Batalik & other border villages plug in to PowerGrid

Remote villages in the Aryan valley in Ladakh’s Kargil district near the Pakistan border have plugged into the national electricity network days before the 75th Independence Day, thanks to an engineering feat by state-run transmission utility PowerGrid.

A 40-km 11 kv (kilovolt) transmission line strung across jagged mountains in the upper reaches of the Indus river powered up Lalung, Silmoo, Batalik, Darchik, Hurdass, Sinikcey and Garkon villages on the periphery of national boundary by hooking up with the Srinagar-Leh line. Batalik was one of the focus area in the 1999 Kargil conflict due to its strategic location.

The link will enable 24X7 supply to the area, changing people’s lives and helping boost tourism and exploit food processing potential. The line has been built under the Centre’s Prime Minister Development Programme for rural electrification.

The Aryan valley is bestowed with natural beauty and also is one of Ladakh’s two fruit bowls. The area so far depended on power supplied from diesel generators for 5-6 hours in the evening.

The credit for the latest example of rural electrification in Ladakh, which is strewn with villages hidden between towering mountains, actually goes to the Srinagar-Leh transmission line inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019.

A 350-km-long engineering marvel, this 220-kv line connected Ladakh to the national electricity network and made ‘One Nation, One Grid’ a reality more than 70 years after Independence. This line is the fulcrum of rural electrification in Ladakh.

The Centre has approved Rs 1,310 crore for wiring up Ladakh’s remote villages, including extending the Srinagar-Leh line to the Nubra Valley, north of Leh. PowerGrid has completed hooking up 20 remote villages such as Largiab in the Nubra valley. In addition, a number of 11-kV lines totaling150 km, connecting villages Wanla to Fatoksar, Lamayaru to Atishe, Fotorse and Saspol area have been laid in Kargil district.

Mumbai: CM performs bhoomipujan at BDD Chawl site in Worli

CM Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday appealed to BDD Chawl residents not to fall prey to the lure of selling the flats allotted to them in redeveloped towers. He was speaking at the bhoomipujan (foundation stone ceremony) of the BDD Chawl redevelopment project at Jamboree Maidan in Worli.

Thackeray performed the bhoomipujan, the second one for the project. The previous bhoomipujan at Jamboree Maidan was performed by Devendra Fadnavis when he was chief minister in 2017.

“Many martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement were residents of these chawls. We should remember them. Even if you move to the tower, do not disengage yourself from chawl culture and do not fall prey to the desire to sell your flats,” he said.

He said the state had built almost five lakh houses in rural Maharashtra through the rural development department and started alloting houses to mill workers.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said residents should stay back in redeveloped houses and keep the legacy of the chawls intact.

There are 195 BDD Chawl buildings, with 80 tenements each, built between 1920 and 1925. After the redevelopment, residents will get a 500sqft flat.

Aaditya Thackeray, the local MLA, said the government will convert one of the chawls into a museum to showcase its legacy to the next generation.

Minister for housing Jitendra Awhad clarified that the bhoomipujan was not only for the Worli chawls but was a combined one for all three BDD Chawls at Worli, Naigaon and NM Joshi Marg.

Drones to monitor Maha power lines

Energy minister Nitin Raut on Sunday announced that Maharashtra has 24 drones with video camera and thermal-vision cameras to check faults in power transmission lines across state. This will ensure speedy repair and restoration of supply for 3crore electricity consumers in a crisis situation.

The drone cameras will fly at a height of 50 metres and can fly upto 15km for an hour on a single battery charge. The drones are equipped with ultra HD cameras which can take high resolution close-up photographs and videos of the towers and their components. The video recording allows better assessment of faults in the lines, he said.

“Using drones can slash costs for maintenance and reduce losses from outages,” a senior MSETCL official said. He said drones had potential to revolutionise the way we inspect our power lines and transmission towers. “It allows aerial surveillance which is more efficient than manual survey of lines. It will help to detect defects at the incipient stage in transmission lines,” he stated.

3,000-year-old rock art with symbols found in Pudukottai

A 3,000-year-old rock art with a symbol of a square and a plus mark incised on the surface was found in Malaiadipatti village near Pudukottai district.

Malaiadipatti is a historical place with cave temples of Shiva and Vishnu, Jain stone beds and a megalithic burial site. About 25 km from Trichy city, the rock art is perhaps the first to be found on a hillock known as ‘Thiruvalathur’.

Trichy based archaeo-symbolist T L Subash Chandira Bose noticed the foursquare rock art drawn in white pigment on a rock surface at the back side of the hill near the Jain stone beds. “There are lots of petro-glyph (pre-historic rock carving) symbols attributed to various periods of time on the rock surface of the hill. But this is the only rock art found in the hill, which makes the finding significant,” said Chandira Bose.

He says similar symbols denoting ‘Param’ or God were observed in ancient archaeological sites such as Gangai Konda Cholapuram Shiva temple and Kongar Puliankulam caves.

“Mayamata, an Indian treatise on housing architecture and iconography has the reference of this four-squared symbol as ‘Pecaka’ geometrical diagram. The geometrical diagrams as symbols were invented by ancient Indians to understand the unknown or god,” he said.

PV Sindhu wins second Olympic medal

Indian shuttler PV Sindhu won the women’s singles bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday defeating China’s He Bingjiao 21-13, 21-15 at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza to add a second medal to India’s tally at the Games.

With Sindhu’s bronze, India have now equalled their tally of 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

It was Sindhu’s second medal at the Olympics after she bagged a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She also became the first Indian woman to win two Olympics medals. Before her feat, wrestler Sushil Kumar was the only Indian to win two medals at successive Olympics.

Sindhu’s first point in the match came with a 22-shot rally running for 27 seconds. She rose to take a quick 4-0 lead before the left-handed He levelled at 5-5. Sindhu stormed to a mid-game lead of 11-8 with a straight smash down the line.

Post the break, Sindhu started to dictate terms, snatching three points. The rallies were intense but Sindhu’s aggressive play didn’t wane. All of this, combined with her fierce power, clearly rattled He who lost the opening game in 23 minutes.

In the second game, Sindhu didn’t loosen her grip. She continued to dominate her Chinese opponent and took an early 4-1 lead. He tried to claw back with long smashes and engaged Sindhu in net play. But the Chinese was clearly struggling with the drift, which led her to commit errors.

The one-way traffic continued as He was at the receiving end of Sindhu’s powerful smashes. The Chinese gave Sindhu time and space to hit her smashes, conceding a three-point lead at the interval.

Post the interval, He looked to make a comeback by winning three straight points to level at 11-11. But Sindhu bounced back with a down-the-line smash and then caught He by surprise with a last-minute turn of the wrist for a fantastic cross-court slice drop for a 14-11 lead.

An unforced error by He gave Sindhu another point. But the Chinese won two points on the trot to bring the lead down to two points. Another rally followed, but it was sealed with a cross-court smash from Sindhu, who opened a three-point lead again.

He won a point but Sindhu forced the Chinese to commit an unforced error to go 19-15 up. Sindhu raced to 20 with another amazing smash. She then wrapped up the match with a scintillating cross-court smash and took the bronze medal by winning the second game 21-15.

For Sindhu, it has been a resounding campaign at the Olympics. She topped Group J and did not drop a single game in her winning matches except for the semifinal defeat to Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

But she recovered well to outclass He in straight games.

After a disappointing loss in the semifinals, Sindhu was keen to keep going to bring home the bronze medal on Sunday.

The Indian went down in straight games to Tai Tzu-Ying on Saturday.

India, China establish 6th hotline

India and China established a hotline between their ground commanders in Kongra La in north Sikkim and Khamba Dzong in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, amidst the continuing military confrontation in eastern Ladakh since April-May last year.

The development comes a day after the 12th round of corps commander-level talks, led by 14 Corps commander Lt-General P G K Menon and the South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin, on the Chinese side of the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point in eastern Ladakh on Saturday.

There is as yet no official word on the outcome of the nine-hour long dialogue, though there are indications that India and China have inched closer to at least completing the stalled troop disengagement at patrolling points (PPs) 15, 17 and 17A in the Hot Springs-Gogra-Kongka La area in a phased manner. There is, however, no resolution in sight over the `friction’ in the strategically-located Depsang Bulge area and Demchok in eastern Ladakh, as was reported earlier.

In a statement on Sunday, the Indian Army said the new hotline was established to “further the spirit of trust and cordial relations” along the borders to coincide with the People’s Liberation Army Day.

This is the sixth such hotline between the ground commanders along the 3,488-km line of actual control. Now, there are two hotlines each in eastern Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

“The armed forces of the two countries have well-established mechanisms for communication at the level of ground commanders. These hotlines in various sectors go a long way in enhancing the same and maintaining peace and tranquility at the borders,” said the Army.

“The inauguration was attended by ground commanders of the respective armies and a message of friendship and harmony was exchanged through the hotline,” it added.

China has, however, been dragging its feet over establishing a top-level hotline like the DGMO one between India and Pakistan. The top-level hotline was first proposed in the bilateral Border Defence Cooperation Agreement signed in 2013 and then agreed to during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to China in 2015.

Maharashtra: First case of Zika virus

The small village of Belsar in Purandar tehsil hosts a population of just about 3,500 people. In the beginning of the month of July, a few cases of fever were reported here. From among these, samples of five patients were sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune on July 16. From these, three people were found infected with chikungunya.

So, between July 27 and 29, a team of experts from NIV, headed by Dr Yogesh Gurav, head of the dengue and chikungunya department, visited Belsar. The team collected 41 suspected samples from the village and surrounding areas. And, as per NIVs report on 30 July, out of these samples, 25 people were diagnosed with chikungunya, three with dengue and samples of a 50-year-old woman were diagnosed with Zika virus — the first such case in the state.

Simultaneously, the woman has also been with chikungunya. The team of state surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awte, assistant director Dr Kamlapurkar, Dr Mahendra Jagtap, and other experts from various departments visited Belsar on Saturday. “The woman from Belsar has recovered completely. She has no symptoms. Also, none of her family members share the symptoms,” informed Dr Awte, adding, “The team conducted disease surveillance of the village. An emergency meeting was held between the village sarpanch, gram panchayat members, staff at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) of Belsar and medical officers of Purandar tehsil, during which preventive measures and awareness were discussed. Administrative officials, gram panchayat members, medical officers, etc. from Belsar and adjoining areas were issued orders to conduct various prevention and awareness measures.”

Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Ayush Prasad said, “The Pune district administration requests people not to panic with regards to Zika virus. It’s due to the proactive work of field teams that the case was detected. We are working very hard to contain the spread and make the best healthcare available to our residents.”

According to the World Health Organisation, Zika virus is primarily transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito from the Aedes genus, mainly Aedes aegypti, in tropical and subtropical regions. This is the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. Zika virus is also transmitted from mother to foetus during pregnancy, through sexual contact, transfusion of blood and blood products, and organ transplantation.