[Assam] [assam} Newswallah: New York Times

[bhuban.baruah]

May 19, 2012, 6:26 AM
Newswallah: Bharat Edition
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Jammu and Kashmir: The death of 363 children since this January in the 
only pediatrics hospital in Kashmir has raised an alarm in the Valley 
about medical facilities for children, Hindustan Times reported. The 
families of four infants who died overnight Friday staged protests 
outside the hospital and blocked the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national 
highway, the newspaper reported.

Assam: The North Eastern Tea Association has called concerns about the 
adverse impact on coffee producers if tea is granted the national 
beverage status, “meaningless,” The Assam Tribune reported. The tea 
industry organization has likened the debate over the two beverages 
competing for market share to the cricket-versus-hockey argument in 
India. They said that the declaration of hockey as India’s national 
sport had not in anyway diminished cricket’s popularity.

West Bengal: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s plea to landowners 
seeking additional damages for not obstructing work on a rail link to 
Furfura Sharif, a pilgrim destination, is seen as an “implicit 
acknowledgement of need to draw a line” on unrealistic compensation 
demands, The Telegraph reported. When Ms. Banerjee was the federal 
railways minister, she had announced jobs for one member from each 
family whose land had been acquired for the rail project. But many of 
them have now stalled work on the rail link, “citing dissatisfaction 
with the compensation,” the newspaper reported.

Bihar: In the state capital, Patna, 27 students from “Super 30” a group 
of merit students from extremely poor families, have cracked the 
entrance exam of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology or 
I.I.T. (Hindustan Times). Anand Kumar, who runs the program, screens 
hundreds of applications before he selects the best 30 students, and 
trains them free of cost at his school for the examination, which 
several hundred thousand students write every year.

Rajasthan: Seven laborers are feared dead after a mine collapse on 
Thursday in a village in Alwar district, the Daily Bhaskar reported. 
The police said that the laborers were trapped under debris when an 
illegal mine on a forestland, collapsed. A team of rescue workers 
extricated the bodies of three laborers, the newspaper reported.

Maharashtra: The number of children suffering from asthma is on the 
rise in big cities across India, noted more than 100 pediatricians at a 
conference in Mumbai this week (Daily News & Analysis). The doctors had 
gathered to discuss the “alarming number of children falling prey” to 
the respiratory disease in Mumbai and subsequently missing school, the 
newspaper reported. A study by doctors associated with the Asthma and 
Bronchitis Association of India claims that 10-12 percent of the city 
children have asthma, bronchitis or other respiratory disorders.

Tamil Nadu: The government agency, NCPCR, monitoring the protection of 
children’s rights in India, reported the highest number of complaints 
of abuse from school children in the state (IBNLive). The minister of 
state for human resources development, E.Ahmed told the Rajya Sabha or 
the upper house on Friday.
E-mailPrintNew Work Times (May 19, 2012)