Kutch, Saurashtra continue to shiver

BHUJ/RAJKOT: Kutch and Saurashtra continued to reel under the cold wave with Naliya in Kutch being the coldest in the state at 4.2 degrees Celsius and Jamnagar in Saurashtra recording 7 degrees on Friday.

Friday was coldest day for Bhuj this winter till now as mercury dipped below 6.5 degrees Celsius for the first time. Most people were forced to remain indoors. People squatting around bonfires and wrapped in woollens in the afternoons, too, was a common sight in the region.

Naliya, where mercury had dropped to a record low of 0.8 degrees Celsius on Thursday night, recorded 4.2 degrees on Friday. A 48-year-old sadhu was said to have died due to cold and his body was found from Atmaram Circle on Bhuj-Madhapar Road.

People coming to Kutch from other parts of Gujarat had difficulty landing in the region early in the morning. Rickshaw stands that are generally crowded in the wee hours to get passengers coming in private luxury buses were empty, leaving the visitors stranded in biting cold.

"Reaching my home after landing from a bus was very difficult," said Vruntank, a student who arrived home from Ahmedabad in a private luxury coach at 5 am on Friday.

Alapnagadh, Khengar Park and Rajendra Park, some of the favourite places thronged by people in the evenings in Bhuj, wore a completely deserted look.

In Saurashtra, Jamnagar shivered at 7 degrees, while Rajkot recorded the minimum temperature of 9.4 degrees. Porbandar recorded 10.4 degrees Celsius, while Surendranagar and Amreli shivered at 10.8 degrees.

Saurashtra farmers start destroying onion crop

RAJKOT: Onion growers in Saurashtra are crying foul over not getting enough prices for their produce. Months after potato farmers in Deesa destroyed potatoes worth crores, farmers in Saurashtra are doing the same.

Onion growers in villages of Mahuva in Bhavnagar, one the highest producers of the vegetable in the state and Talaja in Rajkot are either not harvesting it or are destroying it for fear of not getting enough prices in the market.

Pravin Kathiriya, a board member in Mahuva Marketing Yard, said, "This is the worst ever scenario for onion growers as they are not even able to recover the minimum production cost of their crops. At present, farmers are getting Rs 40 to Rs 60 per 20 kg for red onion and Rs 100 to Rs 120 for white onion."

Mahuva Marketing Yard receives 1 lakh bag (one bag contains 50 kg) onion daily.

"Farmers have started destroying crops in the fields and avoiding harvest. They have already spent a lot of money on production. Now, they do not have money to take the onions to the market," said Bharatsinh Wala, a farmer in Taredi village of Mahuva taluka.

A major chunk of the total red onions produced in this region was consumed in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. "However, onions from Rajashtan and Maharashtra which are less expensive have made inroads in these regions due to which farmers of Saurashtra have lost ground and are seeing the onions pile up," said Pravin Gajera, an onion trader in Mahuva, reasoning the decline in the prices.

According to Babubhai Wala, a farmer from Dudhala village in Mahuva, "on an average farmers spend Rs 40,000 per bigha to produce onions. As against it, farmers reap 100 bags of 20 kg each per bigha. Large number farmers have opted not to harvest the crop." Moreover, Saurashtra produces around 60% of total onion production of the state.

Big B performs `shradh` in Patan

Banaskantha: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is shooting in Gujarat for an ad campaign on tourism, Monday performed `shradh` (ritual performed after death of one`s parents) at famous Bindu Sarovar in Siddhpur town of Patan district, officials said.

Bindu Sarovar is a well known place for `matru tarpan` (shradh for one`s mother) and Big B performed the ritual before leaving for Vadnagar in Mehsana district. Over a dozen priests participated in the act, they said.

"He (Bachchan) spent nearly five hours at the place and then left for Vadnagar in Mehsana district in the afternoon," said Patan Collector J G Hingrajiya.

"Bindu sarovar in Siddhpur is only place in India where `matru-shradh` can be performed. Thousands of people come here annually to perform the ritual," he added.

The actor later in the evening began shooting for the promotional campaign `Khushboo Gujarat Ki`(Essence of Gujarat) for Gujarat tourism at famous Toran or the ancient pillars of Vadnagar in Mehsana.

According to sources, Bachchan was surprised when he was told that the magnificent pillars were built in red and yellow sand stones without lime or any cementing material and each pillar occupied more than 2.25 sq metre which gives massive stability to the pillars that resembles closely with those at Modhera sun temple, located 25 km away from Mehsana.

Late in the evening, Bachchan left for Balaram Resort Palace in Banaskantha where he will make a night halt before leaving for temple town of Ambaji tomorrow to continue the shooting. 

Mehsana, shame of India!

AHMEDABAD: Mehsana town has notched the shameful distinction of having the lowest child sex ratio among urban centres in India. With only 760 girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 year age group, Mehsana has hit the lowest ebb on the gender index, according to just-released Census 2011 figures.

The town, with a population of 1.9 lakh, has 7,753 girls against 10,203 boys in the 0-6 year age group. With a literacy rate of 90% and dominated by influential and affluent Patels, this is a reflection of a strong bias against the girl child in this north Gujarat town. The Census figures are available for towns with more than one lakh population.

Mehsana is the only city from Gujarat that figures on the list having a child sex ratio less than 800. Mehsana is followed by twin cities Sonipat and Bahadurgarh of Haryana that have child sex ratio of 784. In fact, Haryana has three cities with less than 800 child sex ratio, the third one being Rohtak (793 girls). Agra, in UP, too reflects little love for the girl child - it has only 790 girls per 1,000 boys.

Unfortunately, Mehsana's national infamy is a continuation of the alarming situation unearthed in 2001, when it was revealed that the district had a low child sex ratio of 801.

While the district has improved its tally in 2011 to 845, the main town continues to languish. Gujarat's sex ratio has only marginally improved from 883 girls per thousand boys in 2001 to 886 in 2011.

Social activist Prakash Modi of Young Citizen Group says getting a sex determination test on the sly is easy for most well-off families in north Gujarat where the gender bias is strong.

Mehsana district collector Rajkumar Beniwal says there are 90 registered sonography machines in the town. Of these, seven machines were sealed in the past under Pre-Conception Pre Natal Diagnostics Test Act. Beniwal has been sending letters to each pregnant mother urging them not to discriminate between a boy and a girl and also informing them that sex determination is illegal.

"The Patel community introduced fee waivers for educating the girl child and promoting awareness against sex determination. But the damage done in the past continues to reflect even now. We have to make more efforts to bring a social change," says Anil Patel, former minister and president of Umiya Mataji Mandir Sansthan, the trust of the local deity revered by Patels.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India preparing report on Indian black money in foreign banks

RAJKOT: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) today said it was preparing a detailed report on the Indian black money stashed away illegally in foreign banks. 

"ICAI is preparing a report on those who have stashed black money in foreign accounts and will soon submit it to the Ministry of Finance for further action," ICAI president G Ramaswamy told reporters. 

He was speaking on the sidelines of the foundation stone laying ceremony of the ICAI's proposed building at 150 ft. Ring Road here. 

Observing that the country is facing a huge crunch of chartered accountants to meet global challenges, Ramaswamy said, "India's economy is growing up and we have around 1.75 lakh chartered accountants which is not enough to meet the growing demand". 

The US is facing economic slowdown and India is the only country which can compete with China. And in such circumstances the country needs more and more chartered accountants, he said. 

Observing that Gujarat's economy is growing at a rapid pace, the ICAI chief said the regulator's objective was to provide state-of-the-art coaching to students willing to become chartered accountant. 

"Gujarat's economy is growing at rapid pace and Rajkot is an important city and we want to have infrastructure to provide coaching as we have large number of chartered accountancy students from the city," he added. 

Bhuj govt hospital stays with Adani group

A division bench of the Gujarat high court comprising acting chief justiceBhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JBPardiwala rejected the PILchallenging the state government’s decision to hand over Bhuj’sgovernment hospital to the Adanigroup for its medical college.

The petitioner, Adam Chaki, had submitted in his PIL that the government hospital was destroyed in the 2001 quake and rebuilt with advanced facilities using money from the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation fund. But the state government had handed it over to the Adanigroup on a lease of 99 years. The petitioner had demanded that the government cancel the lease for the sake of poor people. Giving details of the high court judgement, government pleader PK Jani said that the court had observed that the idea of public-private partnership is the latest concept of our time. It allows the government to retain its ownership of the hospital,Jani said.

“The high court has also accepted our contention that the income of the hospital would also be used to pay the expenses of the hospital and its upgrading. The name of the hospital would not be changed,” Jani said.

The petitioner had listed events which had allegedly exposed how the state government handed over the administration of the hospital without following any procedure, including inviting other interested parties. According to thePIL, GK General Hospital of Bhuj was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the quake of 2001.

The hospital is situated in a district that touches the border with Pakistan. The PIL further stated that the hospital had provided medical facilities and treatment during emergency situations such as quake, hurricane, flood and other natural calamities.

The government’s decision to hand over the hospital’s administration to a private party could affect the treatment offered to poor people, the PILsaid.The government has spent more then Rs100 crore on the reconstruction of the hospital and had handed it over to a private group on 99 years’ lease.

Rs1,029.76 cr Rajkot Municipal Corporation budget proposed

RAJKOT: Municipal commissioner Ajay Bhadoo on Tuesday presented Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC)'s budget for 2012-13 before the standing committee.

While presenting a Rs 1,029.76 crore budget, Bhadoo said this was for the first time they were focusing on education and health sector in the city though it was not the corporation's primary responsibility.

"This time we have laid stress on education and health and proposed Rs 3,668 lakh to implement various projects in this sector. About 3.56 per cent of the total budget has been earmarked for education and health sector,'' Bhadoo said.

He has not proposed any tax hike in the budget. Bhadoo said RMC's target in the upcoming year would be to complete the ongoing solar lights, community hall, town planning roads, water drainage, night shelter, urban health centre, express feeder line projects among others. He said new anganvadis will be set up and all RMC schools will be covered under web-based services. A student tracking system will be also be installed in schools to enhance quality of education and to improve attendance.

"New health clinics have been proposed. Additional vaccination services and hospital safety programmes will be carried out. Thalassemia and juvenile diabetes detection and treatment will be carried out," Bhadoo added.

"Keeping in mind the increasing traffic and the issue of parking in the city, a separate traffic and transport department will be set up. A new parking policy is underway and it will be implemented in this year itself," he said.

Bhadoo said, "We are going start a 10-km marathon event and it will be an annual event. We will invite celebrities for participation. Kathiyawadi food festival, too, would be an annual feature." RMC would carry out a 'Race Course Development Master Plan' looking at the requirement for next 25 years.