LAND AND HOUSE FOR THE TRIBAL PEOPLE

LAND AND HOUSE FOR THE TRIBAL PEOPLE

A recent anouncement was made by the Kerala government to distribute land and house for the tribal population in Kerala. In a function at Palakkad, the revenue minister of Kerala anounced that,steps for distributing land to tribal people under the Forest Dwellers’ (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act would be completed in the State by January 2010. All arrangements have been completed to distribute land to all tribal people in Kollam district. To implement this, local bodies need to pass resolutions to that effect and submit them to the Revenue Department.The Minister observed that thousands of landless could be given land with the active cooperation of the Local Self-government Department. If all the landless could be given land now, they could also be provided with houses later. The State government had initiated a variety of schemes worth Rs.5,000 crore with this objective.A review committee at the Cabinet level had also been formed to take stock of the implementation of these schemes.The revenue minister said that the State government had adopted a policy to resolve all issues related with the distribution of land.He said that functions to distribute title deeds to the landless would be organised in all taluks in the months of April and May in connection with the fourth anniversary of the State government.

ASSESSMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE FROM A SOCIAL WORKER POINT OF VIEW

• The tribal population is considered as the most vulnarable group, the government,both central and state had introduced a lot of welfare meassure for their improvemnet, but still their condition is very miserable one. The initiative taken by the government is well and good if the tribal population get benefit out of it.
• Proper planning and monitoring is a necessary one.

• The government said that the local bodies have an important role in intervening in the issues of tribal people, the LSGs have to play an important role in implementing the scheme.
• Duplication may happen while implementing this scheme, the there may arise some kind of criticism.

CONCLUSION

WE HAVE TO CONCIDER THE TRIBAL PEOPLE AS A PART OF OUR SOCIETY. THEIR UPLIFTMENT WILL ALSO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION.

JOBI BABU

LOW FLOOR BUSES IN KOCHI

LOW FLOOR BUSES IN KOCHI

The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) prepared a detailed project report for introducing low-floor bus service in Kochi.
The project will utilise the funds to be released by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for Kochi under the urban road transport component.



Special purpose vehicle
The Local Administration Department, Kerala Urban and Rural Development Fund Corporation and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) are the other stakeholders of the special purpose vehicle.
Even while initiating steps to get the bus transport project going, the council has decided to urge the Mission authorities to support it in setting up an inland water transport network too.



Central aid
The project had been suggested for Kochi considering the 10-lakh plus population of what is called the Kochi Urban Agglomerate.
It has been suggested to purchase 110 low-floor buses under the scheme and run a mass rapid transport system in the city.



Project report
Though it was earlier suggested that WAPCOS, an empanelled consultant, prepared the detailed project report, Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty suggested that the works be assigned to the NATPAC considering its expertise in the field.
Studies
The NATPAC had earlier conducted transport-related studies for Kochi and the data generated during these studies used for the preparation of the report

Bus terminals were set up at Vyttila, Kakkanad, Thripunithura, Vypeen, Fort Kochi and Aroor.

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS FROM A SOCIAL WORKER'S POINT OF VIEW

• It is a good sign of urban development
• It will make a lot of traffic problem in the city
• The condition of the road should be improoved
• The travelling expence is higher in compared to the ordinary service of buses, the poor people can not afford the travelling expence
• The political parrties are trying to project the introducation of the bus as there achievement. So a politicalization was happened in it
• It is suggest that 110 bus will introduce in coming year, the government have to spend a good amount of rupees. in the other side we have a lot of issues to be tackle. the government have to pay they attention into those issues also.

CONCLUSION

NOW IT IS OUR DUTY TO ASSESS IS THIS IS A PART OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT? ARE THE CITIZEN/ THE LARGE COMMUNITY GET BENEFIT OUT OF IT?

JOBI BABU

VIPs and Traffic Problems

VIPs and Traffic Problems

The visits of government officials are common in every state. In kerala in every month one or other VIP or VVIP will come . The state government will arrange everything favourable to thatVIP or VVIP.But the authorities will forget the life of the common people. They are the silent victims of the 'celebration' of the visit of the government officials.
Last day our respective president of India, Smt Prathibha Pattil visited our state. Every thing was well arranged and the authoriities tried their maximum to make the visit of the president a memorable one. But many problems were aroused. The Traffic problem in Kochi is one of the main problem that aroused as part of the president's visit. It is clear that In normal day itself the traffic problem is very crucial one in Kochi.
In the name of the safety of the President the district authority and state government strictly controlled the city traffic. They diverted the routs and it caused to create many traffic problem in the city.
The traffic control affected the life of common people. The traffic control was lasted for many hours. Until the President pass, people waited in the roads. The traffic problem was affected the pedestrians also . President's safety and security are necessary one, but it should not affect the life of the common people. It is not a new experience to the People, it is happened and it is happens and it will defenetly happen again.
The authorities have to think over alternate solutions to tackle this issue.

JOBI BABU

hartal and citizen of India

Hartlas right/ wrong?

We the Indians are very proud of many things. Our golden history , our natural beauty etc.

But in certain other cases we are ashamed of many things. One of such ashamed feature of India is Hartals. On 28/12/09 we have 'celiberated' one more Hartal day. The supporters of Hartala will say that the Hartal is a mechanism to protect the right of the people and it will question the problems. Usually the Hartals are the political party sponsored programme. A vast majority of the common people are the real victims of the Hartal.

Last day the Hrtal was against the increase of price of goods and commodity. In the name of that one political party initiated the Hartal. What was the impact....? It disturbed the common life of the people, it damaged the public properties like KSRTC bus. We are not sure that how many of the people may denied treatment opportunity, how many of the people may sacrificed their trip, how many of the students cannot go to the educational institutions, how many of the people may lost their employment etc.

Is Hartal fight for the welfare of the people? Are the supporters of Hartala or the political parties are really bothered about the right of the citizen of the nation? Are the supporters won to decrease the price of goods after they conduct the Hartals? These are the relevent questions arouse in front of the name of Hartals.

Lets think ! Is Hartals are right/ wrong?

JOBI BABU

COME... SAVE OUR CHILDREN

There are 5,00,000 children in prostitution, in India. 54 percent were killed by a parent, 15 percent were killed by strangers or unknown persons. There are over 15 million children in bonded labour, in India today. Twice as many girls than boys engaged in child labour. 63% of girls in Delhi, have experienced child sexual abuse at the hands of a family member In a study of a 1000 girls from 5 different states in India, (50% of the girls said that they had been abused when under 12 years of age, 35% had been abused between the ages of 12- 16 years of age.
The 'Study on Child abuse India 2007' conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development acknowledges that child sex abuse takes place in schools - and how. One out of two children in schools have faced sexual abuse. And overall , more boys than girls face various forms of sexual abuse - ranging from inappropriate touch, exposure to pornography or violent sexual assault.The abuser could be from the peer group or an older student.
There are at least 18 million children living on the streets in India. In a number of joint studies conducted by UNICEF and the Ministry of Labour, 75% of the children reported treatment by staff as bad and 91.7% reported provisions of necessities as bad, Bangalore. In Mumbai 75.4 % reported bad treatment by staff and 53.2 reported that provisions were poor. One million children are trafficked into prostitution, in Asia every year.
-Varsha V. S

FUTURE OF INDIA

India’s urban population slated to increase from the current 330 million to about 600 million by 2030, the challenge of managing municipal solid waste (MSW) in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner is bound to assume gigantic proportions. The country has over 5,000 cities and towns, which generate about 40 million tonnes of MSW per year today. Going by estimates of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), this could well touch 260 million tonnes per year by 2047. Municipal solid waste is solid waste generated by households, commercial establishments and offices and does not include the industrial or agricultural waste. Municipal solid waste management is more of an administrative and institutional mechanism failure problem rather than a technological one. Until now, MSW management has been considered to be almost the sole responsibility of urban governments, without the participation of citizens and other stakeholders. The Centre and the Supreme Court, however, have urged that this issue be addressed with multiple stakeholder participation. Cities in India spend approximately 20% of the city budget on solid waste services.

What is Our Role?- Varsha V.S

Falling Female Work Participation in Kerala...

Work participation among women in Kerala is 22.9 percent (NSS 99-00), which is one of the lowest in India. This low labour force participation is accompanied by high rates of unemployment. The most tragic failure of development in the State is the acute unemployment of both men and women. Reckoned in terms of all the three measures of unemployment – usual status, current weekly status, and current daily status - used by NSS, Kerala has the highest incidence of unemployment both for males and females and in rural as well as urban areas. The overall unemployment rate in Kerala is 11.4, with a wide gender gap of 21.5 percent for women and 7.4 percent for men.
According to NSSO data the percentage of women in paid jobs in the state is slightly less than 23 percent. This is much less than the work participation rate of women
in other Indian states with far lower levels of literacy. For example States like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharastra with around 50 percent of female literacy rate, report double the female work participation rate of Kerala. Figures from NSSO survey (1999-00) show that the proportion of jobless women in Kerala is ten times the national average.

While the male work participation rates improved in the last two decades, female work participation rates declined during the same period. Comparing it with the all India pattern, while male work participation rate in Kerala is higher than India (1999-00), the trend is reversed in the case of women. This is paradoxical given the fact that, women in Kerala are believed to enjoy a higher status in terms of educational and health achievements compared to their counter parts elsewhere in the country. But this is not reflected in their work participation rates.
One among the objectives of Social work is to promote a balanced development... bring the women to the fore front of the society... It is evident that the employment sector was more or less ignored...

Poverty in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has the lowest figures for food consumption, with highest malnutrition, the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy standing at 57.7 years. A population of 249.68 lakhs (38.3 per cent) is bound to go to bed hungry, as they are poor and marginalised. The poverty line (implicit) at the all-India level is worked out from the expenditure class–wise distribution of persons (based on URP consumption, that is, consumption data collected from 30-days recall period for all items) and the poverty ratio at the all-India level.

The Planning Commission and the Indian Government also believes the statistics provided by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and this organization mentions that 50 per cent of the farmers in Madhya Pradesh are in debt and the average debt per farmer is as much as Rs 20000. The painful truth is that the issue of health has not yet become a political index of human development. The government has also not included this in the indices of the BPL survey although in MP every person has to spend as much as 75 per cent of the expenditure on health from his own pocket while the government bears 25 per cent of the cost and that too on the overheads and staff salaries. In the context of indices, existence of a household lavatory has come up as a big challenge and as many as four per cent of the people have been impacted by this. To treat a disease, it is very necessary to accept that there is a disease and only then one can move on to the process of treatment. The same principle applies to problems like poverty.
We are so lucky to be safe in Kerala, one of the most developed states of India. But at the same time, we cant turn against our brothers and sisters wailing near to us...
- Varsha V. S

SMOKING AMONG WOMEN
The third edition of the Tobacco Atlas released in Dublin by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation says that more women in India are turning smokers and oral users of tobacco. India has the third highest number of female tobacco users in the world. Of the estimated 11.9 million female consumers of tobacco in India 5.4 million smoke it and rest chews the leaves. Tobacco in any form is life threatening and is considered health hazard.
According to the report world wide tobacco consumption could kill six million people in 2010 and one third of those people would die of cancer. About 25% of smokers die or become ill during their most productive years, adversely impacting families as well as economies. Earlier Tobacco killed more men than women but this is slowly changing as smoking rates are increasing among women in many countries including India and particularly among young women. The gap between tobacco death rates between men and women is closing. Female smokers in India are dying eight years earlier than their non-smoking peer group.
Smoking creates health problems among women especially reproductive health .It not only adversely affect the health of eggs produced ;it could compromise the health of the expectant mother and the foetus.It is true for passive smokers as well. Tobacco consumers are more vulnerable to disease especially cancer and particularly lung cancer.
Despite knowing all these facts, people stick on....
Can a mere campaign bring a change???
- Varsha V.S

Date:16/12/2009 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/12/16/stories/2009121658670300.htm

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Kerala - Kochi

Incentives for surrendering land for road development

Staff Reporter

Work on two roads will be completed in one month: Mayor

— Photo: H. Vibhu

VITAL LINK: Commissioning of the overbridge on the Thamannam-Pullepady road will considerably reduce traffic congestion on arterial roads in the city.

KOCHI: A Detailed Town Planning (DTP) scheme for acquiring land and implementing development activities on the Thamannam-Pullepady and Goshree-Mamangalam roads will be implemented.

The scheme will be for developing 200 metres from the central median on both flanks of the road. A survey for the project will begin on Wednesday and it will be completed within one month, said Mayor Mercy Williams here on Tuesday.

The Confederation of Indian Industries, Builders’ Association of India and Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India will carry out the survey and prepare the scheme, the Mayor told mediapersons.

The Thammanam road project will be implemented using financial support from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The civic body expects the cooperation of agencies such as the Greater Cochin Development Authority and Goshree Island Development Authority for the project, she said.

Once the DTP is cleared, the civic body will be able to provide incentives to persons who part with land for development. Incentives such as allowing increased Floor Area Ratio—the vertical development that can be carried out on a plot—and relaxations in the building rules are under consideration. This would prompt people to surrender land for the road project. The civic body would also clear the building plans and issue other statutory permits for these landowners in a time-bound manner, she said.

The corporation also proposes to provide development rights for those who surrender land and this would ensure that the landowners who contribute land for the project would get proportional economic benefits, said N. Anilkumar, chairman of the Development Standing Committee.

A rehabilitation package for the possible evictees would also form part of the scheme. The landowners will be given the transfer of development rights as part of the scheme. Under the scheme, they could use the benefits and relaxations in the building rules for any other property owned by them in lieu of the land surrendered for the road project, he said.

The civic authorities hope to complete the project during the term of the present council. There would be safeguards in the scheme against the possibility of land being frozen indefinitely for the project as happened in some road development schemes earlier, he said.

The government has, in principle, approved the scheme and various development agencies would be cooperating with the project, he said.

The DTP scheme for the Goshree-Mamangalam road would be taken up after the completion of the Thammanam-Pullepady scheme, said E.M. Sunilkumar, chairman of the Town Planning Standing committee.

N.A. Mani, T.K. Shamsudheen and K.V. Manoj, chairpersons of the standing committees, were also present at the press conference.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu

Date:16/12/2009 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/12/16/stories/2009121653490300.htm

Kerala - Alappuzha

Chemical tank at closed-down unit giving nightmares to local people

Dennis Marcus Mathew

Underground tank reportedly contains potassium dichlomate

— Photo: Dennis Marcus Mathew

WORRIES REMAIN: The ruins of the chemical factory at Mavelikara, which include an underground tank that is now causing health concerns among the local people.

ALAPPUZHA: The ghostly ruins of a chemical factory that closed down nearly 20 years back are now giving nightmares to over 300 families living in its vicinity.

The Kerala Chlorates and Chemicals Limited, once a subsidiary of the Shaw Wallace Group at Erezha in Mavelikara, was opened in 1977 to produce potassium chlorate, usually used for matchsticks. It was shut down in 1990 following regular labour strikes. However, it is not the closure story, or the fact that many of the employees never received any rightful benefits, that is now causing concern to local residents.

An underground tank, which reportedly contained hundreds of litres of potassium dichlomate solution and was left untended to when the factory closed down, is now the source of recurring nightmares for around 320 families living in the factory vicinity. The colour and taste of the water in bore-wells in the area have changed, leading to several wells here being rendered useless.

“The groundwater in the area has undoubtedly been polluted by the contents of the tank, which must have corroded over the years,” S. Abhilash, who lives near the factory, told The Hindu. His wife and municipal councillor Leela Abhilash points out that rapidly diminishing water quality is not the only concern.

People have stopped rearing chickens, since the fowl wandered onto the factory premises and pecked at the grime and waste there, slowly leading to their death.

Many children and grownups are complaining of a burning sensation in their eyes as well.

The 4.99 acre-premises of the factory was to be handed over to the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NoRKA) department for a heritage village during the previous Congress regime, but plans changed and the

present Left Democratic Front government has forwarded to the Centre a proposal to open a Raja Ravi Varma International Centre for Visual Arts here, according to M. Murali, MLA. But a decision is still

awaited.

Mr. Abhilash, stressing on the need for removing the tank from the region, cautions that further delays could mean more health hazards.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu