Author: The Metrognome

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Deal with it

Only ‘patrolling’ now for couples’ safety on seashores

But cops insist that the move is for the couples’ safety and not to infringe on their privacy. Okay, then.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

If you’re looking for some ‘quiet time’ with your partner at one of the city’s beaches, don’t look for a spot away from the crowd. You might as well mill about with others and go home early, because couples sitting at isolated spots are soon going to have the cops breathing down their necks and shattering any privacy they might have hoped to get.

Recently, Thane was rocked by reports of how policemen were rounding up couples out of doors after dark or meeting in relatively isolated places, before taking them to the police station and calling their parents. Just when the outrage over those incidents was dying down, the Mumbai Police announced its plan to remove couples sitting alone at the city’s beaches.

Following protests against this move, however, Mumbai Police Commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh changed the plan from summarily ejecting, to merely increasing vigilance on couples spending time alone on seashores or isolated inlets.

However, they still insist that this is not moral policing but a move to ensure safety for couples. Dr Singh has still not elaborated on what the police will do in case they see people sitting far away into the sea – if the couples are not asked to leave, will the patrolling cops wait and keep vigil till the couples leave?

“The seashores of Girgaon, Worli, Marine Drive, Bandra Bandstand and Juhu attract a lot of people. Couples generally visit these places and sit on the rocks when the sea is at low tide, for privacy,” a press release from the police says. “Such couples sitting in isolation may encourage criminals to target them and assault them for money or valuables. There is also the fear that girls may be sexually assaulted in such cases.”

However, it seems that though the recent Delhi gang rape case may have spurred the Mumbai Police into providing security to the citizenry, the cops seem more worried about the after-effects of such an incident occurring in Mumbai and causing law and order issues. “In view of the Delhi gang rape case, if such an incident were to happen in Mumbai, the citizens of Mumbai would feel insecure and the resulting protest demonstrations would cause a law and order situation in the city. To prevent this, the numbers of policemen keeping vigil along the seashores of Girgaon, Worli, Marine Drive, Bandra Bandstand and Juhu are being increased,” the cops say.

Like we said, don’t move away from the crowds unless you want some quiet time with the cops.

Is this move aimed at policing criminals or is it designed to keep a watch over couples? Tell us what you think.

(Picture courtesy tasveerz.wordpress.com)

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What really happened in Dhule?

A Citizens’ Fact Finding Committee alleges that timely police action could have prevented the incident from escalating out of control.
by Humra Quraishi

Former DGP of the Gujarat Police, RB Sreekumar once said, “Rioting cannot go beyond two hours without police connivance.” Why is it, then, that the police machinery takes days to control and settle communal clashes and riots?

A recent report put together by a group of the country’s well-respected activists on the recent rioting in Maharashtra’s Dhule sheds light on the events that actually transpired there. Says Ram Puniyani, former IIT Mumbai alumnus-turned-full time-activist, “Dhule has been in the news for the past 10 days. It has been reported in the media that a small altercation in Dhule led to an event leading to violence between Hindus and Muslims. As such, the deaths of six innocent youth and injuries to several more, and massive loss of properties, burning of houses has taken place.”

Others say that the worst part of the episode is that all this allegedly took place with the police force being present. Contrary to official reports, the people in the area stated that the behaviour of the police was very biased against the Muslim community. “In the light of these disturbing reports from local activists, we decided that a citizen fact-finding committee should visit the Dhule, to investigate and present the facts objectively,” says Ram.

The Citizens Fact Finding Committee comprises Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, ANHAD Delhi, Professor Ram Puniyani of the All India Secular Forum, Professor Apoorvanand of Delhi University, Advocate Nihalsing B Rathod of the Human Rights Law Network, Manan Trivedi, Dev Desai, Tanvi Soni and Arma from ANHAD, Gujarat and Azhar from Jalgaon. The Committee visited  Dhule on January 13 and 14, 2013.

The detailed report puts forward the Committee’s crucial findings. “ This violence could have been prevented had the police acted in time,” says the report. “While stone pelting was done by members of both the communities, police action was selective and directed against Muslims only. The police did not follow the prescribed protocol to control the mob. Police firing was excessive and was done with an intent to kill.

All bullets were fired above the knee, a majority of the bullets were fired above the waist, many of them in the chest, neck and face. All six deaths were because of police firing.     Majority of the victims of the police firing were left unattended by the police and were taken to hospitals by friends.”

Furthermore, the report says, “159 police personnel were taken to the hospital out of which only 18 were admitted is evident from the record of the civil hospital (attached with the report). All the injuries suffered by the police were minor in nature due to stone pelting… No relief camps were set up for those Muslims and Hindus who lost their houses (approximately 40 Muslim families and four Hindu families), no immediate relief was provided by the State. Some food grains were distributed by the Red Cross.  The victims were threatened when they tried to register FIRs and no FIRs were registered.’

(Picture courtesy dawn.com)

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Learn

BMC will help poor women set up businesses

The women organise 20 per cent capital, BMC will examine the business and put up the remaining 80 per cent.
by Krishnaraj Rao

It was a meeting that gave several possibilities for livelihood among the city’s poor and marginalised, and especially its women. “Citizens are not generally aware of many schemes that the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has initiated to empower economically weak sections, especially for womenfolk,” said Assistant Municipal Commissioner (P-South) Ramakant Biradar yesterday, speaking at a large public meeting held at Somanigram, Oshiwara, Goregaon West.

The meeting was held to motivate and assist the locals to form cooperative enterprises for their own economic upliftment, and also to manage their localities. “If you can manage 20 per cent seed capital for starting your own enterprise such as tailoring, the BMC will assist you with the balance 80 per cent,” he said, addressing the women in the gathering.

The meeting was organised by RTI activist Sulaiman Bhimani on behalf of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA), on the theme ‘Kaise Badhayen Aamdani Sahakari Udyog Ke Saath’ (How to increase income with cooperative enterprises). MSWA chairman Ramesh Prabhu spoke about how the 97th Constitutional Amendment passed in January 2012 enabled much-needed reforms to the cooperative sector. “If anybody wishes to start a cooperative enterprise, he can approach us for free guidance, mentoring and assistance,” said Prabhu.

As Somanigram is a poor people’s locality full of SRA colonies, the main objective of the meeting was to enable the increase of people’s income by coming together in cooperative societies. “If a dozen onion and potato pheriwallahs (hawkers) form a cooperative enterprise, they can increase their income by Rs 500 per day, while making onions more cheaply available to the residents,” said Bhimani. “Unemployed youth, housewives, senior citizens, autorickshaw and tempo drivers, plumbers and other service providers can all benefit by forming a cooperative enterprise. We will help them in various ways and make their jobs easier.”

The MSWA has 30,000 member cooperative societies in Mumbai, to which it provides legal advice, accounting services, assistance in deemed conveyance etc. It has a decade of experience in the cooperative sector, which is being leveraged for the CSE initiative.

 

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Enough said

Has Rahul Gandhi really grown up?

Rahul Gandhi will have taken a step up in politics if he changes the future of children pulled into crime.
by Humra Quraishi

Tell me, does it make a difference to you if Rahul Gandhi gets a higher rung in the Congress party, or if Nitin Gadkari gets ousted from the top slot in the BJP? You could make them kings or call them emperors of India, but the ground reality will not change. No, this is not cynicism, but it is the reality of our daily life. We Indians are currently surviving by force of sheer willpower, destined to go through the daily grind of our lives till our allotted time is up.

December’s gang rape made some heads roll, but women are still being raped and brutalised, and so are young children, both boys and girls. In Delhi itself, you can see beggars and hapless children with them; the children may not be their own in all probability. The children are often battered – just two days ago I witnessed a child being  beaten with a stick by two elderly beggars because he wasn’t begging the way he was taught to!

Last spring, I saw a really pathetic sight…outside the Chandni Chowk metro station, several middle-aged and aged beggars sat with little children in their laps. The children were weak, almost lifeless, and were probably bought or abducted.

What is the administration doing about this? Surely the area’s cops know of the gangs operating in the area of their jurisdiction, of the several rackets flourishing right under their noses? And when these same children grow up and take to a life of crime, we catch them, they who are the foot soldiers for actual criminals, and we hang them and pat ourselves on the back. Or else, like Britain’s Prince Harry, we sit back and proclaim with some pride that we killed several terrorists!

What is the future of these street children? They are treated worse than stray dogs, and yet we do nothing, smug and secure in our own sheltered lives. Can Rahul Gandhi or his aides walk around the New Delhi or Old Delhi railway stations, or the metro stations and bus depots, and see the hundreds of unfortunate children there? If and only if Rahul Gandhi, or any of today’s top civil servants or politicians take up these as priority issues would I consider that he or she has truly grown up as a leader.

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy pardaphash.com)

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Learn

Nikam will get Rs 25,000 per result-oriented hearing in Jundal case

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam will also get other expenses, such as Rs 5,000 hotel stay and Rs 7,000 hourly consultation fees.

In recent times, Ujjwal Nikam has become the go-to man in high-profile legal cases. And why not, the man’s successfully argued for the State of Maharashtra v/s captured 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was given the death sentence by the Bombay High Court (and which was later upheld by the Supreme Court), apart from officiating as prosecutor in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the Pramod Mahajan murder trial and the Gulshan Kumar murder.

In a GR (Government Resolution) dated January 24, 2013, the Home Department of the State Government of Maharashtra said that while the State had appointed Nikam as the Special Public Prosecutor in the case against Indian Mujahideen’s Abu Jundal, it was also sanctioning official fees for Nikam to fight the case in court. Jundal is accused of being the Hindi tutor and handler of 10 Pakistani terrorists who carried out the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai – Ajmal Kasab was one of them.

In the GR, the Home Department has sanctioned result-oriented hearing fees will be Rs 25,000 (per hearing). Additionally, Nikam will also get Rs 7,000 per hour as consultation fees (discussion of the case and exchange of opinion) and Rs 5,000 per day as hotel and lodging expenses.

In 2011, the Home Department had sanctioned Rs 50,000 as result-oriented fees for Nikam, when the latter was appointed by the Government to fight for Kasab’s execution in the SC. At the time, his per hour consultation fees were Rs 10,000.

The GR further mentions that Nikam is not to be paid any fees on the days that no result-oriented hearing takes place in court.

Nikam’s most high-profile cases:

The 26/11 trial

Pramod Mahajan murder trial

Nadeem extradition case, London

Gateway of India blasts, 2003

Mumbai serial bomb blasts, 1994

Kherlanji Massacre, 2006

Marine Drive police chowky rape case, 2005

(Picture courtesy ibnlive.com)

 

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Deal with it

Delhi gang rape spurs purchases of CCTVs

Chinese CCTVs are imported the most; all metros and major cities in India figure in the just-released ASSOCHAM survey report.

A major news event can have off-shoots in several other places. Following the brutal gang rape and subsequent death of a 23-year-0ld medical student in Delhi last month, a survey reveals that the import and demand of Chinese closed circuit television (CCTV) and surveillance cameras have dramatically shot up.

According to a survey released by Associated Chamber of Commerce (ASSOCHAM) yesterday, which was carried out over a period of a month starting from December 20, 2012 and involved interactions with about 200 stakeholders in security (traders, manufacters, etc.), “Over half of the traders said that there is negligible manufacturing of CCTV cameras in the country and thus they import the same from countries like China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Israel and also from the US and Europe, as their products are not only cheap but these countries being leading hardware manufacturers, their products are based on latest technologies and thus are more preferred by the customers over domestically manufactured CCTVs.”

“The need for safety and security in almost every walk of life has fuelled an overwhelming demand for CCTV cameras and more so after the Munirka gang rape incident, as hostels, paying guest accommodations, hotels and places alike in cosmopolitan cities are installing surveillance gadgets to keep a check on the movements of both inhabitants and potential stalkers,” said DS Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM.

The survey was carried out in the metros of the country and big cities – Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Pune, as these State capitals and cities comprise a large number of men and women “from various tier II, III cities, districts and rural areas in search of job opportunities, which also makes these centres prone to crime.”

A majority of respondents are said to have claimed that even most of the indigenous enterprises import all the components of surveillance equipment from abroad, assembling them and selling them under their brand names. In terms of sales, the Chinese CCTVs sell the most. “Respondents said their sales have increased by over 60 to 70 per cent during the course of last one month itself,” the survey says.

Lack of government support, absence of regulatory framework, large investments and outdated technology are key reasons holding back domestic electronic companies from venturing into the CCTV domain leading to increased dependence upon imported material, highlights ASSOCHAM. According to their analysis, the video surveillance and CCTV market in India is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of about 30 per cent, and is likely to cross Rs 2,200 crore by year 2015.

Asia accounts for nearly 35 per cent of the global CCTV market with a share of over Rs 27,000 crore.

The CCTV camera industry is set to emerge as a huge market in the next few years in wake of rising demands from sectors like the hospitality industry, services, healthcare, retail and transportation. Currently, parts of northern India account for maximum number of security installations, followed by west, south and east India.

(Picture courtesy 2mcctv.com)

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