Friday, April 28, 2017
Salem in the grip of severe water scarcity
Citizens get poor quality water once in ten days
Even while several parts of the district are facing severe drinking
water scarcity for the last couple of months because of severe drought
conditions, the officials are going all out to implement various
programmes.
The residents of both urban and rural areas complain about the acute water scarcity. They say that in many parts of the district, citizens are forced to purchase drinking water.
Potable drinking water is supplied to the 60 Wards of the Salem Corporation through the Mettur-Salem dedicated water supply scheme, and the Nangavalli old water scheme. With water level going down alarmingly, the corporation has been struggling to ensure regular supply of potable water in the city limits.
Agitations have become the order of the day seeking regular drinking water supply.
Many city residents complain that they were getting drinking water only once a week, and that too of poor quality.
The situation is not better in the rural towns and other villages across the district. In a majority of the villages, citizens complain that they get water once in 10 days.
In many villages in Kaadayampatti block, citizens are forced to walk a few kilometres to fetch a pot of water. Even after reaching the spot, they will have to wait in long queues to collect the water.
In the villages in Kolathur block on the banks of River Cauvery, citizens have started migrating to other parts, due to scarcity
of water. The residents of Nangavalli area say that they are not getting water for days together.
Due to the scarcity prevailing in the villages, the women who have enrolled under the MGNREGS could not go to work.
The
four municipalities of Attur, Mettur, Edappadi, and Narasingapuram and
the panchayat unions too are facing unprecedented drinking water
scarcity.
These municipalities and the rural local bodies have been taking initiatives to prevent the illegal tapping of drinking water using motor pumps.
The district administration is going all out to put an end to illegal tapping of water from Mettur Dam too. Many farmers owning lands on the banks of River Cauvery near Mettur Dam have raised crops and they have been illegally drawing water with motor pumps.
The officials conducted surprise check and seized many pumps.
Some of the local bodies have revived the defunct bore wells with the hope of easing the prevailing water crisis.
The State Government has accorded top priority for special schemes for the provision of drinking water. A couple of senior officials K. Satyagopal, Commissioner of Revenue Administration, and Dheeraj Kumar, managing director, TWAD Board, recently visited the district and held discussions on steps to address the drinking water needs of the people.
The district administration nominated 58 special officers to solve the drinking water complaints of the people. Toll free numbers have been provided to enable people to prefer their complaints.
The Salem Corporation on its part has set up a special control room with toll free phone numbers. It has nominated special officers for all the 60 Wards and has made public their phone numbers, so that people can contact them for the drinking water problems.
The residents of both urban and rural areas complain about the acute water scarcity. They say that in many parts of the district, citizens are forced to purchase drinking water.
Potable drinking water is supplied to the 60 Wards of the Salem Corporation through the Mettur-Salem dedicated water supply scheme, and the Nangavalli old water scheme. With water level going down alarmingly, the corporation has been struggling to ensure regular supply of potable water in the city limits.
Agitations have become the order of the day seeking regular drinking water supply.
Many city residents complain that they were getting drinking water only once a week, and that too of poor quality.
The situation is not better in the rural towns and other villages across the district. In a majority of the villages, citizens complain that they get water once in 10 days.
In many villages in Kaadayampatti block, citizens are forced to walk a few kilometres to fetch a pot of water. Even after reaching the spot, they will have to wait in long queues to collect the water.
In the villages in Kolathur block on the banks of River Cauvery, citizens have started migrating to other parts, due to scarcity
of water. The residents of Nangavalli area say that they are not getting water for days together.
Due to the scarcity prevailing in the villages, the women who have enrolled under the MGNREGS could not go to work.
These municipalities and the rural local bodies have been taking initiatives to prevent the illegal tapping of drinking water using motor pumps.
The district administration is going all out to put an end to illegal tapping of water from Mettur Dam too. Many farmers owning lands on the banks of River Cauvery near Mettur Dam have raised crops and they have been illegally drawing water with motor pumps.
The officials conducted surprise check and seized many pumps.
Some of the local bodies have revived the defunct bore wells with the hope of easing the prevailing water crisis.
The State Government has accorded top priority for special schemes for the provision of drinking water. A couple of senior officials K. Satyagopal, Commissioner of Revenue Administration, and Dheeraj Kumar, managing director, TWAD Board, recently visited the district and held discussions on steps to address the drinking water needs of the people.
The district administration nominated 58 special officers to solve the drinking water complaints of the people. Toll free numbers have been provided to enable people to prefer their complaints.
The Salem Corporation on its part has set up a special control room with toll free phone numbers. It has nominated special officers for all the 60 Wards and has made public their phone numbers, so that people can contact them for the drinking water problems.
FB on WhatsApp privacy: It's our way or highway
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Dhananjay Mahapatra
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New Delhi
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Pending possible scrutiny of
WhatsApp's new privacy policy on the constitutional touchstone of right
to privacy , owner of the popular messaging platform, Facebook, told
the Supreme Court that those feeling aggrieved could quit WhatsApp.
WhatsApp counsel Kapil Sibal assured the court that messages and voice
calls over WhatsApp were end-to-end encrypted ensuring complete privacy.
However, he said since the contract between a user and WhatsApp was
completely in the private domain, the policy could not be tested
constitutionally by the apex court and that the petition filed by
students, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, was not
maintainable.
If Sibal mixed persuasion with legal technicality before a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, A K Sikri, Amitava Roy , A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, Facebook counsel K K Venugopal was more blunt. He said; “Those who find the new privacy policy irksome or violative of their fundamental rights, they can quit. We have given full freedom to users to withdraw from Facebook and WhatsApp.“
The bench was quick with a rejoinder that this would amount to forcing a citizen to make a negative choice. Ap pearing for petitioners, Harish Salve said under the new policy users were unwittingly made to give consent to, both WhatsApp and Facebook could snoop on messages privately circulated between users of WhatsApp.
“They claim that this is being done to improve the services to be given in future to the users. Whether the snooping is done electronically or manually, the right to privacy of users get breached. The government is duty bound to protect the fundamental rights of every citizen. If it is failing, then the SC can surely issue appropriate di rections,“ Salve said.
Appearing for Centre, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the government was committed to protect the freedoms and fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and informed the court that a regulatory regime for internet-based messaging and voice call platforms would soon be put in place.
The bench wanted to hear the issue at length, including the preliminary objection on maintainability of the petition, during the summer vacation.But, both Sibal and Venugopal protested vehemently . While Sibal cited his requirement for argument in petitions challenging triple talaq to indicate his non-availability, Venugopal said lawyers like him work hard throughout the year and use the summer vacation to “visit children and relatives residing abroad“. He also said it is the tradition of the SC to list cases during vacation only with the consent of the counsel.
“Why would you deprive the litigants the freedom of choice of counsel,“ Venugopal said. The bench said the lawyers are at “receiving end“ in terms of money from the clients. Sibal said, “in triple talaq matter and in Assam illegal migrant citizenship issue there was receiving end“ to indicate that he was arguing those two cases pro bono before Constitution bench during vacation.
But, the bench had the last laugh when it said, “those matters have a larger receiving end“, indicting that Sibal could reap much bigger political mileage by arguing those cases.The bench fixed May 15 for preliminary hearing.
If Sibal mixed persuasion with legal technicality before a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, A K Sikri, Amitava Roy , A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, Facebook counsel K K Venugopal was more blunt. He said; “Those who find the new privacy policy irksome or violative of their fundamental rights, they can quit. We have given full freedom to users to withdraw from Facebook and WhatsApp.“
The bench was quick with a rejoinder that this would amount to forcing a citizen to make a negative choice. Ap pearing for petitioners, Harish Salve said under the new policy users were unwittingly made to give consent to, both WhatsApp and Facebook could snoop on messages privately circulated between users of WhatsApp.
“They claim that this is being done to improve the services to be given in future to the users. Whether the snooping is done electronically or manually, the right to privacy of users get breached. The government is duty bound to protect the fundamental rights of every citizen. If it is failing, then the SC can surely issue appropriate di rections,“ Salve said.
Appearing for Centre, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the government was committed to protect the freedoms and fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and informed the court that a regulatory regime for internet-based messaging and voice call platforms would soon be put in place.
The bench wanted to hear the issue at length, including the preliminary objection on maintainability of the petition, during the summer vacation.But, both Sibal and Venugopal protested vehemently . While Sibal cited his requirement for argument in petitions challenging triple talaq to indicate his non-availability, Venugopal said lawyers like him work hard throughout the year and use the summer vacation to “visit children and relatives residing abroad“. He also said it is the tradition of the SC to list cases during vacation only with the consent of the counsel.
“Why would you deprive the litigants the freedom of choice of counsel,“ Venugopal said. The bench said the lawyers are at “receiving end“ in terms of money from the clients. Sibal said, “in triple talaq matter and in Assam illegal migrant citizenship issue there was receiving end“ to indicate that he was arguing those two cases pro bono before Constitution bench during vacation.
But, the bench had the last laugh when it said, “those matters have a larger receiving end“, indicting that Sibal could reap much bigger political mileage by arguing those cases.The bench fixed May 15 for preliminary hearing.
`Citizens will become slaves if Aadhaar is made mandatory'
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AmitAnand Choudhary
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New Delhi
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Countering the Centre's
contention that linking of PAN with Aadhaar is needed to curb tax
evasion, petitioners opposing the move told the Supreme Court on
Thursday that making it compulsory is illegal and would virtually
convert citizens into “slaves“ as they would be under the government's
surveillance all the time.
Appearing before a bench of Justices A K
Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, senior advocate Shyam Divan contended that
making Aadhaar mandatory would be violative of the citi
zens' fundamental rights granted under the Constitution as they would be
coerced to give sample of their fingerprints and iris.
Divan, appearing for Major General Sudhir Vombatkere (Retd) and dalit activist Bezwada Wilson, contended that Aadhaar is optional and not mandatory as per the Aadhaar Act and the government could not make it compulsory under the amended Income Tax Act. The petitioners have challenged the constitutional validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act which provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar for filing of income tax returns and while applying for allotment of PAN number from July 1this year.
“Aadhaar is voluntary . The Act creates a right in favour of the resident and duty is not cast upon them to get Aadhaar as it is optional but Income Tax Act makes it mandatory .The I-T Act is in direct confrontation with Aadhaar Act. This is complete collision and mismatch,“ Divan said while pleading the court to at least read down Section 139AA to make it optional. Divan contended that making Aadhaar mandatory would push the country towards a totalitarian state where citizens' rights would be made subservient and the government would keep an eye on their évery activity. He said the government is not supposed to keep watch on its citizens in a democratic country and the concept of Aadhaar is antitheses to democratic principles.
“In our Constitution, we form the government and we have given ourself the right to govern ourselves. The government has limited authority over us. Do not let Section 139AA fetter the citizens. People's consent for Aadhaar should be free and voluntary ,“ he said.
“My fingerprints and iris are part of my body and I have absolute right over my body . The state cannot coerce me to give sample of my fingerprints and iris for getting Aadhaar,“ Divan said.
Divan, appearing for Major General Sudhir Vombatkere (Retd) and dalit activist Bezwada Wilson, contended that Aadhaar is optional and not mandatory as per the Aadhaar Act and the government could not make it compulsory under the amended Income Tax Act. The petitioners have challenged the constitutional validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act which provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar for filing of income tax returns and while applying for allotment of PAN number from July 1this year.
“Aadhaar is voluntary . The Act creates a right in favour of the resident and duty is not cast upon them to get Aadhaar as it is optional but Income Tax Act makes it mandatory .The I-T Act is in direct confrontation with Aadhaar Act. This is complete collision and mismatch,“ Divan said while pleading the court to at least read down Section 139AA to make it optional. Divan contended that making Aadhaar mandatory would push the country towards a totalitarian state where citizens' rights would be made subservient and the government would keep an eye on their évery activity. He said the government is not supposed to keep watch on its citizens in a democratic country and the concept of Aadhaar is antitheses to democratic principles.
“In our Constitution, we form the government and we have given ourself the right to govern ourselves. The government has limited authority over us. Do not let Section 139AA fetter the citizens. People's consent for Aadhaar should be free and voluntary ,“ he said.
“My fingerprints and iris are part of my body and I have absolute right over my body . The state cannot coerce me to give sample of my fingerprints and iris for getting Aadhaar,“ Divan said.
The man who turned his back on stardom
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Avijit Ghosh
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As An Actor, He Kept Switching Between Formula And Offbeat
Vinod Khanna, who pas sed
away in Mumbai on Wednesday , was headed for superstardom before he
heeded another, more spiritual call. His pairing with Bachchan was a
distributor's dream come true. Even those who sold cinema tickets in
black in India's dingy bylanes felt the same. The duo ensured serpentine
queues before the counters for weeks, for films like Parvarish, Khoon
Pasina, Hera Pheri and Muqaddar Ka Sikander. Two other major winners in
his resume, sans Bach
chan, were Raj Khosla's Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki and Feroz Khan's
Qurbani. Incidentally , Khan also passed away on April 27, eight years
ago.
Khanna wasn't content doing formula commercials. He had a
penchant for the offbeat--Gulzar's Achanak, Madan Sinha's Imtihan,
Aruna-Vikas's Shaque and Aruna Raje's Rihaee, to name a few. Many
enjoyed watching him as the cop probing a kidnapping in Raj Sippy's
Inkaar, inspired by Akira Kurosawa's High and Low.
As a young actor, he played villainish roles in superhits such as Rajesh Khanna's Aan Milo Sajna. His best performance then came in Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) in which he played Jabbar, a vicious dacoit who terrorises Chambal.
The transition from bad guy to good guy was gradual.In Gulzar's Mere Apne (1971), Khanna was leader of a bunch of wayward, unemployed youth typifying the angst-ridden political and social landscape of India in early 1970s.
The same year he had the opportunity to play a solo hero in Hum Tum Aur Woh in which he also sang the superhit Sanskritised song, `Priya praneshwari'. By 1973, he had made the transition to action hero although the flops outnumbered hits such as Kach che Dhaage. It was in the multistarrer that he found his métier.
But Khanna shock ed tinsel world by forsaking it all to jo in Rajneesh's ash ram in Pune in the early 1980s. He beca me one of his closest disciples.
Just when Bolly wood had given up on Khanna, he retur ned in 1987 with Saty amev Jayate and In saaf, both moderate ly successful films.He was good as a mafia boss in Dayavan, inspired allegedly by reallife don Varadarajan Mudaliar, though ma ny insisted that Kamal Haasan was better in the Tamil original, Nayakan.
Towards the later part of his career, he took up character roles. One of the memorable ones was of Prajapati Pandey , Salman Khan's father in Dabangg (2010). The tension between the two was one of the film's more nuanced tracks that got drowned in the knuckle-crunching action.
Khanna seemed to find work-life balance after joining BJP . He was asked to contest Lok Sabha polls in 1998 from Gurdaspur, then a Congress citadel. He made it his own.Khanna also loved cricket and seldom missed watching a Test match in his younger da ys. For charity games, he was dressed in impeccable cricket overalls. “The public may think I am just another filmstar, but there was a time when I played fair cricket with (Test player) Budhi Kunderan. Later I played with Eknath Solkar at the Hindu Gym. I used to bat at no. 4 but settled for films the moment I realised I couldn't be a Vishwanath! Even so cricket, not films, is my first love,“ he wrote in The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1979.
Actor, seeker, politician and avid cricket lover--Khanna journeyed through life with the same abandon that he landed blows on bad guys. Until felled by the Big C, he lived life to the brim like few Bollywood stars have. He deserves a compelling biography .
As a young actor, he played villainish roles in superhits such as Rajesh Khanna's Aan Milo Sajna. His best performance then came in Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) in which he played Jabbar, a vicious dacoit who terrorises Chambal.
The transition from bad guy to good guy was gradual.In Gulzar's Mere Apne (1971), Khanna was leader of a bunch of wayward, unemployed youth typifying the angst-ridden political and social landscape of India in early 1970s.
The same year he had the opportunity to play a solo hero in Hum Tum Aur Woh in which he also sang the superhit Sanskritised song, `Priya praneshwari'. By 1973, he had made the transition to action hero although the flops outnumbered hits such as Kach che Dhaage. It was in the multistarrer that he found his métier.
But Khanna shock ed tinsel world by forsaking it all to jo in Rajneesh's ash ram in Pune in the early 1980s. He beca me one of his closest disciples.
Just when Bolly wood had given up on Khanna, he retur ned in 1987 with Saty amev Jayate and In saaf, both moderate ly successful films.He was good as a mafia boss in Dayavan, inspired allegedly by reallife don Varadarajan Mudaliar, though ma ny insisted that Kamal Haasan was better in the Tamil original, Nayakan.
Towards the later part of his career, he took up character roles. One of the memorable ones was of Prajapati Pandey , Salman Khan's father in Dabangg (2010). The tension between the two was one of the film's more nuanced tracks that got drowned in the knuckle-crunching action.
Khanna seemed to find work-life balance after joining BJP . He was asked to contest Lok Sabha polls in 1998 from Gurdaspur, then a Congress citadel. He made it his own.Khanna also loved cricket and seldom missed watching a Test match in his younger da ys. For charity games, he was dressed in impeccable cricket overalls. “The public may think I am just another filmstar, but there was a time when I played fair cricket with (Test player) Budhi Kunderan. Later I played with Eknath Solkar at the Hindu Gym. I used to bat at no. 4 but settled for films the moment I realised I couldn't be a Vishwanath! Even so cricket, not films, is my first love,“ he wrote in The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1979.
Actor, seeker, politician and avid cricket lover--Khanna journeyed through life with the same abandon that he landed blows on bad guys. Until felled by the Big C, he lived life to the brim like few Bollywood stars have. He deserves a compelling biography .
PG ADMISSION - Issue of med reservation needs comprehensive study, says HC
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Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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Uncertainty over
post-graduate medical admissions in Tamil Nadu is to persist for some
more time, as the Madras high court said the issue of reservation and
incentive for in service government doctors in PG medical admissions,
and the MCI's latest regulations, required a comprehensive reading.
Noting that disposing of the “matter involving complex issues at the
stage of admission would not be proper,“ a division bench of Justice
Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekaa Raman advised counsel on both
sides to approach the chief jus
tice to constitute a special bench for hearing the matter during summer
vacation, which begins on May 1, or to move vacation bench of the court
for early hearing and disposal of the cases.
The bench is hearing a batch of appeals against a single judge order dated April 17, holding that the state government must adhere to MCI's latest regulations with regard to award of marks for government doctors serving in remote areas.
However, the bench, which heard the submissions of senior advocates P Wilson and G Thilagavathi, besides advocate-general of Tamil Nadu R Muthukumaraswamy, said: “This court is of the considered view that a comprehensive reading and appraisal of the Central and State List, as well as the respective Regulations, is required with reference to the autonomy given to the state government in the matter of allocation of seats.
“This court is of the further view that a comprehensive hearing needs to be given with regard to the allocation 25% of the seats to general merit candidates and 25% to in-service candidates based on the areas as notified in the prospectus, keeping in mind the guidelines formulated by MCI.“
The bench is hearing a batch of appeals against a single judge order dated April 17, holding that the state government must adhere to MCI's latest regulations with regard to award of marks for government doctors serving in remote areas.
However, the bench, which heard the submissions of senior advocates P Wilson and G Thilagavathi, besides advocate-general of Tamil Nadu R Muthukumaraswamy, said: “This court is of the considered view that a comprehensive reading and appraisal of the Central and State List, as well as the respective Regulations, is required with reference to the autonomy given to the state government in the matter of allocation of seats.
“This court is of the further view that a comprehensive hearing needs to be given with regard to the allocation 25% of the seats to general merit candidates and 25% to in-service candidates based on the areas as notified in the prospectus, keeping in mind the guidelines formulated by MCI.“
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