With 30 per cent of its saplings all wilting and leading to losses to the tune of Rs 18 lakh, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation finds itself in a spot yet again. To top it all, Rs 60 lakh was only the initial amount spent on plantation, the maintenance cost for the plants increases the expenditure as well, say AMC officials.

The saplings which were bought last monsoon cost Rs 60 lakh. Four lakh of these saplings were planted by AMC at various places in the city.

Officials, however, claim rest of the plants are safe. The worst affected stretch where plants dried up include the road starting from Sardar Patel Stadium which leads to Vijay Crossroads where the saplings were planted on the divider. This area, say AMC officials comes under the Integrated Street Development Project (ISDP) because of which the AMC has discontinued its work. Jignesh Patel, Director, Parks and Gardens at AMC says, “We decided to stop the work on the stretch as it comes under the aforesaid programme. We felt what is done is done. Now we will not continue the work.”

A senior official. however, said although the stretch falls in AMC limits, a controversy surrounding the stretch was reason behind stopping the work. He says, “We did not plan to install grills to protect plants. Later, Airtel started put up grills to protect plants but this hampered us as we were unable to water plants. There was lack of co-ordination between their people and AMC.”

AMC planted 10,000 jatropha plants near Shreyas crossing, 75,000 plants near ITI Naroda, 25,000 plants near Maninagar railway track and close to 16,000 plants in front of Bhavans college in Khanpur.

In January this year, 20,000 ficus plants were planted on Ashram road leading to Vadaj.

The variety of plants planted by the civic body include flowering plants as well as tree saplings.

Courtesy : Expresindia.com

Saurashtra, these days, is witnessing a story of social change, scripted by women who have ventured into doing something that has been a male domain for ages. Some women volunteers of Gayatri Parivar have been solemnising marriages, normally done by a Brahmin man.

Normally, Gor Maharaj, a Brahmin, is the priest who solemnises weddings for Hindus _ whether the couples belong to Brahmin, Patel, Vaishnabv or Nagar community. But no longer it is a monopoly for him!


The Gayatri Parivar volunteers are not only doing the rituals but they are doing it so meticulously that their work is believed to have broken the gender bias.

Founded by Pandit Shiram Sharma Acharya, Gayatri Parivar has its headquarters at Shantikunj in Haridwar. It has been recognised world over as a model of the divine society in the 21st century.

In December last year, when Vimal Dhami decided on his daughter Vaisashavi’s wedding, he invited the Gayatri Parivar group. Saroj Mistry and her 10-member group from Jamnagar and Rajkot led the couple throughout all rituals. Since then, the group has solemnisd three marriages in Rajkot.

“When I came to know about this group, I asked myself: why cannot a woman solemise a wedding? I decided to call the group for daughter’s marriage,’’ says Dhami.

The group consists of about 10 women. All of them together recite the slokas, explain their meanings in Gujarati, and complete all the rituals. What is more important is that they are voluntarily rendering their services, which in a way cuts down the expenses on the rituals.

According to Dhami, it is by one’s karma (work) that he or she becomes a Brahmin, not by birth. “Though the Veda says that it is the Brahmin’s job, why not a woman can do it so far as she adopts to all the principles?’’ he says,adding that the group does the work for just Rs 500.

What inspired the group to take up the job?

“According to Manushruti, it was Ila, daughter of rishi Manu, who performed yagna for her father. We just want to carry forward what Ila had done in the ancient times,’’ says Saroj Mistry. Her group includes volunteers like Rama Thumar, Beena Bhatt, Rama Gujarati, Ila Yadav and Nutan Samarjit.

It was Ghanshyam Thakker, a volunteer of Gayarti Parivar from Rajkot, who took the initiative to allow women the job. “We organised a training for interested volunteers,’’ says Thakkar.

Besides conducting marriages, the group members also spread the message of doing away with social maladies like dowry system. They gift the bride a set of books, including a copy of the Upnishad.

“When a newly married girl is in new place, the reading of good books can be a source of moral support,’’ says Thakkar.

Next on their agenda is to perform ‘antiyasthi’ (last rites). “We got a chance to get involved in antiyasthi a couple of times. Like marriage ceremonies, here too, we want women to find their place,’’ says Thakkar.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Mayur Patel, a literature student from Ahmedabad always wanted to make it to the IAS. Coming from a humble background, this aspirant knew getting through civil services was not an easy task but not impossible either. This year, he cleared the Mains taking him one more step nearer to making his dream come true.
* Shreyas Patel, a computer engineer from Palanpur is another. Having cleared the Mains this year, this boy has all the more reasons to hope to go right up.

Candidates from Gujarat are finally breaking the jinx of not performing at Civil Services. Forget the ones and twos in the past, this year 30 students have cleared the Mains. However, clearing the Mains is just the first important step; there are more rigorous tests ahead and aspirants from Gujarat are known to falter in them. However, with so many students clearing the Mains this year, the IAS Training Centre at Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA) which trained them feels quite a few have the chance.

Till now, very few Gujarati aspirants have been clearing the Union Public Service Commision exams. But, thanks to a resolve by state-government run IAS Training Centre at Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA) to perform better, for the first time in the fifteen years since it was set up, the Centre has registered a record number of 30 students clearing Mains, 20 of them belonging to SC/ST category. After a dismal performance last year, Chief Secretary S G Mankad conducted a review and instructed the IAS centre to reform into a more result-oriented institute.

“We undertook a number of reformative measures to fuel an increase in the number of aspirants clearing the competition. We got them the best faculty, some from Delhi who are known figures in IAS training,’’ said Satish Patel, Joint Director, SPIPA.

For the first time all the students were given hostel facility till the final exam so that they saved time in commuting especially aspirants like Mihir Raika, a sales tax officer from Surat. Also, while earlier the Centre banked on local faculty resources, this time more specialists, including some big names in private coaching from New Delhi, were roped into training aspirants. Sumesh Mehruwala, a personality development and communication skills specialist, was brought in to boast the candidates confidence.

The six Gujarat-cadre civil servants who came to the Centre for Foundation Training also coached the aspirants for two months. Those students who had cleared the Civil Services last year were also called in for guiding students. “We updated our reading materials, opened library for 24 hours and the result is before us. Also, considering the importance of essay writing we conducted special sessions on it,’’ Patel added.

With 23 of 30 candidates having opted Gujarati Literature as their mains subject, special lectures were conducted in Gujarati Literature, with top lecturers from Gujarat University invited for the purpose.

From 1992 till 2004-05, an average number of five students have cleared Mains. The Centre, till date, has produced an average of two civil servants each year. Out of 56 students who were trained at the IAS Training Centre at SPIPA in 2005-06 batch, 41 had managed to clear the preliminary round which was also a 15-year high for the Centre.

However, the number of girl candidates passing out did not account for an encouraging figure. Only 3 girls managed to make it to the mains round, while the number of girl-students who took coaching at the Centre was 13. “Only 2 out of 13 girls qualified the preliminary round and both managed to clear mains. Girls usually lag behind boys in terms of numbers because pertaining to several other commitments, they are not able to devote much time on preparation.

The case was not different for boys but we took several measures to make our students give their 100 percent to preparation,’’ Patel further added.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com