Lankan Education Minister Bandula wants Chinese taught in schools

Source:

http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6444:bandula-plans-teaching-chinese-language-in-schools&catid=35:local&Itemid=62

Education ministry is about to implement a program to teach Chinese language in school level in Sri Lanka Education Minister Bandula Gunewardana says. He further said that this program which has been aleready started at Lumbini Vidyalaya in Colombo is expected to be included in school curriculum and taught in other schools as well. It is essential to teach Chinese language to Sri Lanka students because it will be one of the leading languages in future world he emphasized.

The Minister made this comment while attending the water filling ceremony of Hambantota harbor which is constructed on Chinese funds. Power Plant in Norochchole and International Air Port in Mattala are also constructed on Chinese funds.

Accident waiting to happen on Padi flyover

Pic courtesy: Shiba Prasad Sahu

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on Aug 17, 2010:

CHENNAI: Poor upkeep of the planned grade separator at the Padi junction on the Chennai-Thiruvallur High Road (CTH Road) throws up a risk of accident for motorists.

This is in contrast with the case of Kathipara junction flyover, which has been properly maintained, thanks to regular usage by high-profile visitors to the State from the nearby Meenambakkam airport.

True, the inauguration of the Padi facility 19 months ago has considerably reduced the daily ordeal for motorists. It is an NHAI project with six ramps and an elevated rotary, but poor maintenance of the bridge is causing hardship to its users as heavy vehicles have damaged all the speed-breakers installed on the rotary.

“All vehicles, including the heavy ones, move at high speed while crossing the rotary since the speed breakers are damaged and rendered useless,” laments Sunil of Ambattur, a regular user of the bridge. “This poses a potential danger for two-wheelers of being knocked down.”

While the Kathipara flyover was inaugurated in October 2008, the Padi flyover was inaugurated in February last year by the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi from his hospital bed.

Says another regular at the flyover: “Crossing the bridge at night is very difficult as most of the heavy vehicles use the elevated bridge.”

Lack of speed-breakers at the bottom of the bridge was also causing problems for two-wheelers. Besides, the high-mast lamps were also not working.

A senior NHAI official, when contacted, said the onus of maintaining the bridge rested with the private contractor who had completed the project. “We will ask the person to rectify the problems soon,” he told Express. He blamed the heavy vehicles for damaging the speed breakers and asked police to stop heavy vehicles from using the elevated bridge.

Vasan reviews developmental projects at Ennore Port

Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan on Friday inspected the ongoing developmental projects inside the Ennore Port.

The Minister accompanied by the port’s chairman and managing director S Velumani and other officials inspected the ongoing construction of sprawling parking lot developed by Nissan for exporting cars, general cargo berth, marine liquid berth and coal and iron ore terminals.

After completing the field-inspection, Vasan held an extensive review meeting with the officials of the port and asked them to speed up the ongoing projects to stay in the race.

To mark his visit to the port, Vasan planted a sapling and also inaugurated a seven-km length interior road constructed at a cost of Rs eight crores linking main office with the different terminals.

Later speaking to Express, Vasan said, “I am satisfied with the progress of different projects at the port and also advised the officials to speedup them to get competitiveness.”He also assured of job opportunities to qualified local youths at the port after a delegation of locals met the Minister.

Vasan vows EMRIP revival

CHENNAI: Reiterating his commitment to revive the important Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project (EMRIP) for better connectivity for the Chennai and Ennore ports, Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan on Friday said that the project would not be allowed to lapse at any cost and every possible step had already been initiated to bring it on track.
Speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of signing of agreement to develop a container terminal at the Ennore Port, the Minister said, “I have already taken up the issue with Union Minister for Surface Transport and Highways Kamal Nath and have sent a letter to him on the importance of the reviving it.”
To a question about the status of the ongoing projects linked to the Chennai port at a cost of `6000 crore, Vasan replied, “To expedite the projects, a comprehensive review meeting with all the stake holders will be organised after the ongoing parliament session.”
The EMRIP, announced by the State Government in 1998, covers four major roads in the industrial hub of north Chennai, Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti (TPP) Road, Ennore Expressway, Manali Oil Refinery Road and northern portion of the Inner Ring Road from Madhavaram to Manali.
A special purpose vehicle comprising National Highways Authority of India, Chennai Port Trust, Ennore Port Limited and the Tamil Nadu Government was constituted in 2003 for the execution of the project.
When the project was conceptualised, the cost was pegged at `150 crore. However, it had escalated to over `329 crore by 2003 and a 2007 deadline was set. The 2007-deadline was also missed and the cost of the project had further gone up to around `600 crore.
To keep the special purpose vehicle alive for tendering process, the Chennai Port Trust released another `10 crore recently.

Vasan wakes up, to visit Ennore Port today (Friday)

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, on Aug 13, 2010:

CHENNAI: Fourteen months after he took over as Union Minister for Shipping, G K Vasan is all set to visit the Ennore Port for the first time. On Friday, he would inspect and review the ongoing projects there.

Vasan’s proposed visit to the fast-emerging port near the Chennai Port comes in the wake of a recent Express report about his lack of interest in inspecting ports in the capital region of his native state.

Sources said on Thursday that the minister was to originally attend a function in the metro for signing of a Concession of Agreement for the development of a world-class container terminal between Ennore Port and Bay of Bengal Gateway Terminals at a city-based hotel, but changed his plan and asked the port management to arrange for an inspection at Ennore to get a spot report on the progress of it various important projects.

By announcing the inspection-visit to Ennore Port on Friday, Vasan has sought to put an end to the ongoing controversy on his laxity in doing it, unlike his predecessor T R Baalu.

Chennai Port sources said the minister was likely to visit the port premises in the next three weeks for general inspection and was expected to take up the Shipping Ministry the port’s ambitious Rs 3,600-crore mega-container terminal project.

A multinational consortium headed by Grup Maritim TCB SL, a Barcelona-based leading port operator, has won a bid to build and operate the container terminal at Ennore Port. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 1,400 crore and the concession would be awarded on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis for a period of 30 years. The terminal will have a quay length of 1,000 metres and an estimated throughput of 15 lakh containers annually.

Chennai Corporation plan to expand likely on poll hold

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on Aug 13, 2010:

CHENNAI: The proposed expansion of the Chennai Corporation by annexing 42 adjacent local bodies has hit a roadblock and the transformation seems very unlikely in the immediate future due to political considerations.

With Assembly elections around the corner, the expansion plan has been put on hold for the time being as many ruling party councillors ‘expressed unhappiness’ over losing their landmark wards (seats) to delimitation.

According to sources, more than 40 existing wards, mainly represented by ruling DMK and opposition Congress party councillors, were in the list of either merger or bifurcation during the delimitation procedure based on population ratio.

“If the names of those wards are revealed to complete the expansion process, it will definitely impact the morale of incumbent councillors and it could reflect in the Assembly elections,” said a sitting Corporation councillor, requesting anonymity.

In December last year, the state government had issued a notification to annex 42 local bodies including nine municipalities, eight town panchayats and 25 village panchayats to expand the city limit from the existing 174 sq km to 426 sq km. Six months time was given to a team of officials in the Chennai Corporation to submit its report on expansion.

Under the proposal, Chennai Corporation will be expanded to 426 sq km, from Idayanchavadi village panchayat in the north to Uthandi village panchayat in the south.

In April this year, a team of officials from the Corporation had submitted their preliminary report to the state government and assured a final report by July. Deadline overshot, the state government has given one-month extension to the team.

Minister Vasan keeping away from Chennai Port?

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on August 10, 2010:

CHENNAI: More than 14 months have passed since G K Vasan became Union Minister for Shipping in the present UPA government at the Centre, but the Congress MP from Tamil Nadu has “never once visited” the Chennai Port which is expediting important developmental projects in its 130th year of operations.

The “lackadaisical” attitude, which contrasts with the conduct of his predecessor T R Baalu, might end up in the port losing its status as a ‘Gateway of South India’ in coming years, caution exim traders.

Vasan’s “failure” in pressuring top officials of his Shipping Ministry and other pertinent departments for speeding up projects related to the Chennai Port was “seriously affecting” the fate of numerous endeavours worth over Rs 6,000 crore, they lament.

According to sources, the minister’s “lack of interest” in expediting projects like the Rs 2,200-crore two-road connectivity for free movement of container and heavy lorries, the Rs 300-crore dry port at Sriperumbudur and its ambitious Rs 3,700-crore mega-container terminal could reflect on the overall development of the historical port which faces serious competition from two fast-emerging ports not far from it: Ennore and Krishnapatnam.

While the promised Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project in North Chennai to reduce lorry traffic was recently cancelled, the Chennai Port suffered another jolt last month when SIPCOT, citing red tape, informed its inability to hand over the promised 125-acre land at Sriperumbudur for setting up an integrated dry port.

Port Trust officials all along maintain that the mega-container terminal project is “progressing well”, but the endeavour seems to be once again caught in a bureaucratic tangle at the Shipping Ministry.

In fact, sources say, nothing has progressed after the technical bids stage in March last year.

The sources recalled how Baalu, as Cabinet minister for Shipping in the previous Manmohan Singh dispensation (2004-09), who used to visit Chennai Port “quite often” and enquire about the day-to-day affairs for its sustained development. Vasan, after succeding him in May 2009, has “not paid even a courtesy visit” to the port premises to understand its prevailing conditions, sources said.

What’s more, Vasan has “failed to nominate” eight new trustees for the recently reconstituted Chennai Port Trust under other interests category (normally used for political appointments) for more than four months now.

The board, which was reconstituted for two years (April 2010- March 2012), met this June without the mandatory presence of two Labour representatives and eight members from other interests category.

Two years on, Burma struggles to recover from Cyclone Nargis

JACK DAVIES, BURMA

August 9, 2010Source: http://www.theage.com.au/world/two-years-on-burma-struggles-to-recover-from-cyclone-nargis-20100808-11qbg.html
STANDING on the man-made wall that runs through sodden fields from his village of Myet Kone to the river, U Aung Htu surveys the darkening skies.

Two years after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, killing at least 140,000 people and displacing up to 2.4 million, the grey clouds still bring foreboding.

"We had such a bad experience, the people here do not trust the weather, do not know they will be safe,'' he says. ''When the clouds come, they worry about another cyclone."

Myet Kone was nearly wiped from the map by the 2008 storm. Thirty-six people were killed here, and 10 children became orphans. Not one building was left standing.

At the end of last month, the body that has overseen the Irrawaddy Delta's recovery - the Tripartite Core Group, run by the United Nations, Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Burmese government - disbanded, handing over control of the region's recovery to the ruling junta.

"Some things are better now," U Aung Htu says, "some are worse. But we are not yet recovered. We have a long way to go."

The first month after the cyclone was desperate. Burma's military leaders, fearful of external influence, refused to let international aid groups into the country, and the world was outraged by pictures of tonnes of food sitting on the country's borders while people inside the country starved.

Since then, more than $450 million has been committed to the region, but it is less than half of the $1.1 billion called for by the UN.

The Australian government's aid to Burma will jump 67 per cent to nearly $50 million in 2010-11. Australia does not give money to the Burmese government.

Instead, funds are invested through UN agencies or other non-government organisations working in the country.

Progress has also been hard for the international community to monitor. Travel to the area is heavily restricted.

CARE International's country co-ordinator, Brian Agland, expects his organisation to be in the region at least another two years, and says there are still gaps in areas like shelter, and a need to restart the delta's economy.

Even basics, like adequate shelter, remain a problem in villages like Myet Kone. There were 800,000 homes destroyed or damaged by Nargis. Only about 70,000 have been rebuilt.

In Myet Kone, all of the buildings are wooden, single-room homes with thatched walls and roofs.

"If another storm comes, it will take people's lives, because there is still no safe building to go to," U Aung Htu says.

In Taw Khar, half an hour north from Myet Kone by boat, wooden houses, raised on stilts and with tin roofs, have been built by CARE International at a cost of $US300 ($A326) each.

Taw Khar has a cyclone shelter, a new concrete monastery, again funded with international money.

But the concerns here are for about 40 children. The nearest school is more than two kilometres away, across raised, exposed, footpads through rice paddies.

"When the children go to school, the parents have to go with them, to make sure they are safe crossing the water,'' head monk U Mya Oo says.

''And they worry about them if they have to come home suddenly, it is dangerous to get back if the weather turns bad."U Aung Htu watches the dark clouds roll in overhead.

"We worry it will happen again, and we will be left with nothing again,'' he says.

Names of villages and people have been changed.