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SSA scheme: Students to get uniforms free of cost in Goa

Panaji: For the first time in Goa, around 25,000 school students would be provided two pairs of uniforms free of cost under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).

The students are from SCs, STs and below poverty line families, SSA Goa project director Minanath Upadhye told.

This would be in addition to the Goa government's programme under which students in the government-run schools are provided a set of uniform.

Around 1,019 government primary and middle schools would be covered under this ambitious scheme, for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 80.63 lakh, Upadhye said.

The SSA officials have decided to route the fund through School Management Committees (SMCs), which will decide on the purchase and distribution of the uniforms.

"As per SSA guidelines, uniforms are to be distributed at SMC level and not by inviting tenders at the centralised level," Upadhye said.

As many as 15,921 students would be provided two pairs of uniforms, while 8,473 students from Class I-III, who are already getting uniform from the state government, would be provided with an additional pair, he said.

During this academic year, the SSA has also provided free text books for 1.37 lakh students in primary and upper primary schools.

A total of 65,358 students from primary and 71,773 from upper primary schools ? government and aided ones -- would be provided free text books, Upadhye added.

PTI

Gas-based fertiliser plant at Ramagundam

Hyderabad / New Delhi: The Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday thanked the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for agreeing in principle for the removal of FCI's (Fertiliser Corporation of India) Ramagundam Plant from the BIFR's (Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) list of sick industries and for initiating action for its revival. The Government of India agreed in principle to establish a gas-based Fertiliser Plant at Ramagundam Plant with an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crs with latest technology.

It may be recalled here that recently a high-level delegation under the leadership of Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu along with Karimnagar MLA and people's representatives from Karimnagar District met the Chief Minister and urged him to pursue this issue with the Government of India. The Chief Minister repeatedly requested the Government of India for the establishment of the plant at Ramagndam. The Chief Minister also requested the Centre to lay gas pipeline from KG Basin to Y Jaypore of Gujarat via Kataram, Karimnagar District to supply gas to the proposed plant.

It may be mentioned here that during 1992 under Sick Industries Companies Act, this plant was referred to BIFR. The BIFR declared it as a sick industry. It was a coal-based fertiliser plant, first of its kind in Asia and provided employment to 1,500 people directly producing 1,500 tonnes of urea per day.

The proposed gas-based plant will be established jointly by National Fertilisers Ltd, Engineers India Ltd and FCI. The Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu thanked the Chief Minister, Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi.

Australia extends help to check pollution in Ganga river

KOLKATA: To save the Ganga from industrial pollution, the Victorian government in Australia is preparing an eco-friendly business model for tanneries, which discharge effluents into the river.

Experts from 'Sustainability Victoria', an Australian agency working on environmental issues in the state of Victoria, would visit India next month to kick-start the Tannery Waste Management Programme from Kanpur.

"The idea was given to us by IIT-Kanpur which will act as our local partners in the project. We will lend our expertise in finding a sustainable and viable solution to safe disposal of waste discharged by tanneries," CEO of Sustainability Victoria, Stan Krpan told during a visit to the city.

Funded through the Australian development 'AusAID', the project aims to clean the river that is one of the five most polluted rivers in the world today.

Krpan said that experts from the agency would explore social, environmental and technical solutions for Kanpur's tannery industry to provide it a sustainable basis.

"We will prepare a road map for the tannery industry by looking at all angles including finding a technical solution for waste management, community engagement for saving the river and regulatory issues as well," the official said.

It is envisaged that successful outcomes of this work in Kanpur will be replicated in other parts of the Ganga basin.

Under extreme pollution pressure, the Ganga river faces significant threats to its biodiversity, environmental sustainability, and both the quantity and quality of its flow.

Saina Nehwal jumps to third spot in badminton rankings

New Delhi: A quarterfinal finish at the Singapore Super Series helped ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal climb a place to the third position at the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) women's singles ranking released today.

The London bronze medallist had dropped to the fourth place after failing to defend her title at the Indonesian Super Series Premier but a last eight finish at Singapore last week enabled her to achieve 73510 points and reach the third spot.

The 23-year-old Indian had been enjoying her career-best ranking of world number two since March this year but her failure to defend her titles in Thailand and Indonesia saw her slip to the fourth place.

Malaysia Open winner P V Sindhu, who missed three back-to-back tournaments in June because of an knee injury, was steady at the 12th position, while rising shuttler Arundhati Pantawane gained 10 places to reach the 49th spot.

Chinese duo of Li Xuerui (87713.42) and Yihan Wang (74655.77) holds the first and second position in the ranking.

In men's singles, a dip in performance reflected in Parupalli Kashyap's ranking as he slipped two places to the 13th spot. The Indian lost in the first round in Indonesia and Singapore.

RMV Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram improved one place each to reach the 22nd and 24th positions in the men's singles ranking. B Sai Praneeth gained five places to reach a career-best ranking of 40, while Thailand Grand Prix Gold champion K Srikanth also jumped a place to the 41st spot. Sourabh Verma was static at 37th place.

Women's doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Ashwini Ponnappa jumped four places to reach the 28th spot.

Varanasi police to act as guardians for mentally challenged kids

VARANASI: The Varanasi police will soon be in an Avatar of guardians for the mentally challenged children of the district.

It sounds surprising but the Varanasi police are all set to take this responsibility as a part of community policing. It will be formally launched by the ADG (law and order) Arun Kumar on Saturday.

This initiative is a brainchild of a deputy SP and circle officer Sadar, Rahul Kumar, who got this idea during his past posting in Noida where several parents of mentally challenged children met him with the worries about future of their wards.

After it he studied the problem and also worked with some NGOs on this issue. But when he got posting in rural belt here he noticed that many of those children are ill-treated or even killed to end their claim on property. The trafficking of these children and killing for other reasons also takes place for monetary reasons but most of these cases remain unreported.

After it he conducted survey in Rohania, Jansa and Lohta police station area of his circle that resulted in detection of 300 mentally disabled children. However, the records of social welfare department shows only 200 such children in the entire district.

Not only this but before meeting the SSP AK Mishra to give a proposal for launching this programme as a part of community policing he also sought help of Dr Tulsi of Deva International Society for Child Care, who is also one of the directors Association for Rehabilitation under National Trust Initiative of Marketing (ARUNIM national trust) of ministry of disability affairs of government of India.

When Rahul and Dr Tulsi met the SSP with this proposal he also agreed for this initiative. They said that this programme is aimed at searching each and every mentally disabled child, ensuring availability of certificates of ailment for each mentally retarded child from CMO, benefits of the schemes of ministry of disability affairs, ARUNIM national trust, their training and counseling with the help of NGOs.

As per the guidelines of ministry the district magistrate becomes the legal guardian of such child after identification but cent percent identification of those children is proving a difficult task in existing system. To make the programme effective the SSP decided that each beat constable will adopt two of the mentally disabled child. These cops will check the condition of beneficiaries and also progress in their health and behaviour on weekly basis. The men in khaki are hoping that their initiative will ensure the availability of benefits of government schemes for these children apart from their safety.

Engineering students design 8 mobile games

HUBLI: You thought students only played mobile games? Here are computer science students of BVB College of Engineering & Technology who have designed eight mobile games which can be run on four operating systems.

The games designed by these VI semester students are Back Flip, Crazy Archer, Parking 2D, Bulldozer, Lasers, Gold Diggers, Doddal Blink and Spooky Hoofs. These games can be played on various operating systems like Android, Windows phone and IOS.

Abhishek, one of the student designers, said that college has given them an opportunity to design the games and C Logic, a private company, provided specifications to design them. ''We did it and it has given me a real time experience. It was exciting to learn how to develop the games for various operating systems,'' he said.

Gopal Joshi, professor of computer science department, said that earlier they had initiated the move of designing games by students which can be accessed on the Android operating system, but this year students designed games which can be played on different operating systems.

The college authorities first put the games on trial by inviting some school students to play them. The designer team noted the difficulties the school students faced and reworked on the games. Now, the college will release them in the market.

Each game has two versions. The team was given three days training by the company. Students had designed 29 games in 2011 and 30 games in 2012. This year, again students have designed the games in two versions.