Christian missions pump whopping funds to NGOs – Foreign donations touch 10,000 crores – The Pioneer – 27.2.12

A mi d   up ro a r   o v e r   t  h e Government’s disclosure about foreign funding to NGOs to fuel anti-nuclear protests in Kudankulam, the latest report of the Home Ministry showed that more than  10,000 crore was pumped into India during 2009-

2010, mostly from the USA and Europe to NGOs in India.  The report says that while

it is not proper to make sweeping generalisations, it is necessary to note that the NGO

sector in India is vulnerable to the risks of money laundering a n d   t e r  r o r  i s t   f  i  n a n c i n g . “Therefore, necessary steps for rigorous enforcement as well as coordination with foreign countries for law enforcement will continue. Our efforts

for coordination with State police organisations and other specialised organisations will also continue towards this direction,” the report said.  The report, approved by

Union Home Secretary RK Singh in January 2012, revealed that major donors from abroad and receivers in India are Christian Missionaries and Church-sponsored NGOs. The analysis of the Home Ministry’s 42-page report shows that 14,233 NGOs received foreign contribution of 10,337.59 crore. The highest contribution

came to Delhi (1,815.91 crore) followed by Tamil Nadu (1,663.31 crore) and  Andhra Pradesh (1,324.87 crore). Interestingly, in district-wise analysis Chennai topped the list of foreign contribution with 871.60 crore, followed by Bengaluru (703.43 crore) and Mumbai (606.63 crore). The biggest fund inflow to

NGOs has come from the USA (3,105.73 crore) followed by Germany (1,046.30

crore) and the UK (1,038.68 crore). These three countries have topped in the donors’ list of Home Ministry for many years. Most the funding has been generated from Christian missionaries of these three nations.  The donor missionaries have also formed their Indian subsidiaries. The other toppers come from Italy (583.47 crore), the Netherlands (509.46 crore), S p  a i n   (4 3 7 . 2 5   c r o r e ) Switzerland (302.06 crore), Canada (297.98 crore), France (189.12 crore) and Australia

(148.28). The eleventh big donor to Indian NGOs is from UAE with 133.15 crore.

“The list of foreign donors is topped by the Gospel For Asia Inc of the USA (232.71

crore) followed by Fundacion Vi c ente  Fe  r  re r,  B arc  e lona , Spain (228.60 crore) and the World Vision Global Centre of the USA (197.62 crore),” said

the  report  of  Home  Ministry on foreign contribution and regulation for the period of year 2009-2010. These three are evangelical organisations. The   four  t h   l arge s t  donor, Compassion International, is also from the US (131.57 core) and belongs to the same category.  In t e r e s t i n g l y   t h e   f i f t h biggest donor is India’s HCL, which has made the contribution through its Mauritius s u b s i d i a r  y  HC L  Ho l d i n g s P r  i v  a t e   L  i  m i t e  d .   HCL’s entire donation of 

94.28 crore has gone to educ a t i o n a l   o r g a n i s a t i o n   i n C h e n n a i ,   k n o w s   a s S  e  v  a  s u b r  a m  a n  i  a   N a  d  a r Educational Charitable Trust, f o r  m e d   i n   t  h e   n a m e   of HCL owner Shiv Nadar’s father. “The highest amount of f o r e i g  n   c o n t  r  i b u t  i  o n   w a s received by the World Vision of India, Chennai, Tamil Nadu (208.94 crore), followed by the Rural Development Trust, Anant hapu r,  AP  (1 5 1 . 3 1 c r o r e ) ,   a n d   S h r  I S  e  v  a  s u b r  a m  a n  i  a   N a  d  a r Educational Charitable Trust, Chennai (94.28 crore). “The highest amount of f o r e i g  n   c o n t  r  i b u t  i  o n   w a s received and utilised for establ i   h m e n t   e x p  e n s  e s   (1,482.58 crore), followed by rural development (Rs944.30 crore), welfare of children (742.42 crore), construction and maintenanc e   of   s  chool / col l e ge (630.78 crore) and grant of stipend/scholarship/assitance in cash and kind to p  o  o r / d e s  e r  v i n g   c h i l d r e n (4 5 4 . 7 0   c rore ) ,”   s  ay s   t he Home Ministry report on the fund utilisation by NGOs. According to the report, during the year, 133 NGOs received foreign contribution in excess of  10 crore, 179 associations between 5 crore and 10 crore, 1,594 associations between  Rs 1 crore and 5 crore, and 12,327 below Rs 1 crore. Out of 21,508 associations, 7275 have reported ‘nil’ r e  c e i p t   o f   f o r e i g  n   contribution.

Rising Ear phone deaths -- The Pioneer –26.2.12

With use of earphones leading an increasing number of people in and around the

Capital to fatal mishaps, the All   India Institute of Medical Sciences’ Trauma Centre decided to undertake a study to look at the trend. The study is expected to give maiden pointers to the causes of such mishaps and ways for them to be avoided.  “At present, there is no study or data conducted on the number of persons killed due t o   p l u g  g e  d - i n   e  a r  p h on e s , despite the fact that such cases are on rise and are reported

everyday. In this regard we are planning to conduct such a study. Everyday more people are getting killed due to such di s t  r a c  t  i ons ,”   t h e   chi e f  of AIIMS Trauma Centre, Dr MC Mishra said.  The study, medical experts opined, would vindicate the perception that people are grossly negligent while walking or crossing the streets. There has been unaccountable number of such cases which have not been  even been reported in media, a senior doctor said. “Wearing an earphone on the move is a dangerous trend and should be avoided at any cost. Also, the constant exposure to

high level of sound creates hearing problems,” head of the ENT department of  safdarjung Hospital, Dr Anil K Rai said.  A normal living room has a sound level of 50 decibels and in traffic, it rises to 80 decibels, he said. “A person using a headphone in public raises the volume to above 80 decibels. Such trends will definitely render a person deaf within a few years of time,” Rai, said adding a survey should be  conducted on the subject in India.   Delhi Police data revealed that 1,377 people died on railway tracks in the year 2011. Since the beginning of this year, around 70 lives have been lost on the tracks in January alone and with the latest mishap,

when three were killed recently, the toll for February alone could climb to around 50.

Several surveys and studies abroad have found that earphones indeed added to  pedestrian deaths at crossroads and railway tracks.  Also asserting the fact that

earphone-related deaths are on the rise, Dr MC Mishra said that people get killed because of not being careful. He said that the use of earphones and mobiles have claimed lives as both cause distractions. “One can’t hear a honk if they have

earphones plugged in. Also, long duration calls on cell phones have a negative impact

on health through its harmful radiations. So both are dangerous at public places, especially crossroads, railway crossings and even driving with hands-free devices,” Mishra said.

Hindu girl taken hostage, forced to embrace Islam-ToI-3.3.12

A19-year-old Hindu girl’s abduction and her “forced” conversion to Islam in Pakistan’s Sindh province triggered a protest by members of various minority communities in front of the Lahore Press Club. Dozens joined the protest on Thursday to demand action in the case of Rinkle Kumari, from Mirpur Mahelo in Ghotki district, who they alleged was kidnapped by the son of a parliamentarian from Ghotki district of Sindh. The girl’s relatives claimed they had been getting threats from kidnappers and influential Muslims of the area.

Lahore: A Christian woman was brutally tortured and paraded in the streets of a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province by a mob for her alleged “anti-Islam views”, local residents and police officials said on Friday. 
    Some 30 residents of Kot Meerath village of Sialkot district, 80 km from Lahore, dragged Seema Bibi out of her house on February 26 and paraded her in the streets after shaving her head. Following the assault, Seema Bibi and her family left the village to save their lives, local residents said. 
    “She and her family had been facing threats from a group of extremist villagers. She left the village as she had no other option,” said Aslam Masih, a resident of Kot Meerath. 
    Regional police chief Muhammad Amin said that 26 people had been arrested on charges of torturing Seema Bibi and a case had been registered against them. Amin said police had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Seema Bibi and her family. 
    Amin said the arrested people had tortured and assaulted Seema Bibi for her beliefs. Police had stepped up their vigil due to tensions between Muslims and Christians in the village, he said.

Ignoring mother tongue, now, 2 crore school children study in English-ToI-2.3.12

New Delhi: The last eight years have seen a staggering rise in the number of children studying in English-medium schools across the country. Data on school enrolment for 2010-11 shows that, for the first time, the number of children enrolled in English-medium schools from Classes I to VIII has crossed the two crore mark – a 274% rise since 2003-04. 
    For the fourth year in a row, English is the secondlargest medium of instruction in India, ahead of both Bengali and Marathi, according to a yet-to-be released report on countrywide school enrolment by the National University of Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA) under its District Information System for Education. 
    “The collection of information under DISE has improved over the years, and now gives a true picture of enrolments by medium of instruction across the country,” says Professor Arun C Mehta of NEUPA. 
    While Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and English have all seen a rise in enrolment in 2010-11 when compared with the previous year, the rate of increase is highest for English. 
    While there is an obvious demand for the English language in India, academicians and policy-makers alike believe that state governments are handling this demand in an extremely unimaginative manner. “There is a wealth of research which shows that the best medium of instruction for a child to have a conceptual understanding of a subject is his mother tongue. Just because people want their children to study English does not mean that they need to enroll them at an English-medium school. If Indian-language schools did a good job teaching English, parents would not need to send their children to English-medium schools,” said R Govinda, vice-chancellor of NUEPA. He himself studied in a Kannada-medium school where he picked up good English, he pointed out. States adopting English as medium for govt schools 
    Professor Anita Rampal, dean of the faculty of education at Delhi University says, “there has been extensive research to show that the number of years for which children study a language does not necessarily translate into them being able to speak or read the language. It is seen that if you show mastery over your first language and can read and write it fluently, you can learn a second language, such as English, a lot faster.” She points to countless instances where textbooks are in English but kids can’t make sense of them. 
    “Several states have seen a spike in the number of private schools, many of which call themselves English medium, though they don’t teach much English,” says Govinda. But Vinod Raina, an architect of India’s Right to Education Bill, feels the recent NUEPA data should not be interpreted as a rise in enrolment in private Englishmedium schools alone, as several states, such as Kashmir and Punjab, are themselves adopting English medium for government schools. 
    Raina, who has studied the education system in J&K and Punjab, says that teachers in these states are bitter about being forced to teach in English without being equipped to do so, with disastrous consequences. “This is not simply a question of one teacher having to teach the English language, but about all teachers suddenly having to transact in English,” he says. “That government schools are turning English medium does not, in any way, mean that either teachers or students at these schools can speak a word of English,” says Raina. Rampal points to an urgent need for a well-deliberated national language policy, in the absence of which individual states have taken arbitrary decisions regarding English. 
    Many, like Shyam Menon, director of Ambedkar University, believe that the rise in the number of kids at English-medium schools reflects the aspirations of India’s middle class, which believes that an English translates into greater upward mobility.

Top Maoist from AP, 4 others held in Kolkata-ToI-2.3.12

S Ramakrishna Nabbed In Greyhounds-STF Operation

Hyderabad/Kolkata: In a prize catch, the elite Greyhounds commandos of Andhra Pradesh along with the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata police arrested top Maoist leader Sadhanala Ramakrishna alias Santosh along with four other rebels from Kolkata after a day-long operation on Wednesday. 
    The Maoist party suffered a big blow with the arrest of Ramakrishna from Karimnagar district, who is the central technical committee head and one of the senior most leaders. He carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head. “His arrest is a setback for the banned outfit as it came within three months of the encounter killing of party central committee member Kishenji,” a senior IPS officer involved in anti-Naxal operations told TOI. Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji was shot dead by security forces in the Hatilot forests of West Midnapore on November 24, 2011. 
    Ramakrishna and the others were produced before the Bankshall court in Kolkata on Thursday and remanded in police custody for 14 days. Apart from six improvised rockets, 25 rounds of ammunition, cartridges, two kgs of explosive material and Rs 5 lakh cash were recovered from them. Police alsorecovered the blueprints for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from them as it is alleged that Maoist cadres from West Bengal were learning how to make advanced IEDs from the leaders of the central technical committee. 
    Ramakrishna, 62, who also has aliases like Bhanu, Kumar, S B Kasturi and Dokhra, hails from the small Anthakkapeta village in Husnabad mandal. A gold medalist in mechanical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, Ramakrishna was adept at manufacturing pressure mines, grenades, double barrel and single barrel guns, besides rocket launchers. “Using his engineering background, he used to assemble spare parts and produce arms. He was always on the lookout for upgradation of new weapons technology,” sources said. Ramakrishna was instrumental in developing the IED technology for Maoists. “He recently held a workshop for cadres near Chennai on the use of IED,” said a police official. 
    He was closely associated with military head Namballa Keshav Rao, Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and Kishenji, who also hailed from Karimnagar district. Ramakrishna went underground to join the Naxal movement in 1976-77 and was never seen again in AP. “In fact, his family and police came to know about his antecedents only 10 years ago as his operations spanned across the north, including Delhi and Haryana,” a teacher from Anthakkapeta told TOI. “He is even senior to Maoist head Ganapathi,” he said. 
    Intelligence officials said the arrest of Ramakrishna could be crucial as the Maoists were planning major strikes ever since the death of Kishenji. Ramakrishna a key Maoist member 
“Ramakrishna is a key member in the Maoist party as he was only accessible to the central committee leaders and politburo members,” a senior official said.Along with Ramakrishna, the special team also nabbed Deepak Kumar alias Rajesh alias Prakash from Durg in Chhattisgarh, who is also suspected be a member of the central technical committee. In fact, it was Deepak whose arrest from outside the Presidency College gate on the busy College Street on Wednesday that sparked off rumours of a possible abduction. 
    Around 11 am on Wednesday, a white Bolero screeched to a halt outside the college. Passersby, bookstall owners and students watched in horror as five burly men got out of the SUV, caught hold of a man and bundled him into the vehicle. Deepak raised an alarm and locals rushed to his rescue. They chased the vehicle up to the Mahatma Gandhi Road crossing. The ‘operation’ turned dramatic from the College Street as near the Rafi Ahmed Road crossing, the SUV even knocked down a biker and was stopped by a traffic cop. 
    The STF personnel in the SUV, however, made the cops call up the police control room which ordered him to allow the vehicle to pass without hindrance. “That was not a kidnap. Deepak was the first to be arrested by the combined team of Kolkata police and AP Greyhounds,” clarified a top official. 
    “After arresting Deepak, we got leads about Ramakrishna and the others. After the arrests, several locations in Kolkata and the suburbs were searched,” he added. At Belghoria in North 24-Parganas, six sockets were seized which were packed with explosives and used by Maoists as improvised rockets. The other arrested rebels were Sukumar Mondal alias Swapan Roy alias Bablu from North 24-Parganas, Sambhu Charan Pal from Hooghly and Bapi Mudi of Burdwan. 
    The arrest of Charan Pal, 65, led to considerable consternation among locals, relatives and friends. His wife claimed that he was a daily wager in a furniture shop in Belghoria. “I can’t believe that this man was associated with Maoists. He used to leave home for work at 7 am and return at 11 pm,” a local panchayat leader said. Sources said Swapan Roy, who was picked up from northern Kolkata, used to manufacture IED parts. Curiously, the arrested Maoists have not been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).