Railway Ministry approves regularisation of Vijayapura-Mangaluru train
Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta said that the long-pending demand to regularise the Vijayapura–Mangaluru train has been fulfilled, much to the relief of passengers between the two cities. "This move will benefit patients from North Karnataka seeking medical care in Mangaluru, students pursuing education in coastal districts, and regular passengers. Much gratitude to our Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of State for Railways V Somanna for enabling this," Capt Chowta wrote on X.
The Ministry stated in a notification dated June 27 that it approved the proposal of South West Railways for regularisation of 07377/07378 Vijayapura – Mangaluru Central Special as 17377/17378 Vijayapura – Mangaluru Central Express. "The above regularisation may be given effect from an early convenient date," the Ministry stated.
Passengers had to pay enhanced fares on the Special (train on demand) services compared to the regular services.
As per the June 27 notification, the departure timing of Train No. 17378 is 4.45 pm from Mangaluru Central and will arrive in Vijayapura at 11.15 am. Meanwhile, Train No. 17377, Vijayapura-Mangaluru Central Express, leaves Vijayapura at 3 pm to reach Mangaluru Central at 9.50 am.
The Vijayapura - Mangaluru Junction train was introduced in November 2019, and later the special trains were cancelled during the Covid-19 pandemic.
After the restoration of the services from December 1, 2021, the route was extended to Mangaluru Central from April 2024.
The trains will have stoppages at Basavana Bagewadi Road, Alamatti, Bagalkot, Guledagudda Road, Badami, Hole Alur, Mallapur, Gadag, Annigeri, Hubballi, Yalvigi, Haveri, Byadgi, Ranibennur, Harihar, Davangere, Chikjajur, Birur, Kadur, Arsikere, Hassan, Sakleshpur, Subrahmanya Road, Kabaka Puttur, Bantwal, and Mangaluru Junction.
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The Hindu
5 hours ago
- The Hindu
The weight of being a mango man
Rao Anwar, 40, and Rao Ahsan, 36, are two farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district who are trying their luck at preserving their grandfather's mango orchard, which they say is over 100 years old. Anwar has a graduate degree and Ahsan an MBA. Ahsan was working in Punjab with the Milk Marketing Federation until just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He joined the family vocation hoping that mangoes, one of the most popular fruits in the world, would help him survive. But things were not as easy as he imagined. The Raos took over the orchard about 10 years ago from their father. According to them, this year, 'the rate was much lower than last year and consumption was also poor'. They are fourth-generation horticulturists from the district known for the sweetest Chausa, Dasheri, and Langda. Mangoes are indigenous to India. One reason for the diminishing demand could be the look and taste of the mangoes now, Ahsan says. 'Earlier, mangoes were bright, tasty, and sweet. Now that taste is missing, probably because of the overuse of pesticides and chemicals,' he says. The mango season, which once extended through September, is now shorter. Saharanpur is the second-largest mango producing district in the State. In 2022-23, U.P. had 3.19 lakh hectares of mango orchards and produced 45.78 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes. The cluster with the highest yield in the State is the Malihabadi belt, including Lucknow, Unnao, and Sitapur; the second cluster is western U.P., comprising Saharanpur, Bijnor, Meerut, Amroha, and Bulandshahr. Saharanpur has about 27,000 hectares of orchards and produces about 2.6 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes every year with an average yield of 18 tonnes per hectare. The Raos complain that they 'are getting just ₹8-₹10 for a kg of Dasheri'. Another challenge is that for Chausa, they must bag the fruit to prevent blackening of its skin during the rains. 'Each bag costs ₹3.5 and the labour cost to cover each mango is ₹1.5. The retail price of Chausa for consumers today is ₹150. Farmers get less than ₹50. Traders are fixing the price without considering all these factors,' Ahsan says. The problems, they say, began over a decade ago and reached their peak during COVID-19. Now, farmers are considering their options. The cost of growing a mango About 12 years ago, farmers started using a pesticide containing the chemical paclobutrazol, a plant growth regulator. 'We were told that it would create a festival of fruits. No one informed us about its side effects. We got output. Trees that used to produce 100 mangoes started giving 300 mangoes. But after 6-7 years, we realised that the taste and size of the mangoes are compromised. Plants are now addicted to this chemical. Unless we use it, they will not yield,' says Ahsan. Kharbuza daal kaa achha hota hai, aam paal ke achha hota he: this is a popular belief in Saharanpur, meaning watermelons will be good if they are ripened on their own and mangoes taste better if they are ripened artificially. Ripening mangoes using calcium carbide is par for the course here. This overuse has resulted in the decrease of exports and consumers shifting to organic products. But for farmers to shift to organic production will take at least 10 years. Farmers are instead shifting to poplar tree plantations, replacing mango orchards. Poplars are used in the plywood and wooden board industries, and the region has a lot of those units. Saharanpur is a green belt. Bagh baani (orchard management) is the major source of income here. The soil is sandy and orchards do well. This district borders Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh. The area, called the Doab (two rivers), is sandwiched between the Yamuna and the Ganga. Traditionally, farmers grow varieties such as Gulab Jamun, Dasheri, Langda, Chausa, Malda, and Rataul. Mangoes from here go mostly to Ludhiana and Delhi. 'My grandfather had told me when we were children that it was very difficult to maintain a mango tree due to the scarcity of water,' Ahsan says. The irrigation system had not developed by then. 'Out of 20 trees, only two used to survive. The situation changed with the arrival of grafting in the 70s,' he adds. Lakshmi Chand, 55, has been working for more than 30 years in the Raos' orchard. He takes care of the plants and packs the mangoes at the time of harvest for a daily wage, though he has been around since their grandfather owned the land. 'Maintaining a tree is difficult. None of my (four) children do this work,' Chand says. Fifteen years ago, the Raos would get ₹15 for a kg of Dasheri. 'If we add inflation, it should have been at least ₹40 per kg. The input cost has increased. We spend about ₹2,000-₹3,000 just on pesticides in a bigha (.6 acres) of orchard. Traders are bullies,' Ahsan says, adding that the government should ensure a good rate for their crops. 'We need food processing industries here. We need cold storage.' Mangoes of old Haji Iqbal, who owns Rana Fruit Company in Saharanpur district's Mirzapur, has been a trader since 1991. He also manages orchards on contract and owns one too. He says traders are facing big losses too. He remembers the time, about a decade ago, when diseases were minimal. 'When I started trading, mangoes were bigger and beautiful. Now, they start ripening earlier and are not sweet. Chausa looks good, but if you slice it, it doesn't look or taste the same,' he says, blaming the overuse of pesticides. When mangoes ripened naturally, the crop in Saharanpur would be ready to harvest 15 to 30 days after the Malihabadi belt. But Iqbal says now the harvest time across U.P. is almost the same. 'Earlier, we used to see good production in alternate years. Now, Cultar (a brand of paclobutrazol made by the Swedish company Syngenta) has increased production, but has impacted taste,' he says, adding that COVID-19 changed the market dynamics. Mehmood Hasan, another trader, too believes that Cultar has destroyed the mango market. 'Cultar should be regulated,' he says. Qazi Nadeem Akhtar is the shehr qazi of Saharanpur, who takes care of all the religious responsibilities of the Muslim community in the area. He is also a bridge between the administration and the community, and himself owns orchards. 'The best part of Saharanpur is that when the rest of India stops producing mangoes, we can give you mangoes till September 15,' Akhtar says. He adds that they have been growing the same varieties for too long and some research needs to go into developing new strains. He also wishes that there had been cooperatives in the area. 'One and a half million people here are dependent on agriculture. Out of this, a few hundred thousand people have mango orchards. If we come together, we can get substantial help from the government,' he says. 'Cooperatives can do away with contractors and farmers can decide the value of what they produce,' he says. Advocating for scientific use In the traditional way of growing a mango tree, it takes 20-25 years for it to begin producing mangoes. 'Sowing a tree is sacred and protecting it is another pious process. We were taught that we don't destroy a tree even in a war,' Akhtar says. He uses this example to say that orchards are now run more as businesses. Rao Talha is a member of the Progressive Farmers Club, which the Horticulture Department started in Saharanpur to push for science-backed farming, which is against the overuse of any product. 'Up to 95% of the orchards are given out on contract now. That is a big problem. I started an online platform in 2022 to reach out to customers directly. I was able to get a very good price for all the varieties, but I could not scale it up. I used to get a lot of reorders. Customers were happy,' Talha says. He now sells via Facebook and WhatsApp. That year, he began sending mangoes from his orchard for Lucknow's Aam Utsav, one of the biggest competitions for mango farmers in north India. The Uttar Pradesh government organises it and the Chief Minister attends every year. 'My mangoes came first in 2022, 2023, and 2024. This year, the dates were changed and we could not get that colour and taste for our mangoes,' he says, adding that he has been managing orchards since he was in college. He joined a corporate job and ran businesses in between. He came back to the field during the COVID-19 lockdown. Talha says bagging has helped in maintaining the regular taste of the mangoes. As a member of the Progressive Farmers Club, he is in constant touch with the 95-year-old research organisation, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). He sends pictures to scientists in ICAR if there are problems in his orchard. 'They give correct advice,' he says. Managing mango farming Pesticide-based farming is money-heavy. 'The amount you spend increases every year, but if you adopt the latest techniques, things will change,' Talha says. He talks about mango varieties developed by the ICAR, such as Arunima, Arunika, and Ambika. 'I had some space in between my mango trees. I planted a new orchard after my college studies in 2001. That orchard is ready now with these new varieties that are dwarf varieties bearing fruits every year. They can be planted in much less space. The yield is two to three times more than traditional varieties. I have planted the American varieties Tommy Atkins and Sensation this year,' he says. I.K. Kishwaha, who holds a PhD in plant pathology and is a senior scientist in charge of the ICAR-driven Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Saharanpur, says production and cultivation of Chausa is the highest among the varieties. The biggest problem, he says, is how the farms are managed. As they are run by contractors and not farmers, there is the injudicious use of insecticides, pesticides, and fertilizers, he says. 'Some of the issues cannot be solved, but have to be managed,' he says, referring to the careful use of pesticides. He too acknowledges that the overuse of plant growth regulators is an issue. 'Mostly contractors push this medicine. Cultar has resulted in the drying of trees and crops. We have asked farmers to prepare their orchards and use contractors to harvest, not manage the orchards. Now, only 50% of the farmers use contractors to manage their orchards. Earlier, it was 95%,' he says, explaining how the scientists' campaign went from village to village. 'We explained to them how managing their orchards on their own will help the trees,' he says. Gampal Singh, Saharanpur's district horticulture officer, echoes Kishwaha. He adds that the 'government gives subsidies up to ₹30,000 per hectare for bagging'. Chowdhury Gajendra Singh, a 66-year-old farmer from the district, has had 80 bighas of orchard land for the past 55 years. 'My father planted this, but if I get permission, I will plant poplars instead. Poplars are so easy to manage and farmers are getting good prices too. I have started hating mango orchards,' he says. Edited by Sunalini Mathew
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Why are US classrooms emptying? Inside the biggest public school enrollment decline in decades
Why are US classrooms emptying? Across the United States, classrooms are looking emptier than they have in decades. Between fall 2019 and fall 2023, public school enrollment dropped from 50.8 million students to 49.5 million. That's a staggering loss of more than 1.2 million children in just four years—a 2.5% decline. And this isn't a temporary blip caused by COVID-19. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), enrollment is projected to fall below 47 million by 2031. As The 74 reports, this is one of the most significant shifts in the American education landscape in recent history. Why is this happening? The pandemic accelerated a trend that had already started in some communities. But the roots go deeper—straight into America's demographic realities. First, the US birthrate has dropped to historic lows, sitting under 1.6 children per woman. This means fewer kindergartners are entering the system every year. Add to that immigration restrictions in recent years, which have curbed the arrival of new families and students. Then there's domestic migration. Families are moving—often away from expensive coastal states to more affordable regions. High housing costs and taxes have pushed many to leave states like California and New York, redistributing students unevenly across the country. The youngest grades are shrinking fastest One of the most striking findings? The youngest learners are missing. Kindergarten enrollment alone fell nearly 6% between 2019 and 2023. Elementary schools saw a 4% drop, and middle schools plunged 6%, with sixth grade seeing the sharpest decline of 7%, according to The 74 . Oddly enough, high school enrollment actually grew slightly—by about 2%. This suggests that while older students stayed in the system, younger cohorts are simply smaller, a trend that will echo through the education pipeline for years to come. Racial and ethnic patterns: Who is leaving? The decline isn't equal across all student groups. White students experienced the most dramatic fall—nearly 2 million fewer, an 8% decline in just four years, and a 13% drop since 2014. Black student enrollment dipped by around 250,000 (3%). On the other hand, Hispanic and Asian enrollments are still growing, but at a much slower pace compared to the pre-pandemic years. These shifts are reshaping the cultural makeup of American classrooms, The 74 notes. Where are the losses hitting hardest? Geography tells its own story. Forty-one states lost students between 2019 and 2023. California saw the biggest numeric drop—325,000 students gone. West Virginia is on track for the steepest proportional decline, expected to hit 18%. Urban districts, which once thrived, are now bearing the brunt. Take Los Angeles Unified School District, where enrollment in high-poverty schools fell by as much as 15% post-pandemic, according to The 74 . The fallout: Funding cuts and school closures Why does this matter so much? Because in the US, school funding is tied directly to enrollment. Fewer students mean less money—and that's already forcing tough decisions. Districts are slashing arts programs, electives, and mental health services. Teachers are being laid off. In rural areas, entire schools are shutting down, leaving children with longer commutes and communities with fewer resources. What happens next? Experts say districts will have to get creative. That could mean sharing staff between schools, leasing out empty classrooms, or reimagining how schools operate entirely. Some districts are exploring partnerships with community organisations to keep buildings open and vibrant even as enrollment declines. But one thing is clear: this is more than just a numbers problem. It's about equity, opportunity, and the future of public education in America. As The 74 warns, the ripple effects of today's enrollment decline will shape schools—and communities—for decades to come. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Pedestrians forced on to roads while footpaths overrun by encroachments
Jaipur: Footpaths were once meant for pedestrians but now they're claimed by stalls, huts and other unauthorised structures. In Jaipur, despite repeated claims by both the municipal corporations to clear encroachments, the ground reality paints a completely different picture. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now From local markets to key city junctions, footpaths have been overtaken by shop extensions, bamboo-and-plastic stalls and makeshift homes, leaving citizens with no option but to risk walking on the roads. In areas like B2 Bypass and Jhalana, encroachment has gone beyond mere vendor space. Temporary stalls line the footpaths, selling everything from furniture to toys. Behind these shops, entire families have constructed temporary homes using plastic, bamboo and tarpaulin sheets. Ramesh, a toy-seller, says, "We used to sit near Mansarovar Metro Station. After we were removed from there, we shifted here. We don't have permanent shelter. We know we can be evicted from here too any time. That's why we don't build permanent homes." Just off the RTO office in Jhalana, a whole lane of footpath has become a settlement for families who have lived there since 2001. These daily-wage labourers were initially brought in for govt construction work and have stayed ever since, hoping to one day receive the permanent houses they were promised. Rama Devi, a resident, recalls, "We were brought here for building work back in 2001. Since then, we've stayed here. Many people came, took photos and videos, but no one ever helped us. We even survived through the Covid pandemic right here." This isn't a phenomenon limited to low-income settlements. Encroachment is rampant in upscale markets like Raja Park, Adarsh Nagar and around Ram Mandir Cinema. Shopkeepers openly use the footpaths to display goods, some even placing chairs and tables outside their stores. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now One shopkeeper said, "If I move my products inside, customers won't even know what I'm selling. Keeping items outside is essential for visibility and business. " At Ashok Chowk in Adarsh Nagar, large numbers of LPG cylinders are stored on the pavement. These belong to well-known agencies like Indian Oil and are kept out in the open to make doorstep delivery "easier." Vinod Saini, who runs a nearby juice shop, says, "The agency's delivery boys have been doing this for over two years. Once a cylinder got stolen from the opposite footpath, so they started keeping them near our shop. Some are full, some empty, but all of it is risky." Even around the Ram Mandir Cinema area, footpaths have essentially disappeared under permanent shop structures and roadside café-like setups. Yet, no concrete solution has emerged from the civic authorities. Meetings are held, action plans are announced but little changes on the ground.
