French govt aid for heritage conservation project Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The French government on Wednesday bestowed a million Euros (approximately Rs 4 crore) grant to AMC for the heritage conservation project of Ahmedabad. The money will be used to part-finance preservation of the Walled City.
Ambassador of France in India Bernard de Monteferrand made the announcement during the inaugural function of Sambhav III _ a seminar on the conservation and revitalisation of urban heritage of Ahmedabad.
The programme is the first-ever Indo-French heritage exercise in the country that looks to adopt the legal structure to prevent damage to heritage structures in the Walled City, to garner financial assistance for repair and maintenance of privately-owned heritage buildings, and to preserve the physical and socio-cultural structure of Ahmedabad's Kot Vistar (old city).
Monteferrand said, "President of France, who was the guest of honour during the 50th anniversary of Independence celebrations in India in 1998, had proposed for co-operation in the field of heritage conservation. Ahmedabad was chosen as the city where the first comprehensive joint exercise is being undertaken. Ahmedabad presents a unique combination of historic urban architecture and interesting contemporary architecture to which French technicians have made significant contributions in the past."
He added, "One of the key challenges of an enterprise of this kind is to preserve heritage, at the same time improving living conditions in the historic city and enabling the citizens to access modern amenities of life. This project is multi-disciplinary and there has been a remarkable co-operation between Indian and French experts. The product of this two years of reflection has been a set of very pragmatic and specific proposals on technical, legal and financial aspects of the Walled City revitalisation."
Earlier, Mayor Himmatsinh Patel said, "The city has already lost many of its heritage structures due to ignorance among the masses. But, now that AMC has taken upon itself this responsibility of conservation, one is sure that the future generations will have the old Ahmedabad city retained in its age-old ambience complete with artefacts and heritage buildings".
The exercise has its genesis in 'Sambhava I' and 'Sambhava II' which were held in the city in 1998 and 1999 respectively. During this period the French experts had pooled their experience with Indian counterparts (namely Heritage cell of the AMC) and INTACH. This was after the signing of an MoU between the government of France and the AMC. Sambhava III, which highlights the conclusions of this couple of years' worth exercise, has also got a significant addition to its list of heritage conservationists _ Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).
HUDCO has volunteered to be the steering body for getting financial assistance and give out loans for conservation of privately-owned heritage structures in the Walled City. Using the French contribution, worth Rs 4.5 crore, interest on loans given out by HUDCO to residents of the Walled City will be lower than the going market rates.
Municipal commissioner P Panneervel told TNN: "We are looking at an interest rate that will hover around five per cent." P S Rana from HUDCO added, "A strategy for heritage financing has been jointly designed by the French government, AMC and our experts. This will be fine-tuned during this three-day seminar. We will have brainstorming sessions to arrive at interest rate to be charged for giving loans to heritage building owners."
Apart from the multi-crore grant, which was made in view of the damage caused by January 26 earthquake, the government of France has also decided to depute a French architect who will work in close collaboration with AMC and HUDCO.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Religious’ loss of Rs 1.5 crores for corporation Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Source - The AsianAge
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will incur a loss of about Rs 1.5 crores as the standing committee has decided to give away land to various religious trusts. The decision was taken on Thursday.
The committee earlier gave the land to the trusts at market price but it was decided to subsidise it by Rs 2,000 per square metre as the trusts had protested that the market rates were too high.
Meanwhile, it was also decided to hold an appellate court to hear about 16 complaints from the employees next week regarding leave applications and dismissal from service. The standing committee meeting of the corporation was over in a record 20 minutes with the traditional zero hour being skipped.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Modi loses out in BJP revamp in Gujarat Wednesday, November 28, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: In a major revamp of the BJP organisation in Gujarat, coming 50 days after Narendra Modi took over as chief minister, Suresh Gandhi and Nalin Bhatt were nominated as general secretaries of the state party unit on Tuesday.
Modi’s choice for party’s presidentship, Dilip Sanghani, had to be content with the vice president’s post. The announcements were made by party president Rajendrasinh Rana who is presently in New Delhi.
The changes mean that Bhatt, an old RSS hand steeped in the Hindutva ideology, will have to relinquish the post of chairman of the Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB).
While the new office-bearers are yet to be assigned work, it is believed that Gandhi, who was so far the vice president, will be in-charge of the organisation in place of Sanjay Joshi who has been shifted to Delhi.
Gandhi, in his mid-50s, is a former school principal from Sabarkantha who is an RSS nominee in the organisation. Jayantibhai Kewat stays as general secretary and Surendra Patel, who is also chairman of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, remains the BJP treasurer.
Insiders say that Modi has not been able to have his say completely in the revamp, as he was insisting on Sanghani, a five-term MP from Amreli and his close friend, as party president.
However, he has managed to induct Sanghani as vice president under a compromise formula.Another of Modi’s close aide, Amit Shah, who was earlier vice president, has not been given any organisational responsibility and is tipped to become chairman of the programme implementation committee.
The BJP had also toyed with the idea of making the present revenue minister, Haren Pandya, a general secretary in the organisation but the idea fell through. Party sources said while Gandhi himself was not very experienced to run the party, it is Nalin Bhatt who may wield a lot of clout, because he had served as general secretary and knows the party cadres quite well.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Police gear up for gram panchayat polls Wednesday, November 28, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
SURAT: With the state gram panchayat elections scheduled to be held on December 23, the district police have geared up to ensure a fair and peaceful polling process.
The measures to be initiated shortly include keeping a tab on all anti-social elements, as unlike assembly or parliamentary polls the gram panchayat elections are keenly contested ones, where the enmity factor threatens to snowball into major law and order problem.
The political differences make it a tough task for local law enforcing agencies and the Election Commission to strike a cordial note at the grassroot level for this kind of democratic exercise, say political observers.
According to district police superintendent K L N Rao, the cutting edge in these local level elections are so narrow that differences hardly remain a secret. Differences crop up even among one's kin, who follow different political ideologies.
To ensure a smooth polling process, the district police is banking on its intelligence network to keep them posted on any untoward incident before or during the polls.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Gir’s lions face a new menace Wednesday, November 28, 2001
BY SHYAM PAREKH, FOR TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: It is not just the controversial temples and mosques, encroachments or opening of roads, that is affecting the Asiatic lion in its last abode —the Gir forests. Surprisingly, changes like increasing density of Gir due to tall vegetation and thickening of forests is also rendering it unsuitable for the king of the jungle to lead a normal life, believe experts.
The changes are quite shocking — the phenomenon has affected the group structure of the lions. Experts believe that there are lesser lions living together in a group than before. And it is feared that the phenomenon is also likely to change the hunting patterns of the lions. ‘‘Very dense forests in Gir are not conducive for lions, though it may be good for tigers. Hunting behaviour of the lions is unlike that of tigers’ since they cannot move very fast and will be forced to change their habits or evolve as per the needs of the new surroundings,’’ believes director of Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER) H S Singh.
Singh perceives yet another significant change in Gir. ‘‘There is a perceptible increase in population of lions in the Gir-east (Amreli) area, as compared to the Gir-west (Sasan-Junagadh) area.’’ Forests officials believe that the sparser vegetation in the eastern Gir, besides presence of more cattle is responsible for this phenomenon.Concerned over similar factors affecting lions and their environment, a 10-year Biodiversity Conservation Plan for Gir 1996-2005 (BCPG) was formulated by Singh and R D Kamboj.A mid-term review of the same was held recently to consider how it was doing and experts felt that the Gir forests should be thinned down, at least, experimentally in some patches.Suggestions like old teak-wood plantations, which are no good for herbivores, be removed to make way for more growth of grass and for movement of spotted deer, also came along.
‘‘We are seriously considering this aspect and will be implementing it soon. Experiments will be carried out in some teak patches,’’ says principal chief conservator of forests Sanat Chavan.
Past experience has led foresters and wildlife experts to believe that there is a need for strengthening the satellite population areas of lions.
Reviewers also found that Asiatic lions are now dispersed in their old territories (prior to 1900 AD) and have created a niche for themselves. Hence, they saw a need for unified management system to manage lions spread everywhere.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
