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April 2004 Eve-teasing on the rise in Mumbai Mumbai: Women in Mumbai say they feel insecure while commuting in local trains after a sharp rise in incidents of eve teasing and molestation. Traditionally, the city has a reputation of being women-friendly where they can travel and work without fear, irrespective of the time. The rising crime graph and the often insensitive nature of the bystanders have put a question mark on the gender sensitivity of the city. Incidents in the recent past have shaken the city women's confidence. Last year, a minor girl's rape in a busy train and the silent spectators have led many a social activist to raise voice against the growing passiveness of the people in society. Women in the city complain that the incidents of eve teasing on the streets and the local trains have increased. "I travel by train quite a lot. People touch you here and there when they pass by, which is not something I like. That moment I can shout back at him or tell him something. But sometimes I would like to have somebody around. May be a police man, which is not found all the time," Nazia Rahman, a student said. Actor-turned-politician Sunil Dutt blames the attitude of the society for the worsening situation. "If one does not have respect for a woman outside, I don't think he can have respect for women at his home. Something is missing. I am not sure what it is..whether materialism is growing fast. People do not care anymore," said Dutt. The police also pointed out that given the city's population, estimated at over 12 million, it is difficult to keep track of troublemakers who often disappear. Police said they want community participation to prevent harassment of women at public places. "I would like to say that we would like a lot of community participation to fight eve-teasing wherever it is and specially where it is rampant. For that, we need citizen partnership. Atleast come forward and complain and at least help out by giving us information," Ahmed Javed, Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, said. Though Indian woman, compared to other South Asian countries, are politically empowered- four of its 29 states are ruled by women chief ministers- most of them face eve teasing and harassments in train, buses and movie stalls. Though traditional Indian society, which is essentially patriarchal, respects women, their respectability and security is threatened by men behaving badly, specially in the metropolitan cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. April 10, 2004 Centuries-old tunnel found in Bhopal (Go to Top) Bhopal: Authorities in Bhopal accidentally bumped into an ancient 148-metre long tunnel, while excavating a lake, and are trying to ascertain its importance. The tunnel, which is eight feet high and four feet wide, was found during the repair work on an 18th cwentury dam built pond in Bhopal. It is believed the tunnel used to drain out water to cater to the needs of around 200,000 people. "Around 43 million litres of water was draining into this tunnel in normal months, so in monsoons the tunnel was working full and when the tunnel was working full strength, around 50 to 60 cusec water loss was there and this amount of water can serve a population of 200,000 people", said Vinod Kumar Bhatia, Chief Engineer in the Water Resource Department said. Engineers assume the tunnel, connecting two ponds, was built for the proper distribution of water in the city.
Preliminary investigations suggest that a 10th century king had initially
built the pond. It was lying dilapidated till the erstwhile ruler of
old Bhopal city, Nawab Chote Khan revived it and added the tunnel to
solve the region's acute water shortage. Despite a large number of rivers
and their tributaries running across vast swathes of land, India faces
acute water shortage, especially during summers. Rainwater is the only
copious and clean source of water, but its distribution is neither uniform
nor assured in all parts. People, especially in the desert state of
Rajasthan, had mastered the art of rain harvesting and proper storage
of rainwater in "Bauli" or open tanks. The practice of harvesting rainwater
dates back to Vedic times when the need to create water sources that
would remain both clean and provide plentifully, was recognized. But
with rising population and lack of corresponding development in irrigation
canals, the water problem has become acute over the decades. India receives
about 400 million hectare metres of rain per year over an area of 329
million hectares, mostly during June-August monsoon season but most
of it drains into the sea. Rohtang Pass reopens for polls (Go to Top) Simla: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has cleared the treacherous Rohtang pass, one of the highest motorable roads in the world, to help people vote in the upcoming national polls. The strategically important Rohtang Pass was declared open on Saturday, almost a month ahead of schedule, literally "paving the way" for over twenty thousand voters of Lahaul-Spiti. The pass runs close to the India-Tibet border across dizzy Himalayan heights. Snow ploughers and a few bulldozers cleared the pass located at a height of 13,500 feet. The pass usually remains open only six months in a year from May to October. The BRO moved eighteen thousand tonnes of snow in two months to open the pass. BRO officials said that good weather acted as a catalyst. "The main reason is that we are doing the work very fast and the weather is also helping us. So we have been able to complete our work very soon. Certainly, this year we have cleared the pass in a record time, and we have broken all previous records," said Manvinder Singh, a BRO official. Residents of Lahaul-Spiti said that now they could join millions of others in the democratic exercise. Himachal
Pradesh votes on May 10. "This time the road has opened ahead of time
so we all are very excited. Earlier, people in upper reaches were unable
to cast the votes due to the blockage of Rohtang Pass, but we are happy
that we will be able to vote this year," said Cherry Dorje, a resident
of Lahaul-Spiti. The Rohtang Pass literally means the "mound of dead,"
because of the extreme conditions which claimed innumerable lives over
the years. The weather changes unpredictably, and temperatures dip to
as low as minus 40 degrees Celcius. The BRO, an arm of the Indian army,
is responsible for the construction and maintenance of vital border
highways across the entire Himalayan range. Elephant runs amok, kills man in Kerala (Go to Top) Palakkad
(Kerala): One person was killed on Saturday when an elephant participating
in an annual harvest festival in Palakkad district, of Kerala, ran amok.
Hundreds of people had converged for the annual harvest festival, one
of the most spectacular festivals of pachyderms, at the famous Nellikulakkaria
Bagavathi Amman temple in Palakkad, when the accident happened. Elephants
are deeply revered in India - the elephant-headed god Ganesha is one
of the most popular in the Hindu pantheon. Kerala has set a compulsory
retirement age of 65 for the hundreds of elephants used for colourful
Hindu festivals or to cart timber over its hilly terrain. Kerala has
about 800 working elephants, more than any other state, living an average
80 years and earning Rs. 5,000-25,000 a day, depending on the occasion
and the size of the animal. India has an estimated 30,000 wild and captive
elephants, about half of which live in the isolated north-east bounded
by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Nepal. Mumbai bar owners condemn entry age limit order (Go to Top) Mumbai: Angry night club and dance bar owners here are raising a hue and cry over a Maharashtra government order debarring the entry of men below 21 years of age. The notification applicable from April 1, threatens "strict action" against those bars violating the age restriction norm. The "strict action" ranges from heavy fines to cancellation of licences. "We will wait for two days. If the police starts harassing us, then we will close down all over, not only the dance bars, but restaurants where families go," said Manjit Singh, president of the Mumbai Bar Owners Association. "We all have decided to close down. But we will take this action after watching the government's reaction on the implementation of this rule," Singh added. The order follows police raids on about 60 dance bars in the city. According to Mumbai's police commissioner Anami Narayan Roy, the city's bars defy business timings and norms, besides turning into prostitution dens. There
are 1,250 bars in Bombay and nearly 80,000 lives are directly dependable
on these bars. Dance bar owners fear that the recent crackdown on bars
would force them to shut down. Dance bars have always been at the centre
of controversy. Many question the moral basis of the government in allowing
these bars to function, where young women dance and entertain customers
till the wee hours of morning. In fact all the bars and pubs in the
city have no notice board barring entry of people below 21 years of
age. A bar owner has to pay a whopping Rs.250, 000 to the state government
as license fee annually, besides huge bribes to police, excise and other
government departments. 33 people killed in bus mishap in Poonch (Go to Top) Jammu:
Thirty-three people were killed and 27 injured, 20 seriously, when
a passenger bus skidded off the road and rolled down a deep gorge while
negotiating a curve in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, which recorded
the second major accident in less than a week, police said on Friday.
While 20 people died instantly, 13 succumbed to injuries on way to hospital.
The accident occured at Jandoral village in Mandi tehsil of the district
when the driver of the overloaded passenger bus, proceeding from Sathra
to Gali Pindi, was negotiating a curve. The vehicle skidded off the
road and rolled down the gorge. ISD, STD rates slashed (Go to Top) New
Delhi: Having negotiated lower rates with VSNL, Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Ltd on Thursday announced a whopping 25 per cent cut in ISD rates for
calls to the US, Australia, South East Asia and Gulf countries. BSNL
also decided to reduce STD charges between two circles (Inter-circle)
by 25 per cent for distance beyond 200 km to Rs 3.60 per minute from
Rs 4.80 for its fixed line customers. The reduced tariffs across various
categories will be effective from April 10. "For our fixed and mobile
subscribers, the ISD rates have been reduced by average 25 per cent
as we have decided to route our ISD calls through VSNL till we sign
agreements with international carriers," BSNL chairman and managing
director V P Sinha told reporters here. The ISD rate reduction has been
made possible as VSNL has agreed to match the lowest settlement charges
of Rs 1.69 per minute to US and UK, from Rs 2.20 quoted earlier. As
per the new tariffs, calls to the US and Canada, which earlier attracted
charges of Rs 9.60 per minute, would now be reduced to Rs 7.20 per minute,
translating into a cut of 25 per cent. |
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