailproject and opted for small-town-friendly Light Metro version. Theproject was given green light by Ur-ban Administrative MinisterKailash Vijayvargiya, recently. Ur-ban Administrative Department,German-based LRTC, and Indian

company Rohit Associates are work-ing together to prepare the DetailedProject Report (DPR) for Indore andBhopal which is expected to be readyby June this year.What is a Light Metro?

The concept of Light Metro is high-ly successful in Germany, Dubai,Saudi Arabia and Poland.

It is comparatively cheaper tobuild than the existing Monorail andHeavy Metro (Delhi Metro) project.The Light Metro has several advan-tages in comparison to the existingconventional models. It can easilynavigate from one route to another.The boogies are relatively light

weight and smaller than regularMetro. The project's maintenanceand running cost are comparativelylow. It is an ideal choice for citieswith small population. It will cost Rs.13 lakh/ km. The average speed is 30to 40 kmph.Routes covered by the Light Metro

In the beginning, the Light Metrowill run on five routes- and cover ma-jor areas of old and new city. Twomore routes are expected to be addedto the itinerary. The Project will alsobe linked to Bhopal Railway Stationand Habibganj Station. The DPR willbe prepared considering in mind thenext 25 years requirement of the city.

Light Metro project approved for Bhopal, to be complete in 4-5 yrs

06 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Editorial

ASTROLOGY

12-02-2014- Wednesday - Falgun MahShuklapaksh-TrayodashiPositive directions - North and WestBad time - 12:39 pm to 2:03 pmGood time - 7:03 am to 9:51 am and3:27 pm to 6:17 pm

13-02-2014-Thursday- Falgun MahShuklapaksh-Chaturdashi (Guru PushyaYog)Positive directions - North and WestBad time - 2:03 pm to 3:27 pmGood time - 7:03 am to 8:27 am and11:01 am to 2:02 pm and 4:53 pm to 6:17pm

14-02-2014- Friday -Falgun MahShuklapaksh- PoornimaPositive directions - North and EastBad time - 11:15 am to 12:39 pmGood time - 7:03 am to 11:14 am and2:03 pm to 3:27 pm and 4:53 pm to 6:17 pm

15-02-2014- Saturday -Falgun MahKrishnapaksh- Ekam Positive directions - East and NorthBad time - 9:51 am to 11:15 amGood time - 8:27 am to 9:50 am and12:39 pm to 4:53 pm

16-02-2014- Sunday - Falgun MahKrishnapaksh- EkamPositive directions - North and EastBad time - 4:53 pm to 6:17 pm Good time - 8:27 am to 12:39 pm and2:03 pm to 3:15 pm

17-02-2014- Monday -Falgun MahKrishnapaksh- DwitiyaPositive directions- East and SouthBad time - 8:27 am to 9:51 amGood time - 7:03 am to 8:26 am and9:52 am to 11:15 am and 2:03 pm to 6:17pm

18-02-2014- Tuesday -Falgun MahKrishnapaksh - Tritiya (Chaturthi Vrat)Positive directions-South and EastBad time - 3:15 pm to 4:53 pmGood time - 9:51 am to 2:03 pm

By AACHARYA SARVESHE-Mail: acharya.sarvesh@yahoo.com

Mobile: 9826609192

VASTU TIPS FOR STUDENTS

• Study table for students should be in regular shape like square or rectangle with minimal size not too big, not too small.

• Study table should face East or North for better concentration and likewise student sitting on this table should also face East or North.

• Keep some distant between wall and study table as table should not lie along the wall and some space is given to regulate the flow of energy.

• The bookshelf should be placed in East, North or North-east which are considered best to stack books. While avoid keeping anything in the middle of the room.

"No harmony between what Rahul and party practices"DILIP OJHA

The Congress' alliance withLalu Prasad Yadav'sRashtriya Janata Dal and

Ramvilas Paswan's Lok JanshaktiParty in Bihar is an indication of

the Congress vice-president RahulGandh's inability to have harmonybetween what he preaches andwhat the party practices. Much tothe embarrassment of the primeminister and other senior leaders,Gandhi had called the Ordinancebrought for giving protection to in-

dicted politicians nonsense andforced its withdrawal.

A few months down the line, theCongress has now decided to em-brace a criminally convicted LaluPrasad Yadav as an ally and dumpa clean and much better adminis-trator like Bihar chief minister Ni-tish Kumar. While on the one handGandhi claims that he has much tolearn from the rise of Aam AadmiParty (AAP), on the other he failsto comprehend that corruption isthe biggest issue staring at theCongress.

As in 1996, when P V Narasimhawas at the helm, despite the eco-nomic reforms, the Congress waspestered in the polls on account ofcorruption charges manifested nu-merously in Hawala and severalother scandals. It lost power in1989, when Rajiv Gandhi was at thehelm, on account of Bofors scam.Congress today is once again fac-ing 1989 and 1996-like challenge.

The party's capacity to steerclear of corruption charges de-pends on the ability of RahulGandhi to keep himself and hisfamily above suspicion. This is anonerous task and Congress vice-president so far has proved to be

unequal to the job. Rahul Gandhiin his address at the AICC sessionat Talkatora stadium last monthand his interviews to a newspaperand a television channel has so farfailed to delineate any roadmapwhich Gandhi may have preparedto rejuvenate his party cadres. Par-ty leader and MP Ajay Makenclaims that the process (of primar-ies) is part of the Rahul's long-terms plan to bring sweepingchanges in ticket distribution andother processes in the party but atthe same time adds that the projecthas been taken up on pilot basis asthe elections are on the head.

Former union minister, and oneof the more articulate members ofparliament, Ajay Maken has beengiven the task to sell scrap as shin-ning metal. While the media adver-tisements which the Congress hasreleased are eye catching but willthey bring any accolade for the hol-low pronouncements of its posterboy Rahul Gandhi is something tobe watched. If the Congress man-ages to put up a credible perform-ance in the upcoming general elec-tion despite a very lackluster lead-ership, lot of credit should accrueto Maken's efforts.

BJP on a comeback trail in UP?M

ore than the opinion polls thesigns of discomfort in the Con-gress camp indicate that BJP is

on a comeback trail in Uttar Pradesh.Narendra Modi's well-attended rallies, too,indicate popular interest in BJP. True,these are just signs indicating success ofAmit Shah in reviving BJP fortune in thestate. Uttar Pradesh, the largest state ofthe country sends 80 members to the LokSabha. BJP was at its peak in 1998 when itwon 57 seats in UP in the parliamentarypolls. Since then, however, its graph hasgradually declined.

The key message that is coming out nowseems to be exciting for the party. The ap-parent turnaround of BJP fortune in UP isan interesting case to study. NarendraModi took the risk. Defying all sane adviceof senior leaders and party sympathisers,Modi brought in Amit Shah, his formercontroversial junior Home Minister as hiscampaign committee chairperson in UP.Amit had been mired in several contro-versies.

For such a person to come and spearheadBJP cause in UP, a state with large Muslimpopulation, was viewed as another madproject of Narendra Modi. How would anoutsider with controversial record feel thepulse of the voters in UP, wave the magicwand like he did in Gujarat and changethe game for the party? Shah is known inthe BJP circles as a master strategist. Thisis because he has proved his mettle in Gu-jarat.

But Gujarat is more homogeneous andless complex electorally than UP. Even po-litically UP has two strong regional par-ties - Mulayam Yadav's SP and Mayawati'sBSP. BJP had created a position in thestate but that was when Mayawati was stilllearning the ropes of politics and Con-

gress was confused over the Ram Janmab-humi issue.

But Shah's task is far more complex in2013-14. Development plank of Gujaratwould find few takers among people ac-customed to live amidst poverty and riots.When Shah came to UP nobody wouldhave aspired to take his job. What did hedo? Clearly political communication is all

about reaching out to the voters in theirdaily battles in life. Shah used the sameoft-used trick to revive BJP prospect in UP.He sent party workers to villages to inter-act with voters. Any political organizerknows that the real strength of a party liesin its booth level communication. Thiswins the party more votes than a franklyspeaking on a TV channel can deliver.

07(MP&CG) February 10 to February 16, 2014 Politics

AAP's rebel MLAs can't topple govt immediatelyNEW DELHI

The rebel and expelled leader ofArvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Par-ty Vinod Kumar Binny has with-drawn his support to the party. Bin-ny threatened to topple the AAPgovernment in the Capital afterjoining hands with two independ-ent MLAs and issued an ultimatumto the government to meet a char-ter of demands related to electrici-ty, water, women's safety, and an in-vestigation into the Common-wealth Games.

However, for six months since thedate of the government's forma-tion, rules forbid the rebel MLA'sfrom calling for a floor test. TheAAP government, even if in a mi-

nority, is thus safe. In another sce-nario, the report adds, a floor testmay not be called, and AAP gov-

ernment can continue as a minori-ty administration.

Binny has asked the party to meet

the demands of water, power andwomen's safety. He also asked forinvestigation into CommonwealthGames scam. After creating muchchaos in the party, he declared thathe quit. Binny had stormed out ofAAP in January after he was de-nied a ministerial berth in the par-ty. He had then called Kejriwal adictator.AAP government's found-ing member Madhu Bhaduri hasalso walked out of the party be-cause it doesn't consider women ashuman beings. In another jolt toAAP, party legislator Dinesh Mo-haniya was pushed and roughed upby women protesting against watershortage in Sangam Vihar. He wasallegedly slapped during theprotest.

Shivraj to get freehand in LS polls

BHOPAL: After the performanceof Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChauhan in the recently held As-sembly elections, the central lead-ership has decided to give him afree hand like Assembly elections,so that he could bring good resultsin the forthcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions too. BJP vice-presidentsPrabhat Jha and Uma Bhartiwould have no role in MadhyaPradesh in the upcoming Lok Sab-ha elections. This was made clearin the list different States' chargegiven to party leaders.

Jha has been made in-charge ofDelhi, while Uma Bharti wouldlook after the party affairs in Ut-tarakhand. Shivraj Singh Chouhanwas not willing for providing bet-ter roles to these leaders in Mad-hya Pradesh. Uma Bharti ispresently an MLA from UttarPradesh and engaged in the Gangacleansing campaign. Uma Bharti'snomination as Uttarakhand BJPaffairs chief comes at a time whenCongress state unit over there isplagued with turmoil leading toHarish Rawat replacing VijayBahuguna as the chief minister ofthe state.

Prabhat Jha was party affairs in-charge in Andhra Pradesh but nowhe assumes crucial responsibilityin Delhi where Aam Admi Party'simpressive performance in the as-sembly elections pushed the BJPaway from power despite the saf-fron brigade emerging as thelargest party.

Political observers feel that giv-ing charge of Delhi and Uttarak-hand to Jha and Bharti clearly in-dicates that this is strategical shift-ing of these leaders out of MadhyaPradesh. Both Jha and Bharti arepassing through testing times. Af-ter returning to the BJP, Bhartiwas given responsibility of UttarPradesh Assembly elections, butthe party failed to do any miraclein her leadership. Jha was also re-moved as the State president of MPjust before the Assembly election.Since then, both the leaders wereawaiting new chance to prove theirmettle.

Focus on AAP, media ignoresMamta, other regional leaders

KOLKATA

Mamata's Kolkata rally and the un-veiling of her strategy for the LokSabha polls was a major politicaldevelopment. Whereas Mamata andJayalalithaa look like winners ontheir home turf of West Bengal andTamil Nadu respectively, the trio ofNitish Kumar-Mulayam Singh Ya-dav-H D Deve Gowda give the im-

pression of being a club of the left-behind.

The Left's its clout in the corri-dors of power and social influencehas diminished considerably, eversince Prakash Karat effected therupture with the Congress over theIndo-US nuclear deal. If the signifi-cance of Mamata, Jayalalithaa orfor that matter, Naveen Patnaik, isinsufficiently understood in the me-dia, it is because Kolkata, Chennaiand Bhubaneswar are outside theimagined world of the dominant in-tellectual elite.

Far from being concerned withthe 542 Lok Sabha seats, the forth-coming elections have been reducedto one question: How will the AamAadmi Party do in 2014? If the opin-ion polls are any guide, it seemsthat AAP is likely to be a factor inabout 20 Lok Sabha seats, mainly inthe National Capital Region. In oth-er places they might play the role ofspoiler. The point is that these 20

seats are well below the 42 seatswhere Mamata is a big player, or the39 seats in Tamil Nadu, where thecharm of Jayalalithaa could work.But yet, AAP has hogged the mediaspace, outpacing the regional par-ties by many miles. Is it only be-cause AAP is unique or is it be-cause it is a doorstep Hindi-speak-ing phenomenon?

From all accounts, the crowd atMamta's recent Kolkarta rally wasbigger than anything witnessed inrecent years: estimates ranged fromseven lakh to 12 lakh people. Therally had a larger political signifi-cance too. It suggested that the Tri-namool Congress (AITC) would tryto maximise its haul from WestBengal and leverage that withwhichever political formation isclosest to the 272-mark in the nextLok Sabha. Her strategy is not dis-similar to the one being pursued byTamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jay-alalithaa.

Farmers inRajasthan extend

support to AAPJAIPUR

Ignored by both BJP and Con-gress governments, farmers inthe desert state of Rajasthanhave decided to extend theirsupport to AAP. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)

that stunned the country withits fabulous debut in New Delhiassembly election is nowpaving a road for the comingLok Sabha elections.

The leaders and workers ofthe farmer union in Rajasthantook a ride on tractors recentlyto reach Durgapur to attend themeeting of AAP state council.

Farmer representatives saidthey have expectations fromAAP and hope AAP leaders willunderstand their problems andtry to resolve them.

The state leader of the farmerunion Krishna Kumar Saharanmade an official announcementof supporting AAP.

The meeting was attended bycoordinators, secretaries, treas-urers and speakers of the AAPfrom 33 districts of the state.The AAP has already declaredthat they are going to contest onall the seats of Lok Sabha.

The party is yet to announcethe names of the contestants.The meeting was to train thepost holders for the Lok Sabhaelections.

After announcing the sup-port to AAP, Saharan said thattheir problems and troubleshave always been ignored bythe Congress and the BhartiyaJanata Party (BJP) and nowthey have high hopes of theAAP. The union is against theForeign Direct Investment(FDI).

It is noteworthy that the Con-gress-led UPA Government atthe Centre has allowed FDI inmulti-brand retail.

Cong to repeat six sitting MPs in LS pollsBHOPAL

The Congress State Election Com-mittee has unanimously decidedthat six sitting MPs would be re-peated in the forthcoming LokSabha polls. They include- UnionMinister Jyotiraditya Scindiafrom Guna, Kamal Nath fromChhindwara, Sajjan Singh Vermafrom Dewas, Kantilal Bhuria fromRatlam, Gajendra Singh Rajukhe-di from Dhar, Rajesh NandiniSingh from Shahdol. The com-mittee meeting was held recentlyin Delhi. At present, there are 11Lok Sabha members of Congressfrom Madhya Pradesh.

However, several members of

the committee are against repeat-ing sitting MP Premchand Guddufrom Ujjain and decision on thisseat has been left on the high com-mand. The committee also couldnot reach any conclusion whetherPCC president Arun Yadav shouldbe fielded or not. Decision on In-dore and Mandsaur constituen-cies would be taken on RahulGandhi's formula with consensusby the party workers. Sourcesclaim that earlier, Hoshangabadconstituency was included withIndore, but later, it was replacedwith Mandsaur. Sources say thatno decision could be taken on Ra-jgarh and Mandla constituencies.Digvijay Singh had been advocat-

ing the candidature of sitting MPNarayan Singh Amlave from Raj-garh, but the committee foundLaxman Singh as winnable candi-date. This is why, Amlave's namehas also been placed in the panelalong with Laxman Singh.

Meanwhile, with newly electedMadhya Pradesh Congress Com-mittee president Arun Yadav hav-ing announced that the party hasno intention to change the districtand city Congress presidents instate till Lok Sabha elections getover, party office bearers in vari-ous districts have a daunting taskahead. They will find it hard togather workers and leaders towork for mobilising voters.

08 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Must Read

Is God the greatest lie invented by man?BIPIN SASI

We all believe that there isa supreme power whichexists, something super-

natural, we name it God. Argu-ments against the existence of Godhave been proposed by philoso-phers, scientists and others fromexistence of mankind. It is indeed aquestion to be discussed. Does Godreally exist? Is God the greatest lieinvented by man? Whenever we areafraid, whenever we are in stress,we hope, we believe that somethinggood will happen soon, God willmake something good to happen inour life. We start sending ourprayers to God. Does that prayerreach to God? We cannot see him,still we believe him. Isn’t it an illu-sion? People believe that the uni-verse you see around is a creationof that unseen God. I have beencontemplating the idea of “God”. Iwant to know if he really exists andif he does, like many, I want toknow why things so awry are hap-pening to people.

In Indian tradition, we are taughtthat our teacher and our parentsare God. We are raised by our par-ents and those were beautiful dayswithout any responsibility, withoutany fear. Life was so comfortable in

the baby cradle that as we grow upwe feel so helpless, so afraid ofdeath, so burdened with life’s prob-lems, we remind of our childhooddays-no responsibility, no worry-somebody was taking care of us.That psychological childhood isprojected into all the religions: Godbecomes the father. And there are afew religions in which God be-comes the mother. It is a simple psy-chological projection of a child. Ithas no basis in reality. As a childwhen we do not have all the an-

swers so we find the answer in‘God’, we are told that everythingthat exists is created by God. Thosewho believe in God may feel thatthis ideology is insipid and stupid,yet no believer can claim that hehas seen God, some say that theyhave experienced his presence. Weexperience his presence but he can-not be seen or touched, isn’t itstrange and surprising?

God is the biggest illusion createdby man. Believers say that God hascontrol over everything, he already

knows everything that we are goingto do. Then every decision we evergoing to make has effectively al-ready been made. Let’s take the in-stance of Rama, this would meanthat God allowed Ravana to becomeso strong that he himself incarnat-ed for him and took all pain onearth and lived years to brings it toan end. In many religions God hasa physical form. No one has seenhim still we have a prototype of hislooks and physical appearance.Usually we humans believe what

we see, then there arouse a need togive physical shape to our illusion.A group of wise people thus camewith the idea of many Gods. In Hin-duism, we have more than onecrore God and Goddess, each repre-senting different aspect that oneneeds to alleviate his standard ofliving in the material world. For ex-ample- Brahma for creation, Vish-nu for protection and Shiva for de-struction, Laxmi for wealth andmany more.

Whenever we are afraid, whenev-er we are in trouble, we start seek-ing God’s help. When Damini wasraped in a running bus with brutal-ity, she might have called her God,every believer of God in trouble,who has faith and belief in him willtry to seek his help.

Did the Guardian angel come tohelp her? The truth is that no helpever comes. Even Jesus on thecross was waiting for the help tocome, and finally got disappointedand shouted, “Father, have you for-saken me?” A great doubt musthave arisen in him, a great ques-tion. Nothing is happening, and hebelieved all these years that Godwould come to save him, his onlybegotten son. Nobody came. JesusChrist must have died in utter dis-illusionment.

Empowering Rural Women to Become Agents of ChangeRANCHI

14 year old Piari Purti from Gad-dara village in Jharkhand beganworking as a farm labourer whenshe was just eight to nine yearsold. She used to get Rs 60 a day.When she attained 11 years of agePiari Purti began working in abrick yard and was paid Rs 80 aday. She left home every morningat 6 AM and returned at 6.30 PM inthe evening. Back home, she alsohad to help her mother and look af-ter her younger siblings. Belong-ing to an extremely poor family, Pi-ari says there were days when theycould not get two square meals aday.

Piari says that in her village theupper class families looked downupon them. "They wash the bed ifwe happen to sit on them and ifany of us used the tap before them,they made it a point to clean thetap before using it and there wasno question of ever entering theirhouses. For girls it was double dis-crimination", she says.

It was in April this year that Pi-ari Purti was selected for admis-sion to Mahila Shikshan Kendra(MSK) in Jamshedpur. For Piariwho had never been to school, itwas a dream come true, for she al-ways wanted to study. "I want tobecome an engineer", she says.

MSKs are run by the Mahila

Samakhya scheme under the Hu-man Resource Development Min-istry of the Union Government.Recognizing that education can bean effective tool in women's em-powerment, the programme wasfirst started as a pilot project in1988. There are 30 girls and youngwomen (between the age group of15 to 35) in each of the MSKs wherelessons up to class fifth are taughtduring the almost year longcourse. The aim is to make themself-reliant through Life skill edu-cation, vocational as well as com-puter training.

According to Dr Smita Gupta,State Program Director, Jhark-hand Mahila Samkhya Society(JMSS), specially designed cur-riculum is followed to developleader ship qualities and audio vi-sual techniques, computers, televi-sion etc. are used to arouse inter-est and curiosity among the learn-ers.

These young girls at the MSKsalso get a chance to participate insports, karate, plays and celebra-tions of days like Wash Day orTeachers day etc. They are alsotaken to banks, post offices, rail-way stations etc., to acquaint themwith the services, working and fa-cilities there. Sometimes they alsoget to participate in workshopsand seminars.

There are 14 MSKs in Jharkhand,

one each in 11 districts, one forwomen prisoners in Birsa MundaJail in Ranchi, one in Khunti forsurvivors of human trafficking.Trafficking of girls is serious is-sue in Jharkhand which is consid-ered a source state from where sev-eral girls are duped into exploita-tive situations due to extremepoverty. The Khunti District Pro-grame Coordinator Anchi Horo

says the biggest challenges theyface in mainstreaming the traf-ficking survivors is to bring themto MSK.

The MSK in the Birsa Munda Jailhas 24 women inmates as trainees.According to a functionary, thefirst thing they have to do is to takethese young girls out of depressionand then get them interested instudies. A total of 104 batches have

so far come out of MSKs in thestate. What is however worrying isthat small girls continue to work inbrick yards or farms to earn a liv-ing. There are thousands of girlswho instead of being in schoolswhich is their legal right, have nochoice but to slog for Rs 50 to 60 ru-pees a day or are forced into traf-ficking because of extreme pover-ty .

09(MP&CG) February 10 to February 16, 2014 Feature

Befriending yourself is the firststep to befriendingthe world!

SWECHCHHA OJHA

Email: swechchhaojha@gmail.com

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the nightand become tensed about the long pending thingsthat you have to do, gotten sweaty and unable to go

back to sleep? That is what over-thinking does to humanbrain! You know, it's a vicious circle, if you go on thinking,you can't sleep and if you can't sleep, you can't stop think-ing. And this circle will go on and on until you learn to con-trol your flow of thoughts. And that can happen only whenyou learn how to stop the mind from wandering here andthere.

The biggest achievement in human life is to be able tomake the mind free of thoughts. And those of you whothink it is easy to do, try concentrating on a blank whitepage for 2 minutes right now and you will get to know howcomplicated it is to look at a plain page, more complicatedthan tallying accounts and developing softwares. Try get-ting one person to do it properly and if you find one, askthem the secret of doing it. For it is not an easy task to notdo anything and stay calm. It needs you to love the compa-ny of self and to not need anyone else at some times. Andloving the company of one's self is the biggest gift one cangive to themselves, other than finding their soul mate inthis life. The reason I'm saying all this is because when youlove the company of yourself you do not need the companyof anyone else, not even of those thoughts that keep both-ering you in the night not letting you sleep. There lie the an-swers to all your questions, why doesn't some person likeyou, why you cannot make friends at college/work, whenand how you will be able to complete all work in time,etcetera.

The one person who can understand you is YOU and theone person who can solve all your problems is YOU. Andonce you stop looking for your answers in others, you willget the answer to all your questions. Just try once to notlook for a friend in other people and make yourself yourfriend, and see how you forget you were alone. This doesn'tat all mean that I am asking you to stay aloof from the out-side world and concentrate just on yourself. The only reasonI am saying this is that even though making friends and bein relationships is a very good and essential thing, one moreimportant thing that we miss is to befriend ourselves. Anduntil we understand ourselves, we can understand no oneelse, and no one else can understand us. So what I'm sayingis, 'Befriending yourself is the first step to befriending theworld'. And what can be better than starting good thingswith yourself ? Just try it once and you will yourself knowhow wonderful it feels to have yourself as your mostfavourite person. Plus you will get to know how it feels tohave a friend like you, how lucky your friends must be! En-joy the Company of you and forget the Monday Blues.Cheers!

Uttarakhand gets new CM, but no change in calamity preparedness

DEHRADUN

The ill-preparedness in deal-ing with calamities duringlast monsoon has seen changeof guard in Uttarakhand Gov-

ernment in six months, butthe new Chief Minister hashardly learnt a lesson fromthe past mistakes committedin handling the natural disas-ters. Harish Rawat, who has

made his intentions clear bystarting his tenure as theChief Minister of Uttarak-hand from the Kedar Valleywhere the Himalayan Statesustained maximum damageduring the disaster in Junelast year, has failed to con-vince the disaster victimsabout bringing their livesback on track.Ill-preparedness on part ofthe State Government in deal-ing with disaster scenarioscost his predecessor VijayBahuguna lose his chair. ButRawat is in no position to pro-vide guarantee to the peoplefrosm the similar disastersahead. If the State Govern-ment under the leadership ofRawat seriously wishes to pro-tect its people from natural ca

tastrophe which has become aroutine affair in recent yearsand prevent such incidents, itcan do so by putting some sci-entific methods in place alongwith the necessary groundworks, as suggested by ex-perts. The fact is that puttingin place state of the art earlyweather warning system inthe form of weather radarswas the top most priority ofthe State Government afterproviding immediate relief tothe disaster when the hillState was reeling under thecalamity in June last year.

Under this plan, the StateGovernment had decided toset up two such radars at Mus-soorie in Garhwal and in Ku-maon's Nainital area. Now thewinter season is at its fag end.

But during the past sixmonths, the State Govern-ment has not yet been able tofind peace of lands to set upthe early warning system inthe form of weather radars.However, when asked whetherthe land has been identifiedfor setting up weather radarsin the hill State, PiyooshRautela, executive director ofDisaster Mitigation and Man-agement Center (DMMC), Ut-tarakhand, said that he is notaware about it. The revenuedepartment deals with landrelated matters. "Develop-ment in this project wouldcome to the knowledge of thedepartment. But as far as weknow the land for setting upthe weather radars is yet to besorted out," he said.

10 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Glamour/Sports

LOS ANGELES

Hollywood's much popular ac-tress-singer Miley Cyrus hasfinally said good bye to smok-

ing and she feels proud of her de-termination as she hasn't smoked asingle cigarette during past twomonths.

In such a small age of just 21years, Miley Cyrus had become ad-dicted to smoking which was con-tinually affecting her health.

"Two months no cigarettes...pr-oud of myself," tweeted Cyrus re-

cently.Several times, the famous 'Wreck-

ing Ball' singer has been noted ex-pressing her love for the weed in the

past and is was also revealed some timeback that she is addicted to marijuana.Currently, Miley Cyrus is gearing up for

her upcoming Bangerz tour which is sched-uled to kick start on Valentine's Day, Feb-ruary 14.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Akhilesh Ya-dav on Wednesday met

renowned Bollywood personal-ity Bonney Kapoor at his resi-dent in Lucknow. The meetingwas held in a bid to considerthe ways of motivating film in-dustry in the state. The ac-claimed director also praisedthe efforts made by SamajwadiParty government in the state.

At the occasion, CM said thatthe films' shooting provide gen-uine sources of employmentand the artists of the state get aplatform to showcase their tal-ent. To bring more shootingsets in the state, the govern-ment has made several provi-sions in Film Policy - 2001 (Re-vised).

He invited other filmmakersto come here and shoot fortheir films. He also assured toprovide every possible help tothe all the crew members ofthe films. However, the effortsof the Akhilesh Yadav led gov-ernment has been successful inattracting the filmmakers tothe state for shooting and fewprevious Bollywood successesare a true example of that.

Akhilesh Yadavmeets

Boney Kapoor Miley Cyrus says Good Bye to cigarettes, weed, marijuana!

Virat Kohli coping 4-1 loss against New Zealand with Anushka SharmaAUCKLAND

Bollywood's smiling sensationAnushka Sharma and theemerging face of world CricketVirat Kohli doesn't seem to bejust close friends because offew past instances covered bymedia. This time one of theirfans spotted the couple walkingalong the deserted Aucklandroad with hand in hand.

Now, it is being said thatAnushka especially went toNew Zealand to see herboyfriend, as Virat is playingfor India in the Test seriesagainst the hosts.

The friendship between Viratand Anushka came into exis-tence at an ad campaign and af-

ter that meeting, they apparent-ly started dating each other.They have been spotted togeth-er a number of times sincethen. The reports about Anush-ka Sharma sharing her homewith Virat Kohli were also do-ing the rounds in B'wood fewtime back. It was also reportedthat Anushka even arranged aspecial screening of her upcom-ing flick 'Bombay Velvet' forKohli. Meanwhile, the recentmeeting of the alleged couplehave flamed the past rumoursagain and it is being said thatAnushka Sharma went to meetKohli to help him coping with 4-1 loss against New Zealand inthe recently concluded One-DayInternational (ODI) series.

11(MP&CG) February 10 to February 16, 2014 Sports

Brazilian striker Maiconkilled in car crash

Shakhtar Donetskstriker Maicon hasbeen killed in a car

crash, said a Reuters re-port. The news was re-leased by the Ukrainianclub on their website onSaturday. The 25-year-oldBrazilian, who joinedShakhtar in 2012, hadbeen on loan at top-flightrivals Illichivets Mari-upol until the end of theseason. "He was a talentedfootballer, (an) open andfriendly guy," Shakhtarsaid in a statement."Maicon loved life andknew how to make it posi-tive and bright. Tragic,untimely and absurddeath took away a won-derful person from ourranks. "It is a terrible be-reavement for all of us.FC Shakhtar expressescondolences and sympa-thy to Maicon's familyand friends. May he restin peace."

Tiger Woods arrives fordate with Delhi Golf ClubL

egendary golfer TigerWoods arrived here on Mon-day for his first visit to In-

dia. He will be playing an exhibi-tion match on Tuesday that hasbeen organised by leading motor-cycle company Hero Motocorp.Tiger, World No.1, arrived herefrom Dubai, where he took part inthe Dubai Desert Classic, and waswhisked away from the VIP area atthe airport amidst tight security.Woods will be playing a round ofgolf with Pawan Munjal, CEO andmanaging director of Hero Moto-corp, and some members at the pre-mier Delhi Golf Club. The Ameri-can golfer will also play a round ofskins with India's leading golfersShiv Kapur and Anirban Lahiri.The motorcycle makers are report-edly paying Woods $2.2 million dol-lars in appearance money for oneday. Meanwhile, preparations werein full swing on Monday evening asthe DGC geared up to give Woods amemorable welcome.

"He will be playing Tuesday withShiv Kapur, Lahiri, Mr. Munjal anda few of his guests. This will be an'only members' event and one cansee that the DGC is undergoing amini-renovation for Woods' visit,"Jasjit Singh, a top coach at the DGCtold IANS. "A huge crowd is expect-ed to come and all the kids whocome for coaching are especiallyexcited." Preparations at the DGCwere in overdrive as workers scur-ried around to get everything inplace. New pagoda-styled struc-tures has been erected next to the

Annexe building to house all theguests for lunch. A huge billboardof Woods along side Hero Moto-Corp will welcome the golfer as heenters the course. New stands formembers to watch the proceedingshave also been put in prominentplaces like the first hole. Smallhoardings of Hero welcomingWoods have been dispersed allaround the course to add to the ef-fect.

Sachin Tendulkar, CNRRao get Bharat Ratnas

NEW DELHI

Legendary cricketer Sachin Ten-dulkar and eminent scientist CNRRao Tuesday were conferred theBharat Ratna, India's highest civil-ian award, by President PranabMukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bha-van here. In a glittering ceremonyat the Durbar Hall, the presidentbestwowed the Bharat Ratna on 40-year-old Tendulkar and 79-year-oldRao. They joined the list of 41 emi-nent personalities, who have beenconferred the Bharat Ratna inrecognition for their contributionto the society. The former cricketer,who quit last November, later toldjournalists that getting the BharatRatna has been the biggest honourin his life and he dedicated the ho-nour to his mother, Rajani Ten-dulkar. The man also congratulatedProf Rao for getting the award.

Tendulkar also said that though hehas quit the game, he would contin-ue to bat for the nation. Tendulkaris the first sportsperson and theyoungest recipient of the country'shighest civilian award.

Use of renewableenergy increasingin Madhya PradeshBHOPAL: Importance and useof non-conventional energysources is increasing constant-ly for solving worldwide ener-gy crisis and better environ-ment for long life not only inMadhya Pradesh but also inthe country and world. For thefirst time in the country, Mad-hya Pradesh government con-stituted a separate departmentof New and Renewable EnergyDepartment. During last 3years, separate policies havebeen formulated for implemen-tation of small hydel energy,wind energy, bio-mass energyand solar energy on grid base.A number of provisions havebeen incorporated for the ben-efit of investors and develop-ers in these policies. These in-clude exception in electricitycharge and cess, 4 percent sub-sidy in wheeling rate, provi-sion of third-party power pur-chase, 100 percent banking fa-cility, reduction in contract de-mand etc. These projects havebeen accorded industry status.At present, 474 MW power isbeing generated by all thesesources, which is 5.31 percentof the state's total power gen-eration capacity. Due to effortsof State Government, this ca-pacity is going to increase to2500 MW by December 2014,which will be 17 percent of thestate's total power generationcapacity.As per policies, open tendershave been invited for processto allot projects. Finding poli-cies better, investors and devel-opers have sent large numberof proposals. The departmentestimates that about 19 thou-sand 500 crore will be spent on150 projects of total 2550 MWcapacity.New&Renewable Energy De-partment estimates to set up161.25 MW capacity wind pow-er projects by December 2013.Generation of 241.25 MWwindenergy is expected by Decem-ber 2014.State Government has imple-mented Bio-mass policy-2011 topromote setting up of bio-massbased power plants in MadhyaPradesh.So far, 40 MW capacity bio-mass power plants have beenset up in the state.At present, projects of 308MW capacity are under con-struction. Bio-mass power gen-eration capacity is expected toincrease to 115 MW by Decem-ber 2014.

NNEEWWSS IINN BBRRIIEEFF

12 (MP&CG)February 10 to February 16, 2014Nation

Owned Printed and Published by M.M.Baig. Printed at lucky, 267, Pragati Nagar, Shahanshah Garden, Bhopal (MP) and published from H.No.101, A-SECTOR INDRAPURI BHEL, WARD NO.63 DIST BHOPAL-462021, M.P.Tele/FAX 0755-4292545,Mob.09425029901 email-editor@wethestate.com RNI No. MPENG\2012\46415 Editor: M.M. BAIG -Responsible for selection of News & Articles under PRB Act, Subject to Bhopal jurisdiction

Free medicine, chemotherapy soon for cancer patientsBHOPAL

A major awareness campaignwill be launched to check to-bacco consumption. Social or-ganisations and common peo-ple will be associated with thecampaign to be spearheaded by

the Chief Minis-ter. This was

announcedby ChiefMinister Shiv-raj SinghChouhan at theinaugural ses-sion of awork-shopon

World Cancer Day here today. HealthMinister Dr. Narottam Mishra wasalso present on the occasion.The Chief Minister said that Mad-

hya Pradesh is the first state in thecountry to ban Gutka. Apart fromcampaign to check tobacco consump-tion, it is also necessary to imple-ment laws strictly. Harms of tobaccoconsumption will also be highlightedduring "Aao Banayen Apna MadhyaPradesh Abhiyan". Free medicinesfor cancer will be provided in all dis-trict hospitals. Increase in VAT on to-bacco and its products will be consid-ered. Suggestions to be put forth atthis workshop will be effectively im-plemented, he added.Principal Secretary Health Praveer

Krishna informed that district offi-cers of education, health, Panchayat,police and administration are partic-ipating in the workshop. Cancer spe-cialist Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi saidthat tobacco consumption is not anaddiction but a disease. It causesdeath of every third person consum-ing it. About 2 crore persons con-sume tobacco in the state. Childrenmust be saved from tobacco. DGPNandan Dube, social worker Madan

Mohan Joshi, Principal SecretaryEducation J.N. Kansotiya, PrincipalSecretary Technical Education San-jay Singh and Health CommissionerPankaj Agrawal were also present.Soon cancer patients will be able to

get free medicines and chemotherapyin 10 district hospitals of the state.The health department is planning tostart oncology centres in 10 districthospitals, where free treatment willbe provided to cancer patients. Thiswas announced by the commissioner,health, Pankaj Agarwal, throughvideo conferencing recently. The 10districts where this facility will bestarted at preliminary level includeall the districts of Ujjain divisionnamely Dewas, Mandsaur, Neemuch,Ratlam, Shajapur and Ujjain.Besides, district hospitals in Dhar,

Jhabua, Hoshangabad and Chind-wara will also have oncology centres.In all, 47 drugs will be available atthese oncology centres, but initially26 drugs will be provided to the pa-tients, Agarwal said. These centreswill provide chemotherapy, medi-cines, follow-up facility and support-ive treatment to the cancer patients,he added.

Handicraft exporters seek govt's help to boost exportsNEW DELHI

Indian handicrafts for centuries,have been popular the world overfor their fascinating colours and de-signs. Not only does each state haveits own legacy of handicrafts, theexotic pieces of art are a reflectionof the glorious traditions handeddown through the ages.From blue pottery to intricate

metal craft and textiles, jewelleryand woodcraft to leatherwork, thevarious crafts have been perfectedover centuries and kept alive byskilful artisans.However, although the Indian

handicraft tradition is as diverse asthe cultural diversity of the coun-try and has a large production base,its market at an international levelremains unexplored, owing towhich its share in the world handi-craft exports is less than two percent.To enable the Indian handicraft

exporting community to developand upgrade itself so it can take alead in the world market, a two dayinternational seminar on promo-tion of Indian handicrafts and craftexchange programme was heldhere recently. Handicraft exporterswho attended the seminar, while be-ing delighted to attend the first ofits kind programme, called for ad-ditional measures from the govern-ment to help boost their exports."We need good units for plating,

casting, testing and other incen-

tives," said costume jewellery ex-porter, Simrandeep Singh Kohli ofSehaj Impex from Delhi NCR. Hav-ing been in the business for overfour decades, he exports to bigbrands such as Aldo, Cost Plus andmany more across the world.According to Kohli, the existing

units for plating and casting in theNCR are very small and unable toaccommodate the volume of prod-ucts that need processing. Further,his jewellery items need lead test-ing, nickel free testing, cadmiumtesting and reach testing. With 20-30 components requiring testingand each costing anywhere betweenRs 1000 and Rs 4000, it is certainlyan expensive procedure."We also require certification

from testing and inspection compa-nies such as SGS, Intertek and Bu-

reau Veritas. The government labswhich offer this facility are far tooexpensive," Kohli said, urging thegovernment to offer incentives.When each of his products cost onan average USD one to five in the in-ternational market, having to spendaround Rs 25,000 to Rs 80,000 fortesting, is a loss to his business.Meanwhile, owner of Mir Handi-

crafts Private Limited, Arshad Mirwho exports carpets and scarves isof the opinion that the governmentshould support exporters in theirmarketing strategies. "The govern-ment should explore and find newmarkets. South America is a farlarger market than North Americaand there are hardly any storesthere that sell Indian products. Itcan organise trade shows in Brazil,Venezuela, Argentina, etc. Perhaps

in Africa too," Mir said adding weneed more clusters, better infra-structure and new techniques fortraditional craft.However, for soon-to-be exporter

Mamta Sehgal, who deals withhand embroidery, the handicraft ex-change programme was an eyeopener. Although she is aware ofprocedures for export of her em-broidered products, as also the for-malities, she was delighted to inter-act with other artisans and ex-porters.The event saw the participation of

eight international experts fromChina, Vietnam, Philippines, Japanand Ireland who interacted with theindustry, even as they shared theirsuccess stories and discussed areasof mutual cooperation and transferof techniques.