015. The state organizers of National Rural Health Mission live like kings.

The state organizers of National Rural Health Mission live like kings.

News: NRHM scam: CBI raids residential premises of ex-UP health minister. New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday carried out searches at the residential premises of former Uttar Pradesh health minister Anant Mishra in Lucknow and Kanpur in connection with National Rural Health Mission scam (NRHM).
TNN | Jun 2, 2012, 10.24AM IST


 

The state organizers of National Rural Health Mission live like kings with the money allotted from central government funds. It is widely believed that Accountant General’s branches in the states are not allowed to look into their accounts. We shall take the particular example of Kerala which has the highest rates of literacy and health standards. When this scheme was introduced, the initial amounts allotted were utilized not for creating infrastructures in villages but for purchasing scores of costly cars for the officers to travel. They were all air-conditioned cars. Why were non-a/c Maruti 800 cars not purchased? The first directive to have come from central government ought to have been limiting only one car to each district and limiting the purchasing price of one car to 3 lakhs rupees. Costly cars purchased should immediately be sold in auction and replaced with Maruti 800s. This would bring millions back for being diverted to the rural areas. Then the spree was for purchasing buildings. The health services departments in all Indian states have enough buildings and space in the districts and in the headquarters to house NRHM offices. It is also transparent to operate this scheme from health services premises. Why did government allow this spend thrift scheme to operate outside the main stream? Was it not to allow a new generation of officers to have enough freedom for corruption? The organizing and operating of the scheme should have been from the government secretariats. Every building taken by NRHM pays exorbitant rents and every building purchased cost far higher than market rates. Crores of rupees were pocketed by state organizers on this account. Does the government of India have this much money to spare? Is it not people’s money? Every building purchase and rental by NRHM officers should be investigated and illegally made money brought back to public exchequer. Now it has become something lucrative to be posted as an NRHM officer, just like postings to key check posts of the sales tax department. If the salaries the officers draw are looked into, we will not believe that they are serving the poor government of India. Each decides his own salary which is unbelievably higher than what are paid in equivalent posts in the state health services. Some argue that unless paid salaries commensurate with corporate standards, bright officers would not be available to lead NRHM. Why should we pay corporate salaries to a bunch corrupt to the core? There are brighter candidates to replace them at the state health department level salaries, at least in Kerala. Purchase of luxury cars, purchase and rental of buildings at exorbitant prices and rates and self-fixation and drawal of inconceivably high salaries in all states must be immediately investigated by the government of India and the state branches of the Accountant General assigned the charge of conducting their audits.

014. Do not make simple domestic disagreements lucrative court litigation.

Do not make simple domestic disagreements lucrative court litigation.

News: Housewives' pay: Court throws ball in government's court. Discretionary power to grant monthly allowance to housewives is part of the state government's freedom in framing policies, the Kerala high court has ruled.
TNN | May 23, 2012, 05.33AM IST.


 

Payment to housewives from the husband for the jobs she is doing in the house to run the family is unethical. If it had been actually needed and could have been made possible without affecting the integrity of the society, mankind would have instigated it in the far distant past itself. Do not anyone think that 20000 generations in the past did not ever think about this and that those who think about this now are the first in this planet to tell this. Human society developed, based on the division of labour. Hunting was the job of the males and agriculture, animal husbandry and house administration were the responsibility of the women. The first was the kind of work in which people most often died and that was why it was the job of the males, because if the woman could be saved, mankind would continue. That was their logic. History tells us that the works assigned to the women were comparatively light and less risky. The males did protect their women. Many ignorant people, including our new generation law makers and a few parliamentarians, think that women were never allowed to rule society. They never have read any history, not even the history of the evolution of law. For thousands and thousands of years, it was the rule of the mother in the world which we call matriarchy. Patriarchy was just brief and intermittent and only during the times of major crises. It is because of this kind of tender caring that the world’s women did not grow up mostly as Amazons. The man-woman bond is sacred and divine and it is perhaps the only thing human, which cannot be measured in terms of coins. They do not serve each other but supplement each other. By monetizing women’s works in the house, family and society, our illiterate law makers are laying axe to the very roots of human society. The advocates just would think about it as a great new source of lucrative litigation. Just like simple domestic disagreements are now made into psychiatric hospitalizations, greedy lawyers, lazy woman liberators and wicked politicians are going to turn sacred household relations into fierce courtroom battles. If there is at least one sane person in government, this shall not be allowed. Uttar Pradesh and Goa are bad examples. We have before us the condemned example of women bus travellers after a half-baked litigation without proper medical support of decades. When bus accidents occur, men decided to die and save their women and children by seating them on the back seats so that the family may survive. In direct collisions, the impact of glass and steel would be fatal most on the men who sit in the front seats. This arrangement also prevented drivers from getting their attention diverted. Then one day some pig brained woman litigator discovered that the womb of the women bus travellers is getting shaken with the jolting of the buses. With lightning speed judiciary interfered and we all know what happened next. Proven stamina of women to travel standing was not even considered.

013. Forest department has no right to restrict pilgrims to Agasthyar Koodam.

Forest department has no right to restrict pilgrims to Agasthyar Koodam.

News: Forest department to restrict off-season trek to Agastyakoodam.Kerala Forest Department is planning to restrict the entry of off-season tourists to Agastyakoodam to not more than 50 people at one go and that too, only for two or three days a week.
TNN | May 3, 2012, 06.29AM IST


 

Firstly, it is not Agasthyakoodam but ‘Agasthyar Koodam’, the ‘r’ usually used to denote respect for a name in the South Indian dialects. The Kerala Forest Department has no right to restrict entry of visitors to Agasthyakoodam, the Pilgrims’ Peak in the Southern Sahyadri Ranges. They shall not restrict access to people, whether it is season or off-season. They are bound to provide visitors resting, eating and staying facilities for which they can consider revising the rates of fees for admission. One should visit this place regularly and learn to respect the peacefulness, cleanliness and loftiness of our nature. We know that many visitors from these trips return awed and inspired by nature’s care and majesty. It is people’s presence in sacred places like these that guarantees the preservation and continuance of delicately balanced ecological structures. It is people’s interference that has successfully prevented many nature’s preserves from being over-exploited by timber and mining industries. The Forest Department cannot be taken into confidence in this matter. A few years back, we flagged off an adventure trip by a Quilon-based Nature and Adventure Club which took the route from Shankhily- Vencollah to Ponmudi and the entire route was video graphed. A few years after, when another such trip was undertaken, the new videos showed that many huge trees seen standing on the wayside in the first video graph were not to be seen there in the second. They were bulldozed and removed in Lorries which could not have been undertaken without the help of Forest Department Officials. Had people not travelled in this route and filmed whatever was there on the way two times, nothing would have come out. The same situation applies to Agasthyar Koodam also. The Department restricts photographing the area, for fear of over exposure to the rare and rich plant life there. Why does the Department prohibit photography? What have them to hide from people and from the world? It is the vigil of ordinary people that prevents major looting of tree wood and medicinal plants in rare Biodiversity Hotspots. The dormitory in question in Agasthyar Koodam has been left in ruins for so many years by the Forest Department. Its condition is antihuman. Regarding the accumulation of discarded plastic in this route, it should be noted that practically no plastic waste is generated during the proper pilgrimage season when hundreds of visitors travel the route. It is because, as against in the past, the Department now provides food including idli, dosai, poori, chappathi and porridge at three places, i.e. at Bonakkadu, Athirumala and one place in between, so that pilgrims won’t need to transport food and plastic to carry them in. Therefore now there is no question of cooking food on the way with firewood, resulting in forest fires. The Department also provides night shelters two times on the way to and fro, thereby eliminating the need for making fires during night to escape from cold.


 

The food given to Agasthyar Koodam pilgrims by Forests Department is made available through the various Eco Development Committees formed including the local Aborigines living in the nearby settlements. Everywhere in Kerala the services of these EDCs is admirable, for they generate employment for the locals who successfully prevent local pilfering and poaching. Employing local girls as this kind of forest watchers is actually the only praisable thing the Forest Department of Kerala did recently. It is the trekkers who generate waste and destroy the forest, not the pilgrims. The pilgrims, who go each year, have learned to behave themselves, and many of them usually collect plastic waste which they bring back to authorities. The right policy to be adopted by the Forests Department is to allow visitors only during the pilgrimage season and do with allowing trekking in large groups. Agasthyar was a great saint of many divine faculties and it is believed that Sri Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, on his return journey from Lanka after defeating Ravana went to Agasthyr’s abode in this peak and begged to accept him as a student. As such, in Hindu ascetic practise, Agasthyar’s peak is forbidden to womenfolk and every person in Kerala and Tamil Nadu observes this practice. So, if the reports that many Hindu Madames going to the place after illegally obtaining permission from topmost Forest Officials is true, those persons should immediately be sent away from their chairs, even if it the Forests Minister of Kerala or the Forests Secretary. It is an unpardonable violation of ethics. The Wild Life Warden of Trivandrum complains about large scale movement within his forest area. It cannot be helped. It is a renowned Hindu Pilgrimage Peak. Can we restrict people going to Sabarimala, Malayattoor or Mecca? We can only manage people to cause the least damage. Agasthyar Koodam area is not unpopulated. Nor can we move people out like we did in the Kerala- Karnataka border reserves. This place has numerous settlements of aborigines. They live even up to Kunnattherri, the very heart of this silent land. The greatest thrill and reverence to Agasthyar Muni is climbing this peak from the Eastern side from the Tamil Nadu part which is very risky. So the desiring devotees wear a saffron dhoti and climb the peak from the eastern side, posing as a Hindu saint. The local aborigines, or Adivasis in the local dialect, alone dare doing this. How can and why should one prevent them from doing this act which is part of their religion? Can we dare say that people who go to sacred Hajj shall not stone the Ka Aba? What rights have us to interfere in age-old customs of religious people? We can only tolerate and prepare ourselves for meeting it. Forest Department or No Forest Department, Bio Diversity Zone or No Bio Diversity Zone, no one can prevent Agasthyar Koodam becoming a great pilgrimage centre in South India in the future.

012. Why this many ministers in the Kerala cabinet?

Why this many ministers in the Kerala cabinet?

News: UDF ministry expanded, IUML gets 5th berth.
The Congress-led UDF ministry led by Oommen Chandy in Kerala was expanded today with the induction of Manjalamkuzhi Ali of the Indian Union Muslim League and Anoop Jacob (KC-J), raising its strength to 21.
PTI | Apr 12, 2012, 11.36AM IST


 

A small state in India with just 140 members in their legislative assembly but with 21 members in their cabinet! If we travel in a fast car from the south to the north of Kerala, before it is seven hours, Kerala is over. When we travel in a fast train Andhra Pradesh will take about a day to cross. So, to run a small state like Kerala, why should there be an unnecessary 21 members in the cabinet of their ministry of their government? What an inexcusable waste of state resources! For several years the state ministers of Kerala have been boasting about fully computerizing the departments under their administrations, resulting in reduction in staff. If the finance ministers of the state are to be believed, not less than 500 crores have already been spent on computerizing top government offices in the capital city alone during the years. If what the so-called technical experts in the state bureaucracy say can be believed, one single chief minister can run the affairs of the entire state with a limited staff. Looked anyway, the state today, ought to have been run by 5 ministers. 15 ministers are in excess, just there to eat into public treasury. When computerization progresses in government, considerable number of staff are shed away, terminated from service or redeployed elsewhere. By the same logic, why are not the number of ministers in the cabinet reduced proportionately? More ministers means more state expenditure on account of their and their staff’s salaries, allowances, tour and medical expenses, escort, housing and pension, all for doing no job except inaugurating multi-crore private establishments all over Kerala everyday, at people’s expenses. They may say that it is part of the public relations of government. But for maintaining public relations, there is a paid full department in the government. Every movement, word, gestures and decisions of the ministers, including their clandestine relationships and involvements with inappropriate people, are reported the instant verbatim by the news papers and television channels. Also they can public relate directly from their offices through their computers. What do they travel during office hours for, instead of staying in their offices from 10 to 5? If we examine the travels made by these ministers during the past five years, we shall see that 99.99 percent of them were totally unnecessary, i.e. for the people of Kerala. They spent billions of state revenue for their popularity as if it is their privilege they should enjoy for the tiresome job of governing us. Kerala State is waiting for a fair chief minister who swears in with the right five ministers.

011. Why Trivandrum Observatory does not have new learners?

011. Why Trivandrum Observatory does not have new learners?

News: Kerala University to honour founder director of observatory. The Kerala University will hold a commemorative meeting to honour the memory of John Caldecott, founder director of the Trivandrum Observatory established in 1837 by the then Travancore king Swathi Thirunal.
TNN | Apr 1, 2012, 11.17AM IST


 

The Trivandrum Observatory started by the Travancore king Swathi Thirunal in 1837 is one of the earliest observatories in India. As Swathi Thirunal himself was a gifted poet, musician and art lover, he encouraged the talented. So this Observatory which is situated at a lovely prime spot in Trivandrum city flourished. The lenses needed for this Observatory were grinded here itself and this installation provided excellent sky observation and space learning facilities for the young and old and the learned and the beginner in Trivandrum for decades. When Kings ruled Travancore, they cared well for this observatory. They were well aware of what they were doing. As years passed and as the number of unruly youths in Trivandrum increased, lesser and lesser number of young men came to this observatory for learning. Lonely sky watching does not provide them with the thrills of day light flirting. Gradually this fine observatory came to be frequented only by the old admirers of this establishment and no new generations developed there to continue their tradition or skills. Another unfortunate incident also occurred. When one of the previous Travancore Maharajas passed away, the administration of this installation fell into the hands of some kind of people’s committee constituted with unlearned and uncouth individuals. The Observatory no more was extended with the fine and tender care of the kings who loved and admired these kinds of things. When the Planetarium at the P.M.G. Junction came into being, the Royal Observatory was pushed into the rear. It needs loyalty and dedication to restore the proudness and excellence of this Observatory. The University of Kerala is doing one of the great things it can do by honouring the memory of the founder directory of this observatory, John Caldecott, and remembering the invaluable services of our dedicated and committed previous administrators.

010. Can Schenkottah be seen from the Secretariate?

010. Can Schenkottah be seen from the Secretariate?

News: Officials to move road safety panel. Thiruvananthapuram: The officials undertaking the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) are planning to approach the Road Safety Authority to get on with the work on stretches where the presence of trees has hindered the progress of work.

Mar 27, 2012, 04.41AM IST

 

Progress of work on roads may, will be and should be hindered where the work purposefully reaches in front of a tree. Roads should go round the tree. That is respect. That is what wise men do. They will plan and design roads with intention to protect as many trees as possible on the way. It was no fault of the tree to have happened to be standing there. It was the folly of the road to have come its way. One single leaf in a good tree on the roadside of Trivandrum is worth far more than the power-hungry, authority-arrogant tiny brain architects of City Road Improvement Project, Road Fund Board and Indian Roads Congress. When cutting permission for trees has to be given, the Kerala Forest Department has to observe and keep stringent measures. Presence of one of their staff in the environmental committee is not at all an excuse for cutting down trees. 10 trees should be planted, protected and nursed to full growth before the proposed tree is permitted to be cut down, that too only in inevitable circumstances. This means that planning for development will have to be done years earlier. That is what the organizations like the City Improvement Trust, Trivandrum Development Authority, Planning Board and the like were constituted for. This chief architect of CRIP, who is the individual in Trivandrum the most responsible for illegally cutting down the most number of healthy trees on Trivandrum road sides, remember this: Plan in advance and move in advance, not in cheating law but in observing law. The people know how many trees standing in whichever places were cut down, without observing Central Government Directives. The CRIP did not plant, protect and nurse to full growth one single tree anywhere before cutting down 3000 trees in Trivandrum. Or where are those 30000 trees he should show which he planted, nursed and protected in its place? Prosecutions will come in its time. Law is equal for all, whether it is a citizen, organization or committee. Forest Department officials forcefully take away the hand axes of poor village women who enter forests for picking dry wood lying on the ground. Even if branches are cut down, forests will grow at fantastic rates. In no time they would be full trees again. There is no harm in cutting tree branches in forests. But here it is healthy fully grown trees that were cut down unnecessarily. Why can’t roads take a curve? We cannot see Schencotta from Secretariate. Roads will curve. It was the District Estate Officer of Kerala Forest Department who was duty bound to have ensured the continued existence of those trees in Pulimmodu, Secratariate, Spenser, Vellayambalam, Sasthamangalam, Kawdiar, Ambalammukku and Peroorkada. If he did not ensure their life, it was his dereliction and deviation from duty. He is the prime derelict in this clandestine operation. In unofficial estimates, not less than 1800 trees were illegally cut down in this stretch of road alone during the years since CRIP’s inception. Hundreds of video films exist in people’s hands, taken during wedding travels and festival processions during the years, picturing the old and the new road sides, by comparing which the spots where trees were cut down could be pinpointed. So, the authorities who came by night and cut those trees don’t think they have outsmarted those weak tree lovers of Trivandrum. It is Treeeeeeevandrum anyway.

009. Kerala demanding classical language status for Malayalam is corruption. P.S.Remesh Chandran.

009.
Kerala demanding classical language status for Malayalam is corruption.


23 March, 2012, 01:37 AM IST



Classic Status Languages are those ancient ones which are preserved, whose dialect and script endure adversity and time and are still in use. Since Malayalam changed script recently, it is not eligible for Classic Languages Status like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. If only the old script is reinstated and officially used, can Malayalam considered for Classic Language Status. The present outcry of academicians and politicians in Kerala for Classic Language Status for Malayalam is for the 300 Crore. The real ancient Malayalam script before the recent change was perfectly rounded, reflecting the polished behaviour of the Malayaalees. Recent change in Classic Malayalam Script replaced rounded polishness with abrupt squarishness, reflecting the mental state of the changers. The change benefited neither printers, typesetters, type makers, nor foundry owners. It was the greatest folly in the Malayalam language and literature field ever. The script changers in Malayalam thought they were saving a Classic Language from ruin, but it was their literature that had been ruined. Since 1970 no good poem, play, novel or short story has been created in Malayalam Language. Literature no more reflects the Malayali Mind. What literature appeared in Kerala since 1970 was those ballooned up and boosted by newspapers and magazines depending upon birth and caste. Continuous dwindling of genius from Classic Malayalam Language and Literature in Kerala made students loath and abandon it in their studies. Now Kerala authorities are trying to make studying Malayalam compulsory, testifying to how abandoned it has become in schools and colleges. Abandoning Malayalam studies and the language ceasing to grow long past are mutual-causative, brought out by the stillness in their literature. No scholarships were given for studying Malayalam in Kerala, though every Paisa went to the officials, academicians and organizations. Learning the 56- Alphabet Malayalam Script helped Malayaalees learn any language in this world and settle anywhere on this globe. It is true more and more books are printed in Malayalam Language in Kerala, but it is also true that fewer and fewer books are being read.

 If government accords classical language status to Malayalam, it is corruption, favouritism and violation of the norms accepted the world over for consideration of a language for the classical language status. If Malayalam is accorded classical status, then any language among the hundreds of languages currently used in India would qualify for this status. Conferring this sacred status on a language without considering the foolish destruction of its 'classical script' by the government of that land, acquiesced by both the so-called scholars and writers of that land is just a breach of ethics and confidence by the Union Government. If government and the responsible academic bodies consider classic status of a language something to be conferred only on the basis of merit and qualification, they shall not yield to the political pressure from the Kerala politicians. During the past many years, the writers who now shout for this special status to Malayalam have not created a single piece of good literature. People actually loathe their works and as a result turn their faces away from Malayalam. Because of the same political considerations mentioned above, many of their works are included as lessons in text books which the students, teachers, parents and the Malayalam-loving public could not help. Political considerations are such predominant and powerful in Kerala. So, because people inwardly hate them and their rotten works, they desperately want to take their revenge on people by creating a new authority for controlling the language. With the money which is sure to accompany this classical language status, they can buy out other inferior writers through grants, university chairs, committee memberships and chairmanships of new institutes and academic bodies. Suppose there had been no money involved in this package. Then there would have been no this kind of crowd. Hawks and other scavengers close in where there is dead meet. Had there been at least one single line of immortal literature created in Malayalam by them, this move could have been at least justified. The millions of Malayalees who write, speak and love the language do not consent to this present fury or greed over the supposed classical status to Malayalam. First let them show the ancient script to the world and convince the world that this ancient script is being used continuously without break. Everyone adept in Malayalam language knows that the more one traces the language backward into the ancient times, the more it becomes nothing but Tamil. First confess and admit this, and then request funds for legitimate encouragement of the language in a more decent way.