87% of Delhi's Power Meters are overcharging: Says Delhi Govt. Inspection Report

Times of India - 23/3/09

In a shocking admission, a Delhi government inspection report has concluded that nearly 90% of electricity meters checked in the national Capital were overcharging, running 2.5% higher than the error margin limit.

In a recent communication to the Centre, the power department said, “Since 87% meters have been found to be operating on the plus side, it has given undue financial gains to discoms as there are over two million connections in Delhi.”

The report also hinted at a possible nexus in high places since private distribution companies had been allowed to operate without any action being initiated against them despite several complaints. The report said, “It does not appear to have happened unintentionally.”

The tests found that more than 1,100 of the 1,300 meters checked had been overcharging by as much as 2.5% more than the bill amount.

The meters belonged to all three private discoms — BRPL, NDPL and BYPL — distributing power in the national capital. The report suggested that “the accuracy limit of electronic meters must be brought down from +-2.5% to +-0.5% so that consumers are not made to pay for power which they do not actually consume”.

The margin of error was kept upto +-2.5% when consumers had old mechanical meters. However, when private companies came into the picture, they sought to introduce electronic meters on the ground that such a step would bring down the margin of error to nil.

But not only have electronic meters failed to erase errors, the test checks have shown that they functioned on the higher side, causing inflated bills for over two million consumers.

The only school in Amlasole (West Bengal) was built by sex workers

Hindustan Times - 20/3/09

Piyali is a commercial sex worker in India’s biggest red light district, Sonagachi in Kolkata. She is also the guardian angel of a small village of 300 nomadic tribals in Amlasole, a hilltop village about 260 kilometres to the southwest. Piyali (name changed) and a few of her friends, all commercial sex workers, first decided to help out at Amlasole after they read about the starvation deaths there.

Through an NGO they set up in Kolkata 14 years ago — called Durbar (Irrepressible, in Bengali) — they now run a school and a vocational training centre in Amlasole.

In a state where thousands of crores are pouring in as foreign investments and massive special economic zones are being created by a Left Front government that champions communism and equal opportunity, these are the only such facilities with a 20-kilometre radius.

The Sabar and Munda tribes who live here depend on the forests for food — they do not farm or rear livestock but survive mainly on wild potatoes. In 2003, the local police barred them from entering the forests surrounding their village, claiming they were helping transport arms, ammunition and supplies for Maoists in this Naxal-infested area. Within months, seven people had died of starvation.

As news of the deaths spread, a few local politicians visited the village and promised aid. Many of them, including local legislator Chunibala Hansda, had never been to the village before.None of them returned — except Piyali’s group.

“The nearest high school is in Belpahari, 23 kilometres away says Prabhas Munda, a ,” teacher at Beda Bhenge. “Till five years ago, villagers had to travel 15 kilometres to buy salt and cooking oil.” Now, 46 Sabar children are getting free education, food and clothes at the school. Young women are often taken to Kolkata in batches for vocational training.

A few have even got jobs making handmade mats and ropes in the metropolis. “We started with a fund of Rs 1 lakh,” says Mahasweta Mukherjee, Durbar’s liaison officer. “Since then, we have set up a school called Beda Bhenge (Breaking Fences, in Bengali) and the Sonagachi Training and Research Institute for Women.” The sex workers collect up Rs 10,000 every month for the children’s school uniforms, study material and mid-day meals.

For the 380 residents of the village, where the literacy rate is in the single digits and there was no motorable road till last year, Durbar has opened the doors to the world. The only time they see any government officials, they say, is when the police rush into the village to arrest suspected Naxal collaborators. “What’s the point of voting?” says Pakhi Sabar, whose husband and daughter died of starvation. “The officials came and disappear again. Piyali is the only one who returns.”

"We are in love with this Gandhi": Shiv Sena

Times of India - 18/3/09

While the BJP is keen to keep Varun Gandhi at a safe distance, the Shiv Sena has backed the great grandson of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for his pro-Hindutva views.

Endorsing Varun’s election speech, Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ said the young BJP leader has embers of Hindutva burning in his heart. ‘‘Varun is of a tender age. The BJP should not disown him. He is a different Gandhi. While one Gandhi asked Hindus to offer their second cheek to Muslims, Varun says Hindus should retaliate. We are in love with this second Gandhi,’’ said an editorial in ‘Saamna’ on Wednesday.

The BJP may find the ‘Saamna’ leader comment more embarrassing that Varun’s rhetoric. Bal Thackeray is the editor of ‘Saamna’.

The 'High' School: Students are supposed to enter this Ghaziabad school through a liquor shop

Hindustan Times - 16/3/09

The school set up by the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) of the Central Government in Nandgram, Ghaziabad, is a special one. The entrance to the premises of this school is through a licensed liquor shop and has its canteen at the entrance.The school premises also doubles up as a makeshift bar and brawls are not too uncommon here.

The school has 50 children, including 17 girls, and classes from 1 to 5. Lessons or not, the students do know the names of liquor brands sold here and some of them have also started eating gutkha, which contains tobacco and betel nut.

The children have had their brushes with the customers at this shop too. “These people misbehave with the girls. The girls’ toilet was broken during a brawl. We use open spaces to relieve ourselves,” said Babli Rani, a student of Class V .

The lone handpump, which is the only source of water here, is frequented by both the schoolchildren and drunk men. People frequently the shop can also be seen loitering around in the ground with their drinks. “They smell foul and beat us like animals when we go to drink water. They beat my brother some time ago,” said Abid Khan, a student of this school.

Schoolteacher Sudha Pandey said: “We are worried about the safety of the girls and ensure that everyone leaves the premises safely after the school. NCLP Project Director, M.K. Joshi, visited the school on Republic Day and knows about the problem.” Bhagirath Sewa Sansthan, the society that is running seven such schools, relates selection of premises to shortage of funds. “Our payments are pending since April 2008 from the project director’s office. So, we had to shift here. We have reminded the authorities about the matter several times but they also deny having funds,” said Amitabh Shukla, director of the society .

A teacher also said most children, under this scheme, were to be paid Rs 100 per month after joining school, but could not be paid due to shortage of funds.

Ghaziabad District Magistrate Mrityunjaya Narayan said action would be taken against the erring officials and inquiry would be initiated to find out the reason behind selection of the premises. NCLP Project Director M.K. Joshi was not available for comments.

RTI: Right to Insanity??? - Cops demand Rs 78,927 to answer RTI application on missing kids

Times of India - 15/3/09

How much could asking for information on missing children under the RTI Act possibly cost? Well, if the questions are addressed to Delhi Police, it could be as high as Rs 78,927. That’s exactly how the office of DCP (southeast) responded to an application filed by the NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), seeking details of Delhi’s missing children (2006-08).

In a reply to the BBA application, the DCP’s office said, ‘‘We have to suspend our regular work in order to furnish the requisite information sought by you for which considerable manpower will be utilised/diverted to discern this information. Hence, as per provisions of Sec 7(3)(a) of RTI Act, 2005, the requisite details/information can be provided on payment.’’

The letter then provides the project’s financial details. For instance, one head constable each from 15 police stations in the district would work for three days at the rate of Rs 840 per day costing Rs 37,800. Similarly, one constable each from the 15 police stations working for the same would cost another Rs 36,945. Similar charges for the sub-inspector associated with the work for three days adds another Rs 4,182 to the cost.

Interestingly, Rakesh Sengar of BBA, points out that other police districts such as northeast and west have offered information on the same without asking for any legwork money as done by the southeast police.

This tiny police station in Imphal has an Indian women's dream team

Times of India - 15/3/09

Imphal-795 001. This pincode in the Manipuri capital has a tiny police station that has a unique staff line-up. Six international women sports stars work there together. Four policewomen stand to attention before their boss, MC Mary Kom, DSP at the Bapupara Colony station and four times world boxing champion. The four constables are champions in their own right. Each is a football international. They are the backbone of the little-known Indian women’s National team.

The police station’s unique line-up figures in the constables’ conversation on the eve of the final against Bengal here in this Tamil Nadu mining town, as they look for a record 13th title in the National championships. Top scorer Tababi Devi says, “I know Mary Kom and we run into each other whenever I am reporting for duty. We don’t talk much about sport though”.

Alongside Tabebi on the football field are state team captain Bem Bem, Thoi Devi and Geetharani Chanu. All, are workmates from Imphal. The unique line-up is seen to underline the extent to which sport can empower women in a conflict-hit region and make history.

BJP attacks Charlie Chaplin's statue: Claims 'Christian' Chaplin's statue will hurt Hindu feelings

Times of India - 15/3/09

The last laugh may be on Charlie Chaplin, cinema’s funny man who mocked prejudice and fascism. Left-wing and suspected of communist sympathies, Chaplin was called many things in his lifetime, but ‘Christian’ wasn’t one of them. But the new tag comes courtesy BJP activists in Baindur, near Udupi. They have blocked installation of Chaplin’s statue saying it would hurt Hindu sentiment.

The statue was being installed by director Hemant Hegde as he prepared to shoot the song sequence of his new movie ‘Housefull’. On Friday, local BJP leader Suresh Batwadi stopped the film unit from going ahead with the project, claiming the land on which the statue was to be installed belonged to the Someshwara temple and the crew didn’t have the requisite permission.

Hegde said he had obtained permission and discussed the shoot with officials. ‘‘I had apprised the gram panchayat and Udipi deputy commissioner. The BJP activists questioned me on why I was not installing Vivekananda’s statue,’’ he said. He said he’s shifting the shoot elsewhere.

Condemnation poured in from artistes but local authorities said they couldn’t do anything about the matter as ‘‘no complaint (had been) registered’’.

The government is backing the protesters. Home minister V S Acharya, who is in Udupi, told STOI the locals have every right to express concern. He dismissed reports that BJP workers had objected because Chaplin was a ‘‘Christian, and not Indian’’. He insisted, ‘‘It is all fabrication, and a communal colour is being given to it. The local people have valid objections that a statue of 67 feet of a permanent nature cannot be established.’’ He also claimed permission had not been obtained.

But the head of police had a different take on the issue. “It is near a temple, the local people are against installing a Chaplin statue and instead want a statue of Vivekananda.”

80 yrs since ban, 45% of girls still married off before 18. 48% of them get pregnant before attaining majority

Times of India - 11/3/09

22.6% girls married before 16, while 2.6% wedded before 13
48.4% of married girls have a child before they turn 18
37% of them did not use contraception before first baby
They are seven times likelier to have more than three children
Three times likelier to have a child again in less than 24 months
They are also nearly 50% likelier to have an abortion

Laws banning child marriages were introduced in the country in 1929 but 80 years down the line, the social ill continues to be as grave as ever. Nearly half the women in India are married off before they reach the legal age of 18, a joint Indo-American study announced in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ on Tuesday. After looking at data of 22,807 women aged 20-24 years, around 44.5% of these women were found to have got married before the age of 18.

“These results suggest that neither recent progress in economic and women’s development, nor programmatic efforts to prevent child marriage and promote maternal and child health, have been sufficient to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in India,” Dr Raj said.

Unicef recently said that child marriage was increasing India’s maternal and infant deaths. Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. If a mother is under the age of 18, her infant’s risk of dying in its first year of life is 60% greater than that of an infant born to a mother older than 19. “More than 40% of the world’s child marriages take place in India.” Unicef ’s Karin Hulshof said.

Medical student killed in ragging: Was beaten to death by seniors after he complained

Times of India - 10/3/09

Aman Kachroo (19) had passed out of DPS Intl in Saket and enrolled at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College, in Kangra last Aug. He had repeatedly complained to his parents about brutal ragging on campus — often by drunk third-year students. On Friday night and Saturday morning, he was beaten so badly that he died. College authorities called cops almost 24 hours after Aman’s death.

He was beaten so brutally by his seniors in the name of ragging that he succumbed to his injuries. ‘‘Preliminary investigations reveal that the victim was under extreme stress following the ragging by third-year students and had collapsed on Sunday. We were informed of the incident around 9.30pm,’’ Kangra SP Atul Fulelzele said. That implies that college authorities did not call the cops for nearly an entire day after Aman died. Virkin Dhar, the victim’s cousin, said he had told her that senior students used to rag juniors after getting drunk and the same thing happened on Saturday night, when they physical assaulted freshers. ‘‘We have come to know that senior students had punched and slapped Aman, inflicting internal injuries that proved to be fatal,’’ she said.

Such violence underlines the fact that campuses still haven’t moved to ban ragging and act against offenders despite repeated Supreme Court warnings and orders.

That the faculty and college administration had looked away from the campus brutality was obvious. But even after the death was reported, administrators tried to pass off the death as a suicide. Only after the matter blew up and cops got involved, the principal, as a token gesture, rusticated four students suspected to be involved.

India gets its first female Indian Idol

Indianexpress.com

The streets of Agartala witnessed unprecedenteed celebrations on Sunday evening after the state capital's Sourabhee Debbarma was crowned the first female winner of Indian Idol, the country's most gruelling singing competition.

Apart from being the first female winner of the popular contest, she is also the first tribal from the Northeast to win. Although Sourabhee won the title riding a huge wave of support via votes from the Northeast, the Agartala girl has lived in various parts of the country. She completed her MBA from Pune and later took to singing.

Agartala's brush with fame has spawned some interesting developments in the state with the age-old simmering tension between tribals and non-tribals retreating into the background for the timebeing. Moreover, the Indian Idol effect has led to bitter political rivals, the ruling CPM and the Congress-led Opposition burying their differences to celebrate the occasion.

Tripura royal Pradyut Kishore Deb Burman, who played a key role in urging the people of the Northeast to rally behind the singing sensation and vote for her in huge numbers, reckons this is a historic occasion for not just the state but the entire nation. "She has made us proud with her achievement. Tripura apart, this is a historic occasion for India as well," he told reporters on the sidelines of unending celebrations.

Are we secular only when convenient?

Times of India - 2/3/09

What would be your pick for a proud, heart warming moment in these gloomy days of meltdown and violence — A R Rahman’s one in a million ‘Jai Ho’ score grabbing the Oscars or the Pathan brothers’ heartstopping heroics to pull off an implausible victory for the Indian cricket team?

Refusing to get mired in hatred, Rahman chose the path of love and went on to win the biggest cinema award in the world. Forget the spontaneous euphoria after the awards ceremony, slumdogs have seldom injected so much joy into a movie crazy nation that had rarely looked beyond Bollywood melodramas.

Just a fortnight before the tune created by the Mozart from Madras became a ballad for many Indians who will hum it for a long time, the Pathan brothers — Irfan and Yusuf — got together in Colombo in the dying stages of a T20 match when the dice was heavily loaded against India. They unleashed scintillating shots to help India claw back from the jaws of defeat to stand head high on the victory podium.

So what is your pick? Rahman or Pathan brothers? No doubt, they are the real heroes. For, they brought smiles and tears of joy in the eyes of millions — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs. True, none of us thought about the religion professed by Rahman and the Pathan brothers. Who cares, they made us all — we Indians — proud.

So, are we secular and tolerant because things went as per our wishes? Then, why do we hinge our thinking to religion and indulge in finger pointing when things go wrong? Why do we become intolerant bigots whenever dark clouds shadow humanity? But, are commoners as much to blame for such a shifting mindset as political leaders?

On this issue — the polity’s convenient shuffling between secularism and fanaticism — the Supreme Court had in 1994 come out with some powerful comments, even if we choose not to focus on its main ruling on acquisition of disputed land after the unfortunate demolition of Babri masjid in 1992. [Ismail Faruqui vs Union of India 1994 SCC (6) 360]. The voluminous judgment by a 5-judge constitution Bench started with a lovely prophetic quote from 17th century Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift, more popular for his ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. He said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”

Swami Vivekanand, again quoted by the SC in Faruqui judgment, had said, “Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation; it is being and becoming, it is realisation.” We Indians more or less have realised it, will the polity follow suit?