the daily observer, vol 13, issue 3

The Daily

VOL 13 ISSUE 3 Wednesday, December 4 , 2013

Observer

A Frenchman accused of rapinghis daughter is trying to have thecharges thrown out of court.

French embassy worker PascalMazurier is seeking a dischargefrom the charges leveled against himfor allegedly raping his four-year-olddaughter as he claims the prosecu-tion has no evidence linking him tothe crime.

Mazurier appeared at the SessionsCourt in the citythis aernoonbut the case wascontinued untilt o m o r r o waer a shorthearing.

Speaking exclu-sively to the DailyObserver ont h e

steps of the court house, Mazuriersaid: “is case is very important tome because it concerns my daughter.I have contacts with bigger peoplebut I am still talking to you.

“In the heat of the moment, Iwould not like to comment much.”He then sprinted to his car aer pos-ing for our exclusive photograph.

He added: “Today my lawyers ar-gued about why the prosecution wassubmitting irrelevant documentsand prolonging the case.”

During the proceedings, the judge,Shubha Gowdar, was heard askingthe prosecutor, “What is the point ofpresenting irrelevant documentsand who will benefit out of them?”

Aer the hearing, Mazurier metrelatives who were present duringthe proceedings and were seen cry-ing in court.

According to Mazurier, the deci-sion was postponed because the

prosecution was causing unneces-sary delays in the proceedings.

As he walked into court ahead ofthe hearing, he said, “I

hope to be dis-charged by thecourt today.”

M a z u r i e rwas seeking adismissal ofthe case onthe groundsof primafacie evi-

dence failing to establish him as theattacker. In the case of the court de-ciding against him, he will be triedin a criminal court.

Aer the judge postponed the de-cision, Mazurier said, “e HighCourt has accepted my bail but mywife appealed for the discharge ofmy bail.”

According to sources in the PublicProsecutor’s office, Mazurier’s wife,Suja Jones, had appealed to theSupreme Court to cancel his bail butthe Supreme Court has decided notto intervene in this matter and saidthat the case should go to trial.

Mazurier, who is not eligible fordiplomatic immunity, was arrestedon June 19, 2012, on the basis of hiswife’s complaint to the police that hehad raped his four-year-old daugh-ter. He was granted bail on October17, 2012 by the Karnataka HighCourt.

Aer initially denying the charges,he later filed a case with the policeseeking justice for his daughterwhen medical records establishedthat the girl was sexually abused. Hesaid that he was being framed by hiswife and laid the blame on one ofher friends. Investigation for thatcase is still pending as it depends onthe verdict of this case.

According to Khushi of EnfoldIndia, who helped Jones with the fil-ing of the case, “e child, at nopoint, mentioned anybody else apart

from her father in so many days. Shedid not understand what was hap-pening to her but she repeatedlycomplained that her father physi-cally hurt her. e medical reportsprove that she was sexually abusedbut fail to link it with Mr.Mazurierowing to the lapse in time betweenthe act and the complaint.”

Doctors and counselors at EnfoldIndia had helped in ascertaining thatthe girl was raped aer which thecase was filed by Jones.

She added that Mazurier does notpay anything for the maintenance ofhis wife and three children. Com-menting on this, he said, “If he is soconcerned about his children, as hehas claimed to the media, then whydoesn’t he pay for the maintenanceof his children? We have informa-tion that he is not employed with theFrench government anymore. With

no source of income, how is he af-fording such expensive lawyers?”

A spokesperson for the FrenchEmbassy said, “Mazurier has beensuspended indefinitely and whetherhe will be employed with the Frenchgovernment again depends on theverdict of this case. He is also not al-lowed to leave India until the verdictis out.”

However, Kumar Jagirdar,Founder, Children’s Rights Initiativefor Shared Parenting said, “PascalMazurier is innocent as the DNA re-ports are not conclusive. He is seek-ing for a complete dismissal of thecase and he wants the actual culpritto be caught.”

Puroshottam, a lawyer from theprosecutor’s side, said, “ere is noway that Mazurier will be let off. Hewill be tried because all the evi-dences are against him.”

Page 3 Page 5 0

EXCLUSIVE

Mazurier being presented in court in 2012. ( Photo Credit: KPN)

Shweta Nair &

Anannya Sarkar

Toddler killed inlorry crash, preg-nant mother hurt

Almost threedecades aerBhopal, lessonsnot learned

Swapna Barmansets up a newrecord in HighJump

Rape accused wants charges dropped

e Daily Observer Wednesday, December 3, 2013 2

Contact details for senior devel-opment officers in the city werelisted incorrectly on the depart-ment’s own website.e Bangalore Metropolitan Re-gion Development Authority’s(BMRDA) website has remainedstatic for more than three months,with most official contact numbersand designations being out-of-date.

e website provided informationon officers who had been trans-ferred. It mentioned Mr. YogendraTripathi as the Metropolitan Com-missioner, but Mr. Tripathi is

presently working in New Delhi.It was last updated on August 18,

2013, two months behind the‘usual’ schedule.

It stated that N. Rajanna and S.Lakshmikanth, both Joint Direc-tors, were the heads of theKanakpura and the Magadi branchrespectively, but Mr. Rajanna wastransferred to Nelmangala and S.Lakshmikanth is currently headingthe Magadi Planning Authority.

Narayan Gowda, who is a joint di-rector in the BMRDA, accepted themistake aer running a thoroughcheck.

He said: “We are very sorry for themistake; you can enquire about it tothe administrator.”

He added that he will talk to thesystem administrator. “All thesethings are maintained by him, I willsurely bring this to his notice. I as-sure you that the mistake will berectified within half an hour.”

Yeshwant, personal secretary tothe Deputy Metropolitan Commis-sioner, said that they usually update

the website once a month. He said: “e website is main-

tained every month; how it is show-ing wrong phone numbers iscompletely out of my knowledge. Iwill bring this to the Deputy Mu-nicipal Commissioner’s attention assoon as possible.”

H.A. Hafeez, Joint Director, TownPlanning, whose number was listedincorrectly, had no idea about thegaffe.

“I am sorry, we will try to correctit,” he said.

e BMRDA framed a masterplan to develop the city. Aer get-ting approval from the state govern-ment the dra of the plan wasuploaded on the website.

According to Yeshwant, the ‘mas-ter plan’ took a lot of time to uploadwhich is why updating the websitetook time.

e National Informatics Centre(NIC), which hosts the website, saidthat updating it is not their duty.Pavitra, a web designer with theNIC, said, “We only host the web-

site. Updating it is the respectivedepartment’s job.”

She added: “ere is a limit todata you can upload, once that is

crossed, the website might not beable to to hold updates. e websitewill be updated soon, according tothe authorities.

Contact details of the Joint Director of Town Planning, Mr. H.A.Hafeez, were incorrectly listed on the BMRDA website.

Various media houses misinter-preted an NGO’s reports on cor-ruption levels in India last week.

Bangalore was reported as the‘most corrupt city in India’ becausethe highest number of bribes wererecorded here.

Content Head of Janaagraha, theNGO which collated the data, MrVenkat, said: “ese are crowd-sourced inputs on bribes paid. Sowhen we say Bangalore tops thechart, it means that we have gotmost complaints from there; thatcould be because we are a Banga-lore-based company. You can't say,"OK, Bangalore is the most corruptcity."

Crowdsourced inputs are thosewhich are reported by people onthe internet when they pay a bribe,or meet an honest officer. Participa-

tion by people is of their own will.According to Janaagraha (or

ipaidabribe.com) statistics, morethan Rs.16.5 crore of bribes werepaid in Bangalore city itself; that

means Bangaloreans have paidmore in bribes than Mumbai, Hy-derabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Noidaand Ahmedabad combined.

Inferences cannot be drawn from

this data because not all people par-ticipate, added Mr Venkat. It’s thefirst such report by Janaagraha. “Aswe get more people participating,our results would be much better,”

Mr. Venkat said.However, these reports indicate a

trend in the society. "at is, if it'sBangalore, most of the bribe casescome from, say, hospitals. But in aplace like Chandigarh, it will befrom land registrations. You can an-alyze which department is beingbribed the most,” he said. “ey doit faster than government surveysand help people take action,” hesaid.

In the case of Bangalore, for in-stance, the highest number ofbribes were paid to the police de-partment, according to the statis-tics.

“Normally, newspapers don’tpresent the methodology of reportsdue to lack of time, space or otherrestraints. But it should be pre-sented for people to understandhow it works," he said.

Janaagraha’s bribe report - the figures have been derived from cases added by people onipaidabribe.com. Bangalore is the highest because most cases were reported from the city.

Anand Jain

Saikat Ghosh

e website is main-tained every month;how it is showing wrongphone numbers is com-pletely out of my knowl-edge.

-Yeshwant, Sec-retary to DMC

“

‘Our reports do not mean Bangalore is the most corrupt city’

Website of city developers displays wrong information

Bribe trends by city


Bangalore high on evading taxesChidambaram says no govt. could be more generous or fairer

Bangalore ranks third in availinga new scheme which has been spe-cially started for tax evaders tocome clean, says P. Chidambaram.

Voluntary Compliance Encour-agement Scheme (VCES) is ascheme that was introduced on10th May, 2013. e objective of thescheme is to encourage disclosureof tax dues. It has also been exer-cised to abide by the Service taxlaws for the persons who haven’tpaid Service Tax during the periodOctober 2007 to December 2012. P.

Chidambaram said that VCES is anopportunity for such persons to paytax dues and get complete exemp-tion from interest and penalty.

Speaking at an interactive sessionat Satish Dhawan Auditorium, IISc,Bangalore, Chidambaram said thatthe countdown has begun to file theservice tax. He said: “VCES is a onetime opportunity provided by thegovernment to come clean and paythe taxes.”

He also said: “No government canbe more generous and fairer.”

Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary

said: “9,000 applications have beenreceived so far from across thecountry and the collection stands atRs. 2,000 crore. But Bangalorestands behind other metropolitancities in paying tax.”

Bangalore Zone has received en-couraging response to the VCES.As on 2nd December 2013, 432declarations involving an amountof Rs. 155.9432 crore were receivedunder this scheme. Bangalore hasbeen placed 3rd in the All India list.More service providers are ex-pected to make use of this scheme.

Speaking on this note P.Chi-dambaram said: “17 lakh servicetax providers are registered. Only 7lakh ends up paying taxes and therest 10 lakh fall under the categoryof no filers, who never pay tax andstop filers, who pay tax for only asmall duration. I don’t know who iscleverer of the two. But theyshouldn’t forget that the depart-ment is cleverer.”

Chidambaram said that honesty is

very important in these transac-tions. He said: “We maintain hon-esty while paying a taxi driver anddon’t even give him a penny extra,but it is not the same while payingtaxes.”

e Finance Minister said that theamount of data collected by the de-partment and technology availablehelps track chronic tax evaders. Hesaid: “It is an opportunity to come

clean. e last such scheme was an-nounced in 1997. e VCES hascome up now aer 16 years. eseschemes can’t be announced everytime.”

All the major statutory bodies likethe Federation of Karnataka Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry,Karnataka Committee of Confeder-ation of Indian Industry and smalltrade representatives were present.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram at the VCES Press conference.Photo credit: Press Information Bureau

Tulana Nayak &

Vaishnavi J. Desai

Toddler killed in crashA two-year-old girl was killedearly Wednesday morning when alorry ran over her.

e two-year-old, Dhanushree,was travelling on Whitefield Rdwith her parents, Netravathi andSuresh, on a two- wheeler at 8am.ey were heading towards White-field, when a lorry hit the scooterfrom behind at the Hoodi Circle.

e girl and her mother, Netra-vathi fell on the road and the lorryran over the girl and hit the motheron the right side of her head.

Suresh, uncle of the victim said,“e lorry was behind the scooterand it wanted to overtake it. edriver kept on honking and when

he did not let the lorry pass, thelorry driver overtook and hit thehandle of the two-wheeler.”

He added, “My sister and myniece fell on the road. My niececame under the lorry and it ran

over her.My sisterfell andhit herhead ont h eg r o u n dand in-jured theright sideof herhead.”

e girland herm o t h e r

were taken to the Bowring andLady Curzon Hospital. e girl hadsuffered a head injury and died onthe spot. e mother, who is fivemonths pregnant was admitted tothe hospital. She was in a critical

condition.“My sister has been admitted in

the hospital, the scanning is yet tobe done. She is pregnant and shealso has a head injury,” said Suresh.

A case has been filed against thelorry driver, Kumar Swamy, 32, atthe K R Puram Police station.

Nagesh, an auto driver who wit-nessed the accident said, “An In-dane gas lorry hit the two wheelerand the girl who was around twoyears died on the spot.”

Sumesh, an employee at a nearbyrestaurant said, "A lot of peoplegathered around the spot and thedriver of the lorry was badly beatenup by the crowd. e road wasblocked for a long time."

Mahesh, another employee of therestaurant said, "It wasn’t the lorry

driver’s fault. e two-wheeler wasmoving parallel to the lorry and thechild was thrown under the lorryby the impact when the twowheeler hit a pothole.”

e gathering of investors at the VCES Press Conference 2013.

Sureshkumar Kumaresan,

Sreelakshmy Sivaram &

Tanisha Das

Suresh, father of two-year-oldDhanushree, at Bowring andLady Curzon Hospital

Dhanushree, the two-year-old who died in the accident


Angry sugarcane growers have decided to temporarily halttheir agitations and give the state government six days tomeet their demands.

e suicide of a 60-year-old farmer in the Belgaum districtof the state was the catalyst behind the protests which oc-curred simultaneously in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

According to reports, Vittal Arabhavi, aged 60, killed him - self by consuming poison as he had not received paymentsfor 120 tons of sugarcane since last year.

Arabhavi allegedly killed himself aer a sugar companyowned by former state heavy industries minister MurugeshNirani did not pay fully aer he sold them 120 tons of sugar.

Speaking to the Observer, Nirani, the founder of Nirani Sug-ars Limited Mudhol and a prominent member of the BJP, saidthat the issue had been discussed and was resolved.

“e farmer borrowed money from a bank. His family willnow be receiving compensation from the government. ematter has been discussed in the Assembly”, he said.

When asked about the allegations that were leveled againsthis company Nirani declined to comment on the matter.

Recently corruption charges concerning 1080 acres of landin North Karnataka have been leveled against Nirani and theBJP-led government. At the time of the case Nirani was thestate heavy industries minister.

According to reports, in 2012, a FIR was filed against Niraniand three of his associates for allegedly assaulting a farmer inMantur village.

e principal reason for the deadlock between the farmersand the state government is the issue of price-fixing with thefarmers demanding a minimum payment of Rs 3000 per tonof sugarcane.

Cane growers in the Bidar district of Karnataka, which isone of the largest producers of sugar in the state, have beencomplaining of a number of problems which have forcedmany of them to abandon cane farming and look for othermeans of employment.

Many of them have taken loans to finance their farming op-erations and are now facing severe monetary problems astheir crops are lying unprocessed and unsold for a number ofreasons.

Ravi Tekur, 30, who owns a four-acre farm in the Gadawantivillage of Bidar has been a sugarcane farmer since 2006. Helives with his wife and one-year-old daughter.

He says, “I have not received any payments from the coop-eratives for the last year. e price at which the cooperativesbuy the crop from us makes it impossible to make a profit inthis line. I am going to stop farming and look for another op-tion.”

At present these farmers are paid less than Rs 2500 per tonof the crop.

e majority of sugarcane in Bidar district is processed inthree state-run cooperative factories.

ese are the Bidar Sahakar Sakkare Karkhane Limited(BSSK), Niranja Sahakar Sakkare Karkhane Limited (NSSK),and Mahatma Gandhi Sahakar Sakkare Karkhane Limited(MGSSK).

According to reports from various farmers in the districtthese cooperative factories (especially the BSSK), are runningat severe losses. As a result of this many farmers do not receivepayments for up to a year aer the sale of their crops.

Omkar Tumba, 34, who owns a five-acre farm nearGadawanti village says, “It is impossible for small farmers tomake a living. e problems faced are many fold. e facto-ries lack new co-generation technologies. As a result of thisthey are unable to process surplus production. In 2009 we hadto burn our excess produce as there were no buyers for it.Many people took loans, sold their farms and ultimately com-mitted suicide, when there was no way for them to pay theircreditors.”

According to reports fourteen farmers committed suicidebetween 2012 -2013 in Bidar district. e district is amongthe highest in the state in this regard with 234 farmer suicidesin the last decade.

Kalappa, who own a five-acre farm near Humanabad hasbeen growing cane for the last three decades. He is a share-holder in the BSSK factory. According to him the three co-operative factories have their own political affiliations andthey favor people who belong to the same group.

He says, “e District Cooperative Central Bank, which isthe main source of credit for farmers here, functions accord-ing to an elaborate system of political patronage. People whodo not even own farms are given loans of up to Rs 10 Lakhbecause of their proximity to political leaders. If a farmer isopposed to the party in power it will be very difficult for himto contract labor to cut the crop in his farm.”

Nagaraj who owns a three-acre farm in Gadawanti says,“e DCC only exists to help the large landowners. I have notbeen paid for over a year.”

Last year farmer organizations staged protests in and aroundBidar district demanding that the government ensure that

factories pay a fixed price of Rs 3000 per ton of sugarcane.e protests held by various farmer groups four days ago

have renewed the same demand. According to media reports,five days aer Arabhavi killed himself, another farmer,Halesh, from Davanegere district attempted to kill himself.

Fairtrade, which was first launched in Germany and hasbeen operating in India for 19 years, is an unconventionalbusiness based on mutual partnership between producers andconsumers. Despite offering products at lower, fairer pricesto consumers, it turns out to be a good deal for farmers basedin remote areas.

Abhishek Jani, CEO, Fairtrade Foundation India, said, “Wedeeply sympathize with the family of the farmer. In India, afarmer commits suicide every two hours. We recently helpedwith the farmer suicides in Punjab and have reached out tothe sugarcane growing community in Belgaum now.”

Anand, a sugarcane producer from the Southern region ofKarnataka who has been with Fairtrade for five years now,said, “We have reached Belgaum and provided them with thepremium and explained them our concept but the farmersthere are still relatively unaware of the company.”

A sugarcane farmer from Belgaum, said, “e governmentis not doing anything. Fairtrade looks like a good alternativeto avoid such future mishap. We are receiving help from thembut people are skeptical as they haven’t heard of such a gen-erous concept before. I know they are genuine.”

According to Jani, Fairtrade prevents farmer exploitation asit guarantees a sustainable minimum price, irrespective offluctuations in the commodity market. e producers get asocial premium to invest in this sustainable business.

In India, 14,000 farmers committed suicide last year. eyface mounting debt levels, high cost of seeds and productionand are impacted by the sudden change in climate that thenation is facing. Two-thirds of these suicides have occurredin cotton growing regions. Farmers are the biggest losers asthey do not make enough from their produce and have topurchase staple foods at higher prices.

Farmers attempt suicide as factories dont payBhaskar Dutta & Bhavika Bhuwalka

A laborer who works in Omkar Tumba’’s field in Bidar

Murugesh Nirani, ex-heavy industries minister andfounder of Nirani Sugars Limited


Kidnapping cases on the rise More than 1,500 cases of kidnapping have beenreported this year in Karnataka which is approx-imately 28 per cent higher than last year.

The State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) revealedthat in 2012 the total number of kidnapping casesregistered were 1,451, while this year the numberwent up to 1,731.

The number of murders reported in the state thisyear was 1,489 which is around 38 per cent lesserthan last year’s cases. In 2012, the total number ofmurder cases registered with the SCRB was 1,860.

An analysis of the SCRB’s data showed that inKarnataka, five kids are kidnapped everyday andfour people are murdered every day.

Shivamurthy, Superintendent of Police, StateCrime Records Bureau, said: “Crime in Bangaloreis increasing because huge number of people arecoming here from all parts of the country.”

Mohanty, Additional Commissioner of Crime,said: “It is not right to take the numbers in facevalue. There are a lot of things that are needed to

be considered while analyzing these sensitive num-bers. There are all kinds of murders and they comeunder different sub-category. Not all murders aresame, for example, murder over property will comeunder a different category and it is not just a ‘mur-der’. This data should not be published just likethat, it can create panic. These statistics at timesgive a wrong impression to public who are forcedto think that we are not efficient. ”

He added: “The SCRB tends to take a ‘child miss-ing case’ under kidnapping. Therefore, it is verydifficult to find out the actual number. National pa-pers publish such data without even thinking oncewhat they are doing.”

29 years after Bhopal, 74 hazardous plants still operating in state

It has been 29 years since

the Bhopal Gas Tragedy

took place in Union Car-

bide pesticides factory in

the year 1984. Since then

December 3 is observed as

Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The

disaster killed more than

3,000 people as methl iso-

cyanate chemical was re-

leased.

Major Chemical

Disaster in India

Bhopal Gas

Tragedy

Karnataka State Pollution Con-trol Board (KSPCB) organized aworkshop on Chemical DisasterPrevention Day .

e workshop, which was at-tended by industrialists from all

over the city, started with thekeynote address by Dr. VamanAcharya, Chairman, KSPCB.

He said, “is workshop is or-ganized in order to create aware-ness among the industrialistsabout the safety measures that areto be followed to avoid disasterslike Bhopal gas tragedy. Unless anduntil we know the chemistry ofevery industry, we can’t anticipatewhat happens tomorrow.” It hasbeen 29 years since the Bhopal gastragedy destroyed lives of morethan 10,000 people.

A.R.Vijayendra, joint director,Department of Factories and Boil-ers, said: “Disasters occur mainlydue to the negligence of safetymeasures in industries. It is alwaysnecessary to dispose the chemical

and bio-medical waste in a hy-gienic manner.”

He added: “We should always as-sess the severity of the effect of dis-asters and analyze the measuresaccordingly. In Karnataka, thereare 74 hazardous industries whichis a bad sign for the state.” Othertragedies he spoke about were theKolkata hospital fire accident andthe Jaipur industrial accident.

K.L.Sudhir, additional director,Karnataka State Fire and Emer-gency Services, said: “An actionplan for responding to terrorist at-tacks by chemical and biologicalmethods was developed in 2010.Unless we have robust plans, it willbe very hard to stop any kind ofdisasters. Networking system mustbe improved in each and every in-

dustry in order to avoid hazardousaccidents. Mock drills and zoningof industries is very essential andpollution control board of everystate must inspect the industriesfrequently.”

He also mentioned how Banga-lore has become vulnerable to allkinds of man-made disasters aerthe recent sudden boost in its pop-ulation.

S.B. Ravi Kumar, assistant,Labour Commissioner of Banga-lore and Markhandeya, chief fireofficer of Bangalore also took partin the workshop.

Krishna, ABV Industries, said:“e workshop proved to be veryhelpful and I got to learn a lot oftechnical information from it.”

Raju Peethala

Ishan Bhattacharya

Crime in Bangalore is increasing becausehuge number of people are coming here fromall parts of the country.

- Shivamurthy,Superintendent of Police, State Crime

Records Bureau

Year2012 1,451 1,860

2013 1,731 1,489

Education still a distant dream for slum kids Fieen days aer putting up a schoolfor the slum children in Rajarajesh-wari Nagar, the NGO which took theinitiative completely forgot about itsexistence.

Ashok, 38, whose children went to theschool for two weeks, said, “e ladyteacher allotted by Karnataka Educa-tion Department came to the tentschool for only fieen days and aerthat she never came back. Our dreamof getting our children educated is inthe dark again.”

He said: “e NGO, Surabhi Founda-tion, promised to make the school butthey said that until they build a properschool we should make a temporaryarrangement for the sake of educatingour children. We spent Rs.2000 andmade the school out of bamboos andcloth. Now the school is almost inruins.”

e PRO of Karnataka Education De-partment Suma S.K, who promisedthem to make a school, said: “I am stilllooking into the matter. I have handedover the responsibility to the DYPC Mr.N. Kondaramaiah.”

Vinod, 26, another slum dweller inRajarajeshwari Nagar, said, “NGO peo-ple did not keep their promise. We were

fooled by them. We are again back tothe same situation as before. We have towork 24 hours and it is very difficult forus to see what our kids are doing thewhole day. We thought at least aer get-ting some education our children willdo something better than us, but now itseems nothing is going to change.”

Babli, 8, who used to go to the schoolsaid, “We were studying and enjoyingour classes everyday but now again wedo not have anything to do but roamaround whole day.”

e receptionist of Surabhi Founda-tion said, “We will make sure that thechildren will go to the nearby schoolfrom tomorrow and we will rebuild thetent.”

e PRO of Karnataka Education De-partment said,” e DYPC is busy withthe survey reports; he will look into thismater aer the surveys are done.”

Nibedita Mohanta

Slum kids standing on the sitewhich used to be a school once

Delegates at Chemical DisasterPrevention Day seminar.

Kidnap Murder

e Daily Observer Wednesday, December 4, 2013 6Celebrating the United Nations' 16 day campaign from November 25 to December 10 whichaims to fightviolence against women, e Daily Observer brings you the stories of the sur-vivors and healers associated with this gender-based struggle that is still rampant.

‘e way people look at womenis the same everywhere’

Lessons in Forgetting, directed by Unni Vijayan, won theNational Award for Best Feature Film in English this year. efilm focuses on issues like female feticide, gender discrimina-tion and the status of women in an inconsiderate patriarchalsociety through its two women characters – Smrithi andMeera.

Smrithi is the 19-year-old vibrant and beautiful daughter ofJAK (the protagonist played by Adil Hussain) who is brutallygang-raped and ends up being bed ridden and lifeless.

Aer the credits rolled and the lights turned on at thescreening of the movie in Kormangala, from among the som-bre audience beamed a smiling face. It was that of the prouddirector, Unni Vijayan. His job as the creative director ofArowana Studios brought him to Bangalore three years agoand he never le.

e film is based on Anita Nair’s 2010 novel by the samename. “When we got in touch with her, we wanted to workon ‘Mistress’ that she had written in 2003 but she insisted thatwe read her latest. My producer and I, we read it and that ishow it began,” said the 44-year-old, stroking his white stub-ble.

Nair’s book has Meera, a modern-day woman coming toterms with the challenges of life, as its protagonist; but Vijayanchose to highlight the sub-plot of the book, a father’s probeinto a supposed accident that le his 19-year-old daughter de-funct, as his story.

"I could relate to the father. e movie is, therefore, fromthe father’s perspective and Meera fades away as one of the

minor characters. Several changes were made to adaptit to the big screen but the events remain the same,"said the father of two girls, 18 and 12.

He believes that the Indian society in general is verypatriarchal. “I was not this sensitive a person when Ibegan with the film. As we started scripting it, I got intouch with people who have been working on gender-based issues for long. ey told me, ‘See, you are mak-ing this, don’t take it lightly. If you are doing it,understand the gravity of it.’ at was when the wholething changed and elevated to another level, that of un-derstanding the issue. We realized that making a filmis a responsibility.”

Selling an English film in India is no small feat. “It isvery difficult. ere is no market. Nobody will pick amovie in English for even television rights. Now Do-ordarshan has taken it only because it got the NationalAward. Had it been a Hindi or a Tamil film, it wouldhave had immediate takers.”

Vijayan did not think much about the choice of lan-guage when he started. “We just wanted to make agood film,” he said. When it became clear that his di-rectorial debut would deal with the rural and urban di-vide where Tamil portrayed the rural side (certaindialogues in the film are in Tamil, supported by Englishsubtitles), English was his natural choice as the lan-guage of the urbane. According to him, “Had I chosensome other language, the audience would not have felt the di-vide as strongly as I wanted them to.”

Despite being acknowledged critically world-wide, “no one came to see it” when the film re-leased in Indian theatres on February 15 last year.e film was not promoted extensively as the crewdecided to make the most of whatever money theyhad. “In the present times, about 60 per cent of thetotal budget of a film is used for promotions. Withlimited funds, we thought it was better not to pro-mote it the usual way. I didn’t want to lose money.”

“We are reaching people through organizationswho want to support the cause. It is because ofwhat the movie talks about, what it touches upon,that it has been travelling ever since it wasscreened for the first time.”

Smrithi is played by Maya Tideman, an Indo-

Dutch. “Casting Smrithi was very difficult. Nobody was ready.Maya agreed to do the film and came from Netherlands onlya few weeks before the shoot. She was very cooperativethroughout.”

It took two days to shoot the climax (the scene where Sm-rithi is brutally raped by countless rustic men drinking andmerrymaking on a beach in a village in Tamil Nadu). “esecond day Maya actually broke down. She couldn’t take itfurther and just le. I wanted the climax to hit hard so that itregisters. e purpose was to make the audience uncomfort-able.”

Lessons in Forgetting shall live for as long as the problem itdiscusses continues to live, which looks like a long time. Vi-jyan, who plans to do a Malayali film next, believes that themovie would be worth something “if it can facilitate somekind of a dialogue or bring in a slight change in people’s per-spective.”

Sneha Bengani

Unni Vijayan’s “Lessons In Forgetting” - won National Awardas the best feature Film this year .

Maya Tideman, an Indo-Dutch actor, played Smrithi in the filmwho sets about bringing awarness regrading feamle feticide but isbrutally gang raped in the process

Graphic Representation: Aurosmita Acharya


While Delhi votes today, theexistence of Aam Admi Party(AAP) is being questioned bySantosh Hegde, one of thelead players in Anna Hazare’santi-corruption campaign.

He withdrew his participa-tion just aer the movementcame to a halt.

Hegde said: “e youngmembers thought to start anew party and contest elec-tions. I was against it. eythought until we get into thesystem we cannot change it.Strategically, it could be rightbut I was not satisfied.”

“If one has to contest elec-tions, a huge amount of moneyis required for campaigns. ismoney has to come from ille-gal methods. is leaves no-body clean. I believe that theparty should have only beenthe watchdog of the happen-

ings and not participate in themechanism.”

e party is competing withits main rivals, Congress andBJP, and is hoping to win withthe common man’s support.

Commenting on the popu-larity of AAP, he said: “Mediain Delhi has announced theparty to be most popular.Other states are yet to ac-knowledge AAP. Long back,Swantantra Party and PrajaSocialist Party too had gainedmassive popularity but they

failed later. So one cannot pre-dict what will happen tomor-row. AAP could fall drasticallyor rise to the sun.”

Being the former Lokayuktaand Justice of Supreme Court,he strongly opposed ban onopinion polls.

Hegde believes in not curb-ing the ‘fundamental rights’ ofthe citizens of the country.

He said: “Public opinion isvery important; accept it ornot. You cannot just tie up apiece of information because it

is not in your favor. Insteadyou must deal with it, take it asan icebreaker and try to getyour votes back, fairly. By suchmeans, you not just force votesin your favor but win people’srespect as well.”

He feels that Indian votersare not gullible and thus willchoose a right candidate re-gardless of curbing theirrights.

Santosh has been in newslately for exposing the miningscam in Karnataka.

When asked about the illegalexport of iron ore from Kar-nataka and other states, hesaid: “Congress did mentionthey will act on the report sub-mitted regarding the issue. eprevious government had in-stituted an enquiry into this,but three years have passedand we have no results. I per-sonally hope Congress fulfilsthe promises.”

Prutha Bhosle Temporary pourakarmikas are still not receivingtheir salaries on time and claim they’re not paidenough.

e temporary pourakarmikas, who work on a con-tract basis, are complaining that the Bruhat BangaloreMahanagara Palike (BBMP) does not give them theirsalaries on time.

ey told e Daily Observer that in addition to that,the Rs. 2300 salary they are getting currently is not suf-ficient to run a household.

Muthuamma (name changed), a pourakarmika said:“I spend Rs. 300 on transportation aer which I’m lewith Rs. 2000. It ultimately leaves me with no savingsat all. I have a daughter of marriageable age but I’venothing to spend on her marriage.”

She said that their medical bills are half paid and theyare forced to pay the remainder of the bill. She addedthat earlier they used to get bonuses in a single lot butnow they receive it in slots, within the intervals ofthree-five months.

N. Narayana, President, BBMP Pourakarmikas GangMan Association, said that the contractedpourakarmikas are suppose to get Rs. 6,938 which re-duces to Rs. 5,054 aer deducting Provident Fund (PF)and Employee State Insurance (ESI).

Complaining of the delay in salary, he said, “But theynever get the salary on time, it always comes three orfour months late.”

He said that according to the recent direction passedby the High Court, BBMP is supposed to give the salaryto the pourakarmikas directly, which is not being done.is was supposed to have been implemented from Oc-tober 1, 2013, but they have not yet received it.

Narayana added that pourakarmikas under Boman-nahalli BBMP ward have not received their salary forthe past three months.

Ramathulla Khan, Health Inspector, BBMP, said thataccording to the norms they should get their salary bythe 1st of every month but the process of transferringthe payment takes time. He added, “If BBMP does notreceive revenue on time, they fail to give the salary onthe fixed date.”

He said, “e pourakarmikas are lucky that they gettheir salary in two or three months’ time. Some otherlaborers who receive their salaries in six months.”

‘For elections money has to come illegally’Neha Singh

A pourakarmika working inside Majestic Station

Santosh Hegde, on Aam Aadmi Party and Indian politics

Blame game over air pollution in B’lore

Karnataka State Pollution ControlBoard (KSPCB) has blamed the Banga-lore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC)for rising levels of pollution in the city.

According to KSPCB, in areas like K.R.Market, parts of Mysore Road, KarnatakaHousing Board Industrial and Yeshwanth-pur, pollution levels are higher than 60units of Respirable Particulate Matter inair, which is, two-three times higher thanthe permissible limit.

B. Nagappa, scientific offi-cer, KSPCB, said: “Metroconstruction work through-out the city is the main causeof rise in pollution level.Until and unless the con-struction work gets over it isvery difficult to check thepollution in the air.”

Defending the AMCO Bat-teries factory on MysoreRoad he said that the highpollution level surroundingit is because of “metro con-

struction work going on around it”. B. Kulkarni, general manager of Human

Resource Department, BMRC, said: “eKSPCB is absolutely wrong. Constructionof metro is not hampering the environ-ment. We are taking enough initiatives tosee that the environment around the con-struction areas is not harmed.”

“People do not know anything aboutconstruction of metro. We are taking ini-tiatives; the pollution board should taketheirs. e first phase of construction will

end in the 2015.”Srinivan Rajugopalan, personal assistant

to general manager of BMRC, said: “emetro construction is more than a Rs. 11crore project; it will get completed byMarch 2015.”

Preetam Mondal, a second year studentof Public Education Society residing nearMysore road, said: “Because of thetremendous amount of dust and smokeunder the metro construction site, I havealmost stopped using that road. I have hadbreathing problems here a couple of timesbefore, so I am afraid it may start again.”

A tea stall owner on the Mysore Roadsaid: “I am used to staying in this environ-ment, I think my body is immune to dustand smoke now. is never happens to bea problem for me because I have to earnmy bread.”

Ullash Kumar, a city based environmen-talist working in EcoWatch, said: “e airpollution level can cause breathing prob-lems like asthma. In extreme cases it cancause heart attacks and lung cancer. Chil-dren are the worst affected.”

Ishan Bhattacharya

Metro railway construction going on near Majestic

Our pay is garbage

Photo: Neha Singh

Photo: Rishika


State’s poorest people dying for a kidneyLack of government owned kid-ney transplant facilities in Kar-nataka deprives poor people ofthe right to live a healthy life.

Kidney transplant is one of themost expensive treatments in Indiaaer heart surgery. e enormouscost of treatment is an effectivedeath sentence for the poor.

One of the officials of the HealthDepartment, who refused to benamed, revealed that governmenthas not taken any steps to facilitatelow cost kidney treatment.

He said, “Only one governmenthospital in Karnataka has kidneytransplantation facility which de-prives the poor an affordable treat-ment.”

Earlier, both the central and thestate governments had introducedsome health insurance schemes likethe Vajapayee Arogyashree schemeand Yeshasvini Cooperative Farm-ers Health Care Scheme, amongothers, for the Below Poverty Line(BPL) people.

ese schemes are still working inthe state but nothing has been doneby the government to create aware-ness among the people, so they ei-ther end up spending more for thetreatment or die without any treat-ment.

Jency Antony, an official fromZonal Coordination Committee ofKarnataka for Transplantation

(ZCCK) said, “e schemes arethere but the private hospitalswhich are included in the govern-ment schemes do not abide by therules of the schemes, they chargeon their own.”

ZCCK provided organs to theneedy patients.

She added, “Treatment of kidneyand transplantation is generallyvery high and as these schemes arenot properly implemented, poorare not getting the treatment.”

e problem is that even if somepeople are aware and avail theschemes, the private hospitals de-mand high charges, according toAntony.

She added that in private hospitalskidney treatment costs aroundthree to six lakhs and insurance isonly of up to two lakhs so peoplehave to cough up the additionalmoney from their pocket whichmostly comes from selling housesand other assets.

In government hospitals the costof dialysis and transplantation isabout Rs 95000 to Rs 100,000. DrAnil Kumar, Nephrologist at theBGS Hospital said, “e cost of kid-ney transplantation is about 3.75lakhs.” But, the BGS hospital fallsunder the Yeshasvini Scheme.

Dr Aashish Parekh, Assistant pro-fessor of Nephrology at the Instituteof Nephro Urology, Victoria hospi-tal, said that: “To my knowledgeVictoria hospital is the only govern-

ment hospital Karnataka whichdoes kidney transplantation. Apartfrom this private hospitals do kid-ney transplantations.”

He added, “Normally kidneytransplantation in government hos-pitals costs around Rs 100,000 butthat number rises many fold whenit comes to private hospitals.”

Moreover, Dr. Parekh said that,“To facilitate kidney transplanta-tion, hospitals need proper equip-ments and licenses to carry outtransplantation and it seems thatgovernment does not have enoughfinancial resources to facilitatetreatment of kidney in other gov-ernment hospitals.”

Kidney problems are rising, ac-

cording to doctors, because of ir-regular and undisciplined lifestylesbut government does not havemoney to support its own citizens.

Whereas the government is foundwanting when it comes to provid-ing affordable treatment to thepoor, the non government organi-zations have succeeded in raisingawareness among people about theneed for organ donations which hasresulted in a 6.66 per cent rise inkidney donations this year com-pared to last year.

According to the statistics ac-cessed from Zonal CoordinationCommittee of Karnataka, 30 kid-neys were donated in the year 2012which have risen to 32 in the year2013.

Dr. Anil Kumar, Nephrologistfrom BGS Global Hospital said, “Inthe past, people were quite ortho-dox and religious when it came toorgan transplant.

Last year, Mohan Foundation, anNGO that works for organ trans-plantation organized a ‘Santh San-melan’ where all the religious guruswere called to one place and wereeducated about organ transplanta-tion.”

According to him, the donors’families now feel that they aredoing a good job by helping the pa-tients in need of organs and in thatway, they are remembered for theirgood deed and hence they comeforward for organ donation.

He added, “In BGS Global Hospi-tal, the situation has improvedwhen it comes to organ donation,where one-third comprises of ca-daveric (kidneys from brain deadpatients) donation and two-thirdcomprises of live donors.”

Priyanka Shylendra, a member ofan NGO named Gi Your OrganFoundation said, “Our NGO helpsin promoting public awarenesscampaign regarding organ trans-plant.

We have our representatives atRTO (Regional Transport Office)and also at the health department.In the driver’s license issued at theRTO, we have an option mentioned‘donor’ through which we encour-age people to come forward fororgan donation.”

Media persons, schools and vari-ous organizations have togetherhelped in promoting the cause fororgan donation in Karnataka.

Soumya Basu &

Karishma Ravindran

Victoria Hospital is the only government-run hospital in Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka thatundertakes kidney transplant operations.

“ In BGS Global Hospital, the situation

has improved when it comes to organ

donation, where one-third comprises

cadaveric donation and two-thirds

comprise live donors. ”- Dr. Anil Kumar, Nephrologist, BGS Hospital

A woman was tricked into a falsemarriage and later cheated out of

fieen lakh rupees in the city.Renuka Garga, 39, a res-

ident of Manjunath Nagarmet Amit Roy on an on-line matrimonial website,Bharat Matrimony inMay. ey had been dat-ing for five months fol-lowing which Amitproposed to her.

On September 23,Renuka lodged a FIR atBasveshwaranagar PoliceStation claiming she hadbeen duped of fieen lakhrupees by the man whohad promised to marryher.

Renuka has separatedfrom her first husbandand applied for divorce.She has a seven-year-oldson.

"Amit used to talk to herregularly. He told her thathe is a widower and wants

a good wife. ey had becomefriends following which Renuka

agreed to marry him”, said AshokB.S., Police Sub-Inspector, Basvesh-waranagar Police Station.

He added, “e man claimed tobe a NRI based in Nigeria who cur-rently lives in Delhi. He said he hasan iron-ore business and has croresof rupees in property and bank ac-counts."

Amit allegedly has 17 differentbank accounts which include ac-counts in the Bank of England, In-dian Overseas Bank and the Bankof India among others. He askedRenuka to deposit 35 lakh rupees inone of his accounts so that he couldclear his bank tax and clearance ofbusiness shipment.

"He told Renuka he has 7 crorerupees in his account at the Bank ofEngland. When she checked the ac-count she saw that the money hadbeen frozen by bank authorities forlack of payment of bank tax. Hetold her once he pays the shipmentclearance he will give her themoney from his account", said Mr.Ashok.

"I had transferred the money on-line through NEFT to his accountin the Bank of England. We were intouch even during Diwali but sincethen his mobile is unavailable", saidRenuka.

Following the transfer of money,Jeffrey John Morris, a friend ofAmit, had come to meet Renuka inBangalore.

"e man showed her some fakedollar bills worth around 60000 ru-pees. It is basically ordinary blackpaper dipped in a solution to re-semble dollars."

"It is a case of cyber crime. We aretrying to locate the IP addressthrough which the money wastransferred. A team of four officershad gone to Delhi in the first weekof November to investigate the case.We are looking for technical detailsand waiting for a couple of confir-mations following which we will ar-rest the duo. We know where theylive. In a week a team of for officersincluding myself will be going toDelhi again", said Mr. Ashok.

Renuka used to work in a sowarecompany but has now le her job.

"It is all very confusing. I spoke tosome one and some other personcame to meet me. Even the pictureI was shown by Amit was false."

"I don't blame the website. e in-vestigation is on; I had gone toDelhi to find out what had hap-pened. May be even the other bankaccount numbers are fake."

"It is a very difficult time. I have ason. I have learnt a very tough les-son from this cruel world." addedRenuka.

e case has been produced at theAdditional Cheif MetropolitanMagistrate's Court following theFIR.

Mr. Mahendra, Area Manager,North and South Bangalore, BharatMatrimony told e Daily Ob-server, ''We register all details ofevery client that visits our website.Such incidents are very unfortunatebut it is not possible to monitorwhat intention a person has whenregistering with our website."

e Daily Observer Tuesday, December 4, 2013 9

Sneha Ghosh

A kidnapping case in Kengeriturned into a rape probe aer thevictim changed her statement,landing her alleged lover in to jail.

e parents of the girl lodged acomplaint of kidnapping in KengeriPolice Station on October 12, 2013.Police tracked her mobile numberand with the help of the MadikerePolice found the girl in a home stayin Madikere on October 17, 2013.

Shankar B K, 25, the driver of thevicim, is alleged to have kidnappedPooja, 19, a first year Bachelor ofBusiness Administration student ofRNS College, Kengeri.

Chandrika, mother of the girlsaid, “e driver and two of hisfriends kidnapped my daughterand took her away to Coorg inorder to extort money from us.”

Lakhan R. Masuguppi, the PoliceInspector said, “When we firstcaught Pooja and Shankar, they

were not accompanied by any ofShankar’s friend. Pooja then said tous at that she was not kidnappedbut she ran away from her collegeas she was in love with him andwould like to marry the boy.”

He added, “On October 21, thegirl comes to the police station withher parents and complained thatshe was kidnapped by Shankar andtwo of his friends and was raped bythem.”

e police Inspector said thatsince the law binds us to believeand record whatever the girl says incases of kidnap, harassment and as-sault, we register the statement andfollow it accordingly.

“is creates a lot of biasness,”said Lakhan.

He added that the kidnap caseregistered on October 12 has nowbecome a Kidnap and rape case.

An informant to the police, whoseidentity couldn’t be disclosed for his

safety reasons, said, “Wecollected information re-garding their location andmovement through mobiletracking and capturedthem.e girl then did notlook disturbed rather shewas absolutely fine with theShankar and had no com-plaints to make.”

Lakhan said, “Aer inter-rogating the girl we realizedthat she has changed her standunder the influence of her parents.”

e police informant said, “Onrecording the statement of neigh-bors and her friends, we were in-formed that she shared closerelationship with Shankar.”

Shankar, the main accused said “Iwas in relationship with Pooja butit was with her consent.”

e medical tests conducted forrape in Rajarajeshwari Hospital haspositive results.

At present the girl’s family hasmade an allegation that three ofthem planned and kidnapped thegirl and then raped her as well.

Deppu from Berohalli and Dipufrom Kengeri who have been al-legedly accused of kidnap and rapeare absconding. Shankar the mainaccused had been in judicial cus-tody since October 17 till Novem-ber 30. He is now out on bail.

As per the accusation made by thecomplainant and her family a case

was registered under section 366,376, 344 R/W 34 of Indian PenalCode.

e Police Inspector said, “We aresaid to have the authority but inspite of that at times we turn help-less. We hardly have the authorityto go against them though we knowthat the girl has been changing herstance.”

He added that the kidnap caseregistered on October 12 has nowbecome a Kidnap and rape case.

Girl changes statement, lands lover in jail

Woman betrayed and cheated

Aurosmita Acharya

Amit Roy, the man who claimed to be anNRI and then cheated Renuka Garga forfieen lakh rupees.

e kidnap case registeredon October 12 has now be-come a kidnap and rapecase.

Aer interrogating the girlwe realized that she haschanged her stand under theinfluence of her parents.”

- Lakhan R. Masuguppi,Police Inspector.

“


Observer Team: Editor - Neha Singh Chief Sub Editor - Mayuri J. Ravi News Editors - Ishan Bhattacharya, Bhaskar Dutta, Gaurav Kumar, Anand Jain, Bhavika Bhuwalka Sub Editors -Nikita Narvekar, Apurva Venkat, Anagha Sawant, Chitharth Mathivanan, Aurosmita Acharya Picture Editors/ Design - Nibedita Mohanta, Karishma Ravindran, Anannya Sarkar ProofReaders - Pranay Lakshminarasimhan Email- [email protected] An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

EventsFood

Charity

Music

Seafood Market NightChef William Tong introduces bestcooking techniques with more than20 cooking style of seafood itemsprovided as per the customerchoice.When: Upto December 15, 2013Where: Vivanta By Taj, M.G Road

United Charities Bazaar 2013e annual United CharitiesBazaar popularly known as UCBand Charity Bazaar is back again.When-Sat, 7 DecemberTiming- 9:00 AM - 5:30 PMWhere- Opp. St. Charles School,Lingarajpuram, Hennur MainRoad

Carnatic Vocal Concert Enjoy an evening of CarnaticVocal recital by Ramyasarika.When- Sun, 8 DecemberTiming-6:00 PM OnwardsWhere-Indian Institute of WorldCulture, B P Wadia Road , Basavanagudi ,BangalorePhone number- 080 26678581

Jobless cycling champ faces selling bikeA national cycling champion,promised a job in 2006, is stillwaiting for the government to actand is working as an ATM guard.

Madappa Manik Kurni, 26, fromthe small village of Jakhnadi inBagalkot district, is still without aproper government job despitebeing eligible for it.

In 2004, at the age of 13, he wonthe National Track Cycling Cham-pionship U-14 tournament in Hy-derabad.

In 2007- 08 he went on to win theGold medal in the State OlympicGames and from there went on toparticipate in his first InternationalCycle race on East Coast Road(160kms Mass Start).

But since 2008 Madappa has beenlooking for a government job. Hav-ing completed his graduation as aBachelor in Arts (B.A.) and win-ning competitions at both state andnational level, he qualifies for thecriteria of getting government jobsprovided under the sports quota forboth railways and the police.

He said, “I am really in a fix. I haveno job at present. Being the eldest

in the family of six I have to dosomething to support my family. Ihave two young sisters who neededucation. At present I have leeverything to work as an ATM se-curity guard, where I am paid only

3000 rupees amonth which isabsolutely insuffi-cient.

“For the pasttwo months Ihave come toBangalore morethan 15 times. Ispoke to Mr.Vikash Kumar,Director (Depart-ment of YouthEmp ower mentand Sports), for ajob under sportsquota, but all Ihave got are mereassurances. ishas been going onsince 2006.

"I also triedmeeting theSports Minister ofKarnataka, Mr. K.Abhay Chandra,

but he remained unavailable, andthe same happened when I tried tomeet the Chief Minister of Kar-nataka today. I passed the test to geta job under the sports quota yet Ihaven’t been given one.”

Government jobs provided underthe sports quota are given by re-cruiting under various Zonal Rail-ways and Production Unitsindividually.

Mr. Vikash Kumar, the Director ofSports and Youth Empowermentsaid, “We only give recommenda-tions. We cannot provide jobs. eonly job we can offer him is that ofa coach on a contractual basis. Asfar as providing jobs are concerned,talks are going on so as to imple-ment changes in the rules, so thatthe Department of Sports and Em-powerment can employ people.”

Madappa added, “I bought myimported bicycle for more than alakh and I yet haven’t been able topay back the loan. I am planning tosell the bicycle as it is also very ex-pensive to maintain. I see no futurefor myself in this form of sport andall my hard work has gone to waste.

“Unlike previous interviews andbytes to the media, I hope that thisinterview might actually lead tosome sort of help so that I can re-vive my career and all my 35medals are not simply le hangingon the wall.”

Rahul Sadhu

Madappa Manik Kurni with his hard-earned medals

Several new records have alreadybeen smashed at the 29th Na-tional Junior Athletics Champi-

onships in Bangalore.Nearly 2000 athletes from 26

states of the country are competingat the five-day event at the Sri Kan-teerava Stadium.

In today’s events Swapna Barman,representing West Bengal set a newrecord of 1.71 meters in the highjump category breaking the previ-ous record of 1.70 set in 2004 byKavya Muthanna.

An ecstatic Swapna dedicated herwin to her coach saying, “Credit forthis new record goes to my coachSubhash Sarkar. I am very happythat I have won the gold.” SwapnaBarman has previously participatedin the Asian School Games inMalaysia, winning three goldmedals there as well.

On day one, Gayathry SivaKumarfrom Kerala won the gold for herstate and set a new meet record of1.55 meters in the under-14 highjump category.

Chitra P.U. of Kerala also set anew record of 4:33.82 seconds inthe under- 18 1500 meter race cat-egory

With the championships not yetover Chitra says, “I am very happywith the record I have set but myjob is not yet done. I have to winmore medals here and also achievemy dream of making it to theOlympics.”

Chitra’s coach Mr. Sijin N.S. says,“She has a long way to go. is isjust the beginning; she has alreadyset her sights on the upcoming2016 Asian Games. But athletics inIndia needs more promotion anddevelopment. We are a long wayaway from the international stan-dards.”

Commenting on the event, Chan-drashekhar Rai, 51, Secretary, Kar-nataka Amateur AthleticsAssociation said, “is is just thebeginning, we expect to set manymore records .Compared to the lastseven editions there has been moreparticipation by women this time.”

Barman toasts her high-flying record

Swapna Barman set a new national record today in high jump

Rahul Sadhu

the daily observer, vol 13, issue 3

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