November 2007 Edition
Girish Bharadwaj helps 200,000 villagers escape isolation
Shree Padre
Sullia (Karnataka)
EVER since they can remember, most of the villagers of Delampady in Kerala’s Kasaragod district have lived a dual existence: as part of the mainland for six months and as a fragile and worried river island for the rest of the year when the surging waters of the Payaswini cut them off during the monsoon.
Now, a simple and sturdy suspension foot bridge has put an end to such uncertainty. Erected in September, it spans 105 metres and makes it easy for villagers to go to work and school, transfer provisions or get a sick person to hospital.
Civil Society News
New Delhi
WHEN the Reliance Fresh retail chain, owned by Mukesh Ambani, prepared to open in Uttar Pradesh recently little did it realise that instead of a grand inaugural it would be really be winding up and paying off its 800 newly signed-on people.
What led India’s most influential company to miscalculate so badly? Was the premature closure merely the result of the change of government in UP? Or was it a growing realisation among political parties that private investment in retail is bringing forth widespread resentment because of the livelihoods it puts in jeopardy?
Dunu Roy
ON October 15, around 4,000 Blueline bus drivers gathered at a dharamshala in west Delhi to discuss the police crackdown against them. Along with the drivers, the buses also abstained from work on that day. The next day, newspaper headlines screamed “Blue Blackmail” and “Delhi held to ransom” and Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, threatened to invoke ESMA to force the buses back on the road.
The reaction smacked more of vendetta than reasoned sober reporting. And it contrasted starkly to the earlier endorsement of the government stand reported by these same newspapers that Blueline buses should be taken off the roads. Clearly, after the Iraq war, ‘embedded’ journalism has become the order of the day. Heads I win, tails you lose. What is the reason for this legitimisation of the authoritarian line that is being pursued by an aggressive media (and their middle class supporters) baying for blood? Perhaps, some clues to the answer may lie in the statistics that these newspapers produce.
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Susheela Nair
Hessarghatta
IF you long to experience the
ambience of rural India take an
hour’s drive to Our Native
Village Resort in Hessarghatta, on
the outskirts of Bangalore. With
its mud brick edifices, quaint
thatched roofs and a landscape dotted
with replicas of engraved
stones (Veerakallu) that tell tales of
heroic kings and knights, this
resort has all the flavour of a traditional
Indian village.
What makes Our Native Village
Resort so exclusive and unique is
that it is India’s first 100 per cent
eco resort. The resort generates its
own power, harvests rainwater and
reuses waste. The resort has a natural
swimming pool which meets
world standards.
There are instructors who can train you to be a qualified bullock cart driver. They will issue you a Bullock Cart Driving Licence. Conceived by CB Ram Kumar, an NRI and ex- ad professional, Our Native Village Resort is based on rural architecture, a mix of red oxide, terracotta tiles, granite and stone pillars.
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Civil Society News
New Delhi
A helpline set up by Consumer VOICE completed a full year on October 2
with little to celebrate, but nevertheless eager to build a more vigorous
presence for itself.
The helpline was set up at the urging of the Union ministry for chemicals
and fertilisers. Ram Bilas Paswan, the minister, wanted to check profiteering in
the prices of medicines.
However, over this whole year the
helpline has received only 3,719 complaints
at its call centre and a mere
382 relate to medicines.
Part of the reason for the few calls
has been Consumer VOICE’s limited
resources and the absence of publicity.
Initially, the government put the
helpline number in advertising. But
the budget for publicity dried up and
so did public awareness.
But perhaps a much bigger reason for people not calling in is the complexity
of lodging a complaint. In the
absence of the government streamlining
the complaint mechanism and
providing a single window for complaints
about drug prices and quality,
consumers do call but then get daunted
and give up.
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Riaz Quadir
OFTEN, in societies made up of the people, governed by the people and for the benefit of the people, we see wonderful things happening. ‘Nuit Blanche’ or ‘All-Nighter’ in France is one such example. Another creation of Paris’ brilliant mayor, Betrand Delanoe and his deputy, Christophe Girard, Nuit Blanche was designed to make the vast cultural wealth of France’s metropolis available and accessible to the common man for two nights in the first weekend of October – before his long winter hibernation. The year was 2002 and since then the event has picked up momentum, not just in France but around the world. That includes not only the grand old ladies like Rome, Rio and Chicago but Gaza and Tel Aviv as well. Today, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Montreal, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Skopje, Tirana,Valletta and a host of other cities around the planet are holding their own version of Nuit Blanche,
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