SSA official inspects school

Interested: Sarva Siksha Abiyan Project Officer R. Venkatesan inspecting the computer-based education system at the Centre-sponsored Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya, Bolupalli, near Krishnagiri, on Wednesday.
KRISHNAGIRI: Sarva Siksha Abiyan project director R. Venkatesan inspected the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, a Centre-sponsored residential school for girls, at Bolupalli of Veppanapalli Panchayat Union, Krishnagiri district, on Wednesday.
He also took an interest in the activity based learning methodology being practised at the school. He exhorted the 100-odd girl students, most of them are dropouts from the regular schools, to perform well in the ESLC examination.
He assured the students that all efforts will be taken to help them to continue their studies beyond Standard VIII.
Mr. Venkatesan was impressed by the students’ handicraft talent. He also appreciated P. Muthuvedi, a student, for her poems. The student had recently received a prize from the District Collector for her poems recently.
He also reviewed the internet and multimedia-based teaching method at the school.
Chief education officer, SSA, P. Semalai and School coordinator I. Samson Wesley accompanied him during the inspection.

KRISHNAGIRI: As many as 61 countrymade guns were recovered by the police in the district during the past one week, A.G. Babu, Superintendent of Police, told ‘The Hindu’ on Wednesday.
He said instead of surrendering or handing over illegal guns to the police, people were dumping them at a common place and informing the police over phone. “Only four guns were handed over to me at a Border Vigilance Committee meeting held recently at Sigaranagappalli on the Andhra border near Veppanapalli,” he said.
This was achieved through the introduction of Beat Officer System by the district police. A police constable was appointed to look after two to three villages. He was accountable for the happenings in the respective villages. He was asked to maintain four registers such as Tenant, Servant, Locked House and Industrial Labourers. His duty was to enter the details when he got information from the Village Volunteer Forces besides retired ex-servicemen and police personnel from the designated villages.
The initiative had produced good results in the district. Mr. Babu hoped that at least another 200 illegal guns would be surrendered or dumped by the people very soon.

NABARD sanctions Rs. 210 crore for construction of school buildings

Sharing views: School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu (second right) addressing the review meeting of the Cuddalore Education Zone at the Krishnagiri Collectorate on Wednesday. —
KRISHNAGIRI: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs. 210 crore for construction of buildings in 303 government schools in the State, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu has said.
Inaugurating the School Reforms Conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Thennarasu said that 200 schools would be upgraded very soon. He said that 24 schools in Krishnagiri would be given priority.
To improve basic infrastructure, each of the schools would be given Rs. 61 lakh, he said.
Apart from this, 831 schools were upgraded through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme.
This included 40 schools in Krishnagiri. Besides this, five new primary schools were established through panchayat unions this year, Mr. Thennarasu said.
The Union Government has decided to upgrade 1,000 primary schools in the State. With aim to improve the quality of education, all the High and Higher Secondary schools in the State would be linked with broadband connectivity.
Mr. Thennarasu said that the vacant teacher posts in the district would be filled soon. He gave necessary instructions to the officials in this regard.
The Minister appreciated the efforts of the headmasters, teachers and Parent Teachers Associations of the government schools in Krishnagiri that had mobilised assets worth Rs. 19 crore. Mr. Thennarasu said the aim of conducting Education Reforms Conference in 10 districts was to bridge the gap between the community, teachers and officials.
Later, Mr. Thennarasu honoured the philanthropists, who had contributed for the government schools in the district.
Collector V.K Shanmugam presided over the conference. School Education Secretary M. Kutralingam and School Education Director P. Perumalsamy were among those who participated.
M. Baskaran, Chief Education Officer, read the conference report.
K. Devarajan, Director, Primary Education proposed a vote of thanks.

ndia to develop unmanned combat aerial vehicle

India will soon embark on developing an indigenous unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) for surveillance, detection and destroying specific targets, a top defence official said Wednesday.
"We will soon embark on designing and developing an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, which will not only do surveillance, but will also help detect the target and destroy the identified object," V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, told reporters here.
An UCAV or 'combat drone' differs from ordinary UAVs as it is designed to deliver weapons. The pilotless vehicle can carry greater payloads and have wide range and manoeuvrability in the absence of a cockpit and associated equipment.
The ambitious project will be taken up by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bangalore with private industry participation.
"The controls of a combat drone will be rested with multiple command control centres. The centres can be geographically at different locations. Even if one centre becomes defunct, the drone can be controlled and guided by other centres," Saraswat, who recently took over as director general of the DRDO, said on the margins of a conference.
"The UCAV will work in a multi-layer manner for which ADE is developing the required technology, including sensors," Saraswat said after inaugurating the fifth national conference on 'NextGen IT for Indian Defence'.
The ADE is already developing a medium altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) codenamed Rustom for the three Indian defence services - army, air force and navy.
The MALE UAV is still in the experimental stage.
The first trial of the prototype, developed by Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd, resulted in a crash Nov 16 near Hosur in Krishnagiri district of western Tamil Nadu, about 40 km from here.
The Rustum UAV, with a wingspan of 20 metres and weighing 1,800 kg, has a maximum speed of 225 km per hour and can operate at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
"The Rustom UAV will be able to execute surveillance of the enemy territory up to a distance of 250km and carry a variety of cameras and radar for surveillance," Saraswat said.
The remote-controlled UAV took off from a private airstrip at Belagondapalli village on the outskirts of Bangalore. After hovering over the Taneja private airstrip for a few minutes, it lost direction and crashed onto an adjacent coconut farm, an ADE official said.
"The aerial vehicle was test-flown for research. The remote control device developed a snag and that led to the crash," the official added.

Credit plan document released

KRISHNAGIRI: Potential Linked Credit Plan for Krishnagiri district is fixed at Rs. 1,175.68 crore as against the estimated potential of Rs. 957.33 crore for the financial year 2010-11, projecting a growth rate of 22.8 per cent.
Collector V.K. Shanmugam released the plan document here on Tuesday. G. Muthappan, Assistant General Manager, Indian Bank, Dharmapuri Circle, received the first copy.
Of the total credit outlay, agriculture sector gets Rs. 686.65 crore including a crop loan of Rs. 447.32 crore and Rs. 239.33 crore for agricultural term credit for food security.