Archive for July, 2007

No laws to control e-waste, Ahmedabad’s a dumpyard

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 28: TULSI Ram (15) unscrews a stabilizer and removes the battery, the circuit board from its plastic casing. His brother, Gehri Lal (12), uses hammer, chisel, his bare hands and teeth to disassemble clumps of copper wiring from a brass frame. Tulsi and Gehri are kabadiwallahs, who disassemble electrical goods and sell them [...]

The Elders: Mandela’s club of world leaders

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 27: On the eve of his 89th birthday, Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and an anti-apartheid activist, announced the formation of The Elders — a club of world leaders to discuss ways to tackle problems plaguing the world.

Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), is one of [...]

Renovation at AMC hassles public

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 24: Ever since repair and renovation work began at the main office of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation at Sardar Patel Bhawan in December last, people coming here to meet officials, are having a tough time. This, because 24 offices have been shifted out of the main building and flung across the city. [...]

Rains do little to salvage groundwater levels

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 24: The past five years have seen good rains in the state but not good enough in terms of groundwater replenishment. The rate at which groundwater is being replenished is much slower than the rate at which water is being consumed in most parts of the state.

The latest report, which assessed [...]

Sabarmati earns sobriquet of most-polluted waterbody

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 23: For those of us who have grown up hearing the soulful strains of “Sabarmati ke sant tu ne kar diya kamaal”, the Sabarmati river still holds a special place. But what many don’t know is that the river on whose banks Gandhi set up his Ashram has turned into one [...]

Tajpur renews link with the Uprising, but fails to rise on development index

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Tajpur (Ahmedabad), July 9: FOR six years now, Tajpur village has been commemorating the 1857 mutiny through a programme attended by [...]

One RTO battles 30 lakh vehicles in Ahmedabad

Friday, July 6th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, Jul 6: Major discrepancies have come up in regard to the condition of the regional transport offices (RTOs) in the state.

In December 2005, Bangalore had almost 23 lakh vehicles on its roads, with 10 regional transport officers and 217 technical inspectors. In comparison, today, Ahmedabad has almost 30 lakh vehicles, with only one [...]

Gandhi’s letters are a national treasure

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmeadbad, July 4: In the wake of the controversy surrounding the sale of Mahatma Gandhi’s letter, which is considered by many to be a national heritage, there seems to be renewed efforts to trace anything and everything written by Gandhi.
The chief trustee of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Amrut Modi said, [...]

At this meet, small voices address big issues

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 02: In a world where size matters, it was heartening to see little ones of the Childline India Foundation take centrestage to voice their opinions and grievances with the world they will soon inherit.
The Gujarat chapter of Childline recently arranged a state level children’s meet where 40 under-privileged children interacted with government [...]