Thursday, September 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Bihari techies unite to help motherland
http://www.ndtv.com/ndtvfuture/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080064125&ch=633563133234615000
Bihar's tragedy has become the nation's sorrow. This is a calamity that has claimed countless lives. But sitting hundreds of miles away is a group of people who are using technology to bring the world to Bihar's help.They are the techies from the state. These techies have become a solid online taskforce that's in touch with the ground realities of their home state. They are raising money to buy things that Bihar's flood-hit millions actually need. "We got requirement from the ground situation for baby food. People are happy that my money has gone to buy baby food for a hungry child," said Sarvesh Upadhyay, an IT professional.And because there are no geographical borders in cyberspace, their word on the web is reaching out to the world."There was this American guy who mailed us on our website, saying 'I am devastated by this disaster. Tell me how can I help?'" another techie Divyanshu Verma said.In fact, the technological edge that the cool Biharis have has helped them reach out to donors in newer and newer ways."There is Internet on the mobile. We are working out ways so that by just sending an SMS, a little sum is deducted by service providers like Bharti and Airtel who then divert the money to the Chief Minister's relief fund or the Prime Minister's relief fund," said Naveen, an IT professional from Bihar.These techies from Bihar, spread across different countries, have managed to raise lakhs of rupees in cash, putting out the day-to-day transactions transparently on their blogs and sites.This is a heartwarming indicator of how technology can be a tool in times of tragedy.
Bihar's tragedy has become the nation's sorrow. This is a calamity that has claimed countless lives. But sitting hundreds of miles away is a group of people who are using technology to bring the world to Bihar's help.They are the techies from the state. These techies have become a solid online taskforce that's in touch with the ground realities of their home state. They are raising money to buy things that Bihar's flood-hit millions actually need. "We got requirement from the ground situation for baby food. People are happy that my money has gone to buy baby food for a hungry child," said Sarvesh Upadhyay, an IT professional.And because there are no geographical borders in cyberspace, their word on the web is reaching out to the world."There was this American guy who mailed us on our website, saying 'I am devastated by this disaster. Tell me how can I help?'" another techie Divyanshu Verma said.In fact, the technological edge that the cool Biharis have has helped them reach out to donors in newer and newer ways."There is Internet on the mobile. We are working out ways so that by just sending an SMS, a little sum is deducted by service providers like Bharti and Airtel who then divert the money to the Chief Minister's relief fund or the Prime Minister's relief fund," said Naveen, an IT professional from Bihar.These techies from Bihar, spread across different countries, have managed to raise lakhs of rupees in cash, putting out the day-to-day transactions transparently on their blogs and sites.This is a heartwarming indicator of how technology can be a tool in times of tragedy.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Nitish Kumar Blasts Lalu for Playing Politics over Floods
PURNIA: If the Kosi’s fury has wrought unprecedented catastrophe across five districts of north-east Bihar, it has also unleashed the pent-up animosity between railway minister Lalu Prasad and chief minister Nitish Kumar. If the railway minister found a chance to hit the Bihar CM below the belt on Monday, it was Nitish’s turn to pay back on Tuesday. Nitish, making a stinging criticism of his arch rival, advised Lalu to desist from making a ‘tamasha’ over the Kosi deluge. The CM, who accompanied senior BJP leader L K Advani, on the latter’s aerial survey of the devastated areas, was talking to mediapersons at Chunapur defence aerodrome here. JD(U) national chief Sharad Yadav, deputy CM Sushil Modi, former minister Shahnawaz Hussain and BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad were also present. Nitish asked the railway minister not to demoralize the district magistrates and others engaged in the task of evacuating the flood-hit people and rushing relief at this time of crisis by picking up telephones and showering epithets of abuses on them. A seemingly angry CM said he has absolutely no intention of scoring political brownie points and waste precious time by engaging himself in political debate and skulduggery. He said the main focus of his government at the moment was rescue and evacuation of tens of thousands of the people still stranded and trapped in flood waters and then accelerate relief and rehabilitation of the uprooted and homeless destitutes. He reiterated that while relief operations would continue for months, the gargantuan task of rehabilitation would take years. Detailing how the state government had looked after 2.5 crore flood-affected people last year and managed the crisis, Nitish asked Lalu to some soul searching. “If he continued with his gimmicks and did not stop his histrionics, he will disappear from the political scene both in New Delhi and Bihar,” he said. He said he has had wide-ranging discussions with the Union Cabinet secretary on Tuesday and would deliberate with the World Bank team in the same evening. Nitish emphasized it was not the time to play blamegame and look for scapegoats.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
SC refuses to pass direction on Bihar flood - Called it Cheap Publicity
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi September 2, 2008, 19:41 IST
The Supreme Court today said that the Centre and Bihar Government were carrying out their part of work in the flood-hit districts of the state and refused to pass any directions to them relating to the incident which has been declared as "national calamity".
"What is for this court to give direction," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said when a petition was mentioned seeking slew of directions for the Centre and state government for the flood-hit areas.
The Bench said the petition has been filed for publicity at a time when both the Centre and state government were doing their part of work.
"They are doing their part of work. By giving orders can a court stop flood," the Bench, also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, observed.
"You all want publicity," the Bench said refusing to give urgent hearing to the petition filed by NGO, Yuva Shakti. The Bench said the petition filed by the NGO will be heard on September 15, as fixed by the Registry.
The NGO had sought appointment of an independent committee headed by a retired apex court or High Court judge to assess the nature of casualty. It suggested the inquiry could even be handed over to the National Human Rights Commission.
It alleged that the negligence of the Centre and the state government had led to the breaking of bund of the Kosi on Nepal border affecting 200 million people in six districts of Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria, Purnea and Katihar. The NGO sought an independent probe to fix responsibility on guilty persons for the negligence.
The Supreme Court today said that the Centre and Bihar Government were carrying out their part of work in the flood-hit districts of the state and refused to pass any directions to them relating to the incident which has been declared as "national calamity".
"What is for this court to give direction," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said when a petition was mentioned seeking slew of directions for the Centre and state government for the flood-hit areas.
The Bench said the petition has been filed for publicity at a time when both the Centre and state government were doing their part of work.
"They are doing their part of work. By giving orders can a court stop flood," the Bench, also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, observed.
"You all want publicity," the Bench said refusing to give urgent hearing to the petition filed by NGO, Yuva Shakti. The Bench said the petition filed by the NGO will be heard on September 15, as fixed by the Registry.
The NGO had sought appointment of an independent committee headed by a retired apex court or High Court judge to assess the nature of casualty. It suggested the inquiry could even be handed over to the National Human Rights Commission.
It alleged that the negligence of the Centre and the state government had led to the breaking of bund of the Kosi on Nepal border affecting 200 million people in six districts of Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Araria, Purnea and Katihar. The NGO sought an independent probe to fix responsibility on guilty persons for the negligence.
How can we be innovative in Fund Collection
In many countries what people do is call a number and there is larger deduction for calling that number like Rs 100 or Rs 200 per call. This is just a way to pay to relief fund in a simplest manner.
We can also simplify that by putting an SMS number where any SMS to that number will be like Rs 50. Most Service Providers like Airtel or Tata Indicom can set this up quickly. Just for your info - most of the SMS used for all promotional purposes are Rs.5/-.
Let's be innovative in fund collection.
I was looking at the RTI report prepared by Chanchal Kumar on Bihar Govt. Website http://gov.bih.nic.in/Documents/Jaankari.pdf Can we have a similar number like 155311 for people to use. And you deduct Rs 100 per call? And BSNL can credit this money to Chief Minister Relief Fund. If we can not set this up quickly can we use RTI number 155311 for couple of months for this? I am putting the relevant text from the 'Project Report on Jaankaari'. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the present technical arrangement the RTI Facilitation Centre CodeDial 155311 (and also the RTI enquiry code dial 155310) has been routed to Patna Tandem Exchange. From Patna Tandem Exchange all Calls originatedthrough out Bihar, are routed to EWSD local exchange, Patna from where aPRI (Premium Rate Interface) line has been terminated in RTI FacilitationCentre EPABX, located at BISCOMAUN Tower.Charging of Calls are done as below :(i) RTI application filing dial number (RTN) 155311 – 10 pulses from One India Subscriber, 8 pulses (Rs.9.60) from Non-India OneSubscriber being charged immediately after the answer of Facilitationcentre agent. This initial charge is valid for 5 minutes duration afterwhich subscribers is charged @ 60 second pulse rate.ii) RTI helpline/enquiry dial number (RHN) 155310 – Normal Facilitation Charges.For all the RTI application filing Calls CDRs (Call Detail Records)for code dial 155311 are being generated at EWSD exchange Patna
Monday, September 1, 2008
Bihar Deluge: Why no serious debate by media?
http://patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2008/aug/indra8.html
Bihar Deluge: What a Media!
By Indra
Aug. 31, 2008
August 30, 2008 Saturday: It has become now a routine for me. At 8 PM I switch on TV news channels of my choice to watch and hear the debates on current nation issues in which some of the topmost personalities in their area of expertise participate. I did the same today with a hope that at least one of the four channels of my choice will have a serious debate on the Deluge in 'Bihar and its responsibility'. Why after 60 years of independence and so much of technical advancement by the country in all the areas of engineering, Bihar is still at the mercy of Kosi? Why a government that can waive 70,000 crore loan of the farmers and provide a subsidy on the fertilizers to the extent of Rs 90,000 crore can't take up some project of national importance to overcome the source of this misery? I got the answer to my question, 'why it is so'. Even after more than 25 million people across 14 districts affected and 2.5 lakh houses destroyed in Bihar by the Kosi menace, the channels never thought the subject fit enough requiring a debate in its programmes at 8 PM. Two of the channels, NDTV India and CNN-IBN found communal problem with reference to Orissa's incidents as the subject of debate. Among the other two, NDTV 24x7 debated homosexuality and the topic on CV18 was 'left is problem or solution for reforms'. Is it not a gross irresponsible behaviour by the channel administrations in deciding the priority of burning issues? How can one overlook the natural calamity in Bihar that is there because the government after government has neglected Bihar for last 60 years? The channels would have debated why it has happened, and will Kosi remain curse in years to come too.-- Rgds, Naveen
Bihar Deluge: What a Media!
By Indra
Aug. 31, 2008
August 30, 2008 Saturday: It has become now a routine for me. At 8 PM I switch on TV news channels of my choice to watch and hear the debates on current nation issues in which some of the topmost personalities in their area of expertise participate. I did the same today with a hope that at least one of the four channels of my choice will have a serious debate on the Deluge in 'Bihar and its responsibility'. Why after 60 years of independence and so much of technical advancement by the country in all the areas of engineering, Bihar is still at the mercy of Kosi? Why a government that can waive 70,000 crore loan of the farmers and provide a subsidy on the fertilizers to the extent of Rs 90,000 crore can't take up some project of national importance to overcome the source of this misery? I got the answer to my question, 'why it is so'. Even after more than 25 million people across 14 districts affected and 2.5 lakh houses destroyed in Bihar by the Kosi menace, the channels never thought the subject fit enough requiring a debate in its programmes at 8 PM. Two of the channels, NDTV India and CNN-IBN found communal problem with reference to Orissa's incidents as the subject of debate. Among the other two, NDTV 24x7 debated homosexuality and the topic on CV18 was 'left is problem or solution for reforms'. Is it not a gross irresponsible behaviour by the channel administrations in deciding the priority of burning issues? How can one overlook the natural calamity in Bihar that is there because the government after government has neglected Bihar for last 60 years? The channels would have debated why it has happened, and will Kosi remain curse in years to come too.-- Rgds, Naveen
'Kichhadi' being served in as part of Relief Operation
Check this video
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=9GLGviw6Ik0
Also check this video below of food packets being dropped
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=PUYkE-DkZ0k
Also check the Document published by Disaster Management Website of Govt. of Bihar with Technical Analysis of 2008 floods http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/Downloads/Koshi-Flood-2008.pdf
Central Govt. Disaster Management Website is not updated for quite some time.
http://www.ndmindia.nic.in/
UNDP Report on Bihar Floods
http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/EHA-India_Sunsari_Flooding_.pdf
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=9GLGviw6Ik0
Also check this video below of food packets being dropped
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=PUYkE-DkZ0k
Also check the Document published by Disaster Management Website of Govt. of Bihar with Technical Analysis of 2008 floods http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/Downloads/Koshi-Flood-2008.pdf
Central Govt. Disaster Management Website is not updated for quite some time.
http://www.ndmindia.nic.in/
UNDP Report on Bihar Floods
http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/EHA-India_Sunsari_Flooding_.pdf
Dr. Kalam to suggest measures for permanent solution of Bihar floods
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today said he along with a delegation of experts would arrive here within a fortnight to assess the flood situation and suggest measures for finding a permanent solution to the perennial problem of floods in Bihar.Dr Kalam had telephonic discussion with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during which he inquired about the flood situation and the extent of damage.
Expressing his solidarity with the people of the flood-affected areas, Dr Kalam informed Mr Kumar that he would arrive here with a delegation of experts within 15 days to assess and suggest remedial measures for permanent solution to the perennial problem of floods.
''All sorts of possible helps would also be given to flood affected areas in the state'', Dr Kalam assured Mr Kumar.
Meanwhile, Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Haryana also rang Mr Kumar and assured all possible assistance to flood victims of the state.
The Chief Minister also talked to Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari and requested them to ensure donation of Rs 10 lakhs each from the local area delopment funds of the MPs of both the houses for reconstruction of the flood ravaged areas of north Bihar.
-- (UNI) -- 31CA30.
Finanance Ministers of Easter States Demand Their Due
Patna, Aug 30 (UNI) West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta today demanded that states' share of gross Central revenue should go up to 50 per cent from the current level of 30.5 per cent.Addressing a consultative meeting on ''Thirteenth Finance Commission: Concerns of the states'' here, Dr Dasgupta said states should be allowed to borrow from the market in accordance with their needs without being subjected to the limitations imposed by the Centre.
''In early fifties, share of the states and the Centre in total market borrowing was fifty per cent each but with the passage of time, the Centre has come to corner a disproportionate share of 80 per cent in total market borrowings,while the states' share reduced to 20 per cent, '' he maintained.''This distortion should be addressed by raising the states' share in market borrowing to at least one third, '' Dr Dasgupta said and pointed out that there was a constitutional violation by introducing conditions in deficit grants of the Finance Commission.''The amount forfeited by the states due to such conditions should be restored with interest payment to the states, '' he demanded.Speaking on the occasion, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also holding the Finance portfolio, said provision of making contribution by the states to Central Relief Fund(CRF) should be changed.The states should contribute only ten per cent to CRF instead of 25 per cent as required in the existing provision, he added.UNI KKS-ABA SJC DB SB RN2105
''In early fifties, share of the states and the Centre in total market borrowing was fifty per cent each but with the passage of time, the Centre has come to corner a disproportionate share of 80 per cent in total market borrowings,while the states' share reduced to 20 per cent, '' he maintained.''This distortion should be addressed by raising the states' share in market borrowing to at least one third, '' Dr Dasgupta said and pointed out that there was a constitutional violation by introducing conditions in deficit grants of the Finance Commission.''The amount forfeited by the states due to such conditions should be restored with interest payment to the states, '' he demanded.Speaking on the occasion, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also holding the Finance portfolio, said provision of making contribution by the states to Central Relief Fund(CRF) should be changed.The states should contribute only ten per cent to CRF instead of 25 per cent as required in the existing provision, he added.UNI KKS-ABA SJC DB SB RN2105
Great Gesture by Olympian Abhinav Bindra
Olympic shooter and gold winner Abhinav Bindra, who upon his success at the Beijing Olympics was given Rs. 11 lakh by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Sunday returned the favor to the state by pledging Rs. 5 lakh for flood relief operations in Bihar, officials in Patna said.
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