Mumbai, Apr 12, 2016 : The Bombay High Court today asked the BCCI whether it could shift IPL matches out of Pune in view of the grim water crisis in Maharashtra even as the cricket board said it would procure treated sewage water for maintenance of pitches in Mumbai and Pune.
A bench of Justices V M Kanade and M S Karnik, hearing a PIL by NGO Loksatta Movement challenging use of large quantities of water in stadiums at a time when the state was reeling under severe drought conditions, asked the BCCI to respond to this tomorrow.
The judges also asked the board whether it can contribute to the Chief Minister’s drought relief fund.
As the BCCI said it had supplied 40 lakh litres of water to stadiums per day for IPL tournaments so far, the judges asked whether it was ready to supply the same quantity to water-starved villages in and around Pune.
During the hearing, the Cricket Board counsel Rafiq Dada informed the bench that BCCI had tied up with Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) to procure treated sewage water for IPL matches to be played in Mumbai and Pune.
Nine Indian Premier League (IPL) matches have been planned in Pune and eight in Mumbai, where the opneing match was held on April 9 at Wankhede stadium here, the BCCI’s counsel told the court.
Three matches are slated to be held in Nagpur, and IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab has agreed to shift them to Mohali or elsewhere if the HC tells it, he said.
Everyday, 7-8 tankers of treated sewage water would be supplied to the stadiums, Dada said, adding use of treated sewage water should be encouraged because after treating it is released into the sea and goes wasted now, he said.
“In this case, instead of discharging treated sewage water into the sea, we are using it in the stadiums,” the BCCI counsel said.
The bench also asked RWITC to give an undertaking whether it would supply treated sewage water for the ground maintenance in Pune.
The HC had lambasted the BCCI during the last hearing on the use of huge quantities of water for the pitches.
The BCCI Counsel said that after the High Court pulled up the cricket Board for using water in stadiums it has taken the issue very seriously.
In another development, Maharashtra acting Advocate General Rohit Dev informed the court of the immediate and long term measures the Government would adopt to meet the drought situation.
New Delhi, Apr 1 : Experts and officials from state and central governments will gather here to chalk out plan to deal with the problems of drop-outs, non-enrolment and low attendance of children in schools.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is organising a two-day review meeting in collaboration with Human Resource Ministry and NCERT here on April 4 and 5.
“The problem of Out of School Children (OoSC), non- enrolment of children in schools, low attendance and drop- outs require urgent intervention and devising of strategies to counter the issue. For this, we are organising a consultation to review and prepare an action plan for dealing with this issue,” said Priyank Kanoongo, NCPCR Member Education.
NCPCR Chairperson, Stuti Kacker said deliberations and presentations on the factual position of OoSC, gaps, challenges, best practices prevalent within states and UTs will be held during the consultation.
The recommendations will be forwarded to Central Advisory Board of Education for devising effective policies.
“The issues, challenges, gaps, best practices and recommendations emerging from this consultation will be presented to the CABE committee meeting for consideration,” she said.
The Commission said emphasis should be on understanding and strengthening the preventive strategies in this regard.
“All the programmes, policies and related interventions of the government should be in consonance with prevention of OoSC which could be a first step towards combating the problem of school drop outs, non-enrolment, low attendance,” Kacker added.
@ Agency report.
New Delhi : Members of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) today approved starting a new “Gurukul” fellowship under which young scholars would be associated with eminent persons of learning in various fields.
Sources said the ‘in principle’ nod to these new fellowships was given at a meeting chaired by ICHR chief Y Sudershan Rao.
Rao had earlier resigned as the chief of the history research body, but continued on the post as the HRD ministry did not accept his resignation.
“The proposal for the new fellowships was discussed and got the approval of the members. Its aim is to facilitate young scholars to learn from the expertise of masters in various fields, though modalities will be worked out in the coming days,” an ICHR member said.
Asked if the name “Gurukul” was chosen with an aim to promote ancient Indian studies, the member said it may have been chosen because it is a bit “catchy” but the aim is to allow youngsters to gain knowledge by working closely with people who are revered in their field.
@ Agency report.
India may soon have a single number for all its emergency services along the lines of 911 in the US.
Telecom Commission, an inter-ministerial committee by the central government, has accepted Telecom Regulator of India’s recommendations to use ‘112’ for emergency services such as the fire department, police ambulance services.
Sources in the telecom ministry say the new service could be rolled out within the year.
“Telecom Commission has accepted Trai’s recommendation on single emergency number 112. It will now be drafted by the Department of Telecom and will require Telecom Minister’s (Ravi Shankar Prasad) approval. It will be rolled out within months rather than a year,” the source said.
The service will be available even on landlines and cell phones whose outgoing call facility has been stopped or temporarily suspended.
Emergency contact can also be made through text messages. The system will then trace the sender’s location and relay the information to the nearest help centre.
A call centre-like system will take the emergency calls. Representatives at the centre will have to speak English, Hindi as well as the local language.
The number will replace existing individual numbers.
Currently, emergency response number for police is 100, fire brigade 101, ambulance 102 and Emergency Disaster Management 108. States have their own help line numbers. For instance, Delhi government has its own special numbers, such as Woman in Distress (181), Missing Children and Women (1094) and Crime Against Women (1096).
@ Agency report.