Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Solar lamps installation in all houses to be completed by Saturday

People in the naxalite-affected Amasebail Gram Panchayat (GP) do not worry about frequent power cuts now as they can always fall back on solar lamps installed in their houses.

Ranjitha, a class six student, studies under a solar lamp in her house at Amasebail in Udupi district.

Amasebail Gram Panchayat is all set to become the first “solar gram panchayat” in Udupi district, thanks to the efforts of the district administration, the gram panchayat, the Amasebail Charitable Trust, Karnataka Bank and the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project.

Amasebail Gram Panchayat comprises three villages — Amasebail, Rattady and Machattu and has 1,872 houses.

While some houses have been provided two solar lamps each, the others have four solar lamps.

The cost for installing two solar lamps was Rs. 9,900, while it was Rs. 16,000 for four lamps. The beneficiaries had to pay Rs. 3,000 for two lamps, while it cost Rs. 6,000 for four solar lamps.

In the case of Koraga community beneficiaries, the gram panchayat bore the amount of Rs. 3,000 per beneficiary; while in the case of other Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes beneficiaries, it had spent Rs. 2,000 per beneficiary for installation of lamps.

The total cost of installing solar lamps in these 1,497 houses was Rs. 2.13 crore (the remaining 375 houses had had solar lamps under the previous schemes).

While Rs. 62 lakh was provided by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Rs. 42 lakh came from Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL), and Rs. 25 lakh from the district administration. The beneficiaries contributed Rs. 76 lakh. The trust coordinated the activities of all the organisations and chipped in with funds where necessary.

SELCO India Pvt. Ltd., selected through e-tender, was entrusted with the work of installing the solar lamps. As per tender conditions, the company had given full guarantee of five years for the solar lamps, even as it undertakes half-yearly maintenance and replaces faulty lamps in a day.

While the installation of solar lamps in 1,497 houses was taken up on May 5, the first and second phase works were completed on July 7 and September 20, respectively. The final phase work would be completed on December 10.

The people are all praise for the solar lamps. Babu, a construction worker from Koraga community, said that he was now no longer bothered about power cuts as he had solar lamps.

Revathi, a class seven student, said: “After installation of solar lamps, I am studying for longer hours.” Sudarshan Shet, a shopkeeper, said that he was saving Rs. 150 a month on electricity bills after the installation of the solar lamps. “I am thinking of installing it in my shop also,” he said.

Steps will be taken to check monkey menace: Madhwaraj

Monkeys, deer, wild boars, bison destroying crops, say Havanje residents

Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, said on Monday that a proposal would be submitted to the Ministry for Forests, Environment and Ecology urging it to allow for sterilization of monkeys and then leaving them into forests as they were destroying agricultural and horticultural crops in many villages in the district. He was speaking at a special mass contact programme held at Havanje village in Udupi district.

Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, examining the functioning of spray air gun meant to scare away monkeys from fields, at an exhibition held as part of World Soil Day at Brahmavar in Udupi district on Monday.

Mr. Madhwaraj directed the officials of the Forest Department to prepare such a proposal. If an integrated proposal was submitted, a provision could be made to deal with this problem in the budget for the next fiscal year.

While forests and wildlife were essential, it was also incumbent upon the department to protect the interests of the farmers living in the villages close to forests, Mr. Madhwaraj said.

Earlier, Bhaskar Shetty, a farmer, said that nearly 2,000 monkeys from nearby forests were making life difficult for the farmers. They had destroyed nearly 1,000 tender coconuts a year. About 100 deer and a good number of wild boars and bison destroyed paddy and other saplings.

Loss of crops

The loss caused by the destruction of agricultural and horticultural crops in the gram panchayat was estimated at over Rs. 65 lakh per annum. The deer were forced to come to the fields because there was no grass growing in the nearby reserve forest. There were about 67 acacia trees there hampering the growth of grass.

Sometimes, unable to find water in the forests animals ventured in to the fields, destroying water sprinklers in the process.

Motorcyclist killed

A motorcyclist was killed recently when he was pierced by a deer’s horns. “There also were four to five leopards roaming around in the area. People fear to leave their houses after sunset,” Mr. Shetty said.

Permission needed

Mr. Madhwaraj directed the officials to cut down the acacia trees in the forest within a week. Officers of Forest Department said that there was a group of monkey catchers at Chanthar village. Their services could be utilised for catching and sterilizing the monkeys. These monkeys could then be left in dense forests in Agumbe or Kudremukh. However, the government had to permit the catching and sterilization processes first. The problem of other wild animals could be tackled by taking up solar fencing, they said.

Janardhan Tonse, zilla panchayat member, elected representatives of the gram panchayat and officers of Forest Department were present.

Eight devotees perform ‘ede snana’ in Udupi

Devotees rolled on plantain leaves which contained ‘prasada’

As many as eight devotees, including four men and four women, performed ‘ede snana’ ritual around the Subrahmanya shrine in the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple complex here as part of Subrahmanya Shashti festival on Monday.

People performing ‘ede snana’ around the Subrahmanya Shrine at the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple premises in Udupi on Monday.

The devotees rolled on plantain leaves which contained the ‘prasada’ offered to the deity at the Subrahmanya shrine.

Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Mutt came up with the concept of ‘ede snana’ following opposition to ‘made snana’ a couple years ago. Under ‘made snana,’ devotees roll over the leftovers on plantain leaves on which Brahmins had their meals.

Vishwesha Tirtha Swami told presspersons here that as the devotees rolled on leaves containing ‘prasada’ in ‘ede snana,’ there would be no controversy. “This will satisfy the devotees, the tradition too will be maintained and also there will be no controversy,” he said.

On Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s reported statement that both ‘made snana’ and ‘ede snana’ should be avoided as devotees had to roll over food, the seer said that after the devotees roll over the food, it would be offered to cows and it would not go waste.

Asked why there was lesser number of devotees to perform ‘ede snana’ here, the seer said that some devotees might not have come because there were no leaves containing leftovers of Brahmins. Last year, 19 devotees had performed ‘made snana’ around the shrine here.

He said he had started the practice of ‘ede snana’ at the Subrahmanya shrine in the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple here this year. “I hope the future Paryaya seers will also follow this practice. But it is up to them to follow. I do not want controversies related to caste between Brahmins and non-Brahmins on this issue,” the Pejawar seer said.

Meanwhile, devotees, who performed ‘ede snana’ were nonchalant. Subrahmanya Acharya, a businessman and storekeeper at the mutt, said that he used to perform ‘made snana’ for the last eight years. “This year, they have introduced ‘ede snana’ here, I have performed it. I had taken a vow (’harike’). Since that vow had got fulfilled, I have performed it,” he said. P. Gururaj Bhat, a priest, he had been doing ‘made snana’ here for the last 10 years. “This year, I have done ‘ede snana’ because of vow fulfilment. Both ‘made snana’ and ‘ede snana’ are same for me,” he said.