A Chief Minister’s Relief Fund
Oct 10
TOI reports:
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday slapped charges under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the former Jharkhand CM and three of his former Cabinet colleagues for allegedly amassing assets running into several hundred crores — between Rs 700-800 crore according to the preliminary estimate.
Koda, the first Independent to become chief minister and now a member of Lok Sabha supporting UPA government, has been charged with having business interests of diverse kinds — cement, steel, auto, power, agro and tourism. His alleged investments, estimated at Rs 300-400 crore, are just as widely spread — from Singapore to Thailand to Dubai to Liberia.
His former colleagues who have also been booked under PMLA include Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Bandhu Tirkey and Kamlesh Singh.
…
Theirs is a story of bold political entrepreneurship. They milked their success in the 2005 Jharkhand state polls. The election threw up a hung House, enabling them to play the kingmaker with remorseless agility. Shibu Soren, who was controversially sworn in as chief minister of Jharkhand when he lacked majority support, had to resign when the group refused to rescue his aspirations.They helped Arjun Munda of BJP become the chief minister and were rewarded with `plum’ portfolios as part of the deal. The arrangement, however, did not last long. The group ditched the BJP after the UPA agreed to propel Koda to chief ministership. Others in the group, naturally, held on to their portfolios.
The tenure was marked by allegations of widespread corruption, particularly allegedly dubious decisions on mining leases to big industrial houses and non-governance of a scale which put paid to the hopes with which Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar.
Oct 26
An editorial in New Indian Express:
In 2006, Koda was an independent MLA who somehow became chief minister. The charge is that the foursome made, just between 2006 and 2008, not just crores but hundreds of crores, even buying mines abroad. Again, the entire trail of money and documentation was just missed by all. We refuse to believe the entire income tax, police, banking, municipal agencies shared the loot. But, they all looked resolutely away while these men were on the right side of power. It is the same system now hunting them, documenting in incredible detail, in righteous fervour. If a citizen needed a quick primer on why open government is not only needed to ensure accountability but also efficiency and results it is in these reports.
Nov 3
ET reports:
Officials of the income-tax department and Enforcement Directorate have uncovered what could be clinching documentary evidence linking former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda to an international money-laundering scam.
During raids on the residence of Mr Manoj Punamia, in Mumbai, officials found document pertaining to hawala transfer of Rs 500 crore ($100 million) through ‘Abdul bhai’ in Dubai. Sources said that Mr Punamia was working at the behest of Mr Sanjay Chaudhary , a known associate of Mr Koda. Additionally , raids at the premises of Balaji Bullion produced documentary trail for a transfer of Rs 50 crore ($10 million) to Dubai. Known associates of Mr Koda, Mr Binod Sinha, Mr Arvind Vyas and Mr Sanjay Chaudhary are directors in this company.
Searches were conducted following a disproportionate assets allegation against Mr Koda and his associates. The enforcement directorate registered a case against Mr Koda and his associates Sanjay Chaudhary and Binod Kumar Sinha on October 9 on charges of making huge illegal investments abroad. The investigations led to the I-T department raids on Mr Choudhary and Mr Sinha, which in turn triggered off nation-wide raids at 70 premises across nine cities.
IT officials claimed that they found evidence of Rs 2,000 crore in hawala transaction and illegal investments. Searches were conducted at premises in Delhi , Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nasik, Ranchi, Chaibasa and Jamshedpur.
Nov 6
ET reports:
Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda’s saga of illegitimately amassed fortune could also implicate some influential politicians and journalists. A diary in the possession of the enforcement directorate is alleged to have entries of Mr Koda’s dealings in 2007.
Among the powerful persons who feature in this diary are two influential politicians. It is believed that the dealings with these two leaders are in excess of Rs 200 crore. Given the mine of verifiable evidence that has been recovered in the raids, the ED is not dismissing the diary or its contents.
Over the past five days, the Income Tax officials have conducted raids and searches across nine cities. Many of the documents seized have provided the investigating officials with requisite information to uncover illegal transactions, investments and the acquisition of property by Mr Koda and his associates. Given the experience, officials will investigate to verify the contents of the diary.
The decision by investigating officials not to dismiss the diary is bound to have serious repercussions. The ED will have to proceed with caution as one of the politicians named in the diary, though out of power, is a key figure both at the Centre and in his home state of Bihar. The other leader who is believed to have been named is an influential politician in Maharashtra.
The Income Tax department revealed names of two journalists who were beneficiaries of the Koda’s money laundering schemes. Arup Chatterji, who till September was a reporter with Sahara news channel and is now planning to open his own channel, and Prem Shankaran, a contractor who has started a Hindi newspaper, have allegedly taken money from Mr Koda.
Another development was reported by DNA:
Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda was on Thursday shifted out of the intensive care unit (ICU) to the general ward of a private hospital in Ranchi and faces “imminent” arrest on his discharge.
click hereEnforcement directorate(ED) officials claim they have enough evidence to nail him. “The arrest is imminent. The evidence is conclusive,” ED sources said.
Navi Pillay on caste
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, wrote in The Huffington Post:
“Untouchability” is a social phenomenon affecting approximately 260 million persons worldwide. This type of discrimination is typically associated with the notions of ritual purity and pollution which are deeply rooted in different societies and cultures. The problem is neither confined to one geographical area nor exclusively practised within one particular religion of belief system. It is a global phenomenon.
Caste is the very negation of the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination. It condemns individuals from birth and their communities to a life of exploitation, violence, social exclusion and segregation. Caste-discrimination is not only a human rights violation, but also exposes those affected to other abuses of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
“Lower caste” individuals are frequently confined to hereditary, low-income employment, and deprived of access to agricultural land and credit. They often find themselves battling high levels of indebtedness, or even debt and labour bondage, which is practically a contemporary form of slavery. The barriers they face in seeking justice or redress are formidable. Child labour is rampant in descent-based communities and children of “lower castes” suffer high levels of illiteracy. For women, caste is a multiplier that compounds their experience of poverty and discrimination.
Laws and policies have been put in place in many countries to combat this scourge. Constitutions prohibit caste-based discrimination and “lower caste” members have been elected to the highest offices of the land. Special legislation has been enacted to provide for affirmative action in education and employment, as well as protection from violence and exploitation. Judiciaries have sought to enforce laws and provide relief to victims. Dedicated institutions monitor the conditions and advocate on behalf of “lower caste” groups.
At the international level, the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination explicitly lists descent as a ground of racial discrimination. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Racism in 2001, recognised descent-based discrimination. It also provided a comprehensive roadmap to combat it which was reaffirmed by States in April this year.
Examining Pakistan
From Dawn:
Amidst the mayhem gripping Pakistan today, there is also a deafening silence pervading the corridors of power and the ranks of the opposition on the prevailing security situation. That silence, too, is being heard now. Pakistan is at war, and this is a war that is being fought as much in our cities as on the frontlines in Fata.
Wednesday’s attack on a Peshawar market, selling mostly women’s merchandise, is an attack on our way of life more than anything else. It is not a statement of the Taliban’s anti-Americanism as Hillary Clinton lands in Pakistan, nor is it a sign of their hatred against the Pakistan Army, which is carrying out a military operation in South Waziristan. It is aimed at women, as you see that a big number of those killed in Peshawar are women shoppers; shoppers that the Taliban want confined within the four walls of their homes. It is an attack on our way of life as we have lived it in Pakistan.
But back to the silence first: President Zardari met Mian Nawaz Sharif over dinner in the security of the presidency on Monday, and the two leaders did not even utter a word of concern about what the people are having to go through in wartime. Islamabad is a city very much under siege; Lahore and Peshawar are no different. And if you ask parents with school-going children in Karachi, they will tell you the situation in the Sindh capital is no less alarming.
Hillary Clinton’s widely reported statements to the Pakistani press are not very different from this. See the AP story:
American officials have long said that al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and senior lieutenants of the network accused in the Sept. 11 attacks operate out of the rugged terrain along the border with Afghanistan.
But Clinton’s unusually blunt comments went further in asserting that Pakistan’s government has done too little about it.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” Clinton said in an interview with Pakistani journalists in Lahore. “Maybe that’s the case. Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”
There was no immediate reaction from Pakistani officials, but the thrust of Clinton’s comments were startling, coming after months of lavish public comments from her and other American officials portraying Pakistan’s leaders as finally receptive to the war against militants inside their own country.
The horrible incident which is referred to in the article in Dawn above, was also reported by Times (UK):
As the death toll of Wednesday’s car bomb in the northwestern Pakistani city reached 117, it became clear that women have now become key targets in the militants’ twisted strategy of creating mayhem across this volatile, nuclear-armed country.
Such was the revulsion at the deaths of so many women and children that even the Taliban and Al-Qaeda tried to distance themselves from the atrocity, although few believe their denial of responsibility.
The bomb was planted in a pick-up truck in the narrow lanes between the Meena and Koochi bazaars, famous for their women’s dresses, cosmetics, jewellery and household items. Its victims included brides preparing for their weddings and housewives browsing through the latest fashions.
The reasons behind this slow implosion have long been clear to everyone in the neighbourhood. An article in Newsline states the obvious:
Soldiers, policemen, factory and hospital workers, mourners at funerals and ordinary people praying in mosques have all been reduced to globs of flesh and fragments of bones. But, perhaps paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the dead bodies and shattered lives are almost all Muslim ones, few Pakistanis speak out against these atrocities. Nor do they approve of the army operation against the cruel perpetrators of these acts because they believe that they are Islamic warriors fighting for Islam and against American occupation. Political leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have no words of solace for those who have suffered at the hands of Islamic extremists. Their tears are reserved exclusively for the victims of Predator drones, even if they are those who committed grave crimes against their own people. Terrorism, by definition, is an act only the Americans can commit.
What explains Pakistan’s collective masochism? To understand this, one needs to study the drastic social and cultural transformations that have rendered this country so completely different from what it was in earlier times.
This change is by design. Twenty-five years ago, the Pakistani state used Islam as an instrument of state policy. Prayers in government departments were deemed compulsory, floggings were carried out publicly, punishments were meted out to those who did not fast in Ramadan, selection for academic posts in universities required that the candidate demonstrate a knowledge of Islamic teachings and jihad was declared essential for every Muslim. Today, government intervention is no longer needed because of a spontaneous groundswell of Islamic zeal. The notion of an Islamic state – still in an amorphous and diffused form – is more popular now than ever before as people look desperately for miracles to rescue a failing state.
Hoodbhoy’s article does not mention one of the most important pieces in this jigsaw of recent history. That was the deliberate arming of militant Islamic groups by the US in the 1980s. This measure gave teeth to the Pakistani military-political establishment’s policies during its nascent stages. Even as the US armed the Mujahideen to fight the USSR in Afghanistan, the Pakistani establishment siphoned off part of the money and arms to be used against India in a mirror of the same policy. They continued to do so long after the USSR imploded; possibly, until very recently. Now these same terrorist organizations which were long-ago funded and armed by the US and, until recently, trained by the Pakistani army have turned against their creators.
An unstable and violent Pakistan is a danger to its own citizens as well as to the region. However, stability cannot be imposed on a country from outside, as repeated interventions across the world by the US have demonstrated. How can Pakistan evolve away from the recourse to terror that its successive governments, both military and civil, have blindly taken? The answer is parsed by Dawn:
There has been much reflection in the American press in recent days about the meaning and ends of war. … What is the relevance of this debate in the United States for Pakistan’s policymakers as they conduct their operations in South Waziristan? There are several. Of these I would like to focus on the following three. First the civilians must provide credible leadership to this effort by the military. We know from our own history that the military cannot galvanise popular support when it goes into battle to protect the interests of the state.
There was great popular support for troops in the brief war with India in September 1965 but it could not be sustained when the politicians, led by the leadership that had come from the military, were not be able to credibly explain the purpose of the war and its aftermath. … In the present context, we should recognise that a good start was made by convening a well-attended meeting of political leaders that authorised the use of force against the entrenched Taliban in South Waziristan.
Second, there has to be only one system of governance in one country. Pakistan allowed the Taliban to run a parallel government in the areas they control. The jihadists in the populous province of Punjab would like to do the same in the areas where they have influence.
Third, people have also to act. Let me quote at length from a recent article by the journalist Thomas L. Friedman who has written extensively on the developing world, especially on Muslim countries. ‘In places like Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Pakistan you have violent religious extremist movements fighting with state security services. … And while the regimes in these countries are committed to crushing their extremists, they rarely take on their extremist ideas by offering progressive alternatives. And when these extremists aim elsewhere … these regimes are indifferent. That is why there is no true war of ideas inside these countries — just a war.’
This is a correct and insightful observation. ‘These states are not promoting an inclusive and tolerant interpretation of Islam that could be the foundation of people power,’ Friedman continues.
Pakistan, unlike the countries on Friedman’s list has had a ‘people power’ movement when the lawyers demonstrated that by acting with courage and resolution, they could bring about more than regime change. They could also force a strong executive to begin to show respect to the judiciary and its opinions. The same people power needs to be mobilised to rescue religion from the clutches of the extremists.
Those on the margins of Pakistani society have found leadership from the ranks of the people who, although basically illiterate and poorly informed, are able to compensate for their shortcomings by the extremely strong courage of their convictions. The lawyers managed to find leaders from their own ranks. The progressive elements within the Pakistani society must search for those who can lead them in a much-needed people’s movement in the war against extremism.
Swine flu fizzles?
Der Spiegel reports:
Germany has launched the biggest vaccination program in its history. But the inoculation jabs are proving so effective and the disease is so mild in most cases that experts have their doubts about whether swine flu is a real pandemic.
The researchers who develop vaccines hope, of course, that their products will work. This time around, however, even the developers themselves were surprised to see just how effective their products have turned out. Researchers from the Novartis pharmaceutical company, testing their swine flu vaccine this September, were astounded to find that just one dose was sufficient to produce copious antibodies in their inoculated patients.
Similar news had already come from China, and GlaxoSmithKline followed shortly afterward, finding the same held true for its vaccine, which Germany is putting into effect as of this week. Unexpectedly, the company found a second shot for adults was unnecessary.
These findings present a puzzle for immunologists and virologists, who are now asking themselves what this tells us about the pathogens behind swine flu.
To stop train pull chain
Breaking news tickers this week informed us that Maoists had hijacked a train. The shrill CNN-IBN reports:
The attackers reportedly forced their way through the broken windows. They clarified, say some passengers, that they had no intention of harming anyone.
“They said we have a grudge against the Government. Get out, we will burn the train,” recounted another passenger…
The Naxals took away the food and the bedding from the train, leaving passengers hungry and woefully short of amenities.
After five hours of being held up due to the attacking Maoists, the Rajdhani was stranded for another four hours till the machinery swung back into action.
SIFY reports:
‘We boarded the train at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It looks as if we have been in the train forever,’ Ashok Sharma, travelling to the national capital from Cuttack, said with relief.
‘They were tribals and were carrying arms. But they did not harm us. They asked us to get down from the train. It was a horrible wait,’ he told IANS.
‘For more than eight hours, no one came to our rescue. We were on our own,’ he added.
Sangeeta, who is from Chandigarh, said: ‘Though they didn’t harm us, they asked us to get off the train and switch off our mobile phones. The railway administration reached at the place very late.’
‘I was to take Shatabdi to go back home but I have missed that. I am yet to figure out how I will go back home,’ she added.
Sohan Singh Majila of Dehradun said: ‘There were no security guards in the train after Kharagpur. Rajdhani is a special train and such lack of security is surprising.’
‘Maoists didn’t harm us, but they even helped passengers in taking their luggage out of the train when they asked us to deboard the train,’ he added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Harsh Kumar.
A resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, Kumar boarded the train at Bhubaneswar. He said: ‘The police and railway police came so late. There was no one for our protection.’
‘They took away all the food. It looked like they were from the adjoining villages. They told us that they are our friends and didn’t want to harm us. They said that their fight is with the government,’ Kumar said.
DNA writes:
“They had guns and weapons like bows and arrows. None of them had any automatic guns. There were present in large numbers. They told us that if we do what they say, no harm will come our way,” said Aditya Sharma, a passenger. “We were scared.”
Many passengers believe the government should try and speak to the Maoists to resolve the issues.
“They pulled us out of the train and made us sit in the jungle. They were a bit rough with us in the beginning but did not harm us. They said they would kill us if we did not leave the train. The government should speak to them and find the root cause of the problem,” said AK Sharma.
Once the passengers alighted from the train, the Maoists put them at ease by offering food and water. They also told them no harm would come their way.
“I am an Oriya and understood their language. One Maoist came and offered me water. They asked us if we wanted food or water, “said Balanbar Naidu. Many passengers don’t trust the police anymore. According to them the police are helpless in such situations. “At one time I thought the police will come and rescue us, but I soon realised this will not happen, “said Chanchal Mehra.
Railway staff on board was not harmed. “They broke the train windows when we did not open the doors. We were taken out and made to sit in the jungle with the others. They only took some food from the pantry,” said GK Das.
In all these reports no hint of why this could be called a Maoist attack. Only the TOI explains why this is being attributed to Maoists:
“We could see them from a distance. There were about 300-400 of them. When we slowed down, some rebels climbed into our cabin and ordered us to disembark. They said they were holding up the train because the state had `waged a war on tribals’. We followed them and sat by the tracks,” said driver K Ananth Rao and his assistant K G Rao.
The armed tribals then took away cellphones and walkie-talkies from the drivers and railway guard B B Rao. Some PCPA men started painting slogans demanding the release of Chhatradhar Mahato, the PCPA leader, on the compartments with red ink.
The passengers were told to get off the train and sit on the platform. Bewilderingly, there wasn’t a single RPF jawan in sight. Some passengers managed to place frantic calls to relatives. News of the hijacked Rajdhani triggered frenetic activity in the administrative machinery. Railway minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to the “agitators” to release the train for the safety of passengers. “I am open to talks. But the passengers should be given a free passage,” she said.
When a quick response team scrambled to the site, it came under heavy fire from the Maoists who had taken cover in Panisola forest. A police driver took a bullet in his arm. PCPA supporters claimed that the forces fired mortars at them, killing two persons. The gunbattle continued until dusk.
The besieged Rajdhani passengers could hear the crackle of gunfire. Tension mounted by the minute. Suddenly, when the gunfight seemed to be getting nearer, the PCPA cadres and the Maoists melted away, sternly warning the driver not to start the train without their permission. They returned the drivers’ mobile phones and walkie-talkie sets.
Moral of the story: TV and newspaper correspondents, by and large, do not know how to report and what to report. For once, the TOI report is a model of straightforward reportage. Just say what happened. Editorializing is for editors.
ET puts the incident in perspective:
t’s a publicity coup for the Maoists. The so-called blockade of the Bhubaneswar Rajdhani train for over five hours at a remote spot in a forest area of West Midnapore district makes several propaganda points: the Maoists can strike at will; they have popular support (villagers took part in the blockade and vacated their homes en masse to prevent police retaliation); they do not mean to harm civilians.
Of these, the first two are factually correct. The last claim is not only hollow but also a trap that the government must resolutely avoid. The Maoists are more than happy to incite state violence and retribution against villagers in response to Maoist attacks on policemen.
This point of view is even more clearly laid out in the following excerpt from an opinion piece in HT:
The current response of the Indian state that the home ministry has articulated heralds a new phase in Indian politics. Unless the causes of alienation of the masses are addressed, no amount of state repression can wipe out the phenomenon. Moreover, the Naxalites are a diverse political phenomenon spread all over the country. They have many streams other than the Maoists such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist-Liberation), which takes part in elections, and the CPI (ML-Coordination Committee), which stays away from both elections or armed struggle.
Undoubtedly the CPI (Maoist) has the largest base and has engaged the attention of the state. But because of the political-ideological character of the movements, the phenomenon cannot be crushed by physically eliminating some individuals and guerrilla groups. It has to be addressed politically through a series of developmental and democratic measures.
The fact that the Naxalite movement has grown in strength during the past four decades is not because of the so-called laxity in police operations by the state. It is time to recognise that the movement has grown in the tribal areas because there is a new consciousness among the tribal people about their rights over their resources.
Attitudes were one of compassion for the “primitive” tribals during the colonial period while plundering their forest products and minerals. Independent India sought to change that attitude to “tribal welfare” and had many schemes under that name. But it too continued the exploitation of the forest resources in the name of national interest. This process got a huge boost after India adopted the path of liberalisation and globalisation.
If the reality on the ground is appreciated, the first step is for the national leadership to change the discourse from violence to democracy. There are many serious challenges to the Indian state ranging from the alienation of the poor, minorities and nationalities to communal mobilisation. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has put the cart before the horse by saying that “unless the areas are cleared of the Naxalites, no development can take place”. It is the persistence of poverty and exploitation of the tribals that have created the Maoist base.
The real challenge in places where the Maoists are active is to allow the local people to formulate their own development strategies through their gram sabhas (village councils) and people’s committees. The current debate is about an alternative paradigm of development that is not only oriented to achieve higher growth but also fulfils people’s right to social justice, cultural dignity, environmental sustainability and, above all, self-governance.
Outliers
Telegraph reports:
Assessors at the Gifted Children’s Information Centre in Solihull said Oscar, with an IQ of at least 160, is one of the brightest children they have every come across.
He has been ranked in the 99.99th percentile of the population and has been ranked off the scale as the Stanford-Binet test cannot measure higher than 160.
…
John Stevenage, Mensa’s Chief Executive confirmed Oscar had been accepted aged two years, five months and 11 days.
BBC Berkshire adds:
According to the NAGC (National Association of Gifted Children), gifted children tend to experience life with greater intensity, rendering them emotionally complex and very vulnerable to dilemmas as they grow in awareness.
Mr Wrigley says: “The reason we actually went for the assessment in the first place was not because we were thinking ‘gosh we’ve got a really smart one, let’s get him assessed’.
“It was actually to do with the negative things – the fact that he doesn’t sleep.
“I think the longest he’s ever slept on his own is four hours.”
He adds: “The main reason we joined Mensa was to try and get a support network going and to try to network with other parents who may have children a bit like Oscar”.
…
“He started saying ‘mamma’ and ‘dadda’ at about four months,” says Mr Wrigley. “At nine months he used his first word, pointing at the Christmas tree and saying ‘tree’.“At 18 months he was sitting up in bed shouting about how the Romans built the Temple Of Claudius after we’d been to the Colchester Castle Museum.
“We thought ‘um, is this normal?’”.
While there is no absolute definition of what a gifted child is, the level of IQ is seen as one of the yardsticks.
Ms Taplin says: “It is generally thought that an IQ of 130 upwards denotes a gifted child. When getting to 150 or 160, that is obviously exceptionally gifted.”
Around the neck of an albatross
From Public Library of Science (article by Sakamoto, Takahashi, Iwata, Trathan):
Albatrosses fly many hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean to find and feed upon their prey. Despite the growing number of studies concerning their foraging behaviour, relatively little is known about how albatrosses actually locate their prey. Here, we present our results from the first deployments of a combined animal-borne camera and depth data logger on free-ranging black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys). The still images recorded from these cameras showed that some albatrosses actively followed a killer whale (Orcinus orca), possibly to feed on food scraps left by this diving predator. The camera images together with the depth profiles showed that the birds dived only occasionally, but that they actively dived when other birds or the killer whale were present. This association with diving predators or other birds may partially explain how albatrosses find their prey more efficiently in the apparently ‘featureless’ ocean, with a minimal requirement for energetically costly diving or landing activities.
Photos by an albatross
Four years of the right to information
From ZeeNews:
To own a house was the dream of 70-year-old rickshaw puller Mazloom Nadaf which he nurtured throughout his life.
For once, he felt his wish will be realised when he was given Rs 25,000 for a house under Indira Awaas Yozna but little did he know that getting the money from Block Development Officer would be a tough task.
Nadaf, hailing from Madhubani district in Bihar, claims that he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 5,000 to get the due amount under the scheme.
Four years ago, the Right to Information Act came into being and Nadaf utilised it to the fullest, an NGO that helps educate people on the RTI Act said.
Not only did he get the substantial amount without paying any bribe within 10 days of filing an application, but he also became one of the first persons from Bihar to reap the benefits of the Act.
PTI reports:
The paramilitary forces which are enjoying exemption from disclosure under Right to Information Act should be brought under it on the lines of defence forces like Army, Navy and Air Force, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah says as the Act completes its four years into being.
The first Chief Commissioner of the transparency watchdog feels that RTI Act can be strengthened if some organisations are taken-off from those listed in section 24 of the Act which gives blanket cover to 18 intelligence and security agencies from any disclosing any information.
TOI opines:
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), along with organizations like CIVIC, CREAT, Kria Katte and PAC, organized a discussion on Saturday to assess how well the Act has been utilized in the past four years.
CHRI programme coordinator Venkatesh Nayak said a study is needed to find out if it has affected government operations. RTI has worked best in tackling corruption and holding officers accountable, he pointed out. “The first two objectives of creating informed citizenry and transparency in government functioning haven’t improved much.”
“Even if RTI Act has helped expose corruption, there is no plan to deal with such cases. They remain pending for long, till people forget about it. Gujarat has a special redressal system which helps deal with them faster,” said Nayak.
The government is still secretive about many issues. Citizens need to be vigilant about free trade agreements that the government is entering into with other countries and file RTI applications strategically to understand implications of such policies, Nayak pointed out.
The 2009 chemistry nobel
The Nobel prize for chemistry for 2009 is shared equally by R. Venkatraman, T. A. Steitz and A. E. Yonath. The Nobel press release says:
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 awards studies of one of life’s core processes: the ribosome’s translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics.
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.
Inside every cell in all organisms, there are DNA molecules. They contain the blueprints for how a human being, a plant or a bacterium, looks and functions. But the DNA molecule is passive. If there was nothing else, there would be no life.
The blueprints become transformed into living matter through the work of ribosomes. Based upon the information in DNA, ribosomes make proteins: oxygen-transporting haemoglobin, antibodies of the immune system, hormones such as insulin, the collagen of the skin, or enzymes that break down sugar. There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. They build and control life at the chemical level.
…
This year’s three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity’s suffering.
That’s a marvellous press release: clarity and elegance of expression. It expresses the basics much better than everything I saw on TV yesterday and in the papers today. If the DNA is a program, then a ribosomes is the cpu on which it runs.
