Silver cover door for Goddess Chamundeshwari

An ardent devotee of Goddess Chamundeshwari will be donating silver shield door for the sanctum sanctorum of temple atop Chamundi Hill on July 28, as part of Sri Chamundeshwari vardhanti.


This will be the second silver door to be placed at the sanctorum of the temple, apart from a main door in the entrance of the temple. The length of the door is 65.5 inch and width is 35 inches. 10.5 kilograms of silver is used to shield the teak wood and it has cost about Rs 5 lakh. 

Devotee Rajanna, a resident of Gayatripuram, who visits Chamundi Hill every Friday had plans to replace the Bronze door with Silver from last three years.

Expressing happiness for his dream coming true, he said during his visit to temple it was haunting him very much to donate silver door and from last six months he has strive hard to get the work complete for Chamundeshwari vardhanti.

After obtaining permission from the Muzrai Department officials, six months ago Rajanna has approached 77-year-old Sculptor BN Channappacharya to carve the shield. But, Channappacharya has not agreed in beginning, as it was extremely difficult task to complete the work withing six months. After noticing the devotion of Rajanna, the artiste has agreed to take up the work.

Channappacharya said: “Usually, the works takes around 14 months. With the blessings of goddess Chamundeshwari we worked day and night completed the work within six months.” A group of seven artists have worked day and night from last six months to carve the silver. They have created Ashta lakshmi's on the door. Ashta Lakshmi's include Gajalakshmi, Adilakshmi, Dhairyalakshmi, Ishwaryalakshmi, Vijayalakshmi, Veeralakshmi, Santanalakshmi and Dhanyalaksmi carved on it.

About Channappacharya
B N Channappacharya of Bilikere village in Mysore district does works related to temple. He has to his credit of sculpting several silver doors for various temples. He has been honoured with Jakanachari and also Rajayotsava award. 

Know how to get your education fees refunded

Stephen Aboagye of Mysore Grahakara Parishat said that several private institutions are practicing unfair trade while admitting a student and can be challenged in consumer courts at little cost and effort.

Stating Consumer courts have given several decisions ordering refund of fees based on this notice, he said collection of fees for one year, and putting pressure on the student not to switch institutions. Collecting original documents during admission, refuse to refund his fees, printing on brochures that fees can not be refunded and showing it to justify their action, and several others issues can be challenged in consumer court.


The notice issued by the Universities Grants Commission (Notice No. F.No.1-3/2007 (CPP-II) dated April 23, 2007 available at ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/refundoffeesdeemeduni2011.pdf) provides
a good starting point for such challenges, he says.


The entire fee collected from the student, after a deduction of the processing fee of not more than Rs 1000 shall be refunded and returned by the Institution, University to the student or candidate withdrawing from the programme. 
 

“Consumer courts have generally ruled that if institutions have
not provided any service (teaching), they can not charge a fee. The student may also be able to get a refund if he withdraws after classes begin. The institution will argue that the seat he vacated remained vacant and so the institution will lose money if it refunds the fee.

So the student should insist that the institution produce the waiting list and find out if the seat was given to some one else. The same general arguments apply if the institution is a PU college or a school, even though the UGC notice does not apply directly,” he added.

Transit Home to shut its door by August

The office of the Deputy Director of Public Instruction(DDPI) situated at Bannimantap has asked Don Bosco Organisation to close the 'Chinnara Thangudhama' (Transit Home) by August 1, meant for taking care of the urban deprived children, transfer them and bring back to mainstream.

In a press release, Distress Call Mission Founder Fr SD Joseph has pressurised government to renew the application considering the future of the children.
Stating under the project more than 55 children are taken back into the main stream of education with an ensured prosperous future and 62 in the age group of 6 to 14 years of various social economic status are being taken care by the organisation, he said its need of the hour government should renew the project considering the future of children.

He further said the house has transformed the lives of nearly 117 children mostly picked from slums, many of them orphans and a few with parents who cannot do proper parenting such as drunkards, destitute mothers.

Don Bosco in 2011 did a survey in all slums and street of the Mysore City and identified 2286 children out of school, of which 372 were girl engaged in various jobs, he stated.

DDPI BK Basavaraju said that Don Bosco's twelve months agreement has come to end, and till government next order children at transit home will be sent to regular schools. Transmit Home, was a novel project introduced by Central Government under Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyaan to bring challenging children to mainstream.

Stray dog menace irks citizens

An average of 500 complaints are registered in Corporation every month ! 



Few days ago a citizen died of Rabies virus. Though the incident has come to light after two weeks, the fact is stray dog menace has irked citizens. Packs of dogs can be seen wandering on street across city, causing fear among resident. It has become a perennial problem in city.


It might be shocking to know that more than 500 complaints on dog menace is registered with corporation every month. According to sources of Corporation an average of 30-35 complaints are registered everyday.


Citizens who are fed up handling with the dog menace, allege that civil authorities have completely failed to curb the dog menace. Whereas, MCC Health Officer Dr Nagaraj claims they are taking all the precautionary measures to curb the dog and pig menace in city.


Veterinary officer Dr Lingara admitting that dog menace has increased, and asked citizens not to throw garbage, food on roadside and ensure proper dispose of waste. Asking pet lovers to administer anti-rabies vaccination, he said many of the educated itself fail to take precautionary measures.


An average of 350-400 dogs are sterlised every month and anti-rabies vaccine are administered. A male and a female dog can produce about 60,685 puppies in a span of 60 years, and its quite challenging task to manage, he added.


Dr R Rajesh, faculty Radiology Department, JSS Hospital says: “Corporation should take appropriate measures to sterilise the dogs and kill the rabies dogs.”


Activists Vasanthkumar Mysoremath said that the number of dogs caught and sterilised, is comparatively very less to the populations of dogs. 

“Man-animal conflict has increased, and wild animals are straying towards urban areas, in search of food. If measures are taken to release the stray dogs in forest areas, the wild animals entering into concrete jungles come down. Though the thinking is out of paradox it helps to reduce man animal conflict.”


Causes
Out of fear, the children in several localities have stopped playing on streets. There are even streets where the dogs try to attack motorists and commuters.


The worst affected areas are Dattagalli, Roopanagar, Saraswathipuram, Ramanuja Road, Kalyangiri, Kesare, Mandi Mohalla, Devaraja Mohalla, Siddarthanagar, and several localities which come under Zone 6 and 9.


Garbage management has also led to problems. Several residents leave the waste collected cover in front of houses, assuming pourakarmikas come and collect. But, irregularities in garbage collection, helps stray dogs to spread the garabge across street and eat what they want. This again makes dogs more ferocious.

Job mela turns unfruitful for thousands of candidate

It seems like cheating is getting innovative with each passing day. The tricksters seems to be always one hand above the gullible public waiting for an opportunity to hoodwink the masses. Job Mela held at Maharaja college in Mysore is one such example.


Poor parents with their children were seen roaming from pillars to post of the Maharaja college, searching for the programme organisers. The fair turned unfruitful for fresh graduates, unemployed from neighbouring districts of Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Mandya who were seen at the venue clutching their biodate hoping to get some job.


The organizers of the job fair had announced that more than 50 companies would be coming to the event to recruit about 5000 unemployed for various kinds of jobs.But, the fact is only five companies had took part in the mela when Express visited the spot.


After paying Rs  10 as Registration fees they were shocked to learn that only countable number of companies had turned up. According to the placement officer the number of job aspirants who attended the Mela is more than 1500. This shows the Oganizers have pocketed more than 15,000.


Among three number provided by the company to contact, only one number was working. With lot of confusions, depression parents and children left the venue by obtaining a coupon for paying registration fee of Rs 10.


Mahesh of Chamarajanagar district who took part in the event said: “With high hope I took part in the event shelling out a couple of hundred rupees for transportation and food to came to the venue, only to find that it was a farce,”


Another candidate Anil said: “Am highly disappointed after visiting the job fair. No companies have take part in the event. It seems in the name of job fair, they have cheated us.”

When questioned Placement Officer in this regard he refused to say the number of companies took part in the event and claimed more than 150 people will be getting placement.

Her photography makes viewers to enjoy the depth and diversity of nature

'Is this girl a budding photographer or a professional one?', this is the first thing that strikes in the mind of those who watch her work on art and photography for first time. What starts off as a quick glance at her vast array of photographs, makes spectators to enjoy the depth and diversity of the subjects she has covered.

24-year-old Artist Aditi Dinakar, who desires to become full-fledged professional photographer, is proficient in Candid Photography, Water drops photography, Macro photography, Wildlife photography, Sketching, Painting. She is even adept at pencil sketches.

There is something specialty in every photograph she has shot. Be it the rare angle in which she has shot it, or be it the moment she chose to capture the action. The subjects are diverse Weddings, Children, Models, Fashion, Water-drops, Wildlife, Nature and many more.

Inspired by her father KR Dinakar, Technical Officer, CFTRI, Aditi took to photography by first shooting photos from a mobile camera. Seeing her talent her parents bought her a camera that brought exposed her inner potential.

She has the insight to convert that mundane and ordinary images that pass-by us everyday into extra-ordinary through her lens. Her sketches, paintings and photographs have been featured in various photo exhibitions.

She says: “Photography is my passion and turned into my profession. I have covered around nine weddings and engagements across parts of India and a national seminar in Mysore.” 'Keep Clicking, Learn Everyday and Love Traveling,' is her mantra.

She is doing her Master of Technology in Construction Engineering and Management at Manipal Institute of Technology. She is earning while studying. She has won several prizes and certificates in various competitions. She is the resident of Siddappa Square, Mysore. 

Senior Artist Shivalingappa appreciating the creative thinking of Adithi said: "her works shows the love towards nature and inspires lot the budding artist. The number of female photographers is countable in city and will definitely inspire other girls in photography.”

She wish to learn first hand about the medicinal plants

Kahoru Kanari has come all the way from Tokyo, Japan, to learn firsthand about the medicinal plants used in India and will never miss a chance to attend any conference or seminar on medicinal plants held anywhere across country. For the past five years she has been visiting India regularly just to study about the medicinal plants which are native to our land and climate, not found elsewhere.

Being a student of United Nation University, Tokyo she is pursuing Environmental Governance specializing in bio-diversity, where she wants to do an in depth study of the traditional medicinal plants grown in India, their sustainable use and conservation. Back home, she wants to apply this method and spread light over issues. She was in city on Thursday to take part in the workshop held on Medicinal Plants. Here are the excerpts:

“I was working for an NGO on sustainable use of Medicinal Plants. I got curious and wanted to study more on medicinal plants. In due course, I contacted Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, FRLHT, Bangalore and began my study on Indian Medicinal Plants.”

“Indian tradition and culture are quite different from ours, as such sustainable use of medicinal plants and their conservation also differ from that practiced in our country. With India being the birthplace of ancient Ayurveda, I was very much impressed observing people in villages still using medicinal plants as mentioned in the ancient texts of Ayurveda along with 'Naati' medicines consisting of local herbs.”

“It is interesting that people in India give prominence to traditional healing methods involving local medicinal plants and collect medicinal plants from the wild and they are of wide varieties. Though awareness about traditional medicines is equally high among Japanese, their collection from wild is less. I am putting in my efforts to introduce in Japan on how Indian people collect plants from the wild,” she quoted.

Kampo a traditional medicinal practice of the Japanese is quite famous among them just like the Ayurveda here which has been thoroughly studied and documented. But, we are not aware as to where the plants come from, she added.

'Sometime ago I had invited a couple of Japanese companies to India and explained to them the importance of the local medicinal plants. I have also visited sustainable growth of herbal plants at Madurai,' she added. 

Gram Aranya Samithi to collect rare medicinal plants

A workshop on medicinal plants was organised at Aranya Bhavan in city on Thursday. The motto of the workshop is to educate villagers about sustainable use, collection procurement, storage, value addition, transportation and marketing of rare medicinal plants, under 'Gram Aranya Samithi' (Village Forest Committee). 
 
About 14 committees across State are functioning and are collecting rare medicinal plants, which are at extinct in their region. The event was organised by Karnataka Forest Department in association with National Medicinal Plants Board and I-AIM.

Chief Forest Conservation Officer B Shivanagowda said that more number of Gram Aranya Samithi should come up in every district. The committee members have to be educated about cultivation, protection, collection, safe harvesting of rare plants, and value should be fixed for the products.

Department is also planing to come out with a Action Plan for processing, value addition for medicinal plants and also to organise buyers and sellers meet to provide platform for committee members, he said, asking committee members to visit other states and enhance their knowledge.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Dr GN Srikantaiah said that AYUSH Health sector is growing about 10 to 15 per cent every year and there is good demand for medicinal plant. Cultivating medicinal plants will not only benefit the herbal industry, whereas generates income, employment opportunity and provides livelihood for village. Apart this, villagers contribution to health security of country will be high,' he pointed out. He further said, sustainable collection of medicinal plants is need of the hour, and buy back arrangements has to be introduced to help cultivators.

According to World Health Organisation 80 per cent of people depend on Medicinal Plant for good health. In India its estimated that more than 6500 plants have medicinal values, of which about 2000 plants exist in Karnataka and few are identified by the committees.
 
FRLHT Senior Programme Officer Jagannath said that lack of information and not understandable chain system in marketing pushes   villagers into trouble. He asked committee members to study the value, use of herbs, and quantity of the plant they collect.

Stating medicine science plays major role in coming days, Dr Anilkumar Dixit said that China has become big competitor to India and we have to stand equally to them. Village Forest Committee members of Mahadevnagar, Mysore; Kodukatte, Ramanagar and Kaduboranahalli of Tumkur took part in the event and shared about their medicinal plants collections, achievements, and hurdles they are facing.