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  Movement Yaga Guru Baba Ramdev and the Sadhu community has joined hands to launch national wide agitation if the Center Government does not intervene in the saving the holy river Ganga. Baba has warned and has given the time limit of three months to the Central and the State governments through which Ganga passes, to “take concrete actions to save the holy river”. Otherwise he has decided to launch a countrywide agitation for it.     Battle Yoga Guru Ramdev and the community of other Spiritual seers across the country, is the latest to join the ‘warriors’ who are waging a battle against the industry and development lobbies across the country and reluctant state machineries to save India’s dying rivers. With the Baba and the Sadhu community their power has increased a lot and it is being expected that they will purge not only Ganga but many other rivers and lakes of the accumulated filth and breathe a new life into them.     Ganga Raksha Manch The seer told that he is at the forefront of a group, the Ganga Raksha Manch, set up by spiritual heads in Hardwar to press the government to declare the endangered river a national heritage.  Several spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravishankar of the Art of Living, Murari Bapu, Asaram Bapu, Ramesh Bhai Ojha, the heads of the Shankaracharya hermitages across the country and along with various scientific and legal experts are the members of the Ganga Raksha Manch. He has their consent in taking it to the streets if the government doesn’t respond to their call   Ganga Expressway He criticized the UP chief minister Mayawati’s mega project, Ganga expressway from Noida to Ballia. Opposition had alleged a land scam behind the Rs 40,000-crore Ballia to Noida Ganga Expressway announced early this year by UP CM Mayawati. Baba Ramdev said that he is not against the development activities only if they will not pollute the holy river. But the proposed plan of construction of residential and shopping along the river Ganga will result only in an increase in the pollution level of the river.   Report A recent study by the Uttarakhand Environment Conservation and Pollution Board had revealed that the level of pollution in the river has reached alarming proportions. Yaga guru urged the Center and the state governments declare Ganga as a national heritage and set up a Save [...]

Ambush Thirty seven personal belonging to elite anti-naxal force Greyhounds went missing after Maoists ambushed a motor launch carrying an Andhra Pradesh police team in the Chitrakonda reservoir just inside the Orissa border on Sunday. The launch was carrying 62 officers and constables when nearly 100 Maoists of the Kalimela dalam of Orissa sitting on two hillocks straddling the reservoir opened fire with rocket-launchers, mortars and light machine guns on the boat. Maoists killed the boat driver, who belonged to the Orissa agriculture department. The police also fired back and during the exchange of fire the fiber glass boat capsized after it was holed due to the firing by the Maoists.   Police According to the Police sources the boat sank when to defend themselves the personal carrying heavy rucksacks and weapons moved to the left of the boat. After the policemen fell in to the water the Maoists used country boats to reach them and opened fire. Two policemen and a boat driver were taken hostage by them. Only 25 “swam to safety”, six of them with bullet injuries, rest of the policemen are missing, feared drowned. “Some injured policemen were inside the cabin when the boat capsized. Whether they have managed to escape or have died would be known after the boat is recovered,” a police officer said.   Reports There are no confirmed reports about the exact figure of the safe and missing police personal. Director General of Andhra Pradesh Police S.S.P. Yadav told that 10 policemen were injured and 35 were missing after the attack. It was one of biggest and first of the year’s surprise attack on the police squad carried out by State Militia Commission, which was recently constituted by the Communist Party of India-Maoist to intensify attacks on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border. In the recent years Maoists had suffered several setbacks when they had lost over 300 armed cadres, including several top leaders. Search operation was launched by fire brigade and police personnel of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and was later on joined by Navel personal on Monday.   Maoists’ Base Maoists are slowly and quietly making their base in the cities Maoist leaders wander through the remotest vast areas of the country which are trapped in poverty and neglected by the government, raise some slogans and offer some instant justice for some social problems and pick up some young [...]

  Report A new survey based on experience of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in availing various public services last year revealed that the level of corruption is “alarming” in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. According to the ‘India Corruption Study 2007′, brought out by Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), one third of below poverty line Indian households paid 8,830 as bribes to government officials to avail various public services – from police to PDS.       Corruption Levels Report was released by the Vice-President on Sunday. It was stated in the report that nearly 10 lakh BPL households had to pay bribes to the tune of Rs 7.15 crore last year to avail the benefit under the UPA’s flagship scheme. Study has disclosed rampant corruption in implementation of the populist National Rural Guarantee Employment (NREG) scheme. States have been grouped into four categories according to the level of corruption. These four levels are alarming, very high, and high and moderate.       ‘Moderate’ In Himachal Pradesh, Andhara Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Haryana and West Bengal the corruption level is ‘moderate’. Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu fall into the “very high” group. The report was based on the corruption experienced by Below Poverty Line households while availing basic services like hospital, electricity and water supply, PDS and other services as land records and registration, housing, banking and police services.     Political Interference There are several schemes that have been initiated by the central and the state governments for providing employment and other benefits for the poor. But these schemes are present only on the papers in stead of ground level. Study found that 14 per cent of the poor households either paid bribe or used a ‘contact’ mainly political, to get the benefits of National Rural Guarantee Employment (NREG) scheme. This is the fate of every scheme and the poor.   Reality Poor can get the benefits of such schemes only through political activists. Most of funds issued for such schemes sometimes remain unused or are used for some other purposes. Situation is so bad that people all called only to sign papers only to fulfill the necessary requirements. And funds disappear like the water in the desert.