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National Human Rights Commission wants better education system and more hospitals for mental health in the country. P C Sharma, Member, NHRC says that for a country of over one billion 43 mental hospitals in the Government Sector are not just enough.
NHRC is holding today a review meeting on Mental Health at Administrative Staff College, Guwahati. States like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim will be covered in the meeting.
The meeting will discuss the issues like Overall conditions in mental hospitals, status of implementation of District mental health programme,status of proposals of mental hospitals and District hospital pending with State Government for augmenting facilities as well as granting permission to carry out teaching courses and several others.
The Commission has observed that though the financial resources and infrastructure of most hospitals has improved several areas of functioning and quality of mental health care is still remains critical.
The Directors of Mental Hospitals in the region, senior official dealing with Mental Health in the State, officials of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, Professors of psychiatry in the Medical Colleges in the region, State Human Rights Commission concerned and representatives of Medical Council of India are participating in the meeting.
On the issue of continuous attacks on Indian students in Australia opposition BJP has lodged strong protest and submitted a memorandum to the Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna demanding tough action against perpetrators of such crimes. The memorandum, jointly issued by Sushma Swaraj, Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitely, Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, has demanded the government to raise the issue through the international forum of Human Rights too. The text of the memorandum has given below:
S.M.Krishna 1st Feb 2010
Minister for External Affairs
Govt. of India, New Delhi
Dear Minister,
We have been constrained to approach you on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party being concerned about the safety of Indians, particularly Indian students in Australia. India and Australia have a history of cordial and friendly relations. We are committed to the maintenance of this relationship. However, incidents of the past few months have created a sense of anguish amongst all Indians about the manner in which the Indian students in Australia are being treated.
Indian students have been the targets of mindless violence and attacks in Australia. These attacks are wholly unprovoked. There is no plausible explanation as to why only persons belonging to one national origin are being singled out for these attacks. Citizens of other nationalities as also locals in Australia have not been subjected to such humiliation. There is no provocation in Australia by the Indian community. Neither are Indian students, some of whom may be working part time, indulging in professions or activities which can be a ground for provocation. Under these circumstances we are constrained to assume that these attacks are essentially racial in character and deserve to be condemned by one and all. The assurances of the Australian government including the Prime Minister have not reduced the intensity of these attacks.
The Government of India has come out with statements of concern for the students and an advisory has been issued advising students not to go to Australia. However, the safety of those who are already in Australia remains of utmost concern.
On behalf of Bharatiya Janata Party we have been constrained to approach you to take some effective steps to ensure that the Australian authorities act effectively to stop these attacks. The investigation of these crimes in Australia needs to be expedited and culprits brought to book. Only a deterrent punishment to the perpetrators of such crimes will ensure that such crimes are prevented. The government of India must also explore the possibility of raising this issue on the Human Rights forum globally. With warm regards.
Sushma Swaraj
Arun Jaitley
Bollywood star Aamir Khan, veteran actress Zohra Sehgal, Noble Laureate V Ramakrishnan, dance exponent Malika Sarabhai and several others are among 130 Padma Awardees, announced today. The 130 Padma Awards include 6 Padma Vibhushan, 43 Padma Bhushan and 81 Padma Shri.
Noble prize winner V Ramakrishnan, noted theatre personality Ebrahim Alkazi and Zohra Sehgal have been awarded for Padma Vibhushan while Music Director A R Rehman, bollywood star Aamir Khan, Newsweek editor Fared Zakaria, dance exponent Mallika Sarabhai have been approved for Padma Vibhushan. Actress Rekha, actor Saif Ali Khan, boxer Vijender Singh, cricketer Virenda Sehwag, badminton player Sania Nehwal are among the Padma Shri awardees.
Telangana has been a big political as well as psychological issue for over five decades for Union government and Andhra Pradesh Government as well as people of the state. As a part of Andhra Pradesh Telangana region constitutes of 10 districts of the state. These include Hyderabad, Adilabad, Mehboobnagar, Medak, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, RangaReddy and Warangal districts. These cover about 40 percent land area of the whole state and about 41% (30.6 million) population of Andhra Pradesh.
Except Hyderabad all other districts of the region is known for extreme poverty, unemployment and naxal activities too. Krishna and Godavari are two major rivers of the region apart from several (about 10) small rivers. The literacy rate of the region is comparatively lower than the Andhra Pradesh and other Southern Indian states. Government data says that the literacy rate in the region is about 58% while the Andhra’s litracy rate is over 61% and other southern states have over 65% literacy rate.
Political aspects of Telangana movement:
The recent crisis of Telangana actually started in last week of November when Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) Chief and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh K Chandrashekhar Rao started fast-unto-death for the formation of Telangana state. After his agitation Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosiah met the Home Minister and Prime Minister on this issue and hold detailed discussions in this regard. On December 9, 2009, the Chief Minister met the Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in this regard. After several round of parleys at the top level the Home Minister P Chidambaram made an announcement before media that centre will initiate process of formation of separate Telangana state and requested the TRS Chief to end his fast.
This had created a festival like celebration in the Telangana region. But this has created a nuclear fission like reaction as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayavati demanded to creation of separate states like Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal and started sending letter to the Centre despite being a head of the state. Demand and agitation for Gorkhaland and other small states had also resurrected.
This has brought the union government in jeopardy. The government had to reconsider its decision for the formation of a separate state as spate of resignations started coming after the decision both from non-Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh.
There are three regions in Andhra Pradesh Rayalseema, Coastal Andhra and Telangana. Even the several union ministers from Andhra Pradesh, especially Non-Telangana region had offered their resignations on the issue. Considering this the UPA government took another stand on the formation of Telangana state and said on 23rd December “the opinions of all the concerned forces will be taken into consideration”. This flip-flop of the union government had ignited the crisis and people, political parties and several other NGOs and agencies came on street on the issue.
Historical Perspective:
Actually the issue of Telangana has been emotional, psychological, economical issue for the people of Andhra Pradesh. Here it should be remembered that Andhra Pradesh was the first state which was formed in November 1956 on the basis of linguistic line after the report of State Re-organisation Commission (formed in 1953) and Gentleman agreement. But despite having the common language in the region the nine cities had different identity form rest of the Andhra Pradesh. It was known as Hyderabad state, ruled by Nizam. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, wanted to erase the imperialistic identity of the region.
The Gentleman Agreement says that Talngana can be formed if the state passes a resolution with two-third majority to form a separate state. There were complaints about the agreement and its implementation and step-brotherly treatment for the Telangana region for several years after the formation of the state. In 1969-70 major movement had taken place demanding a separate state for Telangana and a large number of students participated in the movement especially from Osmania University, one of the oldest institutions of the country. About 360 students were killed or died and over 3000 gone missing in the movement. This has become such an emotional issue that almost all political parties came into power by cashing the issue of formation of separate Telangana state. Even film star N T Ramarao came into power in just nine month of the formation of his Telgu Desham Party (TDP) and he became the Chief Minister of the state by riding on the issue of separate Telangana. Even recently Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party get a good number of seat by raising the issue of separate Telangana state. Almost all parties include formation of Telangana in their manifestos to come in the power.
Economical perspective:
Understanding economical perspective is quite interesting. It must be noted that there was not much objection from the various quarter when the union government announced its intention to form a separate Telangana state. But when the Union Home Secretary told media that Hyderabad would be capital of Telangana the whole political system boiled and agitated despite the fact that historically Hyderabad has been part of Telangana region.
Actually several economic issues and interests are affected by this decision. According to a study Hyderabad has been expanded from 2197 sq Km to 6852 sq kms over a period of time and cultivable land of several districts like Medak, Mahboobnagar, Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Nalgonda have been included in the process of urbanization. Hyderabad has maximum number of Special Economic zones (SEZs) in the country. Andhra has 73 SEZs out of 513 SEZs approved in the country. 66 SEZs out of 73 are situated in Hyderabad alone. This is enough to understand economic implications of the decision to make Hyderabad capital of the Telangana.
Take a lesson from the History:
It is true that administration and development is easy and better in small states. But it is not a panacea of poverty and underemployment. Jharkhand was formed on the same line saying that the state would develop very fast and provide employment to its own people as it is full of natural resources and minerals. But one decade of formation of the state could not change the situation very much. Several other states were formed on the same line but we do not see a major change in those states.
Actual problem lies in the administration and politics. If administration is better and elected representatives works for their areas the problem can be resolved to a great extent.
Winter vacations! It may be a season of celebrations for some people but the students of Delhi University and other educational institutions are busy to give their studies a final touch. While elders (Post Graduate and research students) are trying to mug up everything of their text books and notes by today the undergraduate students are trying to put their attention on their notes and libraries.
Seats in the libraries are almost full throughout the day as the UGC-NET is scheduled on Sunday, says Ravindra Das, a research scholar and regular visitor of South Campus Library. “It is difficult to get suitable seat sometimes as more and more students are coming to study here for their NET examination”, he says adding that the new pay commission has attracted a good number of students for teaching profession and serious study. It is notable that NET is mandatory for the post of lecturer.
Situation of undergraduates too are not much different. As Sunil Pradhan, a III year Commerce student of SRCC, says “Though it is season of winter vacation but we can not enjoy and celebrate. There is internal examination just after the vacations. We need to prepare for that.” However, he says that he and his friends will organize a small party in the SRCC hostel on 31st December to celebrate New Year.”
Ashu of Dayal Singh College too is in the same mood. “I’ll go out to celebrate, probably Noida, on the eve of New Year. But I have to concentrate on my studies as the internal examination is going to start from 8th January,” Ashu says while interacting with fachcha.com.
Both of them (Sunil & Ashu) say that they could not go outstation due to their examinations. They even not planning for movies or clubs in the vacations. But everybody is not like them as Sunita of Bharti College says “I am going to Chennai on Sunday on a week long trip. Some friends are also there during the trip. We’ll party and celebrate the vacation. I do not take tension for exams.”