Friday, July 5, 2013
In Death Valley, the beret matters
NISHIT DHOLABHAI : At the Jungle Chatti helipad on Sunday, paratroopers prepare for the last round of evacuation. Picture by Nishit Dholabhai .
Gauchar, June 27: There is something surreal about sitting by a helipad in the midst of death and disaster and chatting about a Hollywood film.
But here, among the para-commandos and the rescuers with whom I had trekked from Jungle Chatti on the Kedarnath route, it offered a peek into the minds of the men who were rescuers risking their own lives.
A day after that trek, these men had gone off again, slithering down from helicopters into a gorge and on a mountainside in search of survivors and then bringing back the bodies of the 20 men killed in the Mi-17 V5 crash.
Last week, led by their commanding officer, the bandana-strapped Colonel Sandip Chatterjee, the men of the 6 and 7Paras, along with rescuers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), had lopped off some trees, uprooted electricity poles and planted explosives in the jagged rocks and blasted them to hew a helipad out of nowhere.
Within hours, they also had a campsite, complete with a communications area and a kitchen.
That little station in “Death Valley” had made it possible for the Army Aviation Corps’ Cheetah helicopters to land and evacuate the stranded people in Jungle Chatti over the weekend. Mixed teams of 6, 7 and 9 Paras were dropped into the gorges here at different spots on June 21 to extricate survivors.
Sitting by that helipad, where the stench of death mingled with the aroma of freshly brewed tea on Sunday evening, Major Bhadoria told Captain Rajendra Panchal and the soldiers around them the story of the blockbuster, A Bridge Too Far.
“So now you understand the value of your maroon beret?” he asked. “It is from the colour of blood.” Paratroopers and Special Forces wear maroon berets.
Job done, we set off towards Gaurikund, a journey of just 2.5km that took nearly five hours. The men wore T-shirts with “Airborne” embossed on them.
They had had biscuits to go with the tea as the major narrated scenes from A Bridge Too Far, starring a host of stars such as Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery and Robert Redford, which tells the story of a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines and seize bridges during World War II.
A scene in the film shows a British soldier being shot dead by a sniper after retrieving an air-dropped container under enemy fire. When the soldier falls, the container splits open to reveal berets.
The Paras had lived up to that beret’s spirit with daredevil rescue missions 10,000 feet down the Kedarnath gorge a few days ago. They would again live up to it days later — on Wednesday — to retrieve the bodies of fellow IAF, ITBP and NDRF personnel who were in the crashed Mi-17 V5.
These Special Forces of the army had been summoned on June 20 to Dehradun. They slid down the ropes from choppers into the Gorge of Devastation. Rescue over, evacuation was a problem. They made that helipad in a day.
An engineer surveyed the spot, wired explosives to blow off rocks and electricity poles and cleared the ground to let Cheetahs and Chetaks land on what NDRF commandant Jaideep Singh had thought was an “impossible place to land”.
“Be our guest,” a smiling Bhadoria had said shortly afterwards.
In the two days that we were there and through the trek we had jumped over maggot-infested bodies of people who had tried — and failed — to clamber up slopes to escape the flood.
Clothes, blankets, unused food packets and walking sticks littered the place.
One night, over a bowl of khichri, Captain Panchal recalled how he had found a 14-year-old from Lucknow, who had fallen down in a landslide.
When Panchal glided down the rope from a helicopter, he found the boy digging into the mud. “My mother and sister have gone to fetch water,” the teenager told him, glassy-eyed. “Call them,” the boy said.
Panchal had seen this before among survivors in a state of shock who seemed as if they were beyond pain.
“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” explained the unit’s para-commando doctor, Ritish Goyal. The boy did not know it then — his mother and sister, who got separated from him, had been rescued by another team. The family was reunited later.
The night the captain was retelling the boy’s trauma, the weatherman had forecast heavy rain. But the evacuation of Jungle Chatti was complete.
Next morning, equipped with ropes, carabiners (a metal loop or safety coupling used by climbers) and wireless sets, a team was already on the way to Rambada searching for survivors who may have climbed up the heights.
As the rains lashed, L. Sunder Meetei of the NDRF contacted commandant Singh, who had left a day earlier, to seek permission to fall back as the risks of a landslide increased every minute.
“Sir, bahut barish hone wala hai, phir nikal nahin payenge(it’s going to rain heavily, we won’t be able to move if we do not now),” Meetei said as the wireless crackled.
The commandant flashed the green light.
Behind Meetei, the Paras’ Havildar Chand Khan offered a popular soft drink as we prepared to embark on the treacherous return journey, first to Bhairon Mandir and onward to Gaurikund.
“Darr ke aage jeet hai,” said Khan, quoting from a tele-commercial. He showed the thread strung around his wrist by a unit priest or maulana. “Hamare wahan to MMGC (Mandir Masjid Gurdwara Church) hai, to hausle rakkho,” he laughed, breaking into a Hindi film song.
Minutes later, a joint team of grey-uniformed NDRF, camouflaged Paras and a rag-tag group of five civilians began the walk. It was a steep climb up a hill. I wonder now if that was the hill on which the V5 crashed.
Then it was time for a steep climb downhill.
I slipped.
“Sir, rope mat chhoriye, rope pakar ke rakkho,” the havildar, who was assigned to be my buddy, and Goyal, the doctor, chorused. The army works in twos, almost always.
It was a 50-foot drop. I did what they told me — held on to the rope and somehow found a foothold.
The road from Gaurikund to Kedarnath has caved in at many places. Special Forces, the NDRF and mountaineers like Avadhesh Bhatt from Dehradun created alternative routes and accompanied over 150 pilgrims. The soldiers tied ropes to trees and rocks that rose 6,500 feet above the river that cut through the continuous gorge.
The last stretch just before Gaurikund involves scaling a cliff. Gaurikund is a ghost village, devastated by the raging river. The Paras walked away.
The NDRF accompanied this correspondent on a 6km walk to Sonprayag. Just before Sonprayag, we came across a devastated mountain and an NDRF team blew a whistle — rocks were falling. The rocks missed us.
Here, where the Son river merges into the Mandakini, the riverbed has risen by 25 metres. Truck tyres were visible. The vehicle, swept in by a strong current, was buried beneath the boulders.
Then we saw an NDRF group waiting for us and a makeshift camp, near the point from where the road had been devoured.
There was tea at the NDRF langar.
Mailed by : Mr Bharat Tiwari
National Platform Against Water Privatization (NPAWP)
In a historic move, struggle groups against water privatization
from different states came together in Nagpur and formed a national platform to
fight against water privatization in India. In a daylong meeting organised by
Citizen’s Front for Water Democracy (Delhi) and Focus on the Global South
(Delhi) in collaboration with Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union,
more than 70 water activists from Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka launched formation of a National Platform.
After a marathon session the meeting passed a resolution declaring formation of NATIONAL PLATFORM AGAINST WATER PRIVATIZATION
(NPAWP).The meeting also came
out with a Nagpur Declaration, a policy statement of the NPAWP giving
details about its visions and objectives in the context of people’s right to
water (Copy attached).
In this meeting, a national coordination committee was
also constituted which elected Shri S.A Naqvi of Citizens Front for Water
Democracy (CFWD, Delhi) as the National Coordinator of NPAWP. Besides
Mr. Naqvi, the others who constituted the National Coordination Committee
include Shri Jammu Anand of NMC Municipal Union, Nagpur as Regional Coordinator
for Western Zone; Smt. Nirmla Sharma of Jagriti Mahila Samiti (Delhi) as
Regional Coordinator for Northern Zone; Shri Rajinder Prabhakar of Peoples
Campaign on Right to Water (Karnataka) for Southern Zone; Shri Subrato Chakrabarti
of Guwahati Sanmilita Nagarik Adhikar Suraksha Manacha for North Eastern Zone;
Shri Saurabh Sinha of Inner Voice Foundation of Ballia for Eastern zone and Mr.
Rahmat Rawat of Manthan (Badwani) as Regional Coordinator for Central Zone.
Besides regional coordinators, the others who are part of the national
coordination committee include Raman Kanan of Public Services International,
Afsar Jafri of Focus on the Global South, Dr. A.K. Arun of Yuva Bharat, Akhil
Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Ms Kiran Shaheen of Pani Hakk Abhiyan,
Gaurav Diwedi of Manthan, Sanjay Sharma of Water Workers Allaince, Pranjal
Dixshit of Mumbai and Vinay Baindur of Bangalore.
On 1st July, the National Platform against Water Privatization and the NMC Municipal Union staged a demonstration
against water privatization in Nagpur and met with the Municipal Commissioner
of Nagpur in his office and gave a memorandum demanding for the immediate
termination of the contract with the Orange City Water. It also demanded for
the remunicipalisation of the water supply and distribution in Nagpur.
The national platform
is a unique initiative to build solidarity among different movements and
campaigns from India who are engaged in any activities related to water to
ensure water as a common good and determine human rights to water. This
national body of water activists also decided to extend all support to
movements opposing dams, river diversions or river linking.
The fight against any form of water privatization will be the
key agenda of the NATIONAL PLATFORM. It will help each other and seek strength from each other in
this difficult time when democratic governments in the states have been sold
out to corporations. The national platform will contact with different groups
who are campaigning against water privatization in their cities to come
together. They will share their experiences, documents and strategies to gain
strength and knowledge from each other.
The NPAWP will soon initiate mass movement against government’s
undemocratic moves to privatize and commodify water. The NPAWP decided to raise
all issues relating to water like its environmental aspects, ecological
concerns, dams, rivers etc and oppose all forms of water commercialization.
The NPAWP through a resolution rejected the National Water
Policy of 2012 as well as the draft report issued recently by the Y.K. Alagh
Committee, the National Water Framework Laws, which promotes privatization of
water.
The NPAWP also declared the Uttrakhand disaster as man-made
disaster and a result of callus and anti environment policies of the Central
and the State Governments. It passed a resolution opposing such infrastructure
development anywhere in India which compromises environmental concerns for the
sake of growth and development.
The next meeting of the Platform will be organised in Delhi
soon.
Thanks for covering this press briefing.
For any further information, please contact
S.A.
Naqvi Jammu Anand Afsar Jafri
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Residents want Reliance BSES out
The BSES claims that its loss (revenue gap) is Rs 19,505 crore. Agitated by the constant hike in power tariffs and poor service delivery, the residents alleged that the loss-making organisation should withdraw from the power sector as well. “If you are really making losses, why don’t you back out, the way you have backed out from the airport metro project,” said B S Vohra, of East Delhi RWA Joint Front.
“Since Reliance Power has also been claiming that they are running into losses for the last one decade, these firms should also exit,” added Anil Bajpai, president of East Delhi Resident’s Forum. Bajpai also said that the people of Delhi have been facing long power cuts and getting hefty bills. The companies are also known to have failed to provide payments to power suppliers, he added. To recover the revenue gap, a surcharge of eight per cent is charged on all the consumers to reduce the losses, the RWA officials said. However, BSES every year claims that the revenue gap has been increasing and as a result the surcharge should increase. “Our tariffs have not increased as we have wanted. As a result we cannot make up the gap,” said an official of the power department. The RWAs have also criticised the chief minister Sheila Dikshit for supporting the discoms. “We expect chief minister and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to intervene and address the problem, and not safeguard the interest of private power companies,” said M M Mehra, secretary, Resident Welfare Association of Karkardooma.
@dna Link with thanks
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Rescheduling of Samya Badh Jagrukta .....
Dear Sir,
I hope all RWA Bhagidars have received an invitation today (01/07/13) from the CM (forwarded by SDM G/N vide his letter DC(E)/Bhagidari Cell/2-13/2216-2655 dated 21/06/2013, rescheduling the above Shivir on 14/07/2013 at Yamuna Sports Complex.
This Shivir was earlier scheduled on 23/06/2013 at the same venue. When we and may be other Bhgidars reached the venue, they were told by the Guard that the meeting had been postponed. The meeting was postponed without informing Bhagidars, at least we did not receive any intimation. Surprisingly, the present letter does not have even a single word of apology either from the SDM or the CM ! Perhaps apologising is not the culture in the govt. Poor Bhagidars!
Secondly, the SDM wants a soft as well as a hard copy of the list of office bearers of all the RWAs. Further surprising, no Email address or Telephone/Mobile number has been provided on his letter head. I don't know where to send the soft copy! May be we are expected to visit his office to know his email address!
Ram Gupta
General Secretary
Priyadarshini Vihar RWA
Monday, July 1, 2013
Must read : Cyber crooks create fake Delhi Jal Board site
NEW DELHI: If you recently paid your water bills online, your money may have landed in the pockets of cyber crooks. The Delhi Jal Board has lodged a complaint against a fake department website, very similar to the real one, that may have been used to dupe consumers.
A source said that the fake website was blocked after DJB's chief engineer approached the crime branch. The team of cyber cell experts is investigating the case and an FIR under the information technology (66A) Act has been registered, a senior police officer said.
The fake website, www.delhijalboard.in, looks remarkably like the original website. The crooks have also managed to forge the home ministry and Delhi government logos, police sources said. The fake website contained data from the original website and had options for direct bill payments.
Sources said the Internet Service Provider was contacted for more details and to block the fake website. Cops are now trying to trace the IP address of the website through which they would zoom in to the location and computer where it was created , a source said.
with thanks : Times of India : LINK : for detailed news
CITIZENS FRONT FOR WATER DEMOCRACY : PRESS RELEASE
DATED: 1ST JULY 2013
The water activists, trade unions, NGO and RWAs from all over India gathered in Nagpur and constituted a National Platform to fight against water privatization in India. The activists from Delhi, Assam, North East, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Bihar were present in the meeting.
Shri SA Naqvi was elected as the National Coordinator of the NPAWP and Smt. Nirmla Sharma was elected as Regional Coordinator for Northern Zone along with Shri Jammu Anand from west, Shri Rajinder Prabhakar from South, Shri Subrato Chakrabarti from North East, Shri Saurabh from East and Shri Rahamat from Central zone. Shri Raman Kanan, Afsar Jafri, Dr. A.K. Arun, Ms Kiran Shaheen, Pranjal, Gaurav Diwedi, Sanjay Sharma and Vinay Bundur were elected in the National team.
The National Platform will raise voice and initiate people’s moment against water privatization in India. The NPAWP is of the view that real owners of water are communities and governments are only custodians of water. The water privatization is being imposed forcefully on people for ensuring corporate profits.
The activists were of the view that when after the bad experiences of water privatization there is a trend of re-municipalization of water in Europe the only driving force to water privatization in India is corruption.
The NPAWP through a resolution rejected the Y.K. Alagh committee report, draft National Water Frame Work Laws and National Water Policy 2012 and all efforts of comodification of water. Soon NPAWP will initiate mass movement against Government’s undemocratic moves to privatize and commodify people’s water. NPAWP policy statement described as Nagpur declaration has emphasized people’s right to water. NPAWP will raise all issues relating to water like its environmental aspects, ecological concerns, dams, rivers etc and oppose all forms of water commercialization. (copy attached)
NPAWP declared the Uttrakhand disaster as man-made disaster and a result of callus and anti environment policies of Central and State Governments. It passed a resolution opposing such infrastructure development anywhere in India. The new National body will also extend support to movements opposing dams, river diversions or river linking.
The NPAWP has plans to raise a wide spread movement against water privatization in Delhi. It will take the opposition of water privatization to each and every street of Delhi and will educate the people how the PPP projects are influenced by corruption, how Delhi Government ensured the corporate profits and increasing the water tariffs. NPAWP will ask the Political parties, Political candidates and representative their stand on water privatization, corruption in PPP projects, increasing water tariffs and extending benefits to corporate in forthcoming Delhi assembly elections.
S.A. Naqvi
National Coordinator
NPAWP
Saturday, June 29, 2013
RWAs Directory of Delhi on www.RWABhagidari.com
Friday, June 28, 2013
Delhi: you'll get water quality check only once in 27 yrs
After reading about the deaths reportedly linked to drinking of contaminated water at NCERT colony in south Delhi, if the quality of water you drink is worrying you, your anxiety is not unfounded.
Chances are your water supply would be quality checked only once in 27 years.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) lifts on an average 400 samples across the city per day. However, considering the number of buildings and public places, the number is extremely small. Census 2011 puts the number of houses at 40,00,000. Even if we consider this statistic, excluding public places, the chance of a particular house figuring again in random sampling comes after 10,000 days — about 27 years.
“There are 1,500 planned colonies. Then there are several unauthorised colonies, which also consume water. The small sample indicates that DJB is unable to reach colony levels,” said Dunu Roy of NGO Hazard Centre.
Debashree Mukherjee, DJB CEO, says, “This (400) is not a small size. This is over and above samples tested at water treatment plants. For other areas, our tests are ample.”
with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK
Delhi: confusion over who maintains pipelines
A war of words erupts between the consumers and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) every time people start falling ill after consuming contaminated water.
While Delhiites blame the DJB and expect it to take care of leaking pipelines, the agency claims that contamination mostly happens at the consumers’ end and that it is their (consumer’s) responsibility to change the ferrule.
A ferrule is the point where consumers’ pipe connects with the main supply pipeline.
Sanjam Chima, DJB’s Consultant (PR), cites the provisions of the Delhi Jal Board Act, 1998, for it. As per a clause titled ‘Power to require water supply to be taken and to require maintenance of service pipes’, consumers are supposed to lay the delivery pipe for every sanctioned connection through a licensed plumber at their own cost from the main to their homes, including the ferrule.
Also, the Act say that it is the duty of the consumer to maintain, repair and replace, whenever required, such delivery pipes at his own cost. Customers are to get these pipes inspected at their cost once in 15 years.
“If found rusted or leaking, the work for repair or replacement shall be done by the consumer through a licenced plumber,” said Chima.
Ankush Wohra, president of New Delhi South Extension I (NDSE I) RWA, however, finds this logic weird. “If the DJB changes or repairs it, that will ensure uniformity.
Otherwise someone can put a bigger ferrule for more water. If the DJB Act actually doesn’t permit it, the relevant provisions should be changed.”
with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK
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