Half of school buses unfit for kids travel

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 25, 2012: In less than 20 days, the new academic year is going to begin and schools are set to reopen after the summer vacation, but half of the total school buses in the district are yet to get the mandatory fitness certificate (FC) from the concerned Road Transport Authorities (RTA), clearly posing threat to school-going children.

After a recent accident in East Godavari district where around 14 schoolchildren died after a school bus fell into a canal, school managements are yet to respond to the mandatory procedure to check their vehicles.

The founder of Bala Vikas Foundation (BVF), Mr N. Prakasha Rao, working on child rights, pointed out that many schools were purchasing old buses from other states and converting them into school buses. “Students are overloaded in the buses, and most of them don’t have proper grills to prevent children from falling out. The RTA should initiate stringent action,” said Mr Prakasha Rao.

There are around 852 school buses in the district and of them until now, RTA inspectors could check only 647 vehicles. Of the total checked vehicles, only 439 were issued fitness certificates and 208 were rejected for not complying with the norms.

After the RTA officials circulated information regarding obtaining FC, only 640 school managements responded whereas the rest did not even bother to visit the RTA office.

Even before the schools are reopened, motor vehicle inspectors were instructed to conduct surprise checks on school buses on the roads. As part of such checks recently, RTA inspectors booked cases against 12 school buses not having FCs.

“Each motor vehicle inspector was entrusted to visit at least 20 to 25 schools in their jurisdiction and check the condition of the vehicles,” Motor Vehicle Inspector Mr A.H. Khan told this correspondent. There are around 25 motor vehicle inspectors in the district.

Mr Khan who looks after issue of FCs to school buses said that if the same vehicle is caught twice without an FC, it would be seized by their department permanently. Hereafter their department personnel would also conduct random surprise checks on schools every quarter, he said.

No state aid for HIV-infected children

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 22, 2012: Though cases of children infected with HIV continue to register, there are seldom the focus of prevention, treatment and care programmes. Even programmes that aim at preventing vertical transmission of the virus often end once the mother is discharged from the hospital. Ironically, except for a couple of NGOs working in this sector, there are no specific schemes by government to take care of children with AIDS. The emphasis of prevention, care and treatment is on adults with special schemes, programmes in place for women, men, sex workers and various other categories but unfortunately there are no specific programmes or projects for children.

Until a few years ago, state government with the help of some international NGOs, used to implement The Children Affected by HIV/AIDS-Health and Happiness for All (CHAHA), which also wound up. Under CHAHA, government used to support, children infected with HIV by providing education, books, healthy nutritious diet and medical assistance.

G. Kiran Kumar, belonging to an NGO working for the welfare of children infected with AIDS said that 10 per cent of the funds spent by every government organisation, NGO and voluntary organisation on AIDS related programmes should be allotted to the welfare of children infected with HIV.

Official statistics available at the AIDS control office here show that there are around 796 children under the age of 16 infected with HIV living in Vizag, but local NGOs and health workers estimate the real number to be much higher. The numbers are registered at the three anti retroviral therapy (ART) centres in Vizag district, two in the city and the remaining one at Anakapalli. “We could successfully bring down the rate of virus transmission from mother to child in the womb during pregnancy, and positive babies are rarely born these days. But there are no specific programmes now after CHAHA was wound up to take care of children infected with AIDS, though there are some programmes integrated with ICDS centres to take care of such children,” said additional district medical and health officer and AIDS officer Dr R. Ramesh. According to a global report every day, nearly 1,800 children under 15 are infected with HIV worldwide. About 21,000 children in India are infected with HIV every year.

Cord blood banking slowly catching up

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 15, 2012: An alien concept until a few months ago, cord blood and tissue banking is fast catching up in Vizag. Though an expensive affair, expectant parents are not willing to take any risk about their baby’s future and are evincing interest in preserving their child’s umbilical cord blood stem cells for future use.

The regenerative medicine field is the new frontier in medicine where scientists and clinicians alike agree that stem cells found in cord blood are one of the most promising sources for cellular therapy. Cord blood transplants have been performed for patients with genetic or metabolic diseases and have the capability to treat more than 80 diseases. These stem cells are taken from the umbilical cord blood shortly after birth. Once the umbilical cord has been clamped and cut, a nurse or a doctor will collect blood from the cord. Later, they preserve it in a special facility at -1960C with liquid nitrogen. When it is needed, stem cells are thawed and are ready to use in transplant therapy. It was a few inquiries from educated parents from Vizag that prompted Florida-based Cryobanks International India Pvt Ltd to open its office here a year ago. Now Cryobanks has around 220 clients in Vizag alone. Cryobanks collect Rs.75,000 for preserving cord blood for 21 years at its special facility in Delhi. “Over 50 per cent of our clients are from the middle class, 10 per cent from the lower income group and the rest are affluent. Increased awareness among the general public makes them approach us,” said Cryobanks relationship manager, Satish Yemsani.

COO of the newly opened Babycell, Dr Satyen Sanghavi said that they are aggressively rolling out their second phase of expansion plans, and target to increase their presence to 60 cities in the next year.

Dr Radhika, consultant gynaecologist at Manipal Hospital here said that stem cells are already being used to replace other cells in the body that are abnormal or have been destroyed by disease. I believe that regenerative medicine can offer extraordinary medical possibilities to patients in a range of diseases. We also need to help parents understand why it is so important to save their infant’s cord blood, added the gynaecologis.t Global cord blood bankers like Cryobanks, Stemcyte, Lifecell, Babycell have opened their offices in Vizag.

Now Cryobanks alone has around 220 clients in Vizag.

PSK under CBI scanner

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 14, 2012: Amidst growing complaints from many quarters over alleged irregularities at the privately run passport seva kendra (PSK), CBI officials have swung into action and are trying to nail the culprits. They conducted surprise checks on the PSK located near Madhavadhara in the city on Friday.

Based on the checks, the CBI's anti-corruption wing here is preparing a detailed report to be sent to the chief passport officer and the chief vigilance commissioner in Delhi. The Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), a union government's e-governance initiative, was opened last year at the RPO in the city.

“We came to know that the PSK staff were rejecting applications, giving silly and petty reasons. When the same application was sent through an agent, it was being obliged and honoured,” said a top official of the CBI. In one such case, an application was rejected as the authorised signature on one of the attachments — a date of birth (DOB) certificate — was put a little below the specified spot on the certificate. CBI officials conducting the checks at the PSK found that several applications with DOBs with the same signature issue were accepted and passports issued subsequently.

The CBI suspects that there is a nexus between the staff at the PSK, private agents and some officials of the Regional Passport Office, who are operating and making quick money.

The official said that since the PSK was run by private operators, the CBI could not take any action against them. An agent charges around Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 to get the application processed for an assured passport delivery. There are more than 40 such agents working for the PSK.

The checks were conducted in the presence of regional passport officer V.D.S.L. Surendra. The RPO here serves the needs of five coastal districts in the state. The passport office here issued 77,000 passports during 2010, and 80,000 in 2011.

T-effect: Vizag turns favourite investment hub

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 10, 2012: Call it Telangana affect or being an ideal place, Vizag has turned out to be a favourite destination for investments after Hyderabad. More than 100 companies have readied their plans to establish industries in Vizag.

Availability of manpower, better logistics, both air and sea connectivity, has made Vizag a favourite destination for investors.

Interestingly, of the total 104 industry enterprise memorandums (IEMs) signed by investors since 2002, 80 were signed after 2009, when the stir for separate statehood peaked.

The 104 industry proposals are all set to bring in Rs 85,000 crore investments to this region besides providing more than 36,000 jobs to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled local unemployed youth.

“Of the 104, more than 40 per cent of the companies have reached an ‘active stage’ and will begin operations within a couple of years. Around Rs.30,000 crore investments would be pumped in the first stage,” district industries centre general manager, V.R. Nayak told this correspondent.

Though some IEMs were signed in 2002, these companies have also swung into action and begun construction and other activities only after 2009. Another interesting point is that these investments are not part of state government’s prestigious PCPIR project coming up between Vizag and Kakinada.

Besides domestic firms, international companies also show interest in establishing their industries in the Vizag region.

For instance, the US-based Brighton Group evinced interest in setting up a Rs.2,880 crore nuclear power equipment manufacturing facility in this region and signed an MoU with state government in 2011, making it Brighton’s maiden venture in India.

Brighton will invest Rs.2,880 crore and provide direct employment to 2,500 skilled workers, and indirect employment to another 10,000 persons.

The proposed plant will be set up on an 800 acre site at Nakkapalli in the district.

Around Rs.1.2 lakh crore of the total investments, that is, Rs 6.47 lakh crore, signed at the CII partnership summit held in January at Hyderabad are for the Vizag region.

“Vizag offers a calm, peaceful atmosphere away from any disturbances in the form of rasta rokos, frequent bandhs, etc., besides good manpower.

The trend of a sudden rise in investments in the Vizag region after 2009 can clearly be attributed to the Telangana agitation. Vizag already has two ports, one in the public and the other in the private sector.

Recent international air connectivity will attract more investments from global players,” opined an industrialist.