Daily 2012, Issue 1
Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore
27 November, 2012
N. Murthy talks to students Pg 3
RTI activists protest killing Pg 4
More take to Emu farming Pg 2
Sex selective abortion cases cause concern in Karnataka
Udita Chaturvedi
Dalai Lama:“Time for the 21st century generation”
The 14th guru encourages young generation to focus more on peace and tranquility
Udita Chaturvedi His Holiness, the Dalai Lama says he hopes that modern education taught more affection, warmth, secularism and unity. His Holiness, said: “The British brought modern education to India,
but India had had education for thousands of years. Earlier, more Indian education systems taught about imparting moral values to the people, but the new institutions just care about the brain.” The Dalai Lama inaugurated a painting exhibition, ‘In the footsteps
of Buddha’ and released “Santa gets Bangalored,” authored by Puneeta Khatri, earlier this afternoon in ITC Windsor Manor. His Holiness said he was older and thus, had had a lot of experiences. He shared stories about two of his friends who had had
taught him great things. He said: “I have a billionaire friend, he can buy everything but he is very unhappy. Another Muslim friend of mine told me that Islam teaches love Allah and all creations of Allah, which is lovely and so true.” He believes that manmade problems need to be reduced as early as possible for the world to be a more harmonious and peaceful place for all. His Holiness said: “We pay too much attention on color, nationality and race. These differences are secondary because basically we are all same human beings.” He added: “The twentieth century has gone. Our generation is now ready to say bye bye. It is the age of the newer twenty-first century generation. Only 12 years of this century have passed, the remaining are yet to come. They have the opportunity to create a better century.” The 14th Dalai Lama believes Buddha nature exists in everyone and can never be lost, no matter how deeply it may be covered over by anger or greed.
Reshma Tarwani More than a thousand sex-selective abortions have been performed in Bangalore in the last month. Every 77 minutes, there is at least one abortion that has been conducted in rural Karnataka. Bangalore alone has more than 4000 scanning centers in areas like Ram Nagar, J.P Nagar, and Jay Nagar. K S Vimla, Vice President, All India Democratic Women’s Association said: “The majority of gynecologists have their private clinics which are hidden inside their homes. We have been living in Ram Nagar for the last 10 years and in the last month we caught five private clinics performing the procedure illegally, in Ram Nagar alone. According to the recent study of institute of Social and Economic changes, more than 2000 scanning centers have been found.
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Caught on the web: Hacking cases spike Bangalore weather report Temp: 72 F Humidity: 78% Wind: 7 mph from East Weather forecast: 20% chance of rain Sunrise: 6.23 am Moonrise: 4.14 pm Temp to go up to a max of 83 F
Sensex Report Sensex: 18,537.01 up by 30.44 (0.16%) Nifty: 5635.90 up by 9.30 (0.17%)
Over the last five years, hacking incidents in India have increased from 552 to 13,301, posing a serious threat to internet and mobile users across India. Easy online access to hacking techniques is one of the major reasons for this jump in figures. Advanced technology and greater dependency on technology are also contributing factors. In 2011, Indian Computers Emergency Response Team (CERTIn) handled more than 13,000 incidents related to hacking, with malware and virus attacks being the most common. Renowned ethical hacker, Ankit Fadia, describes virus and malwares for the layman as “basically any file that harms the system. It may delete data, slow the system, force the system to crash or allow spying”. He added: “Trojan is the most common and harmful virus in the internet domain right now. It allows the hacker to control someone else’s system.” Internet has made hacking much easier today than it used to be a decade ago. There are plenty of software available online for all kinds
Sidharth Shekhar
Udita Chaturvedi
of hacking. Fadia said: “There are a lot of books and courses available today, and seminars on ethical hacking are frequently held. When I started, I had to either order books from the US or had to research online. Otherwise I just had to experiment on my own.” Technology has become a major part of an individual’s life today.
Most people have email accounts and smartphones. And though it is changing and improving lives, it can be dangerous as well. “Whatever we’re doing online is being recorded somewhere or the other and it can be misused. For example, online banking has a lot of advantages for the common man but at the same time hackers can access bank accounts and steal the money
as well,” said Fadia. He added: “Anything can be hacked today. For example, FBI website gets hacked almost every month, Microsoft’s website got hacked and my website got hacked. So there is nothing as 100 per cent security. The more you use technology, the more threats there will be.” While Fadia suggests antiviruses, firewall protection and anti-spywares for individual users, he also suggests that individuals and companies need to become more aware of the threats online. Fadia said: “To fight against any kind of hacking, companies need to implement security audit and increase the budget for buying security software.” No website, no matter how big the brand name, is not completely secure today. “Pay Pal, EBay, LinkedIn get hacked, so an Indian website like Flipkart or any other cannot be guaranteed to be ‘safe’,” said Fadia. India requires 77,000 ethical hackers every year but produces only 20-25% of this requirement, states a NASCOM report. Fadia says the Indian cyber laws are good but are not implemented.
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Udita Chaturvedi
“People don’t really NCBS Scientists claim possible give way to emergency cancer cure services,” says director of fire services By Manjusha Gandham Apparently, the first reaction of a Bangalorean to the wailing siren of an emergency services vehicle is to not give way. B.G. Changappa, Director, Karnataka Fire and Emergency services said that the fire department does respond to emergency calls on time, because people do not give way to fire engines and ambulances. He said: “We respond almost immediately if the calls are made on time. People usually wait till the fire is out of control to call the department. After the call is made, even we need time to navigate through the traffic and other factors, delaying the response time.” Citing the example of the Carlton Towers fire tragedy which happened in 2010, he said that people were more interested in taking videos of the fire rather than making a call which resulted in a tragic loss of life. The director said that Bangalore doesn’t need 78 fire stations as stated by the government. He said: “Bangalore doesn’t have extreme climatic conditions. The incidence of fire is very low. Why does it need 78 stations then?” Bangalore currently has 15 stations with 4 more stations proposed to come up soon. The director said that for a high rise building of 15 meters and above, a clearance certificate had to be sought from the fire department by the builder. “We look at the building plans and give them clearance certificates to go ahead with construction. The owners or the building associations should get the permission renewed every two years,” he said. “If the owners or the association fails to get the permission renewed, the fire department will send intimation to the electricity and water com-
pany to disconnect the electricity and water connections.”he added. “This rule just came into effect, it will take some time to put into implementation,” he added. Uday Vijayan, founder of Beyond Carlton, whose son was one of the victims of the Carlton Fire tragedy, said that the fire department had a severe manpower and equipment crunch. He said: “The number of fire stations is inadequate. The budget allocated by the state government to the fire department is also very low.” He said that people don’t really care about fire safety, nobody even asks for a fire safety certificate when they are buying a home or an apartment and are putting their own lives at risk. “The problem is there is no deterrent. They get a no objection certificate from the fire department and then change the building plan completely. There aren’t really any major penalties. Hence the lax attitude,” he added. Though the government has come up with penalties like cutting water and power supply to violators, it will take a long time to for these measures to work. He said, “A combination of fac tors are needed — laws and aware ness. People need to cooperate as well.” Robin Boun, from Fire Flex, a fire securities firm said that people were becoming more aware of fire safety and that most builders were taking measures to increase fire safety in their apartment complexes. Ravi from Jayaraj Fire and securities said: “We do see a rise in the sales of smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. People are also interested in the fire solutions we offer.” Vijayan said, “We are running a marathon not a 100 meter sprint. Fire safety is a longish journey.”
Though the drug has not been tested on humans, researchers believe that the drug could become an effective tool to battle cancer.
By Pushkar Banakar Scientists at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have come out with a possible cure for cervical cancer. Dr. Krishnamurthy H, a senior research associate and his team have successfully extracted n-hexane and chloroform from Anisomeles malabarica. Anisomeles malabarica is a herb which is predominantly found in tropical areas and Australia. The extracted hexane and chloroform extracted from the plant have been tested on the gamma
Sumit
By Nupur Gour The clash between the two civic bodies of the city Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bangalore Housing Corporation (BHC) has left many people and migrants in the city homeless. There has been a rise in the city’s population by about 11% owing to the boom in the IT sector and the development in other industries. This has attracted a lot of people from outside the city in search
of jobs. The jobs in the city have increased manifold since the rise in the IT sector and the IT hub of India is facing a shortage of homes to accommodate IT employees. Rohan, an IT employee with a reputed IT firm complains: “I have been in the city for two years now and I have to live the life of a nomad. As soon as the lease of my rented flat expires I have to start the hunt for another home”.
cervical cancer cells drops by around 60% when they are treated with the extracts from the plant. Dr. Akbar, another member of the research team, said: “We hope we can hasten the research on HPV. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer found in India and we will be glad if we are able to come out with a vaccine for cancer which is affordable”. It would be a great step forward in cancer research if this team from NCBS comes out with a vaccine for the most common cancer among women at an affordable price, said researchers.
Saudi Arabian business delegation arrives in Bangalore By Pushkar Banakar, Nupur Gour Indo-Middle East Chamber of Commerce hosted a business interactive session to promote joint ventures and investments between India and Saudi Arabia. The delegation included some of the leading names of Saudi Arabia, such as, Faysal Alaquil, Alawi Al-hamid and Khaled Bhatta. These delegates are on a 10-day long visit to India which has been organized jointly by the Consulate General of India and Saudi-Indian Business Network (SIBN).
Power struggle between government departments leave citizens homeless
One of the housing complexes provided by the Bangalore Housing Corporation
strain of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the causative agent of cervical cancer in human beings. Preethy P, a member of the research team said: “This research is definitely a path breaking one but we are still a long way off from reaching our desired goals”. “Although the research has been progressing at a brisk pace, the main problem is the unavailability of the herb in India. This makes the resultant medicine expensive.” The n-hexane and the chloroform act on the cancer causing cells by preventing them from proliferating. The rate of proliferation of the
Similar concerns have been voiced by another employee, Shravya. She said: “I moved into Bangalore with the intention of settling down here. I have been trying to buy a house in localities close to my workplace but I have been unsuccessful for the past several years”. Mr. Jayaram, housing commissioner of the BHC said “We are trying our best to accommodate all the people in the city. But we are not the only civic authority who is responsible for allocating houses to the public”. Elaborating on the procedure of allotting the houses he said, “There is always a lottery system applied. The applicants who are not allotted a house are refunded the base amount which they are asked to pay before the lottery is held”. He also added, “We have started projects in Suryanagar. The construction of phase 4 is yet to commence where as phase 3 constructions have already begun. There are also existing projects like Kengeri Diamond and Kengeri Platinum”. The BDA officials, after repeated efforts of contact refused to comment on the issue.
It is being led by Dr. Ghazi Binzagr, the young scion of a prominent business family in Saudi Arabia. The delegates visited Bangalore after holding meetings with the Ministry of State for External Affairs, E Ahmed and Minister of State for Ministry of Commerce, S. Jagganatrhgan. “It will strengthen and cement the already existing good ties between the countries. These delegates are not only meeting businessmen in India but also visiting a number of educational and business institutions to
understand India’s growth story.” said consulate general Faiz Ahmed Kidwai. “We have already visited India’s two leading IT firms in Bangalore, Infosys and Wipro” said Dr. Mohammad Imran, its national President. “India’s economy has transformed over the years and it offers excellent opportunities to the Saudis. Indo-Saudi bilateral trade exceeded 25 billion in 2011 and we see immense potential for the future,” he added.
Failed government policy at Indranagar slum: People can’t afford low income housing By Debanti Roy A government house renovation policy is failing in Indirinagar Slum as locals say they cannot afford the huge bills to begin the process. Despite a tender for the work being passed last year, only the contractor on the site has actually started building his house. “I have started the work to set an example for the slum dwellers, so that they too can start the reconstruction work soon,” said Lata Nityananda, civil contractor. The re-building policy dictates that slum dwellers must pay Rs. 60, 000 up front which is then refunded in installments. Most of Indirinagar’s residents are lucky to earn Rs. 2000 a month. There are almost 200 families in the slum- mostly engaged doing petty business and earning their livelihoods through them. They live in miserable conditions and their houses are shambolic with leaking rooftops and broken doors and windows. Even though the government passed the tender last year to provide Rs. 3 lakhs to each family for the construction of their houses, nobody can afford the initial costs.
A family needs to spend Rs 60,000 initially to start the construction work. The amount gets refunded only upon showing the bill to the corporation office. The rest of the amount gets refunded in three installments. Mrs. Violet, a slum dweller, lives in a miserable condition in this slum. The roof of her house is broken and there is no major source of income. She has to manage her livelihood with Rs. 30 a day. She said, “My husband died four years back and the only source of income is the earnings of my son through selling paintings.” “It is impossible for me to start the reconstruction of my house, and the reason is the government’s faulty policy,” she added. Lata Nityananda, civil contractor, said: “It is difficult for the slum dwellers to invest Rs 60,000 at a time. The policy is defective and due to such faulty policies this slum has never seen development.” Ganesh, a slum dweller, said: “I work in a petty shop and earn only Rs 2, 000 a month. It is not possible for me to spend such a large amount for the reconstruction of my house.”
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Lack of awareness leaves Emu farming untapped Photo Credit: Sidharth Shekhar
By Sidharth Shekhar Farmers in many parts of Karnataka have taken Emu farming to a whole new level. Due to high demand for Emu meat and oil, farmers are earning good money but they are looking for government support to set up ancillary units to produce oil and emu leather. Every part of Emu has a market value. Other than its meat, the skin, eggs, feathers and even nails of an emu have commercial value. The poultry industry which is constantly marred by the dreaded bird flu virus also fails to make any impact on these birds. India had its first Emu farm in Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh in 1998 but the government’s lack of support to Emu farmers has hampered the business. Though the business is good, a lot more needs to be done. Emu oil, which is believed to have medicinal properties, especially for treating joint pains is in great demand but lack of processing units has left this part untapped. Emu skin is used in the preparations of shoes, bags, belts, purses and seat covers for expensive cars.
Unlike other birds, Emus are immune to bird flu.
“Emu feathers are also very useful. They are in demand both in the fashion and in art and craft industries. They are used as feather duster, feather pad, fans, bows and
masks. But currently, there are no takers for these feathers in Karnataka, because nobody knows about it and people lack basic knowledge about the bird” said Mr.
Sudeep Farm supervisor, Frenzy Emu Farms, Bangalore. He also added: “There are no government processing units in Karnataka which leaves the ground
open for private players and currently there are 60 private processing units in total”.There are enormous export opportunities but even this sector is untapped. V. Rangaswamy, Owner of a handloom weaving unit and a traditional farmer entered the field five years ago after he saw an emu farm based in Devanahalli, he finds this business more lucrative now, he said: “Agriculture is getting very labor intensive. Thus many farm laborers are migrating to organized Emu rearing. Also, agricultural products don't have minimum support prices so people are looking for alternatives.” Many farmers are taking Emu rearing as a side business. It is rapidly gaining popularity in India, and many are taking to it as an alternative to cash crops. Currently, emu farms in India have about 25,000 of the birds, including 10,000 grower and 15,000 breeder birds. But with the lack of government support and no awareness, farmers are left with no choice but only to cater to the local market even when the scope is large and competition is less.
N.Murthy addressed MES college on economic condition of India.
By Reshma Tarwani Narayana Murthy at MES arts, commerce and science college Simple, humble and a great techno giant, Vice Chairman of Infosys, Mr. Narayan Murthy was addressing the topic of business and ethics at MES Arts Commerce and Science College, Bangalore. “350 million Indians with very little money for education and shelter, their day begins with just Rs. 100 a day. They have to survive with 100 rupees for the entire month and we just have words to talk about it and nothing else,” he said. Narayana Murthy was known for his simplicity and his decision making. He has shown his concern
towards the many issues which India has been facing like development, child labor, literacy, food and shelter. He has portrayed the picture of India in a very colorful manner in his motivational speech. He described all the positive pictures of India and disclosed some shocking facts: He said: “India is the second largest software industry in the world. Soon we will be called as the basket of software.” “Our India is the country which has sent the highest number of student in the United Nations this year.” He also shed some light on the recent economical condition of India, like water, hunger and lowest ranking of India in the hunger index among 74 nations. He also shared his thoughts towards rural India. “We do have political freedom in our country but we don’t have economic prosperity, and political freedom without economic prosperity is useless,” he said. While addressing the youth he said that: “When my friend and I were in college, we did not have the confidence within us. We were hiding ourselves always. Today I am shocked to see the level of confidence among the youth. It’s positive,” he said. He also talked about India and China. According to him, Indian policies are weak and vague when compared to China. India still has lot to do, he says. “Our tricolor is Made In china.” “We have become the only nation in the world were people fight to be called backward,” he said. Remembering his frind Abdul Kalam he concluded his talk by saying “It is your responsibility and my responsibility to rank India on of the developed nation”
3G services in India, which were launched with much fanfare two years ago, have failed to provide the promised speed complains the cutomers. Padma SN, an Airtel user, rues: “I had activated 3G services for my smartphone last year, but the speed is much less than expected. Also, these services consume a lot of battery power and I have to keep charging my phone.” Experts blame the equipment used by 3G service providers for the inferior performance. Somaiah MP, ASIC Engineer at Cisco Systems, who develops switches and routers used by 3G service providers, says: “Service providers in India do not use highquality equipment that can handle peak hour traffic. The main constraint for this is the cost factor as companies are not willing to make investments in an industry where the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is coming down.” Somaiah further added that
Photo Credit: Nikita Malusare
Photo Credit: Reshma Tarwani
Narayan Murthy:Political Lack of speed irks 3G customers freedom without economic By Kakoli Mukherjee prosperity is useless
Consumers ceased to apply for 3G connection due to high data price.
since the number of telecom usersin India has grown exponentially in the last five years, the service providers find it difficult to handle such high volume of traffic. The engineer elaborates: “Each individual uses his phone, one laptop in office and one at home to access these services. As a result, the number of end points per user has gone up”. Dr. Sanjay Jain, Head of Department, Department of Electronics
and Communication Engineering, New Horizon College of Engineering, has a different take on the matter. He says: “ Indians are cost-conscious customers, and Indians generally do not believe in investing in something if they do not feel the need for it. Most of the Indians still do not require internet connection in their phones, and that is why, 3G services will take another five to seven years to find wide acceptance in India.” R.N. Hanchinal, Sub-divisional Engineer, CSC Incharge, BSNL, said: “Yes, we do receive complaints about our 3G services, but they are not many. Sometimes, the user might face difficulties in areas where there is no network coverage. We are trying to solve that by reaching out to more places.” Dalai Lama Lead: Inner peace and the need for a more humane science were the key messages delivered by the 14th Dalai Lama at Christ College today.
New lease of life for teen after rare knee operation By Satyajith GD A rare surgical operation gave a new life to Sunil at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital a week ago on 19th. Doctors, B G Thilak Kumar and H S Chandra Shekar, of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital gave a brief on the successful surgery they had performed. Sunil Kumar,17, who had undergone surgery at the hospital, responded to queries from the doctors and the audience on the operation. The doctors said that Sunil would be able to walk again in six months time without the use of crutches. They said that Sunil will undergo physiotherapy for the next 2 months. Dr. H S Chandra Shekar showed the video of Sunil Kumar before
surgery was performed on his knee, which had been deformed since birth. They claimed that it was a rare surgery which they had performed. There were no medical books for this type of surgery, they claimed. After this surgery, they said they were writing a medical book for this type of surgery. They said they had already sent a detailed report to the Indian Medical Association and the Indian Medical Council about their achievements. The Sanjay Gandhi Hospital Director claimed that theirs is the only hospital which conducts knee replacement surgeries in Bangalore. The surgeries are performed free of cost, apart from a small fee
exacted by the hospital on special shoes and crutches. Officials of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital said that the government is allotting Rs. 10 crore every year to the hospital. They however said that the funds were inadequate as hospital overheads alone exceed Rs. 8 crore every year. He said that around 10-12 major surgeries were performed at the hospital every day. They also said that space at the hospital was inadequate.The hospital management had asked for 100 beds from the government, but permission was not forthcoming. The Director of the hospital asserted some research and funds in the fiel will them become experts.
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Human chain seeks organ donation By Aheli Raychaudhuri On International Organ Donation Day, prominent city NGO’s took the initiative to form a human chain and raise awareness on the importance of donating organs. “Gift Your Organ”, a Bangalore based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) took the responsibility of creating a human chain on the junction of Brigade Road and M.G. Road. This event was to celebrate the International Organ Donation Day which falls on the 26th of November, each year. This organization was started last year, after a casual conversation over the lack of awareness of organ
donation propelled a few youngsters into action. They also organized a drive last year at Mantri Mall to raise awareness on the importance of donating other organs besides eyes. Raj Sethia, the Project Director said, "We have successfully convinced 4,800 people to donate their organs. Our main donors are from the RTOs and these days every registered donor gets a personalised "Organ Donor" badge on their driving license. Apart from that, we have 2000 people who are registered donors. " The chain was formed by volunteers, mainly college students.
There were around 70-80 students that turned up for the event. Most of them were from the Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. Raj added, "The money is usually raised by friends and acquaintances of the members and other people associated with the organization. We mainly rely on word of mouth and at times social media. However we organize these drives and other events to raise awareness and not money." The event was sponsored by the Colombia Asia Hospital. The customized t-shirts reading "Gift Your Organ" and the placards were sponsored by the hospital too.
Protest condemn killing of RTI activist,Lingaraju
Aheli Raychaudhary
By Debanti Roy
Enthusiastic volunteers link together to form a human chain and raise awareness on the importance of organ donation
Sex selective abortion rampant in the city continued from page 1 According to the recent study of institute of Social and Economic changes, more than 2000 scanning centers have been found. Krishnamurthy, Health Education Officer (Health and Family welfare department) said: “People’s mindset is very rigid. We have implemented many programs and committees to combat sex selective abortions, but our committee members are themselves involved in such practices.”
He went on to say that recently, 30 cases of female foeticide had been registered in Shimoga, and said that he was shocked to hear that his own committee members were involved. According to the Pre- Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT), sex-selective abortion is allowed only in hospitals that have licenses to perform the procedures. However, there are more that 50 illegal clinics that have been registered in the month of August alone,
say authorities. Rehma Khan, Chief Officer of PNDT Act (Health and Family Welfare Department) said: “After implementing so many awareness programs, still good doctors are involved in this illegal practice. All over Bangalore, only 500 scanning centers are officially recognized and licensed.” He said that there were no records for the other 1500 illegal scanning centers where sex selective abortions have taken place.
BJP accused of corruption Mahasabha’s(AKVM) primary demand was that the government should declare September 17 of every year as Vishwakarma Jayanthi and as a public holiday. Many were attempts made by the sangha to bring this to the notice of the government. The sangha also held a padayatra in the month of September from Chamundi Hill in Mysore to Bangalore, walking barefooted. Addressing the press persons,
Krishna Prasad
Vishwakarma community threatened state wide protests against the governments for not showing interest towards their community. In spite of padayatras for 180 kms and submitting memorandums to the governor, the government has not taken any steps towards improvisation of the community. The vishwakarma community has a population of 35, 00,000 in
K.P. Nanjundi, president of AKVM addressing the press conference
Karnataka. The community that pursues five different artisan professions — blacksmiths, carpenters, braziers, sculptors and goldsmiths, has been struggling for the last 12 years because of eight major demands by the government. Akhila Karnataka Vishwakarma
K.P.Nanjundi, the president of the sangha said: “The government, along with the police has criticized our community. We have also grown politically to some extent. We know how to make the winning person lose. So the government should take us seriously and re-
spond to our demands.” He also demanded that the check posts should function in proper manner i.e. Commercial and sales tax department should perform daily check up of vehicles that export or import gold. “None of the MLA’s or the ministers had the courtesy of coming to us and speaking about this. No IAS or IPS officer knows how we suffered during the padayatra. Our legs were bleeding. But none of them bothered to speak to us regarding this”, said K.P.Nanjundi. He also said that, about 100-150 kgs of gold was bought to Bangalore everyday but it was not accounted. “I do not know whether the Government will fall by then or survive. I request Jagadish Shettar, the Chief-minister to respond to our demands before we take any serious steps, failing which protests are going to spark all the zillas of Karnataka”, said K.P. Nanjundi, addressing the press conference. At present only one lady Zilla panchayat member from the community has become the president at a place called Gejjalagere near Mandya. Akhila Karnataka Vishwakarma Sabha has staged a protest from September 27 to September 29, 2012 in front of Town Hall along with the swamiji of the same community and members joining the protest.
Arjun and Karthik, sons of Lingaraju held a protest at Town hall to condemn the brutal killing of their father. Lingaruju, an RTI activist and whistleblower was murdered by hired hands on Tuesday. “This was the black day for RTI and Human Rights activists”, said Pramod Goni, President of the National Forum for Human Rights. Prominent citizens, RTI activists and members of various RTI Activist Organisations condemned the brutal killing of Lingaraju in the protest. Arjun, son of Linjaruju, said, “ We used to get threatening calls from 2010, and we even complained to the police, but no action was taken and the result was that they tore my father’s flesh out in front of my mother.” “My mother is the only eye-
witness of the crime and her life is also at risk, we want protection,” he added. The protestors demanded that bail be denied for all the arrested persons till completion of the trial and also protection for the family members of Lingaruju. Mr. N Vikramsimha, RTI activist said, “Govindaraju and Azad Nagar Corporator Gowramma, are the key accused and should not be spared by the government.” The activists also demanded for a special court to expedite trial proceedings. “There should be protection offered to whistleblowers in our country. What is the purpose of the RTI act if it cannot protect the people who use it? This is horrifying and tragic,” said Pramod Goni, “Our only request is the government look into this matter and perform a speedy trial so that justice can be imparted to all,” he added.
IAF Officer cycles half the world to raise funds for charity By Krishna Prasad A retired Indian Air Force Officer has been going on cycling tours for the last 10 years to help garner support for various social causes. The beneficiaries of Mr. Murali’s annual expedition were the underprivileged children at Ashankura, the school for special children run by Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Murali, who recently went on a 4-day long trip across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, managed to collect Rs.88,000 to help pay the fees of underprivileged children studying at Ashankura. “Every year, I go on cycling expeditions with a two-fold objective: to spread awareness about various social causes and collect donations from friends, well-wishers and philanthropists spread across the world. Before starting out on an expedition, I send out letters and brochures by e-mail and post, seeking funds
The Observer Team Publisher: Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media Address: Opp. BGS International Residency School, Kumbulgudu, Kengeri, Bangalore, Karnataka560060 News Editor: Rohan Prem Kumar Chief Sub Editor: Vintu Augustine Photo Editor: Kriti Khandelwal
for an identified cause. I also distribute brochures wherever I go. This year, the theme of my cycling expedition was ‘For the Special Children’. Ashankura has been doing excellent service by providing education to special children and helping them become independent and contributing members of the society. I am happy that I have been able to support the children,” says Mr Murali. The eligibility for admission to Ashankura is that the child should have basic mobility, at least with assistance. Young children between five and eight years of age are preferred. There has to be proper psychological assessment and medical records and all avenues of integrating the child in a normal school environment should have failed. The students are divided into four groups based on their ability levels. Everyone at Ashankura, however, is part of one big family, said Murali. Sub Editors: Priyanka Roy, Pyusha Chatterjee, Shreya Mukherjee, Urmi Sen Gupta, Deepu Aby Vargese, Nikita Malusare Proof Readers: Sidharth Shekar, Sumit, Amrita Ray Printer: Lotus Printers, 32/25, 2nd Main Road, Sir M.V. Industrial Town, West of Chord Road, Bangalore Mail at us: editor@iijnm.org