The Nation Newspaper

Tag: shortage

  • Coal shortage looms as Indian workers strike

    Coal shortage looms as Indian workers strike

    In one of the biggest direct industrial protests in recent times, over 500 000 coal workers across India went on a five-day strike as negotiations failed.

    Trade union representative said talks between the unions and government lasted for several hours yesterday, with discussions taking place until midnight, but unions said that the government officials had nothing to offer to reverse the “denationalisation of the coal sector”.

    The government, in turn, said that the trade unions were “adamant” on their stand.

    “Negotiations at the secretary level have failed. But we are open for discussions at the political level either with the Prime Minister or the Coal Minister,” Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation secretary general S Q Zama said after the failed talks.

    “We did our best to arrive at a solution but the coal secretary has its own limitations and around 350 000 workers of Coal India Limited (CIL) commenced their strike today,” CIL chairperson Sutirtha Bhattacharya said.

    Significantly, yesterday was the second day at the office for Bhattacharya after he took charge as chairperson of CIL.

    Government estimated about 75 per cent of the country’s daily coal production of around 1.5-million tonnes was affected by the strike.

    The direct industrial actions, the biggest in the country since railway workers’ went on strike in 1977, was to protest the proposed restructuring of CIL, divestment of government equity holding in the largest mining company and trade unions’ apprehensions of “denationalisation of the Indian coal sector” through the government’s recent liberalisation of coal mining with the proposed permitting of private investors into the sector.

    The strike impacted production at major government-owned and -managed coal mining companies like Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Neyveli Liginte Company Limited, as well as CIL, with the latter accounting for over 80 per cent of domestic coal supplies.

    The strike was being supported by all major trade unions representing coal mine workers in the country including, Indian National Trade Union Congress, Centre for Indian Trade Unions, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), All India Trade Union Congress and Hind Mazdoor Sangh. Ironically, BMS was the labour arm of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which headed the current Indian federal government in New Delhi.

  • Beef shortage looms in North

    Nigerians should expect  beef shortage following increasing  insecurity  in  the North, the Programme Coordinator, Farmers Development Union (FADU), Mr  Victor Olowe has  said.

    The shortage may hit the region if the government  does not protect  cattle farmers, he said.

    He said: “There is need for increased efforts to prevent the deterioration of the situation. A major determining consequence of this phenomenon is the rise in prices, which contributes to the households’ increasing vulnerability.

    “Serious consequences  could occur, when food items are in the depleted markets, because of the communities’incapacity to rebuild their stocks and cattle.”

    He  said the consequences are far more serious for the population, who have to deal with drop in  food production.

    According to him, the government needs  works on food insecurity and also in areas most hardly hit by consecutive droughts and low-yield harvests.

    Meanwhile, there are reports of   increasing wave of cattle rustling, across the north with  foodstuff and livestock supplies affected.

    A  report  said  if concerted effort is not made to address the malaise, the country might soon experience meat shortage, with its debilitating consequences on food security.

    Herdsmen in Adamawa State have reported loss of over 1,500 cattle to thieves in the last one year, costing millions of naira.The rising incidence of cattle theft has also continued unabated in some council areas of Katsina State has been a source of serious concern to residents.

    Frequent cases of cattle rustling occur in Safana, Faskari, Funtua, Batsari and Danmusa local governments of the state. Hundreds of cattle have been stolen by thieves who often invade communities and farm houses in the night.

    However, the incident is allegedly being perpetrated with the connivance of some locals. Some victims claimed that the cattle rustlers use charms to take the cows away.

    Cattle rustling has become a huge problem in Kaduna, threatening its peace and food security.

    A report  said cattle rustlers is  threatening the Fulani communities and their cows.

    Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Jibrin Maigwari, who said:  “We don’t know how many thousands of cattle have been stolen so far. The issue is that everywhere you go in the Emirate, you will find a casualty; someone’s herds of cattle were stolen, a wife or children raped and others even killed.”

  • Dean bemoans staff shortage

    The Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS), University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof Lenrie Aina, has identified dearth of academic staff, irregular admission processes and shortage of facilities as the major challenges facing the five-year-old faculty.

    He disclosed this at a press briefing with newsmen to unveil the programme lined up to mark the fifth anniversary of the faculty.

    Aina noted that some professionals the faculty would have employed as academic staff had been hijacked by the telecommunication and media industries with higher salaries.

    “Many graduates whom we could have employed as lecturers had opted to work in the telecommunication industries because of the higher salaries being offered by these firms,” he said.

    According to him, over 6,000 applicants yearly applied to study in the faculty, with the Department of Mass Communication having the highest number of candidates. He said the faculty could only admit a maximum of 200 students due to the shortage of academic staff and facilities.

    The Dean hoped that the faculty would expand its facilities with donations from corporate individuals and organisations during the anniversary celebrations.

    Speaking on the anniversary, Aina said the CIS faculty was designed to take full advantage of multidisciplinary interactions of the science and technologies of computing, information and communication, adding that its curricula had been designed to reflect the reality.

    He said the faculty had recorded remarkable achievements within a short period, stressing that the faculty spearheaded the development of courseware in the university, which according to him, was aimed at taking the institution to e-learning platform for course delivery.

    The Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS) was formally established via the decision of the university Senate at its 193rd (Special) meeting held on June 20, 2008. Part of the decisions in the meeting was the movement of department such as Computer Science from the Faculty of Science to CIS;

    The faculty comprised five departments including Computer Science, Mass Communication, Library and Information Sciences (LIS), Telecommunication Sciences (TCS) and Information and Communication Sciences (ICS).