Berhampur to free National Highway 217 of hoardings

BERHAMPUR: The National Highway 217 passing through Berhampur may soon be free of hoardings. The district administration has ordered officials concerned to remove the hoardings from either side of the 12-km stretch of NH passing through the town. "We have asked the officers of the NH, police, revenue and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) to pull out the hoardings from either sides of the NH 217 for the free movement of the vehicles," said Ganjam collector Krishan Kumar. The big hoardings, which illegally mushroomed along the footpaths, have been causing a lot of traffic problems in the town with residents urging the district administration to solve the problem for quite some time. The issue was discussed at a meeting on the development of Berhampur town held here on Thursday evening. The meeting, presided over by the district collector, was attended by officials of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Berhampur Development Authority (BDA), besides MLAs from Berhampur and Gopalpur. The district collector also asked BDA officials to conduct a survey to identify open spaces in town and to rid them of encroachment. Some of the open spaces can be utilized for parking vehicles and some of them would be developed as green-belt with plantation and parks, the collector said. Around 150 open plots in the town, reserved by the BDA in different places, have vanished due to the encroachments, he pointed out. The administration also asked the BDA to crack down on buildings which diverted their open or parking spaces for other purposes. The violators would be punished, the collector warned.

Source: Times of India

Ganjam migrants in Surat send home Rs. 500 crore a year

Put your money down, boys

Article By P Sainath

He does not want to be named or photographed, nor have his village identified, though he speaks freely. His fraternity is crucial to the lives of nearly half a million migrants from Ganjam who work in Surat. He may have been an agricultural labourer or small farmer in his origins, but is now part of a tiny elite running an operation worth around Rs.100 crores a year in this single Orissa district. Meet the 'Tappawala,' Ganjam's parallel 'postman' or money courier.

How do migrants send money home to their families, and how much? "Our conservative estimate is that Ganjam's migrant labourers remit Rs.500 crores a year back to their villages" says Lokenath Misra of the NGO Aruna, whose "Sethu" project attempts to serve as a bridge between Ganjam migrants and their homes. "Of this, Rs.400 crores comes from Surat alone. A full picture is not possible, as the industry is illegal."

So what does a Tappawala do, anyway?
"I spend 15 days in Surat and 15 days here in this Ganjam village each month," says the Tappawala who has been in the trade for 20 years. "In Surat, I contact the 200-300 labourers I service and ask them if they would like to send money home. Each sends around Rs.2500 a month." This implies his handling between Rs.5 and 7.5 lakhs a month. But this is for nine months only, since the migrant to Surat normally spends three at home each year. So our Tappawala is handling between Rs.45 and 67.5 lakhs annually. "When in the village, I collect parcels for the migrants in Surat from their families. That includes hot pickles and other foodstuffs." Does the returning Tappawala carry all that cash on him from Surat? "Not the whole distance. Typically, he would buy a bank draft with that in Surat on a branch in Berhampur (Ganjam's main town). He would cash that in Berhampur and reach the village by bus or jeep. So he'd really carry cash only for about three hours and 80-100 kilometres."

(Link for the full text of the Article: http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/aug/psa-moneydown.htm)