India is world's capital for open defecation: Ramesh

July 27, 2012

New Delhi, July 27: Terming India as world's capital for open defecation, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that 100,000 "bio-toilets" will be installed in about 300 backward gram panchayats in the next two years at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

"We are the world's capital for open defecation. It is a matter of shame, anguish, sorrow, anger," Ramesh said, noting over 60 percent of all open defecation takes place in India.

Speaking at a a function where a memorandum of understanding on bio-digester-based eco-friendly toilets was exchanged between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the ministry in his and Defence Minister AK Antony's presence, Ramesh said the government intended to rid the country of open defecation in the next 10 years.

Ramesh, who is also rural development minister, said DRDO-developed bio-toilet had immense use for Indian Railways. He said his ministry had offered to equip it in all new railway coaches and share half the cost of retrofitting it in all the existing 50,000 coaches in the next four to five years. The project will cost about Rs 500 crore.

The minister said bio-toilets will also help curb manual scavenging which was still prevalent in about 15 lakh insanitary latrines.

He said the ministry intended to provide bio-toilets to 1,000 gram panchayats over the next four-five years. The minister said that funds for setting up bio-toilets will be provided by his ministry and DRDO and its private partner will be responsible for technology.

Ramesh said of 240,000 gram panchayats, only 28,000 had achieved the status of "nirmal gram" and his ministry intended that all panchayats achieve the status over the next 10 years.

Antony said that bio-toilet was a spin off from technology developed by DRDO for eco-friendly disposal of human waste for armed forces deployed in high altitude locations.

Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Jena said he would write to MPs for keeping apart money from MPLADS scheme for installing bio-toilets in their area.

DRDO bio-toilet is based on anaerobic biodegradation of organic waste by unique microbial consortium and works at wide temperature range. The onsortium has been made through acclimatisation, enrichment and bioaugumentation of cold-active bacteria collected from Antartica and other low temperature areas.

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Walking from Delhi to MP, man dies in Agra amid lockdown

Agencies

March 29,2020

Agra, Mar 29: A 39-year-old man, who had walked almost 200 kilometers from Delhi to reach his home in Morena in Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died in Agra on Saturday.

The man, identified as Ranveer Singh, worked as home delivery boy for a private restaurant in the national capital.

According to police, the victim collapsed near Kailash turning of the national highway-2, after which a local hardware store owner Sanjay Gupta rushed to the victim.

Sikandra station house officer (SHO) Arvind Kumar, said, 'Gupta made the victim lie on a carpet and offered tea and biscuit. The victim complained about chest pain and also called his brother-in-law Arvind Singh over phone to share his health condition. At around 6.30 P.m, the victim passed away and local police was informed. "

Ranveer had left for his native village on Friday morning on foot. It is likely that exhaustion of 200-km walk might have caused chest pain.

The SHO said,"On the entire NH-2 stretch, UP policemen are present with food packets and water for such persons but Ranveer's death is unfortunate. "

After the death, policemen took the victim's body for post-mortem. The autopsy report is yet to be re eased.

According to information available, Ranveer was working in Delhi's Tughlakabad for the past three- years. He is survived by three children including two daughters. He belongs to a family of farmers and was the main bread winner for his family.

His family has been brought to Agra to take the body back to their village for the last rites.

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very sad news....this is the condition of hindu people after they adopt hindutva idology.

Politician enjoying playing ludo and watching ramayan, after complete lockdown, not even bothered by government about their transport,

modi spend crore on statue, but no hospital

this is the hindu rastra you want right...enjoy marons

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Telecom companies lost 82.3 lakh subscribers during April lockdown: TRAI

Agencies

July 24,2020

New Delhi, Jul 24: Telecom companies lost 82.3 lakh subscribers during the COVID-19 lockdown period of April, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday showed.

As per the reports received from 342 operators in April, TRAI said the number of broadband subscribers decreased from 68.7 crore at the end of March to 67.6 crore at the end of April with a monthly decline rate of 1.64 per cent.

Top five service providers constituted 98.98 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers with Reliance Jio Infocomm (38.9 crore), Bharti Airtel (14.4 crore), Vodafone Idea (11.1 crore), BSNL (2.1 crore) and Atria Convergence (16 lakh).

The number of overall telephone subscribers decreased from 117.7 crore at the end of March to 116.9 crore at the end of April, showing a monthly decline rate of 0.72 per cent.

The TRAI said total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) decreased from 115.7 crore at the end of March to 115 crore at the end of April, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.71 per cent.

Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 63.8 crore to 62.9 crore but increased in rural areas from 51.9 crore to 52 crore. Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were minus 1.42 per cent and 0.16 per cent respectively.

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Kejriwal invites PM Modi for his swearing-in ceremony on Sunday

News Network

February 14,2020

New Delhi, Feb 14: AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his swearing-in ceremony scheduled to take place at the Ramlila Maidan on February 16, senior party leader Gopal Rai said on Friday.

Rai, the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi unit, said a letter was sent to the prime minister on Friday morning.

All seven Delhi MPs and eight newly-elected BJP MLAs have also been invited for the oath-taking ceremony, Rai told news agency.

No chief minister or political leaders from other states will be part of the event as it will be a "Delhi-specific" ceremony, Rai had said on Thursday.

Kejriwal, through front-page advertisements in newspapers, has urged Delhiites to attend his oath-taking ceremony as he is set to become the chief minister of Delhi for the third consecutive term.

Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi Chief minister along with his cabinet at Ramlila Maidan at 10 am on Sunday.

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