Study finds high level of toxic benzene in Delhi air India to launch

IMPHAL, TUESDAY 03 MARCH, 2015
NEW DELHI, Mar 2
Swine flu claimed the lives of 40
more people in the country as
the toll from the disease reached
1,115 while the total number of
cases breached the 20,000
mark.
The Health Ministry said
that 1,115 persons have succumbed to the H1N1 virus
while the number of those
affected by it stands at
20,795 on March 1.
With heavy rainfall lashing
Delhi and other parts of the
north, health officials said it
was difficult to ascertain
whether the rains will have
any effect on the incidence of
swine flu.
However, the officials said
that, during monsoon, the virus increases and it was
possible that whatever decline
was being seen over the last
few days in the intensity of
the disease may not continue.
They said that there will be
no decrease in the virus due
to the rains and added that
high temperatures are a deterrent for the virus.
The latest data shows that
275 persons have died of
swine flu in Gujarat where
4,614 have so far contracted
the disease.
In Rajasthan, six more
deaths were reported which
has taken the toll for the state
to 267 while 5,610 persons
have been affected by the virus.
The virus has claimed the
lives of 160 people in
Madhya Pradesh with 1,054
people taken ill by it while in
Maharashtra, the death toll
has increased to 152 with
1,789 cases reported of swine
flu.
In Telangana and Punjab,
the disease has, respectively,
claimed 57 and 44 lives.
Swine flu has also killed 46
persons in Karnataka.
In Delhi, the number of
casualties stands at 10 while
the count for affected persons
has risen to 2,999.
States like Haryana (22
deaths), Andhra Pradesh
(14), Himachal Pradesh (8),
Jammu and Kashmir and
Kerala (7 each), too, have
been grappling to contain the
disease.
UNLF to probe CBSE fiasco
Contd from page 1
which is allegedly aimed at destroying the human resources pool
of the State.
All those people who were directly involved in playing
with career of so many students would be adjudicated and
punished accordingly, it conveyed.
Police foil rally attempt
Contd from page 1
Despite their service insecurity, they have been utilised by the
Government in all works, he pointed out while urging he authority
concerned to revise their honorarium or service condition at the
earliest.
The memorandum submitted today to the Speaker included
demands for hiking the honorarium of VDF personnel to Rs
10,000 per month, 13 months pay for them or not to assign
duties to them on Sunday and general holidays, extension of
time to time adequate facilities to VDF personnel, to establish
a separate battalion for the VDF personnel at the earliest to
be headed by an SP and a service book for the VDF personnel, etc.
Urging the Govt to fulfill the demands and implement them
before the end of March this year, the VDF personnel warned
of launching various forms of agitation if no measures are
taken up to meet their demands.
Burned down
Contd from page 1
Ch Amujao, finance secretary of the College Student's Union said
that the drastic step was taken by the students of the college as no
classes were taken since some time back due to the ongoing cease
work strike launched by college teachers.
The students are apprehensive that their syllabi will not be
covered due to the teachers' strike. The 6th semester exams are
slated to begin from May 21 and filling up of exam forms has
already begun.
The Students' Union has also appealed to the teachers and
the Government to sort out their differences at the earliest in
the larger interest of the students. They also warned of launching intense forms of agitation unless the stalemate is ended
immediately. Meanwhile, college teachers under the aegis of
All Manipur College Teachers' Association (AMCTA) has
affirmed to sustain their agitation until their demands are
fulfilled. The teachers have been on strike since Feb 18.
Mary Kom to quit after Olympics
Contd from page 1
I am doing whatever is required to maintain fitness. I have to make
myself to a level of fitness before starting proper training which I
think will begin next month,” she said.
“Asian Championship and World Championship are coming up and they will act as qualifiers for the Rio Olympics.
So, I have to do well in these tournaments to qualify for the
Rio Olympics,” she said. Asked if she was thinking of setting
up boxing academies in other States of the country, Mary
Kom said, “It is very difficult to set up an academy. It is very
expensive. It is even more expensive to maintain it. Let me
first inaugurate my academy in Manipur.
“I am not setting up the academy in Manipur to earn
money. I am helping poor youngsters who cannot afford to
take up boxing. If somebody can help me, I can open boxing
academies in other States. Or I can help other people to open
academies,” said Mary Kom who considers legendary professional heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali as her idol.
The objective of the campaign was to ‘box out’ the evils
in the society like sexual abuse, eve teasing, acid attacks,
corruption, among others. Mary Kom unveiled the blogging
page of ‘Box Out’ campaign - (www.didasportswear.com/
boxout) by registering herself as the first member of it.
“Work on your fitness for at least 40 minutes in a day so
as to stay fit and fight against the evils like eve teasing, sexual
abuse etc,” she said while giving tips of self defence to the
students. –– PTI
Study finds high level of toxic benzene in Delhi air
NEW DELHI, Mar 2
For Delhiites, there's more bad
news in the air. The capital not
only has the worst air quality
among big cities across the
world, a new study has found
alarmingly high levels of a
carcinogenic
compound,
benzene, in Delhi's air.
A 68-day study of monitoring stations in NCR by
Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB), whose results were submitted to the
National Green Tribunal
(NGT), found the average
benzene level in Delhi to be
14 micrograms per cubic
metre, almost three times
higher than the safe limit of
5.
By comparison, the benzene level in Gurgaon was
found to be 0.22 and Rohtak
0.18. The huge difference in
the levels of the toxic compound in the capital and its
surrounding cities is baffling
but it could be because just
one station each monitored the
pollutant in Gurgaon and
Rohtak.
Benzene is a compound of
crude oil and petrol that can
be harmful even at trace levels. Apart from vehicular
exhausts, evaporation from
petrol filling stations can
cause benzene levels to rise.
Doctors link benzene to
certain kinds of lymphomas,
a cancer that begins in immune system cells called
lymphocytes.
Experts suggest Delhi
should install vapour recovery systems at petrol pumps
as soon as possible to deal
with high benzene levels.
Earlier studies had found
very high levels of benzene in
certain locations in the capital
such as Civil Lines and IGI
airport.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has asked
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, to study the
reasons for high benzene levels in the city.
"The issue of high benzene levels was discussed
with CPCB and Justice
Swatanter Kumar (of NGT)
recently and we suggested
that it should be brought under control as benzene is one
of the most nasty pollutants,"
said T K Joshi from the Centre for Occupational and
Go back as empowered..
Environmental
Health
(COEH).
The CPCB study was conducted from December 5,
2014 to February 10, 2015.
Due to lack of sufficient
number of monitoring stations
in NCR, just four cities were
included — Delhi, Gurgaon,
Faridabad and Rohtak.
The study also monitored
fine suspended particulate
matter (PM2.5) levels and
found it exceeded or bordered
around the safe level (60ppm)
all four cities. In Faridabad, it
exceeded the standard on all
68 days. In Delhi, about 558
observations were noted, of
which 447 exceeded the
standard.
PM 2.5 are pollution particles that are less than 2.5
microns in size, small enough
to easily enter the body and
get lodged in the lungs. Doctors say PM 2.5 can do more
damage than just triggering
wheezing episodes or respira-
tory distress. Constant exposure to high PM 2.5 can
cause arrhythmias and ischaemic heart disease.
Arrhythmia is a disorder
characterized by irregular
heart beat or abnormal heart
rhythm while ischaemic heart
disease is associated with reduced blood supply to the
heart.
CPCB also highlighted the
shortcomings of air quality
monitoring systems in NCR.
"Most state pollution control
boards have not provided
data in the desired format and
in most cases, the 24-hourly
data provided as could not
help us work out peak hour
and non-peak hour concentration of pollutants to
establish pollution from vehicular sectors," the report
concluded.
The absence of automatic
real-time monitoring in NCR
was also obvious from the
list of monitoring stations the
report provided. For instance,
apart from Delhi, only
Haryana has just three continuous monitoring stations in
NCR. UP and Rajasthan don't
have any.
The high PM2.5 levels in
Delhi are mostly because of
very high number of diesel
vehicles in the city as compared to the rest of NCR,"
said T K Joshi.
Agencies
Battery powered autos on the card
Contd from page 1
Contd from page 1
`“But how far have we acted ?” asked the Minister and added “to
act east we have to act within the borders.” Talking of assimilation,
the Minister underlined the diversity of the country and the region.
He urged JNU to look beyond academic confines and hold events
around “diversity within diversity” where NE is in itself a diverse
region with diverse forms of conflicts and strategies and even
weapons, he said. Prof SK Sopory, VC - JNU in his address stated
that various programs under the North East Study Programme have
been initiated in the field of social sciences, environment, language,
culture, international studies.
With the continued rise in crime against people from North
East in Delhi, recently a counselling and support centre have
been set up with one faculty member as a nodal officer, said
the Vice Chancellor
Bhagat Oinam , former Director of the North East Study
Programme, JNU in his presentation underlined the need to
change the security paradigm of development in NE and the
welfare approach of development packages. He also mentioned that there is a disconnect between the academics and the
Government, which he said should engage each other.
In the same line of negative portrayal of the region and its
people, Oinam stated that while the people of NE are only seen
as employed in hospitality sector and security guards in metro
cities there are several NE youth in the IT sector, teaching etc.
Oinam further mentioned that the proposed North East hostel
will not be an exclusive hostel for the NE students but will
also cater to students from other parts of the country as well.
study has been conducted to ascertain the pollution level of Imphal.
With the exception of noise pollution, air pollution and
water pollution are within permissible limits.
Emission from vehicles, diesel generators used for power
back-up, smoke emitted from burning charcoal and firewood
and emission from vehicles 15 years old and more are the
main contributors to the air pollution of Imphal city and
surrounding areas.
To a poser raised by Ginsuanhau, Deputy Chief Minister
Gaikhangam said that SoO pact has not been extended after
the previous term expired on August 21 last year.
Whereas the parties to SoO pact have been demanding that
political dialogue should be held at Delhi, the Government of
India has been suggesting Imphal as the most appropriate site
for holding tripartite political dialogue. As such, there is a
disagreement over the choice of political dialogue venue.
Nonetheless, the State Government has been asking the
Ministry of Home Affairs to take a final decision on the
matter, Gaikhangam added.
`Priceless` Chinese artefacts stolen
Paris, Mar 2: Thieves have broken in to the fabled Fontainebleau
castle south of Paris and stolen 15 or so "priceless" Chinese artefacts in a lightning raid, French authorities said.
The theft took place in "one of the most secure parts of the
castle, equipped with alarms and surveillance cameras," said
the French culture ministry.
India to launch fourth navigation satellite on Mar 9
Chennai, Mar 2
India will move closer to its own
satellite navigation system with
the launch of its fourth satellite
tentatively slated for March 9, a
senior official of the Indian
space agency said on Monday.
"The launch is tentatively
planned for March 9 evening
around 6.35 p.m. However
final green signal for the
launch will be given days
ahead of the satellite launch,"
M.Y.S. Prasad, director,
Satish Dhawan Space Centre,
part of Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO).
He said the satellite has
been tested and mated with
the rocket and the heat shield
will be closed Monday.
"Full test will be done
again Tuesday and the rocket
will be moved to the second
launch pad on March 4,"
Prasad said.
According to him, the
space agency's Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) has
to give the final nod for the
rocket's flight.
The LAB meeting is slated
for March 6. The 59 hour
countdown is expected to
begin on March 7 morning.
Weighing 1,425 kg, the
fourth of the Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System
(IRNSS) satellite-IRNSS-1D
would be flown into space in
an Indian rocket called Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL.
After its successful launch
and commissioning IRNSSID is expected to make India
among select group of countries having its own satellite
navigation system.
The satellite has a life span
of around 10 years.
Currently India is knocking at the door step of an
exclusive space club - navigation satellite system owing
club - that has the US, Russia, China and Japan as
members.
Though the full system
comprises of nine satellites seven in orbit and two on the
ground as stand-by - the navigation services could be made
operational with four satellites, ISRO officials had said
earlier.
Each satellite costs around
Rs.150 crore and the PSLVXL version rocket would cost
around Rs.130 crore. The
seven rockets would involve
an outlay of around Rs.910
crore.
The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is
planned to be completed by
2015.
The first satellite IRNSS1A was launched in July
2013, the second IRNSS-1B
in April 2014 and the third
one October 16, 2014.
Once the regional navigation system is in place, India
need not be dependent on
others.
The IRNSS will provide
two types of services -standard positioning service
and restricted service. The
former is provided to all users and the latter is an
encrypted service for authorised users.
The IRNSS system comprises of two segments - the
space and the ground. The
space segment consists of
seven satellites of which three
will be in geostationary orbit
and four in inclined
geosynchronous orbit.
The ground segment consists of infrastructure for
controlling, tracking and other
facilities.
Okendro assures
Contd from page 1
Necessary action would be initiated against the former Principalin-charge under the Manipur Public Servants Personal Liability
Act based on the committee’s recommendations.
Earlier, lobbying for college development funds were done
by respective colleges and there was no room for intervention
by the Government. Funds sanctioned by UGC were utilized/
spent by respective colleges in the way they chose.
But these days, a State level UGC screening committee has
been constituted. After the establishment of the committee, the
Education Minister, Commissioner, Director and even MLAs
concerned have been authorised to monitor utilization of UGC
funds.
Strangely, very few are now seeking UGC funds after the
committee was set up in 2013, Okendro stated.
Th Shyamkumar opined that similar cases of fund misappropriation may be there in other colleges too.
Objection raised
Contd from page 1
After completion of the rehabilitation survey, a map of the 46 Kms
long road was already published in The Sangai Express, Mangi
said.
Meitei Keirang located within Heingang A/C in Imphal
East district has around 60 hectares of paddy fields and the
ring road would pass through the paddy fields for a length
of about 5 Kms.
“We are not objecting to any development programme. We
are requesting the authorities concerned to construct the road
according to the map already published. Government authorities should not commit the blunder of going at the whim of
a handful of individuals”, Mangi said.
The Government should look into the matter else the farmers would be compelled to approach the Court apart from
launching a series of agitation, he added.
CCTV cameras
Contd from page 1
The e-tender process would take 21 days to one month. As for the
required fund, it would take even one day to get it sanctioned, Ibobi
asserted.
Raising the motion, Joykisan opined that keeping the CCTV
cameras fully operational would go a long way in checking
criminal and violent activities in the capital city.
He urged the Chief Minister to sanction the fund required
for repairing broken down CCTV cameras and for procuring
additional CCTV cameras.
ILPS Bill
Contd from page 1
of permanent structures by Assam Rifles.
He urged the Government to raise the matter at an appropriate forum and asked AR authorities to remove the permanent
structures.
There was a plan of the State Government to take over the
old airport by giving some areas of Leimakhong to AR authority in exchange, Biren reminded.
Th Shyamkumar sought the attention of the Government to
check whether laying of underground power cables is being
done according to guidelines or not.
JCILPS set to launch agitations
Contd from page 1
He also called for people's participation to pave the way for
implementation of a law to safeguard the indigenous people.
Accusing Chief Minister O Ibobi and his Council of Ministers of failing to work in the interest of the people and failing
to feel the sentiments of the people, the JCILPS demanded
their resignation from their respective posts on moral ground.
Ibotombi also accused the CM of dishonouring the recommendations made by the All Political Party Committee.
Announcing future course of action, Ibotombi said that
from March 9 onward JCILPS will launch a survey to identify
non-locals in various parts of the State like it was done some
months back, in collaboration with local clubs and meira
paibis.
JCILPS will also start issuing identity cards to the nonlocals who do not have proper identity proof from the day
onward after consulting with the local clubs and meira paibis,
he added. The issuance of JCILPS cards to the non-locals will
not cover employees of Central and State Government and
students, he further said.
Panel set up, probe begins..
Contd from page 1
representation was submitted to the relevant Minister or the
Director concerned, Okendro stated.
In accordance to a Cabinet decision adopted in 2005, there
could be only two CBSE schools in a district. In line with the
same Cabinet decision, the Government gave consent to establishment of two CBSE schools in 2011.
After that no one applied for establishment of schools.
Nonetheless, schools were being set up in all directions.
Taking serious note of the fast multiplying number of
schools, the State Government initiated due procedures to
frame a regulatory mechanism but the same process was
delayed with the introduction of Right to Education Act.
Nevertheless, the regulatory mechanism would be finalized
shortly.
Raising the motion, Th Shyamkumar, L Ibomcha and Dr
I Ibohalbi appealed to the State Government to make some
special arrangements for the 2500 students so that they are
sparred from losing one crucial academic year.
They also suggested the House to enact a legislation in
order to check indiscriminate establishment of schools.
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40 more dead as Swine
Flu toll climbs to 1,115
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Last date of form submission on
02.03.15. Interview on 03.03.15 # 7308510460/ 7308006517/ 8132876434