A senior official puts it: “We are actively considering the
issue and final decision would be taken at appropriate
time.”



The issue of the income ceiling needs to be revisited
and this could be fixed at Rs 5 lakh or a little more. This would widen the
scope of the job reservation

Three arrested for trading elephant molar teeth and ivory

New Delhi (PTI): Three persons have
been arrested for alleged illegal trade of elephant molar teeth and
ivory from Bijnor area in Uttar Pradesh.

A joint team of the Wildlife Crime
Control Bureau (Wccb) along with Uttar Pradesh police and Wildlife
Trust of India (WTI) seized ten kgs of molar teeth from the accused,
identified as Furkan, Bahajuddin and Munsif.

“Following a tip-off, a trap was laid
and a decoy customer was sent to finalise a deal. The accused were
caught red-handed while exchanging molar teeth in lieu of money in
Chandpur area,” Ramesh Pandey, Deputy Director (Northern) of the Bureau
said.

He said the two molars weighing around 5 kgs each were seized from their possession in the raid conducted two days ago.

“Trade in molar teeth is much more
serious crime compared to ivory as the former can be extracted either
by killing the elephant or when the animal dies.

“The seizure indicates that the
poachers have reach deep inside the forests,” Pandey said suggesting
that so far ivory trade has been known to be a major drive for elephant
poaching.

A case under various sections of
Wildlife Protection Act has been registered against the accused and

further investigation is on.

UPTU to woo engg students for other streams than IT

Though experts believe that the situation will soon ease, the
engineering institutions and students are already looking for other
opportunities.

A case in this regard is the Uttar Pradesh Technical University
(UPTU). The university is mulling over an idea to encourage students to
take up other engineering streams from the new academic session.

UPTU Vice-Chancellor Professor Prem Vrat was delivering a
speech on “Information Technology Enabled Engineering Education:
Opportunities and Challenges,” organised by Computer Society of India,
Lucknow Chapter on Sunday.

UP tells Delhi: Divert drain, we don’t want your pollution

A delegation of senior officials from the UP government, including
the chief executive officer of Noida Authority, was in the Capital last
week to hold a meeting with Delhi government officials to push for
diverting the drain. The official reason cited by the officials was
that they “do not want Delhi’s pollution to enter UP”.

“We had a meeting with the CEO and senior officials from the UP
Irrigation and Flood Control. They have demanded that the Shahadra
drain should not flow through Noida and be instead diverted along the
Hindon directly into the Yamuna. Delhi and UP have now set up a joint
committee to look into the feasibility of the proposal. The committee
will also to consult the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, for
technical feasibility of implementing the proposal,” said Delhi Chief
Secretary Rakesh Mehta.

Officials in the Delhi government said the demand made by the
UP government might not be technically feasible. “The flow of the drain
and the topography of the area are such that it may not be possible to
divert the drain. In any case, this will be an extremely expensive
proposition. The diversion cost aside, once the drain is diverted,
water is likely to accumulate to the height of two metres or more on
the Delhi side, which will need to be pumped out at a very high cost.
But UP is so keen to have the drain diverted that they have offered to
bear this cost,” said a senior official. If the proposal is sanctioned,
Delhi will have to divert six kilometres — the Delhi-Noida stretch — of
the drain.

Sashikanth –

Barack

Obama warns against overconfidence

NEW YORK: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama warned his
supporters to guard against overconfidence on Thursday as he and
underdog Republican rival John McCain opened a 19-day sprint to
Election Day.

J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI: Chairman of Law Commission Justice A.R. Lakshmanan has
written to the Union government to take up with six State governments
the issue of manual scavenging still prevalent in their States and to
ask them to enforce the ban.

In a letter written to Union Minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Meira Kumar on October 14, Justice Lakshmanan pointed out
that according to a report of the Safai Karamchari Andolan, about 13
lakh of people in the country “carry human excreta for disposal.”

Quoting a letter received by him from the Uttar Pradesh Governor
T.V. Rajeswar in this regard, Justice Lakshmanan said that in 1993 the
Centre had enacted the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction
of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act and this Act was notified in 1997.

However, the States of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Bihar had not notified the Act and the
problem was rampant in these States.

(The Governor had urged the Commission to consider issuing
directions to the States concerned for effective implementation of the
law banning manual scavenging.)

Justice Lakshmanan said: “I also the share the sentiments of the
Governor that carrying of human excreta is most inhuman and therefore,
a time limit should be fixed by which all State governments concerned
should certify that the provisions of the Act have been fully
implemented.

“Since the Law Commission is only a recommendatory body, I thought
it prudent to bring this important human issue to your kind attention
for taking up this issue with the States.”

Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI: Punjab, the granary of India, ranks below countries like
Honduras and Vietnam in terms of hunger levels while Madhya Pradesh has
the most severe level of hunger in the country, followed by Jharkhand
and Bihar, says a report prepared by U.S.-based International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with Welthungerhilfe
and Concern Worldwide, California.

“When Indian States are compared to countries in the 2008 Global
Hunger Index, Madhya Pradesh ranks between Ethiopia and Chad. Punjab, is below Gabon, Honduras and Vietnam,” says
the Country Report released here on Tuesday by G.K. Chadha, member of
Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, on the eve of World Food
Day.

“India is home to the world’s largest food insecure population,
with more than 200 million people who are hungry,” the India State
Hunger Index (ISHI) said. The country’s poor performance is driven by
its high levels of child under-nutrition and poor calorie count. “Its
rates of child malnutrition are higher than most countries in
sub-Saharan Africa,” the report said.

India, which scored 66th place in the 2008 Global Hunger list of 88
countries, does not have a single State in the ‘low hunger’ or
‘moderate hunger’ categories. Despite years of robust economic growth,
India scored worse than nearly 25 sub-Saharan African countries and all
of South Asia, except Bangladesh.

“Figuring amongst the 88 countries itself is shameful for the
country. Policy-makers have to think about it. High GDP growth is not
sufficient. Inclusive growth is necessary. The country has a poor
record on distribution of wealth,” Dr. Chadha said.

The India State Hunger Index measures hunger on three leading indicators and combines them into one index.

The three indicators are: prevalence of child malnutrition, rates of
child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie
deficient. This approach is similar to the 2008 Global Hunger Index,
which includes India, and was also released on Tuesday for World Food
Day on October 16.

The ISHI found that 12 States fell in the ‘alarming’ category, and
one State – Madhya Pradesh – fell in the ‘extremely alarming’ category.
Four States – Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam – were in the ‘serious’
category.

India’s slightly better performance relative to Bangladesh is
entirely due to better access to food in India, which in turn is a
consequence of India’s higher agricultural productivity. On the other
two components of the Global Hunger Index – child underweight and child
mortality – India ranks below Bangladesh.

In a few States, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, calorie deficiency contributes almost as much as child underweight.

The report identified that strong economic growth does not
necessarily translate into lower hunger levels. Even States with high
rates of economic growth in recent years, such as Gujarat,
Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra, have high levels of hunger, while States
with relatively slower economic growth, such as Punjab, achieved a
lower hunger level.

“Hunger and malnutrition are often rooted in poverty,” said Ashok
Gulati, IFPRI director in Asia. “Part of the solution rests with
increasing investments in agriculture and poverty reduction
programmes.”