Volume 15 | Issue 24
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Driving sober? Traffic cops may still fine you Oindrila Sarkar Traffic cops have been threatening and harassing motorists and in some cases illegally confiscating vehicles as part of the force’s helmet crackdown. Bangalore’s traffic police department claims 3,500 offenders have been caught every day at various checkpoints in the city and booked for various offences, including drink-driving and pillion passengers not wearing a helmet. But at several checkpoints set up in the city, especially at night, motorists are complaining that officers demand bribes, confiscate their vehicles illegally and even book them for offences they did not commit. One city worker was booked for being over the drink drive limit when he had not been drinking that
evening. When he challenged the officers, they seized his motorbike. Any motorist caught driving under the influence of liquor beyond the permissible 30mg limit is liable to be charged with the offence of drunken driving. The legal and permissible limit is 30mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The Bangalore Traffic Police claims to be using state of the art alcometers(breath analyzers) accepted worldwide to measure the level of alcohol in the blood. The traffic police claim that their instruments are calibrated every three months with a margin for error of +(-)5per cent. This margin means they only prosecute those whose reading is above 40mg. But that, says Robin Christopher J, a lawyer at the Alternative Law Forum
in Bangalore, is only on paper. He claims it has become a trend here for sober people to be prosecuted because the breathalysers are reading much more than 40mg and even crossing 50mg. He said, “We are often contacted by people who are being harassed on the streets by the cops who are on night patrol who demand unreasonable bribes threatening an alcometer test on everyone because they know it will test positive in any case.” Kunal Bhatia,who was riding home on his bike on the January 23, was stopped on 100ft Rd around the golf links. The policemen snatched away the keys of his Yamaha bike even before he could produce his driving licence. Afraid that his DL would also be snatched away he asked them not harass him. The
police used a breathalyzerto test him which read 54per cent.
Many government officials invited to attend the state’s first ever public hearing on slum evictions failed to attend the event. The Karnataka Slum Janara SanghatanegalaOkkoota (KSJSO), a federation of slum resident organizations, organized the hearing in light of the increasing number of slum evictions in the state by government and private companies. The federation invited officials from the departments of Housing Urban Development, Revenue, Women and Child welfare, SC/ST commission, Backward Classes Commission, Minorities Commission, Child Rights Commission and the Karnataka Slum Board. However, only NP Balraj, Technical Director at the Karnataka Slum Board, and one other official from the education department attended the hearing. Vinay Kumar Sorakke, Minister for Urban Development, was also absent. Issac Arul Selva, editor of ‘Slum Jagathu’ and one of the organizers, said, “The members of these departments are
liberal upper class people and they are a problem. When we go into their offices, their response is lax and the same. We go to around 300 people, they say they will respond in a week or so but they never do. It is difficult for us to visit them again and again." The public hearing was held to examine citizenship, urban deprivation and future policy direction.A jury of eight was present to preside over the event as case studies were discussed. Residents and representatives of various slums like Kalsipalya, Pillaganahalli, Gulbarga, and Vinobha Nagar were present. Residents of slums of other districts like, Siddharthanagar(Kalburgi), Alvi Masjid (Vijayapura), Gandhivala( Hubbali), were also present. Babu Mathew, a member of the jury and professor at National Law School of India University, Bangalore: “Slum evictions must be seen in the background of what is happening to urbanization in the context of globalization. The whole effort is to try and build an urban economy and simultaneously there is complete ruination of agriculture. So, this kind
of migration is inevitable and when the numbers are so huge there is pressure on everything like land and resources. "But given that the government is inducing these evictions it is their responsibility to tackle it which they are not doing. They are only worried about using all this land for speculative purposes.To tackle the question of land and housing we need to have a stronger legislative framework.” Shivani Chaudhry, another member of the jury and Executive Director, Housing and Land Rights Network, added: “It is very clear that there are political and monetary forces after the land, but, people are actually living on these lands for 30-40 years, they have all the documents. So, when the government wants people to be recognized citizens it given them voter ID cards, ration cards, because they want their votes. But then when it comes to land and money, the people are considered as if they don’t exist. The constitution and the laws exist only for the rich, for the poor there is no justice or law. “And this not just in Karnataka, it is prevalent all over
Homes plan for slum sparks Lokayutka complaint People living in Srinagar slum for over two decades claim they are being harassed into leaving.
Page 2
City doctors support banned drug
A traffic policemen in Indira Nagar stopping a sober biker Contd. on page 4
Govt officials fail to turn up for public hearing Aparajita Khandelwal Reema Mukherjee
BRIEFS
the country. People are evicted without any notice and are not even allowed to collect their things. They build their houses with so much money, sweat and labour and they are just demolished. “ All their possessions are lost. If the government focused on rural development people would not migrate in such large numbers. Land is taken from people in rural areas and the same is not given to them when they migrate to the cities. “Most migrants living in the cities have been displaced several times in their lives. People in power should know about the laws, so, human rights education is very important. The government needs to do what it says. All the schemes like the ‘PradhanMantriAwasYojna’ need to be implemented with will and conviction.” A comprehensive verdict of the hearing will be submitted to the government in the first week of February. Slum dwellers share their stories - Page 3 (as stated in case study by KSJSO) Homes plan for slum sparks Lokayutka complaint - Page 2
Patients face paying more for costlier eye treatment drugs after the ban on cancer drug Avastin. Page 3 Silk wars: China behind India's fall? Silk producers and traders in the state fear that cheaper Chinese silk is bringing India's silk production down. Page 4 Bangalore’s first Candy Man didn’t need a govt sweetener Mahmoud Adeeb Abu Sher came over from Syria to establish the first confectionary factory in Bangalore. Page 6