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The couple from Tamil Nadu who made a mini forest out of barren land

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The Commune
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If you walk across the streets of Sirugramam in Kadalur, you will see something out of the ordinary. Unlike other villages that are usually found with lush fields, this village has an artificial forest that has been made out of land that was once considered absolutely barren. This mini forest is now a great source of revenue and resources to over 70 families in the village.

The credit for this goes to a couple from Kadalur. Kasturi and her husband Bhaskaran are the reason for the transformation of the barren land that was once dubbed nothing but a source for limestone into a lush green forest. This village is incidentally the native village of Kasturi. “The village was dubbed “Chunnambu Moodu” or “land of limestones”. You would find limestone just 1.5 ft under the surface. The land was barren and practically good-for-nothing,” recalls Kasturi.

“There were only thorns, bushes and a few trees that were being used by locals for firewood. The soil, water and labour were problematic. Nothing could be cultivated,” she added. Be it using high power motored pumps to pump out water for the trees, or getting into the field by themselves to plant the saplings. This couple did it all.

Isha Foundation came to their rescue, as they were running a nursery nearby. They went on to supply them with various saplings and advice. Thanks to their persistent efforts, this forest came into the picture. Now, there is no shortage of water resources or a source of livelihood for those in this region.

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Delhi Court slams Indian Medical Association President for misusing his position and proselytizing

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The Commune
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A district court in Delhi has told Indian Medical Association President Jayalal not to use the platform for propagating a religion and concentrate on the welfare of the fraternity and progress in the medical field.

The court was hearing a plea filed by a petitioner named Rohit Jha against John Rose Austin Jayalal, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), for abusing his power and resorting to proselytization during the pandemic.

Jha alleged that Jayalal was abusing his position as IMA president by launching a vicious and defamatory campaign against Hindu religion in the name of establishing the superiority of Allopathic medicine over Ayurveda in the treatment of Covid patients.

According to Additional District Judge Ajay Goel, Dr. Jayalal’s interview with ‘Christian Today’ on March 30 in which he praises Jesus for the drop in COVID cases in India is not in good taste and appears to be in conflict with the Constitution,

He added, “Any kind of unguarded or loose comment cannot be expected from someone chairing the responsible post. IMA is a prestigious institution. Such a platform cannot be used to propagate an individual’s views on any religion.”

The Court pointed out that claiming Christianity and Allopathy is the same and were gifts from the western world is the most erroneous claim, and that Sushrata, an Indian, is revered as the God of Surgery, which is an important part of Allopathy.

The Legal Rights Protection Forum had already filed a complaint with the Ministry of Home Affairs against John Rose Austin Jayalal, alleging that he had abused his position and used proselytization during the epidemic.

 

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“Show off your skills in preparing budget, not on Twitter”: PTR gets a knock on his head from CM Stalin

By
The Commune
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It has been reported that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is extremely upset over his Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan for his ‘loose remarks’ made in the press and in Twitter.

Palaniel Thiagarajan has been making headlines for matters unrelated to the portfolio ever since he became Finance Minister. He has made a number of contentious statements against different public personalities and later issuing statements to clarify his position.

Very recently, he had unleashed abuses and made personal attacks on Coimbatore South BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan who had called out the former for insulting Goa during the 43rd GSR Council meeting. Before that, he had picked fight with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev over the latter’s demand for freeing temples from state control. This had led to spat with two other public personalities namely former Infosys director Mohandas Pai and The Hindu’s Malini Parthasarathy.

Many on social media say that the Finance Minister keeps boasting about himself and his family and acts like a troll to whoever disagrees with his point of view. This had got senior leaders of the DMK concerned who had reportedly put in a word with CM Stalin that the party and the government’s image is being tarnished by Palanivel Thiagarajan’s loose remarks. Following this, CM Stalin is said to have sternly warned Palanivel Thiagarajan asking him to show his skill in preparing the budget and not flex muscles on Twitter and in front of the press.

(With inputs from Junior Vikatan)

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40-year-old time capsule found in UK pub’s wall

By
The Commune
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A man from the UK recently discovered a 40-year-old time capsule dating back to 1971 in a wall of the pub that he owned. He had discovered this while renovating the 200 building. The time capsule included a price list from 1971, a few pounds of ha’ppenies (or halfpennies), stamps, a wage slip, old beer mats and car tax discs, SWNS reported.

Toby Brett, 41, has owned Holcombe Farmshop and Kitchen, in the English town of Radstock for 11 years and is the one who had discovered this. “It was certainly a surprise to find it. It was a really pleasant find, there’s some really interesting stuff in there,” Brett told SWNS.

“It was quite funny to see the price list from 1971 for Wadworth Brewery, which is a brewery we still use today. It’s definitely changed a bit since then,” Brett added. He went on to say that funnily enough, there was even a note of apology from whom so ever had only left halfpennies to be put in the time capsule.

According to SWNS, a letter included in the time capsule explains that previous owner E. Pockson did some “major alterations” to the building in 1973 with the help of Oakhill Brewery Development, a now-defunct property developer.

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Here’s how Indian States performed in NITI Aayog’s ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ Index In 2020

By
The Commune
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The NITI Aayog recently released their 2020 SDG index, evaluate the sustainability goals to be achieved by each state of the country. This index showed significant improvement over the previous years and improvement in terms of reduction in inequality. Meanwhile, there was also a severe decline in terms of industry innovation and infrastructure as an effect of the pandemic.

The SDG or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) index was launched in December 2018 by the NITI Aayog in collaboration with the United Nations organisation. This is mainly used to rank all the states and union territories on the basis of 10-15 indicators like the performance in health, education, gender, economic growth, climate change and such. They are then scored based on the following scale.

The scores range between 0–100, and categorises the states into:

  • Aspirant: 0–49
  • Performer: 50–64
  • Front-runner: 65–99
  • Achiever: 100

It is to be noted that none of the states and union territories belonged to the first and last categories. The overall score of the country has gotten elevated 6 points higher to 66 in 2020-21 as compared to 60 in 2019. This progress was mainly due to the fulfillment of goals like Clean Water and Affordable and Clean Energy.

The results also revealed that the main indicators that had been showing significant decline were education, industry, innovation and infrastructure. The main states that were at the bottom were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. On the other hand, there was a significant rise in the indicators like poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, inequality overall, clean energy, sustainability, and strong institutions. The full SDG India Index report can be accessed here, and the interactive dashboard can be accessed here.

(With inputs from Swarajya)
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SMaRT – A coalition of nationalist media outlets

By
The Commune
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Samachar Manyata Association for Research and Training (SMaRT), an initiative aimed at bringing nationalist media outlets under one umbrella that was launched on 25th October last year came out public today with its website launch on 5th June.

The website was formally launched in a virtual event in the presence of Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.

According to the website, SMaRT is a non-profit organisation that aims to bring together nationalist media outlets  in order to promote and advocate for events that deserves national importance. It is said to have more than 60 media as its members with cumulative a web-traffic and social media reach of over 80 million+.

SMaRT aims to support its members by extending research support, translation services, studio spaces for shooting videos, promote content, advertising services as well as through research grants.

Speaking at the virtual website launch event, Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said that it is time for valuing media justice in the country. He said that initiatives like SMaRT are need of the hour to audit the media and make them accountable.

The founder and chairman of SMaRT, Mr. Jai Kishan Jhaver, said that one of the main aims of SMaRT is to support new generation media organisations who are unable to achieve the desired results as they suffer from lack of a support system that the other side is well-armed with.

Mr. Muthuraman, the director of organization said that SMaRT is neither an industry association nor does it attempt to influence editorial policies of any of its members. He said that its aim is to nurture and support its members through various initiatives that can help improve the quality of their content, widen its reach and help them achieve financial sustainability.

Mr. Sandeep, an author and a columnist who also serves as a director at the organization said that SMaRT looks forward to encourage more nationalist and dharmic media members.

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Controversy breaks over royal death procession for criminal offender in Tirupur

By
The Commune
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In Tirupur, a huge controversy erupted over a ceremonious death procession held for a criminal offender despite the lockdown, as hundreds of his friends and kin conducted a procession, throwing social distancing norms to the air. This was the death procession of Samsudeen, who was killed in a clash over the distribution of loot money.

Samsudeen, a native of Tirupur MGR Colony, has been charged with various offences including attempted murder and burglary. He was killed in a clash between his accomplices on the day of the crime. Despite numerous lawsuits against Samsudeen, his friends gathered in large numbers and carried his body in a procession from the Tirupur Government Hospital. There were no police found to be present to control them.

When Samsudeen’s body was handed over after the autopsy, the crowd followed the ambulance in a long two-wheeler procession. The procession went as far as Tirupur’s MGR Colony, with no police in sight, despite the increasing number of COVID cases in Tirupur.

His supporters have videotaped the scenes and shared them on social media with background music praising the dead Samsudeen as if he was a fallen hero. Meanwhile, police say Samsudeen’s accomplices Karthikeyan and others have been arrested in connection with the murder.

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Chinese Govt manipulated WHO officials: ex-US NSA John Bolton

By
The Commune
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John Bolton, who served as the National security adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump said that the Chinese government manipulated officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and called it a shameful episode.

Bolton said that the head of Wuhan Institute of Virology was herself worried whether COVID-19 came from her laboratory.

In an exclusive conversation with Times Now, the former NSA said that the US must get full cooperation from China to look into the origin of coronavirus.

He said that coronavirus episode is providing an insight for average citizens of many countries about the kind of government that exists in Beijing. Bolton said that the public perception of China has been on a downward trend since COVID19  as people became aware of how it thwarted efforts of the WHO to probe the origin of the corona virus. He said that not a lot is known publicly about China’s biological weapons programme. He also said that Beijing was constantly refusing to engage in serious discussions on matters of arms control.

Bolton added that opinion polls conducted in the US, Western Europe and Japan highlighted that people believed WHO officials were helping China suppress evidence of the origin of coronavirus.

“I think President Joe Biden understands that public opinion in the US has moved in a very negative direction against China,” he said.

He further said that if China had nothing to conceal then they would have welcomed an open probe.

The former NSA said that free societies cannot allow Beijing to dictate the terms.

 

Vanniyars in Ariyalur hoist black flag denouncing DMK’s attempt to sabotage 10.5% quota

By
The Commune
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People in Sendurai village, Ariyalur district, tied a black flag in front of their houses to protest the DMK government’s attempt to deny 10.5% quota for Vanniyars.

Highlighting pending court cases, the DMK government halted the implementation of 10.5% Vanniyar reservation that was implemented by the ADMK government. People protested the DMK’s attempt to obstruct the Vanniyar reservation by hoisting black flags in front of houses in villages such as Sirukadambur, Maruvathur, and Ponrappi near Sendurai in Ariyalur district.

According to a local resident, “Only under the DMK’s rule,  Vanniyars have been continuously ignored. When the DMK is in power, they constantly target Vanniyars, and they do not want Vanniyar youth to use the reservation to earn respectable jobs. We strongly condemn the DMK’s actions, and we are holding black flag protests in our houses in places where Vanniyars live in the majority.”

A college student in the village said, “I am a final year B.E. graduate. I thought I would get a job using 10.5% Vanniyar reservation. But this attempt by the DMK government has spoiled my chance of getting a job. My sister, who is studying 12th standard, is also affected by the halting of Vanniyar reservation as her chances of getting into a reputed college are affected.”

(with inputs from NewsJ)

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Land near temple encroached by DMK cadre reclaimed

By
The Commune
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A piece of government land in Melmonavur village of Vellore district that was encroached by a DMK cadre has been reclaimed following complaints by locals.

There is a temple land and a government-owned vacant plot (poromboke land) for public use near the district employment office in Amman Nagar.

DMK branch secretary Siva had initially claimed that he was using the property for the maintenance of the temple and erected a small bunker with asbestos sheet. Later, it was reported that he was illegally occupying the land and constructing a building adjacent to the temple. When people had confronted the DMK cadre, he had intimidated them and issued threats.

He had allegedly told that nobody can do anything as it was his party that is in power.

Later, locals had registered a complaint with the District Collector to take appropriate action and reclaim the encroached property.

Following this, government officials arrived at the spot to inspect the structures erected by the DMK cadre. The authorities demolished the illegal structure that was constructed on the encroached land near the temple.

(With inputs from News J)

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
Contact us: thecommune.news@gmail.com
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