The Observer Issue 29

theweeklyobserver.in

How womenfriendly is Bangalore?

Volume 15 Issue 29

THE

An IIJNM Publication

Page 3

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

Sholay town thrives on movie tales

Page 4

WEEKLY OBSERVER

Govt on ‘holiday’ as dead fish stink Sanskriti Talwar Public authorities chose to be on a holiday even as scenes of thousands of dead fish washed ashore in Ulsoor lake went viral yesterday.

In the end, it was left to a local cooperative society to do the task today morning at the popular tourist attraction. This happened even as government authorities played blamegame on the topic. On Monday, the lake grabbed national attention as the dead fish showed the grim truth of rising pollution in the city’s lakes.

Authorities also said that they do not take any measures to clean some other lakes because the fish there are already dead.

Gopalaredda, the deputy director of fisheries department, said that “government holiday” was the reason for inaction.

Monday was a holiday on account of Mahashivaratri, and the department did not send anyone to clean the

lake. The initiative to clean the lake was taken by District Fish Production Cooperative Society.

Members of the society said they were concerned about the well-being of the residents in the area.

“To clean it is our moral responsibility,” said Subbaiah, the advisor of the society.

Gopalaredda said: “It is the result of draining water entering in. It is not only this lake, Bellandur and Vellur lakes are also receiving drainage water. At least the fish survive here, but in Vellu and Bellandur, the fish will not survive. They are biologically dead.

“Because fish are not surviving there, we are not taking any measure for cleaning those lakes,” he said.

“The water board should not allow sewage water to enter here, that is what is causing pollution,” he added.

Municipal officials said that death of fish is normal with the rising temperature.

Around 80 tanks are used by fisheries all over Bangalore Urban district for carry-

Dead fish being disposed by the volunteers at Ulsoor Lake on Tuesday ing out fishing activities for commercial purpose.

Ananth, acting director of the fisheries department, said, “Livelihood of about 30-40 fishermen families depends on this lake.”

“They might have added chemicals to increase the oxygen levels in the lake,” said the deputy director.

“If the level of dissolved oxygen in water is 5.5mg per

litre, it is okay for the survival of fish. But it has already declined to 4 mg per litre for Bellandur and Vellur lake.

The possibility of fish surviving in Ulsoor is more than in those lakes,” said Ananth.

The untreated sewage flows into the lake from four points that includes MG Road, Indiranagar, Richmond Road and their surroundings. The fisheries

department is leasing the lake at a rate of Rs 150 per hectare.

Water samples were sent to the Centre for Ecological Sciences in Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for testing.

Results showed levels of dissolved oxygen to be zero near the inlet of the lake where the fish were found dead while it is 2.2 mg per litre on the other side.

CM launches aid for road accident victims Reema Mukherjee Oindrila Sarkar Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today launched the “Mukhyamantri Santwana Yojana” also called the ‘Harish Scheme’ in the state. It will be the first such scheme in the country which will offer free treatment to road accident victims.

Victims will be given cashless treatment in the first 48 hours of the accident, up to Rs.25,000. The scheme has been named in honour of Harish Nanjappa, a victim who donated his eyes moments before he died in a fatal road accident in Nelamangala last month.

Health minister UT Khader said at the launch today that the state government has already sanctioned Rs. 10 crore for the scheme and the Chief Minister had agreed to set apart an additional Rs. 75

crore in the budget for the purpose.

The minister also added that all hospitals would be directed not to reject accident victims.

Challenging one of the features of the scheme that says appropriate care at three levels of empanelled hospitals will be given, Dr Prashant B Katakol, co-ordinator of Karnataka Private Hospitals Assosciation said, “The very idea of empanelling hospitals is equal to creating a culture of networking for personal gains.”

He added: “Our objection

under the BPL scheme is that the rates that they want us to provide services at are extremely low. It is only going to have just about the working cost or sometimes even less than that.

“There will be lot of riders in the scheme. You, in order to empanel yourself to be a hospital should be empanelled for other government schemes.”

Road traffic accidents are the eighth leading cause of death according to the WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety. They kill more than 1.24 million

people per year. It is a leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29 years.

In India, the number of accidents increased 4.4 times from 1970 to 2011.

Bangalore ranked fourth amongst the worst ten cities having killed 729 people in road accidents in 2014.

Karnataka is second among all states in India, in total number of road accident injuries 56,818 citizens in 2014 and third of all states in total number of road accidents reported in 2014.

Interestingly, the statement showing the number of fatal and non-fatal cases reporting persons killed and injured from the year 2006-2016 has been reducing with every passing year.

According to M.A. Salim, Additional Commissioner of police (traffic), “The number of cases against traffic violations have increased.

Last year we had registered 76 lacs cases against people who violate the traffic rules in the city. Stringent punishments are being meted out to the traffic violators owing to which the fatal and non-fatal

cases have gone down with every year.”

The scheme is being handled by Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), a government body under the aegis of Health and Family Welfare Department.

Speaking about the scheme, Bhuvana, assistant superintendent of SAST, said, “All government and taluk hospitals are selected under this scheme,” She also confirmed that they will provide aid up to Rs.25,000, beyond which the victims have to pay for themselves.

Emergency helplines would also be set up in order to help the road accident victims. The current helplines are 104 and 108. The scheme includes the service of the 108 ambulance for carrying the victim to hospital with appropriate care at three levels of empanelled hospitals.

A software covering hospital registration , patient registration , claims submission and packages would be installed for the paper implementation of the schemes. (additional reporting by PTI)

2

theweeklyobserver.in

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

OUTLOOK: Who was Ishrat Jahan?

Ishrat Jahan, an LeT operative Oindrila Sarkar

Calling her a terrorist a lie Maqsood Maniyar

It was a “botched up operation”, this was what David Headley, the 26/11 accused LET (Lashkar-e-Taiba) operative was told

by Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and military chief Muzammil Bhat. It was the June 15, 2004 encounter of five LeT operatives that he was alluding to. Ishrat Jahan, the 19-year-old Mumbra girl was one among them.

Ishrat has been publicly debated for long. She has been used for 12 long years as a stick to beat former Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi with, since he had presumably ‘ordered’ the encounter as the group was out to kill him in revenge for the Godhra massacre of 2002.

Ishrat the poor college going girl was portrayed as an innocent victim of a cold blooded murder by the state which was apparently hallucinating an attack on its chief minister. But recent disclosures prove otherwise. So was Ishrat really an innocent victim or a deadly Lashkar operative?

In February 2004, the Jammu and Kashmir police shot dead Poonch based Lashkar operative Ehsan Illahi. The letters found on Illahi’s body gave leads to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) from where the opearation rolled out. Ishrat

Jahan, Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Zorar & Amjad Ali Rana were shot dead on the road leading to the Kotarpur waterworks on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Sensational claims made by one-time Chicago-based drug dealer David Headley and former home secretary G.K. Pillai have served to convince hawks that Ishrat Jahan was indeed a terrorist. Headley alleged that Ishrat was a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative while Pillai has claimed that former home minister P. Chidambaram tinkered with an affidavit during judicial proceedings.

The truth flies in the face of claims of Ishrat’s guilt.

Some people claim that every word that leaves the mouth of the devious David Headley is the gospel truth. A statement from a prisoner-turned-approver is accepted only after it is corroborated. The fact that he has not been handed over to Indian law enforcement and tried by an Indian court is itself suspicious, given that he is charged with committing terrorist attacks on Indian soil. Also, it is strange that he is speaking at such great length about Ishrat Jahan when his deposition was about 26/11.

G.K. Pillai’s flip flop is equally

suspicious. In 2013, he had said that there was no evidence to prove that Ishrat had links with LeT. All manners of dubious sources have come out to brand her a terrorist.

The truth is that she was a 19-year-old undergraduate student who was good at academics, helped her mother financially and had no past criminal record. She had known her employer Javed Sheikh (who may have been involved in non violent illegal activities) for only a month and a half.

She was not even named in the first FIR. One should also note that her innocence has been upheld by two separate investigations: S.P. Tamang’s magisterial inquiry and an SIT (Special Investigation Team) set up under Gujarat high court’s direction. Two other institutions, the Ahmedabad metropolitan court and the CBI have called the encounter fake and the latter has charged big names in the Gujarat Police, the Intelligence Bureau and affiliated organizations with murder in judicial custody.

She has been used for 12 long years as a stick to beat former Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi with, since he had presumably ‘ordered’ the encounter as the group was out to kill him in revenge for the Godhra massacre of 2002.

The case was handed to the CBI from the SIT, who filed a charge sheet in August 2013 saying that the encounter was fake and implicated 7 IB officers for the crime. But recent developments have rekindled the debate. Apart from Headley, former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said that a vital change was made to the second affidavit which was

not drafted by him but by someone from above. The only man above him was at the political level. It obviously referred to the Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Undersecretary in the MHA, RVS Mani told the nation about how he was tortured by the SIT in the CBI’s office in Ahmedabad

by Satish Verma who was heading the SIT. Burning cigarettes were pressed against his trousers.

He tells us that the first affidavit filed was the right one which held that Ishrat was an LET operative.

This was changed in the second & third affidavits. He was forced to sign on the second affidavit through which the SIT wanted to implicate the Gujarat Intelligence Bureau officers.

These revelations give a ground to IB officers like Rajinder Kumar that the CBI chargesheet was manufactured by the UPA government especially the Congress high command to neutralise a challenge called Narendra Modi.

There were others, like Nitish Kumar who went on to call Ishrat as the ‘daughter of Bihar.’

The investigations were diverted for political objectives for which the entire governmental machinery was abused. A country whose two premier investigation agencies are pitted one against the

other, that country’s national security must be in dire straits.

The Ghazaba Times which is a Jaish-e-Mohammad mouthpiece claimed after the encounter that Ishrat was a martyr. RVS Mani said that the IB input was fail safe otherwise the station would not clear it.

The claim by various groups as to why the terrorists were encountered and not given a trial by law is ludicrous. We spent crores of taxpayer money looking after a terrorist like Ajmal Kasab who was unrepentant that he had killed hundreds of people in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks only to prove by the due process of law that the convict was guilty when the whole world could see him firing his gun at the site of the attack.

People like Afzal Guru also went through a lengthy judicial process and were hanged after they exhausted their options. But inspite of that there are unsatisfied people who made him a martyr and questioned the Indian law and court. Terrorists like Ishrat Jahan would become martyrs for a section of people whether thay are killed in encounters or by the rule of law.

The CBI investigation, which has called it a case of ‘cold blooded murder’ has led to the arrest of top cops such as ex DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) Dhananjay Vanzara and five others. All except one N.K. Amin is out on bail. Another officer, P.P. Pandey is currently absconding. Several other cops suspected of foul play have not been charged yet.

the four ‘terror suspects’ on June 15, 2004 but abducted them much earlier, on different occasions – Pakistani national Zeeshan Johar (last week of April, 2004), Amjad Ali, also from Pakistan (26th May, 2004), Javed Sheikh and Ishrat Jahan (June 12, 2004) near Anand in Gujarat. How the two had gone from Nasik in Maharashtra to Gujarat is not clear. All four of them were gunned down in custody using service weapons.

Note that not only have police been unable to prove that the four deceased had links with terrorist organizations but have instead ended up as subjects of investigation themselves. Then, they resorted to slandering. It should also be noted that people arrested

by Gujarat Police in encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and Sadiq Jamal and the Akshardham attack were all honourably discharged.

The bottom line is this: one cannot trust compulsive, manipulative liars and calling Ishrat Jahan a terrorist is a particularly poisonous lie.

It should also be noted that people arrested by Gujarat Police in encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and Sadiq Jamal and the Akshardham attack were all honourably discharged.

The CBI in its charge sheet said that the accused had murdered

theweeklyobserver.in

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

3

‘We’re looked down upon even while on duty’ Police dept cold to women cops?

Parvathi Benu

W

omen police officers of the city face discrimination and harassment during duty from the department, said a female cop from the city at an event today.

Nagamani, assistant sub-inspector, Koramangala police station, was speaking at ‘Mann ki Baat’ on the occasion of Women’s Day. The event was organised by the Karnataka state police in association with Amnesty International.

“We’re often looked down upon even while on duty,” she said.

She said that it is very difficult to get details from female complainants, as they are often accompanied by a male who changes their statement. She also said that the complainants are often reluctant to trust the female police

personnel.

On the other hand, she added that more women are coming up to register complaints in the police stations, owing to awareness camps conducted by the department.

The event was conducted to enable women in Bengaluru to report sexual violence – when they choose to do so – safely and with dignity. It carried out a discussion between women from diverse backgrounds in Bengaluru and police officials from fifteen stations across the city.

Yamuna G., a member of the Nayandahalli Garment Workers’ Union, alleged that a female police officer is not present all the time in police stations, and female complainants are often looked with suspicion.

She said: “The police and communities need to work together more closely to address the hidden pressures that prevent women from reporting violence. It is important for us to look beyond the law.”

She added that cases of sexual ha-

rassment are very common in garment industry and community policing should be strengthened in these areas.

Alok Kumar, Inspector General (IG), chief guest of the event, spoke about the gender sensitization programme which is exclusive for the Karnataka state police.

He said that the programme facilitates the reduction of gender bias and the department is working on making the personnel efficient to deal with women’s issues.

“The training should begin with the station writers. They should know how to file a case and its importance.

Also, the post trauma counselling has to be effective,” said Mr Kumar.

He said that the details of victim in all assault cases are treated with high confidentiality and he does not have any personal information about the victims.

“The programme is funded by the Karnataka state government. Police officers are trained in soft skills to deal

with people, especially women,” he added.

At the same time, he denied any acknowledgment about women’s police stations not filing assault cases.

The event saw an interaction between the police and 40 women from different sections of the society.

A few issues that women face were presented in the form of a skit.

This was followed by a group discussion where their doubts were cleared by police officers.

Tara Rao, programme director of Amnesty International, said, “Only one per cent of the cases regarding women get registered in police stations. This situation must change.”

She also said that it is a good trend that recently more people are coming forward to register complaints with the police.

How women-friendly is B’lore?

Mouli Shree Payal Gangishetty While International Women’s Day is celebrated with much vigour, recent data shows a spike in sexual assault cases against women in the city.

Data given by City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB) says that the crime against women under various sections has been on a rise over the past three years and as many as hundred registered complaints each year go undetected.

A total of 721 molestation cases were registered in 2015. This is more than double the figure for 2013. In 2013, there were 378 cases and 675 in the following year.

While other crimes like rape, insulting modesty of women, deaths caused by dowry, cruelty by husband, immoral trafficking and indecent representation of women maintained the same trend, the overall crime rate over the period of one year has been increased from 1640 to 2069 cases.

“We get at least three cases of domestic violence and marital problems each day and these complaints are mostly reported by women who are subjected to physical abuse on daily bases,” said Margarita Sampath, Deputy Director, South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM).

“The government has implemented laws and imposed various schemes for women, but the problem is, it is not reaching them and many are not aware of schemes and helplines that have been set up to help these distressed women,” she said.

She also said that the Government

Meenu Rani, a tailor for 25 years, said that her daughter Nandini is the force that drives her to work hard each day.

She said, “I want my daughter to be an architect and be independent where she doesn’t have to be dependent on anyone.”

Srikala, who left her own business, said that at one point of her life, she had to choose between her passion and future of her daughter. “I chose the latter only to educate my daughter so that she can get my complete attention. I wanted her to be a successful and independent woman and serve the society.”

should take an initiative to monitor these schemes and helplines and check how they function because it important that it reaches everybody irrespective of gender.

Despite the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2013 report which said that the city ranks first for crimes against women, only three women police station exists for 4.5 million women population across the city.

Nirmala, an Assistant Sub-Inspector in Basavanagudi Women’s Police Station said that approximately 70 cases were registered in 2015.

“We deal mainly with dowry and harassment cases, out of which 20 cases are still pending,” she said.

The station has around 11 vacancies with the posts of one Sub-Inspector of Police, one Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, five head constables and four police constables. (additional reporting by Laxmi Narayani)

Bhawana Kumar, 30, has been living in Bangalore for the past six years.

She said that ever since she has come to Bangalore, she finds it much safer than Delhi.

Anuradha, an entrepreneur living in the city since early 1960s, still feels that when it comes to security of women this city is uncertain. She said: “I can’t say whether the safety of women in this city has improved or not but I am afraid for my 13-year-old daughter’s security.”

Women’s Day Special

theweeklyobserver.in

4

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2016

Sholay town thrives on movie tales

(Left) Shivalingappa, reminiscing about the time he acted in the movie, Sholay. (Right) The location in the village where ‘Holi ke din’ song was shot Regina Gurung

A

grey-haired man dressed in an off-white dhoti stood at the entrance of the newly erected gate of Ramadevara Betta Sanctuary. According to Saleem, who sits at the sanctuary ticket counter, the 68-year-old is the sanctuary’s watchman. Saleem said, “He will show you around, the hills are unsafe to venture alone and besides, he knows a lot.”

Shivalingappa’s olive-coloured shirt over his dhoti served as a ‘uniform’, distinguishing him from the rest. His tattered vest was visible despite his shirt being all buttoned up.

He halted after few yards at the first turning of the uphill climb.

Pointing towards a narrow lane and said, “This is where Jaya Bhaduri entered with a lamp and Hema Malini came in the tonga.”

He pointed at the biggest rock visible and asked animatedly, “Do you remember the scene where Amitabh and Dharmendra were fighting Gabbar? It was shot right here.”

“I acted as one of the daakus,”

he claimed, giving a toothless smile. Shivalingappa was talking about the 1975 Bollywood blockbuster Sholay.

T

his is the Ramanagara town, approximately 50 km southwest of Bengaluru. Cradled amidst rocky granite hills, the town boasts of not only some of the legendary scenes from Sholay, but also movies like Rajkumar and Vande Mataram, among many others.

Not only this, the tourist attraction - site for the Ramgarh village of Sholay - also has the country’s second vulture sanctuary. The location is also depicted as a cave entrance in David Lean’s film ‘A Passage to India’.

Shivalingappa claimed that he was one of nine villagers who were selected as extras for the Ramgarh scenes.

Then in his late twenties, he earned Rs.250 per day. Five of them are dead, and three of them have moved out of the area, he said.

The two years of working as an extra for the movie provided him with enough to build a house of his own. He earns Rs.5000 a month now, but regards Sholay as “the best thing that happened to him”.

He said: “The cast used to eat together. Dharmendra even talked to me once. The people who used to come to watch the shooting were served food and drinks.

Three hundred horses were brought here for the movie.

Many movies were filmed here but Sholay was something different altogether.”

Being one of oldest in the village, the villagers lovingly call him “thatha.”

He has watched Sholay five times in the theatres, he said.

He even managed to make his way to the theatres when two years ago, the movie was re-released in 3D. The village is once referred to as “Sippy Nagar” as a tribute to the director of the film, Ramesh Sippy.

However, the location has also become the hub of notoriety, said Saleem.

“It is unsafe to venture alone as there was an incident few months back where a woman was cut into pieces,” he added.

Inspector Kumar, Circle Inspector of Police Ramnagara Rural Circle denied having any knowledge about the incident.

“The place is as safe as any tourist spot,” he said.

Shooting all day keeps the vultures away

The forest department sign outside the sanctuary

S

hooting of movies has led to a large drop in the number of vultures in the country’s second vulture sanctuary, according to locals.

Home to 15 long-billed vultures, the Ramadevara Betta Vulture Sanctuary once had “over a hundred” of them, they say.

The sanctuary is located in the town of Ramanagara, where

Sholay was shot.

Gurlinga, a local, who is a government employee designated as a “watcher of the sanctuary” said that shooting of movies has impacted the ecosystem there.

“Earlier we used to have over a hundred vultures but now we hardly see any. There are 15 at the moment and habitat disruption is the cause of its disappearance.”

He has worked here for 20 years.

Nagraj, Range Forest Officer confirmed the disappearance of long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), citing that seasonal change as well as human encroachment have affected the vulture population in Ramdevara Betta.

The ecological and geomorphologic importance of the place ultimately led to the establishment of the sanctuary under Section 26 A (b) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 in January 2012.

Professor Kavita Isvaran of IISc Center for Ecological Sciences said that vulture population in the country has crashed by 90 per cent.

Team Observer Editor: Tanay Sukumar | News Editor: Raina Paul, Oindrila Sarkar | Chief Sub-Editor: Reema Mukherjee Layout Editor: Aparajita Khandelwal | Sub-Editors: Regina Gurung, Laxmi Narayani | Picture Editor: Payal Gangishetty