Hopefully Mumbai will get a swanky CBD
19.12.09
37% of India now below poverty line
States are demanding a bigger central share in funds to alleviate poverty. The Suresh Tendulkar committee, in its report submitted to the Planning Commission last week, has estimated that 37% of the country’s total population is under the poverty line; of this, nearly 42% live in rural areas. The existing official poverty estimates are 27.5% for the whole of India and 28.3% for rural areas. The Tendulkar committee had broad-based the definition of poverty to factor in life denominators like health and education.
Dwindling Saras
Severe drought-like conditions leading to water-scarcity in lakes, ponds and paddy fields of UP's Etawah and Mainpuri have been blamed for the fall in numbers of Grus Antigone Indian ‘Saras’ (crane) — also the state bird — this year. Though wildlife experts and environmentalists say few nests of the bird have been sighted recently in the wetlands of the region, the fact is that there has been a major decline in the number of cranes due to the drought. “This year only 12 nests of the Indian Saras have been spotted in comparison to last year’s figure of 80 nests in the paddy fields, lakes and ponds of Etawah and Mainpuri during a recent survey,” informed Dr Rajiv Chauhan, secretary, Society for Conservation of Nature. Out of the total number of 10,000 Grus Antigone Indian Saras, Demosil Crane and Common Crane, nearly 2,500 of them are said to be nesting in and around Etawah and nearly 1,000 in Mainpuri district, claim the wildlife experts. Experts, however, say crane’s survival is endangered by various factors, the most plausible being shortage of water due to severe drought-like condition this year. This is a direct fallout of the water in the paddy fields, because the number of cranes spotted in the region has stayed low this year.Grus Antigone Indian ‘Saras’ (crane) are omnivorous and feed primarily on the tubers of grass, small fishes, snakes and snails eating insects, aquatic plants and animals, crustaceans, seeds and berries, small vertebrates and invertebrates. But, says Chauhan, “scanty rainfall that obstructed the feed production had a direct impact on the survival of the little ones after they hatch from the eggs, further leading to the breeding of cranes this year.” These birds are usually seen in small groups of 2-5 and they forage while walking in shallow water or in fields, sometimes probing with their long bills. Adults are grey with a bare red head and white crown and a long dark pointed bill. In flight, the long neck is kept straight, unlike herons, and the black wing tips can be seen; their long red or pink legs trail behind them. On average, the male is larger than the female; Indian males can attain a maximum height of approximately 200 cm (6.6 ft), with a wingspan of 250 cm (8.5 ft), making them the world’s tallest living flying bird. The average weight is 6.3-7.3 kg. It nests on the ground, laying two to three eggs in a bulky nest. “We have come across nests where either one or two newborns have been spotted but last year their count had gone up to three,” said Dr Chauhan . “Also, most of the nests have been seen around wet marshy lands and there is no trace of such nests in the paddy fields,” he added. Unlike many cranes which make long migrations, the Sarus Crane does not; there is some short-distance dispersal however. Both the male and female take turns sitting on the nest and the male is the main protector. They tend to mate for life. A clue to the whereabouts of the missing birds is also offered by Sudarshan Singh, a senior forest official, Etawah, who has studied cranes extensively. “I feel they have shifted to some other place due to water scarcity and have probably found better nesting places,” he says. “We are still working on the census of these birds and will only be able to provide the exact count after its completion,” added another forest official. Meanwhile, farmers are also a worried lot as they are also witnessing dwindling numbers of Saras in and around them. “Drought has not only affected us but also these cranes. In the past, the birds had made our state top the list as far as their numbers were concerned,” said Ghanshyam Shakya, a farmer.
Of splitting UP into smaller states
Will it help if Uttar Pradesh, from which Uttarakhand was carved out in 2000, is further subdivided? The issue has gained salience after chief minister Mayawati repeated her demand for UP’s trifurcation into Bundelkhand, Poorvanchal and Paschimanchal or Harit Pradesh. That would leave Awadh, or central UP, as the remnant of once the country’s political hub, carving up the humongous conglomerate into four smaller states. True, there isn’t any rousing public demand for these new states. But, the issue has become part of an intense political and academic debate. Much of this is because of the sheer size of UP, which is spread over 2.41 lakh sq km with a population of 19 crore. This would make it the size of the sixth largest country in the world. It also contains a wide cross-section of sociopolitical groups. Its share in the total area of the country is 7.3%, while in terms of population around 17%. So, did Mayawati say this just to pre-empt Ajit Singh who has long been demanding Harit Pradesh? Says the Rashtriya Lok Dal boss, ‘‘Mayawati is paying lip-service to the issue.’’ Raja Bundela of the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha said the same. And the reason for their cynical response isn’t difficult to see. For, instead of adopting a resolution in the assembly calling for UP’s trifurcation, Mayawati has sought, merely, an assurance from the Centre — like one it gave on Telangana. But keeping aside politics, and also for the moment public opinion in the state, there would appear a clear case for further division of UP. This is because of the regional disparities in its geographical areas.
Four From One
1 Harit Pradesh : Will have 24 districts and 30 Lok Sabha seats (11 from Rohilkhand and 19 from West UP). Assembly seats: 150. While Dalit population is between 17% to 28%, it has nearly 30% OBCs like Jat, Lodh, Yadav. In Rampur and Moradabad, Muslim population is over 40%. RLD’s Ajit Singh stands to gain
2 Central UP or Awadh : Gandhi family’s home turf of Amethi and Rae Bareli are here. Aside from its central districts, the rest of Awadh is backward. Has 13 districts, 14 LS and 60 assembly seats. Dalit population is between 19-25%; Brahmins, 8-12%; and, Muslims 19-28%. Samajwadi Party strong
3 Bundelkhand : More than 80% of people here are below poverty line. Has seven districts, four LS, and 20 assembly seats. Dalits between 27-32%; Brahmins 9-14% and Muslims 6-8%. BSP opened its account in UP from here in 1993. Six MP districts, too, fall within Bundelkhand
4 Poorvanchal : Predominantly Bhojpuri speaking, it has 27 districts; 32 Lok Sabha and 160 assembly seats. Over 60% people below poverty line. The region includes Naxalinfested Vindhyachal. Dalits are between 19-23%, Brahmins 6-14% and Muslims 8-27%. Advantage BSP
We don't have a National War Memorial yet
Thirty-eight years after the 1971 war led to the liberation of Bangladesh, India still awaits the long-pending national war memorial (NWM) to honour the soldiers who laid down their lives to defend the nation. On Wednesday, defence minister A K Antony and the three Service chiefs paid tributes at India Gate on Rajpath to mark ‘Vijay Diwas’. But the majestic structure was constructed by the British to honour the 84,000 Indian soldiers killed fighting for the British Empire in World War I and the Afghan campaign. There is no NWM to honour the soldiers, sailors and airmen who laid down their lives to guard an Independent India. First mooted in the 1960s, the NWM proposal is still stuck in the long corridors of political and bureaucratic apathy. Antony claims the GoM constituted to look into the matter will ensure the NWM becomes a reality soon.But similar promises have been made earlier. The bone of contention is that while the armed forces want the NWM to come up near India Gate on the Central Vista, the urban development ministry says it will disrupt the layout of the area, especially with the Commonwealth Games now on the horizon. “It’s a disgrace that a country like India does not have a NWM,’’ said a senior military officer. The “conceptual design’’ for the NWM prepared by Army basically revolves around a landscape-type memorial around the ‘chhatri’ (canopy) near India Gate on the Central Vista, with “retaining walls’’ for inscribing the names of the martyrs.
Of financial terror....
Fake notes...funding terror acts across the country.
• About 95% of the security features were replicated on the notes
• The Reserve Bank Of India says that only four out of one million Indian notes are detected to be fake
• On Dec 15, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said that only .001% of the 49.9 billion bank notes circulated in India is fake
• The distribution agents say they are given 30% of the realisation value of the fake notes and 70% goes back to the kingpins
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