ISSUES AND CONCERNS ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಕ್ಷಕಿರಣ

GOVERNORS AS TOOL OF PARTY IN POWER The recent ongoing debate on the removal or otherwise of Governors of states by the incumbent government has prompted us to revisit this institution to put in public domain, how some of the governors appointed by the government of the day played their constitutional role so very unconstitutionally in tune with the agenda of the ruling party at the centre. We all recognize that governorship of any state is a kind of reward for an old war-horse or to rehabilitate a retired babu, who has been a partner in the past with their political masters in their wheelings and dealings. Also at times to send a troublesome party leader into political ‘vanavaas’, this governorship was rewarded. Governors playing politics or appointed to play politics was started by Indira Gandhi and continued through Rajeev Gandhi to the latest government of Sonia/Manmohan combine. Looking back over the shoulder, walking down the memory lane, there have been many governors, acti...

EcoSan toilets bring dignity to life of villagers SUGATA ROY, Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu) Contrary to the common perception of most Indian farmers T. Venu finds a high water table a bane for the community in his village. For, he has experienced difficulties in having a conventional leach pit toilet in his village, which has a high level of ground water. Because of this, Ponagavananthanagar Village under the Thimapuram Panchayat in Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu, did not have household toilets till 2008, and open defecation was a way of life for the community. “After my retirement from the Indian Army, I returned to my village to lead a serene life. I was shocked when hit by the reality that there are no toilets in my village,” says Venu, who had worked in the Army Medical Corps. “It was difficult for me to accept the practice of open defecation.” Venu immediately got in touch with the block office and constructed a conventional leach pit toilet in his house. But he soon ran into p...

Why stress, fear trigger heart attacks New York: In a first, scientists have come up with an explanation to why a sudden shock, stress and fear may trigger heart attack and they found that multiple bacterial species living as biofilms on arterial walls could hold the key to such attacks, reports IANS. Hormones released during these events appear to cause bacterial biofilms on arterial walls to disperse, allowing plaque deposits to rupture into the bloodstream, the findings showed. Because the biofilms are closely bound to arterial plaque, the dispersal of a biofilm could cause sudden release of the surrounding arterial plaque, triggering a heart attack. “Our hypothesis fitted with the observation that heart attack and stroke often occur following an event where elevated levels of catecholamine hormones are released into the blood and tissues, such as occurs during sudden emotional shock or stress, sudden exertion or over-exertion,” said David Davies of Binghamton University in the ...

Afghanistan & a Female cabbie When Afghan taxi driver Sara Bahai has male passengers in her cab, she takes the chance to lobby them on female rights and she hopes the country’s next president will also listen to her arguments. Bahai has been driving the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif city for 10 years, during which Afghanistan has experienced huge changes, including limited improvements in the lives of women. Now, ahead of the Saturday’s run-off election, she says the new president must push ahead with reforms. “Sometimes I argue with male passengers all through the journey to convince them a woman driving a taxi isn’t a bad or un-Islamic thing,” Bahai, who is thought to have been Afghanistan’s first-ever-female taxi driver, told AFP. “Women should be given bigger roles, they should be given seats as ministers. And female teachers should be paid more to help female education. “I see a lot of changes for Afghan women in the past few years. Many are setting up businesses to do whateve...

Inspiring story of a village in Madhya Pradesh Amita Bhaduri     Once water-deficient, Didakhedi in Madhya Pradesh is now a village with year-round water supply The 200-odd residents of Didakhedi, a sleepy village just 13 km from Sehore town in Madhya Pradesh, never had adequate water. Two decades ago, most of the farming in the village was done during the monsoons. The village had no electricity and a lone diesel pump operated the shallow dug wells to irrigate some land during the winter. The shallow wells, their only source of water, would turn dry during the scorching summer months, leaving the people distressed. Once the village got electricity, farmers began drilling tube-wells to irrigate their fields and ground water was depleted faster than it could be replenished. Drinking water was the first casualty. The four hand-pumps and two bore-wells installed by the government in the village started drying up and became unreliable. As the shallow wells dried up, they wer...

Who says it and how? “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” Charles Darwin. Winston Churchill once said that in any statement there are three aspects which matter. They are * who is making that statement, * how is s/he saying it and * finally,what is said? Of the three, Churchill felt, that the last is the least important. Therefore when a big man makes a statement then the powers that be get energised to act! Reading a news item a few days ago about a statement by a great Sarkari technologist I felt that the future of our ancient medical care delivery system using the nature's bounty of herbal drugs and the folk medicines in India, which has been the backbone of medical care for "times out of mind," has a bright future. This statement came from one of the country's top sarkari technologists, Sam...

FREEBIES TO EMPOWERMENT New Delhi: The government will try strike a balance between reviving a wobbly economy and welfare of the poor sections, but the days of “khairat” (charity) are now gone, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday. “Khairat ka zamaana chala gaya, empowerment ka zamaana aa gaya (days of dole are gone, days of empowerment have now come),” Pradhan said. “Swatantra banana padega logon ko, atma-nirbhar banana padega... Gareebon ke liye hi (unko swatantra) banana padega. Koi isme antar-virudh nahin hai (we have to make people more independent and self-reliant… this is only for the poor people’s good… These are not opposing views).” Stabilizing the economy takes precedence over simply handing out doles to the poor since a weak economy hurts the economically weaker sections the most, the minister said. The top priority of the government was to bring back economic stability, the minister said, adding that economic reforms would not harm but...