Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Of loss, and love for a 30,000-member 'green family'
The death of his wife and his young son left him completely shattered and he even contemplated suicide. But today, Bhaiyaram, 40, a farmer in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district, is a changed man with a `green family’ of 30,000 ‘members’.
For Bhaiyaram, his saplings plantation is an unending mission. In the last four years following the death of his six-year-old son, Bhaiyaram has planted over 30,000 saplings.
Due to his affection towards plants, Bhaiyaram is known as `Vrikshon ke Pita’ (Father of trees) in Chitrakoot - a backward district of Bundelkhand region.
“After losing my wife and son, life was a burden for me. I even thought of committing suicide as there was no meaning in my life without my family,” Bhaiyaram told IANS on telephone from Chitrakoot, some 300 km from here.
“As I wanted to forget my sufferings, I started various activities to keep myself busy. Sapling plantation was one of them - it made me look at life with a different angle,” he said.
“Honestly speaking, when I started sapling plantation, I did know that one day the exercise started merely to counter my negative thinking would give me a goal in my life,” Bhaiyaram said.
“When I saw the saplings planted by me growing… it developed within me a special bonding and at times I even felt my son… growing with them,” he added.
While Bhaiyaram’s wife Aasha Devi died of a renal ailment around 10 years ago, his son and only child Chhotu died following high fever accompanied by convulsions.
Bhaiyaram does not just plant saplings but waters them and also offers regular plant-pathogen treatments.
“They (saplings) are my family. As you have to look after various needs of your family, I also have to take care of various aspects of my green family to ensure the members don’t face any problem in their survival,” said Bhaiyaram, who after leaving his home, has now started living inside a hut in a forested area.
Initially, after the death of his son, Bhaiyaram started saplings plantation with his own limited resources. Later, taking into account his love for nature, locals also started assisting him.
And now, even the forest officials take his “selfless service” in enhancing the greenery.
“He has totally devoted himself for the green cause. His efforts to increase the green cover are really noteworthy,” Regional Forest Officer Narendra Singh told IANS.
“He doesn’t accept any labour charges for getting involved in plantation drives conducted by us. Bhaiyaram in a true sense is involved in a selfless service that is making our planet greener,” he said.
“By treating the saplings like his family members, Bhaiyaram is giving a unique message of environment protection. What Bhaiyaram is doing assumes greater significance at a time when issues like climate change, pollution and deforestation have become a global concern,” Narendra Singh added.
(Asit Srivastava can be contacted at asit.s@ians.in)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Bihar's new tool to fight corruption - YouTube
Bihar, for years a metaphor for backwardness, will now harness modern communiction tools to nail corruption. It will expose officials seeking bribes in welfare schemes by uploading clips of complaints against them on the video-sharing website YouTube
"The state government has decided to use YouTube as a new tool to expose corrupt and bribe-seekers," Bihar Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra told IANS as graft becomes a nationwide concern, particularly with the anti-corruption crusade by Anna Hazare in New Delhi.
To begin with, officials seeking bribes from the poorest of the poor for the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) will be targeted. The scheme aims to provide housing for the poor.
"Use of latest technology like YouTube is probably the first of its kind in the country to fight corruption in government welfare schemes, particularly the IAY in Bihar," said A. Santosh Matthew, rural development department principal secretary.
For the first time in Bihar, nearly one million people living below poverty line will be given the first instalment of money under IAY for construction of houses Saturday at statewide camps organised by the government in all 534 blocks.
The state government has directed all district officials to make arrangements to record video of complaints of all beneficiaries of IAY at the camps.
"We have asked officials to set up three counters in every camp, where beneficiaries will lodge written complaints against officials who may have demanded bribes and delayed work," Mishra told IANS.
"Everything will be recorded and soon uploaded on YouTube to expose corrupt officials and end the involvement of middlemen," he added.
The minister said any complaints from beneficiaries would be verified and then uploaded on the video-sharing website. "It will be a big embarrassment and bad publicity for the officials."
The move follows increasing complaints by villagers about officials asking for bribes to get things done with respect to the IAY in the state.
Even top government officials have admitted that the poorest of the poor have to pay bribes to officials to get the benefit of this housing scheme. Those who have no money to pay bribes don't get the benefit.
Hundreds of angry villagers blocked a road in Aurangabad district to protest corruption in the IAY scheme that forced a poor Mahadalit to suicide after setting afire his family early this week.
Rambachan Rajvansi, a Mahadalit in his early 30s, poured kerosene and set his wife and three children on fire before killing himself Monday in Mujhar village of Aurangabad, about 100 km from here.
According to police, the family was upset after money allotted to them under the IAY was fraudulently taken away by a middleman. The scheme aims to provide housing for the rural poor.
The central government has sanctioned over Rs.3,000 crore to the state for IAY houses this year. The state government has a target of 737,486 IAY houses for people below the poverty line.
- See more at: http://www.mid-day.com/articles/bihars-new-tool-to-fight-corruption---youtube/132844#sthash.kmep6HU1.dpufBihar to Get A Dedicated Internet Ministry – First Ever In The World
Bihar is on a growth path and has recently been on an early adopter curve – the state earlier announced using ‘Android’ Phones to monitor road construction from district headquarters and now the state plans to create a new cabinet position for an Internet Minister.
While the exact role of Internet Ministry is not yet known, it is expected that the position will be located in Nalanda district, the erstwhile center of higher learning.
In a press conference, a state official suggested that the plans for creating an exclusive ministry is in place and details would be made public after a final approval from the governor of Bihar. He did mention that the ministry’s work would mostly revolve around getting Bihar up on the broadband connectivity map of the world.
Sharing an aspirational target of getting 100% boradband connectivity in all villages of Bihar by end this year, he said that, the state cannot depend on central govt.’s plans which keep getting delayed. The Internet ministry will be also looking at strict regulation of ISPs servicing in the state and would have a centralized mechanism to check any service disruption. He suggested that regulations around possible penalties on breaching SLA would also be put in place with a fine upto 3X of subscription amount.
One other important thing mentioned was that the broadband definition would be chnaged for ISPs in Bihar from 256Kbps to 2Mbps.
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