Coimbatore Information - Manchester of South India.

Electrical products seized
COIMBATORE: The District Industries' Centre has seized electrical products worth Rs.64,642 from shops in Sulur during a recent crackdown on products without the mandatory ISI mark. The Centre said in a release that legal action would be taken against these shops. General Manager of the Centre S. Asokan said action would be taken against those who stored or sold domestic electrical products that did not have ISI mark.

Applications invited for PMEGP
COIMBATORE: The District Administration has invited applications from entrepreneurs who want to start small-scale units with assistance under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Scheme. Target According to a release, the assistance is disbursed in the State through the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Tamil Nadu Khadi and Village Industries Board and the District Industries Centres. The Department of Industries and Commerce had set a target disbursing Rs. 27.78 crore as subsidy to 2,315 units and reaching out to 23,139 beneficiaries in 2009-2010. In the State, totally Rs. 42 crore was sanctioned for 2,697 projects till the end of February 2010. Of this, Rs. 24.82 crore was disbursed for 1,646 projects and Rs. 13.50 crore subsidy was given for 804 projects. Eligibility Those interested in starting manufacturing units at a project cost of Rs. 10 lakh or above or service-sector units at an outlay of Rs. 5 lakh or more should have studied up to Class VIII to benefit from the scheme. The District Collector P. Umanath has urged entrepreneurs to avail themselves of the scheme.

�Need to cut energy cost'
COIMBATORE: Foundries should go in for energy audit to save energy costs, according to speakers at a recent programme organised here by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) and the APITCO. Speakers from the Petroleum Conservation Research Association said that in foundries, the energy cost was significant, apart from the operation cost. With the cost of power going up and availability coming down, foundries should become energy efficient. They should also bring down the energy cost to sustain their competitiveness. Audit The CODISSIA and the APITCO would take up energy audit in five induction furnace foundries and five cupola foundries this month. More foundries would be covered in 2010-2011, according to a release from the CODISSIA.

Projects launched
COIMBATORE: Rotary Club of Coimbatore Central recently launched new projects in the city. A release said the Club gave Rs. 2 lakh to Siruthuli to set up �Siruthuli Rain Centre'. Pa. Mohan Kumar, president of the Club, said the organisation had been joining hands with other service organisations for social cause. Vanitha Mohan, managing trustee, Siruthuli, said the fund would go a long way in creating and spreading awareness about water conservation among generation next. Ambulance The Club also gifted an ambulance, worth Rs. 3 lakh, to Bharathiar Shanthi Illam, a home for elderly persons. V. Rajkumar, a Rotarian, flagged off the project to donate artificial limbs and callipers.

Plea for power supply
COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers' Association has appealed to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to distribute the power shortage equally across the State. In a release, association president A.V. Varadharajan said unscheduled power cuts were increasing. Apart from the scheduled load shedding, the unscheduled power cut which was on the rise was affecting industries in rural areas. All consumers should be treated equally and there should be no discrimination between rural and urban consumers. Members of the association, especially those in rural areas, felt that they were not given an equal treatment, Mr. Varadharajan said.

Chamber seeks implementation of GST
COIMBATORE: The Union Government should ensure that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not postponed beyond April 1, 2011, the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, has said. Chamber president Mahendra Ramdass has said in a release that the Government should arrive at a consensus with the States on the rate structure and compensation package. The draft Acts for the tax should be published at the earliest for public comments. The Chamber suggested that goods exempted from the State GST should be exempted from the Central GST. Natural gas, petroleum products, alcoholic beverages and real estate should be included under GST. All cess and surcharges such as education cess, research and development cess, entry tax, and entertainment tax should be subsumed in the GST. The Government should abolish all statutory forms and State entry permits from the date of implementation of the GST and ensure free movement of goods. The refunds should be given within a month of filing the return by crediting the amount directly to the assessee's account. The chamber also sought clarification from the Empowered Committee on GST on taxation of work contracts, real estate taxation, GST on infrastructure projects and aviation sector. The rate structure, time frame for various activities to be brought under the GST, treatment of intra-State and inter-State job works, valuation and taxation of inter-State stock transfers also needed clarification, he said.

Visually challenged demand social security plan
COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu West wing of National Federation of Blind has demanded a social security plan. The Government should bring poorly qualified visually impaired persons from below poverty line families under the scheme and provide 30 kg rice a month, Rs. 1,500 as special monthly assistance and free housing, says a release from the organisation. It should increase to Rs. 700 the monthly food allowance provided to visually challenged students studying in special schools, fill up vacancies in such schools, provide Braille text books right at the beginning of academic year and impart computer education. Unemployment aid Likewise, the Government should hike unemployment assistance to Rs. 500 for those with high school qualification, Rs. 1,000 for people with higher secondary qualification and Rs. 1,500 for graduates and triple the readers' allowance given to visually challenged college students. On the employment front, the Federation has urged the State Government to impress upon companies with which it has entered into MoUs to provide jobs to visually challenged people in skilled and unskilled sectors, organise special recruitment drive to fill up group �C' and �D' vacancies in all departments, public sector undertakings and organisations under its control. The Federation has also asked for the appointment of the differently-abled persons with qualification in music against vacancies in Government schools, time-bound promotion and redeployment of the people in other departments in the event of closure of a public sector enterprise. The organisation also asked for allocation on a priority basis of shops owned by civic bodies in the State, the release adds.

Showing the way for women empowerment
COIMBATORE: It is a story of women who wove success with courage and determination. An initiative that started as an effort for better livelihood by reviving a lost art has earned world-wide recognition for the fabrics, Pashmina shawls, stoles, scarves, and home furnishing that the women weave. Mukti Datta, Managing Director of Panchachuli Women Weavers, who was here on Friday to speak at the TIDES Leadership Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, spoke to The Hindu on the challenges, growth and success of the Panchachuli Women Weavers. In the late 1990s, in the rural areas of Almora in the Kumaon Himalayas, a group of women who did not have access to technology or education to improve their lot came together, learnt the basics of hand weaving and started making products for the rural market, initially with the local lamb's wool. In the early days, the funding was private and so there was scope for creativity and mistakes too. �The basic training took two years. Refining it took another year and we started making jholas with strips of fabric,� she says. Now, Panchachuli Women Weavers has two entities: Panchachuli Women Weavers, the company that has about 750 women as its shareholders, and the Panchachuli Women's Cooperatives that give inputs for training, design and marketing. Totally, about 1,500 women are involved in the programme in hand spinning, hand weaving, administration, finance, vegetable dye processing, making Pashmina blankets, shawls, etc. Apart from the domestic market, about 50 per cent of the products made by these women is exported. The women have also travelled to Bhutan and Nepal and are likely to visit Morocco soon for exchange programmes. Through these they are able to learn and exchange weaving techniques and designs with weavers in mountain regions in other countries. The products are hand-made. While some of the classic designs are in-house, National Institute of Fashion Technology students are involved in the dproduction of the collections. �We are now working on winter collection for 2011-2012.� Once the women learn the basics, they are creative and experimenting. �They are proud that they are artisans,� Ms. Datta says. They even compete with each other in spinning or weaving better. �It has shown the path for women in remote areas.� The Panchachuli programme is replicable. It only needs determination and proper leadership, she says.

Co-ordination among government agencies stressed
COIMBATORE: A meeting here on Wednesday of the City Development Committee, formed to carry out infrastructure development for the World Classical Tamil Conference here in June, stressed co-ordination among the government agencies in implementing various works. Held at the Coimbatore Corporation under the chairmanship of Mayor R. Venkatachalam, the meeting did a stock-taking of the status of road, drainage, park and other works. Collector P. Umanath, the co-ordinator of the committee, called for co-ordination when Deputy Mayor of the city and Deputy Chairman of the committee N. Karthik pointed out that many electricity poles had not been shifted and these held up the Corporation's road works. The Collector wanted the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to speed up its work, especially the shifting of the poles. �You have got more funds than what you had asked for. So, there is no reason for the delay,� he told the officials of the board who attended the meeting. Agreeing with the board that it was implementing works at a fairly good pace, the Collector said some specific ones needed to be speeded up in order to enable other agencies carry out their projects. The other co-ordinator of the committee, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra, asked the Electricity Board officials to provide a schedule of the works they planned to carry out on the Corporation's roads. The Collector also drew the attention of the officials of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board to the Deputy Mayor's appeal that scarcity of Pilloor water should be avoided during the conference. Mr. Karthik said two line bursts had occurred recently, disrupting the supply of drinking water under the Pilloor scheme. Already, the North and East zones of the Corporation were experiencing shortage of water. �We do not want people protesting on the roads over disruption in water supply during the conference,� he said. The Collector asked the water board officials whether a comprehensive maintenance could be done before the conference in order to avoid leakage or bursts during its conduct. The Corporation Commissioner said that the State Government had sanctioned Rs. 26 crore to carry out improvements to or widening of 76 roads (totally 75 km). So far, seven road works had been completed at Rs. 1.22 crore. Works were on in the case of 38 roads. �Works have been initiated in the case of 23 roads. We will complete all the works by May 31,� he said. Mr. Mishra said works to lay bore well water and drinking water lines at Rs. 90 lakh had begun in and around CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex, the conference venue. Works for improvements to public toilets at Rs.87 lakh and to Corporation school toilets at Rs.50 lakh had just started. The process of procuring 60 mobile toilets at Rs. 3.46 crore and employ conservancy workers on contract had been started. Improvements to marriage halls and community halls at Rs. 94 lakh and the installation of streetlights, high-mast lamps and the developing of roadside parks were some of the other works.

Development & people's welfare are our �two eyes'
CHENNAI: The benefits of growth should be equitably distributed among all sections of society. This was a major theme of the development vision Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah presented to an editorial conference of The Hindu at its head office in Chennai on Saturday. He was in the city to attend the inauguration of the new Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly-Complex by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mr. Rosaiah said his government had �two eyes� � long-term development and the welfare of the people. They had to go hand in hand. The State had instituted development projects and welfare measures to ensure inclusive growth. In tune with the Eleventh Five Year Plan idea, Andhra Pradesh was laying great stress on health and education. In the field of higher education, he recalled, Chief Minister Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy had announced the starting of 18 universities, six medical colleges, and three Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) in a short period. The IIITs � there was one for each of the three regions, Rayalaseema, Telangana, and Coastal Andhra � would cost Rs. 1,200 crore each. Nearly 2,000 boys and girls would be admitted from rural areas with the top five students from each mandal given admission on merit. In the health sector, the Chief Minister observed, the Rajiv Arogyasri programme was very popular, with the result that every State had taken up a similar health insurance scheme. About Rs. 925 crore was being spent each year to provide free medical assistance up to Rs. 2 lakh to people from poorer sections. Under the �108� scheme, callers from any interior village in the State could get ambulance service within 20 minutes. Under the �104� service, �mini hospitals on wheels� would tour each village once a month with qualified doctors, staff nurses, and lab technicians to conduct preliminary tests and advise further treatment to villagers. An ambitious scheme of constructing 86 small and large irrigation projects had been taken up in the primarily agrarian State to bring 98.25 lakh new acres into cultivation apart from standardising 22 lakh acres in the Krishna-Godavari deltas. The government had also doubled its lending to agriculturists with Rs. 16,000 crore disbursed as term loans this year. Self-help groups were given loans at a low rate of interest to perform their activities. Chief Minister Rosaiah emphasised that the State had a strong social security net and had the maximum dovetailing of Central funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP). Around 71.4 lakh pensions were being disbursed along with monthly support for the elderly, widows, and physically handicapped persons. Nearly 65 lakh houses would be constructed by the State government and post-matric scholarships to 25 lakh students worth Rs. 3,000 crore, including a new scheme for economically backward communities (EBC) had been introduced. To ensure transparency, the government had instituted a social audit of the NREGP after complaints were brought to its notice over the past year. Complete field verification was being taken up. Transparency was ensured by involving the village committees in the process. Replying to a question, the 76-year-old Chief Minister who has won a good deal of respect for handling the agitation for a separate Telangana with deliberation, poise, and equanimity, emphasised that the government always tried to maintain equitability across regions in its budgetary provisions for development. He offered the assurance that �our intention is not to neglect any region, whether it is Telangana or Rayalaseema or Coastal Andhra, but to do full justice to all three regions, to satisfy the people of the three regions to the extent one can help.� Appeal on Telangana On the agitation for a separate Telangana, the political veteran who has, at one time or another, held virtually every ministerial portfolio in south India's largest State, appealed to the people to represent their views in a democratic manner and peaceful atmosphere to the Srikrishna committee, which had been formed to look into the matter, and abide by the final decision of the Government of India. �If we go on agitating for separation or against separation,� he concluded, �we will be wasting our energy, time and money and development will be hampered. So let us leave it to the wisdom and the vision of the Government of India and work for the betterment of society.�

�People speaking different languages must nurture good ties�
Chennai: People speaking different languages should nurture a good relationship with speakers of other languages instead of trying to dominate them, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Sunday. Speaking at a function organised to felicitate the construction labourers of the new Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly-Secretariat Complex, Mr. Karunanidhi said: �We do not like speakers of one language dominating other languages.� Referring to a query by N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, on Hindi songs being played at the function, Mr. Karunanidhi said: �Hindi is all right for songs, but not needed for Tamil Nadu.� Mr. Karunanidhi pointed to the fact that a chunk of the labourers were from Hindi-speaking States such as Bihar. They enjoyed Tamil songs also, he said. He thanked the labourers for their contribution to the construction of one of the wonderful structures in the country. Frequent visits Mr. Karunanidhi acknowledged that his frequent visits to the construction site probably made the task of the labourers more demanding and was also a factor of annoyance for them. The focus of the visits was only on making the building a better one, he said. However, this Himalayan structure had attracted the admiration of people up to the Himalayas because of the contribution of the people, said Mr. Karunanidhi. Mr. Karunanidhi distributed food packets to the labourers and presented mementos to important contributors who played a key role in the construction. R. Bacchu, one of the labourers, said he derived an immense satisfaction from working on the site. �The Assembly-Secretariat Complex is the thing I admire the most in Tamil Nadu. I want to take my family members in Madhya Pradesh on a tour of the complex,� he said.