Thursday, May 31, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Water sources in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri highly co...
writingonblog uncensored: Water sources in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri highly co...: Express News Service Chennai: The water sources in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri are highly contaminated with fluoride with the water...
Water sources in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri highly contaminated
Express News Service
Chennai:
The water sources in
Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri are highly contaminated with fluoride with
the water having 9mg of fluoride per litre which is way above the
permissible limits of 1-1.5 mg per litre, according to A Devaraj,
project officer, Unicef.
Speaking
at the two-day Partner Organisations’ Meet organized by Water.org here
on Wednesday, he said Tamil Nadu may be proud to be counted among the
few states to have achieved 97 per cent access to water but at the same
time it should work to improve the quality of the water.
According to a recent Tamil
Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board’s water quality analysis report,
there is high concentration of fluoride in ground water in many parts of
the districts ranging from 1.5 mg/l to 12.4 mg/l which is in excess to
the permissible limit of 1.5 mg/l.
“Skeletal Fluorosis, dental
Fluorosis, non-skeletal manifestation or combination of the above are
the resultant diseases suffered by the people due to the consumption of
fluoride contaminated water over a prolonged period,” the report stated
Devaraj
also highlighted the rise in bacterial contamination of water and said
that it is mostly due to unhygienic behavior of people.
“Although
the water quality in the state is not safe, the bureaucrats are
refusing to accept it. Even the water which is supplied in Krishnagiri
is from Bangalore drains which is cleaned and distributed to the
people,” he said.
He
pointed out the need to work out a sustainable solution for effective
community participation and stressed the need to sensitise the
representative of local administration in the villages and districts on
the issues related to water.
“Nowadays those who are elected to panchayats perform more like contractors and seldom think of long term goals,” he said.
Meanwhile, water.org
has conducted a baseline study in their target villages spread over
five states which include Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra and Orissa. Heather Arney, senior manager international
programmes, water.org, said the study, conducted in 11176 households, found out that 56 per cent of people don’t get enough quantity of water.
The
study also found that 68 per cent of people defecate in open places
with 24 per cent of people saying toilet is not a priority. It also
found out that 49 per cent respondents dip hands into the container to
draw water while 24 per cent never wash hands
Heather
said Water.org is also working on a $4.1 million project to provide
greater access to safe water and sanitation for those currently living
without these basic necessities in India.
“The
three-year project implemented in June 2008 will directly impact a
minimum of 120,000 lives. Women and Children comprise and estimated 68
percent of this total. Approximately 60,000 will be served through
traditional grants while additional 60,000 people will be served through
water credit,” Heather added.
The
two-day second Partner Organisations Meet (Experience Sharing and
Review Meeting) of Water.org- PepsiCo Foundation conducted at Chennai
with PepsiCo Foundation support consists of 10 partner organizations.
The representatives will participate and share their activities and
success stories in the field of water and sanitation.
Water.org works with five
leading microfinance in situations in India to promote WaterCredit and
thus create access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
facilities through loans. “Towards reaching minimum 90,000 beneficiaries
under the Pepsico Foundation funded program, five leading micro-finance
institutes in India viz. Guardian, BISWA, ESAF & Hand In Hand and
GrameenKoota are partnering with us. Nearly, 7000 water and sanitation
loans were provided to reach 37,400 beneficiaries during last 18
months,” Heather added.
Findings of the survey conducted in 11176 households of five states
--- 56% don’t get enough quantity of water
--- 72% women are engaged in water collection
--- 68% defecate in open places
-- 7.8% only boil water daily
--- 49% respondents dip hands into the container to draw water
---- 24% never wash hands
Sunday, May 27, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: TN planning standard operating procedures to face ...
writingonblog uncensored: TN planning standard operating procedures to face ...: (published) C Shivakumar Chennai The Union government has alerted Tamil Nadu government to be prepared in the event of a ‘dirty bo...
TN planning standard operating procedures to face nuke attack
(published)
C Shivakumar
Chennai
The
Union government has alerted Tamil Nadu government to be prepared in
the event of a ‘dirty bomb’ attack, according to sources.
The state government is planning a standard operating procedures to face any eventualities during the nuclear,
biological or chemical attack, the source said. The Tamil Nadu
government is seeking the help of Department of Atomic Energy in
radiological emergencies, he added.
The
security personnel posted at airports, railway stations, bus terminals,
economic nerve centres, entertainment and religious venues, schools,
shopping and sports complexes and business centers are the first
responders and they have been sensitized in handling these situations,
the source said.
Since
the 9/11 attacks the fear of terrorist groups using dirty bombs has
increased significantly worldwide, which has been frequently reported in
the media. Even during the 26/11 attacks, the DAE scientists were sent
to the Gateway of India to find out whether the terrorists have
triggered a dirty bomb, sources said.
A “dirty bomb,” also
known as a radiological weapon or a readiological dispersal device
(RDD), is a conventional explosive packaged with radioactive materials.
It involves wrapping radioactive material such as spent nuclear fuel rods around ordinary high explosives, and detonating the device. The package could be used in a car bomb or many other forms of delivery. The damage is not caused so much by the explosion, but by the intense radiation that would be released into the atmosphere, sources said.
This could cause deaths, and cancers and other health problems over many years, sources said.
In order for a terrorist organization to construct and detonate a dirty bomb, they must acquire radioactive material by stealing it or buying it through legal or illegal channels. Even IAEA has warned about the threat of nuclear terrorism and had called for increased international efforts to reduce the risks of nuclear smuggling
writingonblog uncensored: Rudderless in a sea of strife
writingonblog uncensored: Rudderless in a sea of strife: (published in 2008) Two years have passed and families of Bahrain blaze victims have yet to receive an apology from the Royal Tower Cons...
Rudderless in a sea of strife
(published in 2008)
Two years have passed and families of Bahrain blaze victims have yet to receive an apology from the Royal Tower Construction, finds out C Shivakumar
"When will my father return?" asks three-year-old
Sneha. Selvi, her mother, fights back tears and answers, "Your father has
gone abroad and will be back soon."
But before she could complete her sentence, Sneha looks at
32-year-old Kumar's photo and says, "Has he died in the fire
accident?" And then runs out to join her friends playing in the sand
outside a temple.
Life and death matter little for Sneha as she still lives in
the hope of seeing her father, who along with 15 others perished in the Bahrain
blaze on July 30, 2006.
"I tried hard to hide from them (children) but then it
is very difficult," says Selvi as two-year-old Kumaresan clutches his
mother's finger ignorant of the hard reality that he would live fatherless
throughout his life.
Nearly two years have passed since the Bahrain fire tragedy
happened and life is not easy for 21-year-old Selvi. Booted out by her in-laws,
the young widow is struggling to eke out a living and is surviving on the
goodwill of neighbours and relatives at her mother's place.
"My in-laws wanted a share in the cash dole, which I
refused. I have to take care of my children," says Selvi as she hugs
Kumaresan. "They threw me out. With the money which I received from the
Tamil Nadu government, I cleared the debt of Rs 1.25 lakh which my husband
incurred while trying to get a visa. Now it is hand-to-mouth existence for us.
I am working as a farm labourer for Rs 20 a day."
And like Selvi, most of the Bahrain fire victims' families
in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore and Villupuram districts are in debt and struggling
to make both ends meet as most of them have lost their sole breadwinners.
The blaze victims were from Koothakudi, Varanjaram, Ogaiyur,
Sirumangalam, Perumangalam and Kottaiyur villages in Villupuram district and
Maankulam, Sethuvaranayankuppam, Melakurichi, Neeramani and Ko. Kothanur
villages in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. The families survive on
agriculture and earnings from their relatives working abroad as construction
workers or doing some menial jobs.
"Our lives are dependent on monsoons. If it rains we
are able to find jobs here, or else we work as migrant labourers in Bangalore
and Kerala," says Maduraimuthu, who lost his son Balusamy in the fire
tragedy.
"In farming, we hardly earn anything. And we are living
on loans. So we thought if Balusamy could earn something it would be good. We
took a loan of Rs. 1.5 lakh to send him abroad. He was there for nearly two
years but then fate intervened and we lost him," says Maduraimuthu as he
wipes his tears.
"If it was not for the aid from the Karunanidhi government
we would have lost everything," he says.
The families have yet to receive any compensation or any
apology from the Bahrain-based company Royal Tower Construction under which the
victims were employed. A case has been filed against the firm by the Indian
Embassy in Bahrain .
"The Indian Embassy is doing its very best but the
wheels seem to be turning so slowly," says Migrant Workers Protection
Society Marietta Dias.
"It looks like the company's lawyers are using all
sorts of tactics to delay payment. They came up with a figure, then brought it
down to half and it seems to be going on like this all these months. They are
refusing to put in writing what exactly they are offering.
"Till today no figure has been submitted neither has an
apology tendered by the management of this company," she says.
"Bahrain does not have any laid down figures to pay out
for such cases but I can tell you that the Indian ambassador and his officers
are taking a keen interest in this case, among very many others and are not
willing to accept peanuts from this construction company, which already has a
bad reputation as paymasters and for overall welfare of their workers,"
says Ms. Dias, who has been honoured by the US State Department as a
Trafficking in Persons Hero early this month.
The accident also raised the issue of safety in workplace as
most of the workers were living in overcrowded and unhealthy conditions, with
several of them packed in rooms where they slept and also did the cooking.
"The fire started at 2.30am and it took us by surprise.
Between eight and 15 of us from Villupuram district share a room in the
21-bedroom building.
"We usually get up at 5am and don't get back from work
until 7pm so most of the workers were tired and asleep when the fire started in
the building. We started running helter and skelter. Some of us jumped from the
windows," recalls a survivor who escaped with minor burn injuries.
The Bahrain government after the intervention of Indian
Embassy ordered an investigation into the fire incident.
Three persons were also arrested in this connection. The
Bahrain government has also ordered a committee to look into the safety of the
Indian workers in construction sector.
Meanwhile, most of the families have given up hope on
receiving compensation from the Bahraini firm. Some of them tried through legal
means.
Devendran of Sethuvarayankuppam village, father of victim,
says a Chennai-based lawyer had approached the families promising to fight
their case. He took their addresses and other documents but has not shown up
since then.
Another victim's family say they paid Rs. 1,000 to a man
claiming to fight for their compensation. "He collected Rs. 1,000 from
each of the families and that is the last we heard from him."
Most of the victims have relatives working in the Gulf
countries. From Koothakudi and Varanjaram villages, as many as 60 to 70 men are
working as construction labourers in Bahrain . And they serve as an inspiration
for most of the families who live on hand-to-mouth existence.
Subramanyam of Varanjaram village went abroad to earn enough
to marry his two daughters and pay for his son's higher education. He borrowed
heavily to pay for his visa and a ticket to Bahrain.
But after his death, his wife Periammal was left struggling
to earn a living. With the money she got as aid from the government, she paid
off her debt and married one of her daughters. She and her other daughter
Sarasu are working as coolies to support her son, who is studying in a
polytechnic.
"If we get some financial help, life would be easy for
us," she says after a hard day of work in the fields.
Poongavanam, mother of Senthil who died in the accident,
says she decided to send her son abroad after seeing that many neighbours and
relatives working abroad had brought relative prosperity to their families.
"We were living in a mud house and thought if he works
abroad we would be well off."
But now she regrets her decision. "What use is the
money? Can I get back my son?" she asks.
writingonblog uncensored: New lease of life for 1,032 dropouts
writingonblog uncensored: New lease of life for 1,032 dropouts: Chennai: It was a red-letter day for more than 1,000 school dropouts living below the poverty line as they got new lease of life after...
New lease of life for 1,032 dropouts
Chennai:
It
was a red-letter day for more than 1,000 school dropouts living below the
poverty line as they got new lease of life after being nurtured in three
skill-training centers in Chennai on Saturday.
The
youth in the age group of 18-25 who were presented with certificates by Chennai
Mayor Saidai Duraiswamy, have been trained under a the Mast-iLEAD project, a
joint partnership between America India Foundation and Aide et Action (AEAI).
Speaking
on the occasion, Duraiswamy hailed the project and said it is key in bringing
in social change among marginalised communities beyond caste and community. He
also highlighted the importance of Vision 2023 document, which also focuses on
bringing in a social revolution in Tamil Nadu.
The
regional manager of the project K Sivakami said 1,032 dropouts who belonged to
slums in Vysarpadi, Saidapet, Tiruvotiyur, Perambur, Mangadu and Minjur were
provided three month training in several trades ranging from information
technology enabled services, automobile technology, hospitality, customer
relations retailing, electrical, diesel mechanisms and tailoring.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Elusive target
writingonblog uncensored: Elusive target: Intro: So you thought . 303 rifle was a living relic? Wrong. If terrorists outperformed the Indian police on 26/11, it was due to inade...
Elusive target
Intro: So you thought .303 rifle was a living relic? Wrong. If
terrorists outperformed the Indian police on 26/11, it was due to
inadequate training and poor marksmanship, says C Shivakumar
Boom! A bullet whizzes past the target as Special Task Force police
constable S Karuppu fires from his .303 Lee Enfield rifle at a
distance of 100 metres. Lying on his stomach, the wiry cop, with a
hand on the trigger, and legs sprawled over the ground, aims again and
fires. The bullet narrowly misses the bull's eye, but strikes the
target.
"I usually score an average of 70 to 80 marks in shooting. And of the
10 rounds I fire, two to three find the bull's eye," says the
policeman with brimming confidence.
Karuppan enjoys shooting. Unlike the average policeman, he is well
versed in several weapons including AK47, .303, 7.62 SLR, machine gun
and pistols. And more importantly, he has the privilege to fire more
than 120 rounds a year with visits to firing range once a month. He is
the lucky few to enjoy this privilege in India where an ordinary
policeman gets only 10 rounds to fire and in some states hardly any.
Points out a top policeman from the Bureau of Police Research and
Development (BPRD): "On an average, the Indian police personnel have
poor shooting skills. In order to develop good marksmanship, one needs
to practise every week. That is not possible in India."
And it sounds true, particularly in the wake of the Mumbai attacks,
where the cops failed to contain the 10 gunmen who paralysed India's
financial capital for more than 60 hours.
Marksmanship
The policemen fired at the terrorists, but failed to find their
target. The bullets whizzed past the attackers and the blame was
entirely put on lack of quality weapons and the outdated Second World
War weapon .303 Lee Enfield rifle without questioning the marksmanship
of the police.
"The rifle is good if the hand is good. This (.303) could have been
very good against the terrorists who had some kind of protective gear
and were at a long distance. Obviously, it fires single shots, so the
terrorists with their automatic guns had an advantage. But from a
distance, the police had an advantage and they failed to capitalise on
it due to their lack of sharp-shooting skills," says Prof Arvind Varma
of Indiana University and a BPRD consultant.
If the policeman does not have the marksmanship to kill (or even hit)
a suspect at 20 to 30 metres with aimed fire from assault rifle, there
is little chance he can control the automatic fire from an assault
rifle or a sub-machine gun effectively. Varma, who is also the author
of The Indian Police: A Critical Evaluation, blames the lack of
adequate training for cops' poor marksmanship. In the United States or
Europe, the gunmen would not have been allowed the freedom of movement
they were in Mumbai, where they were able to walk past police officers
firing at them without being hit.
Training
"The greatest gap in capability between Indian and European or Indian
and American forces is not the gap between elite counter-terrorism
forces, but the gap at the individual street cop level. This is
significant because street cops are a critical line of defence against
terrorists," says a Stratfor report.
Former BPRD chief K Koshy, who retired last month, feels the police
lacks training as compared to those in the US and Europe. "We have
nearly 50 per cent of training time allotted to drill, which is
negligible in those countries. Also, we teach more theory than any in
the world. All sorts of high-sounding substance are included in the
syllabus, more for being politically correct than due to any
scientific reasons," he says.
The director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in
Andhra Pradesh K Vijay Kumar says, "What the US learnt 50 years back,
we are learning now. There is a need to upgrade the entire training
schools. Competent policemen should be posted in colleges and their
tenure should be for a longer time."
A reliable weapon
But several top policemen refuse to blame.303 Lee Enfield rifle for
police shortcomings and some say it still is useful in the Indian
context. Koshy claims the rifle is one of the "best ever made. Very
accurate, very effective and do not miss or jam."
C Sylendra Babu, Inspector General of Police, Tamil Nadu STF, says the
rifle is more apt for India conditions. "In India policing is about
crowd disturbances, controlling the rioting masses. During such kind
of incidents it would be better if we use the .303 rifles, which fires
from a distance and is much handy in controlling riots and crowds."
He wonders why the police did not effectively use the rifle to fight
the terrorists from a distance during the 26/11 attack or engage them.
And this brings to the fore the debate for the adoption of 'active
shooter' training programme where the shooter should be engaged and
neutralised as quickly as possible without giving assailant more
chance to kill more people. A Stratfor report says such kind of
training could make a difference in a Mumbai-type of attack, where
there may not be sufficient time or resources for a specialised
tactical team to respond.
And Koshy agrees. "There is a need to develop a small group of
sharpshooters and SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams in each
town and a set of shooters with better aptitude and skills in each
police station," he says. But Verma feels the Indian beat police must
remain and operate without arms.
Funds crunch
Meanwhile, the government is preparing a strategy for policing the
seven mega-cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad,
Hyderabad and Bangalore. An amount of Rs 15 crore has already been
sanctioned to identify what it takes to make these cities safe.
But despite the government-initiated modernisation scheme, the
expenditure per policeman remains fairly low.
"The real threat to our nation is not from outside but from inside,"
says Vijay Kumar. "The defence gets a major chunk of the budget while
the police force is left with a measly sum which is barely enough
after paying the cops' salaries."
Another senior cop feels there is no political support for
modernisation scheme, except lip service. "The director generals lack
the financial powers to spend the money. Sometimes funds never reach
the police," says another policeman.
The total annual expenditure on police training for all states and
union territories was Rs 273 crore for 2006-07. And all India average
spend on training was a measly Rs 1,975 per policeman.
For 2007-08, the government has allocated a sizable amount for
modernising the police force. The problem most of the cops believe lay
with the Home Ministry's procurement system.
Bureaucratic hurdles
But a senior policeman feels the problem is very complex and reasons
are deep rooted. "Cut throat competition, lack of proper appreciation
of requirements, corruption, vested interests, archaic procedures also
matter," he says.
India is also one of the least policed places in the world with 126
officers per 100,000 when compared with 225-550 police officers per
100,000 people in the Western countries.
"If we consider the fact that 85 per cent of police head constable and
constables, who in strict sense of the term can't be considered
comparable to the West, the situation becomes abysmal," says a senior
policeman.
"To transform the police force into effective instruments for
maintenance of internal security, the government should realise that
police is not an unavoidable, but wasteful expenditure which should be
kept minimum. In fact police is an investment in infrastructure," says
Koshy.
"Like we need power, road, water and education for development, we
also need peace and an atmosphere of freedom from fear of crime to
encourage development and to attract foreign investment. Police has
thus no right to be in the non-plan budget," says the senior police
officer.
-shivakumarshreya@gmail.com
Friday, May 25, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Centre to intervene in NLC stalemate
writingonblog uncensored: Centre to intervene in NLC stalemate: Chennai: Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said that Centre will intervene in the Neyveli Lignite...
Centre to intervene in NLC stalemate
Chennai:
Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mallikarjun
Kharge on Friday said that Centre will intervene in the Neyveli Lignite
Corporation issue only after getting a report from the Union labour
commissioner and state government and the demands put forth by the representatives of labour union
will be tackled as per the law.
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating the new
Silver Jubilee Building of National Instructional Media Institute here, Kharge
said he is awaiting the report from the two entities before taking decision.
Earlier, the minister said that the nation’s training
capacity, which was nine lakh per year, has been increased to 26 lakh. He said Union
government through director general employment and training has executed many
plans to develop a skilled workforce in the country.
“We have now 9,480 ITIs both in government and
private sector imparting training for around 13.38 lakh trainees in 124 trades,”
he said.
writingonblog uncensored: TN tribals better off economically than other stat...
writingonblog uncensored: TN tribals better off economically than other stat...: Chennai: Tribals in Tamil Nadu rank poorly when it comes to sanitary facilities and separate kitchen but are better off economically t...
TN tribals better off economically than other states: NNMB survey
Chennai:
Tribals
in Tamil Nadu rank poorly when it comes to sanitary facilities and separate
kitchen but are better off economically than their counterparts in other eight states
surveyed by National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB).
Sharing
the findings of the second repeat survey done by NNMB during 2006-08 while
presenting a overview of existing status of tribal nutrition profile in India
based on the studies, a paper by B Sesikeran, director of National Institute of
Nutrition states that only 2.5 per cent of tribals of Tamil Nadu have access to
sanitary latrine and 20.8 per cent have separate kitchen, but when it comes to
average per capita income a tribal, he earns Rs 928 per month when compared to
Rs 247 earned by Orissa tribal.
The
paper presented by Mahtab S Bamji of Dangoria Charitable Trust and former NIN
scientist, in the absence of Sesikeran during the two-day brainstorming
workshop on “Addressing household level food and nutrition security for tribal
areas’ organized by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, also states the high
prevalence of under five mortality among scheduled castes (65.4) in urban areas
and among scheduled tribes (99.8) in rural areas.
While
doling out the figures of undernutrition figures, the paper quoting the NNMB
survey states Tamil Nadu has 43.6 per cent of tribal children who are
underweight, 46.1 who are stunting and 15.4 wasting. The findings indicated
that overall intake of various food was lower than recommended levels.
“Barring
the intake of staple foods such as cereals and millets, the consumption of
qualitative and income elastic foods such as pulses, milk and milk products,
fats and oils and sugar and jaggery was low. This was reflected in gross
inadequacy in the intake of different micronutrients such as iron, Vitamin A,
riboflavin and niacin,” the paper stated.
It
also stated that while the extent of severe under-nutrition decreased over the
years, the prevalence of overall under-nutrition continues. Bamji said one of
the main reasons for the prevalence of under-nutrition is the economic growth
has not reached to poor and there has been an unequal growth.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Commuters angry as greedy petrol station owners do...
writingonblog uncensored: Commuters angry as greedy petrol station owners do...: C Shivakumar, Sruthisagar Yamunan and Shyam Balas ubramaniam CHENNAI: Furious commuters, angered by the abru...
Commuters angry as greedy petrol station owners down shutters to cash in on rs 7.50 hike
C Shivakumar, Sruthisagar Yamunan and Shyam Balasubramaniam
CHENNAI: Furious commuters, angered by the abrupt closure of several petrol stations following the announcement of a steep price hike by oil companies, resorted to verbal spats and sloganeering and blocked roads on Wednesday, throwing traffic out of gear.
Several stations of major oil companies downed their shutters by afternoon causing panic among motorists, bent on a buying spree, who kept on driving in search of petrol. While bunk owners blamed irregular supply by oil firms for the shortage of fuel in the city, oil majors squarely denied such accusations.Interestingly, a Bharat Petroleum bunk worker in Ponnamalee High Road said diesel (the price of which has not been revised) was available in plenty.
The anger in some of the stations was such that motorists broke open the barricades and flung the “Out of Stock” boards put up in the stations. Some of them resorted to verbal abuse of bunk owners, demanding they open the bunks and supply petrol immediately.“Does this government think people are fools? These bunks have clearly planned this shut down. They want to take advantage of the fuel price hike and make profits,” alleged Manickam, an auto driver. At a petrol bunk opposite Vepery police station, enraged commuters stationed their bikes in the middle of the road and blocked traffic for a few minutes.“
An increase of one or two rupees might have been understandable. But seven rupees is a 10 per cent hike. It is just too much,” said a motorcyclist loudly in Thiruvanmiyur, even as others around him agreed. Most people had unpleasant things to say about the UPA government, terming it “anti-people” and “pro-capitalists”.
Though some petrol stations in areas such as Ambattur and Red Hills supplied fuel, long queues that poured out on to the roads caused traffic snarls. Constant radio announcements about the hike compounded the chaos.A high-ranking member of TN Petroleum Dealers’ Association said the hoarding was due to a steep hike of `7.50 for the first time in history. “The dealers want to cash in on it and this is the cause of the shutdown,” he said.
Geeta Mathew, President of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Association, Chennai forum, said HP outlets have been facing shortage of fuel since April 21.However, an IOC spokesperson denied accusation of short supply to bunks and said he has sent officials to look into the complaints. “There were law and order problems and the bunk owners complained to police following which they were asked to close down,” he added. Officials of BP and Hindustan Petroleum could not be reached despite repeated attempts.
(With inputs from Angel Mary and V Gangadharan)
writingonblog uncensored: Krishna water to quench Chennai’s thirst
writingonblog uncensored: Krishna water to quench Chennai’s thirst: C Shivakumar Chennai: After nearly three months delay, the much-awaited Krishna water from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh...
Krishna water to quench Chennai’s thirst
C
Shivakumar
Chennai:
After
nearly three months delay, the much-awaited Krishna water from the Kandaleru
reservoir in Andhra Pradesh will reach the inter-state border in Uthukottai on
Saturday.
Water
Resources Department sources told Express on Wednesday that 200 cusecs of water
was released from Kandaleru on May 20th and on Tuesday another 400
cusecs were released.
“Currently,
the water has crossed 75 km and its is expected to reach inter-state border in
Uthukottai only on May 26. This is due to the hot summer being experienced in
the area,” said WRD sources.
This
is the first instalment of Krishna Water this calendar year and the state is
expected to get 4tmcft of Krishna water. Tamil Nadu is entitled to get 12 tmcft
from Andhra Pradesh every water year under the water sharing agreement reached
between the two states.
To
a query whether, this will quench the thirst of Chennai, WRD sources said the
state already has 5tmcft of water which can last this summer. “The additional
water would boost the water quantity,” he added.
WRD
sources also said that aquaduct structure collapsed in Uppalamadu near
Kalahasthi in Andhra Pradesh resulting in the delay in arrival of Krishna
water. “After the temporary restoration work, the water has been released,” he
said.
Metro
Water sources told Express that as of Wednesday’s the reservoirs in Poondi,
Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam have nearly 5tmcft of water.
With
the reservoirs getting Krishna water, Chennai won’t feel the heat till the
summer, he said.
Reservoir
storage as on May 23, 2012
Reservoirs Storage capacity (mcft) Current level
Poondi
Cholavaram 881 83
RedHills
3300 1468
Chembarambakkam 3645 1294
Total 11057 4,995writingonblog uncensored: India planning NREGA like schemes to advance agend...
writingonblog uncensored: India planning NREGA like schemes to advance agend...: Chennai: India is planning shelves of schemes that are consistent with objectives of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarant...
writingonblog uncensored: Rare marine species smuggled from Chennai port: ZS...
writingonblog uncensored: Rare marine species smuggled from Chennai port: ZS...: C Shivakumar Chennai: Smuggling of rare marine species like sea cucumber, sea horse and piped fish is on the rise and smugglers are ...
writingonblog uncensored: Destruction of coral reefs make Chennai vulnerable...
writingonblog uncensored: Destruction of coral reefs make Chennai vulnerable...: C Shivakumar Chennai: Chennai is vulnerable to tsunamis and cyclones following the destruction of coral reefs, which is the nature’s d...
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
India planning NREGA like schemes to advance agenda of biodiversity: Farooqi
Chennai:
India is planning shelves of schemes that are consistent
with objectives of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and
advances the agenda of biodiversity and livelihood, according to Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF) additional Secretary M F Farooqui.
Addressing
a press conference along with executive secretary of Secretariat to the
Convention on Biological Diversity Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias after the
inaugural session of Celebrations of The International Day For Biological
Diversity here on Tuesday, he said NREGA is only piece of law which guarantees
green jobs and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has written to a
number of ministries looking for a framework similar to that which can help
push the biodiversity agenda through their schemes.
Farooqi
said India had already signed Nagoya protocol on access to genetic resources
and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization
(ABS) to the convention on biological diversity and the ratification will be
done before 11th meeting of Conference of Parties to the Convention
on Biological Diversity.
He
said the 11th meeting of Conference of Parties (COP) to the
Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad on October, the first in the
decade of biodiversity, will not only focus on coastal and marine biodiversity
but would also highlight on mobilization of resources.
Interestingly,
Dias raised the funding concerns following the financial crisis. “We failed to
reach agreement on real commitment on funding due to financial crisis,” he
said. Farooqi said India and the United Kingdom have jointly set up a high
level panel which would undertake a study to find out what is the global requirement
for meeting the strategic plan targets worldwide. “The first report would be
released during the COP.”
Destruction of coral reefs make Chennai vulnerable to tsunamis, cyclones
C
Shivakumar
He said reefs around the world are subjected to
thermal stress, which is regular bleaching from warmer temperatures. Coral
reefs can't recover from this type of chronic exposure. He also highlighted green
house gases damaging reefs because the increased CO2 settles in the oceans and
alters the chemistry of the water, making it more acidic.
Chennai:
Chennai
is vulnerable to tsunamis and cyclones following the destruction of coral
reefs, which is the nature’s defence against tsunamis, according to director of
Zoological Survey of India K Venkatraman.
Speaking
on the sidelines of a function to mark the celebrations of The International
Day for Biological Diversity, he told Express that Chennai is vulnerable to
cyclone as it has coral reefs which acts as a protective barrier has been
destroyed.
“Coral
reefs, also known as rainforests of the seas, are the frontline protectors
followed by mangroves and Chennai does not have any and that is the reason it
was affected by the tsunami and had high casualty when the cyclone hit the
coast,” said Venkatraman.
S
Balaji, chief conservator of forests and Trust Director of Gulf of Mannar
Biosphere Reserve Trust, said that the tsunami never had an impact on Gulf of
Mannar as it was shielded by coral reef and mangroves but the worst affected
was Cuddalore whose coral reef has been destroyed and Chennai.
Coral
reefs are found in shallow waters with an ideal temperature range of between 20
degree and 30 degree Celsius. The reefs are structures that have formed over
hundred, thousands or even millions of years by tiny organisms called polyps,
which produce skeletons of calcium carbonate.
The
reef building corals contain symbiotic, microscopic, photosythesising algae
called zooxanthallae. While the polyps provide the algae with carbondioxide,
the algae uses the sunlight to convert it into oxygen.
Interestingly,
the coral reefs as slowly dying and Braulio Ferriera de Souza, executive
secretary of Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity warned that
if no steps are taken to protect them they would be the first eco-system to
disappear from the world.
Rare marine species smuggled from Chennai port: ZSI
C
Shivakumar
Chennai:
Smuggling
of rare marine species like sea cucumber, sea horse and piped fish is on the
rise and smugglers are using Chennai port to smuggle it to South East Asia,
according to a top official of Zoological Survey of India.
Zoological
Survey of India director K Venkatraman said sea cucumbers, which are also known
as bioturbators similar to earthworms in soil, are being smuggled along with
sea horse and piped fish through the ports of Chennai and Vizag to Singapore.
Interestingly,
Zoological Survey of India is conducting a sample trawling study for Gulf of
Mannar Biosphere Mannar Reserve Trust, which is funded by United Nations
Development Programme.
S
Balaji, chief conservator of forests and Trust director told Express that the
study was conducted after growing calls from the fishing community to lift ban
on sea cucumber which was brought under Schedule I of Wildlife Protection
Act.
Zoological
Survey of India has already submitted their initial findings and a second
report is expected to be submitted by next month, he said.
Venkatraman
said department of revenue intelligence and wildlife crime trust in
Ramanathpuram are working on containing the smuggling of sea cucumbers.
He
said the sea cucumbers are clandestinely collected by fishermen who later mix
the consignment with chillies and then smuggle it out.
He also highlighted that 12 banned varities of sharks, including the hammer headed shark fins are also smuggled abroad.
He also highlighted that 12 banned varities of sharks, including the hammer headed shark fins are also smuggled abroad.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: TN planning separate development agency to fund in...
writingonblog uncensored: TN planning separate development agency to fund in...: C Shivakumar Chennai: As the state government has estimated Rs 15 lakh crore investment for infrastructure in the next 11 years under V...
TN planning separate development agency to fund infra projects
C Shivakumar
Chennai:
As the state government
has estimated Rs 15 lakh crore investment for infrastructure in the next 11
years under Vision 2023, plans are afoot to form a separate development agency
to finance the projects.
Industry department sources told Express that the plans for
Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Program (TNIPP) to further improve the
investment climate through strengthening the policy framework and enhancing the
quality of urban infrastructure is at an initial stage.
Industry sources said neither state nor municipal budgets
can fully meet the necessary investments for infrastructure development, as
such a large portion of infrastructure needs to be financed by the private sector.
Currently, the private sector funding for infrastructure is only
15 per cent and by 2023 it is expected to cross 42 per
cent. Similarly, the state’s contribution, which is 60 per cent is expected to
come down to 28 per cent, according to Vision 2023 document.
Interestingly, private players are shying away from
investing in urban infrastructure as they feel financing urban infrastructure
is too risky and costly. As such, plans are on for a development agency to make
these investments bankable by reducing costs, shouldering some of the risk and
developing new financing mechanisms, sources said.
The investments could include road widening, small bridges,
distribution lines, water supply and industrial parks, and the focus will be on
Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area which includes surrounding peri-urban areas.
writingonblog uncensored: It is CMDA versus TNCA in IPL finals as fate of re...
writingonblog uncensored: It is CMDA versus TNCA in IPL finals as fate of re...: C Shivakumar Chennai: As the countdown for Indian Premier League Finals begin, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is trying desperately to...
It is CMDA versus TNCA in IPL finals as fate of renovated MAC stadium stands hang in balance
C Shivakumar
And all eyes are now on CMDA as it bats against TNCA over the clearance issue with IPL finals less than a week away.
Chennai:
As the countdown for Indian Premier
League Finals begin, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is trying desperately to
get Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) clearance for the newly
renovated three stands of M A Chidambaram stadium before it hosts the event.
While
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association
has put an end to all speculation in regard to the Indian Premier League
eliminator (May 25) and final (May 27) being pulled out of Chennai over
the clearance issue, CMDA is firm that unless TNCA meets all the
regulations, it is highly unlikely that the civic body will unseal the
stands.
CMDA sources told Express on Monday that
TNCA not only lacked planning permission but there were setback violations
while redesigning the stadium. “There have been some setback violations
and some structures had to be demolished. If they comply with all the
regulations, then CMDA will have no objection in giving clearance
certificate,” CMDA sources said without elaborating further.
Sources also said that TNCA has yet
to get several no-objection certificates, including from the fire department.
“Once they get all the clearance, then they have to get the development charge
advice before getting clearance,” sources said.
Interestingly, TNCA has spent more
than Rs 150 crore for the revamp of M A Chidambaram stadium. The three stands –
G H and I, which were re-designed were caught in a controversy after civic
authorities sealed it last year for violation of building norms.
And all eyes are now on CMDA as it bats against TNCA over the clearance issue with IPL finals less than a week away.
Monday, May 21, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Life as a female Tamil Tiger guerilla relived by o...
writingonblog uncensored: Life as a female Tamil Tiger guerilla relived by o...: Source: Agencies In 1987, aged 17, Niromi de Soyza shocked her middle-class Sri Lankan family by joining the Tamil Tigers. One of the r...
Life as a female Tamil Tiger guerilla relived by one of first female soldiers
Source: AgenciesIn 1987, aged 17, Niromi de Soyza shocked her middle-class Sri Lankan family by joining the Tamil Tigers. One of the rebels' first female soldiers, equipped with rifle and cyanide capsule, she was engaged in fierce combat.
There had been 22 of us that morning – nine boys and 13 girls, aged between 15 and 26 (I was 17). Now, four of my comrades were missing, two were wounded. Ten were dead.
Our sentry had spotted the enemy soldiers beyond a distant line of trees to the south, and Muralie, our unit's second in command, decided that we should flee north across an arterial road. The morning chill was still in the air and the dew dripped from banana leaves as we ran though fields and approached the road. As we attempted to cross it, we were ambushed from both sides in a barrage of automatic gunfire, grenades and mortars.
'Get on the ground!' Muralie commanded. 'Fire and break through!'
Everyone was screaming. We crashed to the earth as the gunfire grew heavier, now coming from behind as well. A helicopter gunship hovered above, strafing. We were surrounded. There was no cover other than a few palmyra and banana trees that dotted the landscape.
Lying on my stomach, I shuffled forward, following another girl, Ajanthi. My heart was pounding and thick smoke stung my eyes. In a state of panic, a few of my comrades attempted to cross the road. One by one, they fell. One was on her back, screaming, 'My leg, someone help me!'
A grenade flew over from my left. As I scrambled to my hands and knees, I realised Gandhi, our area leader, was in its path. 'Gandhi anna, duck!' I screamed. The grenade hit his head and exploded, ripping his skull apart and covering me with blood and tissue.
Ajanthi got to her knees, ready to dash across the road, then abruptly fell backwards, her arms and legs splayed awkwardly. Blood spurted from the centre of her forehead, soaking her auburn hair. In shock, the air left my lungs and I could not inhale it back. Ajanthi had been my friend since primary school and we had joined the Tigers together. She had been hit by a sniper.
I crawled forward holding my AK-47 with both hands, desperate to reach Ajanthi and drag her to safety. To my right, two comrades were trying to drag Muralie, who had also been hit, through the wet grass. His blood-soaked body kept slipping through their hands. As I reached Ajanthi our unit commander, Sudharshan, yanked me by the collar, dragging me with him.
'But Sudharshan anna,' I said, stumbling to my feet. 'We have to get Ajanthi, Muralie and the others.' 'They will follow us,' he said.
We ran through the fields and scrambled over a concrete parapet as rifle rounds flew from behind us, gouging holes in the wall. On the other side, we kept running and found five comrades. Seeing no means of escape, we took shelter under a large lantana bush.
At sunset, confident that the soldiers had moved on, we set out through fields, supporting the injured, eventually reaching a gathering of huts on a narrow lane. News of our arrival spread quickly, and a curious crowd assembled along the sides of the lane. Most had never seen female Tigers before. An old woman flung her bony arms around me: 'Ayyo, my poor child! Wouldn't your mother's heart break if she saw you like this?' I didn't realise then how I must have looked – a starved teenage girl with torn clothes, caked in blood, barefoot and carrying an automatic rifle. Most villagers wanted us gone. If the enemy soldiers knew we were still around, they were sure to attack the village.
On Christmas Day we arrived at a hideout occupied by another Tigers unit. I sat outside on the mud veranda, thinking about the ambush. Since joining the Tigers, Ajanthi and I – and another girl, Akila – had been inseparable. The last time I had seen Akila she had been firing her M16 rifle from behind a water tank during the ambush. Sengamalam, one of the boys, told me that more than 2,000 soldiers had been involved in the round-up of our 22-strong unit, and had dumped the bodies of those who died in the open air. My mind swum with images of Ajanthi and Muralie, their bodies being scavenged by dogs.
I heard footsteps and looked up to see the silhouette of three figures approaching our hut. I recognised the tall Akila, her hair in plaits, and ran towards her. As we embraced she told me that, after the ambush, she had survived by hiding in the water tank for two days. 'I wish I was dead, like Ajanthi,' I spluttered. 'How will I face her family again?'
'We have to keep their dream of Tamil Eelam alive,' Akila said. For me, the dream felt far from reach.
I was born in 1969 in Kandy, a Sinhala-majority town in Sri Lanka's hill country, where I spent the first seven years of my childhood. Although I had Tamil ancestry – Tamils make up 18 per cent of Sri Lanka's population – my extended family included Sinhalese, Sri Lanka's main ethnic group. In 1978 I was packed off to the northern Tamil city of Jaffna to live with my grandmother, whom I hardly knew. 'So that you can become a doctor like your aunts and uncles,' my father reasoned. 'Education in Jaffna is far superior.' I was a confident, independent girl, and my parents believed that I would cope well in a new environment without them.
Though I was unsure about becoming a doctor, life in Jaffna was idyllic. Not knowing when I would see my family again, I began to distance myself from them and focused on shaping my own life, making new friends and working hard at school. My weekends were busy with music, art and drama lessons.
Soon after, my father, an engineer, went to work in Dubai (it was becoming difficult for Tamils to get good jobs at home). My mother, a teacher, and sister, who was three years my junior, joined me in Jaffna. I had been oblivious to the deep-rooted tensions that were simmering between the Tamils and Sinhalese, and knew nothing of the anti-Tamil riots that had killed more than 250 Tamils in the country the year before. But before long the growing unrest outside my sheltered world was hard to ignore.
Tamil pressure groups were becoming more vocal in their calls for equal rights between Tamils and Sinhalese, and an end to what many Tamils felt were the government's discriminatory policies. Meanwhile, Sinhala extremism in the south was growing. There were boycotts, strikes and skirmishes. There were reports of Tamil politicians being shot dead, Tamil students being kidnapped.
The quest for equality had spawned a number of militant groups, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), known as Tamil Tigers outside Sri Lanka. In the late 1970s they had taken up an armed struggle for an autonomous Tamil homeland – Tamil Eelam – in the north and north-east of the country. To begin with, they carried out minor attacks on government targets, but on July 23 1983, when I was 14, they ambushed an army patrol in Jaffna, which brought them into the national spotlight.
Thirteen soldiers died that day, but about 1,000 Tamils were said to have lost their lives in an anti-Tamil pogrom in the south that followed. Large numbers of Tamil men, mostly teenagers, reacted to what they saw as the Sri Lankan government's indiscriminate persecution of innocent Tamils and joined the insurgency, which was rapidly gathering support.
By 1985 the situation had escalated into full-scale war in the north and east, with the government launching a military offensive on Jaffna to wipe out the rebellion. From a normal happy upbringing, I now found myself living in constant fear. Jaffna's library, where I spent much of my free time, was burnt down by government forces.
We lived under indiscriminate aerial bombing and artillery shelling, day and night; our movements were restricted by long curfews. We spent many days in our home-built bunker where I studied, listening to gunshots and explosions, still hopeful that my exams would go ahead as scheduled. The Tigers' television station broadcast images of war: militant training camps, dead bodies, Tamil funerals. The images began to haunt me, and I felt outraged that no one was being held to account, and that the outside world was doing nothing.
The government launched further offensives and air raids became commonplace. Bodies were sometimes strewn by the roadside on my way to school, or hanging from lampposts. I was dismayed by the attitude of family and friends who believed that they had no power to change the situation, but didn't support the militant groups either. 'These movements are run mostly by uneducated, low-caste youth,' they said. 'They are not capable of solving the Tamil problem.' But at least they were trying, I thought.
The more I listened to the militants, the more I sympathised with the idea of an armed struggle, the more it seemed like the only response. There had never been any military connections in my family but I felt that if we were going to be killed or driven from our homes, then shouldn't we at least put up a fight? With friends, I talked about joining the insurgency, though few felt the same, believing that such actions would bring disgrace to our families. Middle-class girls didn't do such things.
In May 1987, when I was 17, the Sinhala government launched Operation Liberation, declaring all-out war against the Tamil militants on the Jaffna peninsula. By now, the Tigers had gained administrative control of the region, restricting government forces to their barracks. My mother decided that we would return to Kandy until the war was over. As we prepared to leave, I made up my mind to run away to join the Tigers. I told my mother that I was going to Ajanthi's to say goodbye.
After I told Ajanthi my plans, she said, 'I'll come with you for moral support', and we set off together for the office of the Student Organisation of Liberation Tigers, a large house near Jaffna University. We were interviewed. They were hesitant about recruiting middle-class girls, but finally relented. Ajanthi said she would miss me too much if I left without her, and was enlisted, too.
'The life of a freedom fighter is harder than you think,' Thileepan, the leader of the Tigers' political wing, warned us, adjusting his spectacles. 'We gamble with our own lives and bury our friends. There'll be none of the comforts you are used to. I'm not convinced that you are suited to this lifestyle, but no one here is held against their will.'
Knowing my mother and sister were out, I went home and wrote them a note explaining that I had joined the Tigers. The following morning, naturally, my mother and sister and Ajanthi's family came to the Tigers' camp to plead with us to return home. 'You are about to ruin your life. This is not for you,' my mother said, grasping my hands, her eyes filled with tears. Ajanthi's father said we had been brainwashed.
Thileepan sent us to work with members of the Tigers' female political wing, the Freedom Birds, contributing articles to their magazine. At the Freedom Birds' headquarters, we met Akila, who at 17 was already an active member. We immediately became friends.
A few weeks later, Ajanthi and I were selected by Thileepan for military training, and sent to an all-girls' camp in an outer suburb of Jaffna. As we were the first group of female fighters to receive military training in Sri Lanka (at this point, there were fewer than 80 female Tigers), the organisation's enigmatic leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, wanted to talk to us personally. Prabhakaran was seated behind a table in his office as I entered. The flame from a hurricane lamp cast shadows across his round face, and his large brown eyes glistened.
Although he did not ask many questions, it felt like he knew everything about me. 'There's hardly anyone in our movement from your suburb,' he said. 'Most girls here come from rural areas. They are used to hard work, pounding rice and chopping firewood. Be in no doubt: training is going to be harder for you.'
Training, in a village south of Jaffna, was indeed gruelling. The days began with a two-hour exercise regime, followed by commando training. In the afternoons we had firing practice and lessons in explosives and camouflage. Prabhakaran would visit often, and one afternoon expressed his desire to recruit us into the newly formed Black Tigers, the organisation's suicide bomber wing. Only a week earlier the first of the Tigers' suicide bombers, known as Captain Miller, had driven a lorry packed with explosives into an army barracks. Prabhakaran wanted to give women the same 'opportunity', he said. I knew I could never do such a thing because I didn't have the courage.
As the war escalated, civilians were being drawn into the conflict, and a humanitarian crisis was developing in Jaffna. Eventually, the Indian government intervened. It was no secret that India had been fostering Tamil militants and providing them with training and ammunition, and the relationship between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments was strained.
Then the peacekeeping forces arrived, a ceasefire came into effect, and a peace accord was implemented on July 29 1987. The war-weary Tamils welcomed the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) with open arms, and our training came to an abrupt halt. But Prabhakaran informed us that our services would be required in a month or two – he was sure that hostilities would resume by then. Like the Sri Lankan government, he did not appreciate the foreign intrusion.
So it came to pass. In September 1987, while other Tamil militant organisations engaged in the political process, Thileepan went on hunger-strike at the Nallur Hindu Temple near Jaffna in protest against certain aspects of the peace deal. Mass rallies were organised by pro-Tiger Tamils in Jaffna and also by Sinhala extremists in the south, both parties believing the IPKF's intervention served only to assert India's supremacy in the region. Fourteen days later, Thileepan died. The Tigers blamed the Indian government for his death, and for standing aside while Sinhalese forces violated the peace deal by arresting some prominent Tigers despite the amnesty provisions, and organising Sinhala settlement programmes in Tamil areas.
The war resumed, just as Prabhakaran had predicted, though now we were fighting not only the government troops but the peacekeepers, too. A few thousand youths suited only for guerrilla warfare, we were no match for the world's second largest army. Fighting the Indians made no sense to me.
I had joined the Tigers to make a stand against my country's oppressive government, but now found myself at war with those who had come to maintain peace. It seemed that we might be destroying our only chance of resolving the situation peacefully.
I expressed my doubts to Akila. Fiercely loyal and single-minded, she argued that, as foot soldiers, we were unaware of the complex politics of the situation, and that our leaders knew exactly what they were doing. 'Believe that Anna Prabhakaran is always right,' she told me. I decided to ignore the growing disquiet inside me and joined the war.
In October 1987 I was sent to the battle front north of Jaffna where, by coincidence, Akila and Ajanthi joined me in a unit of 30 cadres. The first female Tiger had died only a few days earlier, confirming that women were now firmly engaged in frontline fighting. During battles we had been trained to fire in the general direction of the enemy, not at individual targets, and I am not sure whether any of my bullets hit anyone. I'm glad I don't know. I once asked the more experienced Muralie how he had coped with the knowledge that he had shot people. 'After your second victim,' he said, 'you learn to live with it.'
The Tigers had no chance of overpowering the Indian army. Jaffna and many surrounding areas were now under their total control. We were being ambushed on an almost daily basis, becoming accustomed to life on the run. Support among Tamil civilians was waning, too. Whenever we encountered them, they pleaded with us to stop this futile war.
By early 1988 self-preservation was now our main strategy. Forced out of the Jaffna peninsula by the IPKF and following an overnight boat trip, we found ourselves in the jungles of the Vanni in the Northeastern Province, where it was easier to lie low. I was now part of a large unit of nearly 45 girls, with Sengamalam, one of only two boys, in charge. We moved around the jungle constantly, enduring primitive living conditions, while 130,000 Indian troops searched for some 2,000 Tigers on foot and by air.
After five months in the jungle, I contracted malaria; many others were ill with dysentery and typhoid. Akila stayed by my side, taking care of me, bringing medication and rice water in a rusty tin. I felt broken, physically and emotionally, constantly questioning the purpose of a war that could clearly never be won.
I had believed the militant propaganda, convinced that Tamil Eelam could be achieved within a year or two, but it was now clear that an armed conflict would resolve nothing. 'You are free to go home any time,' Thileepan had told me. It was time to walk away while I still could. One morning in June 1988, at a house near the forest where we had taken shelter following an attack on our hideout, I approached Sengamalam as he washed at a well.
'I want to resign.'
He stopped drying his face with a sarong and looked at me with alarm. 'Is someone giving you grief?'
'I just can't cope any more,' I said. 'I am tired of this war. I'm weak.'
Calmly, he said that he was sorry, that he was surprised I had lasted so long. 'I must warn you,' he said, 'your life will be in grave danger – from the Sri Lankan army, Indian forces, even rival organisations. Your name is on their wanted lists.' I didn't care. Surrendering my rifle and kuppie, I severed all ties with the Tigers, unsure of what the future held or whether my family would take me back.
Before I left, I went to say goodbye to Akila. When she saw me wearing a dress, her jaw dropped. 'What's going on? You're leaving?' Consumed with shame, I could hardly speak. 'I can't believe you're leaving me,' she sobbed. 'We have so much to achieve.'
Before I could answer, Sengamalam hurried Akila into the forest and I watched her fade into the bright sun. I never saw her again.
Sengamalam organised for a local boy to take me to an old woman's hut in the nearby town of Kilinochchi. For the next seven days, the old woman and I did not exchange a word or a smile.
One afternoon, while I helped herd her cattle into the shed, I saw my mother running towards me down the dirt lane. The mayor of Kilinochchi, a distant relative of ours, had bumped into the Tamil boy who had taken me to the old woman's hut. The mayor was carrying a photograph of me that my mother had sent him and asked the boy if he had seen me. Once I had been identified, the mayor fetched my mother. The only emotion I felt was relief, as if I was no longer capable of experiencing happiness or sadness. My mother embraced me and sobbed while I stood numb.
'I thought you might have disowned me,' I said, finally.
'You're my daughter,' she replied. 'I'd never give up on you.'
Within two months of being reunited with my family, during which time we never discussed my experiences with the Tigers, I was sent to a boarding school in India, where I completed my studies.
Although now in the country whose army I had fought only months before, I was determined to move on, and make the best of the second chance I had been given. On the surface, normality had returned. My fellow students were girls from affluent families who liked talking about boys, movie stars and make-up. When the lights in our dormitory were turned off at night,
I cried myself to sleep.
In 1990, with help from a relative, I moved to Sydney (my family later moved here, too) and went to university. After my departure from the Tigers, and with a new life opening up to me, I blocked out any news of Sri Lanka as best I could. These days, of course, that is impossible.
The two-year war between the Tigers and the Indian forces came to an end in July 1989, with changes of government in both countries. But the fighting between the Tigers and Sri Lankan government forces continued. The primitive but effective guerrilla organisation that I left behind grew into a sophisticated and formidable fighting force. As its methods became more extreme, the LTTE's notoriety increased – not just within Sri Lanka but all over the world. (In late 2001 it was classified as a terrorist organisation by many countries, including Britain.)
The Tigers have carried out hundreds of suicide attacks over the past two decades – more than all other radical organisations in the world combined – notably the assassination of the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and the Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993. The guiding principle of the Tigers, which is so difficult for outsiders to understand, is that the greater the sacrifice, the higher the honour. There are no bravery medals or pompous ceremonies for living Tigers. They are recognised for their efforts, and awarded a rank, only posthumously.
The past decade has seen several attempts to form a lasting peace agreement between the Tigers and the government, all unsuccessful, with the most recent deal being torn up in early 2008. Since 2006 the LTTE's numbers have fallen sharply, funding from the Tamil diaspora has dwindled while government forces stepped up their campaign.
At the beginning of this year, a number of crucial Tiger strongholds were recaptured, and the government was confident it would annihilate the remaining 1,000 or so Tigers within months. After three decades, the civil war – which has claimed more than 70,000 lives, including at least 23,000 Tigers – appears to have reached its endgame, the Tigers on the verge of a final, crushing defeat. The Tamils are, it seems, back at square one.
In fact, the situation may be worse than ever, with the UN estimating last month that 150,000 civilians were trapped in the eight-square-mile battle zone, under constant threat of bombing from government forces and being used as human shields by the increasingly desperate Tigers. Some human rights groups have condemned the Sri Lankan government for practising ethnic cleansing against them under the guise of fighting terrorism.
Although the Tigers have staged many comebacks in history, the latest government offensive may prove fatal. But the scars of this war will remain and until a political solution that recognises and respects the rights of the Tamil people is reached, I am certain that the Tamil fight will continue in one form or another.
More and more these days, my thoughts turn to the friends I have lost. Recently, for the first time, I typed Akila's name into Google and found several archived reports and court documents. Akila died on November 1 1995, in a battle against the Sri Lankan army in Neervaeli, a town for which we had fought side by side. With defeat imminent, she ordered the members of her unit to bite into their cyanide capsules, and then did the same herself. She was 24. After her death, she was awarded the highest rank achievable in the Tigers at that time: lieutenant colonel.
The most shocking detail was that she had been wanted for masterminding, along with Prabhakaran, the killing of Rajiv Gandhi. The suicide bomber and her collaborators had been members of Akila's unit, as I might have been if I had not walked away from the Tigers.
On the surface, my life goes on as a happily married mother in an affluent Sydney suburb who enjoys reading, travelling and gardening. But often, in my dreams, I am being chased by soldiers or hanging off the side of a cliff, unable to save myself. It has taken me a long time not to panic when I hear a helicopter overhead.
I rarely discuss my past. Some people cannot believe that someone with my grounded life could have done such things. Others probe deeper, asking if I regret picking up a gun with the intention of killing others. Of course, some will never understand; others may consider me a former terrorist.
The world has changed since I left the Tigers, just as the Tigers themselves have changed. In this age of terrorism it is easy to dismiss all rebel groups as evil extremists, without considering the desperate circumstances that drive people to align themselves to such organisations.
I tell people that the only reason I joined the war was to defend my people, because I felt there was no other choice. I was not coerced to join the insurgency. As an idealistic 17-year-old, I believed in the power of the individual to make a difference.
Looking back, I recognise the elements of reckless, selfish teenage rebellion in my behaviour. Naively, I had not anticipated how much my family would suffer as a consequence of my actions, and for that, above all else, I am deeply sorry. To this day, my parents have never asked me about my time as a guerrilla. As a mother myself, I understand why: that they must somehow have felt that they had failed in their duty as parents.
I hope that my own children will grow up with firm, positive views, but without the blind idealism I had all those years ago. I will try to teach them tolerance and empathy, that the end doesn't always justify the means, and that violence always breeds more violence. I learnt that lesson the hard way. Sadly, I don't think Sri Lanka has learnt it at all.
writingonblog uncensored: Now a smarter solution for firms to bridge communi...
writingonblog uncensored: Now a smarter solution for firms to bridge communi...: Chennai: As India is witnessing growth in smartphones, a workforce assessment services firm is trying to tap the technology by offerin...
Now a smarter solution for firms to bridge communication divide!
Chennai:
As
India is witnessing growth in smartphones, a workforce assessment services firm
is trying to tap the technology by offering innovative solutions to employers
and employees to bridge the communication gap and enhance productivity.
Chief executive officer of AssesssPeople R
Kannan and service delivery head Satish Salivati said the company, which is one
of the first to adopt Internet technologies to deliver scientifically validated
workforce assessment services to individuals and business enterprises, has
launched QuickSurvey, a unique mobile or tablet access service for companies
and CareerSmart center for Jobseekers.
Kannan
said as India will be among the top five country markets for smartphone
shipments by 2016, QuickSurvey is an ideal platform to connect with all
stakeholders, which includes employees as well as consumers. “It will cater to
the customized needs of corporates from various industries thus making sure the
stakeholders are in contact constantly, he said.
Kannan
said the product is easy to configure and deploy and is custom-made for each
client and has easy to use survey options. “Since real-time feedback is the
buzzword in Internet era, organizations that are “in touch” with their
stakeholders continuously are more likely to succeed than those who believe in
‘responding to a crisis.’
“By
efficeintlygathering feedback, analyzing it and acting on it in a meaningful
way can increase an organisation’s success and strengthen their relationship
with different stakeholders,” he said.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
writingonblog uncensored: Octogenarians walk down memory lane
writingonblog uncensored: Octogenarians walk down memory lane: C Shivakumar Chennai: It was a rare reunion after more than 60 years for the octogenerarians of College of Engineering in Guindy as ...
Octogenarians walk down memory lane
C
Shivakumar
Chennai:
It
was a rare reunion after more than 60 years for the octogenerarians of College
of Engineering in Guindy as they celebrated the Genesis Day with the release of
‘Memoirs of Octogenarian Alumni’.
The
nostalgic octogenarians, who passed out of the college in the years 1943 to
1953, shared their youthful days after listening to the address by one of their
alumni Sakthi group chairman N Mahalingam.
Consulting
engineer and past president R Ramasamy, who was the brain behind this reunion,
said the present volume has memoirs of 105 octogenarian alumni, who graduated
in the years 143 to 1953. They also include the father of white revolution
Verghese Kurien, former under-secretary
General of United Nations (HABITAT) Arcot Ramachandran, educationist and
IIT Kanpur board of governors chairman Anand Krishnan and advisor to water
resources to Tamil Nadu government A Mohanakrishnan.
The
reminiscences and advice to posterity written by most alumni are worth reading,
he said.
Surprisngly,
the octogenarians have not only been making news in the field of engineering,
they are also in news for making a mark in activities which don’t relate to
engineering and the memoirs captures it all.
Among
those include B D Ardhanareeswaran, rechristened Swami Ishwarananda Giri, head
of Samvit Sadhanayana Mutt in Mount Abu. “He is unlike today’s Swamis and his
slate is clean,” says Ramaswamy jokingly. The aluni also has a film personality
in actor director producer M Balaiah, who won Telegu award for his
contributions to the field.
The others include K Thiagarajan, who is
president’s Tamara Pathra Awardee for self made industrialist, K shivaprasad
who got patent for a new technology for conversion of municipal waste to
energy.
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