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Mata Amritanandamayi completes
rehabilitation of tsunami victims

       Nagapattinam: The tsunami devastation of December 26, 2004 had left a large number of people without shelter in Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district and town. But in the last 21 months, Kerala's "Hugging Saint" Mata Amritanandamayi and her Mutt, have completed their mission to rehabilitate several villages. Being one of the first non-government organisations to extend help, the Mutt provided water, food, medicines and clothes to the victims. Recently, the Mutt handed over 120 permanent homes to Dalit families of Pandagasaalai hamlet of Pattinacherry village. Another 164 Permanent Homes in Akkarapettai village have also been scheduled for being handed over to the villagers.

     Swami Ramakrishnananda Puri, Trustee and Treasurer of Mata Amritanandamayi Mutt and senior disciple of AMMA, handed over the keys of Permanent Homes to the District Collector Shri Tenkasi S Jawahar. The Mutt intends to complete all the housing projects along with all infrastructure support by this year-end. It is in addition to the housing and other relief and rehabilitation activities the mutt had taken up in and around its headquarters in Kerala and two villages in Sri Lanka. Last year, at the beginning of the programme, the Mutt's relief measures included arranging three-time meal for about 35 days for 7,000 affected people. A team of seven doctors attended to the patients in the camp. Essentials like new clothes were also distributed to about 25,000 people. Livelihood restoration activities like giving boats, engines and nets and also the repair of boats and engines were undertaken in a big way throughout the coast. Trauma care was provided to women and children. Educational support includes training of software skills - basic as well as advanced courses for +2 and college going students were imparted. Besides, the mutt took up housing for the victims in a very big way. It has the distinction of being the first agency to hand over permanent homes at Cuddalore, Kanyakumari and Nagapattinam districts. Last year in September, the mutt handed over 90 permanent homes at Pudhukuppam village at Cuddalore, and later, 340 permanent homes were handed over at Samanthampettai village at Nagapattinam. Nagapattinam, the ancient port town, bore the brunt of the waves as 7,000 lives were lost and many more thousands went missing. The killer waves of tsunami hit the Nagapattinam coast most severely in the country and affecteda few other places in the world.

Shiv Shankar Menon new Foreign Secretary (Top)

        New Delhi: Shiv Shankar Menon, India's High Commissioner to Pakistan, will be the next Foreign Secretary of the country, succeeding Shyam Saran. He will take charge from October 1, a Government press release said on Thursday. Saran has been appointed as Special Envoy for negotiations relating to the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement, the release added. A 1972-batch IFS officer, Menon will have nearly a three-year- long tenure. Menon, 57, was appointed India's High Commissioner to Pakistan in succession to Vijay K.Nambiar in May 2003. During his diplomatic career, Menon has served in China, Israel, Austria, Japan and Sri Lanka. He also served in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) as Adviser.

1700 Delhi schools to face demolition (Top)

      New Delhi: The fate of over eight lakh students in 1,700 public schools in Delhi will be in trouble as these schools may face the demolition axe from September 16. Following a Supreme Court order, all illegal and unauthorised business establishments in the residential would be sealed. Similarly, schools, including secondary and senior secondary schools which are mainly located in authorised, regularised and unauthorised colonies would be sealed. Schools in Chandni Chowk, Okhla, Sadar Bazar, Karawal Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Karol Bagh and Laxmi Nagar would be sealed on the due date. These schools have been functioning violating the Master Plan.

'Insurance challenges status of Allah' (Top)

      Lucknow: If you are a Muslim and planning to get a life insurance cover so that your family and you can relax for the rest of your life, then give it another thought! Observing that life insurance involves interest income and gambling, which are against the tenets of Islam, Darul-Uloom of Deoband has issued a fatwa against the concept of life insurance. "Life insurance is not permissible because there is interest income in it and the act involves gambling as well, both of which are illegal under Shariat," said the fatwa, issued on August 7. Endorsing the views that life insurance was an un-Islamic act, All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) vice-president Maulana Khalid Rashid, said that life cover "amounts to challenging the supreme status of Allah". The authorised body to issue fatwas, Darul Ifta of the Deoband diktat, says: "Muslims should not go in for insurance or assurance of life, which has been given to them by Allah. How can anyone get a gift insured or assured?" Contrary to this, Shia clerics are of the view that taking a life cover policy is not wrong, though noted Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq is of the belief that Muslims should respect the decision of the Deoband, the governing body of Sunnis. The issue came into limelight when an insurance company contacted a Lucknow resident, Saleem Chisti, to take their insurance policy. Following this, the person approached some clerics on the matter, and a fatwa was issued.

SC upholds death sentence to two women (Top)

      New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the judgement of the Bombay High Court in pronouncing death sentence on two women from Maharashtra who were accused of murdering 13 children. The bench comprised Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice G P Mathur. The stay on the execution of the death sentence was also lifted by the court. The two women Renuka Bai and her sister were tried for the crime along with their mother who expired during the trial. Only seven of the 13 bodies could be recovered by the police.

Andhra suspends another 18 TRS MLAs (Top)

      Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker K R Suresh Reddy on Thursday suspended another 18 legislators of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party for the day, as the latter continued with its agitation for the formation of a separate Telangana state inside the House. Thursday marked the suspension of TRS members on the last day of the Assembly session. So far, 65 TRS legislators have been suspended from attending Assembly proceedings, each for a day. As soon as the Assembly met for the day, TRS legislators wearing black shirts as a mark of protest rushed to the Speaker podium with placards, and shouting slogans of 'Jai Telangana'. Others were on their feet, urging the speaker to hold a discussion on the question of statehood. Two TRS ministers, including party president K. Chadrasekhara Rao had quit the Union Cabinet last week to protest the delay in carving out a separate state. The TRS, which represents the interests the Telangana region, has been campaigning for a separate Telangana state to boost development in the area. The Telangana region constitutes Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, RangaReddy and Warangal districts. It is one of the least developed regions in India. Rampant underdevelopment,unemployment, water scarcity and electricity shortage are some of the problems of this region. The Telangana struggle began in July 1948, when 2,500 villages organised into 'communes' as part of a peasant movement.

Boat capsizes in Ganga, 43 feared dead (Top)

       Patna: At least 43 people were feared to have been drowned when a boat carrying them capsized in the Ganga here on Thursday. According to sources, the incident occurred near Darmiahi Ghat under Malsalami Police Station around 11 am when the boat was going towards Raghopur in Vaishali district. Police and rescue teams have reached the spot. Around 16 people have been rescued so far, and efforts are on to save others.

ABVP leaders charged for professor's death (Top)

       Ujjain: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday charged Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarti Parishad (ABVP) leaders Shashi Ranjan Akela and Vimal Tomar with murder in connection with the death of Professor HS Sabharwal. The two ABVP leaders, along with some other activists, had surrendered before the police yesterday after a rioting case was registered against them during the student body election at Madhav College on Saturday. On August 26, Professor Sabharwal was brought dead to a hospital after students belonging to ABVP allegedly beat him to death while he was trying to convince the students of the postponement of the college union election. However, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan yesterday termed the murder as accident. Singh said that Professor Sabharwal's death was an accident and not a murder.

Heavy rain in UP, Orissa, Rajasthan (Top)

      Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh): Incessant rains continue to cause havoc all over India, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Huts in a village in Faizabad district were partially submerged by the waters of the Saryu River, which overflowed its banks. Locals of the area said that they had to evacuate their homes and move to higher ground, leaving most of their belongings behind. Floods have also disrupted life in other parts of India. The Orissa government has announced a high alert and warned of fresh floods in areas thorough which the River Mahanadi passes. The situation in Barmer in Rajasthan is equally grim despite ongoing relief efforts and receding floodwaters. Floods triggered by monsoon rains over the past week have killed 140 people and left several displaced in the state, mostly in Barmer. Barmer recorded 577 mm of rainfall in just three days, which was more than double the rainfall it usually receives in a year. In western and southern India, over 500 people have been killed and thousands have been left homeless since the annual monsoon rains began in June.

Sonia surveys flood-hit Barmer villages (Top)

      Jaipur: Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today undertook an aerial survey of the worst-affected Budaberi and Malwa villages in Rajasthan's Barmer District. Sonia Gandhi and Mukherjee, who arrived here this morning by a special IAF aircraft, are both scheduled to visit Kawas, which is said to be submerged under 20 to 25 feet of water. Over eight lakhs people in Barmer have been affected by the floods, with many people still missing. Relief workers have stepped up efforts to rescue stranded villagers. The army has evacuated 4,000 people so far and provided relief material to 5,000 people in the area. Barmer recorded 577 mm of rainfall in just three days, more than double the average rainfall it usually receives in an entire year. Gade-Ki-Basti, a village in Barmer district, has been totally washed away with the food water during last four days.

UN deadline on Iran N-rogramme expires (Top)

      New York: A UN deadline for Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment and re-processing activities expired today, and now the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on whether Iran had complied with the direction or not. Next week, the UNSC members would discuss a resolution that could impose sanctions on Iran, said a US envoy. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that US Under- Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and senior officials from the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany would meet in Europe early next week to discuss the issue.

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