World Bank seeks qualitative quake rehabilitation Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The World Bank, which is supporting the massive earthquake rehabilitation programme, has made several suggestions to the Gujarat government in improving the engineering aspects of the reconstruction process as well as bringing about more peoples’ participation and transparency in the effort.
The report also talks about the lack of a strategic approach towards disaster management and the need for better dissemination of information. The World Bank’s aide memoire has observed that ‘‘overall, the mission is encouraged with the progress achieved so far in the the momentum that housing reconstruction has achieved to date and with the quality of earthquake resistant construction.’’
Given the magnitude of damage to housing in both rural and urban areas and the consequent scope of reconstruction spread over 12 districts and about 7,609 villages, the mission had identified areas for improvement which have been accepted by the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA).
Sources said the mission has observed that ‘‘rural housing reconstruction is advancing at a faster pace than that in the urban areas’’ but the pace of construction is relatively slower in the non-Kutch towns as compared to that in the four Kutch towns of Bhuj, Anjar, Bhachau and Rapar.
This is due to the fact that while in the four Kutch towns, Area Development Authorities under the Town Planning Act have been constituted due to large scale destruction due to the earthquake, in the non-Kutch towns also affected by earthquake although to a lesser degree, the administrative set-up of revenue, road and buildings and local authorities are looking after urban housing.
‘‘More coordination between these authorities appears to be necessary. Major attention from the GSDMA is needed to streamline the reconstruction of houses in order to avoid imminent backlogs in the construction process, delays in works and the development of insufficient seismic resistant houses. Institutional efforts to decentralize and down market housing finance is also advised to improve access to affordable housing loan,’’ the mission said.
The report said, ‘‘the overall level of construction quality is satisfactory even though there are a few examples indicating the lack of sound technical assistance.’’
On the issue of disaster management, the mission said GSDMA organized the preparation and the dissemination of manuals, brochures and posters on seismic resistant construction and repair of non-engineered construction.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Attempt to murder case filed against BJ college students Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The police cracked down on rioting students at B J Medical College on Tuesday night and registered a case of attempt to murder against seven of them.
The action was initiated after four students were severely beaten up and had to be hospitalised. One of them, Ashish Gamit, received serious head injuries and was brought to Civil Hospital profusely bleeding. All of them belong to the B block of the college hostel.
Acting police commissioner M K Tandon told 'The Times of India' on Wednesday that the strong action was initiated to bring the violence under control.
The seven students who have been booked under Section 307 of the IPC are, Ashutosh Jumar, Ranjan Chawala, Piyush Jain, Amardeep Bhatia, Tejas Hathani, Bhowmik Shah, Siraj Munshi and Siddharth Shah.
The new measures, however, failed to prevent more violence on Wednesday afternoon when about 10 students attacked their college mates belonging to the rival group, resulting in yet another head injury to one of the students.
The latest attack was allegedly in retaliation to Tuesday night's assault and took place in the presence of police personnel who were escorting the boys from the police station to the hospital for a preliminary check-up.
For the first time, college dean K V Bhatt broke his silence and said he is worried about the escalating violence, especially since the four students were beaten up outside the college campus. "If the violence continues like this, we don't want to have hostels at all. I would not have been sitting in this office had something untoward happened to the students."
Bhatt has written to the state health secretary seeking permission to shut down the four hostels which have turned battlegrounds. The college authorities have been threatening to shut down the hostel ever since the students went on strike on November 6.
They claim that Tuesday night's violence took place after some B block students went to the mess in D block for dinner. They were allegedly surrounded and thrashed. D block students, however, claim that the violence was initiated by the opposite group.
Students in the A block revealed that the college authorities had not taken half the measures they had promised, to try and curb the violence. "Where are the Gujarat Industrial Security Force personnel they had said they would employ? We have seen none of them." The college authorities had sought approval from the state government for at least 20 security personnel when the violence began. The A block students also alleged that their block had been sealed off by the police not allowing the inmates to go out. Those who were left outside the block were beaing beaten both by students of the B block and the police, they alleged.
Some of the students have even summoned their parents to the campus to pressure the authorities whom, they claim, are not listening to them.
If the parents do join the students, the situation will go back to square one when, at the beginning on the month, they had joined their wards in a hunger strike. A truce was arrived at, following the intervention of health minister Ashok Bhatt, just a day before the Diwali break. After the holidays, there were some sporadic incidents where the college authorities had locked the hostel rooms late in the night if the students were not in by then.
Meanwhile, the brighter students of the college are starting to complain about negligible academic activity in the last 30-odd days. As one of them put it, "I have put all my 25 years in reaching here. I can't forget the effort of all these years just because some of my college mates don't like each other. But there is nothing I can do. I feel completely helpless."
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
HC stays earlier order on STD, ISD call racket Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court has stayed operation of its earlier stay order granted in a petition by Pramukh Communications, challenging disconnection of its telephones by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for alleged involvement in an STD and ISD call racket.
A division Bench comprising Chief Justice D M Dharmadhikari and Justice R R Tripathi stayed the order passed by Justice Kundan Singh, after the BSNL appealed against the order.
It was submitted by the petitioner that once the licence is terminated and if stay is granted against disconnection, then it amounts to allowing the petition at the admission stage.
It was also submitted that Pramukh Communications has violated the terms 12 and 19 of the agreement entered by it with the BSNL. According to these terms, all the phone connections of an EPABX network will be governed by the Indian Telegraphs Act 1989 and rules framed under it.
As per clause 19, the licencee should intimate the Telecom authorities about the attachments made to external users's terminals.
It was also submitted that petition was not entertainable under Article 226, as there was no violation of fundamental rights and it is a case governed by the Contracts Act for which a civil suit has to be admitted and not an SCA.
BSNL had launched an FIR at Navrangpura, alleging that illegal STD and ISD calls were made by the Wipronet Limited from its office at Mithakhali, through the telephone numbers of Pramukh Comunications. It was then that BSNL disconnected the telephone lines.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Congress corporator held for slapping VMC official Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA: The arrest of Congress corporator Meenakshi Fund on Wednesday on charges of assaulting a government official may lead to a stormy session when the Vadodara Municipal Corporation board meets on Thursday. She was later released on bail.
The Makarpura police arrested Fund, corporator from Manjalpur, for "assaulting VMC deputy engineer Yogesh Shah and threatening to kill him." Shah had lodged a complaint against her with the Makarpura police station after he was allegedly slapped, abused and threatened by Fund over a drinking water-related issue at Manjalpur ward office on Tuesday.
Makarpura police inspector Janaksinh Sarviyya said a special women squad of police was sent to fetch Fund from her house in Manjalpur around 11 am. "Fund showed up at the police station at 1 pm and was arrested. She was produced in the court in evening," PI Sarvaiya said. Fund was detained at the police station for about three hours before she was produced in court. Police had registered an offence against Fund under section 332 and 506 (2) of Indian Penal Code.
Sources said Shah apparently skirted a query from Fund by saying that "the issue she was raising was not related to his department." Shah's reply, said sources, angered Fund who then slapped him twice and swore to "teach him a lesson". Sources said Shah had to bear the brunt of the angry corporator who had marched into the ward office with a huge crowd of local residents.
At 5 pm on Tuesday, Shah, after consulting his officers in the VMC, lodged a police complaint. As the complaint concerned a woman corporator and had the making of a political controversy, Makarpura police decided not to take any action on Tuesday evening or night but arrested Fund on Wednesday.
While the city Congress leaders termed the incident as unfortunate, they blamed the attitude of the VMC administration for the incident. "The ruling wing of the VMC has lost control over the administration and employees. Some of the officers are not willing to take up genuine problems raised by the elected representatives. This often leads to friction and incidents like the present one take place," said leader of the Opposition Dalsukh Prajapati.
Prajapati pointed out that lady corporators, in particular, were getting a raw deal from the officials. "Something must have happened from both the sides. It would be wrong to blame only the corporator for the incident," he added.
Congress leaders ruled out taking any action against Fund at this juncture. "We will wait for the strategy to be adopted by the ruling BJP-Samata combine on the issue. The general board is scheduled to meet on Thursday. We will decide the future course of action after that," a senior Congress councillor said.
Meanwhile, the engineering staff of the administrative ward where the incident took place went on a work-to-protest against the incident. The staff joined work later in the day after convincing by senior VMC officials.
Both the mayor and the deputy mayor, however, denied commenting on the issue. Mayor Bharti Vyas said, "It is their (Congress party's) matter. I would not like to comment on the incident."
Deputy Mayor Shailesh Mehta said he had not been approached by any of the parties involved. "So, there is no point in our getting involved in the issue," he said.
Engineering staff of the VMC protesting the slapping of the deputy engineer.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Vartu-1 dam to gain height Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
RAJKOT: The state irrigation department seems to be learning its lessons pretty fast. Realising that there is no alternative to improving the storage capacity of water so as to tide over the frequent droughts afflicting the region, it has decided to increase the height of Vartu-1 dam by a metre at a cost of Rs 5 crore. The increase in height would enable storage of more water.
Minister of state for mines and minerals Mulu Bera told 'The Times of India' on Tuesday that with the increase in dam height, the problem of drinking water shortage in Bhanvad taluka of Jamnagar district would be reduced to a great extent.
Bera said that in Bhanvad itself, 22 watershed programmes out of the 54 proposed had already been implemented. The entire project would be completed at a cost of Rs 48 lakh and would be taken up in two phases. All together 236 watershed projects had been sanctioned for the entire Jamnagar district.
The minister said that to solve the drinking water problem in Jamnagar district,
work on the Narmada pipeline project had also been speeded up. The project to supply water through pipelines would be completed at a cost of Rs 56 crore, he added.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
