Friday 9 November 2012

Naga IAS officer builds 100-km road in Manipur without govt help

Villagers of Manipur's Tousem sub-division in Tamenglong district are a busy lot these days. At least 150 of them on a daily basis are clearing away a thicket with their machetes and daos. Some are lugging away heavy branches of recently felled trees; and others are operating bulldozers and earthmovers to give themselves the "best Christmas gift ever".

Theirs is one of the remotest corners in the country, where the India shining story has not yet reached; but the villagers are part of modern India's most ambitious road project embarked upon by one man, a young Naga IAS officer, without any funding from the government.

A 2005 graduate from St Stephen's College in Delhi, Armstrong Pame is the sub-divisional magistrate of Tamenglong, his home district, and the first IAS officer from the Zeme tribe. He has, of his own volition, begun the construction of a 100-km road that would link Manipur with Nagaland and Assam. Incidentally, the Centre had sanctioned Rs 101 crore in 1982 for the construction of this road, but for some unknown reason the project never took off. "Last December, then Union home minister P Chidambaram visited Manipur and asked what happened to the road.

The state government declared that it would be 'done soon', but nothing moved on the ground. Then in June-July this year, there was an outbreak of tropical diseases like typhoid and malaria. It takes two days for anyone in the village to make it to the nearest hospital on foot in the absence of a motorable road. Hundreds of patients had to be carried on makeshift bamboo stretchers, but very few made it to the town alive.

Also, town doctors were unwilling to come to the village because of its inaccessible terrain.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Perplexed and frustrated with the situation, the officer decided to reach out to doctors in his friend circle. A woman friend agreed, and Pame promised to sponsor her stay. "She treated over 500 patients and conducted quite a few minor surgeries. Many lives were saved in this way; but I realized how perilously poised the situation was in the absence of a road. That was the catalyst," Pame said.

To construct an all-weather, motorable road in an area untouched by the progress made by Independent India in the last six decades was an uphill task. And with no help coming from the government, Pame turned to his family and well-wishers.

"Armstrong and I grew up in a village in Tousem amid a lot of hardships. Our father was a schoolteacher and had a limited income. We used to walk down to the district headquarters—about 60km away—and carry 25 kilos of rice back home. It used to take us four days to go and come back and the rations used to last for two weeks. When we came to Delhi for higher studies, we would survive on biscuits for days without enough money to buy food. The remoteness of our village ruined its economy; and we knew that unless there was a road, there would be no development. So, when Armstrong proposed to undertake the venture, we all threw our lot with him," said Jeremiah Pame, an assistant professor at the Delhi University and elder brother of Armstrong.

"My wife and I donated our one month's salary, Armstrong paid five months' of his, and our mother paid our dad's one month's pension of Rs 5,000. Our youngest brother, Lungtuabui, recently started working. He donated his entire first month's pay for the project," he added.

The family together pooled Rs 4 lakh to start the project. They hired a bulldozer and bought two earthmovers. "But it was not enough; we needed more. So, we turned to Facebook. We created a page, seeking donations, and the response has been overwhelming. In the last three days, we have received Rs 1.2 lakh from friends all over the globe, with contributions varying from Rs 50 to $1000. And they are willing to contribute more," the young bureaucrat said. "The villagers, too, have contributed as per their capabilities: some are providing food and accommodation for the workers; some are supplying fuel for the earthmovers. They have also provided manpower for the project. We did not have to engage a contractor with so many people volunteering to shoulder that responsibility.

Donation centres have been set up in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Shillong and Dimapur and NRIs from Canada, USA and the UK have been sending their contributions for the project christened as Tamenglong-Haflong Road. A monolith will be erected once the road is completed and names of all donors will be inscribed.

The road will form a tri-junction with Nagaland and Assam over the Jiri River before entering the Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills district) of Assam. Construction began in August this year, but stopped midway due to the rains. It resumed in September, and so far, work on 70km has been completed.

"Work moved at a swift pace because there were dirt tracks already; but laying the next 30km will be difficult as it is covered by dense forest. Nevertheless, we hope to complete the project before Christmas," said the young officer named after famous American astronaut Neil Armstrong.

Indian Revenue Service officer Gaigondin Panmei is the commissioner of customs for the northeast. He believes the road can do wonders to the economy of the district as a whole and Tousem sub-division in particular.

"Tousem is the most backward sub-division in Tamenglong district; but it is also the place where the best oranges are grown. We have an orange festival in Manipur every year, but most of the time the local produce fails to make it to the fest due to its inaccessibility. Medical care, too, is in a bad shape because of this. Once this road becomes operational, it would open up the market for Tousem, and that would, in turn, bring prosperity to the people. But yes, it would be very essential to maintain this road. The builders will have to figure that out, too, but the progress of the road has been impressive so far," Panmei said.
 
 
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Thursday 1 November 2012

Cyclones : How They Are Named differently in different parts of the world


 
Forecasters give names to tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, to avoid confusion when more than one storm is being followed at the same time.
While it might be cute to think that a forecaster will tag a storm with his ex-wife's name, or the name of a neighbour he dislikes, the system is much more formal, if not downright bureaucratic.
Tropical cyclones are the only storms that forecasters name.
Hurricanes are tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) and in the Pacific east of the International Date Line. Typhoons are tropical cyclones over the northern Pacific west of the date line. Tropical cyclones in the South Pacific and over the Indian Ocean are just called cyclones. (Related: What is a tropical cyclone?)
A storm is named when it reaches tropical storm strength with winds of 39 mph, and becomes a hurricane or typhoon when its wind speed reaches 74 mph.
Tornadoes come and go so quickly - usually in minutes - that forecasters don't have time to name them. Extratropical storms don't bring the concentrated violence of hurricanes, although a few can leave major damage, especilly blizzards. 

Back in the old days

Before they started naming storms, hurricane forecasters had to refer to storms by saying something like, "the storm 500 miles east-southeast of Miami." But six hours later the storm's position would change.
When more than one storm was going on at the same time, making it clear which storm was being described made the job even harder.
Before official names began, some forecasters informally named storms without making the names public. This made it easier for the forecasters to follow storms, but it didn't help make clear to the public which storm was which. 

How today's names are selected 

The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee selects the names for Atlantic Basin and central and eastern Pacific storms.
For the Atlantic Basin and the eastern Pacific, six lists of names are used, with each list used again - minus any retired names - six years after it was last used. The WMO's regional committee selects the names to replaces those that are retired. Each year the names start with the "A" storm on that year's list, no matter how many names were used the previous year.
Hawaiian names are used for central Pacific storms. Here, a revolving list of four sets of names is used and each storm that forms gets the next available name on the list, regardless of the year.
 Similar WMO regional committees are involved in selecting names for other parts of the world, but not all nations involved go along with these names.

While most naming systems use common first names, in various languages, nations around the western Pacific began using an entirely new system for naming typhoons in 2000. Each of the 14 nations that typhoons affect submitted a list of names for a total of 141 names. The names include animals, flowers, astrological signs and a few personal names.
 
 
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A baby box where parents can legally leave newborns anonymously


Kirishi, Russia: A box in which parents can leave their babies anonymously without any legal risk opened Wednesday in a town in northwestern Russia - part of an effort that activists hope will save many young lives.

The baby box in Kirishi, an industrial town 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of St. Petersburg, is the tenth such facility in Russia. Experts think that's just a fraction of what is needed.

"Even if only one child is saved that way it will be worth it," said Tatiana Sobolevskya, deputy chief of the maternity department of Kirishi's hospital, where the baby box is located. Nikolai Muravlev, a Russian Orthodox priest, came to bless the box and praise it as "island of safety."

Once a baby is put in the box, its door closes and a nurse gets alerted by a signal. There are no security cameras so parents can leave their babies anonymously. An information stand next to the box appeals to parents to think over their decision and offers contact numbers for assistance.

Kolybel Nadezhdy (Cradle of Hope), a non-government organisation that opened the baby box, said it should help attract nationwide attention to the issue. Its head, Yelena Kotova, said more than a dozen babies are abandoned in Russia every month according to official statistics, but she said the real figures are believed to be at least three times higher.

Russian police have registered 268 cases of murder of newborn babies by their mothers in 2010-2011, and Russian media have carried regular reports of babies found in garbage containers, forests or snowdrifts. One of the most recent cases was in St. Petersburg in August, when a man found a 3-day-old baby in a plastic bag in the bushes. The boy survived and was soon adopted.

Kotova said in her home city of Perm in the Ural Mountains, the bodies of two newborn babies were found on a balcony. A woman who lived there with her other children just felt unable to raise another child, she said.

In July, a five-day-old girl was left in a baby box in Perm with a note giving her name, Margarita, and her date of birth. Two more babies were left in baby boxes organized by Russia's Krasnodar region.

Russia borrowed the baby box idea from other European countries, where they have become quite numerous in recent years but have also fueled heated discussions. Critics say they infringe on the rights of mothers and children.

"A baby box isn't a universal cure, it's a way to attract attention to the problem and to help women," said Galina Murzakayeva, a coordinator for the Kirishi project.
 
 
 
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Rajasthan panchayat says no mobiles for girls

A community panchayat in Rajasthan has unanimously favoured prohibiting girls from using personal mobile phones in order to ensure that they do not get involved with boys.

Alarmed by the case of a girl who eloped with her boyfriend a few days back, elders of Bhandarez town in Dausa district decided to impose the ban in an all-caste meeting held on Wednesday.

"It is a matter of serious concern that the use of mobile phones is causing unwarranted problems particularly when it comes to youngsters. Girls using mobile phones are easily connected and approachable and this freedom may create unnecessary problems for her family", Durga Lal, Sarpanch of
Bhandarez, who was present in the meeting, said on Thursday.

"Considering this fact, it was the common opinion in the meeting that the girls should be prohibited from using personal mobile phones and also scarves, which helps in hiding identity", he said.

Sources said that a well-educated adult girl eloped with a class 10 drop out boy of some other caste on October 26 and is untraceable since then.

"It was a common opinion, passed unanimously, not a binding decision. If anybody wants to allow girls in his family for using and carrying personal mobile phones, he can do so but I hope that everybody would follow the common opinion because ultimately it is for good", he added.

He also added that the panchayat also requested the local police to expedite efforts in tracing the girl as soon as possible.

A local villager Santosh also said that the villagers were in agreement with the panchayat's directive.

SP Dausa S N Khinchi said that nobody has approached the police against the decisions or opinion of the meeting.

"So far, there is no complaint against any panchayat's decision. We will look into it if there is any complaint", he said.
 
 
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DAMS MANAGEMENT : Best Event & Entertainment Company in Bhopal


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New Year celebration 2012 organized by DAMS MANAGEMENT SERVICES

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Mahindra Finance annual function Jabalpur region organized by DAMS MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Mahindra finance annual function Jabalpur region organized by DAMS MANAGEMENT SERVICES
New Year Celebration 2012 setup


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