India says two soldiers killed, mutilated by Pakistani troops

By Fayaz Bukhari | SRINAGAR, INDIA- Mon May 1, 2017

India's army accused Pakistani troops of killing two of its soldiers patroling the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region on Monday before mutilating their bodies, and vowed to exact revenge.

Past accusations that Pakistani forces have mutilated dead Indian soldiers have outraged the Indian public and intensified the dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbours over the Himalayan region.

Pakistan's military denied the allegations. It said there had been no violation of a ceasefire on the Kashmir frontier and that its soldiers had not mutilated the corpse of any Indian soldier.

The Indian army said Pakistani forces fired rockets and mortar bombs at two Indian posts on the Line of Control dividing Muslim-majority Kashmir between the two countries, in the Krishna Ghati sector.

"In a unsoldierly act by the Pak army the bodies of two of our soldiers in the patrol were mutilated," the Indian army said in an English-language statement, referring to Pakistani forces.

"Such despicable act of the Pakistan army will be appropriately responded."

Reuters was not able to verify independently the authenticity of the Indian account.

Pakistan's military described its army as a "highly professional force" that shall "never disrespect a soldier, even Indian."

FRAGILE CEASEFIRE

India and Pakistan have faced off for decades across the Line of Control, an old ceasefire line through the region that both countries claim in full but rule in part.

Sporadic cross-border attacks in past months have frayed the region's 2003 truce.

In a separate incident, militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir ambushed a van carrying cash for the state-run Jammu and Kashmir Bank, killing five policemen and two bank officials, a senior police official said. It wasn't initially clear if the militants had looted the cash.

The attack occurred in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, where protests against Indian rule have flared in recent weeks.

Both sides have previously accused each of violating the ceasefire and of beheading soldiers in the past.

India's Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, who also holds the finance portfolio, condemned the latest killings which he called "reprehensible and barbaric".

Peace talks between the two countries have been on hold for years and diplomatic engagement is at a minimum.

India accuses Pakistan of backing Islamist militants and encouraging them to attack Indian forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir and, occasionally, in other parts of India.

Pakistan denies that and says India must hold negotiations on the future of Kashmir.

(Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in ISLAMABAD, Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Robert Birsel and Richard Lough)

May Day in France: six police injured as violent group hijacks Paris march

About 150 people armed with molotov cocktails and stones invade event, with France divided over presidential election

 Police injured in May Day clashes with protesters in Paris – video

May Day protests around the world – in pictures

Kim Willsher and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris-Monday 1 May 2017

About 150 people armed with molotov cocktails and stones invade event, with France divided over presidential election

France’s political, personal and social divisions divisions were laid bare on the streets of Paris on Monday as May Day marches dominated by the final round vote in the presidential election saw violent clashes between police and masked youths.

Six riot police officers were injured, one with third-degree burns to his hand and face, in Paris when a group of about 150 people armed with molotov cocktails, stones and sticks hijacked the traditional May Day march organised by French unions.

 Macron after delivering a speech in Paris on Monday. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images


Marine Le Pen waves to supporters during an election rally on Monday. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images--People push a burning trolley towards riot police during the march in Paris. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands had joined the celebration, with many using the occasion to protest against the far-right presidential candidate Marine le Pen and her party, the Front National. Police said 142,000 people attended May Day marches across France.

Shortly after the Paris march set off from the central Place de la République, a group with scarves covering their faces forced their way to the front and began throwing missiles at police, who responded with teargas. Some pulled masonry from the walls of buildings to throw at the police and several shopping bags and backpacks filled with stones and bottles were found.

Even before the violence, the march had got off on the wrong foot. Unable to agree on how best to confront the prospect of Le Pen becoming the country’s next president - by voting blank, abstaining or choosing Emmanuel Macron – the unions went their separate ways, with two organising a breakaway gathering in north Paris on Monday morning.

The main march took place hours later, when tens of thousands of people set off from Place de la République heading for Place de la Nation, via Bastille, three of the French capital’s most symbolic squares.

The eliminated hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon was given a rapturous welcome by supporters, leaving him close to tears. They carried banners calling for voters to shun the FN but, like their leader, none were publicly calling for a Macron vote.

“We have nothing in common with Mr Macron,” said Paul Vannier, who plans to stand for parliament as a candidate for Mélenchon’s France Unbowed movement in the legislative elections that follow later this month.

He said it was up to Macron to “stop insulting us ... and take a step in our direction”. “It for him to make sure Marine Le Pen is eliminated,” Vannier said.

Other marchers carried banners rejecting both Le Pen’s nationalism and Macron’s neoliberalism, reading “ni patrie, ni patron” – meaning “not homeland nor boss”.

The street battles erupted hours after Le Pen had laid into Macron at her final major rally in the capital. She appeared before a delirious crowd in north-east Paris, where supporters chanted: “This is our home.”
Le Pen described her rival as a candidate for the French “oligarchy”, adding that only she would bring change. “Today, the enemy of the French people is still the world of finance,” she said, calling on voters to “form a barrage against finance, arrogance, money as king”.

She said two “totalitarian ideologies” threatened France: “Globalisation and Islamism.”

Le Pen avoided the thorny subject of her pledged dumping of the euro currency and withdrawal from the EU, viewed as unpopular with the wider public. She made a brief mention of Europe saying she would “negotiate with Brussels over the return of our sovereignty”.

The rightwing former candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who gained just under 5% of votes in the first round and has joined forces with Le Pen in return for the promise of becoming prime minister, opened the rally by telling flag-waving FN supporters: “We are united and we are ready not just to win, but to govern and to govern in the interests of all the French. And we will win, thanks to you.”

At his last major rally in Paris before the final vote, Macron he launched a scathing attack on Le Pen and the Front National describing them as agents of hatred seeking to divide France and stoke a civil war. He said they were “the party of disaster” stoking internal divisions in France.

“Don’t boo her! Fight her!” Macron said. “Make Le Pen lose next Sunday!” he shouted to the crowd, calling the Front National the party of “insults and obscenities”.

But after devoting much of his speech to attacking the Front National, Macron said he held no judgement on its voters themselves because they came from a feeling of “anger, indignation and distress”.

He said the only way to address that distress was to profoundly change the way French politics works.

After France’s mainstream left and right parties who had dominated politics for half a century were eliminated in the first round of the presidential race, he said the “old order” had died and he reiterated his promise to reinvent French politics.

In a nod to Le Pen’s working-class and poorer voters in small towns and rural areas, Macron said he would recognise those who felt “forgotten” by the system. But he said he would not change his manifesto promise to loosen France’s strict labour laws. He insisted globalisation could not be abandoned but that it could be changed.

Macron has sought to galvanise French Republican opposition to Le Pen and highlight what he calls the risks of a far-right party of “hatred” with visits in recent days to a Holocaust memorial and a village that saw the worst Nazi massacre of civilians on French soil.

Earlier on Monday he attended a commemoration to Brahim Bouarram, a young Moroccan man who drowned after he was thrown into the Seine by FN supporters on 1 May 1995. But divisions on the left and cautiousness towards Macron were still evident following its defeat in the first round presidential vote a week ago: Mélenchon and Paris’s Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, also attended the ceremony, but all three were present at different times.

Meanwhile, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of the presidential candidate, attended the FN’s traditional wreath-laying at the statue of the party’s heroine, Joan of Arc, in central Paris. He promised a combative speech, but five minutes in his microphone failed . He had told them Marine Le Pen was “the daughter of France”.

“She’s not Joan of Arc, but she’s taken on the same mission as Joan did,” he said, adding that he thought her presidential campaign was not aggressive enough. Several hundred supporters present chanted: “France for the French.”

His granddaughter, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, and other party heavyweights snubbed the event and chose to lay flowers at another statue of Joan of Arc on the other side of Paris.

Congress reaches deal to keep government open through September

Congressional negotiators reached a bipartisan spending agreement late on April 30, to fund the government through September. Here are the Republican and Democratic wins in the $1 trillion funding package. (The Washington Post)

By Kelsey Snell April 30 at 11:33 PM

Congressional negotiators reached an agreement late Sunday on a broad spending package to fund the government through the end of September, alleviating fears of a government shutdown later this week, several congressional aides said.

Congress is expected to vote on the roughly $1 trillion package early this week. The bipartisan agreement includes policy victories for Democrats, whose votes will be necessary to pass the measure in the Senate, as well as $12.5 billion in new military spending and $1.5 billion more for border security requested by Republican leaders in Congress.

The agreement follows weeks of tense negotiations between Democrats and GOP leaders after President Trump insisted that the deal include funding to begin building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump eventually dropped that demand, leaving Congress to resolve lingering issues over several unrelated policy measures.

The new border-security money comes with strict limitations that the Trump administration use it only for technology investments and repairs to existing fencing and infrastructure, the aides said.

“This agreement is a good agreement for the American people and takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders and increases investments in programs that the middle class relies on, like medical research, education and infrastructure.”

Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) boasted that they were able to force Republicans to withdraw more than 160 unrelated policy measures, known as riders, including those that would have cut environmental funding and scaled back financial regulations for Wall Street.

Democrats fought to include $295 million to help Puerto Rico continue making payments to Medicaid, $100 million to combat opioid addiction, and increases in energy and science funding that Trump had proposed cutting. If passed, the legislation will ensure that Planned Parenthood continues to receive federal funding through September.

The package includes $61 million to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for the cost of protecting Trump when he travels to his residences in Florida and New York, a major priority for the two New York Democrats involved in the spending talks, Schumer and Rep. Nita M. Lowey.

Among the bipartisan victories is $407 million in wildfire relief for western states and a decision to permanently extend a program that provides health-care coverage for coal miners.

“The agreement will move the needle forward on conservative priorities and will ensure that the essential functions of the federal government are maintained,” said Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).

House Republicans have struggled in recent weeks to keep their members focused on spending as White House officials and conservatives pressed leaders to revive plans for a vote on health-care legislation. The health-care fight became tangled last week in spending talks as leaders worried that forcing a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act risked angering Democrats whose votes are necessary to avoid a government shutdown.

Leaders worked last week to determine whether the House has enough votes to pass a revised health-care bill brokered by the White House, the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and a top member of the moderate Tuesday Group.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and his top lieutenants announced Thursday that they did not have sufficient votes to be sure the measure would pass but vowed to press on.

“We’re still educating members,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters after a late-night health-care meeting last week. “We’ve been making great progress. As soon as we have the votes, we’ll vote on it.”

Hate Speech as Free Speech

Freedom of speech is a given for those in power and those who protect the powerful. It is also seems to be a given for most of those whose views represent the most reactionary elements of the powerful.

by Ron Jacobs-Apr 30, 2017

( April 30, 2017, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Free speech is bullshit, at least in the way it is understood by most pundits in the United States. From the deposed Bill O’Reilly to the declawed Bernie Sanders; from the campaign trail to the halls of UC Berkeley, the misinterpretation of free speech in the USA remains an ongoing hot button topic.

Right wing bigots full of hate convince witless College Republicans to pay fascist speakers to speak at the college of their choice. Of course, the right wing bigots know that any speaking engagement featuring their hate-filled tirades will provoke a backlash against that engagement. Faculty and students will call for the cancellation of the speech and, when the speech is cancelled, the wannabe fascist will whine about the loss of their right to speak.

This moment is when the liberals weigh in. The sanctity of the right to free speech will be pulled from the trashbin where it was thrown decades ago by the Justice Department; liberals and right-wingers alike will wave their limp and meaningless flag of freedom in the face of those who oppose Hitler’s acolytes speaking on their campus. The liberals base their opposition to the protesters on a pretense that civil discourse is possible with people who champion the denial of human rights to most of humanity (if not their actual existence.)

It’s not like the fascist wannabes don’t have plenty of places to spread their swill. Their bank accounts indicate that they have an audience. Nor are they particularly interested in defending any right to free speech, real or imagined. They–like their undergraduate hosts–just want to stir up trouble and watch the liberals beat up on those to their political left. In instances where college administrators don’t back down and rescind those invitations to speak, the right-wingers hope for a protest. They hope that the protest will get out of hand when it is attacked by well-armed cops who have never given a shit about anyone’s rights, if they even think about such things.

The way I understand free speech is that the government cannot deny any group or individual the right to speak. There is no understanding in the law that prevents protesters from opposing views they find reprehensible; nor is there any provision that states protesters cannot use their protests to shout down a speaker. Nor does the understanding state that police have to protect a speaker who comes to provoke a crowd where they know their ideas are unwanted.

If there really was free speech in the United States, it would be the anarchists and communists who speak on street corners, in parks and at protests whose speech the police would be protecting, not the well-heeled representatives of the right wing.

Instead, as history and our own experience tell us repeatedly, it is the anarchists and leftists whose speech is most often curtailed. From the attacks on the IWW in the early Twentieth Century to the attacks on the Occupy movement; from the prosecution of communists and socialists to the trials of antiwar and Black liberation organizers in the 1960s and 1970s; from the passage of laws making certain leftist allegiances illegal to the murders of Black, Native American, and Latino activists–the history is clear. There is no free speech in the United States if one’s politics oppose the essential racism and economics of this nation.

Those on the left who decry the actions of the antiracist and anti-fascist protesters in Berkeley, Vermont and elsewhere around the United States fail to understand the aforementioned and essential fact. The right to free speech is selectively applied and selectively defended by the forces of law and order in the US.

There was very little police protection for those who protested Donald Trump during his campaign or inauguration. In fact, now Trump is claiming his right to free speech was denied by those protesters. Yet, it is the arrested protesters who are facing felony charges, not Donald Trump or his minions. This cannot be stated often enough: anyone who thinks the forces of law and order are going to defend their right to free speech is either on the same side as those forces or has not been paying attention.

Freedom of speech is a given for those in power and those who protect the powerful. It is also seems to be a given for most of those whose views represent the most reactionary elements of the powerful. This becomes clear when one considers the role police play in protecting nazis, klansmen, and other fascists when these individuals hold rallies and marches.

Personally, I can recall at least three times when I have been witness to such instances. The first was in 1967 in the Maryland town I lived in. After the Klan attempted to burn down a church and home in the African-American section of the town, the Black community raised their voices in protest. The town authorities refused to allow them to march. A week or two later, those same officials allowed a Klan march through the so-called Black part of the town.

The second instance took place seven years later at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. Military recruiters had been invited on campus for the first time since the riots following the 1970 invasion of Cambodia. Naturally, we organized a protest. A few hundred students stood several rows deep in a blockade around the table the Marines were manning. Various frat boys attempted to break through the blockade in some show of solidarity with those few good men. After one of them grabbed a woman by her hair and pushed her down, we reacted. The police wound up arresting the woman. Later, they also arrested a couple other folks from another campus who had been involved in organizing the protest.

The third instance was at a nazi rally in Walnut Creek, California. Not only were the hundreds of us protesting the nazis forced to undergo patdowns for weapons, we were also forced to linger inside a chain link fence penned in by various police officers wearing lots of armor. Meanwhile, the nazis (all eight of them) were brought to their rally site in police cars and protected by police officers who not only stood around them while they harangued Jews, Blacks and many other identity groups, but also took them away from the rally site in those same police cruisers. If it wasn’t actual collusion between the police and the nazis, it certainly looked like it.

In short, don’t fall for the argument that freedom of speech is sacrosanct and should be placed above any objections one might have to a speaker’s ideas and politics. The very definition of free speech in US society is determined by where one stands in relation to those who run this country. Not only is the concept of freedom of speech certain to be manipulated by those who have no intention of defending your free speech, it is an argument based on false assumptions. If Anne Coulter, Milo Y, or some other fascist wannabe wants to exercise their free speech, let them stand out in the middle of Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza or some other public space like the rest of us and make their speech. Then, and only then, is it genuinely free.

Ron Jacobs is the author of Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies published by CounterPunch Books. His latest offering is a pamphlet titled Capitalism: Is the Problem. He lives in Vermont. He can be reached at: ronj1955@gmail.com.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand join forces against EU on palm oil


Workers collect oil palm fruits at Felda Sungai Tengi Selatan plantation in Sungai Tengi, 100 km (62 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Source: Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad

(L to R) Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha link arms as they pose for photographers during the 10th Indonesia – Malaysia – Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit as part of the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in metropolitan Manila, Philippines April 29, 2017. Source: Reuters/Aaron Favila

 

 1st May 2017

ASEAN neighbours and the world’s top palm oil producers Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have vowed to fight a European Union resolution they fear would deal a major blow to one of their biggest exports.

Speaking during the Indonesia Malaysia Thailand – Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) which is running parallel to the 30th Asean Summit in the Philippines this week, Indonesia’s foreign affairs minister Retno Marsudi claimed there was an international smear campaign against oil palm.

“The latest example is the discriminative European parliament resolution on palm oil,” she said.

In April, the EU passed a resolution to phase out the use of unsustainably produced vegetable oils, including palm oil, in the production of biodiesel by 2020.

Retno also urged Thailand to join the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries that Indonesia formed with Malaysia, reported Tempo.

SEE ALSO: Southeast Asia’s palm oil problem needs cross-border solutions

(L to R) Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha link arms as they pose for photographers during the 10th Indonesia – Malaysia – Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit as part of the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in metropolitan Manila, Philippines April 29, 2017. Source: Reuters/Aaron Favila

Reflecting the importance of palm oil to their respective economies, the IMT-GT Summit saw the attendance of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minster Najib Razak, and Thai PM Prayuth Chan-o-cha.

Indonesia and Malaysia produce 80 percent of the world’s palm oil between them, and Thailand is the third largest producing country. The highly productive crop, which is found in supermarket items from snacks to cosmetics, has driven economic growth.

The palm oil industry has long been criticised by environmentalists, however, for its contribution to rapid deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand during recent decades.

ArtWorldConservation‏ @awconservation

#WorldTapirDay. #tapir existed for millions of years but due to habitat loss, and palm oil plantations, logging,settlements now under threat

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“If this resolution were to be enforced, it will have a devastating effect on our national interest, particularly the [livelihoods of] 600,000 smallholders in Malaysia and 2.4 million in Indonesia,” Najib told reporters on Sunday.

Haze largely caused by illegal slash-and-burn agricultural policies in Indonesia has affected the Southeast Asian region annually for decades and been the cause of diplomatic tensions within the region.

Uncontrolled burning from fires in Riau, South Sumatra, and Kalimantan causes smoke to spread hundreds of kilometers across the region to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, resulting in major deterioration in air quality levels, health problems, and economic losses.

SEE ALSO: NGOs appeal to Unesco to save Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem

Speaking at the Economist Indonesia Summit in Jakarta in April, Eric Wakker the co-founder of NGO Aid Environment Eric Wakker told a panel on haze and oil palm that “under the current Jokowi administration, things have improved tremendously.”

He said that the past three years had been positive with palm oil companies adopting “a very serious commitment to clean up the supply chain”, but expressed disappointment that it had taken decades to achieve progress while forests continued to be destroyed.

“We will do whatever we can to convince the European parliament and European countries not to implement it. We don’t want to think of the middle ground just yet, we will negotiate in full force,” Indonesian coordinating minister for economic affairs Darmin Nasution told reporters in April.

Indonesia and Malaysia will send a joint mission to meet with EU officials this month.

Daunting water challenges across industries

The water level has gone down drastically in Yellandu in the Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana. In peak summer, temperature in the coal town can go up to 50 °C .   | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao

Multiple industries relying on water as an input in the production process, including textile processing, construction and hydro-power, have been severely impacted by the ongoing water scarcity in south India

Our Bureau-MAY 02, 2017

Standing on the banks of the dry Cauvery river channel,  P. Elango, a textile processing unit owner in Komarapalayam, a textile town in Namakkal district, recalls how the units were asked to stop drawing water from the river, the only source  they depended on, over a decade ago.
Nearly 15 years after the textile processing units were issued that notice, the textile town is facing a grave situation this summer.

“We then received notice from the government asking us not to draw water for industrial use for a month. We are facing a similar situation now and the water cut may last longer this time,” said Mr. Elango of SSM Processing Mill.

With the State reeling under severe drought and people struggling to access drinking water, the scarcity is threatening to hit production in several water-intensive sectors too, including textile processing, construction and hydro-power generation. Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal, and Salem are hub for textile processing, with nearly 1,500 units. “Value addition to yarn or fabric starts with processing. If there is no water, the entire value addition chain will be affected,” said Suresh Manoharan, executive director of Best Colour Solutions.

The construction industry, which is already affected by sand shortage, is staring at a severe water crisis and yet another slowdown. Builders fear that 50% of construction activity may not meet deadline. “We need at least 30,000 litres of water daily for a project to build about 300 apartments. With the sinking groundwater table and waits that get longer for private tankers, we have to bear a cut of minimum 10% in profit,” says S. Ayyanathan, chairman, Builders Association of India, southern centre. However, some water-intensive sectors have adopted surprising solutions to reduce water stress.

While the electricity generation from the hydro-plants at Mettur has been stopped due to water shortage, the water-intensive thermal plants are self-sufficient, thanks to desalination plants. The power generation in the State is mainly dependent on thermal power stations in north Chennai, Mettur and Tuticorin, with Tangedco having a total capacity of 4,660 megawatts (MW).

Senior officials at Tangedco are confident that they will be able to tide over the crisis this summer. The two power plants at Mettur can be operated even if resources in the dam reach dead storage. Their prime concern is about the operation of the North Chennai Thermal Power Station that depends on desalinated water from Minjur. Chennai mainly banks on desalination plants for its drinking water needs.

The situation in Vellore district, known for its acute water scarcity, is not bad either, to the relief of leather industries concentrated in Ranipet, Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Melvisharam and Pernambut.

Despite using a water-intensive industry tanning process, the leather sector is nevertheless coping because of its adherence to zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems, say industrialists. “All industries have established ZLD and are able to recover 70% of the waste water,” said S. Faiyaz Ahmed, honorary secretary, Ambur Tanners Association.  M. Rafeeque Ahmed, president of the All India Skin and Hide Tanners and Merchants Association also agrees but testifies to the sense of apprehension surrounding the soaring mercury levels. “We may have to deal with a severe water crisis. We are apprehensive of what the coming months might look like,” he said.

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Andhra Pradesh - Dyeing units guzzling groundwater, residents mull moving out

Dyeing units, which have mushroomed in and around Nagari municipality in Chittoor district, are one of the key suppliers of coloured yarn to the textile industries of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat, yet their indiscriminate pumping of groundwater is taking a toll on water availability.

The 104 dyeing units in Nagari have high output borewells and in-well drilling of their own, several of them without civic permits. Following a ban on the dyeing business in some parts of TN, many families from northwestern parts migrated to Nagari, taking over closed dyeing units.

For the washing and colouring of yarn material, each dyeing unit draws thousands of gallons of water, and almost all of it from the ground. Due to incessant tapping of groundwater for a decade, the town is now facing a severe drinking water crisis. Though this mandal remained safe from the impact of drought in recent years, rain failures in 2015 and 2016 had a lasting effect on Nagari.

Excessive water-pumping has now spread to a radius of 7 kms, covering Chintalapatteda, Kothapeta, Ekambara Kuppam, KVPR Peta and Satrawada. Water table dipped so much that the  residents are contemplating migrating to other parts of Chittoor district and neighbouring States.

Nagari Municipality is now getting 2 million litres per day (MLD), against the demand of 5 MLD, with groundwater drawn from semi-dry sources at Ramapuram and Satrawada. Soaring mercury levels are threatening this meagre supply too. An additional concern is that 75% of the borewells in the proximity of the dyeing units yield water of various hues, considered risky for human consumption. With no alternative, some households have been forced to use this coloured water. Given the demand-supply mismatch, canned water has thrived here.

On the possibility of opening an effluent treatment plant, Nagari Municipal Commissioner Ch. Venkateswarulu said that this would require clearances.
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Telangana -  When power undercuts water supply

The coal-rich town of Yellandu is facing a severe drinking water shortage with the historic Yellandulapadu tank, the prime drinking water source here, fast drying up ahead of the harsh summer months.

Against a dismal water scenario, groundwater drawn from 21 incline mines dating back to the British period is providing succour to coal miners and their families, besides residents of the coal town. The treated mine water is augmenting water supply in Yellandu.

The more-than-a-century-old Singareni Collieries Company Limited owes its origin to Yellandu. Yet the coal town is grappling with scarce water sources, a poor water supply network, and a mismatch between demand and supply of water.

Against the current requirement of 4.5 million litres per day (MLD), about 2.97 MLD is being supplied to the town. The coal town needs 5.8 MLD to fully cater to the drinking water requirements of its population of around 40,000, sources said.

The deficit in surface water availability is taking a toll on
the drinking water supply, with several colonies in Yellandu
in distress as peak summer approaches.

Cashing in on the scarcity of drinking water, bottled mineral water plants are making a quick buck here.

Power factor

The 2600 MWs National Thermal Power Corporation unit at Ramagundam faced numerous problems in securing water for its own reservoir, Jyothi Sagar, to produce thermal power supplied to all of south India.

Earlier, NTPC-Ramagundam received water from the Sri Rama Sagar Project (SRSP) through Kakatiya Canal, traversing through around 120 Km to reach Ramagundam.

The supply of water from Kakatiya canal was always found to be deficient for three reasons: tapping of water by farmers en route for their crops, seepage, and lack of inflows into the SRSP.

6 Signs You're Not Getting Enough Zinc

ByKASANDRA BRABAW-AUGUST 10, 2016

When you think about zinc, you probably imagine blistering summer days and a thick layer of zinc oxide protecting your nose. But zinc is more than just an extra-strength sunscreen. It's an essential element of your diet, needed for proper cell division and immune function. 

While most children and adults get enough zinc through diet alone, vegetarians and adults over age 60 are at risk for zinc deficiency, says Emily Ho, PhD, director of the Moore Family Center For Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition, and Preventative Health at Oregon State University. 

That's because both populations eat diets high in plant-based foods. Not only are there lower amounts of zinc in these foods as compared to animal proteins, but whole grains and legumes also contain phytates that bind zinc and make it harder for your body to absorb, says Ananda Prasad, MD, PhD, distinguished professor at the department of oncology at Wayne State University.

While both Ho and Prasad say zinc deficiency is difficult to detect, there are some symptoms that point to it. Here, 6 to look out for. (Snack AND lose weight with this box of Prevention-approved treats from Bestowed.)

Zinc

No mobile service signals for north, east

Apr 30, 2017

The north and the east of Sri Lanka still look a separate country. Don’t be alarmed. This is not a separatist or racist claim.

But, if you go, either to Jaffna or Vavuniya, you will feel like you are in a separate country. The reason being that in the context of communication, you will be 90 per cent isolated. Especially, if you have a Dialog mobile or data connection, it is certain that you will be cut off from the rest of the world. For someone who is used to the internet, spending a week in the northeast will be suicidal.

What is the reason? An investigation revealed that certain mobile service providers are reluctant to build their communication towers in the two provinces. It is very clear that they do not want to build their towers in state land or in land seized by the military, and lose their investments.

Most of the country’s land area is state-owned. In the north and the east, most of the land of Tamil civilians taken over by the military still remain so. No one knows the exact figures. We cannot expect authorities to give correct figures.

Although it is claimed that civilian land has been returned, military camps are located every half a kilometre in the north. Soldiers patrol the area. Civilians still remain terrified. No responsible party has an honest intention to end that culture of terror. In such a scenario, whose fault is it that mobile service providers are adopting a backward approach with regard to their services in the north and the east.

By a special correspondent