ISSUES AND CONCERNS

The above 33 children of 10th std, Government Composite High School, Angaragundi, Bykampadi, Near Mangalore, cleared the milestone without anybody failing. This was the first time that SSLC students have secured 100% pass result. I&C, in its reach-out initiative, had played a small but crucial role in this achievement. I&C Congratulates every student for this magnificent performance, so also the Head Master and teaching staff of the school for their whole hearted involvement. (Seated are school teachers and Head Master Mr T.G.Gowda with J.Shriyan of I&C)

Friends Summer continued its inhospitable run. Rain god, who had smiled early last month is playing hide and seek. Meteorological observatories have predicted normal monsoon. Hope Varuna (the rain god in the Hindu pantheon) shall not disappoint us. In our reach out initiatives, we had radically departed to be more involved in a local school. A school, where students are from the labour class parents with no support at home to pursue studies. The school never had the joy of 100% pass in its SSLC or 10th std, state level public examination. We took up the cause of getting all 33 children in the class to clear the final exams. For two months of Feb & March, all toiled, including teachers and children, Saturdays and Sundays. The result has been extremely heart warming. Students en masse had hit the bulls eye. They pulled off a near impossible 100%. Yes for the first time, Govt. Composite High School, Angaragundi scored a TON. For us at I & C it was a mission fulfilled, a visi...

KARNATAKA: A Bijapur date lined news informed about a government school being used for commercial coaching. Karnataka govt. had continued the mid-day meal for school children in the districts affected by drought. While it was a good gesture form the state govt. the touts wanting to make a fast buck used the occasion to use the premises for coaching, since students would anyway come for food. Of course it was a brilliant idea in time management, but the commercial aspect was rather exploitative. They should have taken the local administration on board and could probably have taken some token payment of say Rs: 100/- a child instead of the Rs: 200 to 400 as reported. Surely it would have been a happy experience to all. But we have always exploited a situation to benefit only a few, with the school headmaster in the loop for an illegal payment. The crassness of the venture included coaching even LKG and UKG children. Of course all concerned have reportedly promised action. But ...

CHICAGO IDEA & UNORGANISED INDIAN LABOUR On 1st May, some 129 years ago in 1884, over 250,000 people had gathered in Chicago to force an issue of justice and fair play. Restive milling crowd had all the foreboding of militancy. But they had a cause, an idea whose time had come. American Federation of Labour (AFL) adopted a resolution and demanded from the governments of the day in the U.S. and leaders of trade and industry, that labour in the U.S. will not accept anymore, to work, 10 hrs, 12 hrs or 14 hrs a day of work, as day’s work. AFL demanded that from now on, it shall be 8 hrs work per day to be counted as a day’s work. Having dilly-dallied for two years, AFL had indicated to the employers and the authorities, enough is enough. Realising the possibility of violence and having accepted as a just demand, the International Working People's Association, the government and the employers organisation accepted the idea of 8 hours as normal working hours per day. ...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY The Stay-Together Gang I attended several of these high-level BK gatherings. Although I didn’t conduct any formal interviews, in just a few months I was able to learn a good bit about the gang leaders and their business by just hanging around. Over time they seemed to forget that I was even there, or maybe they just didn’t care. They rarely spoke openly about drugs, other than to note the death of a supplier or a change in the price of powder cocaine. Most of their talk concerned the burdens of management: how to keep the shorties in line, how to best bribe tenant leaders and police officers, which local businesses were willing to launder their cash. I did harbor a low-grade fear that I would someday be asked to represent the BKs in a press release or a media interview. But that fear wasn’t enough to prevent me from attending as many parties and poker games as J.T. invited me to. I would joke on occasion with J.T.’s superiors that I really had no skills ...

INDIA STORY - WHERE IS IT? Dr.K.Shanker Shetty   “While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago”.   John Adamns A cursory glance over political, economic, social, military and technological upheaval in India reveals the unmistakable impression that as a modern state it has no longer anything but rights yet it does not recognize duties of all stakeholders. Indian rulers of the day refuse to change and it is often said that a state without some means of change has neither a present nor a future. Since 1947, Indian governments led the country on the path of ideologically camouflaged policy till it’s economy was ruined. But for the timely action through reforms in 1990s, India would have perennially existed as a ruined state with devastating impact upon the common people. The reform process enabled Indian nation emerge as a strong nation...

Free coaching for tribal students Mumbai: The results of UPSC, MPSC exams, conducted by the Public Service Commission so far have highlighted one fact time and again students from tribal region often lag behind their peers. In order to improve this situation, the government has taken an initiative to provide free coaching to 500 students every year. “We have taken this decision because we want to bring tribal students into mainstream; career in public service commission could turn around their life, hence could transform this community into a well educated one,” said Rajendra Gavit, State Minister of Tribal Development. The coaching programme will be implemented from June onwards. The government will provide accommodation and food to selected candidates, that too, free of cast. The government is expected to invest Rs 5 crore in this scheme. The saviour called RTI Mumbai: In an interesting matrimonial dispute, a husband had to go through the procedures under the Right ...

Bihar food poisoning kills one At least nine labourers died after consuming poisonous ‘sattu’ a variety of gram flour, in Bihar’s Jehanabad district, police said. Angry over the death of nine labourers, residents blocked roads and demanded the arrest of the shopkeeper who sold the contaminated ‘sattu’ to them, reports media. “A police team raided the shop from where the labourers purchased ‘sattu’, but the shopkeeper ran away and is missing,” a police official said. Four laboureres were in hospital in a critical condition. .The labourers purchased ‘sattu’ from a shop in a village and ate it that afternoon, he said. The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident. The compensation of Rs 1 lakh each for the kin of the victims was announced by the state government. Bio-toilets to be fitted in Mumbai-Varanasi Exp Mumbai: A long distance train between Mumbai and Varanasi will soon be equipped with bio-toilets based on DRDO technology. The...