Women vow to make their village plastic free

March 1, 2011

Mangalore, February 28: Spnadana Trust, a social welfare NGO, organised a Waste Management Workshop on Sunday.

The workshop was held at the community hall in the small village in the out skirts of Mangalore called Preeti Nagar. About 65 women of the community, basically the members of self-help groups participated in the workshop.

The objective of the workshop was to make women sensitive towards the environment. Arif Padubbidri, senior reporter of Vijaya Karnataka daily, inaugurated the workshop.

In his inaugural address Arif emphasised that women can play a pivotal role in bringing about a change in the society. From Central Government to local bodies, everyone brings in new laws and rules to ban plastics. But they fail in executing these laws. Such ban appears only in the newspapers while the use of plastics continues. The real ban on plastics is possible only if every woman decides to discontinue the use of plastic.

He told the women that plastics are made of harmful chemicals such as vinyl and benzene which develop cancer. Even the workers in the plastic factory are badly affected. From the production stage to the utility stage and even when the plastics are burnt they constantly release poisonous chemicals into our food, or into the water bodies or in the air. Plastic is not only harmful to man but also to environment, soil, plants and animals, he said.

He explained how women could write a letter to the MCC to construct a recycling bin in the community were the people could dispose the plastic packets which would otherwise be littered on the sides of the road. This accumulated plastic can be then recycled rather than burning them and causing air pollution. By the end of his talk the women took up a resolution to make Preeti Nagar a plastic free community. They also decided to write a letter to the Mangalore City Corporation to construct such bins. The women also promised to reduce the use of plastics and to go for other alternatives.


The second session was conducted by Dr Hareesh Joshy of Department of Zoology, St Aloysius College. Dr Joshy is a rigorous campaigner of environmentalism.

His session was on vermi-compost. In the two hour session, Dr Joshy told the women how harmful chemicals are used as fertilizers and pesticides in growing crops. These chemicals enter our food chain and cause cancer in man.

Vermi-compost is a kind of manure that is prepared out of the household watse. The vermi-compost can be made at home and is more effective than the chemical fertilizers in the market, he said.

Dr Joshy demonstrated how the compost can be made at home in the flower pots. Since there is a huge demand for the vermi-compost in the market, he encouraged the women to make the compost in large quantity for commercial purpose.

The process of making the compost does not require scientific apparatus but a pot, little bit of water, coconut shells, house hold watses and cow dung. The compost requires 1 month and 21 days in all to be ready. The earthworm is added to the mixture only after the first 21 days. Since the earthworm multiply in number during the process, he said that they could make money by selling these worms as well, while informing that there is a huge demand for earthworms. At the end of the session, Dr Joshy asked the women to show a mock display of the process of vermi-compost preparation.

He also gave them further tips on using the compost, and other information.

Both the sessions were informative. Dr Joshy distributed a sample of vermi-compost to the women to apply it on thier plants to see the results. The programme was successful in meeting its objectives as the women were motivated into action towards projecting environment through waste management.

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News Network
February 29,2020

New Delhi, Feb 28: They could hear shots being fired, sense smell of property and vehicles being burnt and feel the stones being pelted. Despite the mayhem that unfolded just a few steps away from their doorsteps, many Muslim households did not feel unsafe due to their Hindu neighbours during the violence in Delhi earlier this week.

Tarannum, a resident of Chand Bagh, said she cannot thank her neighbour Nem Singh enough for saving 15 members of her family that fateful night of February 25. Singh, an auto-rickshaw driver, lives right across her house.

"I could hear the thumping on the door. Our neighbour came to rescue us and assured us that no harm would come to our family, " said Tarannum who lives in lane number 7.

"We thought khayamat has come. Our kids too got scared. Those indulging in rioting are just terrorists. Hindu brothers gave us shelter and saved us. How should I say that they are Hindus or Muslims? When we were under attack, these Hindu brothers provided us safety. We should not fight, " said Tarannum while recounting the horror.

She said a mob has no face, no religion. "I want to tell everyone mob has no name, no religion. Kaun sa pathar kisne mara kisko laga pata hai kya? Pathar ne mazhab dekha kya? (Which stone was thrown by whom, who was hit, does anyone know. Stone does not have a religion," she said.

Singh said he could not bear the wailings of his neighbour's kids.

"Dar to tha par apni gali mein kisi ko pareshan nahi hone dena tha. (I too was afraid but I could not have let them hurt my neighbours)," said Singh when asked if he could have also been attacked for giving shelter to Tarannum family.

"I told them that the rioters will have to go through us first. We all were equally scared," recalled Singh.

Jameel, another local resident, said that his Hindu neighbours were even ready to sacrifice their lives to save him from the ruthless terrorists hired by pro-CAA politicians to unleash violence against Muslims.

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News Network
January 15,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The Indian startups secured 12.7 billion in funding last year -- a 15% growth compared to 2018 - and Bengaluru startup community topped the list, with securing $5.3 billion across 267 deals, a new report said on Tuesday.

In total, the Indian startups attracted 766 deals in 2019, taking total deal count between 2014-2019 to 5,011, said DataLabs by Inc42 in its annual startup funding report.

Sequoia took the top spot as the most active VC in 2019 with 53 deals, followed by Accel that participated in 38 deals. Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global were in the top five VCs in 2019.

"The Indian startup economy is entering new decade with over $58 billion in fundraising and 2,984 funded startups between 2014-2019," the findings showed.

With an average of $21 million, the ticket size value of funding increased by 15% in 2019.

Ecommerce and fintech -- with $2.6 billion funding each -- took the top slot with 93 deals and 125 deals, respectively.

"Ecommerce continued to remain at the top by the end of 2019. The growing investor confidence towards sub-sectors such as vertical ecommerce, social commerce and private label businesses is one major factor for ecommerce maintaining its lead," a DataLabs spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the estimates, the funding amount and deal count in 2020 will be around $12.6 billion at a 1% decline from 2019.

"Nevertheless, the investment activity is expected to rise in 2021," said the report.

The data suggests that 2019 had lowest number of startups funded (664) in the last five years, with seed-stage funding deals dropping by 53%, compared to 2016.

With $252 million in funding, seed-stage deal value fell by 44% (compared to 2018) as only 306 seed funding deals were recorded, the report said.

The enterprise tech had a blockbuster year with total funding of $1.15 billion across 114 deals in 2019. The sector recorded a 49% surge in total funding amount, compared to 2018.

The Indian startup economy saw 275 unique VCs participating in funding in 2019, said the report.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 14: The Karnataka government on Tuesday made changes to the Land Reforms Act 1961 through an ordinance to allow non-agriculturists to buy and own farmland for farming.

“The Land Reforms Act has been amended through an ordinance and notified after Governor Vajubhai R Vala gave his assent to it on Monday night,” a Revenue Department official told media persons.

It now permits non-farmers to buy farmland and grow food crops. But they can’t use it for other activities.

“Sections 79 A, B and C of the Act have been repealed, paving way for bona fide citizens to invest in farmland and take to farming as a hobby, passion or additional occupation, which is rewarding,” the official said.

The amended Act will enable the state to attract investment in the farm sector and boost food output. The farm sector’s contribution to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) has been less than the manufacturing and services sectors over the last two decades.

Criticism by farmers, the Congress and the JD(S) since the cabinet approved changes on June 11 forced the state government to retain section 80 of the Act, with an amendment, to prevent sale of dam water irrigated farmland.

“The ordinance has also added a new section (80A), which says relaxations under the Act will not apply to land given to farmers under the Karnataka SC and ST (Scheduled Caste and Tribe) Act 1978,” the official said.

The changes permit mortgage of farmland only to the state-run institutions, firms and cooperative societies specified in the Act. The ordinance also makes legal cases pending in courts against the sections amended redundant as the new Act addresses the concerns raised in them.

“Besides generating substantial revenue for the state government, the Act will now allow farmers who find the occupation non-remunerative and risky due to droughts/floods and labour shortage to sell their surplus land to urban buyers,” the official said.

Ruling BJP Rajya Sabha member KC Ramamurthy from Bengaluru said the amended Act would allow any citizen to buy farmland.

“Though hundreds of people petitioned successive governments for the past 45 years to abolish the ‘draconian’ sections, they were ignored. I compliment Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Revenue Minister R Ashoka for the decision to allow everyone to buy farmland irrespective of their occupation or profession,” Ramamurthy told media persons.

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