Daily 2013, Issue 6

Dailies 2013, Issue 6 Indian Institute Of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore March 18, 2013

A milestone of misery The ex-mayor of Bangalore has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had purged 73,000 voters from the electoral lists. P. R. Ramesh also claimed that during the BBMP elections, the BJP used bogus votes to retain power.

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Three decades after the government began spray-ing the toxic insecticide endosulfan across the country, the forgotten families in Karnataka, whose lives have been irreversibly changed, have filed their 200th petition, seeking compensation from the government. M̀ore on PAGE 3 >>>

The Daily Observer| March 18, 2013 02

TWO applicants seek-ing emergency passports were conned by touts last month.

Touts in the regional pass-port office in Koramangala con the clients who approach for emergency passport is-sued under Tatkal scheme.

They are preyed upon by fraud touts, who trick the cli-ents by assuring them an is-sue of fresh passport within seven days from the day of application. These frauds ob-tain triple the amount of mon-ey from the clients assuring the delivery of passport with-out delay.

Reportedly, the clients are assured that passport will be issued without delay as the sum of money will be divided to passport issuing authori-ties and police.

The ignorant passport as-pirants are eventually conned when they find no trace of the intermediary when they try to contact through phone or in person.

No copies of verification certificates or standard af-

fidavits demanded by the passport-issuing authority are obtained by these touts from the applicants. Last year, a similar instance led an ap-plicant to file a complaint to the police about the ongoing graft. This instance led to the arrest of three illegal agents in last December.

Madiwala police has regis-tered 12 such cases of fraud in 2012 and two cases in the month of February in 2013. “It is specifically mentioned in public notice not to fall prey to such fraud touts who might levy ridiculous amounts of money from the applicants, but still there is no decline in the number of cases reg-istered each year,” said Mr. Raja Gowder, Deputy Super-intendent of Police.

“Three individuals were ar-rested last December in con-nection with such a cheating case, when the person who filed the petition submitted relevant images of touts he had engaged with,” contin-ued Mr. Gowder.

Similarly, exorbitant rates of money are charged by the

unauthorized agents for re-newal service and duplicat-ing service of the passports. “I paid Rs. 6500 to an agent so as to duplicate my pass-port and I received my dupli-cated passport within three days,” said Karthik Nath, a technology expert working with Cisco in electronic city.

“I don’t want my passport to be caught up in red tapes and I wanted it without any delay since I have to fly short-ly,” replied Mr. Karthik when asked about the reason for consulting with an agent.

The Passport office had recommended police super-vision earlier to curb such

activities. “Lack of police supervi-

sion has intensified the fraud occurring with the passport applicants.

“Any instance of passport office employees found work-ing with such agents will be considered as a serious of-fence,” he said.

The tatkal scheme in issuing passports is especially susceptible to middlemen who prey on applicants

By Deepu Aby Varghese

Ex-mayor alleges voter list purge

Touts thrive in Regional Passport Office

By Krishnaprasad S

EX-mayor P R Ramesh has claimed that many illegalities in the final voters list published by the Election Commission on January 28th, 2013 in con-stituencies of Bangalore.

The current voters list of the Chikpet constituency showed a total of 170,529 against that of 212, 620 during the corporation elections held during 2010 based on the electoral list of 2008.

Despite the increase in pop-ulation and growing migration of people from villages coming into city for jobs, the revised electoral rolls showed a differ-ence of 42,091 voters.

“The functioning of election commission is not in accordance with law. The preparation of re-vised voter’s list was entrusted to local bodies.

“I have a great suspicion of manipulation in the revision of

voters,” said P R Ramesh during a press conference held here at Bangalore.

Ramesh also alleged the in-volvement of the BJP govern-ment in this.

H said that some people from the party were directly involved in the issue and the BJP govern-ment stood behind them.

He also alleged that bogus votes were created during the BBMP elections in 2010 held after de-limitation and assembly elections.

Numbers in 19 such constitu-encies of BBMP were found de-creased without any explanation by the Election Commission.

“In Chikpet segment, dele-tion of nearly 63,000 voters in the list is opposed to facts, un-authorized and illegal.

“The electoral roll indicates consideration of names of vot-ers’ dead, migrated and repeat-

ed”, alleged ex-mayor Ramesh.He also urged the Election

Commission to consider the is-sue seriously.

He also demanded a probe by the Commission to provide justice to the people.

“It is necessary that the names of missing people be in-cluded in the revised list. It is a mandatory requirement.

“People elect the represen-tatives in the government and people should not be cheated like this,” said P R Ramesh.

Responding to the allega-tions, a senior spokesmen at the BJP said : “It is a plot by some of the people who are against the BJP government.

“They want to prove that the government is weak and it can do nothing.

“But such things keep hap-pening and one should not give importance to this.” P.R. Ramesh addresses a press conference at the Bangalore Press club.

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March 18, 2013| The Daily Observer 03

For Sukumaran Menon, the outcome of a two year long protest against injustice, under the scorching sun in M G Road, is more trouble and misery.

The retired engineer hails from a small town called Triprayar located in Trissur, Kerala.

He came to Bangalore 49 years ago to join Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML). Now, seven years after his retirement, he is on the foot-path craving for justice.

Menon sits on the stone bench in M G Road near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at 8 am and continues to sit

there until 6 pm sticking to his fast.

His ‘Samadhana Satya-graha’ started on March 24, 2011.

Menon worked in BEML for 42 years. He recalls those days as “days of struggle.”

He, along with his wife, ran a dairy farm after his working hours in factory to meet both ends.

Spending the prime pe-

riod of his life working strenu-ously, he managed to buy 1.5 acres of land beside Hosur Road in 1992, and also con-structed a house there.

But Menon and his family could not live under their own roof for many days.

Government of Karnataka stepped into their lives claim-ing the possession of the plot as it is situated adjacent to the NICE road.

After months of long tus-sle between government and Menon, he and his family were forcefully pushed out of their habitat and his house was demolished.

Sukumaran Menon is contesting two civil cases in the Supreme Court of In-

dia against the government of Karnataka in the hope of winning back his hard earned asset.

The cases are still sub-judice. “I don’t have any faith in the judiciary. Officials have been bribed.

“Nandi Infrastructure Cor-ridor Enterprises Ltd. and Karnataka Industrial Devel-opment Board are the cul-prits,” said Menon.

Menon acquired RTI information related to the land distribution for the road development which clearly pointed towards the truth.

Nevertheless, the judicia-ry is blinded by money and the struggle for justice still continues on the side of M G Road.

Menon, 62, suffers from old age related health prob-lems.

This man sits on the stone bench holding his faded um-brella under the scorching sun.

Passersby seldom notice the old man.

Media in Bangalore has already turned a blind eye to-wards him.

“No media person has ever showed up during these 726 days of protest,” said Menon.

Police frequently asks him to vacate the stone bench but has never shaken his de-cision to stay back.

He does not have hopes of getting back his assets, but he is determined to set an example for the “callous” society, he says.

Republican Party demands houses for Economically Weaker Sections

MEMBERS of the Repub-lican Party have been de-manding houses for the economically weaker sec-tions (EWS) of the society under the Ashraya pro-gramme for the past 20 years.

President of Karnataka Central Executive Commit-tee member, M. Selvam, said, “To initiate the work we paid the ministers, tehasildar and district officer but nobody pays attention. How will the condition of Dalits improve if such a situation continues?”

Survey no. 144 at Coal-gate, Sarajpur, Hobli, Han-ikal taluk was supposed to be allotted to EWS to build their houses.

However the district of-ficer have denied their re-peated request and made them run from one officer to another.

“500 families are home-less and are yet to get hous-es. So we demand of them to provide us with shelter un-der the Dr. Ambedkar Hous-ing Scheme, Ashraya pro-gramme.”

Under the pretext of de-velopment of SC and ST and Other Backward classes, schemes and various pro-grammes are initiated but none reach the needy said the president.

Under Ashraya Yojana Scheme financial aid is giv-

en to the homeless poor de-pending upon their income limit but the people under EWS are to be given houses for free of cost.

In 2012, Metro reporter had reported the scam over Ashraya allegedly for distrib-uting EWS land, which was to be used for construction of quarters for the politi-cians, officers and real es-tate agents priced at Rs.3 to 4 lakhs to the racketeers.

The homeless people from distant places like Ul-soor, Mysore, Sarjapura had come together to join hands with the party to stage their demands in front of the DC’s office who has been dodg-ing their demands for years now.

A similar protest was staged in 2008, asking rights for over 12 acres of land at Doddanagamangala village, Begur Hobli , Hosur road which was sanctioned by the deputy commissioner, but the rights were yet to be given.

Mangala, 28, Ayah (maid) in a government hospital, who is the sole earner of her house as her husband has passed away said, she hard-ly earns Rs. 1000 a month which entirely goes for the rent, “How should I survive? That is why we are demand-ing a house.”

The district officer was not available for the comments.

By Nikita Malusare

Members of the Republican Party of India stage a protest.

By Deepu Aby Varghese

62-year-old demands justice; stages two year fast

Sukumaran Menon has been demanding that the government return his land. Menon, 62, does not think that his actions will lead to him getting his land back, but hopes that his actions would set an example to others.

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OVER three decades after the gov-ernment began the aerial spraying of endosulfan over the cashew or-chards of South Canara in Karna-taka, thousands of people still suf-fer from the horrific consequences of its after-effects. Despite submitting several memo-randums and appeals to the govern-ment to extend support to the family of the victims no government body or organisation has come forward in the last 30 years to help these victims and their family.

More than 300 families which were exposed to the now outlawed insecticide designed to control the tea-mosquito bug, now suffer from diseases like cancer and cerebral palsy, while others complain of respi-ratory illnesses as well as still births and birth defects in newborn children. Several victims also faced prob-lems like hig fever for 20 days continously and also preg-nancy problems after the insecticide was sprayed all over the area.

The Karnataka Ca-shew Development Corporation (KCDC) was the body respon-sible for sprinkling endosulfan on the cashew fields which resulted in the many disabilities witnessed in the people in the region.

Despite a press note by KCDC released in 1980 stat-ing that endosulfan was one of the most dangerous and toxic chemicals

in use, it continued to conduct aerial operations and sprinkled endosulfan all over the cashew fields.

The press note also stated that open wells present in the area must be closed and animals should not be let out for ten days after the chemical was sprayed. Unaware of this, many people expressed their anger saying that they did not get any such infor-mation from the government.

Sridhar Gowda K, president of the Endosulfan Victims Committee, said: “None of the political parties are in-terested in endosulfan victims. The Supreme Court has banned the use of Endosulfan across the country, but what about the people who are already affected?”

The Supreme Court in 1994 banned the use of toxic

chemicals including endosulfan. More than 90 villages in this part of Karnataka were affected due to the toxic chemical which not only de-stroyed the germs in the field but also the lives of people around it.

The Endosulfan Victims Commit-tee alleges that permissions from lo-cal authorities like Zilla panchayats and Taluq panchayats were not taken before the operation. However, the operation went on for 20 consecu-tive years continuously from 1980 to 2000. According to RTI reports, a to-tal of 60,000 litres of endosulfan was sprayed in 20 years which was re-sponsible for the destruction of thou-sands of lives in the region.

The government departments have been busy pointing the finger

at each other, while the Health

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partment has not taken single step to address the issue. The government then had directed the Horticulture department to provide solutions and provide compensation to the victims. However, the Horticulture department blames on Forest department and held it responsible for the neglect.

According to recent reports from the committee and the district head, there are 5,231 endosulfan vic t i m s in South Canara district but the government has notified only 1,906 and the rest of the people are not able to access the medical camps. Sridhar alleged that State Human Rights Commission had also taken no action on the issue till today and the same commission had suggested that the government of Kerala pro-vide a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs with monthly pension of Rs 5,000 to family of victims.

“The issue was discussed in the session before the budget session

started and nothing has been done to ensure safety and

provide medical aid to these victims”, said Endosulfan

Victims Committee. The victims are even today, fighting against dis-eases like cancer, heart problems and physical disabilities—the major side effects of the chemi-

cal.Several unfulfilled de-

mands of the endosulfan victims include establishing a

day care center, free scanning facilities, BPL cards, mobile medi-

cal centers, education and also em-ployment to the affected families.

By Krishnaprasad S

A milestone of miseryContd. from Page 1

The children of the victims of those exposed to endosulfan have suffered the brunt of the after-effects of the poisoning.

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Chief Minister lends government property to private groups

Lack of basic amenities at new living quarters spell

doom for Ragigudda evictees

AFTER doling out crores of rupee as grants towards religious groups, Jagadish Shettar’s government has now decided to lend acres of government land on contract basis to the same groups.

The decision was taken after a session with all the ministers along with Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, upheld majority in the ses-sion.

According to the new land use plans, almost 35 acres of land in Bangalore, Ram-nagar, Nelamangala, Hav-eri, Teerthahalli, Davangere, Belgaum and Udupi districts would be given to the rele-gious groups and trusts on contract basis for various purposes.

It was also decided in the session that land would be given to build engineering colleges in Mangalore and Koppal.

The session was called for a discussion in view of the upcoming assembly elections and around 47 demands were

approved in the cabinet.Meanwhile, five acres of

land at Sompura near Nela-mangala has been granted to Panchamasali Trust of Kuda-lasangama on contract basis for 30 years and ten guntas of land at Moodanidambur in Udupi district has been granted to Kannada Sahitya Parishat, Udupi to build Kan-nada Bhavana.

30 guntas of land at Chen-nagiri in Davanagere has been allotted to Gurusidda Rameshwara Bhovi Trust to construct a hostel.

1.25 acres of land at Kum-bapura in Ramnagar has been granted to Ramnagar Taluq Kurubara Sangha.

Two acres of land at Gan-jigatti (Shiggaon Tq) in Hav-eri district has been granted to Kurubara Sangha.

1368 sq.mts of land at Gokak in Belgaum district has been allotted to Sri Do-har Kakkaiyya Jnanapeeta.

The government has also granted 21 acres 10 guntas of land at Teerthahalli in Shimo-gha district to Tungabhadra Vidyavardhaka Trust at mar-ket price on contract basis.

Five acres of land at Gavipura of Sunkenahalli in Bangalore has been perma-nently allotted to Rashtrot-thana Parishad, Bangalore.

The Karnataka govern-ment also given nod to the Karnataka Housing Board’s 2404 acre mega project of building 50,000 residential complex estimated at a cost of Rs 335 crores at Soory-anagar 4th Stage near Jigani in Bangalore.

The 165 acres land al-lotted to Vyalikaval House Building Co-operative Soci-ety at Nagavara in Banga-lore, has been divided be-tween the owner of the land and society out of which 108 acres of land has been allot-ted to society .

The remaining has been allotted to the original owner of the land from whom the land was purchased by the government.

Lift irrigation projects in several districts has been started.

The biggest of these would be the Haveri Lift Irri-gation Project costing Rs 690 crores.

By Krishnaprasad S

35 acres of land to be given to the religious groups.

RESIDENTS of Ragigudda slum are yet to move into the houses allotted to them as there is no electricity, no water connection, no doors and no sanitary fit-tings in those houses.

Hasina, one of the al-lottees, said: “How do you expect us to stay in houses which have no doors, elec-tricity or drinking water?

“These houses are not habitable at all. The govern-ment does nothing for the poor.”

The Ragigudda slum was demolished in 2009.

The then Chief Minister, B S Yeddyurappa, had prom-ised to build 1500 houses for the evicted by December 2010.

The residents were then given squalid temporary sheds to live in.

A few even rented a place somewhere else.

Till now, only 850 houses have been constructed. The

Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar, inaugurated these units in November 2012.

But the dwellers are un-able to move in even after nearly four months after inau-guration due to the absence of basic amenities.

KS Mani, General Secre-tary of Vivekananda Welfare Association that works for the slum dwellers of Ragigudda,

said: “The allottees are still to clear electricity bill arrears amounting to Rs. 24 lakhs that they incurred while living in the slum.

“The electricity board will provide electricity to these houses only after these dues are paid.”

Meanwhile, the remain-ing 650 houses are yet to be completed.

“Half of the original dwell-ers do not have a house at all.

D. Jaganathan, who used to formerly work in the Cen-tral Reserve Police Force, said: “I had an accident and had to return home.

“But, for the last three years, I do not have a house. We are living in extreme poverty here. We have been given tokens for houses by the welfare association, but there are no houses.”

When quizzed about the delay in construction of houses, AE Rajashekhar, Project Engineer of the Ra-gigudda slum project, said:

“The delay was caused due to the hard rocky terrain of this place.

“We took a lot of time to bring the ground to the same level. Also, we can build houses only if the people vacate the temporary sheds they are living in. The con-struction of the remaining houses will take another two years.”

By Kakoli Mukherjee

Ragigudda evictee, Hasina, cooks a meal in the open.

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SPORTS enthusiasts in the city complained that they are denied access to government sports fa-cilities.

Often when individual students try to enter the premises for sports rec-reational purposes, they are often stopped by the security guards.

Jagadish, 17, said: “I tried to en-ter the Koramangala stadium once or twice to play cricket with my friends but the guards shooed us away and asked us to find some other place. He said we needed special permission to play there.”

Appachu Ranjan, Minister for Youth Services and Sports, Karna-taka, said: “It’s (sports facilities) more than enough for Bangalore. We have huge grounds available for sports.”

The city has four public outdoor stadiums of 20-50 acres each and in-door stadia.

The outdoor stadiums are in the areas of Kora-mangala, Shantinagar, Wilson Garden and Kan-tiveera. The city also has a public swimming pool in Ulsoor.

“In the next three months, we should also have a pool in Vidyanagar,” said Ranjan.

Vidyanagar alone has some 50 acres of land for sports purpose.

According to the ministry, the land is available to the sports enthusiasts “at a nominal charges to private parties and associations whereas they are available for free to students.”

Various sports associations like football asso-

ciation, kabaddi association, hockey or cricket as-sociations, are charged between Rs.1-2 lakhs for a day’s use while students and government schools are allowed to use the stadium facilities for free. The grounds are also given to private schools and private parties at the same price.

Ranjan said: “The department also supplies sports students with uniforms, equipments and other facilities in government schools.”

However, quite a few government schools in the city only have some deflated footballs, a cricket bat and broken badminton rackets, neatly kept in a locked box in the school. At the same time, sports school opened by the ministry in Vidyanagar is

well equipped.Ranjan said: “Students from classes

V to X are given academic and sports education here.

These students are specially select-ed by the ministry from across the state, based on their excellence in sports, and brought here to improve their sporting abilities.”

The students in this school are giv-en travel allowance for tournaments, clothes, a healthy meal everyday and they even have specific sports coaches.

The students selected are also given hostel accommodation, which has a ca-pacity of 180 students and there are two such hostels.

Though the state has some 4500 crore acre property in Karnataka, for sports, yet many are deprived of the use of these facilities.

Besides the land, the government has a lot of sports policies, awards and incentives too to appreciate the players’ performance. However, it is a very small percentage

of sports enthusiasts in Bangalore.H. Kirige, a sports coach, said: “Only the best

players in the city get such advantages. What about the budding players and those

young players who need encouragement to get into sports?”

The ministry has a lot of plans in store to im-prove the quality of sports in the city as well as the state.

“We are thinking about having 2 percent reser-vation in the MNC for sports students and would also like to open a sports university in Bangalore in the near future,” said Ranjan.

By Udita Chaturvedi

EVICTION of residents from Economically Weak-er Section (EWS) colonies in Ejipura and Ragigudda has led to a steep incline in domestic labour charges in neighbouring areas.

The recent eviction car-ried out at the EWS colony in Ejipura has left the resi-dents of the colony on the footpath.

The few lucky ones have been shifted to another such colony off Sarjapur road.

The sufferings are not only for the residents of the EWS colonies alone. People

living in the residential ar-eas close by also echo their problems.

This eviction has affect-ed the residential areas in a very different manner.

According to Rajendra Singh, a resident of National Games Village (NGV), said: “The domestic help cost has drastically gone up.”

Mr. Singh holds the ad-ministration responsible for this.

“Earlier a cook charged around 2, 000 rupees but now since the colony has been evicted, we have to tackle demands as high as 5, 000 rupees,” says Ramesh,

another resident.Those who have shifted

base to Sarjapur do not have any different story to say. Abdul Jan, a hired auto driv-er feels that the local MLA has cheated them. “I have to travel fifteen kilometres to get started with my day. My auto remains with the owner who lives in Ejipura,” says Abdul.

The slum residents hold N Harris, MLA, Shanthina-gar, responsible for this un-warranted eviction.

“They want to build a mall over here. We have been living here for more than a decade now.

“We have every legal paper regarding our houses but today we have to spend our nights on streets,” com-plains Kaveri.

She worked as a maid servant but has now been eased of her services due to continuous leaves she had taken in the wake of the eviction.

The problem is not one sided. Miseries of those evicted also affect the peo-ple of residential areas in more than one ways.

There is a tremendous shortage of work force. Ear-lier the domestic help was

easily available at afford-

able prices from the EWS colony. But now this work force has to be substituted from far off areas like Vivek Nagar and Ramnagar.

This has increased the cost of domestic labour.

The displaced people cannot afford to travel fif-teen kilometres to continue at their previous work plac-es.

On the other hand, the employers are finding it dif-ficult to employ people at higher charges.

The problem, thus builds up in two directions. It is af-fecting both, the employee and the employers.

By Sumit

Price of domestic labour rises as EWS evictees battle for shelter

Youth denied access to premium sports infrastructure

City kids unable to benefit from the available facilities

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March 18, 2013| The Daily Observer 07

COOKING gas is now availed free of cost by 120 families through a new technology.

DEWATS (Decentralized

Waste Water Treatment Sys-tem) is a latest technology which enables treatment of wastewater generated from sanitary units for second-ary purposes and also the

gas generated from the solid waste can be used for cook-ing.

A unit of BORDA situated near Kengeri Beedi Colony now caters cooking gas to near about 120 families.

BORDA, involved in pop-ularizing the technology in In-dia, has initiated a part of its project here to generate the benefits of DEWATS.

Mr.Afroz Pasha, Presi-dent of Karnataka State Beedi Workers Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited (KSBWMCSL) said: “This new technology has so far been implemented in here only.

“And it has really proved to be productive to the villag-ers. The best part of it is that they don’t have to pay for

anything.”The project total cost

was Rs.18 lakhs, executed through a collective amount contributed by the society-Rs.2 lakh, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) paid Rs.5 lakhs, RGRHCL contrib-uted Rs.5 lakhs and BORDA Rs.3 lakhs.

Initially it was proposed to plan out a dome work which will be able to cater cooking gas to minimum 60 houses.

But now the service is extended to 120 houses through a pipe, which con-nects to the houses and the other end is connected to the dome base.

Mr.Pasha said: “The ser-vice turned to be so beneficial that number of beneficiaries were bound to increase.”

Ruksana Begum, 19 year old, studying in college said: “The technology is new and it’s served to many of the houses in our colony who don’t have to spent money after cooking fuels.

“In our house we also have this connection and it’s equally usable as other cook-ing gases.”

But the officials from BORDA said that such proj-ects can only be planned out in the outskirts of the city or where land scarcity is not an issue.

Now, as the gas price increases, these poor fami-lies can heave a sigh relief as they are being exempted from paying excess prices which is not easily affordable for them.

SIM card racket is prevalent in the city as strict laws for buying prepaid SIM cards is not enforced.

The Department of Tele-communications (DoT) re-cent guidelines state that pre-paid connections can be barred if you haven’t submit-ted valid documents to your service provider.

In Aug. 2010, the Dot asked telecom players to stop activating prepaid con-nections without verification of documents.

This move came in the light of SIM cards sold on footpaths with no valid docu-ments.

Telecom players in Ban-galore had barred almost 20,000 prepaid connections last year.

But with strict laws in force, people found it very difficult to get a SIM card in the city.

After submitting the docu-mentation, it takes a minimum of seven days to activate the SIM cards and there is a chance of barring your SIM

card if the documentation is not in the name of people with proof of residence.

As an IT hub, most of the people are immigrants and find it very difficulty to get a SIM card in the new city with their documents, as they have no proof of residence.

As per the department of telecommunication, any of these proofs are necessary to get a SIM card—passbook of any nationalized bank, driving license or photo iden-tity of any recognized educa-tional institution in the case of students.

But students have been mostly affected by this as most of the telecommunica-tions companies do not ac-cept college identity proofs submitted by the students.

Anoop, software profes-sional, said: “I got my SIM card through the racket. I tried a lot in the beginning to get a SIM of my own.

“Later I approached them and they charged me Rs. 300 for an activated SIM card and I don’t have much time to waste for the SIM card to be activated. So I got it through

the racket and I don’t know whose identity this SIM card belongs to.”

K P Satyanarayan sub in-spector of police in Kengeri said: “In my premises, until now, we did not get any com-plaint regarding this.

It has not come to our no-tice yet; if we found any one breaking laws we will take stern action against them.”

As far as the telecommu-

nication department is con-cerned, they are not aware of the SIM card rackets.

Officials of Airtel and Vodafone, which are service providers claim they do not know that such a racket is taking place.

They say that they will activate any SIM card within four hours if proper docu-mentation is submitted by the customers.”

Police raid busts gambling racket in CottonpetBy Krishnaprasad SThe Central Crime Branch of Police cracked down on a group of gam-blers at a lodge near the Cottenpet Police Station.

Krishna Comfort Deluxe Lodge is situated on K V Temple Street. Six people were arrested in this case-Joint Police Commissioner, Crime Branch (East), S Mu-rugan, along with his team raided the lodge on Sunday night where cash bundles worth Rs 1,02, 270 were found.

The six arrested in this raid were Karthik (38), Ramu (32), Ramkumar (38), Pinto (32), Mutturaj (28) and Shar-avana (27), all residents of Bangalore.

They were found along with a pack of playing cards.The case has been regis-tered with the Cottonpet Police Station and an inves-tigation has been initiated.Mr.S.Murugan said:“We raid-ed the place and found cash and cards on the ground. Six people were immediately taken into custody. A case has been registered and we are investigating further.”

A local shop that sells 2-3 SIM cards using forged docments daily

By Satyajith G D

Sim card racket proves to be a life-saver for immigrants in the city

Bangaloreans to benefit from DEWATS’ zero-price cooking gasBy Priyanka Roy

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A BORDA unit in Kengeri Beedi colony.

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Students appearing for board exams can now boost their confidence by just making a phone call.

Karnataka Second-ary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has started its yearly helpline to provide counselling to students who lack self-confidence.

This is the fourth year of this helpline.

The helpline will be open from 19th March 10a.m on-wards and will continue till 31st March 2013.

Vijay Kumar, deputy di-rector of KSEEB told: “Every year this helpline is started before examinations to help students.

“We get a huge response from the students’ side; espe-cially those who are aspirants of board examinations.”

“Sometimes we even rec-ommend some students to get counselling at NIMHANS,” he added.

A foundation called SA-MUDRA is associated with

KSEEB for in this project. SA-MUDRA helps to build confi-dence amongst students who suffer from anxiety.

Bharathi Singh, co-found-er of SA-MUDRA said: “We are working for the past five years for the cause of the youth. We have the ‘yuva-helpline’ through which we give continuous assistance .

“We also give counselling to students as well as to their parents.

“Many students from poor background also get in touch with us.

“Last year, we got calls from five students at the same time.

“They were using the same telephone line as it was not easily accessible for them.

“In urban areas, students have facilities like library, tuitions and other helping hands but, in rural areas stu-dents do not have these fa-cilities so, they suffer more from anxiety.

“We try our level best to

boost up their self-confidence and help them prepare well for the examinations. We make students understand that there is always a sec-ond opportunity in life. They should not step back if they have not succeeded for the first time,” added Mrs. Singh.

Along with counselling

SA-MUDRA also imparts basic help for subjects like mathematics, science and English. Ms.Singh also men-tioned that: “Most of the students have difficulties in these three subjects.

“We provide them model question papers. They solve it and get it touch with us for

more help.”Ms.Singh gave a special

mention about the frequency of parents who use this help-line in large numbers.

She mentioned that par-ents seek their advice on ac-ademic issues to guide their children better during board exams.

ObserverTeam

An IIJNM Publicaton(For private circulation)

EditorHansa V

Sub-editorAheli Roy Chaudhury

Special CorrespondentsNikita Malusare

Deepu Aby Varghese

Page EditorsKrishnaprasad SUrmi Sengupta

Shreya MukherjeeSatyajith GDPriyanka Roy

Proof ReaderSneha Bannerjee

Rohan D PremkumarKakoli Mukherjee

[email protected]

Yet another political party was launched today as the state gears up for elec-tions.

Bharatiya Janta Dal Party was launched today in Kar-nataka from the premises of hotel Atria.

Ashwin Singh Sesodia,

National Vice President of the party briefed the press about the party manifesto, its vision and the road map of the party in Karnataka.

The BJDP was launched in December 2011 and has its headquarters in Ghazia-bad, Uttar Pradesh.

Apart from Uttar Pradesh, the party has opened of-

fices in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karna-taka.

It has also fielded candi-dates in the recently conduct-ed (2012) Gujarat Assembly. Though the party tasted de-feat in its very first venture, yet it was a brave attempt of a political party still in the cra-dle to field a candidate from Maninagar, against Narendra Modi.

Speaking about the ba-sic concept of the party, E. Laxminarayan, South India Convener of the party, said, “Equality for every one is the mantra of the party.”

Talking about the policies of the party, Mr. Laxmina-rayan further added: ”We will extend our membership to quality people.

“It’s a group of a few good people and we would like to grow at the national level.”

The State elections are not far away and the launch of third political party (BSR Congress and Karntaka

Janta Paksha, the other two) within the duration of five months shows that the re-sults are going to be highly influenced.

However, Mr Sesodia said, “The BJDP has an indi-vidual existence.

“We are not here to merge with some party and change the political equations.”

The party, as of now, has around 1,000 active party members at the national lev-el.

Replying to a question about the party’s vision in Karnataka, Mr. Sesodiya said that the sole mission right now is to take the party to vil-lage level in Karnataka.

Stressing mainly on the role of youth in the current scenario, BJDP also plans to launch a youth wing at col-lege level.

“The manifesto of the party would be released in our next press release,” said Mr. Sesodiya on the ending note.

KSEEB focus on developing the confidence of rural students in Karnataka

Pro-people campaign kicked off by eminent right-wing group

By Sumit & Urmi

By Shreya Mukherjee

KSEEB introduces hotline to calm students appearing for board exams

Cred

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reya

Muk

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Members of the newly formed BJDP party talk about their new policies

Phot

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rmi S

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Daily 2013, Issue 6