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By refusing to take bribes, the Madurai collector has earned 18
transfers in 20 years, a modest house and bank balance and lots of
respect

On a hot summer afternoon, on Madurai’s busy main road, the district
collector, U. Sagayam, saw a young man talking on a cellphone while
riding a motorbike. He asked his driver to wave the man down, got down
from his car and meted out instant punishment: plant 10 saplings within
24 hours. Somewhat unconventional justice, some might say. But that’s
how Sagayam works.

‘Lanjam Thavirtthu, Nenjam Namartthu’ (Reject bribes, hold your head
high), says a board hanging above Sagayam’s chair in his modest office.
That’s the code he lives by, even if politicians are incensed they
cannot bend him their way-he’s been transferred 18 times in the last 20
years-and has made enemies of both superiors and subordinates. “I know I
sit under a dangerous slogan and probably alienate people,” he says.
“But I have been the same Sagayam from Day 1. Standing up against
corruption is not for a season. Nor is it a fad. It’s forever.”

Two years ago, as district collector of Namakkal, he voluntarily
declared his assets: a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in Madurai
worth Rs 9 lakh. Once, when his baby daughter, Yalini, who had breathing
problems, was suddenly taken ill, he did not have the Rs 5,000 needed
for admitting her to a private hospital. At that time he was deputy
commissioner (excise) in Coimbatore and there were 650 liquor licences
to be given out. The going bribe for each was rumoured to be Rs 10,000.

Sagayam started cleaning up Madurai the minute he landed here. The main
bus terminus at Mattuthavani looked more like a bazaar, with shops all
over the bus-shelters and no waiting place for passengers. Even a police
outpost had been turned into a shop. The system was well-oiled with
haftas to local politicians and policemen. Sagayam quickly went through
the rulebook, cited the relevant clauses and cleaned up the entire area.
But didn’t it hit poor shopkeepers who lost their livelihood? “A
violation is a violation,” says Sagayam, “but we will help them
rehabilitate.” Nageshwaran, a taxi-driver and one of Sagayam’s many
fans, says, “He’s strict and hasn’t taken even ten paise in bribe during
his career. He’s like the upright collectors they show in some films, a
real hero with integrity.”

Sagayam’s masters degrees in social work and law come in useful in his
role as an administrator. He knows the rulebooks in detail and is not
afraid of using them, however powerful the opponent. No wonder then that
Sagayam’s career is marked with the scars of countless battles.

When he was in Kanchipuram as revenue officer, he took on the sand
mafia, ordering them to stop dredging sand from the Palar riverbed.
Large-scale dredging had made the area flood-prone. The mafia sent goons
to assault Sagayam, but he did not budge and would not take back the
order. He also took on a mighty soft-drink mnc when a consumer showed
him a bottle with dirt floating in it. He sealed the bottling unit and
banned the sale of the soft drink in the city. In Chennai, he locked
horns with a restaurant chain and recovered four acres valued at some Rs
200 crore.

Given such credentials, it wasn’t surprising for him to be picked by the
Election Commission to oversee elections in Madurai, as famous for its
temples as its political gods. During the last polls, Sagayam took on
M.K. Azhagiri, the local MP and son of former CM and DMK supremo M.
Karunanidhi. He conducted voter awareness campaigns in colleges; the DMK
petitioned the court twice, seeking to end what it said was an attempt
to influence voters, but the court demurred.

Sagayam’s wife Vimala has stood by him all these years but she was
rattled by some of the threats during the elections. “He always says if
you are right, nobody can hurt you,” she says. “But sometimes it becomes
difficult.”

Sagayam takes a hands-on approach to his work. He holds a Monday ‘durbar’,
at which anyone can meet him with their complaints. During tours of the
district for review meetings and inspections, he will suddenly stop a
school bus to talk to children or duck into a school to take a class.
When students tell him they want to be IAS or IPS officers, he asks, “It’s
all well to say now that you’ll be honest, but will you remain unbending
about not taking bribes throughout your career?”

Some months back, while driving to a village, he found a 92-year-old
woman cleaning rice. She said she had to work in order to eat. He
immediately sanctioned Rs 1,000 as old-age pension for her. When
60-year-old Vellamma met him during a tour of Uthappanaikkanoor village
this week and asked him to grant her a pension, he said, “I can do that.
But do you want me to send your son to jail too-for abandoning you?” He
said it with a smile, as a joke, but he has in fact taken action against
children who don’t take care of their aging parents.

“I believe, as Mahatma Gandhi said, that India lives in her villages,”
says Sagayam, who also idolises Subhash Chandra Bose. His years as a
collector-he has slept overnight in village schools many times-have
convinced him to better the lot of villagers by strengthening the
village administrative officer (VAO) system. Many VAOs have never
visited villages and often stay miles away from where they should be, in
cities. In Namakkal, his action against errant VAOs had them ganging up
with politicians to get him transferred. Over 5,000 villagers protested,
saying they wouldn’t let Sagayam go. The politicians had to retreat.

Sagayam says he learnt honesty on his mother’s knees. He is the youngest
of four sons of a farmer from Pudukottai. “Our adjoining field had mango
trees and my friends and I would pick the fallen fruit,” he says. “But
my mother made me throw the mangoes away, saying I should enjoy only
what is mine.” Now his daughter Yalini wants to become a collector. When
she has an argument with her brother Arun, she asks her father, “Is he
really your son? He just told a lie!” Both of them are proud of their
father. Recently, after a long time, the Sagayam family went on a
vacation to Kullu in Himachal Pradesh. While visiting a gurudwara, a
stranger came up to their father and asked him, “Aren’t you IAS officer
Mr Sagayam?” Yalini and Arun have not stopped beaming.

–
One Man with courage is a Majority

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But, people are still reluctant to buy these hybrid vehicles and are worried whether these comparatively expensive vehicles will actually pay off ??

In actual sense the answer to this question depends upon what you buy and how you drive. The roads do make slight difference too.
First of all the cost of the hybrid cars is largely affected by the sort of system it is fitted with. Simply, a Honda Insight (fitted with a mild system) will cost far less than a highly luxurious sedan from Lexus.

When talking about the milege the non-hybrid counterparts will always provide a less mileage than a hybrid counterpart. To stick to an example, a Ford Escape 2009 (hybrid) provides a mileage of about 34miles per gallon on the highway which when compared to the 28 miles per gallon, provided by the non-hybrid model.

But still lest check out the pros and cons of the hybrid cars and see whether these hybrids really help reduce the expenditure or not?

Hybrid cars do reduce the gas consumption. If you are a person who seldom drives on the highway and is more used to the city roads then the hybrid system can save you thousands of dollars in an year and few dollars daily.

But for the people who regularly drive on the highway might not feel the difference. They might not appreciate the savings made by a hybrid car.

The hybrid engines re-power the battery on stopping and thus the local commuters can avail the maximum benefit by purchasing the hybrid cars.

But one should never forget the fact that these hybrid cars will be your contribution towards the nature.

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Toshiba recently entered the notebook market, but its fine products represent that it is very much familiar with small. The NB205-N310 topped all lists as soon as it entered the market. The notebook besides providing the longest battery life till date, as was promised, also provides some of the well brought out designs in the market.

The features with NB205-N310, deliver the work they are supposed to, but with a far more precision.

The battery life, as was estimated, is 9 hours 30 mins only. This is the longest battery span, any notebook has ever had. Thus this feature alone makes it worth owning. But, my friends, this is just a glimpse of NB205-N310. By the time you finish this post, I am sure you would have made your mind to buy this piece.

If you have never had a finger massage, you can try one at the stunning keyboard of NB205-N310. The keys are designed are chiclet-sized and have cutout keys, which are large enough to provide the ultimate comfort your fingers demand while tying. The touchpad is tough comparatively smaller.
This thoughtful design and structure, makes this the best notebook mousepad ever. The laptop also has the burly mouse buttons at the southern edge and thus reducing the stress on hands while working.

The NB205-N310 is armed with three USB-hub ports, a Webcam, ethernet, a VGA out, SDHC card reader, headphone and microphone. Also a wireless WAN (optional).

As already mentioned this Toshiba notebook brings in a lot of well experimented designs. The color reproduction is normal and sufficient to support 1024 by 600 pixels. It has a 10.1 inch lustrous screen. Thus, producing sharp pictures. These features provide the a style to NB205-N310, which adores both the brand’s and bearer’s name.

At the end, it has an Internet accelerator which provides the necessary protection to the hard drive in case of falls.

These features certainly make this new Toshiba product a healthy and cheap fish for the IT department officials.
There is a lot more for a Toshiba fan, to explore in this device.

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This new portable Thinkpad delivers you a complete performance, great battery backup and a very comfortable keyboard to work with.

X200 is weaponed with the latest Centrino 2 processor. This Lenovo product has a magnificent ability of jumping-off tall workloads at a single go. The looks though are a bit mild and traditional. The battery life is extraordinary and delivers a kind of backup

which every user dreams of. But, the part which I love the most is its huge keyboard.

My favourite, keyboard, has been designed similar to the earlier T series keyboard. It has all the features from the T series keyboard, including the ThinkVantage Button, which offers a one-touch access to the onboard user manual as well as to recovery, security, and other crucial utilities.

It beats all its previous competitors, including the X61.

The think-pad X200 is a far better choice than X61, and satisfy all the requirements, comparatively lighter weight, bigger keyboard, an easy-to-read 1280-by-800-pixel resolution, thus making reading while travelling a comfortable task. The screens of both the thinkpads‘ is same in size, the X61 lacks an integrated web cam, which lends X200 an interactive nature.

This Lenovo unit is armed with :

• 2GB RAM
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400
• Integrated Video graphics

The Lenovo this time has extended the battery life, by providing a better choices, the three choices provided by the

company is topped by the nine-cell battery. This battery is capable of doubling the battery backup.

More higher the model of the battery, the more it is heavier.

This ultra-portable unit lacks an internal drive bay. But, ofcourse the place is well utilized by providing a lot of new features which is a far-off dream for most of the models, the list includes:

1. three USB ports
2. microphone and headphone ports
3. a VGA port
4. an ethernet connection
5. a five-in-one memory card or a SD card slot (optional)

Along with all these stomach filling features, the X200 has a tough base of magnesium alloy, a solid state hard disk upto 64 GB (optional).The hard drive is crash proof. A complete range of wireless communications options are built in and include the 802.11n

WI-Fi, WWAN, GPS and Bluetooth.

The X200 has two additional memory slots, situated in the easy to use bottom compartment.

Thus, any future upgrading is as simple as eating a pizza.

Lenovo is expected to present a tablet version of X200, later this year. Till then, if you have a dearth of some smart machine at your place, then this will fill the space aptly.

I guess this one is the smartest of all.

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New Delhi, July 17 Noting that India has prepared an action plan and set up eight missions to fight climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the country is willing to do more if there are “credible arrangements” to provide more financial support and technology from developed nations.

Making a statement in Parliament, he said the problem of climate change cannot be addressed by “perpetuating the poverty” of developing countries.

“As a responsible member of the international community, I conveyed to the G-8 and G-5 countries that we recognise our obligation to preserve and protect our environment,” Singh said while apprising both Houses of Parliament about his participation at the Summit meeting of the two groupings in L’Aquila in Italy last week.

He said he had presented at these Summits India’s action plan on climate change and the eight national missions set up in this regard.

(PTI)

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Mumbai, July 18 “I am happy to see you all,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today told staffers of the Taj and Oberoi hotels who had survived the 26/11 terror attacks and risked their lives to save the guests.

Clinton, who is staying at the Tower Wing of the Taj Hotel to express solidarity with the victims of the Mumbai terror attack on November 26 last, began her day by signing the remembrance book for victims of the terror strike.

Meeting with some staffers of the Taj and Oberoi hotels, Clinton said she was “deeply touched” to meet them.

The terror strikes had left 183 people dead. Among the 22 foreigners killed were five Americans.

The group was led by general manager Karambir Kang, who lost his wife and two sons in the terror strike.(PTI)

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Have a quick look at the video above and design your own Snorricam.

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Hope he/she listens to my request… Till then just take a chill-pic session….

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Jazz might become your favorite four wheeler…. so just have the first glimpse of this fabulous car and see if it strikes you or not….!!!! Good luck !!!

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The new BMW 1 Series is expected to go on sale in 2011, with the five-door hatch the first model on sale. It will be followed by a three-door, coupe and convertible, while performance M versions and a mini-MPV derivative have also been mooted.

Although the car ran in the much used, swirl-based disguise employed by BMW, it is possible to make out many of the new BWM 1 Series’ new lines.

The design doesn’t appear to have deviated dramatically from the current model, although standout features include a redesigned front end, with the bigger and more upright kidney grilles taking styling cues from the BMW 5 Series GT.

The spy photographer also reported that the test mule is wider and longer than the current car, with reports suggesting that particular attention has been paid to opening up the rear passenger space, which has been criticised on the current model.

There’s no news on what engines will form the line-up, although rumours suggest a series of turbocharged units ranging in size from 1.4-3.0 litres will be used.

The smaller four-cylinder units are likely to be the engines co-developed by BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroen, and already used in the Mini Cooper to improve economy without sacrificing performance.

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