News on India

Asom has sufficient funds to tackle flood: Selvi By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Sept 10: At a time when the entire civil society of the State has come up to protest against the Central Government apathy towards Asom floods, a letter by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs V Radhika Selvi to AGP MP Arun Sharma has put the State Government in a quandary. In his letter, Selvi stated that the Asom Government has not submitted any petition for additional funds. He also said that the Finance Ministry has failed to release the first instalment of the CRF as the State Government has failed to submit the fund utilization report. Selvi was replying to Arun Sharma’s letter to the Prime Minister regarding provision of immediate flood relief measures to the affected people and the controversy surrounding the sudden release of water from the reservoir of Ranganadi Dam Project by NEEPCO which resulted in flash floods in Asom. In his letter, Selvi said that the responsibility of undertaking necessary relief measures in the wake of natural disasters rests solely with the State Governments and the Central Government just supplements the efforts of the States by providing financial and logistic support, as and when necessary. In this direction, a Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) had been constituted with an allocated amount for each State. The Government of India contributes 75 per cent of the CRF and the State Government contributes the remaining 25 per cent of the fund, the letter stated. Asom was allocated an amount of Rs 210.62 crore under the CRF for the year 2008-09. Selvi stated that the first instalment of the Central Government’s contribution, amounting to Rs 78.78 crore, could not be released by the Ministry of Finance since the State Government failed to submit the fund utilization report. The first instalment of the Central Government’s share was due to be released in June this year. Rubbishing the State Government’s claim of lack of funds to tackle floods, Selvi said that the Asom Government has sufficient balance to meet the expenditure on flood relief measures out of the available fund in the CRF account. As per information received from the State Accountant General, the State has a balance amount of Rs 643.57 crore in the CRF account. With regards to additional Central assistance, Selvi said that the Asom Government had not submitted any memorandum seeking additional Central assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) in the wake of this year’s floods. Selvi, in his letter, further said that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has already forwarded the issue relating to the sudden release of water from the reservoir of the Ranganadi Dam project by NEEPCO to the Ministry of Power for appropriate action.source: sentinel assam

AGP asks Manmohan to quit as Asom MP By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Sept 10: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today demanded the resignation of Dr Manmohan Singh as the Asom MP for “failing to understand the gravity of the Asom floods despite being the representative from the State for nearly two decades.” Addressing a press conference here, three AGP MPs –– Birendra Prasad Baishya, Arun Sarma and Kumar Deepak Das –– said, “It is the misfortune of Asom that despite having one of their fellow MPs from the State as the Prime Minister, the flood protection and flood relief work is almost nil. “Dr Singh termed the Bihar flood as national calamity while for him Asom flood is not a natural calamity. Why does he not find time to visit Majuli and Dhemaji districts where the agricultural fields have been completely destroyed and the water has still not receded,” the MPs lamented. “It is a shame that there is no one to convince New Delhi that Asom flood was equally devastating if not more destructive than the one at Bihar,” Baishya said. The MPs announced that they would not give consent to the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman to divert money from their local area development funds for Bihar relief. “Not only are we not going to give any money, we will also request all Northeastern MPs not to give their funds for Bihar relief. Rather we are urging the Speaker to make another such call for Asom flood relief so that the total money could be divided between Asom and Bihar,” Das said. source: sentinel assam Scientists fire protons as doomsday predictions prove wrong GENEVA, Sept 10: Scientists fired the first beam of protons around a 27.36-kilometre tunnel today in science’s next great step to understand the make-up of the universe. The Large Hadron Collider –– built at a cost of USD 3.8 billion –– provides scientists with much greater power than ever before to smash the components of atoms in a bid to see how they are made. “The beam is the size of a human hair,” Paola Catapano, a spokeswoman for the host European Organization for Nuclear Research said after the protons were fired into the accelerator below the Swiss-French border at 0732 GMT. The organization, known by its French acronym CERN, is firing the protons –– a type of subatomic particle –– around the tunnel in stages, several kilometers at a time. Once the beam is successfully tested in clockwise direction, CERN will send it counterclockwise. Eventually the two beams will be fired in opposite directions with the aim of smashing together protons to see how they are made. The start-up –– eagerly awaited by 9,000 physicists around the world who will conduct experiments here –– comes over the objections of some sceptics who fear the collisions of protons could eventually imperil the earth. The sceptics theorize that a by-product of the collisions could be micro black holes, subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars. “It’s nonsense,” said James Gillies, chief spokesman for CERN, before today’s start. CERN is backed by leading scientists like Britain’s Stephen Hawking in dismissing the fears and declaring the experiments to be absolutely safe. Gillies told the AP that the most dangerous thing that could happen would be a beam at full power going out of control, and that would only damage the accelerator itself and burrow into the rock around the tunnel. And full power is probably a year away. “Today, we start small,” said Gillies. “What we’re putting in to start with is one single low-intensity bunch at low energy and we thread that around. We get experience with low energy things and then we ramp up as we get to know the machine better.” He said a good result for today would be to have one beam going all the way around the tunnel in a counterclockwise direction. If that works, the scientists will then try to send a beam in the other direction. “A really good result would be to have the other beam going around, too, because once you’ve got a beam around in both directions, you know that there is no show stopper,” Gillies said. “It’s going to work.” However, if there is some blockage in the machine, experts will have to go in and fix the problem, and that could take time. The LHC, as the collider is known, will take scientists to within a split second of a laboratory recreation of the big bang, which they theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe. (AP) source: sentinel assam Indian banks sitting on idle funds of over Rs 1,200 crore NEW DELHI, Sept 10: Commercial banks in the country are sitting on funds of over Rs 1,200 crore, which have been lying idle in about two crore bank accounts for the past 10 years. This is despite a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India in November 1989 instructing banks to trace customers or the legal heirs of unclaimed accounts. The disclosure was made in reply to a RTI plea filed by one Sidharth Misra, a resident of Cuttack in Orissa. As per the reply, an amount of Rs 1207,35,54,334.23 is lying idle with banks spread across the country. This unclaimed amount belongs to 1,74,38,100 account holders. According to the reply given by the RBI, the quantum of unclaimed deposit is highest in the rural regional banks category. It comes to an amount of Rs 1156,98,70,277.68. “The banks take this order in letter and not in spirit and wash their hands off by sending a simple letter to the account holder,” an RBI official said on the condition of anonymity. He said the RTI was filed after many widows in Cuttack complained that the banks were reluctant to give them their rightful dues. It is also the responsibility of the banks to trace either the account holders or the rightful claimants. Some of the prominent banks that have inoperative accounts include State Bank of India, Bank of India, Central Bank, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ABN Amro, American Express Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Honkong and Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank. PTI Three students drowned By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Sept 10: Three Class XI students of Cotton Collegiate School were drowned after they went to swim in the Brahmaputra river. The bodies of two students –– Jyotish Kalita of Noonmati and Lobojit Kalita of Narikolbari –– have been recovered while search operations are going on for the third student. source: sentinel assam Vice Chief of Army Staff visits Gajraj Corps GUWAHATI, Sept 10: Vice Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General ML Naidu visited Gajraj Corps today to review the prevailing security situation of the State and issues with respect to the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, a press release stated. Naidu also visited the Morshing War Memorial, where he paid rich tributes to the heroes of the 1962 Indo-China conflict.source: sentinel assam Section 144 imposed in Dibrugarh From our Staff Correspondent DIBRUGARH, Sept 10: In view of the diarrhoea deaths reported in Moran and some parts of Sibsagar, the Additional District Magistrate, by an order issued today, has promulgated section 144 in the entire district. The order has prohibited the sale and consumption of fish, meat, dry fish, fruits and sweets which are kept in the open. source: sentinel assam Legislative measures for flood control pending for 33 years! NEW DELHI, Sept 10: Despite facing the fury of floods every year, Bihar and Asom are among the States where legislative measures, suggested by the Centre to minimize the havoc wreaked, are pending for the past 33 years. The model bill, prepared by the Central Water Commission (CWC) way back in 1975, will empower authorities to remove dwellings from flood-prone areas. The bill, if implemented, will seek to replace dwellings in low-lying areas by parks and playgrounds as absence of human settlement in those areas would cut down loss of lives and property. The CWC had circulated the model bill to all the States to help the State Governments enact a legislation. Except for Manipur and Rajasthan, no State legislature has enacted the ‘Model Bill on Flood Plain Zoning’, sources in the Water Resources Ministry told PTI. Though Manipur enacted the legislation in 1978, the demarcation of flood zones is yet to be carried out. Rajasthan is yet to enforce the measure, though it has enacted the bill. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had initiated the process of framing the legislation a few years ago, but have not taken any further steps. As per the model bill, different types of buildings and utility services have been grouped under three priorities from the point of view of damage likely to occur. PTI Signature campaign for Gorkhaland held in Kokrajhar From our Staff Correspondent KOKRAJHAR, Sept 10: The Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM) today carried out a signature campaign in Kokrajhar to support the creation of a separate Gorkhaland State under the Indian constitution. BTC Deputy Chief Kampa Borgoyary and nominated member Madhav Karki also put their signatures in the campaign.source: sentinel assam AAGSU seeks Nepali language department in DU DIBRUGARH, Sept 10: The district committee of the All Assam Gorkha Students’ Union has submitted a petition to the Dibrugarh University Vice-chancellor to open a Nepali Language department in the university. The union, in its representation, stated that thousand of students study in Nepalese in the Gorkha inhabited areas. However, the absence of a Nepali language department in the university compels many financially disadvantaged students to go out of the State for higher studies. source: sentinel assam State MLAs to get free train fares By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Sept 10: In a decision taken by the Assam Legislative Assembly Amenities Committee today, State MLAs will avail free railway fares very soon. At present, State MLAs avail the benefit of free bus fares. The Amenities Committee meeting was headed by Assam Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Pranati Phukan. The meeting also decided to increase the family pension of the older MLAs from the current amount of Rs 5,500 to Rs 7,000 every month. The Amenities Committee will submit their collective decision to the Assembly Speaker.source: sentinel assam Condition of children in relief camps pathetic: NCPCR By our Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Sept 10: Children in the relief camps of the Northeast, including Asom, are leading a deplorable lifestyle, without proper healthcare, education and nutrition, which has pushed their entire future to darkness, a national commission for child rights said on Wednesday. A 5-member team of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), led by Shantha Sinha, visited six relief camps in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Bongaigaon districts of Asom to study the condition of the children living there. The team is on a eight-day study tour of the Northeast. The NCPCR team found the condition of children living in the relief camps of Asom and Tripura to be pathetic. This was revealed by NCPCR Chairperson Shantha Sinha while interacting with media persons in a press conference at the Assam Secretariat today. The team found the existence of huge gaps between the children and healthcare measures. Except for pulse polio prevention measures, no other healthcare initiatives could be seen, Sinha said. A large number of children in Manipur and other Northeastern States are living with HIV and AIDS, the team said. “Only 1,100 children are getting Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Manipur, while a large number of children are being deprived of proper treatment,” Sinha said. “Over 7,000 children in six relief camps in north Tripura have not been included in the ration card system, resulting in poor nutrition.” About 35,000 Reang tribals (locally called Bru) have been sheltered in these camps following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos in Mizoram since October 1997. Appealing to the State Governments to protect the rights of these children, Sinha further said: “During our meetings with the chief secretaries and other officials of the three States, we have asked the State Governments to look into specific needs of the children.” The five-member team will ask the State Governments to appoint a Nodal Officer from the Social Welfare departments to ensure the holistic development of children, Sinha said. She added, “The Nodal Officer should submit an action taken report to the State Governments after every 40 days.”source: sentinel assam

Novel blood test to diagnose heart attacks in minutes WASHINGTON, Sept 10: A new technique that measures hundreds of molecular markers in the blood can confirm within minutes, rather than hours, whether a patient is having a heart attack. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT say that speedy diagnosis of heart attacks can allow more rapid treatment that could limit damage to heart muscle. (Agencies) source: sentinel assam