Health camp for rescued children

he National Child Labour Project (NCLP) organised a medical camp in Thondmauthur recently for child workers from Assam who were rescued from the areca nut farms here and are studying at two special schools in Thondamuthur.

According to a release from the NCLP project director D. Vijayakumar about 110 children attended the camp. They were diagnosed with nutrition deficiency, digestion problems, skin allergy and cough and cold.

Two children were referred to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for further treatment. Medicines were given to the rest with assistance from the NOVA Foundation and primary health centre.

Conference on Arbitration

The Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre, Chennai and Singapore International Arbitration Centre will organise a conference here on November 17 on “Strengthening Arbitration in India: Sharing Concerns and Finding Solutions.”

Some of the topics to be discussed at the meet are: arbitration – a Singapore perspective, arbitration in India – concerns, role of courts in arbitration, advantages of institutional arbitration, negotiating and drafting effective arbitration and mediation clauses with special reference to Small and Medium Enterprises. Retired judge of the Supreme Court of India P.K. Balasubramanyan will inaugurate the conference.

About 200 participants are expected. For registrations, contact: N.V. Sreejaya, Advocate ( sreemerv@gmail.com)

Development works in CBE Rly station ..

Development works and passenger amenities related works are under way in various stations of the Southern Railway at an outlay of over Rs 10,000 crore, said M.S. Jayanth, General Manager of Southern Rialway on Sunday.He also pointed out that Rail Over Bridge construction is on at 12 places and proposals are in final stages with regard to 40 places in Tamil Nadu.

He inspected the Coimbatore Railway Junction, North Junction, Peelamedu and Irugur junctions and discussed the development works. He also inspected the Coimbatore - Irugur railway line doubling work.He was accompanied by Salem Railway Divisional Manager P.N. Ram, Chief Engineer Bola Singh, Chief Planning and Design Engineer M. Satish.Mr. Jayanth inspected the cleanliness at the junction, platforms and waiting hall.

He reviewed the plans for the proposed foot under bridge and foot over bridge planned for Coimbatore Junction for decongesting the junction premises.He also directed for putting up boards displaying the parking fee and heard the passengers on the “exorbitant increase” in parking fee at the North Coimbatore Junction.He had a meeting with the Members of Parliament, P.R. Natarajan (Coimbatore) and K. Sugumar (Pollachi). He said that considering the increasing passenger density, the Southern Railway has proposed an additional train on the Coimbatore - Nagercoil sector.

Mr. Jayanth said that the railway line doubling works between the Coimbatore and Irugur sections are nearing completion and efforts are on to have safety trial runs and Rail Safety authorities have been requested for conducting the same to throw the section open soon.To ease congestion at the counters, Mr. Jayanth said that next to Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram, a proposal is under consideration for automatic ticket vending machine at Coimbatore and would become functional very soon.

Considering the fact that 60 per cent of the passengers are now opting for e-tickets and only 40 per cent use the counters, Mr. Jayanth said that a proposal is under consideration for ticket vending through private sector at the rate of Re 1 as commission per ticket.Southern Railway was witnessing an increase of 2 lakh passengers increasing per day in Southern Railway and said that efforts are on to provide them with all amenities.

He said that line doubling in respect of 320 km and broad gauge conversion in respect of 122 km are in full swing in Southern Railway.

Heavy rainfall in district !

All schools and colleges in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts will be closed on Monday in view of heavy rain, the district administration said on Sunday following instructions from the State Government.

Bharathiar University said all examinations scheduled by it for Monday were cancelled. Fresh dates would be announced later, it said.The heavy rain that lashed the city and suburbs since Saturday afternoon left many stretches flooded. Clogged drains in some places added to the agony of road users. After a halt for about three hours in the afternoon, heavy rain pounded these areas throughout evening.

Traffic on Big Bazaar Street was disrupted in the morning as the Lanka Corner underpass near the Coimbatore Railway Junction was flooded. The Coimbatore Corporation used its water tanker to pump water out of the underpass and enable full traffic to resume.

Supervised

Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra and officials of the Corporation supervised the de-flooding measures.A portion of the Corporation’s road, off Tiruchi Road, was washed away on Saturday night. Highways officials said traffic had been diverted on this road for some days as works to widen the Tiruchi Road were on.Shrubs and waste being washed away towards Singanallur clogged a culvert at this spot. Water overflowing from the canal washed away a portion of the road.

A Highways official said restoration works were taken up early and traffic was restored by afternoon.There was heavy flow in River Noyyal that brings water to about 10 tanks in and around the city. Water overflowed from the Siruvani Dam for the third time this year. The dam recorded 92 mm rain till 8.30 a.m. on Sunday.

Good inflow

The Corporation said the dam was still recording good inflow as there was heavy rain in the catchments.The dam being filled to its capacity of 650 million cubic feet at this time of the year was heart warming for the civic body as it supplied drinking water to one half of the city. Now, the normal rainfall in the North-East Monsoon would help in maintaining a good storage during next summer.

Water level

The water level in the Sholayar Dam was 150.66 ft as against the full reservoir level of 160 ft.The inflow into the reservoir was 832 cusecs and the discharge was 144 cusecs.The level in Parambikulam Dam was 71.12 ft as against the full reservoir level of 72 ft. The inflow was 3,117 cusecs and the discharge was 315 cusecs.The water level in Thirumurthy Dam was 41.96 ft as against the full reservoir level of 60 ft.The inflow was 2,136 cusecs and the discharge was 13 cusecs. The water level in Amaravathy Dam was 59.86 ft as against the full reservoir level of 90 ft. The inflow was 9,453 cusecs and the discharge was five cusecs.

The rainfall level (in mm) is as follows: Sholayar (58), Parambikulam (98), Aliyar (200), Thirumurthy (173), Amaravathy (173), Upper Nirar (74), Lower Nirar (96), Uppar (51), Thoonacadavu (102), Peruvaripallam (105), Valparai (70), Vettaikaranpudur (175), Pollachi (148), Sultanpet (60), Pongalur (65), Kangeyam (78), Navamalai (264), Sarcarpathy (220), Vellakoil (86.2), Palladam (53) and Negamam (57).

New ways of marketing !!

TWO MAJOR problems plague the agriculture sector: the first, lowering input costs, and the other, proper marketing. If these two are addressed then the farmers’ economic status will improve.“Though marketing fruits and vegetables at the right time become’s imperative to get a good price, the fact is many of our farmers are unaware of the daily market prices and often depend on middlemen, who easily exploit them. Many of these brokers often work on an established network and quote the same (low) price.

Severe liability

“A small farmer who lacks information on the right price often sells the produce to the middlemen as storing his produce is simply not possible,” says Prof. E. Vadivel, Project officer, e- Extension Centre, Directorate of Extension Education, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore.To a small and marginal farmer, selling his produce at the earliestensures some cash flow in his hands for repaying his debts. This scenario persists in the country since independence.

Daily information

“With a view to helping such farmers overcome this problem our University recently started the e-Extension centre, to provide information on the daily rates for different produces in the state to our farmers.“After careful study and extensive tours to different places we chose about 13 markets for implementing this scheme: Kochi (Kerala), Chennai, Coimbatore, Ottanchatram, Tiruchi, Hosur, Kumbakonam, Madurai, Mettupalayam, Panruti, Thalaivasal, Tirunelveli (all in Tamil Nadu) and Bangalore (Karnataka),” explains Prof Vadivel.

These major markets handle more than 100 tonnes of perishable produce on a daily basis, and influence the flow of perishable commodities mainly in the four southern States.

Market committees

Further, the Market Committees functioning in each market are willing to provide information to the centre. About 13 market analysts (Agricultural and Allied sciences graduates) stayed near different markets and collected the daily market price from both wholesalers and retailers, compiled it and sent it to the University by 11 am every day.The rates are ready to be viewed by 1.00 pm by logging on to www.agritech.tnau.ac.in both English and Tamil.“In the initial period, the analyst’s spent a week’s time in the market to study its nature and functioning.

“Their daily visits encouraged a good rapport among the several dealers which helped us to get the right information,” explains Prof. Vadivel.But how many farmers use computers in villages?True, the use of internet by farmers is meagre. However the mobile phone network has expanded in leaps and bounds. Virtually every farmer has a mobile today.

Those with mobiles can easily access this information. Right now, about 3,000 farmers and 200 scientists are already using mobile-based SMS on commodity and market information.In addition market information data base, several farmers association are being linked to both farmers and field extension officials to understand the daily prices of important markets in south India.

Readers can contact Dr. E. Vadivel, Project officer, e- Extension Centre, Directorate of Extension Education, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, website: www.tnau.ac.in and www.agritech.tnau.ac.in, e-mail: info@tnau.ac.in, phone: 0422-6611383.