Issue 22 by IIJNM Bangalore

Volume 15 | Issue 22

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Govt department rakes in crores, neglects temples Oindrila Sarkar The government department responsible for Hindu temples in the state has no accounting procedures and doesn’t know how much land they hold. Crores of rupees donated annually to temples in Karnataka is handed over to the said department. . The Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Department also known as the Muzrai Department of Karnataka has 35,000 temples under its control which are governed by a legislation. According to the Hindu religious institutions and charitable endowments act, 1997, the state government is responsible for the upkeep and revenue of temple property which falls under the Muzrai department. According to the law, control, supervision and administration of Hindu religious institutions in the state is its responsibility so that temple lands, both movable and immovable property could not be misused or misappropriated. The maximum revenue generating temples in the state are categorised as under ‘A’ and ‘B’ category temples.

According to reports of the Muzrai department, in the year 2014-2015, the 160 ‘A’ category temples in the state collectively generated a declared revenue income of three hundred and forty four crores, four lakhs and twenty nine thousand rupees. The 154 ‘B’ category temples recorded total revenue income of twenty five crores, sixty two lakhs and thirty three thousand rupees. Murari, who lives in the ashram of the Gavigangadhareshwara temple in Hanumanth Nagar, Bangalore, said: “There are pundits (priests) in the Agama section of the Muzrai Department who hold a lot of clout. There is a lot of dirty politics that goes on when it comes to deciding on what amount of temple money should or should not be spent. Most of the temples have acres of land, jewellery and gold which are all under government control.” When asked whether the money earned by the temple was being spent on it, Murari said, “ Not even a fraction of that money is used for maintaining the temple. After many years they have now decided to paint the exterior walls of the

Banashankari Temple, Bangalore Gavigangadhareshwara temple. Most of us who live in the ashram and are dependent upon the money which people donate to the temples barely manage to live while there is a small group of privileged and powerful people who have been instituted in the temples by the department. They are the ones running the show and making money out of temple property.” “Temple lands are also disappearing yet the department has no records of the land that

they are supposed to be in charge of.” He concluded. Magdalina Nalina, who heads the Muzrai Department said, “Land surveys have not been completed. We still do not know exactly how much land we hold from the temples in the whole of Karnataka.” When asked about the records on expenditure for the revenue generated in the past three years, she said, “ Such critical details cannot be given, the trusts of every temple in the districts will have them.”

BRIEFS Page 2 They were promised a roof over their heads. After 15 years all they have is a staircase Gulbarga colony, near Jayanagar, Bangalore is home to people who fled the devastating drought that hit KarnatakaHyderabad in the 1970s Page 3 Apartment block sank six inches during metro work, residents warned to stay away A three storey building sitting above a tunnel being dug for the city’s metro has subsided by six inches and its owner is still fighting for compensation

Page 3

RaGa calls for compensation over Hyderabad University suicide Payal Gangishetty

Rahul Gandhi addressing the protesters in HCU

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi visited the Hyderabad Central University campus to show solidarity with the students grieving and protesting over the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit PhD student. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor were named in an FIR on monday over the alleged suicide of the Dalit student. “It is important that there is legislation in near future that gives Indian students bare minimum rights regardless of their caste or religion,” said Rahul Gandhi , speaking at the protest. He added, “Rohith was not alone, and this happening in almost all the big universities. Strict punishment should be

imposed on people responsible for his death.” Hanumanth Rao, Congress MP who was present on campus during the protest said, “ The plight of Dalit students should not be ignored, the rights should be secured.” Students submitted a petition to Mr. Gandhi asking him to support their demands including cancellation of the current VC’s term. “Mr.Gandhi has blamed the central government for imposing regulations on universities. Responding to the demands of the students, he asked the authority to release a 5 crore compensation to the family of the deceased,” said, Anwar Chicharito, a member of Joint Action Committe for Social Justice. According to the sources, Arvind Kijriwal and BSP chief Mayawati are expected to visit UoH campus tomorrow.

Karaga festival fund to be scrutinized Funding for an annual state festival is at the centre of a government investigation Page 4 We are not landgrabbers, say realtors Failure of government authorities leading to contamination of lakes

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 2

THE OBSERVER Continued from Page 1 Murari said , “The temple had lands in Gavipuraguttahalli which are all lands donated to the temple and strictly temple property which cannot be encroached upon. “The Department of Archaeology and Muzrai Department who were supposed to protect it turned a blind eye while the lands kept getting encroached. The temple trust hardly complained and turned a blind eye towards it. Murari insisted that temple land on plot number 56 had been encroached upon, mostly by houses. Ganesha, who lives in the Sri Kumaraswamy Temple in Hanumanthanagar, Bangalore said, “The department decided to hand over 8,000 square feet of kalyani (sacred pond) land belonging to the thousand year old VasanthaVallabharaya

Sri Kumaraswamy Temple, Hanumanthanagar, Bangalore temple for the construction of a 40 feet wide road in Vasanthapura near Konanakunte. “N.Balakrishna Naidu, a proprietor with the Naidu Projects

Land Developers, wrote to the Muzrai Department in 2013 requesting it to set aside land for a 40 feet road.” They deliberately released effluents into the Kalyani to turn it into a sewer. Ganesha said, “The Revenue Department had to intervene and it struck down the proposal to hand over the land. On December 5th, 2013, the Special Deputy Commissioner Sr(Bangalore South) instructed the Muzrai department that the proposal to build a 40 feet road should be immediately dropped.” He added, “This is just an instance which shows that the department is hand in glove with private players and land sharks and have enormous business interest in the property that they are supposed to take care of.” The website of the Muzrai department states: “it is unique

as it has sanctity for being the department of gods.” Further they state that they serve the Janardhana( gods) whereas the other departments serve the Janata (people). A junior priest in the Banshankari temple who spoke on condition of anonymity , said, “Income coming from temples and going in to the state exchequer is not being monitored . There is an elite group of priests who are getting richer and they influence policy. Temple lands are being encroached upon but pointing fingers outside would not be fair as many temple management people are aware of the malpractices .” The Banashankari temple is the richest of all the ‘A’ category temples in the state and had generated revenue of five crore, twenty six lakhs and thirteen thousand for the year

2014-2015. A commissioner is attached to the temples if it generates more than rupees two lakhs a year. In cases where the annual income exceeds rupees ten lakhs and more, a committee is attached to the temple. Devraj, member of the Sri Kumaraswamy Temple Trust said, “All allegations of temple land encroachment and temple money embezzlement are false.” sitting at the Mahadeshwara Bhavan in Chamarajpet, which houses the Muzrai Department, he did not reveal the purpose of his visit. He also refused to say whether he was a member of the AkhilaBharata Hindu Temple priests, Agamikara and Upadhivantatra Federation. He said, “Any allegations against the priests are also baseless.”

They were promised a roof over their heads. After 15 years, all they have is a staircase Maqsood Maniyar The four children frantically put together firewood that they’ve gathered on the dusty floor, even the four year old. To their back is their home, except that it’s not a home, just a dull staircase where their family of six lives. This situation is commonplace in ‘Gulbarga colony’ where 30 families squat under the staircases of buildings. The colony is home to over 3,500 people. However their story goes back to 1973. Crippled by the great drought of the seventies, some fifty farmers from Gulbarga district fled to Bangalore in search of employment. Originally they were put up in the slums of Wilson garden. Congress bigwigs like Dharam Singh, VerappaMoily and Ramalinga Reddy helped them hold on to their homes. In 2000, the then chief minister S.M.Krishna accommodated them in the current Gulbarga colony located near RBI colony in Jayanagar. The union government shelled down some two and a half crore rupees to have 277 houses constructed. The construction was undertaken by HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited). "In all 308 families live here, among them 30 families have no homes, they use public bathrooms" says B.M. Bahadur, a booth level officer with the Election Comission of India. A de facto spokesperson for the colony, he claims the place is overcrowded and that 86 more houses are needed. Since then, two generations

have grown up in Bangalore. They dont know of the places that earlier generations called home. Residents complain that drains get clogged every week and that there is a shortage of drinking water but there seems to be no bigger scourge than homelessness. Ashok Goshi,40, a porter, lives with his wife and daughter in a closet beneath the staircase. He hails from Yadgir district and moved to Bangalore in 1992. "We were careless back then,had we been proactive and taken someone's help we would have been allotted a house" he says. It doesn't stop there. Shankar G, aged 36 lives with wife, mother and three children in a similar space underneath the staircase. Prabhu and his family of six also live under the stairs. Chand Pasha, aged 20 is also a squatter. Sangeeta Shravan Kumar who lives in the cramped space with her family of five said: "It gets really difficult when it rains, we can't bear to see the children like this ".Sangeeta claims that they always vote for the Congress. People in the colony have small land holdings back home, if you want to call it their home. People complain that agriculture isn’t a profitable business and that a few acres of land doesn’t do them much good. In Bangalore, most of them have become porters. A few others ride auto rickshaws for a living. However, not everyone gets by. There are 30 families who are homeless. They squat in staircases of

Gulbarga Colony, Bangalore buildings along with their families. Children in blue uniforms drag themselves wearily back from school and women have to skip across a ditch to reach the only drinking water tap in the vicinity. Vegetable vendors file in to the colony and are immediately surrounded. New buildings are under construction and sand lies in a mound on the side of the street. Promises were made by politicians of the Indian National Congress who’ve held sway in the assembly constituency for quite some time. From 1987 to 2003, Ramalinga Reddy was the MLA of Jayanagar. The colony was then shuffled and now it falls under the Chickpet constituency. Congressman, R.V. Devraj is the ruling MLA. The corporator (ward 153) is Gangambike Mallikarjun, also from the Congress. A community hall is being constructed, so heavy cement mixing machines have been deployed.

They've been taking up parking space on the sides of the roads, much to the annoyance of other residents of the area. "Before machines L&T and ACC cement came along such construction works would employ greater number of people, now we have these parking problems to deal with as the cement mixing machines take up too much space," laments B.M. Bahadur. BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders get a relief of 25 kilograms of rice, 5 kilograms of ragi and a kilogram each of cooking oil, salt and sugar. Residents also said that they get free health care at Sanjay Gandhi government hospital. Others unassociated with Gulbarga, have made the colony their home. Syed Ahmed, originally from Bangalore is an auto rickshaw driver and he lives with his family of nine in the colony in a proper house. Hussain Bi, a septagenarian, vividly recalls how she fled her native village of Kurkunda in Gulbarga district. "I had my 18 month son in my arms, we

left behind three acres of land during that terrible drought of the seventies". She lives with her daughter in law, son and five grandchildren. Her husband passed away. She adds that her family has no less than three acres of land in Kurkunda, where beans and jowar are still grown. They have kept the land in the care of their relatives and they split the profits by means of crop sharing. The colony also has a Kannada medium government school going up to fifth standard and teachers are brought from the outside. Problems ranging from homelessness to poor indoor plumbing still remain in the life of the people of Gulbarga colony as does the general indifference to them.

People use space below staircases for housing

3 THE OBSERVER

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Apartment block sank six inches during metro work, residents warned to stay away Payal Gangishetty A three storey building sitting above a tunnel being dug for the city’s metro has subsided by six inches and its owner is still fighting for compensation. The on-going tunnelling work by Namma Metro in the northsouth corridor that covers Chickpet to Majestic has not only caused the residents of that area to evacuate from their houses, but also have incurred damage to their property. For the first time since underground tunnelling works started, a house may have to be demolished after it developed cracks due to the Namma Metro works. Tunnel boring machine has travelled past Balepet area of City Market, but for families there, it is all about starting from scratch. In November, as TBM machine for underground works dug its way towards Chickpet station, the residents of Balepet felt tremors and were asked to evacuate and move to safer places for a week or two. But the residents claimed, if they knew that the tunnelling work would take more than a week they would never agree to vacate their houses. “We were not given a prior intimation to vacate nor did we get any notice from the BMRCL authorities, we felt tremors in the night due to the TBM, and later we were shifted

to a lodge,” said Dinesh Kumar, a resident of Chickpet He added, “Since October we are staying in a lodge. It is almost three months now. We were told to shift only for a week.” Due to the cracks by the tunnel boring machine, three houses in that area are damaged and because of this it is now unsafe for the residents to move back to their homes. Raghavendra, a resident of Balepet whose house has now subsided by six inches due to the TBM, is confused whether to shift back or not. “ We left our house with the basic things that we needed, we never knew we would be in this situation where we need to take permission to shift back to our house, due to the tunnelling work my entire building has subsided by six inches,” said Raghavendra. He added, “Despite many complaints regarding this issue, the BMRCL is ignorant and has not paid any compensation for it. I just want to ask them how safe is it to move back when my building is not on a straight platform.” He continued, “I have also incurred loss for the stock of materials that were kept in the godown, and not a single penny is paid for the damage of the material. I do not understand who gave them the permission to just throw away my materials on the road without even asking me?” Raghavendra sells

Buiding that subsided by six inches in Balepet raw materials for bags. This is not just the case with Raghavendra, another shop owner Ramesh is also facing a similar problem. His godown which is used as a store house to stock raw materials which are sold to industries is now completely under water. “Due to the underground tunnelling work the groundwater has been completely filled in my godown where I store the raw materials everything is damaged now, the materials were worth seven lakhs,” lamented Ramesh Kumar. He added,“I am fed up of going to their office now, every time I go I am made to go pillar to post but nobody bother to take the complaint. I am ready to speak to any

higher official but there nobody responds properly.” Prakash, another resident said, “If the BMRCL authorities pay us even half the amount of what we have lost as compensation we will be happy.” Ashwath Narayan a resident of Balepet who was shifted out of his three storey building as it developed cracks said, “After three months of continuous requests, just few days back I was given a rented house and a shop by the BMRCL. They told they will demolish the house and pay the compensation for it.” He added, “Whenever I ask them about the compensation they simply tell that it will be given through some private insurance company, but I do not know whether I will be really given the compensation or not.” “ The BMRCL is not required to compensate for the damages caused. The contractors will compensate, they are insured so the insurance companies will step in and the affected party shall receive compensation,” said Vasanth Rao, CPRO, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited. However, Rao refused to disclose the name of the company that had been awarded the contract and the insurance company involved. Deadline for the NorthSouth Corridor For the North- South Corridor, the tunnelling work is still progressing and it is racing against time to catch up the re-

vised deadline of June 2016. Deadline for the East – West Corridor Namma Metro has missed several deadlines since its inception in 2006. Initially it was scheduled to be completed by December 2012, but was pushed to 2013. Later the deadlines were postponed to March 2015, September 2105, December 2015 and now latest one is June 2016, which again looks unlikely to be completed, going by the speed of work. Status of the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMS): Krishna: Tunnelling from Chickpet to Kempegowda station which started a week ago has completed 4.5 meters and 740 meters is still pending. Kaveri: Tunnelling between Chickpet and Kempegowda metro station: 564 meters completed, 180 mts pending to reach Kempegowda.

Fact Box Number of stations: 42 (Phase -1) Deadline:March,2016 Functionalstretches:5 Yet to be functional: 4

Karaga festival fund to be scrutinized Laxmi Narayani Funding for an annual state festival is at the centre of a government investigation. Officials of the Muzrai Department – which oversees temples and religious festivals – demanded accounts from leaders of the Karaga Festival after complaints about bills not being settled. Those previously in charge of the popular festival, who were stopped from taking part this year after a court case – have yet to respond to the order, sent on January 8. DharmarayaSwamy Temple, one of the oldest temples in the city, conducts the Karaga festival every year during the month of April. The Thigala community, said to be the first people to live in the state, hold the festival each year. Small traders who contributed to the festival claim

they were not paid, even though accounts show their fees settled. Three community leaders in charge in recent years have now been ordered by a court to step aside. One of the men presided over the festival for three years even though the office should be held for only one year. His refusal to step down prompted the move to go to court. “It’s my turn this year, after the High Court order,” saidLakshmisha, who is going to head the festivalthis year in the temple belonging to the Thigalara (Kshatriya) community. The festival usuallylasts a month. The person who carries the Karagais supposed to take care of the temple for the following year. In December 2014, Lakshmisha was ordered to take care of the temple and carry

Thigala community people celebrating Karaga Festival that honor for April 2015 by the High Court.

CM Siddaramaiah announced Rs.1 crore for conducting the festival every year in February 2014, after a major protest by the Thigalara community people in the national grounds. Krishnamurthy, one of the members of the Dharmaraya Swamy Devasthana Trust, said, “The Muzrai Department issues the amount to the person who conducts this festival. Before that there was a committee taking care of the temple, now it’s directly taken by the government. “It is being questioned by the Muzrai Department to disclose the exact accounts within the specified time.” Lakshmi, Assistant Commissioner of Muzrai Departmentsaid, “I had sent the notice on 8th January and they are yet to disclose any information. “ She also said that the department had launched an investigation in the case and is

yet to receive an explanation or accounts. Anjaan, flower decorator for the festival said, “They refused to pay me the dues and the record shows it had been settled.” So he filed an RTI eight months ago to reveal the exact amount that had been spent in the festival which shouldnot exceed more than Rs.30 lakhs. “Many contribute to this festival as a part of donation, so the amount claimed must be used by these people,” he added. The protest that was held during February 2014 was also for the reservation for their community, but no action has been taken by the government. Lakshmisha said, “Around three lakh people gathered there to address the demand for reservation for our community, but still nothing has been given.”

4 THE OBSERVER

We are not land grabbers, say realtors Sanskriti Talwar Developers named in the list of lakebed encroachers released by a Karnataka assembly committee have denied any wrongdoing and some have even threatened legal action. The report notes that over 11,000 acres of lakebed had been encroached upon and 1,545 lakes were affected in greater Bangalore. Encroaching plots number over 60,000. On January 4, the committee headed by Congress MLA KB Koliwad, which was formed in September 2014 released a list of private companies and government agencies that encroached upon the lake beds of the city. The list has named Valmark Group, Adarsh Group, Prestige Group, DS Max, Shobha Developers, Brigade Groups, Oberoi Groups, Grass Hopper resorts, RNS Motors, Bagmane Tech Park, Pushpam Group, R K Developers, Nanadini Apartments, Lake View Apartments, Vandana Sagar Apartments, Oasis Apartments, Sri- Ram Apartments, Brigade Group, Phantasay Apartments and Mahalakshmi Apartments. Bangaluru Development Authority (BDA), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), the Department of Education, Forest and Transport are the government agencies which are accused of encroaching lakedbeds as well. Sonali Sattar, owner of Grass Hopper Resorts, which was established in 1988 on Bangarghatta Road, said:

“There is a road between our land and Kalena Agrahara lake. How can they call us encroachers? “When we bought the land all the documents were very clear. We were not told that we were encroaching on the lakebed. “We have been fighting for the upkeep of the lake for a very long time, and now out of the blue they are blaming us for all of it.” Alok Mishra from Pushpam Developers, said, “We have not been given any notice about us having encroached on a lake. “False reports should not be produced publicly, facts have not been checked. “BDA is itself under scrutiny for encroaching land because of which they are trying to divert people’s attention by blaming us.” Spokesperson of Nandini Apartments rebutted the claim that they were encroaching land and said, “We don’t fall into that category at all.” A spokeswoman for the Oberoi Group claimed that the list published on January 4, by Koliwad committee is purely speculative and is not corroborated via any written documentation. Pinky Padmaraj, communication manager of Oberoi Group, said, “It saddened us to learn that the name of The Oberoi Group featured in this speculative list as there is no legal basis to substantiate this inclusion. “Our company will follow all the legal parameters and respond through prescribed legal channels. “We will also respond to the

media houses through protocol approved channels who carried our name without due diligence.” There was a similar reaction from the Valmark Group, which denies any wrong doing over encroachment of lakes. R N S Motor refused to make any comment on the report while call went unanswered by Sri-Ram Apartments, N D Developers, Adarsh Group and DS Max. Most governmental agencies accused of encroachment remained tight lipped. However, Shivkumar from Human Resource Department, BDA said: “The greenbelt was defined later. We are not authorised to give you more information on the issue.” As per the Karnataka lake conservation and development authority bill 2014, people encroaching on lakebeds can be evicted and encroached lands can be recovered. Opposition party JDS (Janta Dal – Secular) had demanded that the law be amended so as to grant people living near lakebeds some relief. In May 2015, Congress cabinet minister, K.J. George had promised to amend the bill to exclude infrastructure that was found to be encroaching on ‘dead lakes’. However,amendments never came to pass. Moreover, Karnataka legislature committee was established under MLA koliwad which has now submitted a damning report. MLA Koliwad said, “ Those encroaching will get notice in upcoming days from Revenue Department.”

Pushpam Developers False reports should not be prduced publicly. We are not given any notice.

Alok Mishra

Oberoi Group No legal basis to substantiate this inclusion.

Pinky Padmaraj

Grass Hopper Resort

How can they call us encroachers? They are blaming us for all of it.

Sonalli Sattar

Failure of government authorities leading to contamination of lakes Raina Paul The shambolic governance of the city’s lakes is caused by warring government departments happy to play the blame game with each other, according to Kshitij Urs, co-founder of People’s Campaign for Right to Water. “It is the inability of the government authorities that is leading to the contamination of lakes in Bangalore city,” said Kshitij Urs. There are over 100 lakes in the city. Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) alone has around 117 lakes under its control and only five engineers to manage. BBMP full-out for first telling has around 85 lakes and six engineers to manage lakes. “We have enough officers in BBMP for the development of lakes,” said B.V Gagannath, Executive engineer BBMP. According to the Karnataka census 2011, the total population of Bangalore was 96, 21,551 compared to that of the population in 2001 which was 65, 37,124. This is a major reason for the contamination of water bodies, according to environmentalists.

Karnataka State Pollution control Board (KSPCB) which monitors the reasons for the contamination of the water bodies and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board which is responsible for cleaning the water bodies are not elected bodies. “The confusion among the government authorities regarding who is responsible for the lakes in Bangalore is used to their advantage to blame each other,” said Khitij. Mr. Kshitij said that the governance of water is the governance of the commons, and that for the past 10 years the BBMP has been in denial mode. They are either not capable or have vested interests. According to Comptroller and Auditor General Report 2015, there has not been enough manpower and finance for the maintenance of lakes in Bangalore. He added, “There has been no regular audit and there has been a pattern of strategic ways of finding excuses by the governing bodies by saying there is no money. “Bellandur and Varthur lakes are extreme examples. This is a direct reflection of the non -function of the senior

bureaucrats who are responsible.” He also said that there has been no way that anyone can question the authority. While speaking about the issue in Bellandur and Varthur, he said that there is a relationship between the industrialists and the government bodies that is making things worse for the lakes. He said that the chemicals from pharmaceuticals and leather companies are not treated and that the phosphorus content in the detergents that flow out of the apartments are way above the global limit. According to the study conducted by Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, the amount of phosphorus content in Europe is one tenth the level in India “There is not even one lake in Bangalore that has not been encroached since 1914. There cannot be any encroachment without the revenue dept notice, this makes them liable for the encroachment happening. The revenue department does not respond to the court orders.

What the law says The Karnataka lake conservation and development authority bill 2014, people encroaching on lakebeds can be evicted and encroached lands can be recovered.

Accused government agencies Bangaluru Development Authority (BDA), Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagarPalike(BBMP), the Department of Education, Forest and Transport

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 5

Chinnappanahalli Lake, Marathahalli The lake is spread over 11 acres 34 guntas. Only one acre of the lake area needs to be reclaimed from encroachments

Yediyur Lake, Jayanagar Bellandur Lake, Yamalur The Lake is filled with froth. It spread across three villages in 284 acres two guntas. No one is managing this lake. Though the lake was entrusted to the BDA, it has not maintained it.

Over 11,000 acres of lakebed were encroached upon and 1,545 lakes were affected in both urban and rural Bangalore

Halagevaderahalli Lake, Rajarajeshwari Nagar

Kaigondanahalli Lake, Marathahalli

The Halagevaderahalli tank, spread across 17 acres 10 guntas is maintained by BBMP. As much as 6 acres 9 guntas has been encroached upon. While 1 acre 28 guntas has been used for road construction, 4 acres 21 guntas have been encroached.

The lake is spread across 49 acres 7 guntas. Of this, 7 acres which was encroached upon has been reclaimed. Rainwater harvesting is being done here.

The extent of Yediyur lake is 18 acres 2 guntas. Of this, 10 acres, 07 guntas have been encroached upon. Of the encroached area, 2 acres 30 guntas have been used for laying a road and constructing a community hall, while the rest have been taken over for house building.

B Narayanapura Lake, Mahadevpura The lake is spread over 15 acres 6 guntas and 7 acres 5 guntas has been encroached upon. BDA has taken 2 acres 20 guntas for ring road construction. The lake is managed by BDA.

6 THE OBSERVER

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Observer Perspective

Maqsood Maniyar

Why would an intelligent, articulate 26 year old kill himself? The answer lies in the timeline of events which compelled Rohith Vemula to hang himself. Rohith and four other Dalit students, all of whom were research scholars at Hyderabad University were associated with the Amedkar Student’s Association (ASA). They ruffled a few fascist feathers with their outspoken style and call for upliftment of Dalits. In July 2015, the university stopped paying Vamula his stipend of 25,000 rupees. He came from humble means and this affected him deeply. Incredulously, the university blamed delayed paper work. On August 5, they were accused of assaulting N Susheel Kumar, a leader of the ABVP (Akhila Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad). The ABVP is the virtual student body of the ruling BJP. The allegations were later proven to be false by an independent investigation.

On August 17, BJP MP for Secunderabad and union labour minister, Bandaru Dattatreya wrote to HRD minister, Smriti Irani claiming, “Hyderabad University… has in the recent past, become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics.” He especially cited the ASA staging protesting against the hanging of Yakub Memon. In September, Vamula along with four of his Dalit compatriots were suspended. On December 17, the decision to ostracize the student activists and keep them out of their hostels was upheld by the university. Come January, the sanction stayed triggering hunger strikes and social media outrage. Finally, on January 17, the lifeless body of Rohith Vamula was found hanging from the ceiling of his friend’s room. They also found a gut wrenching suicide letter. Note that Rohith Vamula was harassed for six months before he took his life in what wasn’t suicide, but rather institutional murder. It was clear from the very first day that the ‘Sangh Parivar’ was displeased by the activities of the Dalit student’s body. The falsified charges of them assaulting an ABVP leader, the letter written by one BJP cabinet minister to another calling for action against ASA is proof of that. This comes in the wake of Police action at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India). Neither Gajendra Chauhan nor the powers that be backing him have relented. The saffronization of state educational institutions couldn’t be clearer. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. The Sangh has been given a free hand to manipulate the educational system of the country and to give it a saffron hue. Fascists are very clear in the articulation of their ideology and its execution. ‘Defy us and die”. Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi can all attest to this fact. Small wonder that writer Ashok Vajpayee has now registered his protest by returning the doctorate in literature which he received from Hyderabad University.

Vemula’s suicide has reignited the intolerance debate. The heart wrenching suicide note read, “The value of a man is reduced to his immediate identity..To a vote...To a number.” Rohith Chakravarthi Vemulapalli’s body was hanging in the hostel room of his friend in the Hyderabad Central University. This story has now entered the annals of the ‘Great Intolerance Debate’ in India. So what was it exactly? Did a group of intolerant people drive the budding scientist, who wanted to be like Carl Sagan, to bid goodbye to his sweet life? No proof exists in the so-called four letters about any written text from the Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattreya ordering the HRD ministry to act as a watchdog on the Hyderabad University. The affairs about which the revealed letters are enquiring do not bring to life the allegations against the government.

Oindrila Sarkar

Why are we trying to romanticise Rohith’s death? This is exactly what he had warned us about in his letter. His death is becoming another rallying point for politicians who are trying to portray themselves as messiahs of dalits in their hour of crisis. He will again become another number which the ‘Intolerance wallahs’ will cite to substantiate their claims of how there is a galloping intolerance in the country. The five dalit students who were thrown out of their hostels on January 3 had set up a tent in the campus from where they were protesting. The students and faculty who are howling intolerance had been witnessing this circus for the past many months. Did it not stir their conscience then? Why did they not speak out in support of their fellow students? Why did they ‘tolerate’ this eyesore of a

camp in their midst? Why did they ‘tolerate’ it when their fellow students were thrown out of their rooms and mess? Now, suddenly after #RohithVemula started trending on Twitter everybody is howling. Why try to get the moral high ground now when this was not an accident but an issue developing over many months? Facts are being selectively presented and the motive is driven by an agenda which is to portray the government of the day as communal and intolerant. When award wapsi was inaugurated by Nayantara Sehgal, niece of Congress stalwart Jawaharlal Nehru, nobody raised an eyebrow. What else could bring a glee on the face of the Congress matriarch than soot on the face of the opposition? As people started returning awards citing rising intolerance in the country, the data of people killed due to communal violence in India would disappoint them. For the month of January, in the years 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 the number of people killed were 94, 133, 95 and 11. This data was presented by our lawmakers in the Lok Sabha when debating rising communal riots in the country. Common people need to be aware of the fictitious facts they are fed with by people with political agenda. The culpable ones in Rohith’s suicide need to be identified and punished. Caste is relevant in India and dsalits and outcastes live in deplorable conditions, there is no denying that. But, it is time we stop beating the dead cow and citing every incident occurring as that of some recent development of intolerance. Cow deaths caused clashes in Agra in 2008.In 1966 eight Hindus were killed for banning beef. In fact, riots over cow slaughter go back to 1893 when the United Provinces witnessed massive riots. “I have no complaints against anyone. It was always with myself I had problems......I can never recover from my childhood lonliness [sic]. The unappreciated child from my past.”These lines from Rohith’s letter will hound all those who have read it. Deep down there is a boy depressed with life, whose “body had lost touch with his soul” craving for some peace of mind, struggling to be bailed out of his financial difficulties. If we are genuinely concerned about finding the truth we need to dissect it dispassionately and find the clues which would lead us to the key. Bad mouthing the government for being intolerant will not help.