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.

Moniya in Rajkot - In memory of Mahatma Gandhi

On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. Today we remember this fateful day as Martyr's Day. His philosophy continues to be relevant today. Let's take a look at the influences that shaped his ideas and views.

From Porbandar, a sleepy little port town, Gandhiji's family moved to Rajkot when he was four. Through his mother and the people in the neighbourhood young Mohandas learnt about Vaishnavism and Jainism, faiths that held all creatures as sacred. He would later record in his autobiography “Jain monks would pay frequent visits to my father”. He grew among people who would not kill or harm any wildlife, animals or birds, even if they destroyed their crops. There were also Muslim and Parsi friends of his father dropping in. These many influences combined to give Gandhiji an understanding and tolerance for all faiths.

It was in Rajkot that Moniya, as Gandhiji was called by the family, came face to face with the British Raj. Rajkot was the headquarters of the Resident, the official representative of British rulers. He went to Alfred High School where the students learnt in English medium and played cricket. Gandhiji realised the difficulties in learning through a language that is not your mother tongue. He called this “the tyranny of English”. Not only language, in other aspects also, such as dress, Gandhiji supported things Indian and despised the craze for western habits.

During his first year, an Inspector of Schools visited his class and gave a dictation. Gandhi misspelt the word “kettle”. The class teacher standing behind Gandhiji asked him to take a peek at the slate of the next student, who had written the word correctly. Gandhiji refused to do so and faced the consequence. Even as a student he had a strong sense of honesty.

Much of what we know about Gandhiji, his weaknesses and mistakes, we know through his own words.

When he was 12, he along with a few friends, gathered cigarette stubs thrown by an uncle and began smoking. Then they started stealing coins from the servants to smoke.

However, Gandhiji all along felt he was doing something terribly wrong. He had an urge to confess to his father. He wrote what he did clearly on a piece of paper and gave it to him, asking for forgiveness. The father, who was in his sick bed, did not get angry but shed tears, moved by his son's honesty.

Many years later, Gandhiji recalled it as an act of ahimsa on the part of his father. Mahatma Gandhi began thinking about non-violence. He recorded that he did not think killing bugs and scorpions in the house was wrong.

In 1926 in a textile factory campus in Ahmedabad, the management destroyed about 60 stray dogs. Some people complained to Gandhiji. He supported the action of the factory and said that stray dogs should be put down.

He wrote articles in his magazine Young India, explaining the decision and his idea of ahimsa. Many ideas of Gandhiji began to take shape even when he was a school student.

Essar Projects to commission Ro Ro facility to connect Saurasthra with south Gujarat

The state government kicked off the commissioning of Ro Ro facility between Gogha in Saurashtra and Dahej in South Gujarat. The state authority Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) awarded contract to build the Ro-Ro Ferry Service to Essar Projects. The project is scheduled to be completed in 15 months and will cost Rs 225 crore. On Wednesday, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ro Ro facility between Gogha and Dahej.

Proposed Ro-Ro Ferry Service will reduce distance between Gogha & Dahej by 360km land-route to a 31km sea-route. The government of Gujarat and Essar Project are claiming that the project will reduce 80% distance besides saving in fuel costs and travel-time.

Commenting on the project, Essar Projects president & CEO Alwyn Bowden said, "It is a matter of pride for us to associate with this prestigious project. The vision of Gujarat to provide a strategic connectivity through this project will go a long way in boosting trade and industry in the region by substantially reducing travel time. Essar Projects can contribute to making this vision a reality with its four decades of experience in marine construction."

According to 'Origin Destination' survey conducted by GMB in November 2008 , a large number of passenger and cargo traffic is available and demonstrated a potential to develop a ferry service in the Gulf of Cambay. The strategic locations of Gogha and Dahej in the Gulf of Cambay offers the planned ferry service a great potential to develop, given the easy crossing of the Gulf.

In order to keep up with the recent advances in technology and ship size, the Ro-Ro terminals are planned so that RO-RO vessels of larger sizes could load and unload at the terminals, read the media statement issued by Essar Group.

In order to develop this service, the government of Gujarat has constituted a "Gujarat Coastal Area Development Board (GCADB). This project, initiated by the GMB, is part of the government of Gujarat's effort to develop a 1,600-km coastline as a means to develop trade and transport between Southern Gujarat and Kutch.

The GMB along with the GCADB will primarily focus on tourism, forest & environment, fisheries development, industrial development and natural calamity management.

The scope of Essar Projects contract includes designing and construction of Ro Ro Service terminals at both Gogha and Dahej. It will constructing an approach bund of total 609 meters, of which 497 meters will be at Gogha and 112 metres at Dahej besides constructing an approach trestle of total 562 meters at two locations among others.

The boys who believed

Saurashtra and Orissa.

"We were wary of Saurashtra because they had beaten Punjab outright in Mohali," Hrishikesh Kanitkar says. The plan was to get a first-innings lead in that first match and then go all out for victory against Orissa, even if that would not be sufficient to stay in the race for the knockouts. The objective back then was to not get relegated.

Rajasthan lost the toss on a green wicket against Saurashtra. Vineet Saxena got a century, and Puneet Yadav, playing only his second match, followed suit. The fast bowlers knocked Saurashtra out twice, led by Sumit Mathur, who picked a fine time to take his second five-for in five years.

The goal now was to aim for maximum points against Orissa. "There was a glimmer of hope of qualifying [for the knockouts], provided the results in the other matches went our way," Kanitkar says.

Three other teams - Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Saurashtra - were in the fray for the knockout spot Rajasthan had their eyes on. Punjab only needed a first-innings' lead against Mumbai, but they failed and stayed on 15 points. Saurashtra needed six to get to 17 points against Railways but only got five. Rajasthan managed six points against Orissa. In that game and against Saurashtra, Rajasthan did not lose 20 wickets, which proved crucial in keeping their quotient ahead of those of the other two teams.

As defending champions they got to play their next match against the Plate team that qualified for the knockouts, Hyderabad. "You can call it luck, destiny," Kanitkar says about the way his side made it past the three other teams that were tied on points going into the last round.

You also need to credit the men who stood up when it mattered. Rituraj had gone wicketless in the first innings against Orissa, but he returned to take his maiden five-for, 6 for 75, bundling Orissa out quickly after Rajasthan enforced the follow-on. In the semi-final, with the new ball in hand, on a seaming pitch, in bowler-friendly conditions, Rituraj finished with a match haul of 12 wickets.

He had been raring to go for the last two years, after his Under-22 performances, where he was the highest wicket-taker in the 2010-11 season. He got a call from the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) operations manager before the game against Saurashtra. Deepak Chahar, who shot to fame last season, was down with jaundice, and Rituraj at first thought he was being called to help in the nets.

For Pankaj Singh, the leader of Rajasthan's fast bowling attack, the difference in the campaigns between the two years was that last year they did not expect to be champions. As defending champions this year, there was a bit of pressure, he says.

After five games, the fielding was hurting the team's chances, Pankaj says. Against Mumbai, Rajasthan made 530. "We got two early wickets but then we dropped Rohit Sharma and Abhishek Nayar early on." Both scored centuries - Rohit a double. "Against Uttar Pradesh we dropped a lot of catches again. Somewhere we knew that we are doing well, but it was not enough to win the match."

Personally for Pankaj, when Rajasthan lost to Railways on first innings, it was gutting. He had taken eight against Karnataka and Mumbai, so to go down to Railways was a blow. "They had lost two matches in a row. We all knew we had to make a statement that we were not champions by fluke," he says. Railways got a four-run lead, having lost eight wickets. "I felt that I had to deliver. It hurt me," Pankaj, who went wicketless from 38 overs, says. It was Rajasthan's second match in a row where the batsmen had put up 500-plus totals but the bowlers had failed to get the opposition out.

In the next match, Punjab made 597. Ravi Inder Singh, one of four players who made centuries in that innings, said the Rajasthan bowlers were not up to the mark. It was the first game for the former South Africa fast bowler Meyrick Pringle, who had been drafted in as a bowling consultant for three matches by the RCA. Pringle asked the Rajasthan quicks to go all out in the second innings. A fired-up Pankaj troubled not just Ravi Inder, he also was on a hat-trick in the 18 overs Punjab batted. By the end of the season Pankaj had 35 wickets - the fourth-highest wicket-taker this season, with six fewer than the leader, TP Sudhindra of Madhya Pradesh.

For Robin Bist this season was all about proving he is not a fifties-only man. Bist, who moved to Rajasthan from Delhi, made five half-centuries last season, when he scored 454 runs in all. He didn't make the best start this year, with only 67 runs in Rajasthan's first match, against Karnataka, but Kanitkar told him he had never seen him hit the ball so fluently and asked him to come back unbeaten as often as he could.

	Rituraj got a call from the RCA operations manager before the game against Saurashtra. Deepak Chahar, who shot to fame last season, was down with jaundice, and at first Rituraj thought he was being called to help in the nets

By the time they got to the final, Bist was 115 adrift of 1000 runs in the season. He made 57 in the first innings against Tamil Nadu, and wanted to ask Kanitkar if he could be promoted to No. 3 in the second, but he didn't have to: the captain himself asked him to go up the order. Though Bist missed out on his fifth hundred of the season by eight runs, he became only the 12th man to get to four figures in a Ranji season. And he was not out four times in ten matches.

Another key contributor was Mathur, who had been in and out of the squad till Kanitkar took over. Against Baroda, before last year's final, Kanitkar and the team management decided to keep Mathur out for an extra spinner. Mathur nearly broke down in his room when he was told. "Maybe God did want me to play, I thought. I went to Hrishi's room to express my disappointment. He told me [Rohit] Jhalani [the wicketkeeper] was not in form with the bat. That did not allow him to play an extra bowler."

As soon as Mathur stepped into Chepauk this time, the ghosts of the past came back to haunt him. "The pitch was similar and I was afraid, but I was told I was playing," he says, smiling, holding his daughter Angel in his arms, after Rajasthan were crowned champions.

In the end the story of Rajasthan's success this year was built by individuals who never lost faith in their team. They knew that they belonged, that they had the drive, determination and patience to quell their doubts and work as a team.

****

Statuettes of deities encircle a lamp on the dressing-room table. Pop music pipes through Aakash Chopra's iPod. Chopra says he is more settled now, after marriage, even if he is a loner by nature. In contrast to his more reticent captain, he is voluble, eloquent.

He sums up the season as a rollercoaster ride, marked by "the belief that no matter how dire the situation there will be someone who will stand up and get counted".

"I never saw that kind of spirit and conviction when Delhi were defending champions," says Chopra, who played for Delhi for 12 years before moving to Rajasthan last season.

In the final Rajasthan stayed calm and relaxed even as the critics and the Twitterati pelted abuse at what they saw as the team's tortuous approach on the first two days. "There was one guy who wrote: 'I have bought your Out of the Blue [Chopra's book on Rajasthan's victory last season], but I will not read your hypocrisy.' Chopra says. "I just shut my laptop."

The first day, Rajasthan were anxious and understood the toss would be the most important thing, he says. "We [knew we] must, must bat them out of the game, especially with our apparent weakness in the spin department."

The match started on a painful note for Chopra, when he tried to pull a short delivery from Jagannathan Kaushik, hurried into the shot and was hit in the face. "It was the first time in my career - the ball getting through the visor," he says. He still has a black eye from it.

The second day the visitors grew confident, even if they only made 183 runs. "The third day we knew that we had one foot in the door," Chopra says, after Rituraj and Pankaj packed off the Tamil Nadu top order in about an hour.

Chopra has seen Rajasthan transform itself from an insular team, where the senior players would rest on their laurels and clip the wings of their ambitious younger team-mates.

It is to their credit that Rajasthan won despite all the politicking in the RCA set-up. There are 37 districts in the state, which cast votes to decide who comes into power in the association. Rajasthan had about ten managers during the season, as against one last year. They did not have a video analyst. One of their assistant coaches, Harish Joshi, was sacked this year. Pringle, who proved influential in the fast bowlers' success, was not asked to extend his stint.

After the final, the administrators turned up to stake claim to the trophy, getting themselves photographed holding it, almost elbowing the players out of the way. On the bright side, Kanitkar has made certain that only he, the coach, Amit Asava, and the senior players have a say in selection.

Humility has been a hallmark for Rajasthan. In his media briefings during the group stages, Kanitkar stressed on the fact that they were new kids on the Elite block, looking to learn.

"Ranji Trophy is not won easily. We keep reminding the players to expect a fight," Chopra says. Last year Kanitkar was the team's highest run-scorer, Chopra was ten runs behind. The third professional, Rashmi Ranjan Parida ("Paddy bhaiyya"), was the Man of the Match in the final. "This is his stage," Chopra said then. "He will not play for India ever. He will not play for the IPL. But he is the Man-of-the-Match in the final. There were only 76 people before him to earn that reward."

	Pankaj Singh used the hurt from the first five games as a spur to push Rajasthan towards the final © Kamal Sharma Enlarge

This year Saxena became the latest to join that band. The squad lifted him aloft after they won. A bunch of individuals with their varying back stories, working to get the team ahead while enjoying each other's success.

When they won the trophy two years in a row, Rajasthan became only the fifth team in Ranji Trophy history to achieve such a feat. Chopra, who has played in three Ranji finals - for Delhi in 2008 and now twice for Rajasthan - has won all three. "It is not like winning a Test series in Australia, but if anything comes close it is winning the Ranji Trophy."

"As a player you want to play for the country. But after few years we might realise the importance of being the Ranji champions. You can be a member of the Indian side, but alone you can't be a champion. You need a good bunch of players. And that happens only once or twice in a decade," Pankaj says.

Bist reckons that the youngsters have played their part, backing up the guidance the professionals have provided. "They have shown the character and the fire inside them to perform. It is every cricketer's dream to win, to touch, the Ranji Trophy."

For Rituraj the team's unity has been special. "After being part of this team, after performing, after playing with these seniors, I can say I am a capable bowler now," he says.

Nearly two hours after Rajasthan have been crowned champions, the players and their families bask in the afterglow, out on the Chepauk lawns, when the sprinklers come to life. There is a loud cheer. There's no champagne to spray about but this will do.