Twenty22-India on the move

26.1.15

Somewhere in Bengal....

Three back-to-back rhino deaths have shaken the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary in North Bengal.
While forest department has confirmed the deaths of two rhinos, the latest incident, reported on Saturday, is yet to be confirmed.
Sources said that the carcass of a rhino with its horn missing was recovered from the Kodalbasti area of the sanctuary on Saturday morning. “It seems it was the work of poachers. The postmortem is yet to be done,” said a source.
But two rhino deaths were reported from the same park in the last two days. While one of these died due to infighting, the other was a natural death,” he added.
The earlier deaths were reported on January 22 and 23, when a rhino census was on at Jaldapara. One of the deaths were reported from an area close to Chilapata.
Jaldapara is among four forest tracts in India where one-horned rhinos can be found in the wild.

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Ramdev and Sri Sri decline Padma awards

A day before Padma awards were to be officially announced, yoga guru Ramdev and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar politely declined to receive the honours. Ramdev cited his status of a `sanyasi' to decline the honour after reports suggested that he will be among the awardees for Padma Vibhushan this Republic Day.
In a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ramdev said, “I am a sanyasi and I consider it my duty to perform Sanyas Dharma with Rastra Dharma and Sewa dharma without any desire and with unattached intention.“ The yoga guru said he is grateful that the government thought of his name for Padma Vibhusan, which he got to know from media reports, but the honour could be given to some other great person. “I urge you to give this honour to somebody doing something great. I would be grateful to you,“ he said.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar took to Twitter to inform about his decision. “Rajnath Singhji called to inform me about Padma awards. I thank the government for considering me. Instead of me, I'd like them to honour someone else,“ he tweeted.

Maharashtra govt to buy Ambedkar's London home

The state government will buy Dr B R Ambedkar's London home for Rs.35 crore, culture minister Vinod Tawde has said. Tawde, who is in London for the Global Education Minister's Conference, met the Buddhist Forum's Santosh Das, who has been campaigning for Ambedkar's London home to be taken over by the Indian government and converted into a memorial.
Following approval from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis--who is currently in Davos--to buy the London property, Tawde held a meeting in this regard with British High Commissioner Rajan Mathai, Das and other officials. Dr Ambedkar had lived in the house for two years (1921-22).
The deal will be completed in two years, said Tawde. He also announced that the house will be inaugurated as a memorial on April 14, Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary .

DMIC snippets

The Maharashtra state government has decided to invoke Article 243Q of the Constitution, which relates to municipalities, to facilitate setting up townships for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project. The DMIC encompasses an area of 1,483 km in six states. In Maharashtra, the corridor will be spread over ten districts-Mumbai (island), Mumbai (suburban), Thane, Raigad, Nashik, Pune, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Nandurbar and Aurangabad. In the state, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is the nodal agency for the DMIC and has been acquiring land for the project. In 2014, an agreement was signed between the state government, MIDC and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd to facilitate establishment of such townships.According to the deal, the state government will establish industrial townships in the ten districts. “Each of these townships will be administered by a special purpose vehicle that will be designated as a special planning authority. Article 243Q allows the setting up of such industrial townships where the municipal services are provided by an industrial establishment. Such townships are allowed in transitional areas (rural to urban),” said a bureaucrat. Bhilai, Rourkela and Jamshedpur are examples of industrial townships. In its January 19 government resolution (GR), the state has assured permanent access to and from the township. The GR mentioned that a police force will be provided and the townships will be allowed to generate their own power.
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is the Centre’s ambitious infrastructure programme that aims to develop ‘smart cities’ and expand manufacturing and service sectors. The central government believes the project will provide a major boost to planned urbanization in India with manufacturing as the key driver.