Adverse effect of Mining in Goa

Posted on September 12, 2012 by SRRF

In this period, when politically mining is on top of the agenda, perhaps one could also look into the adverse impact of mining on environment. This is a case study of Goa.

Bellary in Karnataka is famous (or should it be infamous) for mining and till recently Supreme Court had banned the same in the district. Bellary with an area of 8447 sq Km has 132 mines, while Goa with only 3302 sq km area has 336 mines (with 90% being active). The effects are being felt by rural population.

One of the villages, Shirago in North Goa, has 3 mines. Villagers reminisce the past when the hills and plains were once lush with rice, cashew, mango, kokum plantations and medicinal herbs. It had seven lakes and 100 odd perennial streams. Now all, but one lake, have dried up. Mining pits as deep as 60 metre below the sea level has led to saline water ingress into the groundwater. Trucks laden with iron ore pass every two minutes on the main road exiting the village, leaving a perpetual trail of dust in the air. This story is being repeated in different parts of Goa.

Mining has caused havoc on drinking water. More than 27 mines operate in the catchment area of Mandovi, the State’s largest river. Huge mounds of iron ore line the bank as it is cost-effective for mine-owners to load them directly into barges for shipping to China. As per a report by the National Institute of Oceanography, due to runoffs from riverside mining, 70,000 tonnes of iron particulates get deposited in Mandovi every year. The story repeats itself across 10 other major rivers. As per a PWD report, Khandepar River, which supplies water to 30% population of Goa, has turbidity level 10 times the capacity of its water treatment plant.

CSE’s report on mining had documented painstakingly, how present day mining has degraded local environment while the people hardly benefited from any major economic benefits. It cited state after state which basically relied on mining as its major source of income were also the States which had low per capita income. Is Goa where mining has taken a major leap after 2003 moving in a similar direction?

-based on a report in Indian Express

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Melghat – Success in NREGA

Posted on September 5, 2012 by SRRF

Generally it is acknowledged that NREGA has partly succeeded in providing money to manual labour in rural areas (reflected in reported shortage of farm labour in Punjab from other states); however often it is felt that the money so provided is not being productive, since it does not produce productive assets.

Well in this regard, story of Melghat, a remote hilly area in Vidarbha’s Amravati district, is worth recounting. The area received much focus in recent times due to the severity of malnutrition. But the region has gained another image in recent time – a success story under NREGA. First the challenges, Melghat are a remote area having low penetration of banks. Since under NREGA payment can only be made into an account, the Administration took the services of Dept. of Post, through their 7 sub-post offices. The post offices pose additional challenges for high volume transactions; however the zeal and resolve of the district administration and Dept. of Post officials in the area helped surmount these problems.

One of the major innovations that the district administration undertook is the nature of works resorted. Instead of tree guards and side roads, the administration allowed stone weir / bunding structures on individual farms. This has helped in prevention of soil erosion, better rain water seepage. Over 500 wells have been created for individual beneficiaries, desalting of water bodies and similar projects, helping the agriculture community of the area. It also provided a pool of engineers for preparing work-estimates.

Many of the beneficiaries are all praise for the administration, since the scheme has resulted in better agriculture yield, sometimes in even two crops, and hence has reduced migration to virtually nil.

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Applicability of TDS

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

Dear all,

Greetings from CCDS,Bankura. We are a registered society working deep in the forest fringe villages for upliftment of standard of livings of poor villagers,mostly SC & STs. We have got registration u/s12A of I T Act 1961. We work for education,health.rural development so on. Recently we have got a proposal from a funding agency to take up construction of Girls hostel deep into forest village. Since we are a NPO ,under the said registration,we are not ready to accept TDS while getting progressive payment. Unless this point is made clear we are not going to sign MOU with them. However, they are ready to accept our request provided we submit them detailed Govt. order in this respect which we need at the moment.

Can we get help regarding this respect.
Thanking you,
S P Ghosh.
CCDS, BANKURA

Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 7 Comments

Query- Consumer Protection Act

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

Dear Sir,

Thanks for sharing valuable information’s .Really it is adding our knowledge in different dimensions on all issues.

May I request you share your views under  Consumer protection act.

I had purchased a book( for medical exam  preparation) @1000 app  from retail book seller two months earlier. As per natural practice or trust on shop keeper we could not asked for invoice.  Book seller has only stamped on book for identification of his shop. After coming at home we found that there  is offer of  free book let of previous  ten  years questions with book which was not provided by the book seller. After contacting on mobile he told to come after one week . But he could not manage the book till date now he is telling that we  cant provide ,you should have asked at the time of purchase of book. is there any solution under consumer protection act.

With regards

Subodh

Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 1 Comment

Bricks from Newspapers!!!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

No one might have ever thought of using news paper waste to make bricks!!!  But two Nagpur based researchers came up with this idea way back in 2009. They thought of making bricks using sludge and solid waste material around news paper mill.

This idea was conceived by a researcher from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, Sachin Mandavgane, who was guided and assisted by his co research fellows.  The result was a lightweight brick that is made with 90 per cent paper mill waste and 10 per cent of cement.

A variety of waste material has been used in the production of this light weight brick. For instance, waste materials like cigarette butts, fly ash, textile effluent treatment plant (ETP) sludge, polystyrene foam, plastic fiber, straw, polystyrene fabric, cotton waste, dried sludge collected from an industrial wastewater treatment plant, rice husk ash, granulated blast furnace slag and many more has been used.  The brick requires homogeneous mixing of recycle paper mill waste and cement.

The researchers are conducting further study on its effectiveness in earthquake prone areas. They also hope that the brick can be used as internal partition wall, for ceiling and making temporary hutments. As the brick making procedure being simple, it can be undertaken as rural entrepreneurship by unskilled labourers of developing countries too.  The light weight brick would be of great use, if the researchers are able to validate its effectiveness and its durability.

Posted in Positive Stories | 2 Comments

Welcome decline in pedestrian fatalities

Posted on September 1, 2012 by SRRF

SRRF which has been actively pursuing pedestrian safety agenda in Delhi is happy to note the reduction in fatal pedestrian accidents during the current year. This year, there appears to be a welcome decline.

 It is a known fact that almost every second person killed in a road accident is a pedestrian.

  • Till the 15th August, 2012, the city roads registered 143 less pedestrian deaths as compared to the same period in 2011.
  • Fatalities have mainly gone down in Ring Road, G T Karnal Road, Rohtak Road, Mathura Road & NH-24.

The Delhi Police claims that the decline in accidents was the result of various scientific measures undertaken with the help of civic agencies. The measures include- setting up of pedestrian signals, speed breakers, speed calming rumble strips, road signage, reduction in speed limit and extensive speed checks of vehicles with the help of interceptors.

The Delhi Traffic Police was successful in reducing road accidents in 2011. While the figure was lowest in 7 years, it still resulted in loss of 2066 lives. This, the Police is confident of bringing it down to below 1800 during the current year.

We all wish them good luck.

Posted in Pedestrian safety | 2 Comments

Corruption-can it be tamed?

Posted on August 31, 2012 by SRRF

Under pressure from various forces, the Central Government has taken a host of changes in vigilance operations within ministries. It has ordered each ministry to define and set up new mechanisms to curb corruption in its respective department.

Along with it, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has ordered that decisions on prosecuting officials for graft be fast tracked.  The department further asked all ministries to take tentative view on the issue of starting prosecution against its officers and conclude a final decision within 3 months once advice is being received from CVC.

Further, in order to make the decision making quick, the DoPT has asked the authorities to avoid endless representations from the officers under suspicion. Besides this, there was recommendation for a monitoring cell to be set up in each ministry and department to keep a tab on the pending graft cases on a daily basis.

Last year, it also decided that during prosecution, some measures would be proposed which are as follows:

  • Retirement won’t be a ground to drop proceedings. After retirement, 10 % cut in pension would be imposed in case of minor penalty.
  • For a major penalty, instead of compulsory retirement, there would be 20% cut in pension.

Hope these measures would be implemented in an effective manner to have some impact.

Posted in General | 11 Comments

Centre forces state to become more humane with hawkers

Posted on August 30, 2012 by SRRF

Several state governments still have stringent punishment for hawkers hawking in the restricted areas. For instance, In Mumbai, for example, a hawker at present can be imprisoned for hawking in a no-hawking zone. This will no longer be considered as a cognizable crime, as objections have been raised by the Central Government. Maharashtra Govt. has now decided to do-away with the 6 months imprisonment for illegal hawking and hawking in a no- hawking zone. Such offences will invite only a monetary fine.

On the basis of a court directive, the state government had formulated legislation to regulate hawking, which was approved by both houses of the legislature in 2010.  It was drafted on the basis of recommendations by an expert panel comprising state officials, hawkers’ union representatives and eminent citizens. After the legislature’s approval, the legislation was sent for Presidential assent.  A clear distinction between illegal and legal trade was drawn, besides introducing new concepts like stationery and mobile hawking. ‘Hawking in a no-hawking area’ cannot be considered as a ‘major offence’, as hawkers are not financially sound and well-educated.

 Adequate measure are also planned to make registration mandatory for the hawkers. The Centre is expected to discuss this and further plans to set up avenues of training and employment for the economically weak urban populations. The welfare measures initiated by the Government might prove to be a great boon for the hawkers, but at the same time, they would end up paying a heavy fine of Rs 5000/-, besides imprisonment, if they are found indulging in illegal trade.

 

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Poverty Head Count Ratio

Posted on August 29, 2012 by SRRF

It is estimated that India has one third of the world’s poor. Recently, Tendulkar Committee Report has been published. This gives state wise change in poverty figure over the period 2004-05 and 1993-94. Given below is the table indicating this change state wise. As one notices, four of the top states where poverty has been reduced are from the North-East. However there are a few states where it appears poverty has gone up. These states are- Tripura, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttaranchal.

Poverty Head Count Ratio

State

1993-94

2004-05

Decrease/ Increase(-) in Head count
Ratio

Manipur

65.10

38.00

27.10

Arunachal
Pradesh

54.50

31.10

23.40

Meghalaya

35.20

16.10

19.10

Assam

51.80

34.40

17.40


Pondicherry

30.90

14.10

16.80

Karnataka

49.50

33.40

16.10

Tamilnadu

44.60

28.90

15.70

Jharkhand

60.70

45.30

15.40

Andhra
Pradesh

44.60

29.90

14.70

Jammu

26.30

13.20

13.10

Haryana

35.90

24.10

11.80

Himachal

34.60

22.90

11.70

Kerala

31.30

19.70

11.60

Nagaland

20.40

9.00

11.40


Maharashtra

47.80

38.10

9.70

All India

45.30

37.20

8.10

Uttar
Pradesh

48.40

40.90

7.50

Bihar

60.50

54.40

6.10

Gujarat

37.80

31.80

6.00

West

39.40

34.30

5.10

Rajasthan

38.30

34.40

3.90

Delhi

15.70

13.10

2.60

Orissa

59.10

57.20

1.90

Punjab

22.40

20.90

1.50


Chhatisgarh

50.90

49.40

1.50

Sikkim

31.80

31.10

0.70


Uttaranchal

32.00

32.70

-0.70

Mizoram

11.80

15.30

-3.50

Madhya

44.60

48.60

-4.00

Goa

20.80

25.00

-4.20

Tripura

32.90

40.60

-7.70
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82 year old helps save water bodies.

Posted on August 25, 2012 by SRRF

Most of us don’t take initiative on the pretext that a single man cannot make any significant impact to its environment or surroundings. Well, Ram Kishan, an octogenarian and a retired school teacher is an exception, who chose to travel 35 km to the Delhi High Court for a cause- conservation of four water bodies in Ranikhera, Kanjhawala, in North-West Delhi. Ram Kishan, through a relevant PIL, to the Chief Justice, came forth, without any personal interest to nurture a cause relating to the public and environment at large. Not only Kishan came to witness the proceedings, but also produced before the court some valid testimonials and documents pertaining to the water bodies. As a result, the bench asked the Delhi Government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Development Authority to visit the area and ensure that the water bodies are preserved. All this became possible due to the relentless efforts of Ram Kishan, who tried to preserve the aesthetic beauty of the water bodies and further stating the significance of protecting the environment and maintaining the ecological balance. The directive passed by the Delhi High court was possible due to the efforts of Ram Kishan. He is an apt example that others must try to follow and emulate his efforts and conduct.

Posted in Positive Stories | 2 Comments