Saravanan's Blog

Source: www.pib.nic.in -Non Major Ports Grow by 11.5 Per Cent PIC SOURCE: http://www.shippinginternational.com The total traffic handled by all ports in the country grew by 3 percent in 2011-12 over the previous year, latest Economic Survey tabled in the Parliament on Feb 27 has revealed. T he growth, according to the report, stood at 911.7 million tons. 11.5 percent growth achieved by non-major ports contributed to the overall traffic growth, although there was a decline in traffic handled at major ports. The traffic handled by all ports grew by 1.8 percent in the first half of 2012-13 (April – September) over the corresponding period of the previous year. The share of the non-major ports in this growth was 10.3 percent. The three port related performance indicators i.e. average turnaround time (in days), average pre-berthing detention time (in days) and average output per ship – berth – day (in tons) have shown improvement in 2011-12 and April-September, 2012 over...

Source: http://colombogazette.com/army-denies-rape-allegations/ T he Sri Lanka army has strongly denied allegations of raping members or supporters of the LTTE, as claimed by Human Rights Watch in a new report released today. Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the report is baseless and is yet another “creation” of the human rights group targeting the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. “ We reject these allegations. The Sri Lankan security forces do not condone rape or torture of detainees. We have even charged some soldiers against who evidence of rape had been presented in the past. There is no point making allegations without evidence,” the army spokesman told the Colombo Gazette. Human Rights Watch said in a 141-page report titled “‘We Will Teach You a Lesson’: Sexual Violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces” that the S ri Lankan security forces have been using rape a...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-srilanka-rape-idUSBRE91P08G20130226 By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI  |  Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:36am EST (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's security forces have used rape to torture and extract confessions from suspected Tamil separatists almost four years after the country's civil war ended, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday. The rights group documented 75 cases of predominately Tamil men and women who said they were held in Sri Lankan detention centres and repeatedly raped and sexually abused by the military, police and intelligence officials. The victims - now living as asylum seekers, most of them in Britain - said once they confessed to being a member of the Tamil Tiger rebel group, the abuse generally stopped and they were allowed to escape by paying a bribe, before fleeing abroad. "We found that rape was used to secure some sort of confession, but also as a political tool to punish people," Meenakshi G...

Source:www.sagarsandesh.com As anticipated by the organisers of World Shipping Forum-2013, the panel discussion on “Maritime Education & Training – An outlook towards the future,” drew good response and gave birth to several suggestions for improvement. Though ideas like completely delinking MET from the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) and setting up a different and dedicated governing body for it and viability of Commercially Trading Training Ship for cadets’ onboard training r aised eyebrows of many present over there, such suggestions have rekindled the hope that they are indeed at a critical juncture from where treading needs more cautiousness. Capt. S. Bhardwaj, Emeritus Professor & former Vice- Chancellor, AMET University, set the ball rolling for the allimportant panel discussion by outlining the need for such open debate on MET. Initiating the discussion, Mr. Gautam Chatterjee, Director General of Shipping, said: “We need a proper estimation of glob...

Source: www.sagarsandesh.com Mr. S. Natarajan, Chairman (I/C) , VOC Port Trust, Tuticorin, Mr. Atulya Misra,  Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, Dr. R. Lakshmipathy, Editor & Publisher,  Sagar Sandesh, Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, Mr. L. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, JNPT,  Mumbai, and Mr. M. A. Bhaskarachar, CMD, Ennore Port Limited  (EPL), displaying the First Anniversary issue of Sagar Sandesh in Chennai on Feb. 8 --Minister also launched an exclusive online portal ( www.porttoport.in ), a dedicated web service for  exporters and importers - Port Chairmen steal show @ 1st anniversary Sagar Sandesh Maritime tabloid English Weekly Newspaper, the undisputed ‘Voice of Indian Shipping,’ celebrated its First Anniversary on Feb. 8 in Chennai. Union Minister of Shipping G K Vasan, who launched Sagar Sandesh exactly one year ago in Mumbai, was the Chief Guest at the glittering ceremony to release the anniversary special issue in t...

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/handed-a-snack-and-then-executed-the-last-hours-of-the-12yearold-son-of-a-tamil-tiger-8500295.html New photographs have emerged which raise fresh questions about the conduct of Sri Lanka’s armed forces during the final stages of the operation against Tamil rebels and have led to claims the 12-year-old son of the militants’ leader may have been summarily executed. A series of photographs taken a few hours apart and on the same camera, show Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of Villupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). One of them shows the boy sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan troops. Another, a few hours later, shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets. The images were taken in May 2009 at the very end of the Sri Lankan government’s operation to crush the LTTE, which had launched a bloody, decades-long i...

முகவை.க.சிவகுமார் -, திருவொற்றியூர் Source: http://dinamani.com/edition_chennai/chennai/article1468900.ece திருவொற்றியூரில் கழிவு நீரை அகற்ற வீடு ஒன்றுக்கு ரூ. 200 கட்டணம் செலுத்தியும் 20 நாள்கள் வரை காத்திருக்கும் அவல நிலையால் பொதுமக்கள் கடுமையாகப் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளனர். இதற்கு அதிகாரிகளின் மெத்தனப்போக்கே காரணம் என பொதுமக்கள் தரப்பில் புகார் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.  சென்னை மாநகராட்சியின் 1-வது மண்டலத்தில் உள்ள 14 வட்டங்களில் கத்திவாக்கத்தில் 2 வட்டங்கள், திருவொற்றியூரில் 5 வட்டங்கள் என 7 வட்டங்களில் பாதாளச் சாக்கடை வசதிகள் கிடையாது. இப்பகுதியில் மட்டும் சுமார் 2 லட்சம் மக்கள் வசிக்கின்றனர். நகராட்சிகளாக இருந்தபோது இப்பகுதிகளில் கழிவுநீர் லாரிகள் மூலம் இலவசமாக அகற்றப்பட்டன . கழிவு நீரை அகற்ற கத்திவாக்கத்தில் ஒரு லாரியும், திருவொற்றியூரில் 2 லாரிகள் மட்டுமே இருந்தன. இதனால் கழிவுநீரை அகற்றுவதில் தேக்கநிலை இருந்து வந்தது. மேலும் குடிசைப் பகுதிகளில் கழிவு நீரை அகற்றுவதில் முக்கியத்துவம் அளிக்கப்பட்டு வந்தது.  இப்பணி குடிநீர் வாரியத்துக்கு மாற்றம் ஆனதால் கூடுதலாக லாரிகள...

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/whose-story-is-it-anyway--times-now-takes-credit-for-express-chopper-deal-expose/1074978/0 Through Wednesday and Thursday, I kept going back to Times Now to assure myself that I had not been seeing things. And every time, hovering over stock images of the AgustaWestland AW101 chopper, I found this logo: 'Times Now Expose in March 2012'. Sepia-tinted helicopters whirled about a sepia Navika Kumar. None of them were the AW101 which has become infamous. Rather, they resembled the cheerful little choppers that the Phantom (Lee Falk, not McDonnell Douglas) favoured for travelling between the Deep Woods and civilisation. Meanwhile, the ticker crowed: 'Opposition quotes Times Now report'. And demanded to know: 'Why was Times Now report ignored?' Maybe the channel itself felt ignored and insecure. This desperate bid to take ownership of the VVIP chopper kickbacks story was absurd because along with it, Times Now was...

Source: http://www.sagarsandesh.com/news/ennore-port-takes-stock-of-traders-requirements/ Mr. M. A. Bhaskarachar, Chairman-cum- Managing  Director of EPL, interacting with  Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Director (Operations), EPL during the trade meet on Feb 15 in Chennai Facing stiff competition from neighbouring ports like Krishnapatnam, Kattupalli and  Chennai, the management of Ennore Port Limited, country’s only corporatized Major Port,  has organised a trade meet with its users on Feb. 15 in Chennai. Organised in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) to get  more attention among all the stakeholders, the EPL management  sought users’  perspectives to improve capacity at the port to meet the challenges. Though the trade meet was said to be the first such initiative from the port in  association with a trade body, users felt that EPL management organised it primarily to  have the users’ view on the propose...

Source: http://www.sagarsandesh.com/port/l-t-unveils-kattupalli-port-strengths-to-exim-trade/                 Mr. G. Gandhirajan, Chief Operating Officer (COO), L & T Ports, Kattupalli, With a view to wooing the EXIM fraternity to its newly inaugurated facility, Kattupalli  Port, a joint venture between Tamil Nadu Government and L & T, a trade meet was  organised on Feb. 11 in Chennai. At the meeting, in which about 300 representatives of major EXIM players from the region  attended, Mr. G. Gandhirajan, Chief Operating Officer (COO), L & T Ports, Kattupalli,  unveiled the state-of-the-art facilities the port has for movement of cargoes. With the launch a couple of weeks ago by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, the Kattupalli  Port, still considered as a minor port which comes under the control of Tamil Nadu  Maritime Board, has become the third port in the State to handle containerized cargo,...