From: Somdutt Behura Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Cc: sbehura@hpc.uh.edu (Somdutt Behura) Subject: The ASRA's Grand Project Date: Sun, 26 May 1996 15:07:26 -0500 (CDT) Friends, As promised I am sending below a synopsis of ASRA's one more grand project which addresses effectively the ecological issues of India in general and Orissa in particular. Mr. S. K. Mohanty addresses in his own characteristic way the issues that have been bothering him since long. Here is a man, as I have said before, who thinks much ahead of most of us to bring about revolutionary changes in our thought processes, and cajoles all of us to accept a challenge which primarily is of grave concern for all of us. Because of time constraints, I have copied some of the initial chapters from his project report which I am supposed to hand over to Lalu Babu. It is Lalu babu himself who asked me to broach the discussion in this forum. So here I am....scanning the text, converting into ascii file using OCR and finally editing the text here ans there. There are many grammatic errors in the text. I have not tried to correct them as for a serious reader contents should suffice. Now many important pages have not been covered, like the size of the project. But this provides enough material for further consideration. As the text is fairly large I would like the members to study the topic in their spare time and try letting me know in one week time if we can further deliberate on it. I would also send a brief writeup on the Balasore Project in a short while from now. The text begins now: somdutt ****************************************************************************** CHAPTER - 1 I N T R O D U C T I O N Environmental degradation caused due to the rapid development in the field of Science 6 Technology and anamalous growth in population, now threats the existence of lives on the earth and become headache of almost all intelligentia of the globe. Scientists all over the world are exercising endlessly how to find out the ways and means to regulate or control such degradation so that lives on the earth became free from danger. Systematic approach on environmental studies now became a new academic concept. Many Institutions/Universities now have come up to facilitate such studies and advance research all over the globe. Negligible efforts have also taken in our country in this field. Few Institutes have already come up for environmental studies in our country. But these limited finger tip counts Institutions are not sufficient to cater the needs of our country. The massive industrialisations, minings, aqua-culture, irrigations with ultra modern know how and technological approach creates a lot of problems in the field of env irorment . Especially, no Institutions has yet come up in State of Orissa to facilitate environmental studies. Even if, in easter region of our country such type of Institutes are not available. So Association for Social Reconstructive Activ ities(ASRAJ is a Social Organisation working in the field of env ironment along with other social welfare programmes, since dawn from its inception thinks it proper and fit to take steps to establish an Institution of Excellencefor environm(ental research studies in this field of Ecological Management and Pollution Control in P.G. Level and to undertake other allied activities in relate to protection of environment . CHAPTER - II ENVIRONMENT IN ORISSA The terrestrial area of State of Orissa measured about 15.57 million hectares, which comprise about 1.73 percent land area of the country. The State is enriched with a population of 31.7 million people (91 Census) spreading over 30 numbers of revenue districts. In East there is about 480 kms. Marine Coast and in South the largest brakish water Lake "Chilika". The middle is intersected a series of environmentally fragile and dynamic zone. The entire maritime lines geographically demarcated as cyclone prone area. A large amount of sediment floods brought in by the eastern flowing rivers from the hinter land, augmented by a long shore current from the South and advancing Bengal Fan from the North creates a complex pattern of sediment migration and distribution along the shore line. The heavy and rapid siltation in the mouth of Chilika Lake, Paradeep Port, Gopalpur Beach creating alarming envrionmental hazards from Gopalpur to Chandbali. History reveals that 800 years ago Konark Sun Temple was constructed on the sea water. Now that temple is away by 3 kilometres from the sea beach and it is a prominent record of the high intensity of the sediment position of the sea coast. High physical and chemical degradation now becomes a significant place on some of the important ports and also Chilika Lake. As we develop on creating more and more of eye-cut area through the process, different types of irrigation in coastal plains for higher productivity, more and more environmental hazards we are inviting. The number of deltas present in the coastal plains are identified as high productive lands. The siltation leads river bed over flow and out break of Moods and water logging frequently. Rapid urbanlisation, shallowing the agricultural lands and in some extent in the forest lands. CHAPTER - III INDUSTRIAL SCENARIO IN ORISSA Orissa having the vast mineral deposits and natural resources attracts industries to come up. It is estimated since from 1984 to 1990 the total number of large and medium water polluting industries increase from 115 to 216. Steel Plant at Rourkela, Fertilizer Plant at Talcher, Rourkela s Paradeep, Indian Rare earth, Chhatrapur, Heavy Water Project, Talcher, NALCO, Damanjodi and Angul with capitive power plant are important industrial complexes in Orissa. Besdies that in small scale sectors there is a rapid growth of SSI Units adjacent almost all townships now become the salient cause of pollution. Consent has been given to 400 SSI Units by State Pollution Board. The Central Govt. in Consultation with Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) declared as Angul s Talcher areas as zone of critical pollution. Brahmani and their distributaries nearby Talcher became highly polluted by the discharge of efflunet from Thermal Power Stations and Fertiliser Plants. The atmospheric air surrounding these areas are also being polluted by flyash. It has been recorded that these discharges are about 490 tons per day of paticulate matters and 69 tons per day Sulphur Dioxide. On Chemical analysis of polluting waters, it is found that the suspended solid discharged to the tune of 170 tons per day. Sundergarh District is also identified as highly polluted area of the State after Talcher. It is the mystery that we are not so serious about these pollutions and the industrial authorities are not taking up any steps to control and regulate these pollutions due to lack of availability of technocrats in the field, proper awareness and scope to train the personnel concerned with these responsibility . CHAPTER - IV SCOPE & JUSTIFICATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES IN ORISSA There is statutory requirement in persuance of notification No.60(E) dt. 27.1.94 and thereafter amended on 4.5.94 states that any person who desires to undertake now any project or expansion or modernization of any existing industry or developmental project in schedule-I to the notification must obtain environmental cclearance from Govt. of India. For obtaining such clearance from Govt. of India, Environmental Impact Assessment Report and Environmental Management Plan are to be furnished by the Concerned industry or the Project. Another statutory requirement vide notification No.GSR-386 E dt. 22.04.93 which states any person carrying on an Industry, operation or process requiring consent to operate under Section-25 of Water (Prevention s Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 or under Section 21 of Air (Prevention 6 Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 or both an authorisation under Hazardous Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules, 1989 issued under Environmental Protection Act, 1986 requires an environmental statement for the financial year ending on 31st March to be submitted to their respective State Pollution Control Board on or before 30th September of the same year, which we may call as "Environmental Audit" & "Safety Audit" herein after. In view of the notifications stated herein above, it is mandatory for all industries, projects, mining to obtain Environment Impact Assessment, Environmental Management Plan and Yearly Environmental Statement of Assessment to minimise the generation of waste and pollution potential known as or in other way "Environmental Audit" & "Safety Audit". So there is a beautiful scope on the part of the Institute to facilitate consultancy services for EIA, EMP and Environmental Audit & Safety Audit in Orissa. It is a fact that in India there are about 300 environmental Consultants out of which 23 of them are with foreign collaboration. But their Network in the State is very very thin. So that an Institute facilitating such services, equipped with laboratories and new system of assessment in terms of technology and quality with a moderate tariff for the services will definitely have the high potentiality, as attempt in the State for optimum utilisation of their rich minerals and natural resources have already been taken up. It is a very salient feature for attaining the self-sustainability of the proposed project as there are already 94 large industries, 124 medium industries, 46 mining industries and approximately 15 major developmental projects are already functional in the State. Keeping in view the rapid deforestations, arresting parenial flows of water sources for aqua-culture and damaging casurina and mangrove forestries on the coastal belt etc., drag the State to an acute ecological imbalancity. All the attempts and approaches to minimise this imbalancity has been utterly failed due to lack of awareness and person deployed for these checkment are lack of ecological management knowledge and skill. There is no such Institutes/Universities here in where facilities for specific studies on Pollution Control, Ecological Managmenet and Short-term Capsule Courses on Environment are available. So scope of the Institute providing academic facilities of regular courses on Pollution Control and Ecological Management in Post Graduate level has the high potentiality in the State. Public awareness building through research studies and publications, which is another objective of the Institute is the need of the area and time. So the proposed Institute is having multifarious programmes for the public at large and basically proposed to undertake activities as under : 1) To undertake two years course in the name & style Master of Pollution Control & Ecological Management. 2) To provide consultancy support to client group on EIA, EIM & Envrionment & Safety Audit. 3) To maintain data base integrated information system for interpretations and disseminations. 4) To publish regular bulletins and collections on environments. 5) To organise Capsule Courses/Training and to co-ordinate in Govt. & Non-Governmental field . 6) To undertake demonstration of Projects/Studies/Exercises and need based sponsored research and development. The proposed Institute thus considerably caters to the needs of the target area i.e. State of Orissa as well as the North Eastern region. From seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu Mon May 27 14:04:57 1996 Status: RO X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1420" "Mon" "27" "May" "1996" "17:04:22" "-0400" "Bijoy Misra" "bmisra@husc.harvard.edu" nil "31" "Re: The ASRA's Grand Project" "^From:" nil nil "5" nil nil nil nil] nil) Received: from ormail.intel.com by ichips.intel.com (8.7.4/jIII) id OAA12505; Mon, 27 May 1996 14:04:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cs.columbia.edu (majordom@cs.columbia.edu [128.59.16.20]) by ormail.intel.com (8.7.4/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA06686 for ; Mon, 27 May 1996 14:06:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by cs.columbia.edu (8.7.5/8.6.6) id RAA03213 for seeds-outgoing; Mon, 27 May 1996 17:04:28 -0400 (EDT) Received: from husc.harvard.edu (husc.harvard.edu [140.247.30.45]) by cs.columbia.edu (8.7.5/8.6.6) with ESMTP id RAA03208 for ; Mon, 27 May 1996 17:04:25 -0400 (EDT) Received: from fas.HARVARD.EDU by husc.harvard.edu with ESMTP id RAA26241 Received: by fas.HARVARD.EDU with id RAA03184 In-Reply-To: <199605262007.PAA27365@sina.hpc.uh.edu> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Precedence: bulk X-majordomo-list: seeds from majordomo.cs.columbia.edu X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 From: Bijoy Misra Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: Somdutt Behura cc: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: The ASRA's Grand Project Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 17:04:22 -0400 (EDT) ASRA proposal on pollution control Two points came to my mind when I read through Sri Mohanty's proposal as posted by Somdutt. The first is it's not something that is in the character of SEEDS. UGC is granting money for environmental education and the university departments have to be lobbied to create the new awareness. Any institute must use the resources of existing laboratories to do the analysis and research. It is extremely unpractical to start a new institute when the necessary personnel to run it do not exist. If we have resources, we may offer financial support to individuals who wish to be trained in evironment and its protection. While pollution control is important, industrial production to create jobs and improve the economy is more important. Orissa is possibly the lowest third or fourth in industrial output. Hence to make a noise of pollution is to deter capital flow and may not be the most appropriate act. Education in sanitation and enforcement of waste water treatment from power, paper or textile production mills will help. I believe the former comes under SEEDS' goals and should be attempted. Sorry for this damper. But an institute for utilization for forest products (fruits, roots, resins, oils) may be more appropriate and will help the economy in the local areas. May be ASRA has some other justification in pollution that I am missing. regards. - Bijoy Misra. From: ppatra@ichips.intel.com Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu (seeds majordomo) Subject: ASRA, OSA conv. Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 19:45:57 -0700 (PDT) Dear Seedsians, My opinion is that we should work off of ASRA's first proposal, and grant about $2000 to $3000 a year with the same or enhanced guidelines as we had set for Lanjigarh project. Moreover, both Lalubabu and Somdutt should be the coordinators or point-persons from our side. Also, please voice any concern you may have about our supporting this project. Lalubabu: I will mail you some materials that possibly can work as presentation aids at OSA conv. Pls. email me your address. cheers, Priyadarsan From: Lalu Mansinha <6001_354@uwovax.uwo.ca> Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Cc: lalu@uwovax.uwo.ca Subject: ASRA Final Letter Date: Mon, 29 Jul 96 15:38:50 EDT Fellow SEEDERS: This is the outline of the letter I am going to send to ASRA. Although I will sign and send it(in the interest of speed), The letter will carry Somdutt's name as a Coordinator. (Priyadarshan: Should you be named at the bottom also?) I will wait for about a week for comments on this letter, and then it will be mailed. So please be prompt. Greetings Lalu Mansinha SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC AND EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY August xx, 1996 Mr. S.K. Mohanty Secretary General and Chief Functionary Association for Social Reconstructive Activities (ASRA) Satyabrata Press Premises Pithapur Cuttack Orissa India 753001 Samir Babu: Please refer to your letter dated 21 October 1995 presenting a proposal for Health Nutrition Project in Naugaon and Balikuda Blocks, Jagatsinghpur District. Your proposal was posted on SEEDSNET, a computer network linking all members of SEEDS. After due discussion the proposal has been approved for funding by SEEDS at a level of one lakh rupees per year (approximately US$3000/year) for three years. SEEDS has designated Lalu Mansinha and Somdutt Behura to be the coordinators for the ASRA project. Priyadarshan Patra is the Chair of SEEDS. Since your proposal requested for Rs4,60,000 over the three year period, and our grant would total Rs3,00,000 over the same period, we would like to receive a revised proposal from you. The revised proposal should be as specific and detailed as possible, together with timelines of initiation and completion of each phase of work. It is of interest to us to obtain a list of every village which will be benefited by this project and the population of each village. Please name the villages that have schools (Primary, Minor, High School etc). SEEDS requires that funds be remitted in installments. Except for the first installment, all other installments are remitted only after a progress report and account for the previous installment and an action plan for the next phase has been received. To defray initial expenses, the first installment will be for Rs40,000. The remaining two installments for the first year will be for Rs30,000. It is possible that some member of SEEDS may raise other questions after receiving your revised proposal. On the ASRA Health Nutrition Project. Barring that, I am confident that we can look forward to a speedy funding and initiation of the project. Let us plan on a start date of November 1, 1996. Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty and Lalu Mansinha also belong to an organisation in Canada called IVAN (India Voluntary Action Network). We have applied to IVAN for funding a part of this project. In the last meeting of IVAN questions were asked about the actual content of each medical kit (Rs3000/kit), and whether the contents are to be restocked frequently. Since this question will be of interest to SEEDS members too, you could include your response in the revised proposal. IVAN has not yet approved the proposal. If funded it will mean an additional Rs25,000/year. Your proposal on the establishment of an institution to instruct and educate about the environment has been broadcast on SEEDSNET. The reaction of SEEDS members has not been very positive. Basically so far SEEDS consists of a very small group of volunteers working with a small budget. The support of a major technical institution is beyond the resources of SEEDS. You may be interested to read the account by Somdutt Behura of his travels to ASRA project villages. I enclose a copy. With best wishes Lalu Mansinha From: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: lalu@uwo.ca, seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: ASRA Project Date: 03 Oct 96 16:03:57 -0700 Friends, I had a chance to talk to Shamir babu of ASRA. I just inquired how he was doing. He has fallen sick again. Good news is that all the tubewell platforms that I had visited are now fitted with the pumps. People are using them. I am asking my father, who is now in my village, to go one or two places to verify the fact. Particularly he will be delighted to go to Alana hata where he had spent his childhood days. On ASRA project I have following comments. I have extensively studied the draft project. The nature of the project indicates that there is no specific area that SEEDS can fund through its limited resources. The project structure indicates that each single module would depend upon others to have any significant impact. It is a wholesome project, and must therefore all be undertaken at the same time. We can't include one at the cost of the other. This will lead to the major failure of the project. Further, ASRA can't accomodate such a request from us, as it is not technically feasible. So we must fix an amount (according to Lalu Babu's suggestion $3000/year) that will be proportionally distributed between different modules of the project. We then can suggest ASRA to mobilise funds from other sources to make up the gaps that we would surely be leaving behind with our limited resources at disposal. If it is agreeable to you feel free to let me know, so that I can finalise our financing structure. Please respond as soon as possible. Thank you. somdutt From: The Indian Concrete Journal Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu cc: ylalu@uwo.ca, seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: ASRA Project Date: Fri, 4 Oct 1996 09:22:48 +0530 (GMT+5:30) I will be in BBSR for 10 days during Puja. Please send me the contact name, address and direction of the project site. I would very much like to visit and report on progerss of our ASRA project. I will try to get in touch with our VKA project coordinators also. D. K. Mishra p.s. Interestingly I am going to Uganda later in the month for company work. I am awaiting that opportunity eagerly to see a region of the world that is even worse off than our own Kalahandi! From: Bijoy Misra Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Cc: lalu@uwo.ca, seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: ASRA Project Date: Fri, 4 Oct 1996 09:07:39 -0400 (EDT) Somdutt, To pursue a module or couple of them will create a focus. It's time that we may also think of a mission statement for SEEDS such that we can accomodate requests as they come. Looks to me rural education and health care are two areas that can focus our attention. I will like people's comments. - BM On 3 Oct 1996, SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM wrote: > Friends, > I had a chance to talk to Shamir babu of ASRA. I just inquired how he was > doing. He has fallen sick again. Good news is that all the tubewell platforms > that I had visited are now fitted with the pumps. People are using them. I am > asking my father, who is now in my village, to go one or two places to verify > the fact. Particularly he will be delighted to go to Alana hata where he had > spent his childhood days. > > On ASRA project I have following comments. > somdutt > From: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Cc: SBEHURA@us.oracle.com Subject: ASRA project breakdown Date: 13 Oct 96 09:14:21 -0700 Friends, Here is the breakdown of the first year expenditure in ASRA project. This constitutes SEEDS contribution to the project at the rate of $3000/year i.e. Rs.1,04,100/year at the present exchange rate of Rs. 34.70/$1. As I have said before, the ASRA project should, if anything, be treated in its entireity. As such I am giving equal wieghtage to each and every aspect of the project. The proposed expenditure in different heads are outlined below: For details on heads plese refer to the project report submitted by ASRA. (This is based on first year expenditure) Project Heads Amount asked % of the total project SEEDS's share 1) Establishment Rs.1,14,000.00 44.7 Rs.46,488.25 2) Training Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12,247.05 3) Medicine kits Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12,247.05 4) Maintenance Rs.6,000.00 2.6 Rs.2,500.00 5) Medicine Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12.247.05 6) Non-recurring Expenditure Rs.45,000.00 17.6 Rs.18,370.60 (includes 10 bicycles, 1 motorcycle) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL Rs.2,55,000.00 100 Rs.1,04,100.00 My suggestions: We can reduce some amount from the item nos. 1 and 6 and allocate more for 3 and 5. Please have your comments as soon as possible, so that I can request Darshan Bhai to release funds. This project is already delayed. As I have not heard any counter comments on ANAND project originally proposed by Lalu babu, I would assume that there is no serious objection to this project and request Lalu babu to set a reasonable amount for ANAND project as well, and contact people responsible for the project in Orissa at the earliest. I am seriously woried we are not dispensing the amount collected by SEEDS for the purpose enshrined in its philosophy, as sincerely as we should have been. Further, I have one more project in mind that SEEDS can help fund without much resource constraint. Because of lack of time I am unable to do it this time. However, I will be back with you soon. Thank you for your attention. somdutt From: Priyadarsan Patra Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Cc: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: ASRA project breakdown Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:42:43 -0700 > > Project Heads Amount asked % of the total project SEEDS's share > > 1) Establishment Rs.1,14,000.00 44.7 Rs.46,488.25 > > 2) Training Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12,247.05 > > 3) Medicine kits Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12,247.05 > > 4) Maintenance Rs.6,000.00 2.6 Rs.2,500.00 > > 5) Medicine Rs.30,000.00 11.7 Rs.12.247.05 > > 6) Non-recurring > Expenditure Rs.45,000.00 17.6 Rs.18,370.60 > (includes 10 > bicycles, 1 > motorcycle) > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > TOTAL Rs.2,55,000.00 100 Rs.1,04,100.00 This is a very good breakdown. However, I have a couple of questions: 1. Why is establishment not under "non-recurring expenditure" head ? Why is this part so much more expensive than others ? 2. How are we ensuring that the rest of the funding will be obtained? Is our support conditional on their obtaining the rest of funds? If not, how should we judge project's progress? > My suggestions: > I am seriously woried we are not dispensing the amount collected by SEEDS for > the purpose enshrined in its philosophy, as sincerely as we should > have been. Why are we not dispensing? Is that the problem or something else? Should we worry about the right problem? -- Darshan From: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" To: ppatra@ichips.intel.com Cc: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: ASRA project breakdown Date: 15 Oct 96 19:54:44 -0400 --=_ORCL_7289907_0_11919610152057220 Content-Transfer-Encoding:7bit Content-Type:text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Darshan bhai, The establishment expenditure mainly includes manpower expenses, which will be incurred every year. So it is not under non-recurring expenses. ASRA in its report did mention explicitely about their total requirements from us, i.e 2,55,000. It also specified how much they would bring in from their side. In this respect you are right that there will be a huge shortfall. I need to talk to Mr. Mohanty about this. At this time we can limit ourselves to fixed small number of villages (ASRA has 151 villages in mind). Else we must release additional amount, and not the amount earmarked by Lalu babu. somdutt From: Lalu Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Subject: Re: ASRA project breakdown Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 03:44:15 -0400 (EDT) I agree with Somdutt's budget for the first year of the ASRA project. If we couple the ASRA project with simultaneous action through Ananda Fund, we (SEEDS) will have had a major impact on the region. In the absence of discussion on the Ananda Fund aspect of this project I, like Somdutt, am assuming agreement of all, and will proceed, on behalf of SEEDS, to contact Ananda Fund in the US and in Bhubaneswar. I will keep SEEDS posted on any progress. Lalu Mansinha From: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Cc: SBEHURA@us.oracle.com Subject: Re: ASRA project Date: 17 Oct 96 09:04:08 -0700 Friends, I have some more suggestions on our funding of the ASRA project. I am going to call Shamir babu and discuss the possibility of choosing few specific villages that could be served in its entireity with our first year allocation. I am personally not very comfortable with the following facts (extracted from ASRA project report). This is so because we have to make sure that our money is properly utilised. We can't just be a provider of capital. The direct benefit must trickle down to the people in need of it. ASRA has agreed to raise Rs. 20,000 for the first year if we provide Rs. 2,55,000. ASRA's goal was to cover around 150 villages. As we are not providing even half of what ASRA has demanded, we need a thorough revision of the project to make sure our money is propoerly utilised. I would rather suggest one project better served than several projects served half heartedly. As downward revision of ASRA project is very easy I would explore the possibility with Shamir babu shortly. My suggestion is to redure the no. of villages to half and serve them well. I would further suggest to provide $200 above $3000 suggested by Lalu babu to make the project viable in the first year. Please provide your input by Friday so that I can finalise the project outline with Shamir babu by coming Monday. Please devote little bit of your time to carry the torch forward effectively. I have very tight schedule these days following overdose of preparation for the next year OSA convention. Thank you. somdutt From: Sri Gopal Mohanty Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" cc: seeds@cs.columbia.edu, SBEHURA@us.oracle.com Subject: Re: ASRA project Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 14:43:30 -0400 (EDT) I am teporarily coming out of my hibernation. I agree with Somadutt that we only work in a few villages. We cannot solve all problems overnight. Our aim is bring improvement whatever is reasonable for us and thereby make others aware of the event. Possibly the event will generate inspiration for others who may take further interest in such activities - at least that is our hope. -------------- S.G.Mohanty Department of Mathematics and Statistics McMaster University, Hamilton,Ont.L8S 4K1 mohanty@mcmaster.ca On 17 Oct 1996, SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM wrote: > Friends, > I have some more suggestions on our funding of the ASRA project. I am going to > call Shamir babu and discuss the possibility of choosing few specific villages > that could be served in its entireity with our first year allocation. I am > personally not very comfortable with the following facts (extracted from ASRA > project report). This is so because we have to make sure that our money is > properly utilised. We can't just be a provider of capital. The > direct benefit > somdutt > > From: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: seeds@cs.columbia.edu Cc: SBEHURA@us.oracle.com Subject: Updates on ASRA project Date: 19 Nov 96 15:50:28 -0800 Friends, I had a discussion with Mr. Shamir Mohanty of ASRA the last Sunday. I talked extensively with Lalu Babu as well on this project. Shamir Babu has already prepared a draft project plan based on our promise of $3200/year. Gopal left for India on Sunday. His plan to visit India was sudden. I had explained him in details what he needs to do. 1) He is going to meet Mr. Shamir Babu and collect the new project plan. 2) Visit the sites and inspect the tubewells. 3) Inform me by phone if the project report is ok. 4) Talk to Mr. Agrawal of VKA and collect a status report. Inform me about it on the phone. Darshan Bhai, two of my friends are going to BBSR in Nov and Dec. Please send me a check of $3200, so that I can send the check with them. You can write the check on my name. I will then write a check (as I am not very sure of the correct name of Shamir Babu at present) on Shamir Babu's name. Please do it as soon as possible so that I can get it this week. This is a short update on ASRA project. Any comments! somdutt From: Sri Gopal Mohanty Sender: seeds-owner@cs.columbia.edu To: "SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM" cc: seeds@cs.columbia.edu, SBEHURA@us.oracle.com Subject: Re: Updates on ASRA project Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 10:42:19 -0500 (EST) Dear Somdutt, Glad to note the progress on ASRA and thank you for your dedication. I am going to India and would wish to do some work in this regard. My time is extremely tight. In any case please give me the address and telephone number of Shamir babu. I would do my best to contact him. Gopal, I mean the other one will be there in any case- at least one is better than none. Sri Gopal -------------- S.G.Mohanty Department of Mathematics and Statistics McMaster University, Hamilton,Ont.L8S 4K1 mohanty@mcmaster.ca On 19 Nov 1996, SBEHURA.US.ORACLE.COM wrote: > Friends, > I had a discussion with Mr. Shamir Mohanty of ASRA the last Sunday. I talked > extensively with Lalu Babu as well on this project. Shamir Babu has already > Any comments! > > somdutt >