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Sunday, March 30, 2008

NDTV.com: Orissa MLAs seek Speaker's resignation

NDTV.com: Orissa MLAs seek Speaker's resignation
Orissa MLAs seek Speaker's resignation
Chaos reigned in the Orissa Assembly on Saturday over allegations of sexual harassment against the Speaker Maheshwar Mohanty.

As soon as the House assembled, Opposition members started shouting slogans demanding his resignation.

Some MLAs tried to climb on to the Speaker's podium. The Speaker has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman employee of the Assembly.

Following the pandemonium, the Deputy Speaker adjourned the House till 5 pm (IST). The Assembly was to pass the state budget on Saturday.

BJD supporters in Puri, the Orissa Speaker's constituency said he's innocent.

They're angry with the Marshal who claims the Speaker harassed her sexually.

They said a BJD minister is conspiring against their MLA and the party is distancing itself from the protest.

Dr Damodar Rout, Secretary General said that the party has nothing to do with whatever some people may have done out of anger or emotional reasons.

Barely 60 kilometres away in Bhubaneswar, the Youth Congress wants action against the Speaker. They accuse the police of shielding the Speaker.

But the police say the delay in registering the FIR was for a different reason.

''There is no question of hushing it up. We just want to know if Gayatri Panda is actually interested in filing the case or not. We even want to go and talk to her wherever she is,'' said Binoy Behera, Commissioner of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police.

The Speaker has stopped coming to the Assembly. But the charges against him continue to rock the House.

Amarmani, wife guilty of killing Madhumita-India-The Times of India

Amarmani, wife guilty of killing Madhumita-India-The Times of India
Amarmani, wife guilty of killing Madhumita
25 Oct 2007, 0242 hrs IST,Jaskiran Chopra,TNN
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DEHRADUN: The iron fist of law slammed ex-UP minister and Samajwadi Party MLA Amarmani Tripathi and his vengeful wife Madhumani with life sentences on Wednesday, along with two others who had conspired to kill poet Madhumita Shukla four years ago.

Amarmani, an iconic example of politics in UP, where gangsters seek political office to get immunity from crimes, tried every dirty trick to escape the charge of murdering his seven-month-pregnant paramour who refused to abort the love child. The politician tried to implicate an innocent in the murder, and repeatedly sought to subvert justice, before a determined campaign by Madhumita's family led to the case being handed over to CBI and the trial being moved from UP to Uttarakhand.

After a year's hearing without let or hindrance, judge V B Rai on Wednesday awarded life terms to Amarmani, Madhumani, their nephew Rohit Chaturvedi and a contract killer, Santosh Rai, and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them. Another accused, Prakash Pandey, who had accompanied Rai, was acquitted for lack of evidence. CBI plans to appeal against the acquittal in a higher court.

The special court started hearing the case from March 2007 after the Supreme Court had transferred the case from Lucknow to Dehradun. Madhumita's sister, Nidhi Shukla, who had taken the case as a crusade the way Sabrina Lall did for her murdered sister Jessica Lall, moved a petition before the Supreme Court as she feared Amarmani would use his political clout in UP to influence the case.

Initially, it appeared CBI would find it hard to pin the murder on Amarmani, the man who started life as a don's bodyguard and rose to become a history-sheeter-turned politician. But a resolute testimony by a servant who identified the killer and the fetus's DNA matching Amarmani's DNA left little doubt about the motive and method of the killer.

Tormented and threatened by Amarmani and his gangster aides for refusing to drop the case, Madhumita's mother and sister said they would have preferred the gallows for Amarmani and the killer. "Every breath that Amarmani takes in fresh air means a hundred deaths for me," said Nidhi Shukla, Madhumita's sister. "Had the court given him capital punishment, we would have been happy."

Madhumita was found dead at her Lucknow flat on May 9, 2003. She was killed at the behest of Madhumani, who was opposed to Madhumita's affair with her husband.

CBI produced 79 witnesses in court during the past six months of the trial. CBI lawyer Baljit Singh gave credit to investigating officer T Raja Balaji.

The Telegraph - Death for Tandoor killer

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Frontpage

Death sentence for tandoor killer Sushil
- The accused intended that Naina Sahni should go unwept, says court

New Delhi, Nov. 7: Sushil Sharma’s face turned red and his head stooped when a city court today sentenced him to death.

Treating the Naina Sahni murder case as “rarest of rare”, additional sessions judge G.P. Thareja said: “Accused Sushil shall be hanged by the neck till he is dead.”

Sharma’s accomplice in crime Keshav Kumar was handed seven years’ imprisonment.

“Profaning the dead body by burning in tandoor of a helpless and hapless woman, whom the convict exploited for his own political career, is an insult to womanhood. Sentence of death is the only appropriate sentence,” Thareja observed. The court said the death sentence would not be executed till Delhi High Court confirmed it.

On July 2, 1995, Sharma had shot live-in partner Sahni dead at their Mandir Marg home and burnt her body in the tandoor of Bagiya restaurant at Delhi’s Ashok Yatri Nivas hotel.

“A dead body in this country is respected by all. Everyone reveres the dead body on its last journey. By burning the dead body, the accused intended that Naina Sahni should go unwept, unsung and unheard,” Thareja observed in his 20-page order that was passed after two days of arguments on the sentence.

The packed Tis Hazari courtroom plunged into a deafening silence as Thareja turned the last page of the order at 3.30 this afternoon. “I respect the capital punishment,” Sharma said to repeated attempts at seeking his reaction as he was being escorted out of court.

Delhi police constables cordoned him off immediately after the sentence was pronounced. Their colleagues, armed with AK-47s, kept guard outside the courtroom and at the entry to the premises.

Kumar, however, will be released from Tihar jail as he has already spent over eight years behind bars -- a year more than his sentence. He said he would seek compensation for the extra time spent in prison.

“While awarding sentence to the accused Keshav, court is not only to see the individual personality of the accused but has also to keep the public interest of justice in mind and also that no other manager of any hotel or restaurant holding the status as that of the accused ever think of burning the dead body or committing the murder in the tandoor,” the judge said.

Kumar, the manager of Bagiya restaurant at the time of the murder, was convicted of destroying evidence by helping Sharma burn Sahni’s body.

Sharma, too, was given seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for destroying evidence and fined Rs 10,000.

The former Youth Congress president was also fined Rs 2,000 for the offence of murder. If he failed to pay up, he would have to undergo another year of rigorous imprisonment.

The court was unhappy with Sharma’s conduct during trial. “His conduct has also not been such as to justify any leniency in the matter,” Thareja said.

Earlier in the day, the court gave a last opportunity to amicus curiae P.K. Dham and Kumar’s counsel, V.K. Ohri, to submit whatever they had to before the verdict was announced.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Hindu : ‘Fake drugs still flooding market’

The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : ‘Fake drugs still flooding market’

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Express India :: 'V S Naipaul kept a mistress for almost 24 years’

Express India :: 'V S Naipaul kept a mistress for almost 24 years’

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Telegraph - Asma Jahangir

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Secularism punch

Welcome to Pragativadi - NREGA Success of ORISSA?

Welcome to Pragativadi
NREGA Success of ORISSA?

Pakistan: Six-point Murree Declaration

Pakistan: Six-point Murree Declaration

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Surrogate-mother business booming in India - Health - TODAYshow.com

Surrogate-mother business booming in India - Health - TODAYshow.com

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Pioneer - Shivani murder judgement

The Pioneer > Home
Shivani murder judgement: RK Sharma guilty

Monday, March 17, 2008

The Telegraph - Orissa guide gaffe, revisit plea to tourists

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Orissa guide gaffe, revisit plea to tourists

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Cops let down Swiss siblings - Newindpress.com

Cops let down Swiss siblings - Newindpress.com
ORISSA

Mar 16, 2008


Cops let down Swiss siblings
Saturday March 15 2008 11:11 IST

ENS

BHUBANESWAR: For the Swiss nationals Monika Kessler and her brother Niklaus Kessler, their experience with Bhubaneswar has been far from nice. After being publicly insulted by some miscreants a week back, they felt let down by the Sahid Nagar Police which did not even accept their statements.

Martek_LED_Catalog.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Martek_LED_Catalog.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

India's civil service | Battling the babu raj | Economist.com

India's civil service | Battling the babu raj | Economist.com

Farmers' debt write-off Rs 11,00,00,00,00,000: The Great Indian Bank Robbery

Farmers' debt write-off
Rs 11,00,00,00,00,000: The Great Indian Bank Robbery

LeBow : Newsroom: Recent College News :Drexel's LeBow in top 10

LeBow : Newsroom: Recent College News :
Entrepreneur Magazine Ranks Drexel's LeBow College Among Top 10

Sunday, March 09, 2008

:The Daily Star: Internet Edition - Mango Round the Year

:The Daily Star: Internet Edition - Mango Round the year

Friday, March 07, 2008

Gov of India has an online Grievance forum at : http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at
http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/
The government wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems
they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like
Passport Office, Electricity board, BSNL/MTNL, Railways etc etc.

I know many people will say that these things don't work in India , but
this actually works as one of the person working in CSC found. The guy
I'm talking about lives in Faridabad (Haryana) . Couple of months back,
the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the
residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dugged up
the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the
residents including this guy. But it was only this guy! Who used the
above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. And to his
surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of faridabad was served a show
cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week.
Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear
that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and educate others who don't know about
this facility.
This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking
about the ' System' in India . Invite your friends to contribute for
many such happenings.

(IF YOU SHARE THIS MESSAGE to OTHERS OUR INDIA WILL CHANGE SOON..!)

Thursday, March 06, 2008

SMS improves Orissa\'s livestock service delivery

SMS improves Orissa\'s livestock service delivery

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:52:00
The system has reduced appreciably the gap between the field functionaries and decision makers leading to good governance. The performance of the service providers are reviewed and measures taken for appreciation and improvement.
By
Bishnupada Sethi
No photo
Livestock kept or produced in smallholder farming systems are an important component of the agricultural economy in the developing world. The role of livestock on smallholder farms varies widely, providing draught power for crop production or as a production activity for subsistence needs.

The Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Department is the major player involved in overall livestock development, where its personnel work round the clock at diverse localities to facilitate livestock services to the public.

In the realm of such vast activities involving human resource and complex nature of work, it becomes very difficult to monitor & manage.

The functionaries at different levels, viz, district, sub-division, block, village have to work in proper coordination; and information flow among different levels of functionaries must be as fast as possible. The answer to it is access to information in time.

To address this demand of in time information, a very innovative and cost effective solution has been introduced through “SMS based Reporting System” to track Livestock health care and breeding services in Orissa.

The current importance of animal diseases, and their emergence or re-emergence, show that surveillance is crucial for defining suitable control measures.

Surveillance systems rely on networks of different people, whose activities include collecting, transmitting, analyzing and disseminating disease information.

However, an attempt has been made in this regard to gather information on occurrence of various livestock diseases. All the villages and prevalent livestock diseases are codified.

The most important variables related to disease monitoring and breeding services is identified and the software is developed to collect the data from the field every week.

In the changing market environment of livestock products, the delivery of animal health and breeding services are emerging as important priority areas for enhancing the competitiveness of poor livestock producers.

Logistics Management in relation to timely supply of inputs like Liquid Nitrogen, Frozen Semen Straws and other A.I. equipments plays a vital role to ensure breeding service delivery at the community level.

In the present scenario for effective service delivery, the low cost connectivity via SMS has strengthened the MIS of the Veterinary Department. This has resulted in timely decision making process so as to guarantee effective livestock service delivery for the poor.

The to and fro messaging system has facilitated to study the prevalence and incidence of various contagious diseases having economic importance in livestock and poultry, which enables faster process and programme implementation.

Implementation Process:

The field AHD staffs at the grass root level, who mostly implement the activities of the department, carry along Cell Phones.

And this device is available to all, hence realizing the potential of its availability and the user acceptance, the development of an application has been done, which uses Cell Phones as its interface to collect data and to provide data.

The most fastest, reliable and cost effective text based means of communication is SMS (Short Messaging Service).

In this system, data related to A.I. done and disease outbreak in each block is being sent by concerned Hqr. VAS at weekly interval on a particular date i.e. Sunday afternoon through SMS.

The Statistics Section of the Directorate compiles all the data and the consolidated MIS report is generated by Monday of every week for critical analysis and suitable remedial measures by the concerned branch.

Effect of SMS based Monitoring System:

The system has reduced appreciably the gap between the field functionaries and decision makers leading to good governance. The performance of the service providers are reviewed and measures taken for appreciation and improvement.

The transparency in the system encourages the field staff to communicate openly and a sense of accountability at different level has been established. The feedback from the field staff through their active participation has empowered them.

In emerging situations like occurrence of Bird Flu in neighbouring State of West Bengal, this system helped immensely in quicker transmission and execution of necessary precautionary measures through instructions from the Head Office to the field. The weekly data are collated centrally to generate the MIS contributing to the central databank.

The basic inputs like vaccine, Frozen Semen Straw, Liquid Nitrogen availability could be ascertained so as to take suitable measures to supply the same immediately, which has assured in regularity in availability of service delivery.

Conclusion:

Monitoring of different ongoing AH Programme is essential to identify the constraints in the implementation. Timely knowledge of constraints through SMS based Reporting System has helped the decision making more responsive and equitable.

Though there was some initial resistance at some level, presently various functionaries at different level are able to gain the benefits of receiving information to take timely action.

The system has been internalized both at the field and Directorate level, which enabled good governance and transparency in the organization. The pilot programme is doing well in satisfying the end users to a great extent.


Director
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Department government of Orissa


Monday, March 03, 2008

Orissa annual plan 2008-09 finalized at Rs.7500 crores

Orissa annual plan 2008-09 finalized at Rs.7500 crores

NREGP proves cheap for govt

NREGP proves cheap for govt

Sunday, March 02, 2008

India Together: College saves lakhs of rupees on water - 14 February 2008

India Together: College saves lakhs of rupees on water - 14 February 2008

India Together: NREGA battling cancerous corruption in Orissa - 18 October 2007

India Together: NREGA battling cancerous corruption in Orissa - 18 October 2007