Vijay Shah, Foot-in-mouth Tribal welfare minister in soup over ‘sexist’ remarks again #Madhyapradesh #WTFnews

Venugopal Pillai & Rajesh Jauhri, TNN | Apr 16, 2013, 02.37 AM IST

INDORE: Tribal welfare minister Vijay Shah is at it again. Bigmouth Shah has landed himself into a controversy over remarks involving Sadhna Singh wife of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the inaugural ceremony of a summer camp in Jhabua on Sunday afternoon. Shah had raised a stir and invoked sharp criticism over his remarks post Nirbhaya gang rape case that the parents of the girls staying in tribal hostels should be responsible for their safety.

The minister referring to distribution of warm clothes to girls in hostels went a bit too far dragging Sadhna Singh (Bhabhiji) stating that it was she who forced Shivraj to approve the programme to provide warm clothes for girls residing in state government hostels. He said, “Maine bhabhiji se kaha, chalo ghumakar lata hun, kabhi- kabhi dewar ke sath bhi chala kijiye. Bhabhi ne chatron ko thand me thithurte dekha to boli ki garam kapde kyun nahi diye. Fir unhone bhaisahab ko kaha ki ladkiyon ko kapde dilao nahi to tum bhi thithur jaoge” (I asked Bhabhiji (CM’s wife) to come with me as she always used to tour with bhaiya (CM). We went to a girls’ hostel where girls were reeling under extreme cold, on which bhabhi inquired why the girls were not provided with warm clothes. She was annoyed and asked bhaiya to provide warm clothes to girls warning that otherwise he too will have to shiver out in cold).

Repling to Jhabua district collector Jaishree Kiyawat’s request for providing track suits to the girls, Vijay Shah said in chaste Hindi: T shirt- track suit ka chakkar chodo, do-do t-shirt denge mast wali. Aur niche ka bhi denge, kya kehta hain use– lower. Lower to niche wala hi hota hai na? (“Leave aside track suit… ‘

Shah referring to his maiden visit to Jhabua in 2004 said- “Pehla woh bhulaye nahi bhoolta. Batao, pehla mamla koi bhoolta hai kya? Cheez hi aisi hai, sabhi samajhte hain na? (first ‘of anything’ is never forgotten. Can anybody forget the ‘first’ time? It is like that, all must have understood). However, majority of the officials, teachers and others refused to speak on this issue when one of the camp participant, Jyoti Rajput told TOI over phone that she, along with herfriends were shocked to hear such words from a minister of the state cabinet. She further stated that she was very junior but there were many seniors present in the inaugural ceremony of the camp but nobody was able to raise his voice.

When TOI contacted Vijay Shah over phone, he said, “Chief minister’s wife Sadhana Singh is a motherly figure for him. Once she was with him on a trip to a girls’ hostel in Khandwa, she had objected on seeing girls without warm clothes, even in winters. On this, I had apprised her that there was no sanction for warm clothes from the government and later Bhabhiji took up the matter with the chief minister that resulted in quick sanction of funds for the same”

Third gender and the poll vault in Pakistan

Sonya Fatah | Apr 16, 2013, 05.17 AM IST

If, in the run-up to the general elections in Pakistan, you haven’t heard of a candidate by the name of Bindiya Rana, I won’t hold it against you. Centre-stage characters – Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, and the new-ish kid on the block, Imran Khan, have devoured much of the media space. Yet, it is folks like Rana who are leading a quiet, potential cultural revolution amidst the madness of electioneering as Pakistan readies for a fresh round of timely elections.

And just who is Bindiya Rana ? She heads the Gender Interactive Alliance, an NGO that acts on behalf of the transgender community, better known in Pakistan as the Khwaja Sira community or less pleasantly to the rest of South Asia as the hijra community. Both Rana and Sanam Fakir, president of the Sanam Welfare Association in Sukkur, will be the first transgender people to be running for elections in Pakistan. Both are vying provincial assembly seats on strong anti-corruption mandates, and promise that new legislation – that has given them the power to vote, will bring in hundreds, if not thousands of new voters from their community.

The legal credit goes to the supreme court of Pakistan, which accorded the Khwaja Sira a right to a third-gender category and the ability to record-it-as-it-is in newly issued National Registration and Database Authority stamped identity cards. In November 2011, the SC ordered the election commission to collect data on the community and register them to vote.

Of course, not all is rosy in this contested space. For one thing, despite the SC order, less than a third of the country’s presumed 500,000-strong transgender community have been given ID cards. There are also a number of representative bodies that differ on how the community should be identified; in addition to the two organizations mentioned above, there are the Shemale Foundation of Pakistan and the All Pakistan Eunuch’s Association.

What’s got the entire legal apparatus working out the rights of one small community when suppression of all others seems to be the norm? Could it be fear of an impending bane or the lust for a big, badass boon?

For a healthy does of reality, we turn to Bihar. It turns out that since 2000, efficient local tax collectors discovered that hiring hijras as contract tax collectors could significantly enhance their collection rate. The idea worked – and those who would normally shut the door on the mid-level revenue official – coughed up their dues when confronted by the embarrassment of a public spectacle right outside their elite homes. For their good offices, the participating hijras received 4% of all collections.

Inspired by their South Asian brethren, the folks in the income tax offices in Pakistan found this to be a good, if not brilliant, idea. The result would have the direct benefit of extracting revenue for the state, and the side one of distracting the community from sex work. The only difference in the approaches – and an important one – is that in Pakistan, official jobs – with benefits – were created for the Khwaja Sira folks. I wonder, however, what the job position is titled. Can you apply if you’re not from the community? In any case, the tactic seems to be working from the point of view of state revenue earnings.

Normally Scroogish folks rush over to pull out 1,000 rupee notes sewn into their mattress springs in the hope that the hijra – known to have spiritual powers endorsed in the once-syncretistic traditions of this region – will dance, clap and sing showering boons over banes.

The writer is a Delhi-based Pakistani journalist

 

 

#India – Why is #Aadhaar being shoved down our throats? #UID

 

Why is Aadhaar being shoved down our throats?

 

At Tembhli village in Nandurbar district, a day before the launch of the UID in 2010.The village received the first numbers under the project.

by R Jagannathan Apr 15, 2013

 

Electoral logic is driving the UPA towards a patent illegality: forcing people to part with sensitive private information such as biometric data or finger-prints without having any law to protect privacy in place.

As things stand, getting yourself an Aadhaar card issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is voluntary; you are not legally bound to part with this information to anyone, leave alone the UIDAI. A report in The Times of India today also flags off privacy concerns and emphasises that citizens are essentially being “coerced” to get themselves an Aadhaar number.

Is Aadhaar effective? Image courtesy UIDAI

 

At last count, nearly 320 million Indian residents have been enrolled under Aadhaar – and all of it despite a warning from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance which wanted the scheme shut down.

Driven by its own electoral compulsions, the Centre is pushing states to make Aadhaar the norm for every kind of entitlement so that it can proceed with its direct cash transfers (DCT) scheme before the next elections. Aadhaar is supposed to provide foolproof identification of subsidy beneficiaries and weed out duplications and bogus entries.

The UPA thinks DCT is a vote-winner and a game-changer. This is why late last year the Congress announced that scheme would cover the whole country by the end of 2013 after starting out with only a few schemes in 51 districts.

To convert Aadhaar into a voter ATM scheme, you need to roll it out really fast, since elections could happen either later this year or in April-May next year. To make sure that cash is given out to people using Aadhaar, you need bank accounts to be linked to this ID number, and also marry it with data from the ministries advocating these schemes.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has already announced that cooking gas (LPG) subsidy is next on the list for coverage under Aadhaar and direct cash transfers, but the linkage to bank accounts is taking time. Banks, in fact, are not chary of depending too much on Aadhaar, and The Economic Times today reports that if money is transferred on the basis of this identification, anything going wrong should be the UIDAI’s responsibility.

Why this tearing hurry?

Cooking gas subsidy is a big ticket DCT initiative because of the amounts involved: subsidies amount to Rs 430-440 per cylinder at current international crude prices. Since each family is entitled to nine subsidised cylinders a year, a shift to DCT would mean putting nearly Rs 4,000 into the bank accounts of beneficiaries annually.

While the political advantages of giving money to voters in the name of economic efficiency is understandable, the UPA has completely lost sight of one simple thing: there is currently no legislation in place to make the Aadhaar scheme’s collection of private biometric data legal; even though the scheme is being promoted through administrative fiat, the fact that so much personal data will be obtained using private agents is giving privacy advocates sleepless nights.

In fact, there is a good reason to stop Aadhaar in its tracks—it is already supposed to have covered 320 million residents—before the project is put on a legal footing. Reason: there is simply no protection if your biometric data falls in the wrong hands and your ID has been commandeered by someone else.

A public interest litigation in the Supreme Court has challenged the constitutional validity of the UIDAI headed by former Infosys scion Nandan Nilekani. As Firstpost reported earlier, the petition alleges that “There is no regulatory mechanism to ensure that the data collected is not tampered with or remains secure. When there is no legislation, there is no offence in parting with this information. And when there is no offence, there can be security issues.”

Ankit Goel, one of the lawyers for the PIL, has gone on record to say that “the state is asking for biometrics of an individual. The mere asking of biometric data is encroaching into someone’s privacy. It is tantamount to phone tapping. Whereas in phone tapping there is legislation, there is no legislation here… In the absence of a law passed by Parliament there can’t be any collection of private information. This is against the law laid down by the Supreme Court.”

The parliamentary standing committee on finance headed by Yashwant Sinha, which looked at the National Identification Authority Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha, also came to the same conclusion: “Despite the presence of serious differences of opinion within the government on the UID scheme…the scheme continues to be implemented in an overbearing manner without regard to legalities and other social consequences.”

The committee rejected the bill, and Mint last December quoted Gurudas Dasgupta, MP, as saying that there was no need for it: “We found that the project is not necessary as there are many other ways of identification such as BPL (below the poverty line) card, voter identification card, etc. There is no merit in the project, it is just a wastage of government money.”

The point is this: isn’t it downright irresponsible for the UPA government to ask citizens to share vital personal information when there is such little political support for it and when there is no guarantee of how the information will be protected?

 

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#India – People leave mother and daughter to’ bleed to death’ on Jaipur road for 40 minutes #Vaw #WTFnews

Tuesday, Apr 16 2013 

Traffic camera captures family’s anguish as mother and baby daughter ‘bleed to death on Indian road as callous motorists drive past for 40 minutes’

• Family of four were on the same motorbike when they were hit by a lorry
• Desperate pleas for passing drivers to help were ignored for 40 minutes
• Shocking tragedy struck on section of road where bikes are banned

By Sudhanshu Mishra

PUBLISHED: 15:33 EST, 15 April 2013 |

A mother and baby daughter bled to death on the road while motorists sped past them, ignoring the desperate cries for help of the victim’s husband and their four-year-old son.

The family was travelling on a motorbike in Jaipur‘s newly constructed tunnel, Ghat-ki-Guni, where two-wheelers are banned, when a speeding truck hit them, killing Guddi Raigher, 26, and her eight-month-old daughter Arushi.

Her husband Kanhaiya and son Tanish, both of whom suffered minor injuries, spent the next 40 minutes desperately trying to flag down passing motorists for help.

Scroll down for video – WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Desperation: Kanhaiyalal Raigher and his young son try to flag down passing motorists as his wife and young daughter bleed to death

Not a single motorist stopped to help Kanhaiya, who kept running to each and every vehicle passing the accident spot where his wife and daughter lay in a pool of blood.

He fainted near the bodies after running around for more than half-an-hour.

 Finally, some motorcyclists stopped to lift him and informed his relatives and the police.

This, too, was possible only after coming out of the tunnel as there is no mobile connectivity inside.

Horror: A CCTV camera captures Kanhaiya consoling his distraught son as vehicles pass by the scene of the accident without providing help for nearly 40 minutes

Desperation: Kanhaiya Raigher and his young son attempt to flag down passing motorists after the motorbike they were travelling on was hit by a truck, killing two other members of their family

Carnage: Motorists swerve around the fatally injured mother and daughter instead of stopping to help

But by then, 40 valuable minutes had passed without any assistance coming his way.

The ban on two-wheelers has not yet been enforced in the tunnel as a tug-of-war is going on between the traffic police and the private company responsible for its maintenance over who would deploy personnel to implement the rule.

The Ashok Gehlot government had shown unusual eagerness in getting the 2.8km tunnel inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on January 19, during the Congress party’s Chintan Shivir.

Devastating: The couple’s son, pictured with relatives, sustained head injuries

The hurry was such that artificial trees and plants worth Rs 1.25 lakh were fixed with cement at the tunnel’s entrance to give it a green look.

The tunnel, on the outskirts of Jaipur, is on NH-11. Ever since the tunnel was thrown open to public, the Jaipur traffic police and Rohan Rajdeep Rajasthan Infrastructure Limited (RRRIL), the company entrusted with its maintenance, have been evading the responsibility of implementing the ban on two-wheelers.

Tragedy: Distraught father and grieving husband Kanhaiya pictured left, with a bandage around a hand wounded in the crash watched his wife and daughter bleed to death

The traffic police maintain that it is the company’s responsibility, while the RRRIL claims that it had installed the warning boards restricting two-wheelers, but it does not have the authority to penalise the defaulters.

As a result of this dispute, two-wheeler riders have been flouting the ban, using the tunnel to reach their destinations. Kanhaiya’s ordeal was caught on the CCTV camera installed inside the tunnel.

Police rushed the family to hospital, where Guddi and Arushi were declared dead on arrival and Kanhaiya and Tanish were discharged after first aid.

Police tracked the truck’s registration number from the CCTV cameras installed in the tunnel and a hunt has been launched to catch the driver.

 

Passersby ignore accident victim in Jaipur street

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309572/Familys-anguish-mother-baby-daughter-bleed-death-Jaipur-road-callous-motorists-drove-past.html#ixzz2QakaK9eM

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West Bengal – Octogenarian widow is starving – government apathy #Vaw

 

11^th April 2013

 

To

The Hon’ble Chairperson

West Bengal Human Rights Commission

Bhabani Bhaban

Alipur

Kolkata – 27 

 

Sir

 

I want to draw your attention on the impecunious living of an aged woman at the Polta village under Aturia Gram Panchayet. Ms. Madari Dasi Biswas, wife of Late Guricharan Biswas, aged about 89 years, a resident of village -Polta under Aturia Gram Panchayet of Badurai Block and Police Station. She lost her husband years back and now living with her two sons. She lives in a dilapidated hutment with pouring roof. He sons fend themselves by catching fish but not looking after their aged mother. She is now totally dependent on alms from her neighbors. She is unable to work due to her age.

 

This poor woman was erstwhile getting old age pension and in this connection opened an account in post office in the year 21.1.2008 and received first installment of Rs. 2000 on 24.12.2008, and last on 15.10.2009 of Rs. 400. All of a sudden her pension was stopped by the block administration. She contacted the local panchayet member and pradhan to know the reason, the panchayet members and pradahan not made any heed and directed her to contact the Baduria Block administration. She found the block administration equally unresponsive on her woes. Later, the local panchayet member told her that the age written in her voter identity card (EPIC) is lower and not attract the facilities under old age pension. The aged woman was forced to ferry between the block administration and the member/ pradhan of gram panchayet; while both tried to shirk their responsibility, though she is not in proper physical shape to walk the distance. On 27.07.2011 she made a written complaint to the Block Development Officer; Baduria. Again the Block administration asked her to meet the pradhan of the panchayet. At last she made a complaint to the Sub Divisional Officer; Basirhat on 18.3.2013, but, without any respite.

 

The poor woman has been suffering for the administrative wrongs and mistakes for which she is not distantly related. In the EPIC (Identity Card WB/14/094/426232), her age has been stated as 30 years as on 1.1. 1995, and in sharp contrast, her son Mr. Kartik Biswas’s age has been stated in the EPIC (WB/14/094/426007) as 40 years as on 1.1.1995.  In the voter list of 2011, the gaffe continued, as it shows in part number 127 of Polta, Purba Para, Mouza- Polta, JL No.- 99, Village and Post- Aturia, Police Station- Baduria, the serial no. 452 is of Mr. Kartik Biswas; the son of the victim woman; his age has been shown as 56 years and the serial number 453 is of the victim; her age has been shown as 46 years. So, the mistake was on the part of the administration, and they are duty bound to rectify the same without any delay.

 

In this connection I request and demand to you for:-

 

·       The age dispute of the victim woman should be rectified without delay and during the course, she must not face further harassments and troubles

 

·       The victim must be provided with prescribed assistance or benefits in accordance to the state deliverances; Old Age Pension and Antodaya and Annapurna Yojna

·       The victim should provided with a proper shelter and safety and security of the victim should be guaranteed with due protection measures

·       The irresponsible and delinquent block administration and Panchayet officials should be charged for non compliance of their official duty

·       The responsible authority who made mistake regarding her age in the EPIC must be punished

 

Thanking You

 

(Kirity Roy)

Secretary – MASUM

Madari Dasi Biswas

Roof of Madari’s palace

Kirity Roy
Secretary
Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha
(MASUM)
&
National Convenor (PACTI)
Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity
40A, Barabagan Lane (4th Floor)
Balaji Place
Shibtala
Srirampur
Hooghly
PIN- 712203
Tele-Fax – +91-33-26220843
Phone- +91-33-26220844 / 0845
e. mail : kirityroy@gmail.com
Web: www.masum.org.in

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#India- Status of the Law which regulates medical profession and the issues #IMA

By- Sunil Nandraj
Firstly it is necessary to note that the framing of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation Act, 2010 (CEA 2010) was
necessitated since there has been practically no regulation for private clinical establishments in the country. This has been due to the
opposition by certain sections of the medical profession and owners of clinical establishments for any kind of accountability or transparency.
Many state governments were not able to push for enacting legislation regulating private clinical establishments. In Maharashtra, the Bombay  Medico- Friends- Circle group which took the lead 15 years back by filing a PIL in the Bombay High court, not much progress has been achieved in the State. In  the above context it was felt that having a central act, would put pressure on those state governments that do not have any legislation to  adopt a central act and those States to modify their outdated & deficient existing acts regulating private providers. This seems to have been  achieved to an extent.

In August 2010, the Parliament of India passed the ‘Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010’, which came into force in  March 2012. Through the CEA 2010, all private and public (excluding the armed forces) medical facilities (called clinical establishments),  which cover all systems of medicine, laboratories & diagnostic centres and single doctor establishments, need to be registered. It is  applicable in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and all Union Territories. The States that have adopted this  act are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand. Maharashtra and other states are keen on adopting the CEA 2010. The central  government is keen on pushing the State governments to adopt the central Act. Kerala & Tamil Nadu are keen on having their own Act in line  with the CEA 2010. In Punjab and Gujarat, there is massive opposition for adopting or enacting similar legislations. Among the States & UTs  the CEA 2010 is applicable and adopted the progress has been slow due to various reasons. In Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim the offline  registration of clinical establishments is in progress. In the other States and UTs the governments are in the process of notifying the State / UT councils, the District Registration Authorities and the Rules under section 54 of the act. The National Informatics Centre has developed a web-based software for the implementation of the CEA 2010. (http://clinicalestablishments.nic.in/). The copies of the Act, Rules are  available on this site.

The National Council, through multi stakeholder participation and a consultative process is presently in the process of  categorization and classification of clinical establishments, determination of minimum standards, information to be collected from clinical  establishments, determining the rates and charges to be charged among other aspects.

The salient features of the CEA 2010 are that there would be digital registry of all types of Clinical Establishments at National, State &
District level. All information provided by the clinical establishment would be available in the public domain. It would assist government in  obtaining data from clinical establishments required for public health interventions including outbreak and disaster management among  others. The provisional registration would be through self declaration, without any inspection. Permanent registration would be undertaken  after categorization and determination of minimum standards within two years from the date of notification. Every clinical establishment  needs to provide treatment “within the staff and facilities available” to stabilize the emergency medical condition of any individual brought to  such establishment. Details of charges, facilities available should be prominently displayed at a conspicuous place by each establishment. Clinical Establishments shall charge the rates for procedures and services with in the range of rates determined by the Central Government  from time to time in consultation with the State Governments.Compliance to Standard Treatment guidelines as may be issued by  Central/State Govt. to be ensured by CEs.
There has been opposition and resistance from private providers, owners and the IMA for any efforts to adopt the CEA 2010 or enact similar  legislations. Some of the concerns raised by them include:

The Act will lead to “license and inspector raj”; it is anti-people and curtails  freedom of medical practice, and the penalties are harsh. Another reservation expressed is that the Act makes it obligatory for clinical  establishments to provide treatment and stabilise patients who is brought in an “emergency medical condition. The standards prescribed are  harsh and would lead to closure of single doctor clinics and small medical establishments and this will raise the costs of treatment for the  general public.

The apprehensions and reservations voiced by them are unfounded and not based on clear reading of the provisions of the Act.

Firstly it  needs to be stated that the registration of establishments is a process of applying to the District Registration Authority by providing details  either by post, online or in-person. There is no inspection and the grant of registration to the establishment is time bound, so that no  application remains unattended. There are provisions for appeal before the State /UT Council of Clinical Establishments. Regarding penalties  the act has consciously not kept any provision for imprisonment, only monetary penalties, as the intention is to seek compliance with the  provisions rather than taking punitive action. W ith regard to Standards being harsh it needs to be noted that presently there are no standards  prescribed. As mentioned earlier the National Council is presently in the process of categorization of different types of clinical establishments  and determining uniform minimum standards. It is ironic that IMA, which is represented in the National Council should make statements that  the standards are harsh.

IMA along with the Quality Council of India has been engaged by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to
survey existing standards in clinical establishments in states where it is applicable. IMA would need to support its argument that minimum  standards would lead to closure of clinical establishment and increase costs with evidence. The premise of the Act is that there are few  clinical establishments that operate using standards of care, guidelines and protocols and monitoring of these in the country is deficient.
IMA’s refusal to accept this is contrary to the interests of patient care and public health. The IMA’s reservation that the medical profession is  already governed by number of Acts through multiple regulating bodies is baseless. The CEA 2010 was passed by the parliament on the  request of many state governments that did not have legislation for clinical establishments. The provisions of the Act, which mandates that  every clinic must provide basic emergency care, is being opposed by the IMA. It is well known that private hospitals and clinics do not admit  accident victims who require critical emergency care because it can lead to a medico-legal case, or the patient or their families will be unable  to pay for the treatment costs or are uninsured. This malaise is widely prevalent.

Taking note of this, the Supreme Court of India as long back  as 1989 passed a ruling [Parmanand Katara v. Union of India AIR 1989 SC 2039] that made it obligatory for all practitioners to provide  emergency medical care. The Act reemphasizes the judgment. It states: clinical establishment shall undertake to provide within the staff and facilities available such medical examination and treatment as may be required to stabilise the emergency medical condition of any individual who comes or is brought to such clinical establishment.

Further there are concerns being voiced that concerned stakeholders (including consumer groups) have not been represented in the various bodies of the CEA 2010. It needs to be noted that the CEA 2010 has 3 institutional mechanisms ie: The National Council, State / UT council and the District Registration Authority and in each of the bodies there is representation from consumer groups and professional medical association or bodies.
The CEA 2010 is not a perfect act, it has many problems and issues that have not been covered. However one needs to remember that when  enacting an act there are various pressures from various stakeholders. Secondly is there a perfect legislation that meets the needs of all  interested stakeholders involved and finally do we keep debating and discussing and wait for a perfect legislation. It is crucial that the clinical  establishments in the country are accountable and transparent which would greatly improve the quality of health care in our country.
Regulating the private clinical establishments is a long struggle and we have miles to go…….

The author has worked in FRCH, CEHAT, WHO and presently on a sabbatical and advisor to the MOHFW, GOI on regulation of
Clinical Establishments, however  he writing this note in his  personal capacity. (email sunil.nandraj@gmail.com)

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Evidence of substandard equipment from Zio-Podolsk in Koodankulam

Koodankulam Alert!

There are substandard equipment from Zio-Podolsk!

Concrete Evidence!

Over the past few years ZiO produced and implemented a set of equipment for foreign nuclear power plants with VVER-1000: “Tianwan” (China), “Busher” (Iran), “Kudankulam” (India).

JSC “Machine-Building Plant” ZIO-Podolsk, “starting with the construction of the world’s first nuclear power plant in the years 1952-1954. (Obninsk), is one of the leading Russian companies in the development and supply of equipment for nuclear power plants. Plant manufactures and supplies reactor vessels, steam generators, separators, steam heaters, heaters high and low pressure for the system recovery steam turbines, mains water heaters, heat exchangers for various purposes, ion-exchange filters and traps, blocks, parts and support for piping, tanks, block removable insulation, evaporating installation of metal inspection of the reactor vessel and other equipment for nuclear power plants.

At all nuclear power stations built in the Soviet Union, the factory installed equipment. Foreign nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany, Finland and the VVER-440 and VVER-1000 is equipped with equipment marked “ZIO”. The factory is a manufacturer of unique equipment for nuclear power plants with fast reactors with sodium-cooled BN-350 and BN-600 reactor vessels, intercoolers “sodium-sodium” steam generators. Reliable operation of the equipment for 25 years testifies to the correctness of the choice of design and manufacturing technology.

The plant started production of capital equipment for the installation of a new generation of reactor on fast neutron reactor BN-800 (reactor vessel, steam generator, an intermediate heat exchanger, separator, steam heaters, heaters (LDPE), etc.).

For nuclear power plants with VVER-440 plant has produced more than 100, and for nuclear power plants with VVER-1000 more than 120 steam generators, which operate at different nuclear power plants in Russia and abroad.

Since 1984, the plant started production of control systems (ACC-213, SC-187), which are designed for periodic monitoring and inspection of the body, heads, nozzles VVER-440, VVER-1000 and provide:

·         External ultrasonic testing of metal hulls, bottoms and nipples;

·         radiographic testing of welds zone pipes;

·         outer, inner, and television viewing periscope inside the reactor.

Monitoring system set both on domestic and on foreign nuclear power stations.

Over the past few years ZiO produced and implemented a set of equipment for foreign nuclear power plants with VVER-1000: “Tianwan” (China), “Busher” (Iran), “Kudankulam” (India).

The plant is constantly being modernized equipment operating nuclear power plants to improve the reliability, economic performance and increase the resource set. The modernization of equipment in nuclear power plants, “Kozloduy” (Bulgaria), Rivne (Ukraine), Armenia (Armenia), Novovoronezh, Kola, Volgodonsk, Beloyarsk (Russia). Together with “Rosenergoatom” was designed and implemented the program to survey and upgrade equipment intermediate separation and steam superheat at all nuclear power plants in Russia.

In the past few years there have been new designs of projects separator superheater, high-pressure heaters for units with VVER-1000, BN-800. In the design operating experience of similar equipment and cutting-edge science and technology (NGN applied centrifugal separators, used a more advanced design PVD chamber type instead of “collector”). In the design of PGV-1000 steam generators for nuclear power reactor VVER1000 applied all the latest developments in the field of parogeneratorostroeniya: bezzhalyuziyny separator, the new distribution of feed water and purging, eddy-current testing jumpers collectors and heat exchanger tubes along their entire length, low-temperature heat treatment of collectors and others. Plant designers are working to develop equipment for nuclear power plants with VVER-1000 with a lifetime of 60 years, including the steam generator of a new generation, developed in collaboration with FSUE EDO “Hydraulic”.

The plant constantly develops new types of manufacturing equipment for nuclear power stations. The manufacture of ion-exchange filters and filter traps for water treatment systems and special water treatment plant. Also mastered the production of equipment for evaporating systems, new types of heat exchangers with heat transfer surface of the spiral wound pipes, bubblers, tanks of up to 1,000 m3, jet-vortex capacitors accident localization system for VVER-440, block removable thermal insulation of equipment and pipelines of high and low pressure of atomic power stations and more.

The design uses the latest technologies that are protected by copyright certificates and patented a number of leading countries of the world. In manufacture the advanced and unique technology: a longitudinal fin tubes, hydraulic rolling and rolling by explosion, deep hole drilling, and others.

The main goal of the design and manufacturing of the equipment is to increase the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants.

Source:

http://aozio.ru/production/ob-atom/

Translated using Google Translate

This is from Zi0-Podolsk’s Russian Website

 

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Another Gang Rape in India Puts Focus on Survivors #Vaw

 

By Swapna Majumdar

WeNews correspondent

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The new rape law in India steps up punishment of rape, stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks; a big achievement for safety activists. But they say it’s not enough to focus on the perpetrators. The government also needs to help people who survive these attacks.

NEW DELHI (WOMENSENEWS)–Women’s groups here are hailing a new law, passed March 21, that stiffens punishments of sexual violence in the aftermath of the notorious gang rape last December that left a medical student dead.

“The bill has made some huge improvements. By making stalking and voyeurism punishable for the first time, the law has recognized insidious forms of sexual violence against women. This is a big step forward,” says Kamla Bhasin, a veteran activist and advisor at Sangat, a South Asian feminist network based in Delhi.

Since stalking is often the first stage of a crime against women, Bhasin says, if it is not stopped or punished it can escalate to rape and murder. However, she adds that the real deterrence will come from changes in cultural attitude.

“The law is necessary. But laws alone cannot bring lasting change. Society needs to change their patriarchal attitude towards women. The public outrage against the Dec. 16 rape showed that it is happening. We need to keep pursuing multipronged efforts to sensitize both men and women,” she says.

Equally important, many activists say, are protections and support programs for rape victims who survive their ordeals and need help contending with the aftermath of threats and harassment.

“Poor families need the financial resources to rebuild their lives,” says Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association, a group affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. “Relocating is not easy for economically disadvantaged victims. Neither can they afford medical care. The government must announce a fund for their rehabilitation.”

Another Gang Rape

Concern for the plight of survivors has been fuelled by the case of a 16-year–old student in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya, who was also gang raped last December. The victim was attacked by 18 males, many of whom were minors.

Following the arrest of 17 men, the survivor was re-victimized by verbal taunts as well as death threats from people close to the accused. She felt compelled to move to a new town to avoid humiliation and to pursue her studies.

Last month, local authorities were spurred by media reports about the victim to ensure that she was admitted to a new school that had denied her entry.

Activists are planning to push for stronger public commitments to survivors.

“The government must announce an economic package that helps the victim access good health care and counseling,” says Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, a New Delhi-based nongovernmental organization working to empower women. “It is India’s constitutional responsibility to provide safety to women in the country. If it cannot do that, the least it can do is support them at the time they need it the most.”

On March 22 the Delhi High Court set aside a fast track court’s order restraining the media from covering the trial of the Dec. 16 gang rape, being held here. However, it put some restrictions, saying that the name of the victim or her family could not be revealed. It also barred the media from reporting the names of the witnesses in the case.

Activists and opposition parties have welcomed the lifting of the gag, saying it will help keep the spotlight on the issue of safety for women.

The case could see some more revelations with the bizarre death of one of the accused, Ram Singh, found hanging in Delhi’s Tihar prison on March 11. The parents of 33-year-old Singh have alleged foul play, claiming their son could not have hanged himself in his cell at around 5 a.m. since his arms were disabled. An inquiry has been ordered by Tihar jail authorities.

Slow Fund Implementation

Safety activists, meanwhile, are impatient with government’s pace of implementing a $184 million remembrance fund for the medical student who was killed in December.

A month after the Indian government announced the fund, there is no spending plan; no indication of whether it will fund existing women’s safety and empowerment programs or be spent to improve policing.

Called Nirbhaya (fearless), after the pseudonym given to the victim, the fund was announced Feb. 28 by the Indian finance minister during his budget speech in Parliament.

“Firstly the fund is inadequate,” says Krishnan, of the All India Progressive Women’s Association. “It is more of a token gesture. Nevertheless, if the government really wanted to show its support to women, some directions on how this fund will be used and by which department should have been given.”

Kumari, of the Center for Social Research, says she filed an application under the government’s Right to Information Act questioning how the fund will be used.

On March 21, both houses of India’s Parliament passed an anti-rape bill. Under the changes, the minimum sentence for gang rape, rape of a minor or rape by police officers or a person in authority will be doubled to 20 years, from the previous seven to 10 years, and can be extended to life without parole.

The bill stipulates the death penalty for repeat rapists and, for the first time, makes second occurrences of voyeurism and stalking non-bailable offences. Also for the first time, acid attacks are now defined as a crime and perpetrators face a minimum 10-year jail term.

Although the new law imposes stricter punishment for police officers who fail to properly register complaints of sexual assault, more police training and gender sensitization is needed, says Kalpana Vishwanath of Jagori, a New Delhi-based advocacy group for women’s rights and gender equality.

While Delhi police have shown a willingness to improve their services, more work is needed in other parts of the country, she says.

A 10-year-old rape victim in the Bulandshahr district of the eastern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was put behind bars by police last week after she approached them with her mother to file a complaint of rape. It was only after local protest that the victim was finally released after being detained for several hours. The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the matter.

Swapna Majumdar is based in New Delhi and writes on gender, development and politics.

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Kurukshetra- Missing Prachi Kumari since 16days Kidnapped and Killed ? #Vaw

: manavatavadi@lycos.com

The Station House Officer

Ideal Police Station

Kurukshetra University

Geeta Kendra

KURUKSHETRA

 

Subject: OUR SUSPICIONS ABOUT MISSING Prachi Kumari SINCE April 1, 2013

 

Sir,

 

Today is the 16^th day of Prachi’s Missing from the University College of Kurukshetra University. With Constant and deep Agony we endorse our suspicions about Prachi Kumari’s missing as under:

 

1.    It is the 13^th day of our intimating of the name, address and telephone numbers of the kidnappers but we don’t know what the police has done except dragging us to Delhi for an expensive exercise even after knowing that we maintain our works by collecting Alms (BHIKSHA) from the village peasants.

 

2.    We suspect that either the kidnappers are torturing the girl by keeping her away from the communication system for any of their nefarious intentions or have already killed her. Because our only request to the police, just to let us meet her to see her live also in good physical and mental health was not cared yet. Instead we are being mocked at that she has already married so no need of any inquiry about her.

 

3.    As we are a Secular Education Centre so we have all respect for freedom of thinking and freedom of choice, so if she has married to any one of any caste, color, denomination, socio-economic status, ethnic, race or even any gender we would have no problem in accepting her position or also we have no hesitation in giving her moral and any other support we are capable of. Then we don’t understand why the police are standing reluctant in making our meeting possible, if at all she is not captivated, sold for any nefarious cause or not killed?

 

Would the police prove fair to produce Prachi Kumari for our meeting and satisfaction of her safety and physical and mental health? The kind Principal of the University College and her class mates and the Teachers of the UC Department of Bio-Tech are also worried for she couldn’t appear in her final Practical Examination.

 

Kindly help us to meet her if she is married or chosen a partner to live with and if she is kept captive then kindly rescue her so that she can go back to her school and if she is at all killed by the kidnappers then kindly discover and take the action whatever is appropriate for the police and oblige.

 

In Constant and Deep Agony,

 

Swami Manavatavadi                                                               (April 16, 2013)

Manavatavadi Vishwa Sansthan

Rajghat, Kurukshetra-136118, Haryana

E-mail: manavatavadi@lycos.com

Tel: 01744-291278, FAX: 01744-291378 (ask for line)

 

Crocodile tears on the West Bank #Palestine

GITHA HARIHARAN, The Hindu

Expressions of solidarity for the Palestinian people have little meaning unless they become a powerful collective voice that can build pressure on Israel

The day U.S. President Barack Obama came to Ramallah, I was supposed to go to Haifa. The plan was to see one bit of ’48 — the Palestine that Israel took over during the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948. But the roads closed in Ramallah and Jerusalem; the checkpoints were on high alert; my visit to Haifa was cancelled.

I walked around Ramallah, uphill, downhill. The police whizzed past in trucks and vans; several protests were to be held. I saw one of these. Many of the banners bore a prominent key: the key to return, the right of the Palestinian people to return home.

As the day wore on, Obama and Palestinian President Abbas stood stiffly next to each other on television screens. Unlike the official images of the day before in Israel, the Ramallah meeting showed the leaders cold and unsmiling. What they said officially, said little about the misery and hope of real people. Perhaps, leaders get used to talking about the people they speak for in people-less terms. But the Palestinians were not missing. Despite the official cacophony of speeches, the barricaded and gun-toting security, I had no trouble seeing the people who become phantoms in official meetings. I had already seen them in stubborn flesh and blood in the days leading up to Obama’s visit. I had been to Jerusalem, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, and several villages on the road between Ramallah and Nablus, and the road between Bethlehem and Hebron. I had seen what people wrote and drew on the illegal wall Israel has built through their land and lives. I had heard what those I met had to say.

Apartheid wall

Obama, like all tourists and pilgrims, went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a church beautiful because it is simple. But the beauty that spoke to me was elsewhere — in, for instance, the brave hope of the key of return I saw everywhere in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. (The giant key above the rough arch at the camp entrance says on it: Not for sale.)

But before that hope in the future can be stoked, the unfolding present intrudes. One of the inescapable images of the present, in Bethlehem and elsewhere, is the wall Israel has been building despite its being declared illegal by the International Court of Justice. This Separation Barrier, which Palestinians call the Apartheid Wall, snakes its way across, between and around hills, farms, groves, villages, roads and houses throughout the West Bank, separating people from their neighbours, their schools, their hospitals, their shops, their land, their trees, their crop, their wells and springs. The wall is made of concrete. In places it is supplemented by, or growing into a wall from, electrified fencing, deep trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, electronic ground and fence sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers and razor wire. The wall does not run along the Green Line; it runs through the West Bank, on occupied Palestinian land. The plan is for the wall to be as long as 650 km.

In Bethlehem, the wall blocks the old entrance to the city from Jerusalem. A house I visited used to be across Rachel’s Tomb, a shrine visited by different communities. The house is now walled in on three sides. The house is called Sumud House; sumud means steadfastness.

If a third Intifada is brewing, the wall is one of the faces of the enemy. The wall across the Aida Refugee Camp, which was set up in 1950, has rows of Intifada martyrs painted on it.

Part of the wall is burnt; a watchtower with sniper-windows stands charred, testimony to the anger of people in the camp. The graffiti on this part of the wall sends sharp and eloquent messages, and not just to the Israelis: “No one can talk about the camp better than the people of the camp,” says one. An activist spoke to me ruefully about the numerous delegations that visit the wall, spray-paint words and images of solidarity on it. “We tell them to speak to people first,” he said. But many come with their readymade messages; like other genuine causes, this last bastion of colonialism can also be turned into a solidarity cottage industry.

Najwan Darwish, a poet I was on a literary panel with in Ramallah, read a poem about the bleak situation in Palestine today: “I tried once to sit in one of the vacant seats / but the word reserved was lurking there like a hyena. / I did not sit. / No one did. / The seats of hope are always reserved.” Darwish added, “I hate the word suffering. Suffering makes me think of victims.”

He was also wary of the word solidarity: too many people use solidarity merely as a means of self-expression. But solidarity is important, of course; we have the South African model in relatively recent memory. We also have the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to build international pressure on Israel.

This is the way I unravelled this call to revisit solidarity. Having seen and heard what I did in Palestine, it would be impossible to shy away from solidarity. But my own little solidarity means nothing by itself; it can only mean something if it grows into an Indian solidarity. And Indian solidarity can only mean pressuring our government to end the deepening “strategic” relationship between India and Israel — an alliance that means the purchase of arms from Israel, joint investment and industry ventures, collaborative research and educational programmes, and cultural exchange. Israel the occupier spends a great deal on building Brand Israel that can be sold in countries like ours. Our solidarity with Occupied Palestine is only worthwhile if we make sure India does not contribute to subsidising the Israeli colonial war machine.

(Githa Hariharan is a writer.)

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