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Illegal Bangladeshis working on infrastructure projects

1,121 illegal Bangladeshis arrested this year; Special I Branch has carried out drives at major Mumbai construction sites and malls.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Where are the necessary security checks when they are needed the most? Though terror attacks keep striking the city with alarming regularity, and even as the Mumbai police and State Government admitting that the illegal entry of Bangladeshi migrants into India poses a major security hazard for the state and country, the police have rounded up Bangladeshi migrants illegally working in the city from – surprise! – two big-ticket infrastructure project sites in Mumbai.

In a special drive conducted by the I Branch of the Mumbai police last week on November 8, the cops raided the monorail project site undertaken by L&T, a site where beams for an MMRDA flyover were being made by the J Kumar company, and a 50-acre project being developed by L&T and Lodha Builders in Wadala. Of the 2,200 workers rounded up and questioned, 48 were found to be illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

The four contractors working on these sites and who had hired these migrants have been arrested. The incident raises concerns about valid security checks that major companies are supposed to undertake before hiring help on their projects – such as issuing ID cards after verifying the workers’ credentials, checking their antecedents, etc. With such lapses occurring on major infra projects, it is little wonder then, that the city’s housing societies are often guilty of not verifying security personnel’s credentials before hiring them.

A question of security

The I Branch had, earlier this year, identified the problem of Bangladeshis entering the country illegally and taking up work on construction sites, factories and malls, and started conducting regular drives from June this year. In the period from June 2012 to November 8, the Branch picked up 734 illegal migrants from various spots in BKC, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Pant Nagar, Byculla, Parel, Dadar, Worli and Vikhroli. Till date, 1,121 such illegal migrants have been arrested in 2012, and 250 more have been deported to Bangladesh.

As per a press release issued by the Branch, “India’s security is at stake with the entry of illegal Bangladeshis. These migrants have also been found to part of several fake currency rackets operating in the country, and in helping terror outfits.” The release adds, “Bangladeshis enter the country via West Bengal, and the contractors over there send them for work purposes to Mumbai. They are paid very little wages, and since they are here illegally, they cannot complain about the low wages they are paid.”

(Picture courtesy www.hollypickett-com.photoshelter.com. Image used for representational purpose only)

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Don’t buy these crackers

27 brands of firecrackers tested in Mumbai; most of them violate sound limits and do not mention their chemical composition.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The firecrackers you may have bought this Diwali might harm you and your family. Read on to know why.

On November 7, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) tested firecrackers available for sale in Mumbai. The testing was done thus: samples of crackers of different types from various companies available in the market were procured. They were tested where open space was available with a concrete surface. The noise measurements were made at a four metre distance from the fire crackers.

As many as 27 brands and types of firecrackers sold in Mumbai were tested at Carter Road in Bandra, and several of the brands sold were found guilty of not mentioning the sound limit specified for that cracker on its packaging, or its chemical composition. Of the 27 varieties, 17 had not mentioned the noise level limit, while 21 had not mentioned the chemical composition.

The crackers were tested in two categories, Single and Series. In the Single category, five crackers were found to exceed permissible decibel levels of 125 dB. In the Series category, all the eight crackers tested were found to exceed permissible decibel levels.

Loud and dangerous

In the Single category, the crackers tested were Vulcano sutali bomb, Giant crackers, 7 Up shots, Saddam Dhamaka, 2 Sound Crackers, Flower lady, Gutter balls, Italy, Double Sound, Triple Sound, Nazi green, Thunder bomb, Aerial Out, Crackling king, Thriller bomb, Kargil bullet, Bada bing bada boom and Musical mala. Of these, Thriller Bomb, Thunder bomb, Nazi green, Saddam Dhamaka and Vulcano Sutali bomb exceeded permissible decibel levels. However, these five did specify the chemical composition of the bomb on the packaging, but noise level limits were specified only on Nazi green.

In the Series category, none of the eight brands tested mentioned chemical composition. The brand names were 600 wala, 1,000 wala, 2,000 wala, 50 shots marvel, Red Fort 1000 shell, Speed 100, Dilkhush 50 shots and 5000 shell.

(Picture courtesy AFP/Getty Images)

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Secret key to stop exam paper leaks

Government recommends exam papers be sent online to centres; papers will be encrypted and opened for printing by special passwords.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Come  university exam time, and rising cases of examination paper leaks end up with exams being cancelled or postponed, and students collapsing in a heap of anxiety and frustration. Concerned by a spate of exam paper leaks in Mumbai and the rest of the State this year – some of them pertaining to engineering exams – the Maharashtra State Government decided to draw up a series of recommendations for university exam centres to follow to minimise paper leakages.

A Government Resolution to this effect was passed on July 20, 2012 by the Department of Higher and Technical Education, to ensure that examinations all across the state were undertaken in a secure and fool-proof manner with the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In accordance with this, an 18-member committee comprising members of the education department, vice chancellors of several Maharashtra universities and knowledge partners was constituted to meet and draw up a set of recommendations for all universities to study and implement as a pilot study prior to final exams in the year 2013.

The recommendations

As per the 207-page report titled ‘Report on reforms in examination system in universities of Maharashtra through use of Technology’, submitted by the Committee to the Governor K Shankarnarayan on November 3, the Committee studied the best practices of over 10 universities (in Maharashtra and outside) that have attempted to minimise or eliminate malpractices and errors in examination practices.

As per the report, “In order to eliminate the threats and challenges faced in distribution and delivery of question papers to the respective institutes, the universities should adopt Information Technology Solution for secure delivery of question papers. The Committee also recommends that each university should implement this system on pilot/experimental basis for exams conducted in first half of 2013. Following this, by 2014, it should become a matter of practice. However, if any university can implement this system fully before the suggested dates, it would be a very welcome step.”

The key suggestion in this regard is: “The question paper once randomly selected/generated from the question paper bank is encrypted and transmitted over a secure channel to the examination centres just one hour before the examination. At the examination centre, it is decrypted with the key/password and printed. This will overcome the leakage of question paper during transportation and printing.”

The Committee hopes that this above objective will be achieved by the all-important ‘secret key’, which “should be generated by the system and delivered securely to the concerned persons before the examination, there should be secret keys for individual papers, there should be a provision to deliver secret keys by email, SMS or using the ITS, and there should be a secret key verification system for printing of question papers. Besides this, there should be a well-defined time duration for question paper upload, secret key delivery and question paper printing.”

There is also a recommendation that by the first half of 2012, “all universities should use OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) and Barcode Technology in cover page of answer booklets of University Examinations on pilot/experiment basis. Following this, by 2014, universities should use this technology for all examinations.” This will curtail such malpractices as dummy candidates taking the exams, or wrong entry of data by the student.

Other recommendations include online registration of students for issuance of hall tickets (details taken will include student’s mobile number as well), question bank or question paper bank generation, digital scanning and onscreen evaluation of answer sheets, online application for re-evaluation and dematting of degrees and certificates etc.

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Celebrating Obama’s win in Mumbai

President Barack Obama
See pictures of the US Election Returns party organised by the American Centre of the US Consulate at HRC, Mumbai.

Barack Obama won a second term in the White House, after he defeated Mitt Romney to take charge as US President again. Several parts of America and the world erupted with joy at the news. In Mumbai, the American Centre of the US Consulate organised a breakfast part at Hard Rock Cafe to bring in the news of the new President with a packed room of US nationals and Mumbaikars. We bring you a few pictures of the event, courtesy the American Centre of the US Consulate.

 

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Maharashtra in Top 5 ragging cases list

UGC anti-ragging helpline shows several cases received from Maharashtra; one Mumbai and three state colleges still have active complaints on.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It is a telling comment on the times we live in, that while the State Government releases a thick report on reforms in examination systems in the State’s universities, Maharashtra consistently features in the Top 5 states in the country from where the most incidents of ragging are being reported.

While The Metrognome accessed the National Anti Ragging Helpline website to check the responsiveness of the helpline to those calling in to report ragging incidents, we got in touch with Professor Raj Kachroo, the father of the late Aman Kachroo (in pic), who died after being ragged and beaten to death by his seniors in 2009 (see his inputs below). Raj handles the operations of the helpline and coordinates information between complainants, colleges and even the police.

The helpline 1800-180-5522 was set up in 2009 by the University Grants Commission. Ragging is now a cognisable offence that is punishable by suspension from the concerned university or college, and even imprisonment for serious crimes. Even those universities and colleges not responding to complainants’ grievances are now in the ambit of the law.

Where Maharashtra stands

Raj sent us latest report sheets of the numbers of calls and incidents reported, counted from 2009 to October 29. The most numbers of cases, some of them categorised under ‘Extremely serious’, come from Uttar Pradesh (355 complaints), followed by West Bengal (222), Orissa (171), Madhya Pradesh (132) and Maharashtra (90).

Similarly, numbers of complaints received after April 14, 2012 are thus: Uttar Pradesh (49 complaints), Orissa (34), Bihar (21), Rajasthan (12) and Maharashtra (10).

One Mumbai college complaint still active

There are a number of ‘active complaints’ on the list; these are complaints that have not yet been resolved or are in the process of being resolved, and are not classified as ‘closed’. Of the four active complaints from Maharashtra, one is classified as ‘Serious’ and comes from Mumbai’s Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work. The remaining three come from Nagpur’s Tirtude College and Government Ayurved College, while the fourth is from the Marathwada Agriculture University.

What Prof Raj Kachroo, Founder Trustee, Aman Satya Kachroo Trust, and who monitors the National Ragging Prevention Programme on behalf of UGC, says on the subject:  

On monitoring the National Ragging Prevention programme:

For the first two years the programme was monitored by a company called DRSL and EDCIL. The latter is a Government of India Company.  When they did nothing, it was only then that our Aman Satya Kachroo Trust took over the management and monitoring of the programme. We started from the beginning of 2012.

On why several cases of ragging come from Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra:  

The authorities in these states is not taking the matter of ragging very seriously. And I believe there has been a strong tradition of ragging in these places in the past as well.

On the procedures followed to examine a case:

At our level, we do not examine a case. Our job is to communicate with the concerned college authorities and with the police, if the matter is serious. It is the Anti Ragging Committees of colleges that examine the matter and the college authorities if found guilty are punished.  Our job is purely of a secretariat.  We log the complaint, communicate with the college, keep records of the communication and keep voice recordings of phone calls. We also follow up with reminders, and if the college authorities do not do anything, then we forward the case to the UGC and/or regulatory authorities for action.

A case is not closed until the complainant confirms on phone that he/she is satisfied with the action taken by the College.  A written letter is not sufficient. We keep the phone recording.

On the punishments meted out to those found guilty:

The punishment to be given depends on the college. Those found can be guilty can be fined, or even suspended.

(Pictures courtesy www.hillpost.in, www.she.sulekha.com and www.thehindu.com) 

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City’s children less malnourished than before

But many women are marrying as minors and several are not breastfeeding their baby within an hour of giving birth.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

At long last, it’s good news on the state’s malnutrition front. For the first time in a decade, Maharashtra’s malnutrition figures have shown a very positive trend – the Comprehensive Nutrition Survey in Maharashtra 2012, released by the state’s Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday, reveals sharp declines for malnourished children under two years of age for such parameters as stunting (too short for their age), wasting (too thin for their height) and underweight (too thin for their age).

Heartened by the numbers, Chavan announced that the state would widen the scope of its malnutrition efforts November 14 onwards, with a special focus on fighting malnutrition in Mumbai and other urban pockets in Maharashtra. The survey was conducted by the International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) in association with the UNICEF.

The survey is the first state-specific nutrition survey conducted with a focus on infants and children under two years of age, and their mothers. A representative sample of children under two years of age was selected from each of the six divisions of the state – Mumbai, Pune, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Nashik. Data was collected between February and May 2012, and indicators from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 3 of 2005-2006 was used as the foundation for advocacy, policy and programme action for maternal and child nutrition.

Stunting, in which a child is unable to grow normally because of poor or non-existent nutrition, was seen to have declined to 22.8 per cent from 33 per cent from the NFHS findings. Similarly, the percentage for wasting  dropped from 19.9 per cent to 15.5 per cent, and underweight dropped from 29.6 per cent to 21.8 per cent. Also, infant mortality rates (IMRs) was found to have dropped significantly from 36 per 1000 live births in 2005-06 to 28 per 1000 live births in 2011-12, and 25 per 1000 lives birth in 2012-13.

Now for the bad news

However, of the 1,346 mothers surveyed in the state’s urban pockets, only about 55 per cent were found to have breastfed their newborn baby within an hour of birth. Studies have shown that breastfeeding a newborn child within the first hour of its birth is the best way of building the baby’s immunity and arresting incidences of malnutrition and neonatal deaths; the same logic applies to babies exclusively breastfed for the first six months of its life.

Also, over 23 per cent of surveyed women in the urban pockets said that they had been married before age 18.

As part of the survey, 2,694 mothers with children under two years of age were surveyed for such parameters as work status, marriage and fertility, antenatal and delivery care, lifestyle indicators, and anthropometric measurements. Of these women, the ratio of breastfeeding in rural pockets was found to be better than that in the urban areas. Only 49 per cent women in urban pockets said that they had breastfed their babies exclusively in the first six months of life. Findings also revealed that bottle-feeding and early complementary feeding was on the rise and was very common, especially in the urban areas.

Chavan was concerned with these findings. “Low breastfeeding percentage within an hour of birth even as over 90 per cent mothers are having institutional delivery suggests that private nursing homes are not encouraging breastfeeding enough,” he said.

(Picture courtesy www.caravanmagazine.in) 

 

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