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Fleeing juveniles caught by Arunoday Prakash

     New Delhi: Out of the 36 children who ran away from a juvenile home in Kakori on the outskirts on February 17, near Lucknow, 16 were recovered from the Old Delhi railway Station on Friday night by the Delhi Police. Aged between 10 to 17, the kids were spotted by the police when they were alighting from the Bareilly Express. The kids fled from the home to avoid what they termed a torturous life at the home. "We got the information from our counterparts in Uttar Pradesh. Soon after getting the information, we briefed our men about the kids. The same day one of our constable, Satyabir Singh, spotted a number of kids alighting from the Bareilly Express. When he inquired they revealed their identity after some time. Immediately they were taken into safe custody to avoid any untoward incident with them", said the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Railways, R.C.Garg. When asked about the future course of action, Garg replied, "They have been sent for medical examination, after which they will be sent to the juvenile court which will decide on their future." Commenting on the reason of their runaway, Garg said, "it is tough to say anything, but if we go by them they had to lead a tough life at the home and no efforts were being made to take then to their parents". The children, who looked determined in their approach, have a different picture to paint. What they exclusively told ANI was that what they had faced was reason enough to run away.

     "We were beaten up regularly, have to work hard and never got good food. We also don't have a colour TV in the home. The quality of the food was really bad, so we ran away," was what Sunil said when asked about the reason for fleeing. Similar views were echoed by Aashim, another boy from the lot. Aashim said," The system there was really bad. We were beaten; there was no source of entertainment. We were made to do menial jobs. We broke the walls of the home on Thursday evening and ran away to Delhi in search of work". The run away was not a one-minute decision, it was planned to escape from the traumatic life after proper planning. And the kids also didn't fail in their plan. "We planned to run away by breaking the wall. We increased the volume of the radio so as no one hears the process of the wall going down. We felt that we will get jobs in Delhi but.....will never go back to the home. They will again beat us. Its like hell over there," said the smallest of them, Rakesh. It was good that the Delhi Police spotted the kids, otherwise they may have gone into some wrong hands, and they could have been mis-utilised. But one can imagine the trauma they have to go through that they took such a nasty decision, which could have landed them into trouble.

Indonesia rocked: Tamil Nadu coastal areas on alert (Go To Top)

     Nagercoil (TN): Soon after reports of a powerful earthquake jolting Indonesia's Sulawesi island triggering tidal waves trickled in, the Kanyakumari district administration sounded an alert on the coastal areas of the district today. The administration suspended the tourist boat service to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari because of the alert, informed the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation authorities. The police and the Coast Guard were alerted to be ready for emergency operations in case the earthquake triggered huge sea waves as had happened during the tsunami tragedy in December, official sources said.

     International news reports said that the powerful offshore earthquake was of magnitude 6.5. No injuries have been reported so far , but officials say sea levels rose by up to four metres (13 ft). This tremor, which lasted two minutes and was centred about 70km (45 miles) offshore to the west of Bau Bau. Sulawesi was untouched by the devastating Boxing Day tsunami. However, it was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.2 in January, which claimed one life. Jakarta's El Shinta radio said people had fled their homes in the town of Bau Bau, south-east Sulawesi, in panic on Saturday, fearing another sea surge. The US Geological Survey said the tremor just after 8 a.m. local time was 10 km beneath the sea bed. Once again the devastation of the December 26 tsunami, which caused large-scale death and devastation on the district's western coast looms large after the alert. Overall, the Boxing Day tsunami claimed close to 2,15 000 lives in eight countries in South East Asia.

Call for rath yatra against cow slaughter (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The seer of the Badrinath Mutt, Jyotishpeeth Sankaracharya Swami Madhwashram, has given a call for a countrywide 'rath yatra' starting from April 2 to protest against the government's indecision on banning the practice of cow slaughter. ''We have been forced to take this drastic step of 'public awakening' and 'struggle from the root-level' to force the government to do a rethinking on making a law against cow slaughter," said Madhwashram, who is also the president of the All India Cow Protection Campaign Society. Successive governments have failed to see the writing on the wall that the common man, which included people from all sects, was against cow slaughter, he said. The 'Goraksha Jan-Jagran Mahabhiyan Rath Yatra' would travel through all important cities and towns of the country and would begin from Champaran in BIhar. During the yatra, public meetings will be held and various 'dharmagurus' making efforts to protect the 'govansh' will address the meetings. Jagadguru Shankracharya Swami Madhavashram has been demanding a legislation to ban cow slaughter in the country. In the 11th century AD, Adi Shankaracharya established four peeths to protect vedic dharma. These were the Jyotishpeeth at Badrikashram, Shardapeeth at Dwarka, Sringeripeeth and Puripeeth. Later, the heads of these four peeths and the vidyut parishad (gathering of learned scholars) accorded their recognition to a fifth peeth -- Kanchi Kamakothipeetham.

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