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NATION

Our lands have

been usurped,
claim Shikaris of
Chittoor
A.D. RANGARAJAN
TIRUPATI: It is a fight for survival
for Shikaris, migratory tribes
of Maratipuram. It is not just
their landholding but their very address, that is at stake.
The Shikaris, it appears, are
paying the price for migrating
from their hamlet. One
hundred and twelve Shikari
families were assigned land to
the tune of 560 acres in Maratipuram village of Chintalapalem accounts in the Yerpedu
mandal of Chittoor district
under Act 9 of 1977. Even pattadar passbooks and title
deeds were issued to them.
But the Shikaris, migratory as
they were, kept moving
around. They settled elsewhere a couple of decades
ago. On return in the recent
years, they found to their
shock that their land was under the control of strangers.
The land is ours. It was christened Maratipuram on allotment to us, since we came
from the north, Shikaris G. Jigulu and D. Ratnam said, adding that they had to migrate
due to the continued spell of
drought from the 1990s to the
mid 2000s.
Revenue and police officials, however, offer a different version. After selling their
land which is an offence
some Shikaris migrated out
and are now seeking reassignment, they say. They have
moved out to Empedu, Yerpedu, Venkatagiri and even interior areas of Nellore district.
Some of them have been given
lands elsewhere and have
Aadhaar cards showing their
other address. Hence their
claim over Maratipuram is
untenable, Yerpedu Tahsildar B. Lakshminarasaiah said.

HYDERABAD

THE HINDU THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2015

Land allotment to Hema draws ire

Demands for housing for the homeless and slum-dwellers grow louder; government faulted for tardy approach
RAHI GAIKWAD
MUMBAI: Following the Maha-

rashtra governments recent

decision to allot land in Andheris Ambivli area to actor
Hema Malinis dance academy, demands for land allotments to house the homeless
and slum-dwellers are growing louder.
On Wednesday, the Youth
for Unity and Voluntary Action sent a letter to Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis,
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse and other
officials asking the government to make land available
for the rehabilitation of the
homeless.
In response to a petition
by the Homeless Collective,
the Mumbai Corporation
and the State cited non-availability of land to rehabilitate
the homeless. In this backdrop, on December 17, the
BMC approved a proposal to
build a cow shelter spread
over one lakh square feet in

The place is not for slum-dwellers; it is meant for education &

cultural activity, says the actor. FILE PHOTO: ROHIT JAIN PARAS

the city. On Wednesday, it

was widely reported that Hema Malini was given land for
her academy. We request the
government to show the
same drive in addressing the
issue of the homeless, the
organisations letter to Mr.

Fadnavis states. Mumbai

needs 574 shelters and 57,000
still sleep on the citys pavements, they said.
Reserved for institute
Defending the State governments decision, Mumbai

18 States agree to revoke no

detention policy in RTE
KAVITA UPADHYAY
JAIPUR: With the consent of 18
States for required
amendments in the no
detention policy under the
Right to Education (RTE) Act,
a committee headed by
Rajasthan Education Minister
Vasudev Devnani on
Wednesday sent
recommendations to the
Central government, stating
that the policy should be
revoked.
Under the policy, no student

can be failed or expelled till

Class VIII. However, States,
including Rajasthan, have
already done away with the
policy. The committee in its
recommendations decided
upon in New Delhi, stated that
a learning level must be fixed
for each class to check
whether a student is eligible
for the class that he or she is in.
Students must not be
detained in Classes VI and VII.
However, they must meet the
required learning levels, the
recommendations stated.

suburban Collector Shekhar

Channe said the 2000 square
metre land in Ambivli allotted to the BJP MP was reserved for her institute after
a change in the development
plan. The land was reserved
for the institute. It was earlier
RG (recreation ground), but
in the Development Plan the
plot was specifically reserved for the institute, Mr.
Channe told The Hindu. The
authorities pointed out that
the move was not out of turn
as Section 37 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town
Planning Act made provisions for minor modification to the plan.
The Natyavihar Kala Kendra Charity Trust run by Ms.
Hema Malini was granted the
plot 19 years after she first
applied for it. However, Opposition parties reacted to
the governments move citing the tardy approach to offering land for housing slum
dwellers and mill workers.
Ms. Hema Malini said the

hue and cry over the allotment was misplaced and

baseless. This place is not
for slum-dwellers. It is meant
for education and cultural activity. I will be maintaining a
public garden and only a
small portion of the plot will
be used for the dance academy. I deserve to have this
land. It is going to be a unique
and beautiful cultural centre
and Mumbai is happy about
it. If you leave the land, it will
be encroached upon, she
told The Hindu.
RTI activist Anil Galgali
pointed out that the government ought to have issued a
public notice ahead of the
land allotment. The government should have announced
the move through advertisements. Successive governments have been giving away
land parcels to big personalities like filmmaker Subhash
Ghai for his film school and
former Union Minister Rajeev Shukla, which was later
taken away.

Ashtamudi, a lake in distress

IGNATIUS PEREIRA
KOLLAM: Even as there is no
dearth of official warnings
of strong action against encroachers, encroachments
of massive scale continue
unabated along the Ashtamudi Lake in Keralas Kollam district.
The encroachers often
feel that it is their right to
encroach upon the lake,
listed as a Ramsar site.
Of late, it is the estuarine
islands of the lake that are
expanding in size due to encroachments. Large portions of the lake adjoining

The lake is a Ramsar site

the islands are encircled

with a foundation and then
reclaimed. During the holidays on December 24 and
25, several boat loads of
sand and debris were

dumped on the encircled

encroachments.
Ashtamudi Lake enthusiast V.K. Madhusoodanan
said that as a result of the
encroachments, the lake,
has shrunk to less than 34
sq. km. If this is the manner in which a Ramsar site
is protected, then in my
opinion the time has
dawned to strip the Ashtamudi Lake of its Ramsar
tag, he said.
This is happening to a
wetland which perhaps has
the largest number of environment activists fighting
to protect it, he said.

Narayana Gurus legacy

being hijacked: Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the inauguration of the

83rd Sivagiri Pilgrimage PHOTO: S. MAHINSHA
SARATH BABU GEORGE
SIVAGIRI (KERALA): In a veiled at-

tack on the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP), Congress president Sonia Gandhi has alleged
that attempts are being made
by certain communal ideologies and individuals to capture the legacy of Sree Narayana Guru.
Inaugurating the 83rd Sivagiri pilgrimage at Sivagiri
Mutt on Wednesday, Ms.
Gandhi said such efforts,
which were aimed at spreading prejudice and dividing society, amounted to betrayal of
the social reformer.
She said the Guru had exhorted his followers to abstain from religious conflicts
and live by secular values in
order to promote universal
peace,
harmony
and
prosperity.
The Guru had established
the Sree Narayana Dharma
Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam to
educate, organise and strengthen the weaker sections. Under his guidance, the organisation promoted cultural and
social activities to uplift the
disadvantaged communities
and provide them with dignity, pride and self-respect, Ms.

Gandhi said.
The organisation has
played a tremendous role in
the transformation of the
State by striving for unprecedented social empowerment.
The appointment of R. Sankar
as the Chief Minister of Kerala by the Congress in 1970 was
an example of the social progress that had been attained,
she said.
In an apparent reference to
the current leadership of the
Yogam, Ms. Gandhi said: It
will be a complete negation of
the Gurus teachings if it (the
organisation) pursues political interests.
Symbol of equality
She said that several prominent leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi
and Rabindranath Tagore,
had admired the efforts of
Sree Narayana Guru. The
uniqueness of Sivagiri Mutt,
which he had established as a
symbol of social equality, had
also led Mahatma Gandhi to
meet the Guru.
According to Ms. Gandhi,
the Gurus teachings of equality, liberty and social justice
were more relevant that ever
before.

Zero as the bone

of contention
MOHIT M. RAO
BENGALURU: How much can one discuss zero one of Indias most
well-known contributions to Mathematics? For the Ministry of Human Resource and Development,
there is much to deliberate, while
for mathematicians themselves, it
is time we got our heads out of ancient India.
On the occasion of National
Mathematics Day 2015, celebrated
on December 22 on the birth anniversary of Ramanujan, the MHRD
and UNESCO agreed to jointly organise conferences on zero.
These conferences will be held at
the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, as well as in the Indian Institute
of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. The
objective is to spread the joy of
mathematics and knowledge to
students and bring together academics, mathematicians and teachers to explore and discuss key associated concepts. IISc, however,
remains unaware of the developments, and researchers said such a
conference would be of no real help
to mathematicians.

CM
YK

HY-HY