News India-Times

The study, carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment, found that Delhi is on the verge of losing the gains of switching its city buses to compressed natural gas (CNG) five years ago.

"Every day Delhi is registering 994 new cars and all these are private cars. In a city with nearly half a million vehicles, you can expect the pollution level and we found that the cars are the real culprit," CSE director Sunita Narain said.

"Currently nearly 30 percent of our vehicles are diesel-run and by 2010 half of them are going to be run on diesel. I must warn that this cheap oil is giving rise to sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide in the air.

"The city has exhausted all soft options like advocacy and awareness to reverse the trend, and it's time to take harsh steps like not allowing diesel vehicles on the road," Narain told reporters.

"Restricting car numbers and upgrading the public transport system are the only options for the city now," she said.

In 2002, when the CNG program was initiated in the capital, the annual average levels of the respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) in residential areas stood at 143 micrograms per cubic meter.

"It dropped to 115 mg per cubic meter by 2005.

The upward swing in RSPM has now been noticeable since 2006 and the annual average levels have jumped back to 136 mg per cubic meter.

"The monthly average level of RSPM in the winter of 2006-07 was as high as 350 mg per cubic meter. In normal circumstances it should not go beyond 250 mg in winter," the study said.

The levels can even be higher this winter, as is hinted by the early onset of smog. Due to the high concentration of nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide, many Delhiites will face breathing difficulties, asthma and other problems related to lungs, the study revealed.

Anumita Roy Choudhury, associate director of CSE, said: "High exposure to RSPM is known to lead to increased hospitalization for asthma, lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and heart damage.

Long-term exposure can cause lung cancer."

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Article taken from the issue:30 November, 2007

Labels: 1000 cars, air pollution, Centre for Science and Environment, delhi, natural gas, pollution, smog

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Rachel K. Paulose, 34, a Minnesota native, who was nominated by President Bush as U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, has resigned from her post. Her resignation comes after months of controversy over her handling the Minnesota office and staff and in the backdrop of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez' alleged politically selective hiring and firing of nine U.S. Attorney's nationwide.

Paulose has been reassigned as Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy, a branch that handles Justice Department and Veterans Administration nominees to the Federal Bench.

Born in Kerala and raised in Minnesota, Paulose got a J.D. from Yale Law School after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota. Her father Joseph Paulose of Eagan, Minnesota, is an administrator at Hopkins public schools.

She is the first woman and the first Asian American to ever head the Minnesota U.S.

Attorney's office. She was confirmed by the U.S.

Senate last year in one of its last acts December 9, 2006, before it went on recess and before the Democrats took the leadership reins. Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn) who was her main supporter back in 2006, in a statement issued recently, said he wanted incoming Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the workings of the Minnesota office. This followed on the heels of complaints from employees in the office and the seemingly controversial changes Paulose pushed through after her appointment and resignations by a slew of prosecuting attorneys there. In a formal statement issued Nov. 19, Rep. Coleman said: - "I support Rachel Paulose's decision today to step down from her duties as Minnesota's U.S. Attorney. I have made it clear that I have had concerns about the office of the U.S. Attorney under her watch, and I believe this decision will allow the office to move forward." (Text of full statement below).

But in December when the Senate unanimously voted her through, Coleman, who took the credit for that, saying, "It would have been a shame to see such a capable, experienced nominee fail to get a chance for confirmation, and I am very excited we were able to get her nomination through the Senate before adjournment."

Before taking up her post in Minnesota, Paulose was Senior Counsel to Acting Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, and she was also the Department's Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud. She is a former prosecutor who served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1999-2002, where she prosecuted both criminal and civil cases for the federal government, including violent crime, health care fraud, and white collar crime. She previously served in the Justice Department as an Attorney General's Honors Program trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division. She was in private practice from 2002-2006.

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Article taken from the issue:30 November, 2007

Labels: Kerala, Minnesota, Rachel K. Paulose

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Culturally ostracized, socially marginalized, traumatized by personal loss, economically deprived, the widow is discriminated twice-as a woman and as a widow. The bleak picture of the widows of Vrindavan is changing slowly. At the forefront of the movement to give vocational training and economic dignity to widows and other destitute women is ‘Guild of Service' which runs ‘Aamar Bari' for 103 widows.

According to the 2001 census, nine per cent of the total female population are widows in India. In 2004 there were 372,000 war widows. Every fourth house in India has a widow but there have been few state interventions.

One intervention, aimed at extending social security benefits to widows is the old age pension scheme. Almost all states and union territories have old age pension scheme for those above 65 years. Andhra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have special pension schemes for agriculture labor.

In Kerala, destitute widows of 40 and above are eligible for pension. Similar schemes exist in Orissa and Gujarat for a widow of 50 and 45 years respectively. Karnataka provides pension for widow of 18 years. A widow is considered destitute if she is without any regular income and has no relation of 20 years or above, particularly a son or grandson and has not remarried.

Widows without relatives, who do not own land or a house worth Rs.1000 ($ 25.48), who do not wear jewels worth Rs. 500 ($12.74) or more or who do not have regular employment are also considered destitute. The destitute widow has to apply on a prescribed form to the tehsildar, who after verification and sanction dispatches the amount by money order. However, accessing the pension is a Herculean task.

The application forms are not easily available at the panchayat offices or if they are, the concerned officer gives them as a favor. The forms are not user-friendly. The widow, most often illiterate, has to submit proof of age, duly authenticated by the prescribed authority.

The forms have to be submitted at the taluk office which is far off. The widows of Vrindavan have to spend Rs. 10 ($ 0.25) to go to Mathura to submit forms. Follow up requires a couple of more visits. Verification of the form is a long process. Most widows do not have birth certificate to prove their age. Often they pay a private doctor to get a certificate.

There is a great deal of arbitrariness on whether the widow is truly destitute or not. If she has a son or grandson, then the application could be rejected even if they don't want to keep her. Finally after all the effort, the pension obtained is grossly inadequate.

A study of the widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi by Meera Khanna, ‘Guild of Service', in 2003 shows that 66 per cent and 73 percent of those living in rehabilitation homes and boarding houses in Vrindavan have bank accounts.

The corresponding figure for Varanasi is 35 percent and 60 percent. This indicates some modicum of comfort. But 73 percent of those living on the streets have no bank account nor do they have anything to bank on when they fall ill or meet with an accident.

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Article taken from the issue:23 Novemeber, 2007

Labels: agriculture, female population, government employ, labour, old age pension, pension, pension schemes, population, vrindhavan, widows

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Yeats, wrote on the pain of childbirth and on whether, adding up the achievements and disappointments of age, all that price was worth paying, must find echoes in our hearts (with a few words changed) as we look at India and Pakistan at age 60.

"With 60 or more winters on their heads, Are they any compensation for the pang Of their birth, or the uncertainty Of their setting forth?"

After many off-again, on-again sputtering starts, India seems to be moving towards becoming a global economic power. One hopes that Pakistan's tottering constitutional walk too, will someday steady into a purposeful march towards democracy. In the meanwhile, let us have a look -- not at the carnage that preceded the Partition, but the colorful characters who strode the Indian stage during the enactment of the tragedy.

Two recent books take us back to the pang of the birth of the two nations, and the uncertainties of their setting forth -- ‘An American Witness to India's Partition,' by Phillips Talbot; and ‘'The Shadow of the Great Game,' by Narendra Singh Sarila.

Both Talbot and Sarila were at the bedside of Mother History during the blood-splattered delivery of the two nations. The accounts of the momentous events they witnessed have a freshness that professional histories often lack. The official history of Partition has been told before; in these columns we will refrain from a retelling.

But, apart from the big outline, these two books give us telling details, making historic figures step down from their pedestals and seem human.

In 1938, the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs awarded 23-year-old Talbot a fellowship with a mandate: visit South Asia and learn about the intricacies of life in India.

Labels: 60years, independence, india, indian and pakistani, pakistan

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Kalighat is believed to be the location where Sati's right toe fell.

Goddess Kali is one of Bengal's main deities. She is regarded as both a destroyer and a savior and is depicted in a fearful form. Despite her scary form, Kali is worshiped in almost every home in Bengal because she is believed to bestow harmony on worshipers.

The temple has attracted many interesting legends. One such is that a devotee once saw a ray of light coming from the Bhagirathi river-bed and discovered that it emanated from a piece of stone carved in the form of a human toe.

He also found a svayambhu lingam of Nakuleshwar Bhairav nearby, and began worshiping Goddess Kaali in the midst of a thick jungle.

The Kalighat temple in its present form is about 200 years old, but its actual date of foundation is unclear as it has been referred to both in Mansar Bhasan composed in the 15th century, and in Kavi Kankan Chandi of the 17th century.

The original temple was a small hut. King Manasingha, during early 16th century, constructed a small temple. The present temple, however, was built under the patronage of the Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family of Banisha.

This family is also said to have built the Chitreswari Kaali temple in Chitpur, West Bengal. It is believed that there was a pathway through the jungle between Chitpur and Kalighat, and this pathway, according to some records, became the Chitpur road of modern day Kolkata.

The Kalighat temple was completed in the year 1809. Another family, the Haldars of Kolkata, claim to be the original owners of the temple property. But the Chowdhurys of Banisha dispute this claim.

Labels: Goddess Kali, Hindu, Kalighat, religion, religious, temples

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Kerala-born Dr. Poovillam Subramaniam, a neurologist who was appointed earlier this year to the board of directors of the Medical Society of Virginia, was recognized for ‘ Excellence in Healthcare and Medicine' by the New England based IndUS Business Journal. He studied internal medicine in England before immigrat ing to the United States, to study neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

A graduate of Trivandrum Medical College, Subramaniam lives in Richmond and has had a private practice in Colonial Heights since 2000. He serves on the board of directors of the Virginia Medical Political Action Committee, the political arm of the Medical Society of Virginia. The organization plans to lobby the state legislature to change the law governing how the insurance companies reimburse physicians.

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Article taken from the issue: 23 November,2007

Labels: Dr. Poovillam Subramaniam, Trivandrum Medical College

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Labels: Europe's third biggest Hindu temple, Germany, Heinz Buschkowsky, Hindu

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Diwali is celebrated in Gujarat with great gusto and aplomb. As Gujarat develops into one of India's fastest growing business and trading hubs, Diwali has, in recent times, seen phenomenal commercial activity during the period. Lakshmi puja, again central to Diwali celebrations, usually takes place 18 days after the end of Navratri (Dusshera), and lasts for five days.

The first day of this five-day celebration begins with Dhanteras (Dhanatrayodashi), followed by Narakachaturdashi, which is also known as Kalichoudas. The third day is chopda pujan while Gujarat's New Year (Gudi Padava) normally occurs (depending on the Hindu calendar) on the fourth day and Bhathru Dwithiya on the last day. There is a belief that Goddess Lakshmi visits homes that are well lit.

Therefore, all Gujarati families decorate their houses with light, flowers, festoons, candles and diyas. They create rangolis and also draw small footprints with rice flour and vermilion powder inside their homes. Shopping is a huge affair with the whole family dividing up tasks.

Hence, the markets in Gujarat liven up a month before Diwali - from jewelry, clothes, sweets and gift items to firecrackers. However, the markets of Gujarat down their shutters on Dhanteras, two days before Diwali until Labh Pancham. For traders and businessmen, this is vacation time.

Labels: celebrations, diwali, festivals, indian temples, laxmi puja

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Labels: bail, jail, mumbai, police officials, sanjay dutt, tada court

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