News on Agra & Current Affairs

AGRA.               It could serve as a well-placed slap in the face of the the groups of so-called women's rights activists who all too recently celebrated International Women’s Day, fervently praising the contribution made by women to the society and vowing to prevent violence against the feminine gender comfortably ensconced in luxurious clubs and hotels.    While the world was busy celebrating women’s day, a young girl was murdered in cold-blood, torched to death by her in-laws in Kayamganj town of Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh, alongwith a 6-month fetus inside her, just three years after marriage.    Two weeks have passed since the grisly murder but the local police appears to be in no hurry to catch the absconding in-laws who doused the girl in kerosene and left her to burn and die on the street, making good their escape while the locals awaited for the police to arrive. Meanwhile, the victim’s mother Archana Sharma has suffered from a strok...

Vijay Upadhyay    Agra. It may come as a pleasant surprise for history-lovers who have been worried over the undue "protective" attitude adopted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) towards the Taj Mahal and other historical monuments of Agra.   Less than a year after theoretically agreeing to the prospects of cordoning off sections of the Taj, to prevent tourists from entering these areas, the ASI has surprisingly rejected the CISF proposal to close the entrance to the fake graves of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal inside the main dome of the monument, though the real graves shall remain out of bounds for common tourists. But realising the increased security threat to the monument in view of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the ASI has permitted the CISF to increase its personnel strength inside the monument by 96, making the total CISF personnel strength posted at the Taj cross the 200 mark. Also, the police and other security agencies' presence in ...

Vijay Upadhyay | Agra Over the past five years, Keetham forest, located at the outskirts of Agra, has begun attracting international attention for being the biggest secure home for Indian sloth bears, who have been rescued by the wildlife authorities from the captivity of bear-dancing tribes.  But as the number of rescued bears is growing, the risk of these precious endangered animals falling in the hands of poachers is also rising at a dangerous pace. The bear sanctuary at Keetham, which also holds the distinction of being the world's biggest sloth bear sanctuary, is becoming crowded with sloth bears, who, being territorial in nature, could slip out of the sanctuary limits and come under the danger of falling in the hands of poachers.  Although a UK-based NGO, currently running the bear sanctuary, is doing its best to protect these animals, wildlife authorities of Uttar Pradesh have come up with an innovative idea of containing the bears and other wild animals inside the forest by...

Vishal Sharma / Agra December 29, 2008, 0:00 IST Govardhan Udyog plans to use cowdung to produce particle board. Faced with the task of developing environment-friendly technology for industry due to guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, entrepreneurs in Agra are realising the cost-effective potential of such technologies and innovations. Govardhan Udyog is one such unit which plans to use a non-conventional raw material, cowdung, to produce particle board and pharmaceutical products. The unit was inaugurated this week on the Agra-Delhi national highway near the Mathura refinery, about 55 km from Agra. Company sources said the basic raw material used in the manufacture of particle board will be cow dung. This will perhaps make it the first particle board manufacturing facility using cowdung as the raw material. Govardhan Udyog Managing Director SK Mittal said particle boards were emerging as a viable alternative in designing office furniture and automation products in the country as c...

  Vijay Upadhyay | Agra The residents of Kamlanagar and nearby posh colonies of Agra are undergoing a weird experience these days. No matter how much they offer, housewives living in these colonies are unable to find a kaamwali bai (domestic help), thanks to a social reform movement initiated by Dalit leaders prohibiting women in their community from working as domestic helps in residential colonies. According to Dalit leader Kartar Singh Bhartiya, it was often found that young girls and women, who went out to work as domestic helps in colonies, faced social and sexual harassment. While these women staked their honour to bring food for their kids, male members in their families whiled away their time with most of them becoming alcoholics. Most of the time, they beat up their women leading to serious domestic and social problems.   As a way out, the Jatav community leaders of Nagla Thipuri area of the town have asked Dalit families not to send their women to work ...

Vishal Sharma / Agra September 15, 2008 The unorganised sector is unable to compete on account of the 8% duty; the price difference between branded and unbranded pumps declines and sales drop Agra’s unorganised mechanical pump manufacturing sector is paying 8 per cent excise duty on every pumpset it manufactures. The duty, in force since January 1, 2007, has affected the margins of small units, which are finding it difficult to compete with players in the organised sector. Players in the organised sector are exempt from the tax till a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore. Sanjeev Mittal, managing director, Atul Pumps Pvt Ltd, said the excise policy was different for Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)-certified units, which were exempt from excise duty till a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore. Non BIS-certified units were liable to pay 8 per cent excise duty on every pumpset produced. According to him, this was a quality control measure adopted by the government to introduce standardisation in the pumpset ind...

Vis hal Sharma / New Delhi/ Agra September 08, 2008 Six production units of the Rs 125-crore disposable medical and surgical devices major Romsons Group began production after remaining under lockout for nearly three weeks due to worker unrest. The workers finally managed to extract an assurance from the company management that it will refrain from any action against them. According to sources in the Romsons Group, the workers had gone on a strike about three weeks back against the management’s decision of firing a few company employees for indiscipline. All the group factories in Agra had been under lockout after the strike. The management had been holding discussions with a delegation of workers led by representatives from the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu). An accord was reached between the two parties with certain terms and conditions, which included the reinstatement of all six employees fired from the company following a three month suspension with a full-pay. The company ...

Vishal Sharma / New Delhi/ Agra August 26, 2008 Besides increasing hopes for a better performance in the forthcoming Commonwealth games, the Olympic medals by the Indian sportsmen is also to have a positive effect on the teetering sporting goods industry of Agra. While future sportsmen can be seen lined up for their turn at the racing tracks and swimming pool in the town’s only stadium, the newly constructed municipal shooting range is also witnessing a higher turnout of amateur shooters despite being located in the town’s outskirts. Once famous in north India as a major hub for cricket bat manufacturing, the sporting goods industry of Agra is now reduced to barely a handful of bat manufacturing units due to the shortage of raw material like willow and cane, used in the manufacture of bats. Other units manufacturing stuff like weight lifting equipment and hockey sticks are also on the verge of downing their shutters due to lack of business. The only segments where the Agra sporting goo...

Vishal Sharma / New Delhi/ Agra August 26, 2008 The potato farmers of Agra are angry with cold storage owners, who, they say, are harassing them by increasing storage rates by up to Rs 30 a quintal. Farmers of villages around Agra held a meeting to discuss the situation. According to the Aloo Utpadak Kisan Samiti General Secretary Pushpendra Jain, the farmers are losing between Rs 17,000 and Rs 19,000 per hectare even after having selling their entire produce. Even the state government had accepted the loss figures of Rs 16,710 per hectare, which was an unbearable loss to small and big farmers alike. The potato arriving in the market from states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh will cause a steeper drop in potato prices throughout the state and without the government aid, it will be impossible for the farmers to come out of the debt. To further aggravate the situation, he said, the cold storage owners have decided to raise their storage fees from Rs 80 per quintal to Rs 120 per quinta...

अब आलू के इस बंपर उत्पादन से हालात यह बन रहे हैं कि किसानों को उसे कोल्ड स्टोरेज की बजाय खेतों में ही रखने को मजबूर होना पड़ रहा है। आगरा के सभी 160 स्टोरेज ने आलू को रखने से मना कर हाउसफुल का बोर्ड अपने दरवाजे पर टांग दिया है। विशाल शर्मा / आगरा उत्तर प्रदेश सरकार के अनुमान को गलत ठहराते हुए आलू क्षेत्र के नाम से मशहूर आगरा के किसानों ने आलू की इतनी पैदावार कर दी है कि उनके उत्पाद को कोल्ड स्टोरेज तक मयस्सर नहीं हो रहे। अभी ज्यादा वक्त नहीं गुजरे, तीन हफ्ते पहले की ही तो बात है राज्य के बागवानी मंत्री नारायण सिंह सुमन ने विधानसभा में कहा कि वसंत के देर होने से आलू के उत्पादन में 8 से 12 फीसदी तक की गिरावट आने का अंदेशा है। पर महज कुछ ही दिनों बाद जब आलू की फसल उखाड़ी जाने लगी तो उत्पादन में कमी के कयास सिरे से गलत साबित हो गए। जहां राज्य सरकार का अनुमान था कि इस साल आगरा क्षेत्र में 8.35 लाख मीट्रिक टन आलू उपजेगा, वहीं पूरी फसल उखड़ने से पहले ही उपज का आंकड़ा 11 लाख मीट्रिक टन को पार कर चुका है। अब आलू के इस बंपर उत्पादन से हालत यह बन रहे हैं कि किसानों को उसे कोल्ड स्टोरेज की बजाय खेतों...

Vishal Sharma   Domestic traders are opposing the 12.5 per cent VAT imposed on leather footwear.    New Delhi/Agra        Even as the footwear exporters of Agra are rejoicing at possible Italian investment in the leather footwear sector of the town, domestic footwear traders in Agra have gone on an indefinite strike from Tuesday against the 12.5 percent value added tax (VAT) proposed by the Uttar Pradesh government on leather footwear.   The strike, which encompasses almost 650 different bulk traders of footwear in the Shoe Market of Agra, is expected to cause a loss of about Rs 1 crore per day to the town's footwear trade while seriously affecting the manufacturer-trader supply chain that thrives on the daily sale volumes.   According to Rajkumar Sama, president, Agra Shoe Factors Federation (ASFF), a recent decision by the state government to bring VAT into effect in the state from December 1 has shocked the f...

VISHAL SHARMA New Delhi/ Agra.                        Having failed to draw the UP government's attention towards the pending development projects worth around Rs 60 crore for manufacturing footwear components, the Agra footwear industry is now looking at collaborating with the local foundry industry to develop ancillary units for manufacturing components like rivets, buckles, and sole dies most of which are currently imported at high cost.   Talking to Business Standard, Haji Rasheedo, owner of a small-scale footwear manufacturing unit in the Mantola area of the town, said currently the sole-dies had to be imported from China as attempts to produce quality sole-dies locally had not succeeded till date.   He said some footwear sole manufacturers, who were unable to import the sole-dies from China, were buying them from some selected die manufacturers...

VISHAL SHARMA New Delhi/ Agra.         At a time when the bicycle industry of the country is growing at almost 10 per cent annually, the export of Indian bicycles has dropped to almost half the previous year's tally owing to a huge increase in steel prices in the past three months and an unstable dollar.   For the industry that exports almost Rs 1,000 crore worth of its production, the rising steel prices have caused a tremendous drop in exports, which are presently pegged at just around Rs 423 crore.   The bicycle manufacturers of the country held a bicycle trade fair in Agra last week. The spokesperson of the United Cycle & Parts Manufacturers Association, KK Seth, said the production of steel was being monopolised by a select group of companies in India who were manipulating steel prices.   In the past three months, the steel prices had shot up by Rs 3,000 per metric tonne and now the companies were again preparing to ra...

VISHAL SHARMA New Delhi/ Agra.                      Disposing of solid waste is fast becoming an unmanageable problem in Agra, with the municipal trenching grounds overflowing with tonnes of urban waste generated every day.    And seeing the opportunity and handsome profits in solid waste management, several companies have offered projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to produce things like bio-fertilisers and electricity from this urban waste. The Agra Municipal Corporation is analysing some proposals.    Hydroair Tectonics (PCD) Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based environmental engineering company, has also jumped into the bandwagon, offering to develop a Rs 60-crore project in Agra that will transform urban waste into bricks, fertilisers and coal, while paying an annual licence fee of Rs 1 crore to the Agra Municipal Corp...

VISHAL SHARMA  New Delhi/ Agra                          Alarmed by slow growth in the production of milk in Uttar Pradesh, which has been stagnant at around 2.5 million litres per day for the past five years despite the increase in the number of cattle and dairies, the Uttar Pradesh government is now planning to launch a 'breeder farm' and 'dairy development' project in all the 820 developmental blocks of the state to develop new and better breeds of cattle to almost double the milk production in the coming decade.     The state's budgetary allocation for livestock and dairy will also be raised almost three times from Rs 550 crore this year to about Rs 1,500 crore in the next year for facilitating the implementation of the dairy development and breeder farm projects.    Talking to Business Standard about the project, Awadhpal ...

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra.                          The iron casting industry of Agra may have been losing on the technological front, but national industrial giants are slowly realising the huge untapped potential of the over 200 metal-casting and component manufacturing units of the town.     In a recent visit to the city's metal-casting and component-manufacturing units, RR Deshpande, Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd indicated that the company may invite more participation from Agra-based casting units in the supply of casting products and diesel engine components in which the Agra units have been involved for decades, but without any technological advancements.    He said that KOEL, one of the leading manufacturers of engines, engine components, generating sets etc., was considering developing some of the units in Agra as its an...

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra.              Even as the Agra petha industry faces growing competition from the units being set up in other cities of UP like Lucknow and Kanpur by migrating petha workers of Agra, the UP Pollution Control Board (UPCCB) is coming down hard on the units functioning in Agra for not having adopted LPG-based stoves, threatening to seal down the units if they continued to use coal in their manufacturing process.     Talking to Business Standard, Ashok Kumar Tiwari, regional officer, UPPCB, said the petha manufacturers of Agra had been served notices recently to stop the use of coal in their stoves but most of the units continued to flout state government orders by stealthily receiving deliveries of coal at their premises in the night.    He said the Agra administration and UPPCB had banned the entry of coal trucks into the city and formed a four-member committee to oversee the ...

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra.               At a time when the price of an entry-level air conditioner has come below Rs 10,000, Khaitan Electricals Ltd, currently having a 16 per cent share in the domestic fan market, has chalked out plans to introduce designer fans costing Rs 1 lakh by March next year.    According to company Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Khaitan, who was in Agra recently for a company meeting, though the mainstay of the company is still fan manufacturing, the company is also diversifying into manufacturing CFL lights, miniature circuit breakers, wires and home appliances.    The company's latest product in this range would be a pressure cooker that is expected to be introduced in the market by the month-end.    He said Khaitan Electricals Ltd had prepared a wide range of designer underlight fans in the 'Fantasy' line and the costliest fan ...

Vishal Sharma New Delhi/ Agra. Mobile service providers in Agra are facing an acute problem. Agra is surrounded by hundreds of small villages and during the daytime most of the rural population flocks to the city for work. This has left the service providers in trouble as they are having a tough time in providing flawless service during the day because of the congestion in the network towers in the city. Whereas the rural call traffic drops to nearly 30 per cent during this time. Taking this into consideration, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has decided to raise the call handling capacity of its towers in the urban areas by two times, while adding another 50 towers in the areas facing the highest call congestion. According to Rajesh Kumar, deputy general manager (Mobiles), BSNL, the company currently has 124 towers in the city, serving about 150,000 subscribers while the total call handling capacity available with BSNL in the city is only for around 140,000 subscribers. This...

Vishal Sharma CONSERVATION: Hopefully, there'll be a "whiter" Taj Mahal by next year. NEW DELHI. With its place among the seven wonders of the world, reconfirmed so spectacularly, it’s time to turn to the conservation of the Taj Mahal. Environmentalists have often expressed concern at the monument’s white marble becoming “yellow” owing to the acidic reaction of the soft marble surface with the polluted air. After much debate, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had proposed using a mud-pack made “Multani Mitti” (fuller’s earth, a natural bleaching agent) on the monument’s main dome and arches to give it a face-lift. Finally, a proposal to this effect was submitted for approval to ASI headquarters this week. The entire process, which could last six months, will cost about Rs 28 lakh. S K Samadhiya, deputy superintending archaeological chemist, ASI, says the ASI’s chemical branch has submitted a proposal for a step-by-step application of the mud-pack on the arches and ...