Westernised education concept dealt a blow to Indian culture: Rajnath Singh

Singh, while addressing a gathering at the Chopsani Schools centenary celebrations here said the main objective of the education is "comprehensive development of the personality" and lamented that the present education system was not fulfilling this objective.

Holding the westernised educational concept brought in by the Britishers, Singh said "this education system has dealt a severe blow to the values and culture of the country, for which, India has been recognised across the globe."

Terming Indian culture to be unparallelled, Singh said only Indian culture and value model is such rich and holistic that it thinks not only about the human being but everything on the earth, be it lifeless.

The Union minister said everyone has unique talent and ability and there was a need to provide an opportunity to them.

"Unfortunately everyone does not have access to this opportunity," he said while assuring that his government would provide the opportunity to all to identify and harness the talents and abilities of the students in the interest of the nation.

Singh said that we will have to realise the malicious intentions of nipping this value and cultural model behind introducing this westernised educational model and never treat us as inferior, which the education system of present time seem to be instilling in the new generations.

Avoiding a direct criticism of Congress, Singh said that since independence, what Indian have got, was assurances only.

"Had these assurances converted into reality, the country would have been a recognised super power and a prosperous nation," he said.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

AERB sets 2015 deadline for additional safety measures in Nuclear plants

After the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, an extensive audit was carried out by Board (AERB) and three categories of safety protocols were mandated for nuclear installations here - short term, mid-term and long-term, Board Chairman S S Bajaj said.
  
The short and mid-term measures have been completed and the long-term measures would also be met, he told reporters after inaugurating the '31st Safety and Occupational Health Professionals Meet' on Bharathiya Nabhikiya Vidhyuth Nigam (BHAVINI) premises at Kalpakkam in Kancheepuram on Wednesday.
     
Referring to the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, BHAVINI Chairman Prabhath Kumar said complying with safety norms was seen to be more pressing than achieving criticality.
     
These have to be complied with, and only then can the loading of the 500MW PFBR with Liquid Sodium commence,he said.
     
He said phases attending the loading include synchronization of conventional auxiliary systems followed by switch yard for power transmission. These would follow in a phased manner and criticality itself can be attained in six months time, he added.
     
BHAVINI, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy, has built the PFBR at Kalpakkam, 60 km from Chennai.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

Independent probe demanded into Sunanda Pushkar's death

Tharoor, two-time Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, said he would react only after the probe gets over.

The demand came after Pushkar's latest post-mortem report, leaked on Thursday, stating "poisoning" to be the cause of her death.

Pushkar, 52, was found dead in mysterious circumstances in her room at a five-star hotel in Delhi on January 17.

C Divakaran, Communist Party of India legislative party leader, said the only way the truth can come out was not an CBI probe but only a team appointed and supervised by the Supreme Court will be able to come out with what had happened.

"Just because Tharoor won the Lok Sabha polls does not absolve him. After all he is the husband and he should take the lead in finding out what really happened to his wife, so are people here," said Divakaran in Thiruvananthapuram.

Echoing Divakaran, Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said a comprehensive probe was needed to find the truth.

"There is a mystery in this case and the people would like to know the truth and for that it can be done only if there is a comprehensive probe," he said.

In Palakkad, Tharoor said he has no comment to offer in this case as the probe is already on.

"I know what you are going to ask me, I have nothing to say and the only thing I have to say as I have said always said is let the ongoing probe be over. Let them look into all aspects," he told reporters.

"Once the probe is over, I will react," said Tharoor, who is in Palakkad on a personal visit.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

Northern Angami II assembly bypoll underway peacefully

Polling is being held in 39 polling stations spread over 30 villages of the constituency.
  
Voters are trickling in to cast their votes with most of them from village areas, now residing in towns and they are expected to reach their respective villages only by afternoon.
  
The by-election is a straight contest between NPF’s Dr Neiphrezo Keditsu and BJP’s Visasolie Lhoungu.
  
Both the candidates are first timers. While 37-year-old Neiphrezo Keditsu is a contractor-turned-politician, 60-year-old BJP candidate Visasolie Lhoungu is a retired bureaucrat.
  
Both NPF and BJP are allies in Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), but pitted against each other in this bypoll.
  
Altogether 18,834 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise of which 8516 are women.
  
Police said altogether seven companies of security personnel, including four Central Para Military Forces and three companies of Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB-NAP) have been deployed for the bypoll.
  
The 39 polling stations have been categorized into hyper sensitive (critical) – 11, vulnerable (sensitive) – 9 and the rest as normal.
  
The bypoll has become a prestige issue for the ruling NPF as the seat had been continuously held for five terms by three-times Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio from 1989 till May 2014.
  
The bypoll was necessitated following Neiphiu Rio's win in the Lok Sabha election in May this year.
  
Voting will end at 4pm on Wednesday and the counting of votes will be held on October 20.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

West Bengal gets its first hybrid solar micro cold storage facility

For the want of a storage solution, most small farmers had to sell their produce at very low prices right after the harvest as cold storages can be afforded only by big farmers and middle-men.
  
It is estimated that more than 30 percent of the agri-horticulture produce are wasted in the absence of facilities to store and preserve them.
  
The hybrid solar micro cold storage is a project being implemented by a city-based company 'Switch ON' with support from GIZ IGEN-RE, under an Indo-German initiative.

The facility will go a long way in solving problems faced by small and marginal farmers in preserving their produce and can store the perishable produce for seven to 10 days with a maximum capacity of nine tonnes using low cost technology.

It is 30 percent less expensive than traditional systems.
  
"This project is first-of-its-kind, that will help build a sustainable and resilient farming community. Upon the success of this pilot project, we will scale up this solution across West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand - areas where we are currently operating," Suman Paul, the project coordinator,
said.
  
The farmers will be charged Re one per kg per week while the cost of the solar cold storage is Rs six lakh.
  
The cold storages will be operated by 'ON Farm', a farmer-producer company run and managed by local farmers.
  
'Switch ON' is supporting 'ON Farm' to manage their own supply chain operations eliminating middlemen and thereby increasing their profits.
  
Talking about the build of the solar cold storages, Ekta Jaju of Switch ON said, "These are encapsulated by a structure built with natural material, inspired from Dochala, a two-sided sloped roof prevalent in Bengal in the 1860's – a perfect mix of new technology and natural practices."

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

Tea Board asked to allow mini and micro tea factories

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has requested the Union Ministry of Industry and Commerce to take this step at the earliest as this will lead to improvement in quality of tea.
   
"Quality of made tea will definitely improve as handling of tea leaf will be much less while processing in own factories," Gogoi said.
   
He urged the Centre to ensure that the Tea Board should effectively carry out one of its core functions of financial and technical assistance to the unorganised small growers.
   
The post of Director in the Directorate of Small Tea Growers, however, has not even been created till today which has hampered its function of supporting small tea growers.
   
The Chief Minister called for creation of the post and appointment of a suitable person to it urgently.
   
The Assam government had formulated a Cess Utilisation Policy exclusively for the development and welfare of small tea growers in 2011.
  
North East Tea Association (NETA) also called for the setting up of micro and mini Tea factories by a small tea grower or a group of small tea growers which was already decided at the Tea Board's Board meeting last year.

NETA Chairman Bidyanand Barkakoty pointed out that it was approved that the Micro and Mini Factories will be exempted from registration under the provisions of Tea Marketing Control Order (TMCO) and will be provided subsidy at the rate of 40 per cent of the actual cost of plant and machinery (excluding land cost).
  
Tea Board will need to issue some sort of permission letter to such Mini and Micro factories so that the factories are able to sell their produce through auction centres.
  
Barkakoty pointed out that a NETA member Agnigarh Bioplantations has set-up a mini factory to produce organic orthodox tea and organic green tea.
  
However, due to delay in issuance of requisite permission letter from the Tea Board, the said factory is facing serious difficulty in running its operations.
  
Barkakoty further urged the Tea Board to devise schemes in a manner to suit different sizes of tea estates.
  
"Currently, the same schemes of Tea Board are applicable for a tea garden of 76 bighas and a tea garden of 12,000 bighas," he said.
  
Separate schemes should be prepared for tea estates having an average yield per hectare of 15 quintals and below so that they can become viable units within a specific period of time, he added.
  
Out of the total 81,058 tea growers in Assam, 80,293 were small tea growers (area upto 10.12 hectares) and their production has progressively increased from 26.25 per cent in 2008 to around 30 per cent in 2013.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News

Seventh kidnapping reported in Mizoram; NLFT, Bru militants abduct 11 people

The kidnappers have also demanded Rs 30 lakh ransom for the release of the 11 abducted manual labourers.
  
Mamit district Superintendent of Police C Lalnunmawia had said that the abductors, suspected to be inside Bangladesh jungles, telephoned the relatives of the hostages at Patharkandi in Karimganj district of Assam that they should pay Rs 30 lakh for the release of the 11 people.
  
Meanwhile, Young Mizo Association (YMA), the apex body of the Mizos today slammed the Border Security Force personnel deployed along the Mizoram-Bangladesh border for "failing to protect" the people in the border areas.
  
Vanlalruata, general secretary of the central committee of the YMA, said that there had been a plethora of abductions for ransom in the area and the BSF personnel were neither able to prevent abductions nor rescue the victims.
  
The YMA also accused the central para-military forces deployed in the state of not being able to prevent illegal influx from the neighbouring countries.
  
The 11 manual labourers were abducted by suspected NLFT and Bru militants combine from a place near Rajiv Nagar village in Mamit district on Friday night.
  
Twelve militants, ten of them armed and wearing camouflages, had abducted a total of 15 people.
  
The abducted persons were manual workers engaged in the construction of RMSA school building at West Phulpui village.
  
Four people belonging to Chakma community were later released by the kidnappers.

Source:MP Hindi News & Chhattisgarh News