Clean air on Sale

The most populace country in the world, namely, China has undergone a Sea Change in increasing the number of vehicles/automobiles and number of factories.  On account of this development the environment in the Country especially in and around the Capital of Beijing is highly disturbed and  polluted. The Capital city invariably remains under a thick smoke cloud like a snow fall.  The people have started wearing mask to protect their faces from air pollution.  Although the Chinese Government has taken a number of steps to protect environment, things have not improved considerably. Under these circumstances, an industrialist named  Mr. Chen Quangpio started collecting the clean air in cans and selling at a price of Rs.40/- per can. This man of  44 years old has sold almost 80 lakh cans so far.

Hail the Chief Minister

The infanticide practised against the female gender was curbed by the Chief Minister Selvi. J. Jayalalitha, in the year 1992.  Due to her effort under the caption ‘Cradle Children Scheme’ as many as 3,501 girl children and 695 male children were saved and protected. Under a different scheme called ‘Girl Child Protection Scheme’ in those families where the annual income was less than Rs 50,000/- and having only one girl child with one of the parents having undergone family planning before they attained 35 yrs, a sum of Rs.50, 000/- was kept as Fixed Deposit for such a child and the same amount was to be released with interest to the girl at the age of 18 yrs. Similarly the provision for those families having two girl children was to the extent of Rs.25, 000/- each. Of late the girls getting married are also given 4 grams of gold and marriage allowances depending on their education and qualifications.

No doubt girl children will sing in praise of the Chief Minister Selvi. J. Jayalalitha.

5 crore moved out of poverty: Government

The times news network reported on March 20, 2012  that as per the data released  by Planning Commission the poverty level had significantly declined between 2004 – 2005 and 2009- 10. The new estimates are based on the poverty line that averages Rs. 672.8 per month (Rs. 22.43 per day) in rural areas and Rs. 859.6 per month (Rs. 28.65 per day) in urban areas for 2009-10. In a state like Delhi, the urban poverty line translated to Rs. 34.67 per person per day. In the Supreme Court, the government had earlier submitted that the updated poverty line was likely to be Rs. 26 per day in rural areas & Rs. 32 per day in the towns in June 2011. As things stand, a host of centrally sponsored social security schemes for the poor exclude those above these poverty lines from availing of the benefits under the scheme. By the lowered bench marks, poverty across the country declined by 7.3%.

That Bihar under Nitish Kumar grew at over 10% between2004-05 & 2009-10 is now well known.  There is no doubt that poverty level is coming down percentage-wise but in absolute numbers it is still huge defying solution and worrying the well-wishers in the country.

Who is to bell the cat?

 M. Sundaramurthy had reported from Ponneri, near Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu State on 4^th September, 2011 in Dinamani, a Tamil Daily that although a structure had been erected by Ponneri Municipality to make manure from the wastes collected from 18 Municipal Wards, after segregating them into degradable and non–degradable, it wasn't being utilised.  It is strange that nobody took the initiative and saved the river Aarani flowing near Ponneri Town from being used as a dumping ground.  The local residents including environmental experts have been clamoring for attention by the District Administration.

One would expect that by this time such a structure constructed at some cost for the purpose of segregating the wastes and making manure would have started commissioning.  If not, it is for the District Administration to take it up as a challenge and solve the problem without any further waste of time.