कांग्रेस नेता सहित 8 जिला बदरभोपाल, 29 सितम्बर। मध्य प्रदेश की राजधानी भोपाल के जिला प्रशासन ने कांग्रेस नेता आरिफ मसूद सहित आठ अपराधियों को जिला बदर कर दिया है। इन अपराधियों को भोपाल जिला और समीपवर्ती जिलों की सीमा से निष्कासित किया गया है।
अपर जिला मजिस्ट्रेट रजनीश श्रीवास्तव ने मध्य प्रदेश राज्य सुरक्षा अधिनियम 1990 की धारा पांच (क)(ख) के तहत आरिफ मसूद, ठाकुर प्रसाद, दयाल, मुकेश जोशी, अख्तर, फिरोज खान, मल्लू उर्फ विनोद, राजू उर्फ राजनारायण को छह-छह माह के लिए जिले से निष्कासित किया गया है। इन सभी अपराधियों को भोपाल सहित विदिशा, सीहोर, रायसेन, राजगढ़ व होशंगाबाद की राजस्व सीमाओं से बाहर चले जाने का आदेश दिया गया है।
आधिकारिक तौर पर दी गई जानकारी के मुताबिक इन सभी अपराधियों पर हत्या के प्रयास, शासकीय कार्य में बाधा डालने, बलवा, तोड़फोड़, चाकूबाजी, मारपीट, अवैध शस्त्र रखने जैसे मामले दर्ज हैं।
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
लखनऊ। आखिर वह घड़ी आ गई, जिसका इंतजार साठ साल से हो रहा था। अयोध्या में विवादित स्थल के मालिकाना हक को लेकर इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ गुरुवार को अपना
लखनऊ। आखिर वह घड़ी आ गई, जिसका इंतजार साठ साल से हो रहा था। अयोध्या में विवादित स्थल के मालिकाना हक को लेकर इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ गुरुवार को अपना फैसला सुनाएगी। न्यायमूर्ति एस.यू. खान, न्यायमूर्ति सुधीर अग्रवाल और न्यायमूर्ति धर्मवीर शर्मा की पीठ ने फैसला सुनाने का वक्त अपरान्ह साढ़े तीन बजे तय किया है।
हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ के सामने वर्ष 1995 से इस मामले में गवाही शुरू हुई थी। कुल 33 गवाह मस्जिद पक्ष और 54 गवाह मंदिर पक्ष से पेश हुए। करीब 15,000 पृष्ठों पर गवाही दर्ज हुई है। हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ ने इसी साल 26 जुलाई को मामले की सुनवाई पूरी की है। इसके बाद 24 सितंबर को फैसले की तारीख नियत की गई थी, लेकिन 23 सितंबर को सुप्रीम कोर्ट द्वारा इस पर अंतरिम रोक लगा दिए जाने से यह संभव नहीं हुआ। यह रोक पूर्व नौकरशाह रमेशचंद्र त्रिपाठी की उस याचिका पर दिया गया, जिसमें सुलह-समझौते की कोशिश के लिए फैसला टालने की अपील की गई थी। हालांकि, 28 सितंबर को सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने त्रिपाठी की याचिका को खारिज कर दिया और फैसले का रास्ता साफ हुआ।
साठ साल से जारी मुकदमेबाजी
विवादित स्थल के मालिकाना हक को लेकर पिछले साठ साल से मुकदमेबाजी चल रही है। इस संबंध मे सिविल जज [मुंसिफ अदालत], फैजाबाद की अदालत में कुल चार दावे दाखिल थे। सिविल जज, फैजाबाद ने छह जनवरी, 1964 को एक आदेश जारी कर चारों मुकदमे सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए एक साथ जोड़ दिए। इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की लखनऊ पीठ ने 10 जुलाई, 1989 को प्रथम चार मुकदमे मौलिक व सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए हाई कोर्ट में स्थानातरित किए। पाच फरवरी, 1992 को दिगंबर अखाड़ा के परमहंस रामचंद्र दास [अब दिवंगत] ने मुकदमा वापस लिया। इसी तारीख को हाई कोर्ट ने वादी राम लला विराजमान के मुकदमा को भी अन्य मुकदमों के साथ सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए हाई कोर्ट में मंगवाया। इस तरह कुल चार मुकदमे हैं।
सौ बिंदुओं पर फैसला लेकिन चार प्रमुख
बुनियादी वाद भले ही यह है कि अयोध्या का जो विवादित स्थल है, उस पर मालिकाना हक किसका है? लेकिन, विशेष पीठ को सौ से ज्यादा बिंदुओं पर फैसला सुनाना है। उसमें भी चार प्रमुख हैं-[1] क्या प्रश्नगत विवादित स्थल श्री रामचंद्र की जन्मभूमि है? [2] क्या स्थल मुगल बादशाह बाबर द्वारा वर्ष 1528 में बनवाई गई बाबरी मस्जिद है? [3] क्या वहा पर वर्ष 1949 में भी श्रीराम की मूर्तिया विराजमान थीं? [4] क्या वर्ष 1949 के पहले विवादित स्थल पर नमाज पढ़ी जाती थी? फैसला इस पर भी आना है कि क्या करीब सवा सौ साल पहले [1885-86 में] इसी मसले पर सुनाया गया अदालत का फैसला अभी लागू है? निर्मोही अखाड़ा ने [तत्कालीन] मस्जिद से सटे राम चबूतरे पर मंदिर बनाने का दावा किया था, जिसे अदालत ने यह कहते हुए खारिज कर दिया था कि ऐसा होने से वहा हर रोज विवाद होता रहेगा।
प्रदेश में 1,90,000 जवानों के हाथ सुरक्षा
नई दिल्ली में केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री पी. चिदंबरम ने बताया कि पूरे देश में इस फैसले के मद्देनजर पुख्ता सुरक्षा इंतजाम किए गए हैं। गृह मंत्री ने कहा, 'कानून व्यवस्था और शांति बनाए रखने के लिए केंद्र ने पर्याप्त उपाय किए हैं। देश भर में पर्याप्त सुरक्षा बल तैनात किए गए हैं। उत्तर प्रदेश में हर तरह के पुलिस बल को मिलाकर कुल एक लाख 90 हजार पुलिसकर्मी हैं। कानून व्यवस्था की स्थिति कायम करने के लिए यह संख्या काफी है।'
अगले आदेश तक समूह एसएमएस पर रोक
चिदंबरम ने कहा, 'समूह [बल्क] एसएमएस और एमएमएस पर प्रतिबंध अगले आदेश तक जारी रहेगा।' उन्होंने बताया कि गड़बड़ी फैलाने की कथित कोशिश के रूप में सरकार को संकेत मिला था कि समूह एसएमएस के जरिए संदिग्ध संदेश भेजे जा रहे हैं। इसी वजह से सरकार ने इस पर 22 सितंबर को प्रतिबंध लगाने का फैसला किया था। बाद में इसे बढ़ाकर पहले 29 सितंबर और फिर 30 सितंबर कर दिया गया था।
मनमोहन, सोनिया ने की शांति की अपील
अयोध्या पर फैसले के मद्देनजर प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह, संयुक्त प्रगतिशील गठबंधन [संप्रग] की अध्यक्ष सोनिया गांधी ने देशवासियों से शांति की अपील की है। सिंह की ओर से मीडिया में जारी अपील में कहा गया, 'अदालत के इस निर्णय को पूरा सम्मान मिलना चाहिए। सभी वर्गो के लोगों के लिए इस फैसले के बाद धैर्य और शांति कायम रखना जरूरी है। लोगों के किसी वर्ग के द्वारा दूसरे वर्ग को उकसाने का कोई प्रयास नहीं किया जाना चाहिए अथवा ऐसी कोई बात नहीं की जानी चाहिए जो दूसरों की भावनाएं आहम करें। सरकार सभी वर्गो से यह अपील करती है कि वे फैसले के बाद शांति व्यवस्था कायम रखें।' सोनिया गांधी की ओर से जारी बयान में कहा गया, 'मेरा सबसे विनम्र अनुरोध है कि जो भी निर्णय हो उसे उदारता से स्वीकार करें। पहले की तरह न्यायपालिका पर आस्था रखते हुए हर कीमत पर शांति, आपसी सद्भाव और भाईचारा बनाए रखें। भावनात्मक एकता ही भारतीय समाज और राष्ट्र की सबसे बड़ी शक्ति है।'
चिदंबरम को याद आए महात्मा गांधी
अयोध्या विवाद पर इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट के फैसले के मद्देनजर कानून व्यवस्था की स्थिति बिगड़ने की आशंका के बीच केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री चिदंबरम को महात्मा गांधी याद आ गए। उन्होंने बापू के लोकप्रिय भजन की पंक्तियां पढ़कर देशवासियों से शांति और सद्भाव की अपील की, 'ईश्वर अल्ला तेरो नाम, सबको सन्मति दे भगवान।' चिदंबरम ने समाज के सभी वर्गो से कहा, 'वे उन मूल्यों को बरकरार रखें, जिनकी वजह से भारत का नाम दुनिया में मशहूर है।' साथ ही कहा, 'इस फैसले में न कोई जीतेगा और न हारेगा। जो हाई कोर्ट के फैसले से असंतुष्ट होगा, उसे सुप्रीम कोर्ट में अपील करने का अधिकार होगा।'
सुरक्षा, सख्ती, संयम
लखनऊ, जागरण ब्यूरो : सूबे में अमन और सद्भाव बनाये रखने के लिए सरकार ने जबर्दस्त सुरक्षा प्रबंध किये हैं। अफसरों को लापरवाही न बरतने की हिदायत दी गयी है और आम जनता से संयम बरतने की अपील की गयी है। मुख्यमंत्री मायावती खुद सभी सुरक्षा प्रबंधों पर नजर रख रही हैं।
सुरक्षा : अप्रिय घटना रोकने को ढाई लाख से अधिक सुरक्षाकर्मी प्रदेश में तैनात हैं। सेना से भी मदद के लिए तैयार रहने का अनुरोध। नेपाल से जुड़ी सीमा सील। केन्द्र से मिला 52 कम्पनी अर्धसैनिक बल अयोध्या व हाईकोर्ट परिसर की सुरक्षा में तैनात। इनमें 40 कम्पनी सीआरपीएफ तथा 12 कंपनी रैपिड एक्शन फोर्स के जवान शामिल। 19 जिले अति संवेदनशील व 25 जिले संवेदनशील मानकर वहा सुरक्षा के विशेष प्रबंध किये गये है। अयोध्या में 20 कम्पनी अर्धसैनिक बल, 30 कम्पनी पीएसी, पाच हजार होमगार्ड और 10 हजार पुलिसकर्मी तैनात। अतिसंवेदनशील माने गए 19 जिलों में पाच-पाच तथा संवेदनशील 25 जिलों में तीन-तीन और सामान्य माने गए जिलों में एक से दो कम्पनी पीएसी तैनात।
सख्ती : धारा 144 लागू होने के कारण जुलूस और मार्च पर प्रतिबंध। फैसले के मद्देनजर आतिशबाजी और मिठाई बाटने तक पर रोक। शांति व्यवस्था बनाने के लिए संवेदनशील स्थलों पर चेकिंग तेज। होटल, लाज एवं धर्मशालाओं में ठहरे लोगों के बारे में पड़ताल। अब तक उन्माद फैलाने के आरोपी रहे 45 हजार से भी अधिक लोग पाबंद। सभी जिलाधिकारियों को स्थानीय परिस्थितियों के अनुरूप निर्णय लेने की हिदायत।
संयम : जिलों में थानास्तर पर बनायी गई शाति समितियों के जरिये गावों, मोहल्लों में अमन चैन बनाये रखने की कोशिश। लगभग डेढ़ हजार थानों में 15 हजार से अधिक पुलिस मित्रों को भी सक्रिय किया गया है। अमन चैन बनाये रखने के लिए आगनबाड़ी, स्वास्थ्यकर्मी, लेखपाल, सिंचाईकर्मी, राजस्वकर्मी, प्रधान, राशन दुकानदारों, वकील, डाक्टर व व्यापारी समुदाय का सहयोग शामिल। सभी थानों एवं शहर के महत्वपूर्ण स्थलों पर सार्वजनिक सूचना प्रणाली [पब्लिक एड्रेस सिस्टम] लागू।
अमन-चैन बहाली के लिए तैनात सुरक्षाकर्मी
पुलिसकर्मी - 124778
पीएसी -25847
होमगार्ड -80000
पीआरडी स्वयं सेवक -20000
अर्धसैनिक बल -52 कंपनी [एक कम्पनी में सौ जवान]
लखनऊ, जाब्यू : अप्रिय घटना की रोकथाम को डीजीपी कार्यालय को तत्काल सूचना देने को कहा गया है। डीजीपी कार्यालय में इसके लिये एक कंट्रोलरूम बनाया गया है। यहां फोन नम्बर-2206901, मोबाइल नम्बर- 94544002508, 09, 10 तंथा हेल्पलाइन नम्बर-9307100100 एवं 9984100100 पर अयोध्या मामले को लेकर क्षेत्र में अफवाह फैलने, मारपीट या विवाद होने सम्बंधी घटनाओं के साथ ही क्षेत्र में हुई किसी अवांछनीय गतिविधियों के बारे में जानकारी देने का आग्रह किया गया है। पुलिस महानिरीक्षक पीएसी आरपी सिंह ने यहां उक्त जानकारी दी। उन्होंने कहा हर सूचना पर त्वरित कार्रवाई की जायेगी।
लखनऊ, जाब्यू : जिलों में सुरक्षा प्रबंधों का जायजा लेने के लिए आला पुलिस अफसरों के लिए तीन हेलीकाप्टर की व्यवस्था की गयी है, जिनसे उन्होंने बुधवार को कई जिलों का निरीक्षण भी किया। यह सिलसिला अगले आदेश तक जारी रहेगा। रात्रि में इनसे अयोध्या सहित विभिन्न शहरों का जायजा लिया गया। अफसरों ने सर्च महत्वपूर्ण स्थलों, शहरों में की गयी बेरीकेटिंग पर तैनात पुलिसकर्मी अपनी ड्यूटी पर मुस्तैदी से जुटे हैं या नहीं इसकी चेकिंग की जायेगी।
हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ के सामने वर्ष 1995 से इस मामले में गवाही शुरू हुई थी। कुल 33 गवाह मस्जिद पक्ष और 54 गवाह मंदिर पक्ष से पेश हुए। करीब 15,000 पृष्ठों पर गवाही दर्ज हुई है। हाई कोर्ट की विशेष पीठ ने इसी साल 26 जुलाई को मामले की सुनवाई पूरी की है। इसके बाद 24 सितंबर को फैसले की तारीख नियत की गई थी, लेकिन 23 सितंबर को सुप्रीम कोर्ट द्वारा इस पर अंतरिम रोक लगा दिए जाने से यह संभव नहीं हुआ। यह रोक पूर्व नौकरशाह रमेशचंद्र त्रिपाठी की उस याचिका पर दिया गया, जिसमें सुलह-समझौते की कोशिश के लिए फैसला टालने की अपील की गई थी। हालांकि, 28 सितंबर को सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने त्रिपाठी की याचिका को खारिज कर दिया और फैसले का रास्ता साफ हुआ।
साठ साल से जारी मुकदमेबाजी
विवादित स्थल के मालिकाना हक को लेकर पिछले साठ साल से मुकदमेबाजी चल रही है। इस संबंध मे सिविल जज [मुंसिफ अदालत], फैजाबाद की अदालत में कुल चार दावे दाखिल थे। सिविल जज, फैजाबाद ने छह जनवरी, 1964 को एक आदेश जारी कर चारों मुकदमे सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए एक साथ जोड़ दिए। इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट की लखनऊ पीठ ने 10 जुलाई, 1989 को प्रथम चार मुकदमे मौलिक व सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए हाई कोर्ट में स्थानातरित किए। पाच फरवरी, 1992 को दिगंबर अखाड़ा के परमहंस रामचंद्र दास [अब दिवंगत] ने मुकदमा वापस लिया। इसी तारीख को हाई कोर्ट ने वादी राम लला विराजमान के मुकदमा को भी अन्य मुकदमों के साथ सामूहिक सुनवाई के लिए हाई कोर्ट में मंगवाया। इस तरह कुल चार मुकदमे हैं।
सौ बिंदुओं पर फैसला लेकिन चार प्रमुख
बुनियादी वाद भले ही यह है कि अयोध्या का जो विवादित स्थल है, उस पर मालिकाना हक किसका है? लेकिन, विशेष पीठ को सौ से ज्यादा बिंदुओं पर फैसला सुनाना है। उसमें भी चार प्रमुख हैं-[1] क्या प्रश्नगत विवादित स्थल श्री रामचंद्र की जन्मभूमि है? [2] क्या स्थल मुगल बादशाह बाबर द्वारा वर्ष 1528 में बनवाई गई बाबरी मस्जिद है? [3] क्या वहा पर वर्ष 1949 में भी श्रीराम की मूर्तिया विराजमान थीं? [4] क्या वर्ष 1949 के पहले विवादित स्थल पर नमाज पढ़ी जाती थी? फैसला इस पर भी आना है कि क्या करीब सवा सौ साल पहले [1885-86 में] इसी मसले पर सुनाया गया अदालत का फैसला अभी लागू है? निर्मोही अखाड़ा ने [तत्कालीन] मस्जिद से सटे राम चबूतरे पर मंदिर बनाने का दावा किया था, जिसे अदालत ने यह कहते हुए खारिज कर दिया था कि ऐसा होने से वहा हर रोज विवाद होता रहेगा।
प्रदेश में 1,90,000 जवानों के हाथ सुरक्षा
नई दिल्ली में केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री पी. चिदंबरम ने बताया कि पूरे देश में इस फैसले के मद्देनजर पुख्ता सुरक्षा इंतजाम किए गए हैं। गृह मंत्री ने कहा, 'कानून व्यवस्था और शांति बनाए रखने के लिए केंद्र ने पर्याप्त उपाय किए हैं। देश भर में पर्याप्त सुरक्षा बल तैनात किए गए हैं। उत्तर प्रदेश में हर तरह के पुलिस बल को मिलाकर कुल एक लाख 90 हजार पुलिसकर्मी हैं। कानून व्यवस्था की स्थिति कायम करने के लिए यह संख्या काफी है।'
अगले आदेश तक समूह एसएमएस पर रोक
चिदंबरम ने कहा, 'समूह [बल्क] एसएमएस और एमएमएस पर प्रतिबंध अगले आदेश तक जारी रहेगा।' उन्होंने बताया कि गड़बड़ी फैलाने की कथित कोशिश के रूप में सरकार को संकेत मिला था कि समूह एसएमएस के जरिए संदिग्ध संदेश भेजे जा रहे हैं। इसी वजह से सरकार ने इस पर 22 सितंबर को प्रतिबंध लगाने का फैसला किया था। बाद में इसे बढ़ाकर पहले 29 सितंबर और फिर 30 सितंबर कर दिया गया था।
मनमोहन, सोनिया ने की शांति की अपील
अयोध्या पर फैसले के मद्देनजर प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह, संयुक्त प्रगतिशील गठबंधन [संप्रग] की अध्यक्ष सोनिया गांधी ने देशवासियों से शांति की अपील की है। सिंह की ओर से मीडिया में जारी अपील में कहा गया, 'अदालत के इस निर्णय को पूरा सम्मान मिलना चाहिए। सभी वर्गो के लोगों के लिए इस फैसले के बाद धैर्य और शांति कायम रखना जरूरी है। लोगों के किसी वर्ग के द्वारा दूसरे वर्ग को उकसाने का कोई प्रयास नहीं किया जाना चाहिए अथवा ऐसी कोई बात नहीं की जानी चाहिए जो दूसरों की भावनाएं आहम करें। सरकार सभी वर्गो से यह अपील करती है कि वे फैसले के बाद शांति व्यवस्था कायम रखें।' सोनिया गांधी की ओर से जारी बयान में कहा गया, 'मेरा सबसे विनम्र अनुरोध है कि जो भी निर्णय हो उसे उदारता से स्वीकार करें। पहले की तरह न्यायपालिका पर आस्था रखते हुए हर कीमत पर शांति, आपसी सद्भाव और भाईचारा बनाए रखें। भावनात्मक एकता ही भारतीय समाज और राष्ट्र की सबसे बड़ी शक्ति है।'
चिदंबरम को याद आए महात्मा गांधी
अयोध्या विवाद पर इलाहाबाद हाई कोर्ट के फैसले के मद्देनजर कानून व्यवस्था की स्थिति बिगड़ने की आशंका के बीच केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री चिदंबरम को महात्मा गांधी याद आ गए। उन्होंने बापू के लोकप्रिय भजन की पंक्तियां पढ़कर देशवासियों से शांति और सद्भाव की अपील की, 'ईश्वर अल्ला तेरो नाम, सबको सन्मति दे भगवान।' चिदंबरम ने समाज के सभी वर्गो से कहा, 'वे उन मूल्यों को बरकरार रखें, जिनकी वजह से भारत का नाम दुनिया में मशहूर है।' साथ ही कहा, 'इस फैसले में न कोई जीतेगा और न हारेगा। जो हाई कोर्ट के फैसले से असंतुष्ट होगा, उसे सुप्रीम कोर्ट में अपील करने का अधिकार होगा।'
सुरक्षा, सख्ती, संयम
लखनऊ, जागरण ब्यूरो : सूबे में अमन और सद्भाव बनाये रखने के लिए सरकार ने जबर्दस्त सुरक्षा प्रबंध किये हैं। अफसरों को लापरवाही न बरतने की हिदायत दी गयी है और आम जनता से संयम बरतने की अपील की गयी है। मुख्यमंत्री मायावती खुद सभी सुरक्षा प्रबंधों पर नजर रख रही हैं।
सुरक्षा : अप्रिय घटना रोकने को ढाई लाख से अधिक सुरक्षाकर्मी प्रदेश में तैनात हैं। सेना से भी मदद के लिए तैयार रहने का अनुरोध। नेपाल से जुड़ी सीमा सील। केन्द्र से मिला 52 कम्पनी अर्धसैनिक बल अयोध्या व हाईकोर्ट परिसर की सुरक्षा में तैनात। इनमें 40 कम्पनी सीआरपीएफ तथा 12 कंपनी रैपिड एक्शन फोर्स के जवान शामिल। 19 जिले अति संवेदनशील व 25 जिले संवेदनशील मानकर वहा सुरक्षा के विशेष प्रबंध किये गये है। अयोध्या में 20 कम्पनी अर्धसैनिक बल, 30 कम्पनी पीएसी, पाच हजार होमगार्ड और 10 हजार पुलिसकर्मी तैनात। अतिसंवेदनशील माने गए 19 जिलों में पाच-पाच तथा संवेदनशील 25 जिलों में तीन-तीन और सामान्य माने गए जिलों में एक से दो कम्पनी पीएसी तैनात।
सख्ती : धारा 144 लागू होने के कारण जुलूस और मार्च पर प्रतिबंध। फैसले के मद्देनजर आतिशबाजी और मिठाई बाटने तक पर रोक। शांति व्यवस्था बनाने के लिए संवेदनशील स्थलों पर चेकिंग तेज। होटल, लाज एवं धर्मशालाओं में ठहरे लोगों के बारे में पड़ताल। अब तक उन्माद फैलाने के आरोपी रहे 45 हजार से भी अधिक लोग पाबंद। सभी जिलाधिकारियों को स्थानीय परिस्थितियों के अनुरूप निर्णय लेने की हिदायत।
संयम : जिलों में थानास्तर पर बनायी गई शाति समितियों के जरिये गावों, मोहल्लों में अमन चैन बनाये रखने की कोशिश। लगभग डेढ़ हजार थानों में 15 हजार से अधिक पुलिस मित्रों को भी सक्रिय किया गया है। अमन चैन बनाये रखने के लिए आगनबाड़ी, स्वास्थ्यकर्मी, लेखपाल, सिंचाईकर्मी, राजस्वकर्मी, प्रधान, राशन दुकानदारों, वकील, डाक्टर व व्यापारी समुदाय का सहयोग शामिल। सभी थानों एवं शहर के महत्वपूर्ण स्थलों पर सार्वजनिक सूचना प्रणाली [पब्लिक एड्रेस सिस्टम] लागू।
अमन-चैन बहाली के लिए तैनात सुरक्षाकर्मी
पुलिसकर्मी - 124778
पीएसी -25847
होमगार्ड -80000
पीआरडी स्वयं सेवक -20000
अर्धसैनिक बल -52 कंपनी [एक कम्पनी में सौ जवान]
लखनऊ, जाब्यू : अप्रिय घटना की रोकथाम को डीजीपी कार्यालय को तत्काल सूचना देने को कहा गया है। डीजीपी कार्यालय में इसके लिये एक कंट्रोलरूम बनाया गया है। यहां फोन नम्बर-2206901, मोबाइल नम्बर- 94544002508, 09, 10 तंथा हेल्पलाइन नम्बर-9307100100 एवं 9984100100 पर अयोध्या मामले को लेकर क्षेत्र में अफवाह फैलने, मारपीट या विवाद होने सम्बंधी घटनाओं के साथ ही क्षेत्र में हुई किसी अवांछनीय गतिविधियों के बारे में जानकारी देने का आग्रह किया गया है। पुलिस महानिरीक्षक पीएसी आरपी सिंह ने यहां उक्त जानकारी दी। उन्होंने कहा हर सूचना पर त्वरित कार्रवाई की जायेगी।
लखनऊ, जाब्यू : जिलों में सुरक्षा प्रबंधों का जायजा लेने के लिए आला पुलिस अफसरों के लिए तीन हेलीकाप्टर की व्यवस्था की गयी है, जिनसे उन्होंने बुधवार को कई जिलों का निरीक्षण भी किया। यह सिलसिला अगले आदेश तक जारी रहेगा। रात्रि में इनसे अयोध्या सहित विभिन्न शहरों का जायजा लिया गया। अफसरों ने सर्च महत्वपूर्ण स्थलों, शहरों में की गयी बेरीकेटिंग पर तैनात पुलिसकर्मी अपनी ड्यूटी पर मुस्तैदी से जुटे हैं या नहीं इसकी चेकिंग की जायेगी।
Monday, September 27, 2010
First international flight from Bhopal to carry Haj pilgrims
First international flight from Bhopal to carry Haj pilgrims
Bhopal, Sep 26, The first international flight carrying Haj pilgrims will take off from Raja Bhoj Airport here on October 21. "It will be for the first time that an international flight will take off from Raja Bhoj Airport," an official said adding that the airport authorities have made all preparations in this regard. NAS Air, a subsidiary of the Saudi National Air Services, has bagged the contract to fly Haj pilgrims from here, Madhya Pradesh Haj Committee Chairman Saleem Quereshi told today. The airline will fly the Haj pilgrims from here to Ras al-Khaimah, one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from October 21 to October 30, he said adding more than 2500 pilgrims will leave for the pilgrimage from Bhopal. Besides, Haj pilgrims will also fly to the holy destination from Indore. He said that more than 1500 pilgrims will fly to their destination from Indore between October 9 - October 17.
Bhopal, Sep 26, The first international flight carrying Haj pilgrims will take off from Raja Bhoj Airport here on October 21. "It will be for the first time that an international flight will take off from Raja Bhoj Airport," an official said adding that the airport authorities have made all preparations in this regard. NAS Air, a subsidiary of the Saudi National Air Services, has bagged the contract to fly Haj pilgrims from here, Madhya Pradesh Haj Committee Chairman Saleem Quereshi told today. The airline will fly the Haj pilgrims from here to Ras al-Khaimah, one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from October 21 to October 30, he said adding more than 2500 pilgrims will leave for the pilgrimage from Bhopal. Besides, Haj pilgrims will also fly to the holy destination from Indore. He said that more than 1500 pilgrims will fly to their destination from Indore between October 9 - October 17.
Bhopal Gas-hit Survivors Still Afflicted with Diseases, Progenies Being Born with Birth-related Defects
Despair and depression is writ large on the faces of the survivors of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world's worst industrial disaster, as they continue to suffer silently with death staring them in their faces. The helplessness of these victims is to be seen to be believed as they watch their progenies afflicted with stunted growth born with a host of birth-related defects. With the upcoming 25th anniversary of the catastrophe a new generation has come up which is handicapped physically, mentally and emotionally.
This scenario and state of affairs is thanks to the fall-out of the poisonous. 40 tonnes of Methyl Iso Cyanate, (MIC), and other lethal gases that spewed out of the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital city of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. While 25,000-35,000 people have died since then and hundreds of thousands of persons have been maimed for life.
Children still being born in Bhopal to badly affected survivors are blind, lame, with limbs twisted or missing, deaf & mute, brain-damaged, with hare-lips, cleft palates, webbed A Bhopal child with tumour in her eyeball fingers, cerebral palsy, tumours where there should be eyes etc. The still-born often cannot be recognised as human. They were damaged in the womb by chemicals leaking from the same Union Carbide factory that killed thousands in 1984 and to-date still counting.
Bhopal is well known as the site of the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984. What is less well known is that a medical disaster of unmatched proportions continues to re-victimize the gas victims to this day.
Following the gas disaster the Indian Council of Medical Research,(ICMR), a government agency – concluded, on the basis of mortality figures, that over 520,000 exposed persons had poisons circulating in their bloodstream causing different degrees of damage to almost all the systems in the body.
Today, well over 120,000-150,000 chronically ill survivors are in desperate need of medical attention and an estimated 10 to 15 people are dying every month from exposure-related illnesses. Breathlessness, persistent cough, diminished vision, early age cataracts, loss of appetite, menstrual irregularities, recurrent fever, back and body aches, loss of sensation in the limbs, fatigue, weakness, anxiety and depression are the most common symptoms among survivors. The alarming rise in cancers, TB, reproductive health problems and others such as growth retardation among children born after the disaster remain undocumented. The official agency for monitoring deaths hasAdil, child of a gas-victim, born with croocked legs been closed since 1992.
According to Dr. N. Ganesh, an expert from Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, the research conducted by him revealed that 53 per cent of the gas victims suffer from chromosomal aberrations as compared to 10 per cent common people. Also the rate of infertility and abortions are four to five per cent higher in gas victims, he added.
A recent survey says that 43 per cent of the gas victims still suffer from respiratory problems, 10 per cent from heart-related problems, nine per cent with eye problems, eight per cent with general depression problems and six per cent with gastro-intestinal problems.
To this day, the treatment of the Bhopal victims is impeded because Dow-Carbide callously refuses to share all its medical information on the toxic effects of the gases released that night, regarding the information as a “trade secret”. As a result, effective long-term medical treatment has been hampered. Even worse, the effects of the gases on future generations remains unclear even as health effects manifest themselves with disturbing regularity among the children of gas-exposed parents. Since the disaster, the city has been plagued with an epidemic of cancers, menstrual disorders and what one doctor described as "monstrous births.”
It may be recalled here that in a show of publicity as the bodies stacked up, Carbide flew a series of “top medical experts” to Bhopal to sing a chorus of reassurance. Dr. Hans Weil - reprimanded for unethical conduct by a US court for fudging medical data on behalf of the Johns-Manville corporation - predicted that ‘most victims would fully recover’. Pulmonary specialist Thomas Petty, also flown to Bhopal by Carbide, said that victims were ‘recovering rapidly’. No report made by Carbide-sponsored doctors was made available to the Indian government.
It may be recalled that in March 1985, a column of frightened mothers-to-be wound towards a government hospital with bottles containing urine samples. The women asked for the samples to be tested to check whether their babies could be born damaged, and to ask for sodium thiosulphate injections to rid their bodies of toxins inhaled on ‘that night’.
Instead of injections, tests, medical advice and kindness they were driven away by police with sticks. Ironically, even as these scared women were being chased away, the Indian Council of Medical Research, (ICMR), was carrying out a double-blind clinical trial to test the efficacy of sodium thiosulphate injections as Six year old Sarmil born blind a detoxifycant for the gas-exposed.
Other ‘expertise’ included Carbide’s Dr. Bipin Awasia, who sent a telex to Bhopal recommending treatment with sodium thiosulphate. When in Bhopal, flanked by lawyers, he said he’d been mistaken. As a result, tens of thousands of ailing victims were denied a treatment that double blind clinical trials had shown to be effective. Success of the treatment would have proven that the gases had crossed into the bloodstream, thus generating more expensive damages against Carbide.
And while the fears of mothers-to-be were all too soon realized in what one Swedish doctor described as ‘a spate of horrific births’, the ICMR results took 22 years to be published, when they revealed – a whole generation too late – that the injections could indeed have saved tens of thousands of lives. The disaster has faded in the world's memory, but in Bhopal the damaged births continue.
Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical, Foetus of an unborn child of 3rd December 1984 Bhopal gas leak preserved in formaldehyde in Govt. Hamidia Hospital. following the February 2001 merger) continues to claim over 60 years of research (including research on human 'volunteers') on MIC (the gas that leaked from the Bhopal pesticide plant) as “trade secrets”. There is more than enough research to suggest that by withholding information, propagating misinformation and the withdrawal of funds meant for medical care, Union Carbide has impeded the health care efforts of the victims to help themselves. The ICMR in turn stopped all research into the health effects of the gas in 1994 and is yet to publish the findings of the 24 research studies it had carried out up to that point involving over 80,000 survivors.
From the start, the medical response ranged from inadequate to catastrophic. On that night, hospital officials frantically called Union Carbide, seeking a treatment protocol. When they finally got through, they were blithely assured that the gas which was killing thousands was “nothing more than a potent tear gas” and that victims merely had to “wash their eyes with water.”
In the absence of medical information, no treatment protocols specific to exposure-induced multi-systemic problems exist and symptomatic treatment remains the mainstay of medical response. Of the two official publications resembling treatment protocols, the most recent by the ICMR is 11 years old and covers little except the management of respiratory problems, and the vast majority of the medical community in Bhopal is not even aware of its existence. As a result, drugs for temporary symptomatic relief have been the mainstay of medical care ever since the morning of the disaster. This indiscriminate prescription of steroids, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs continues to compound the damage caused by gas exposure.
In the prevailing situation of despair, the Sambhavna Trust, which is a charitable trust run by a group of eminent doctors, scientists, writers and social workers who have been involved with various aspects of the Union Carbide disaster ever since its occurrence in December 1984, believes in creating possibilities by generating compassion. At Sambhavna, survivors are offered free medical care through Allopathy, Ayurveda (an indigenous system of medicine based on herbs) and Yoga. The 21 staff members of the Sambhavna clinic (among whom 9 are survivors themselves) include five physicians, two yoga and two Panchakarma therapists and five community health workers who carry out health surveys, health education and community programs for better health. Satinath Sarangi, the metallurgical engineer-turned-activist, who arrived in Bhopal a day after the disaster and has stayed on to help the survivors in every way. Better known as Sathyu, he is a founding trustee of the charitable Sambhavna Clinic for the gas victims. The work carried out by the Sambhavna Trust since 1996 has shown that it is possible to evolve simple, safe, effective, ethical and participatory ways of treatment monitoring and research for the survivors of Bhopal. However, Sambhavna is small compared to the magnitude and complexity of the disaster. While an estimated 120,000-150,000 survivors of the disaster are today chronically ill, the clinic run by this trust has provided direct treatment to little over 16,000 people and provided support to about the same number through its health initiatives in 10 communities close to the Union Carbide factory.
Women's Health: Given the official neglect towards monitoring and care of gynaecological complications caused by the disaster, special attention is paid by Sambhavna in this area. While officials continue to deny any exposure-related gynaecological health consequence, data collected at Sambhavna shows that of 190 females, aged between 13 and 19, who came to the clinic between 1st June 1999 and 31st March 2000, 113 reported menstrual problems, including painful and irregular menses, heavy bleeding and excessive vaginal secretions.
The secretions, locally as ‘safed pani’ (literally white water), are not often openly discussed because of social taboos. Community health worker Aziza explains, "Women do talk about it more now but are often confined to their houses and can’t talk to their husbands about their problems or get education." Worryingly, Sambhavna’s pathologist has found a high proportion of abnormal PAP smears among women survivors, increasing fears for a connection between cervical cancer and gas exposure. Already in India, cervical cancer is the highest occurring cancer for women, but there is no provision for routine cervical screening in Bhopal. Women who are referred to local hospitals after producing abnormal smears have been reluctant to attend, given that the most common medical procedure for cervical abnormalities is an immediate hysterectomy. This is referred to as a "blind hysterectomy" because no one including the doctor knows how far or how little the malignancy is.
Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme court directed Carbide to build a 500 bed hospital from its own money. Instead, Carbide put £1000 into a trust in London and tried to transfer into this its shares in UCIL that had been seized by the Bhopal court due to Carbide’s non-appearance to face manslaughter charges. In 1994 it succeeded, thus evading the Bhopal court where the judge declared the transfer ‘malafide’. The 350-bed hospital took nearly ten years to build and within a year of opening was found to be profiteering with private patients, despite being bound to treat gas victims for eight years ‘in the first instance’.
So many government hospitals have been built in Bhopal since the 1984 disaster, that, as the International Medical Commission on Bhopal, (IMCB), has observed, there are more hospital beds per 1000 population here than in the USA or Europe. The Comptroller and Auditor General's annual reports suggest that excessive commissions, and not concern for victims' welfare, is the real motive for building these huge hospitals that house seldom-used expensive equipment.
Government initiatives towards identification of survivors have resulted in confusion, corruption and utter discrimination. Consequently there are no credible official figures of the number of victims and the degree and extent of injury. Similarly lacking are systems to document the health status and treatment given to hundreds of thousands of survivors under long-term medical care.
Given the nature of chronic exposure-induced illnesses and the need for continuous medication, systematic efforts towards finding non-toxic drug alternatives or drug-free therapies is long overdue. Such initiatives are even more imperative in the context of the rich possibilities offered by long-established indigenous systems. However, systems of health care such as Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga that are known to provide sustained relief – without contributing to the toxic load – have been given only token recognition within the official system of medical care in Bhopal. The government budgetary allocation to “alternative” medical care is under 1 per cent.
Despite repeated advice from medical professionals, including the IMCB, a community health perspective has failed to inform health care delivery among the gas-affected population. Budgetary allocations to community health services have remained under 2 per cent. As a consequence, such vital areas as health education and community involvement in medical management remain neglected.
While the corporation continues to evade liability for contamination of community water sources, the government has done little to protect over 5000 people from additional exposure and injury. Both Union Carbide [now Dow] and the Indian government are in possession of information on the hazardous and persistent nature of these pollutants, yet no effort is being made to assess the damage, or plan for remediation.
The failure of Madhya Pradesh Government agencies(despite spending over US $43 million of public money) to offer sustained relief has meant big business for private doctors and nursing homes. In the severely affected areas, most of the meagre compensation has been spent on private doctors, nearly 70 per cent of whom are not even professionally qualified, yet they constitute the majority of the medical care providers.
The BMHT (originally set up by Union Carbide) has also been found to be prescribing drugs that do more harm than good. Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, Medical Director of the Department of Public Health in San Francisco, has audited over 400 prescriptions given to chronically ill patients in the Trust's community clinics with alarming conclusions.
It is indeed a shocking situation – people surviving against the most gruesome odds – a company carrying on with “business as usual" – a government that is about to close its files on the "expendable people" of Bhopal – and the prevalent system of health care most probably doing more harm than good.
(pervezbari@eth.net)
This scenario and state of affairs is thanks to the fall-out of the poisonous. 40 tonnes of Methyl Iso Cyanate, (MIC), and other lethal gases that spewed out of the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital city of central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. While 25,000-35,000 people have died since then and hundreds of thousands of persons have been maimed for life. Children still being born in Bhopal to badly affected survivors are blind, lame, with limbs twisted or missing, deaf & mute, brain-damaged, with hare-lips, cleft palates, webbed A Bhopal child with tumour in her eyeball fingers, cerebral palsy, tumours where there should be eyes etc. The still-born often cannot be recognised as human. They were damaged in the womb by chemicals leaking from the same Union Carbide factory that killed thousands in 1984 and to-date still counting.
Bhopal is well known as the site of the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984. What is less well known is that a medical disaster of unmatched proportions continues to re-victimize the gas victims to this day.
Following the gas disaster the Indian Council of Medical Research,(ICMR), a government agency – concluded, on the basis of mortality figures, that over 520,000 exposed persons had poisons circulating in their bloodstream causing different degrees of damage to almost all the systems in the body.
Today, well over 120,000-150,000 chronically ill survivors are in desperate need of medical attention and an estimated 10 to 15 people are dying every month from exposure-related illnesses. Breathlessness, persistent cough, diminished vision, early age cataracts, loss of appetite, menstrual irregularities, recurrent fever, back and body aches, loss of sensation in the limbs, fatigue, weakness, anxiety and depression are the most common symptoms among survivors. The alarming rise in cancers, TB, reproductive health problems and others such as growth retardation among children born after the disaster remain undocumented. The official agency for monitoring deaths hasAdil, child of a gas-victim, born with croocked legs been closed since 1992.According to Dr. N. Ganesh, an expert from Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, the research conducted by him revealed that 53 per cent of the gas victims suffer from chromosomal aberrations as compared to 10 per cent common people. Also the rate of infertility and abortions are four to five per cent higher in gas victims, he added.
A recent survey says that 43 per cent of the gas victims still suffer from respiratory problems, 10 per cent from heart-related problems, nine per cent with eye problems, eight per cent with general depression problems and six per cent with gastro-intestinal problems.
To this day, the treatment of the Bhopal victims is impeded because Dow-Carbide callously refuses to share all its medical information on the toxic effects of the gases released that night, regarding the information as a “trade secret”. As a result, effective long-term medical treatment has been hampered. Even worse, the effects of the gases on future generations remains unclear even as health effects manifest themselves with disturbing regularity among the children of gas-exposed parents. Since the disaster, the city has been plagued with an epidemic of cancers, menstrual disorders and what one doctor described as "monstrous births.”
It may be recalled here that in a show of publicity as the bodies stacked up, Carbide flew a series of “top medical experts” to Bhopal to sing a chorus of reassurance. Dr. Hans Weil - reprimanded for unethical conduct by a US court for fudging medical data on behalf of the Johns-Manville corporation - predicted that ‘most victims would fully recover’. Pulmonary specialist Thomas Petty, also flown to Bhopal by Carbide, said that victims were ‘recovering rapidly’. No report made by Carbide-sponsored doctors was made available to the Indian government.
It may be recalled that in March 1985, a column of frightened mothers-to-be wound towards a government hospital with bottles containing urine samples. The women asked for the samples to be tested to check whether their babies could be born damaged, and to ask for sodium thiosulphate injections to rid their bodies of toxins inhaled on ‘that night’.Instead of injections, tests, medical advice and kindness they were driven away by police with sticks. Ironically, even as these scared women were being chased away, the Indian Council of Medical Research, (ICMR), was carrying out a double-blind clinical trial to test the efficacy of sodium thiosulphate injections as Six year old Sarmil born blind a detoxifycant for the gas-exposed.
Other ‘expertise’ included Carbide’s Dr. Bipin Awasia, who sent a telex to Bhopal recommending treatment with sodium thiosulphate. When in Bhopal, flanked by lawyers, he said he’d been mistaken. As a result, tens of thousands of ailing victims were denied a treatment that double blind clinical trials had shown to be effective. Success of the treatment would have proven that the gases had crossed into the bloodstream, thus generating more expensive damages against Carbide.
And while the fears of mothers-to-be were all too soon realized in what one Swedish doctor described as ‘a spate of horrific births’, the ICMR results took 22 years to be published, when they revealed – a whole generation too late – that the injections could indeed have saved tens of thousands of lives. The disaster has faded in the world's memory, but in Bhopal the damaged births continue.Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical, Foetus of an unborn child of 3rd December 1984 Bhopal gas leak preserved in formaldehyde in Govt. Hamidia Hospital. following the February 2001 merger) continues to claim over 60 years of research (including research on human 'volunteers') on MIC (the gas that leaked from the Bhopal pesticide plant) as “trade secrets”. There is more than enough research to suggest that by withholding information, propagating misinformation and the withdrawal of funds meant for medical care, Union Carbide has impeded the health care efforts of the victims to help themselves. The ICMR in turn stopped all research into the health effects of the gas in 1994 and is yet to publish the findings of the 24 research studies it had carried out up to that point involving over 80,000 survivors.
From the start, the medical response ranged from inadequate to catastrophic. On that night, hospital officials frantically called Union Carbide, seeking a treatment protocol. When they finally got through, they were blithely assured that the gas which was killing thousands was “nothing more than a potent tear gas” and that victims merely had to “wash their eyes with water.”
In the absence of medical information, no treatment protocols specific to exposure-induced multi-systemic problems exist and symptomatic treatment remains the mainstay of medical response. Of the two official publications resembling treatment protocols, the most recent by the ICMR is 11 years old and covers little except the management of respiratory problems, and the vast majority of the medical community in Bhopal is not even aware of its existence. As a result, drugs for temporary symptomatic relief have been the mainstay of medical care ever since the morning of the disaster. This indiscriminate prescription of steroids, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs continues to compound the damage caused by gas exposure.
In the prevailing situation of despair, the Sambhavna Trust, which is a charitable trust run by a group of eminent doctors, scientists, writers and social workers who have been involved with various aspects of the Union Carbide disaster ever since its occurrence in December 1984, believes in creating possibilities by generating compassion. At Sambhavna, survivors are offered free medical care through Allopathy, Ayurveda (an indigenous system of medicine based on herbs) and Yoga. The 21 staff members of the Sambhavna clinic (among whom 9 are survivors themselves) include five physicians, two yoga and two Panchakarma therapists and five community health workers who carry out health surveys, health education and community programs for better health. Satinath Sarangi, the metallurgical engineer-turned-activist, who arrived in Bhopal a day after the disaster and has stayed on to help the survivors in every way. Better known as Sathyu, he is a founding trustee of the charitable Sambhavna Clinic for the gas victims. The work carried out by the Sambhavna Trust since 1996 has shown that it is possible to evolve simple, safe, effective, ethical and participatory ways of treatment monitoring and research for the survivors of Bhopal. However, Sambhavna is small compared to the magnitude and complexity of the disaster. While an estimated 120,000-150,000 survivors of the disaster are today chronically ill, the clinic run by this trust has provided direct treatment to little over 16,000 people and provided support to about the same number through its health initiatives in 10 communities close to the Union Carbide factory.
Women's Health: Given the official neglect towards monitoring and care of gynaecological complications caused by the disaster, special attention is paid by Sambhavna in this area. While officials continue to deny any exposure-related gynaecological health consequence, data collected at Sambhavna shows that of 190 females, aged between 13 and 19, who came to the clinic between 1st June 1999 and 31st March 2000, 113 reported menstrual problems, including painful and irregular menses, heavy bleeding and excessive vaginal secretions.
The secretions, locally as ‘safed pani’ (literally white water), are not often openly discussed because of social taboos. Community health worker Aziza explains, "Women do talk about it more now but are often confined to their houses and can’t talk to their husbands about their problems or get education." Worryingly, Sambhavna’s pathologist has found a high proportion of abnormal PAP smears among women survivors, increasing fears for a connection between cervical cancer and gas exposure. Already in India, cervical cancer is the highest occurring cancer for women, but there is no provision for routine cervical screening in Bhopal. Women who are referred to local hospitals after producing abnormal smears have been reluctant to attend, given that the most common medical procedure for cervical abnormalities is an immediate hysterectomy. This is referred to as a "blind hysterectomy" because no one including the doctor knows how far or how little the malignancy is.
Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme court directed Carbide to build a 500 bed hospital from its own money. Instead, Carbide put £1000 into a trust in London and tried to transfer into this its shares in UCIL that had been seized by the Bhopal court due to Carbide’s non-appearance to face manslaughter charges. In 1994 it succeeded, thus evading the Bhopal court where the judge declared the transfer ‘malafide’. The 350-bed hospital took nearly ten years to build and within a year of opening was found to be profiteering with private patients, despite being bound to treat gas victims for eight years ‘in the first instance’.
So many government hospitals have been built in Bhopal since the 1984 disaster, that, as the International Medical Commission on Bhopal, (IMCB), has observed, there are more hospital beds per 1000 population here than in the USA or Europe. The Comptroller and Auditor General's annual reports suggest that excessive commissions, and not concern for victims' welfare, is the real motive for building these huge hospitals that house seldom-used expensive equipment.
Government initiatives towards identification of survivors have resulted in confusion, corruption and utter discrimination. Consequently there are no credible official figures of the number of victims and the degree and extent of injury. Similarly lacking are systems to document the health status and treatment given to hundreds of thousands of survivors under long-term medical care.
Given the nature of chronic exposure-induced illnesses and the need for continuous medication, systematic efforts towards finding non-toxic drug alternatives or drug-free therapies is long overdue. Such initiatives are even more imperative in the context of the rich possibilities offered by long-established indigenous systems. However, systems of health care such as Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga that are known to provide sustained relief – without contributing to the toxic load – have been given only token recognition within the official system of medical care in Bhopal. The government budgetary allocation to “alternative” medical care is under 1 per cent.
Despite repeated advice from medical professionals, including the IMCB, a community health perspective has failed to inform health care delivery among the gas-affected population. Budgetary allocations to community health services have remained under 2 per cent. As a consequence, such vital areas as health education and community involvement in medical management remain neglected.
While the corporation continues to evade liability for contamination of community water sources, the government has done little to protect over 5000 people from additional exposure and injury. Both Union Carbide [now Dow] and the Indian government are in possession of information on the hazardous and persistent nature of these pollutants, yet no effort is being made to assess the damage, or plan for remediation.
The failure of Madhya Pradesh Government agencies(despite spending over US $43 million of public money) to offer sustained relief has meant big business for private doctors and nursing homes. In the severely affected areas, most of the meagre compensation has been spent on private doctors, nearly 70 per cent of whom are not even professionally qualified, yet they constitute the majority of the medical care providers.
The BMHT (originally set up by Union Carbide) has also been found to be prescribing drugs that do more harm than good. Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, Medical Director of the Department of Public Health in San Francisco, has audited over 400 prescriptions given to chronically ill patients in the Trust's community clinics with alarming conclusions.
It is indeed a shocking situation – people surviving against the most gruesome odds – a company carrying on with “business as usual" – a government that is about to close its files on the "expendable people" of Bhopal – and the prevalent system of health care most probably doing more harm than good.
(pervezbari@eth.net)
BJP Assam General Secretary selected Asian Young Leader
Founded in 1956 by John D Rockefeller III, the New York-headquartered Asia Society (http://www.asiasociety.org) was initially established to promote greater knowledge of Asia in the United States. Today the Society is a global institution—with offices throughout the US and Asia—that fulfills its mandate of understanding and promoting Asia through a wide range of programmes.
The Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative is a programme of the Asia Society wherein it selects a group of young people working in various fields—all under the age of 40—who, endowed with high levels of education, a wealth of ideas, and a new sense of confidence, 'will shoulder greater responsibility in shaping Asia's future.' Past awardees from India include NDTV's Managing Editor Barkha Dutt (2006), and pathbreaking television producer Niret Alva of Living on the Edge and Indian Idol fame (2007).
The Asia Society is planning to hold the 2010 Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, from December 3-5th. The focus of this year's Summit is "Unity in Diversity: Responsible Leadership in the Asia-Pacific."
Prior to his current appointment, Prodyut Bora was the National Convenor of BJP's Information Technology (IT) Cell. His technology work for the Party led to his recognition as one of India's 100 Top CIOs (Chief Information Officers) by CIO magazine.
Educated at, successively, the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehra Dun; St Stephen's College, Delhi; and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; Prodyut Bora is currently the youngest General Secretary in the BJP pan-India.
The Asia 21 Young Leaders is the second such honour for Prodyut Bora in the last 2 months. Just recently he received intimation that he was being selected for the 26th annual Young Leaders Conference organized by the Council for the United States and Italy (www.consiusa.org)--a joint initiative of the US and Italian governments—in Genoa, Italy, in mid October.
Prodyut Bora's acceptability and success in such international fora suggests that there is a need—and space—for good people to enter politics.
Planning Commission Member praises Initiatives for Job-oriented Education in MP
Bhopal, August 18 (Pervez Bari): The member of Planning Commissioner of India Dr. Narendra Jadhav has commended the Madhya Pradesh Government’s initiatives for up-gradating the skill of traditional artisans and expansion of job-oriented education and training facilities in the state.
Dr. Jadhav and advisor to Planning Commission Mrs. Naini Jayaseelan met the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at Mantralaya, the state secretariat here today. Minister for Technical Education Laxmikant Sharma, Principal Secretary Planning K. Suresh, Principal Secretary Technical Education and Labour Pukhraj Maru and Secretary to Chief Minister Anurag Jain were present on the occasion.
According to an official Press release during discussion on the job scenario in the state, the Chief Minister reportedly apprised Dr. Jadhav of the state government’s future course of action on imparting job-oriented education.
Dr. Jadhav reportedly appreciated the Chief Minister’s concern and commitment hoping that the processes initiated in the state will benefit other states also.
Dr. Jadhav is on a visit to Madhya Pradesh regarding inaugurating a regional workshop on state and union territories on skill development. Dr. Jadhava thanked the Chief Minister for the cooperation.
Referring to increasing demand of skilled manpower with the pace of industrialization ad development, Chouhan said that this situation creates opportunities for the unskilled artisans, traditional artisans and educated youths. He said that the state government is making efforts to take advantage of this situation where needy workforce will get gainful jobs, he added.
Chouhan informed that future requirement of skilled manpower for ten years is being assessed. He also informed about introducing the new trades and courses in the Industrial Training Centers to meet the requirement of industries in future. This, he said would be accomplished adopting public private participation mode. He also informed that skill up-gradation policy for traditional artisans will be launched this year. Industrial houses are being approached to start Industrial Training Institutes apart from increasing the number of polytechnic colleges.
Chouhan invited Dr. Jadhav to a workshop on job-oriented education and expansion of training facilities to be held next month in the state. He hoped that the conclusions of the regional workshop will help government chalk out strategies, the release said. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Madhya Pradesh Clean Development Mechanism Agency to be constituted
Madhya Pradesh Clean Development Mechanism Agency to be constituted
Bhopal, August 18 (Pervez Bari): A Madhya Pradesh Clean Development Mechanism, (CDM), Agency will be constituted in the state. This was decided at a cabinet meeting chaired by state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Wednesday.
This Agency will be registered under Madhya Pradesh Society Registration Act 1973. The cabinet has also endorsed the Memorandum of Association for the constitution of the agency.
This Agency will give advice to the state government on the issues related to self-financed development and clean development mechanism. The Agency will explore the possibilities of adopting CDM for promoting such self-financed development which should be balanced from the point of view of environment. It will also evolve projects in this connection and provide cooperation to the institutions and individuals working in the direction of decreasing green house gases' generation.
Housing and Environment Minister (excluding Housing) will chair this committee while the EPCO Executive Director will be its CEO till the state government appoints another officer to this post. A Project Development Fund will be established for conducting the Agency's functioning.
The cabinet has sanctioned Rs. 101 lakh from CDM fund to the budget of EPCO for the current fiscal for starting the work of the Agency.(pervezbari@eth.net)
Bhopal, August 18 (Pervez Bari): A Madhya Pradesh Clean Development Mechanism, (CDM), Agency will be constituted in the state. This was decided at a cabinet meeting chaired by state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here on Wednesday.
This Agency will be registered under Madhya Pradesh Society Registration Act 1973. The cabinet has also endorsed the Memorandum of Association for the constitution of the agency.
This Agency will give advice to the state government on the issues related to self-financed development and clean development mechanism. The Agency will explore the possibilities of adopting CDM for promoting such self-financed development which should be balanced from the point of view of environment. It will also evolve projects in this connection and provide cooperation to the institutions and individuals working in the direction of decreasing green house gases' generation.
Housing and Environment Minister (excluding Housing) will chair this committee while the EPCO Executive Director will be its CEO till the state government appoints another officer to this post. A Project Development Fund will be established for conducting the Agency's functioning.
The cabinet has sanctioned Rs. 101 lakh from CDM fund to the budget of EPCO for the current fiscal for starting the work of the Agency.(pervezbari@eth.net)
Cheap PTDR technology exists in India for disposal of Bhopal Union Carbide’s toxic waste at plant’s site
Bhopal, August 22 (Pervez Bari): Cheer up. There is some good news for the survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, including the NGOs working for them and the Madhya Pradesh Government as far as disposing off the toxic waste lying in the erstwhile killer Union Carbide pesticide plant, which has become an enigma for one and all, is concerned.
The good news is that a technology known as Plasma Thermal Destruction Recovery, (PTDR), of a company christened as PEAT International, is available in India to clean up the Bhopal Union Carbide plant’s toxic waste effectively and cleanly at site itself without having to transport the hazardous material to any far off place for its disposal. It can be disposed off at the site within the premises of the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal without creating any collateral damage to the environment and / or the people living in the surrounding areas of the facility, claims Peat International.
According to Pradeep Mathur, CEO India for PEAT International India, if the said technology is adopted for the treatment of this waste, then the problem will be completely resolved, requiring no further treatment and without any requirement of land filling, the company claims. The facility once constructed will be available for treating other wastes even after the treatment of the waste is completed.
Talking to this correspondent Mr. Mathur said the cost of the treatment is also very nominal. For about 350 metric tonnes (MT) toxic waste, PTDR-100 unit would suffice and the cost may come around to Rs. 50 to 60 million only. It is interesting to note here that the Union Government has earmarked Rs. 3000 millions for the 350 MT toxic waste kept in the factory godown. Thus, this cost amount of Rs. 50 to 60 million would be just 1.5 per cent of the sanctioned amount Rs. 3000 millions which is dam cheap.
It would be better in the interests of the survivors and the Madhya Pradesh Government itself if it contacts the Peat International India officials as soon as possible and discuss the whole issue of toxic waste disposal immediately without any delay. After taking overall view of the matter the state Government must weigh the options available to it so far with the huge cost involved. It should initiate steps for it on priority basis at the first go looking at the very cheap cost involved to solve the issue which has been hanging on fire for over last 25 years.
PEAT International (“PEAT”), which is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, its chairman being Mr. Joseph Rosin, is a waste-to-resources company specializing in the deployment of its proprietary PTDR technology for the treatment and recycling of a wide range of waste feed-stocks, including: industrial, universal and medical waste.
According to Mr. Mathur the novel and patented PTDR technology uses heat generated by plasma torches in an oxygen starved (pyrolysis) environment to first pull apart (dissociate) the molecules that make-up the organic portions of the waste, then, depending on the composition of the waste stream, a controlled (stoichiometric) amount of oxygen is added to reform the dissociated elements of the waste into a synthesis gas ("Syngas"), consisting mainly of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen (H2). The Syngas can then be used in a variety of ways: as a fuel for thermal or electricity production or as a feedstock for the production of liquid fuels (i.e. ethanol).
PEAT’s PTDR 100, a 60 kilograms-an-hour system, would be ideal for the 350 MT toxic waste. The PTDR 100 is an ideal, turn-key solution for treating this kind of waste on-site without undertaking the danger of moving this dangerous and volatile waste to a treatment facility. A PTDR 100 unit costs approx. Rs. 40 millions as initial Capital Cost. The treatment Cost would be about Rs. 20 per kg. The PTDR 100 unit takes only about 100 sq. metre of space and can be stalled in 6 months time. Operating at 60 kg / hr PTDR-100 can finish the 350 MT in about 10 months time from the start of the toxic waste treatment, Mathur revealed.
He claimed that the PTDR technology has received numerous regulatory approvals throughout the globe, including: Taiwan Environment Protection Agency; Taiwan Ministry of Education; Kaohsiung Department of Environment Protection; Virginia Department of Environment Quality; Alabama Department of Environmental Management; City of Huntsville Natural Resources Division; San Diego Air Pollution Control District; Sacramento Air Pollution Control District; Indiana Department of Environment Management; Michigan Department of Environment Quality; California Department of Public Health and Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
It may be mentioned here that the ghost of disposing off the toxic waste is haunting the Madhya Pradesh Government, the survivors of the gas tragedy and the NGOs working for them alike.
The Government is concerned only about the 350 MT stocked in the godown of the factory. While the survivors and the NGOs are very much perturbed over the enormous quantity of the waste amounting to 18,000 to 25,000 MT or may be even more spread in the campus of the factory and in the solar evaporation ponds which has leeched into the soil and contaminated drinking water reserves of the people living in the vicinity of the factory. There is an urgent need to detoxify the soil in order to stop contamination of water.
The point of contention is how to dispose off this toxic waste without harming the environment and the populace together with carrying it this highly poisonous material safely to any far off disposal site ruling out possibility of any mishap. The huge cost involved to carry out this operation is another overriding factor. If the enormous quantity of the waste amounting to 18,000 to 25,000 MT spread in the campus of the factory and in the solar evaporation ponds is taken up then the cost would be mind boggling.
If the survivors and the NGOs stand is taken about the enormous amount of toxic waste being 18,000 to 25,000 MT or more then PTDR 100 plant would not be suitable. At PEAT International there are two larger plants – the PTDR 500 / which can treat 9 tons per day, and the PTDR 1000 / which can treat 30 tons per day. A PTDR 500 would require 2,000 working days – whereas the PTDR 1000 would require 600 days. The type of waste is not an issue – because all PTDR units can handle all types of poisonous materials.
A PTDR 500 – the Capital Cost is approx. Rs. 250 millions and it requires about 750 sq. metre of space. The PTDR 1000 – the Capital Cost is approx. Rs. 800 millions and it requires about 2,850 sq. metre of space. Depending upon the type of waste – the above units would also generate surplus Electricity for supply to the grid.
Meanwhile, it may be pointed out here that the judiciary is also seized of the matter of toxic waste disposal. The Madhya Pradesh High Court adopted a strict view of the toxic waste lying at the defunct Union Carbide factory, on August 17 again directed Dow Chemicals to present all the documents pertaining to the merger of the two companies. The court set September 30 as the deadline for submitting the documents and posted the next hearing for October 26.
An NGO Gas Kand Trasdi Morcha had filed a PIL before the Jabalpur High Court, seeking the fixing of responsibility for the disposal of the toxic waste. The double bench of the High Court comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Sushma Srivastava repeated the direction issued at the last hearing, ordering Dow Chemicals to present the merger agreement and documents pertaining to properties before the court by September 30. Though, the Union Carbide owned the factory at the time of the Gas Tragedy, Dow Chemical later took over the pesticide manufacturing giant.
It may be recalled here that on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, 40 MT of poisonous Methyl Iso-cyanate spewed out from Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killing thousands of people and maiming nearly half a million others. The fall out of the disaster has been that people who inhaled the gas have been dying and death over the years has crossed 25,000 mark and is still counting. (pervezbari@eth.net)
The good news is that a technology known as Plasma Thermal Destruction Recovery, (PTDR), of a company christened as PEAT International, is available in India to clean up the Bhopal Union Carbide plant’s toxic waste effectively and cleanly at site itself without having to transport the hazardous material to any far off place for its disposal. It can be disposed off at the site within the premises of the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal without creating any collateral damage to the environment and / or the people living in the surrounding areas of the facility, claims Peat International.
According to Pradeep Mathur, CEO India for PEAT International India, if the said technology is adopted for the treatment of this waste, then the problem will be completely resolved, requiring no further treatment and without any requirement of land filling, the company claims. The facility once constructed will be available for treating other wastes even after the treatment of the waste is completed.
Talking to this correspondent Mr. Mathur said the cost of the treatment is also very nominal. For about 350 metric tonnes (MT) toxic waste, PTDR-100 unit would suffice and the cost may come around to Rs. 50 to 60 million only. It is interesting to note here that the Union Government has earmarked Rs. 3000 millions for the 350 MT toxic waste kept in the factory godown. Thus, this cost amount of Rs. 50 to 60 million would be just 1.5 per cent of the sanctioned amount Rs. 3000 millions which is dam cheap.
It would be better in the interests of the survivors and the Madhya Pradesh Government itself if it contacts the Peat International India officials as soon as possible and discuss the whole issue of toxic waste disposal immediately without any delay. After taking overall view of the matter the state Government must weigh the options available to it so far with the huge cost involved. It should initiate steps for it on priority basis at the first go looking at the very cheap cost involved to solve the issue which has been hanging on fire for over last 25 years.
PEAT International (“PEAT”), which is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, its chairman being Mr. Joseph Rosin, is a waste-to-resources company specializing in the deployment of its proprietary PTDR technology for the treatment and recycling of a wide range of waste feed-stocks, including: industrial, universal and medical waste.
According to Mr. Mathur the novel and patented PTDR technology uses heat generated by plasma torches in an oxygen starved (pyrolysis) environment to first pull apart (dissociate) the molecules that make-up the organic portions of the waste, then, depending on the composition of the waste stream, a controlled (stoichiometric) amount of oxygen is added to reform the dissociated elements of the waste into a synthesis gas ("Syngas"), consisting mainly of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen (H2). The Syngas can then be used in a variety of ways: as a fuel for thermal or electricity production or as a feedstock for the production of liquid fuels (i.e. ethanol).
PEAT’s PTDR 100, a 60 kilograms-an-hour system, would be ideal for the 350 MT toxic waste. The PTDR 100 is an ideal, turn-key solution for treating this kind of waste on-site without undertaking the danger of moving this dangerous and volatile waste to a treatment facility. A PTDR 100 unit costs approx. Rs. 40 millions as initial Capital Cost. The treatment Cost would be about Rs. 20 per kg. The PTDR 100 unit takes only about 100 sq. metre of space and can be stalled in 6 months time. Operating at 60 kg / hr PTDR-100 can finish the 350 MT in about 10 months time from the start of the toxic waste treatment, Mathur revealed.
He claimed that the PTDR technology has received numerous regulatory approvals throughout the globe, including: Taiwan Environment Protection Agency; Taiwan Ministry of Education; Kaohsiung Department of Environment Protection; Virginia Department of Environment Quality; Alabama Department of Environmental Management; City of Huntsville Natural Resources Division; San Diego Air Pollution Control District; Sacramento Air Pollution Control District; Indiana Department of Environment Management; Michigan Department of Environment Quality; California Department of Public Health and Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
It may be mentioned here that the ghost of disposing off the toxic waste is haunting the Madhya Pradesh Government, the survivors of the gas tragedy and the NGOs working for them alike.
The Government is concerned only about the 350 MT stocked in the godown of the factory. While the survivors and the NGOs are very much perturbed over the enormous quantity of the waste amounting to 18,000 to 25,000 MT or may be even more spread in the campus of the factory and in the solar evaporation ponds which has leeched into the soil and contaminated drinking water reserves of the people living in the vicinity of the factory. There is an urgent need to detoxify the soil in order to stop contamination of water.
The point of contention is how to dispose off this toxic waste without harming the environment and the populace together with carrying it this highly poisonous material safely to any far off disposal site ruling out possibility of any mishap. The huge cost involved to carry out this operation is another overriding factor. If the enormous quantity of the waste amounting to 18,000 to 25,000 MT spread in the campus of the factory and in the solar evaporation ponds is taken up then the cost would be mind boggling.
If the survivors and the NGOs stand is taken about the enormous amount of toxic waste being 18,000 to 25,000 MT or more then PTDR 100 plant would not be suitable. At PEAT International there are two larger plants – the PTDR 500 / which can treat 9 tons per day, and the PTDR 1000 / which can treat 30 tons per day. A PTDR 500 would require 2,000 working days – whereas the PTDR 1000 would require 600 days. The type of waste is not an issue – because all PTDR units can handle all types of poisonous materials.
A PTDR 500 – the Capital Cost is approx. Rs. 250 millions and it requires about 750 sq. metre of space. The PTDR 1000 – the Capital Cost is approx. Rs. 800 millions and it requires about 2,850 sq. metre of space. Depending upon the type of waste – the above units would also generate surplus Electricity for supply to the grid.
Meanwhile, it may be pointed out here that the judiciary is also seized of the matter of toxic waste disposal. The Madhya Pradesh High Court adopted a strict view of the toxic waste lying at the defunct Union Carbide factory, on August 17 again directed Dow Chemicals to present all the documents pertaining to the merger of the two companies. The court set September 30 as the deadline for submitting the documents and posted the next hearing for October 26.
An NGO Gas Kand Trasdi Morcha had filed a PIL before the Jabalpur High Court, seeking the fixing of responsibility for the disposal of the toxic waste. The double bench of the High Court comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Sushma Srivastava repeated the direction issued at the last hearing, ordering Dow Chemicals to present the merger agreement and documents pertaining to properties before the court by September 30. Though, the Union Carbide owned the factory at the time of the Gas Tragedy, Dow Chemical later took over the pesticide manufacturing giant.
It may be recalled here that on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, 40 MT of poisonous Methyl Iso-cyanate spewed out from Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal killing thousands of people and maiming nearly half a million others. The fall out of the disaster has been that people who inhaled the gas have been dying and death over the years has crossed 25,000 mark and is still counting. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Did Madhya Pradesh Police commit a Sohrabuddin type encounter?
It seems so that Madhya Pradesh Police following in the footsteps of the Gujarat Police in terms of fake police encounters allegedly gunned down four youth terming them as “dacoits” in Bhind district of the state on Sunday last. The police allegedly hatching up a conspiracy planned to eliminate the four youth branding them as “dacoits” in a fake encounter to earn laurels, medals and promotions. After picking up the youth treacherously, the police made them to put on the dresses of Army and police force to masquerading as dacoits and then shot them in cold blood in a bid to gallop to fame and annex gallantry medals and departmental promotions. There are many loopholes in the police version of the encounter as the police has no satisfactory answers to many gaping holes in its story of the incident.
Two of the killed youth were made to put on the Army’s camouflaged dresses while the other two police uniforms which were not of their body sizes. One of the youth was made to wear a very loose pair of trousers which was tightened with the help of a belt tucked below the waist to hold on to the body.
It is interesting to note here that the so-called “encounter” which took place under the Andori police station the Town Inspector, (TI), S. S. Sikarwar of the police station was recruited as a constable and climbed the rungs of the promotional ladder and reached the TI post after gunning down about 16 dacoits over the years.
Media reports said that family members of one of the alleged bandit have gathered courage to speak out about the fake encounter demanding registering of murder case against the Bhind’s Superintendent of Police, (SP), Chanchal Shekhar and his full team involved in the heinous crime. The family members of Amjad Khan alias Fauji, resident of Kazian village, who was among the four persons killed in the “encounter” have claimed that he was deceitfully picked up from home and murdered. Amjad was an Army jawan till sometime back.
According to deceased Amjad’s wife he was taken away by police saying he is being taken to mark his attendance in a case. However, it is learnt that with the help of Amjad police picked up three other youth Raju Banjara, Udal Badhai and Ravindra Udainia and then gunned down the four-some in alleged fake encounter in the ravines of Aasan river near Baknasa village of Bhind district under Andori police station.
Amjad’s family members charged that all the four youth were made to wear new pair of shoes and then disembarking them in the ravines of Aasan river from vehicles they were shot down from close range. Amjad’s wife says that her husband never put on shoes without socks while the bodies of all the four youth have shoes tucked without socks.
Amjad’s brother Firoz Khan, who is a constable in the Madhya Pradesh Police and is posted in the University Road police station in Gwalior, has alleged that policemen involved in the “encounter” have threatened him and his family members with dire consequences. He fears for his life and safety of other family members. He reportedly accused Sikarwar, the in-charge of Andori police station, of threatening him. He said when he was waiting for Amjad’s body outside the hospital in Gohad, Sikarwar used abusive language against him and also pointed his service pistol towards him to brow beat him.
While Amjad’s father Basheer Khan claimed that Sikarwar had visited his house on August 9 looking for Amjad. He said the policeman wanted Amjad to provide information about two persons who were involved in a petrol pump loot case. He said Amjad, who had only one case registered against him, was picked up from his house on August 19 by the police. Amjad was betrayed by his own friend who connived with the police and got him killed, Basheer added.
Meanwhile, Bhind SP Chanchal Shekhar has reportedly denied the charges hurled at the police. He said that police had approached Firoz Khan on several occasions in the past asking him to get his brother surrendered but the exercise proved futile. Firoz used to claim that that he was not in touch with his brother for last seven years and now when Amjad has been killed he is making such wild allegations, Shekhar charged.
The Opposition Congress MLA Govind Singh in Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh has also demanded a magisterial inquiry into the encounter alleging that those killed were only petty criminals and not dacoits. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Rahul Gandhi charisma is over-rated, says Gadkari
Bhopal: BJP President Nitin Gadkari said Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi did not have the charisma to appeal people from all sections of the society.
"I do not subscribe to the view that Rahul has a charisma which appeals to all kinds of people in the society," the BJP president told a press conference at the party's Madhya Pradesh office.
"If only Rahul had some charisma, the Congress would not have lost assembly elections in those states where he had campaigned extensively," he said.
Gadkari said though he had also toured 24 states all over the country and spent 48 days there, he had not received any media coverage.
The BJP president said he was not worried with the fact that Congress was projecting Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister of the country.
"It is the internal matter of the Congress to decide whom it wants to project as the Prime Minister," he said.
Gadkari said he had risen from an ordinary party worker to be the BJP President and added that such a thing was not possible in the Congress.
"In the Congress, only someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family can aspire to be the party president," he said.
.
"I do not subscribe to the view that Rahul has a charisma which appeals to all kinds of people in the society," the BJP president told a press conference at the party's Madhya Pradesh office.
"If only Rahul had some charisma, the Congress would not have lost assembly elections in those states where he had campaigned extensively," he said.
Gadkari said though he had also toured 24 states all over the country and spent 48 days there, he had not received any media coverage.
The BJP president said he was not worried with the fact that Congress was projecting Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister of the country.
"It is the internal matter of the Congress to decide whom it wants to project as the Prime Minister," he said.
Gadkari said he had risen from an ordinary party worker to be the BJP President and added that such a thing was not possible in the Congress.
"In the Congress, only someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family can aspire to be the party president," he said.
.
TCS signs Rs 130 crore e-governance deal with MP Govt
BHOPAL: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a Rs 130 crore e-governance contract with the Madhya Pradesh government.
Official sources said under the contract, TCS would help the Madhya Pradesh government introduce IT applications in the budget making process.
They said the TCS would help to improve the existing system and would not only strengthened the budget preparations but also support the bill making process.
"TCS will be implementing the software platform to help the State Revenue Department develop an integrated solution to automate public provident fund management, human resources and payroll management and pension management," sources said.
Infosys was also in the race for the contract but it lost out to TCS as the latter had quoted less operational expenses.
Amjad killed in fake encounter was Youth Congress secretary; MP Congress demands CBI probe
+and+Udal+Badhai+wife+Rani+(left)+weeping+at+the+Press+conference+while+narrating+their+tragedy.jpg)
Police claimed to have killed n fake encounter four youth dubbing them as “dacoits”. Those killed in last Sunday's encounter included: Raju Banjara, Amjad Khan, Ravindra Ujenia and Udal Badahi.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, (MPCC), vice president Dr. Govind Singh & Congress Deputy Leader of Opposition in the state Vidhan Sabha Choudhary Rakesh Singh addressing a joint Press conference here have demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation, (CBI), probe into the matter. If the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan fails to concede their demand in the interest of justice then they would knock the doors of court of law and also launch a people’s campaign to pressure the government to heed to the request.
The MPCC submitted a memorandum to the state Governor Rameshwar Thakur urging him to direct the state government to order CBI investigations into the so-called “encounter” and register murder cases against the police officials involved in this heinous crime. Furthermore the state government must make security arrangements for the family members of the deceased Amjad Khan, the memorandum also demanded.
The Governor reportedly has sought a report on the said fake encounter from the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police S. K. Raut following the submission of the memorandum by MPCC. The wife, father and uncle of Amjad and wife, child and father of another victim Udal Badahi were specially brought by MPCC from Bhind met the Governor who in their presence telephonically ordered to submit a written report at the earliest. The family members of the deceased were also present at the Press conference.
Dr. Govind Singh, who is a former minister, described the episode not just a fake encounter but the biggest “manslaughter” of Bhind district since India’s Independence. In the Bhind district there have been 15 police encounters in last two years of which about half-a-dozen have been fake, he claimed. The fake encounters are committed by the police to lap up laurels, medals and out of turn departmental promotions, he charged. He said minorities who are politically active are not safe in Madhya Pradesh.
He said many loopholes in the police version has exposed its claims. He pointed out that the residents of village Baknasa, having a population between 2500-3000, where on its outskirts the alleged fake encounter took place heard only three to four rounds of firing while the police claimed that 72 rounds were fired in the encounter.
Dr. Govind revealed that the police party led by Bhind’s Superintendent of Police, (SP), Chanchal Shekhar which claimed the “honours of the encounter” were nailed down by the villagers. The villagers questioned that the boots of the police party were not soiled at all with the soggy black cotton soil as loads of black soil was not sticking to it. The boots of all the members of police party as well as the new shoes tucked in the feet of the killed “bandits” were clean as ever. The SP was non-plussed at this and immediately ordered the suspension of video-graphing of the “after the encounter scene” and made a hasty retreat.
Another lie that has been nailed is about the arms recovered from the “Bandits”. The police claimed that first these “bandits” fired and then police party fired in self-defence. The said arms recovered were so much of condemned and poor quality that on the basis of this any Tom, Dick and Harry can say that none can engage in encounters with such weapons.
It may be pointed out here that the police had made the four youth to put on the dresses of Army and police force to make them appear masquerading as dacoits and then shot them in cold blood. Two of the killed youth were made to put on the Army’s camouflaged dresses while the other two had police uniforms on them which were not of their body sizes. One of the youth was made to wear a very loose pair of trousers which was tightened with the help of a belt below the waist to hold on to the body.
Dr. Govind asserted that late Amjad Khan was very active politically and socially and claimed he had documentary proof of the same. The deceased was resident of Daboh Kasba of Bhind district and it was a respectable family of the area. He said Amjad along with his wife Yasmeen Khan, who is Lahar block president of women Congress, was pro-active which often exposed the wrong-doings of the police and others in the area and at times police was at the receiving ends and was seen in bad light. This probably antagonized the police and it was on the look out to eliminate him, Govind quoting Amjad’s family members said.
The police officials Surendra Singh Sikarwar, the then Daboh police station in-charge, and Kamta Prasad Sharma, Asstt. Sub-Inspector, were the two main persons who wanted to settle scores with Amjad. They had publicly declared to teach Amjad a lesson as a result of which he would forget to dabble with politics. As such he was framed in July 5, 2010 kidnapping case of two scrape-dealer brothers Pradeep Gupta and Hareesh Gupta in Gwalior town of the state. The dealers were set free the same day after Amjad allegedly extorted a ransom of Rs. 11 lakh. However, Amjad was picked up from his home in a deceptive manner.
It may be mentioned here that a vernacular daily “Parivar Today” of Gwalior had in its August 13, 2010 edition had expressed apprehensions over the police intention of organizing a fake encounter following the alleged kidnapping of the two scrape-dealers. And this has come very much true.
It is interesting to note here that as if the kidnapped dealers knew that their tormentors will be gunned down that fateful night and they would have to rush to identify their bodies. The police also knew in advance that the bandits to be shot down were kidnappers of the scrape-dealers. As such in the wee hours of August 22 the two dealer siblings and their father rushed to the spot and identified the killed “bandits”. What a coincidence! “What a perfect planning”.
Meanwhile, Choudhary Rakesh Singh charged that Madhya Pradesh Police has become impotent and is unable to control law and order situation in the state. He alleged that cases of encounter have gone up in the Chambal area of the state and that encounters are staged to garner medals and out of turn promotions together with to divert people’s attention.
Singh training his gun against the state Home Minister Umashankar Gupta said the minister is proving totally inefficient to streamline the police force and control law and order in the state. As such the Home Minister has no right to stick to his post and should resign forthwith. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Did Madhya Pradesh Police commit a Sohrabuddin type encounter
Sports awards presented to Abrar & Nafees among 26 outstanding sportspersons in MP
Bhopal, August 29 (Pervez Bari): Madhya Pradesh Sports awards namely Eklavya (to junior) and Vikram (to senior) along with Vishwamitra (to coaches) were presented to outstanding sportspersons in the newly constructed auditorium of Tatya Tope Nagar Stadium here on Sunday at a glittering function.
Abrar Khan and Nafees Qureshi figured among the outstanding sportspersons in the list of 26 sports awards in different disciplines which were presented by central Indian state Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was the chief guest on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Chouhan called upon sportspersons to exhibit their talent and sporting skills to score achievements for the Madhya Pradesh state. The State Government is committed to provide world class sports facilities. No impediments would be allowed to obstruct promotion of sports and sportspersons.
Chouhan said that excellent coaching facilities would be provided for better training to sportspersons. Talented sportspersons would even be sent abroad for advance training and coaching if needed. The Chief Minister said that the sportspersons honored for their outstanding performances would be given government jobs to enable them continue their practice. There is no dearth of budget to promote sports, develop world class sports infrastructure. He said that great sports personalities have been born in Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Chouhan paid tributes to great hockey wizard Major Dhyanchand in whose memory August 29 is celebrated as “Sports Day” every year in India.
Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Tukoji Rao Puar extended greetings to sportspersons on the occasion of Sports Day saying that the Madhya Pradesh has taken bold steps for development of sports facilities and promoting sportspersons under the leadership of Chief Minister. Major decisions like giving government jobs to Vikram Awardees are commendable. Gesture of helping the women hockey team pro-actively is a welcome step, he added.
Presiding over the function, Member of Parliament and former Chief Minister Kailash Joshi said that in a short span of five years Madhya Pradesh has made its presence felt on the country’s sports map scoring a number of achievements. E expressed happiness that the Sports Department’s budget has been increased 15-fold in last five years. He congratulated the Chief Minister, Sports Minister and officers of Sports Department and sportspersons on getting national sports promotion award.
Olympian and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee wrestler Sushil Kumar, who was special guest on the occasion, appreciated the Chief Minister and the State Government for initiatives to provide world-class sports facilities. He hoped that the sportspersons would certainly add to the glory of the state in sports.
The Chief Minster conferred Eklavya, Vikram and Vishvamitra Awards for 2010 to outstanding sportspersons. Honouring the achievements of Olympic bronze medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar, a cheque for Rs. 200,000 was presented to him.
Those who got Eklavya Award included: Surabhi Pathak (Shooting), Sachin Singha (Sailing), M. Aruna Devi (Kyaking), Pratul Joshi (Badminton), Amit Singh Gusai (Fencing), Ajay Yadava (Karate), Arti Sing (Softball), Shradha Yadava (Wu-Shu), Abrar Khan (Taekwondo), Priti Singh (Boxing), Asmit Goyle (Swimming), Rishabh Mehta (Horse Riding) and Yashoda Madaria (Mallakhamb).
The Vikram Awardees included: Mahenra Singh (Shooting), Sandhya Chandrakar (Karate), Nafees Qureshi (Canoeing-Kyaking) Nakul Malhotra (Taekwondo), Krishna Thapa (Boxing) Himalaya Vishwakarma (Fencing), Babita Mandlik (Women Cricket), Ujjwala (Kabaddi), Devendra Singh (Power-lifting) and in disabled category Vinita Pathak (Swimming). On behalf of Mahendra Singh his coach Hari Prakash received the award while Saeed Qureshi father of Nafees Qureshi received the award on behalf of his son.
Vishwamitra Award was presented to Hari Prakash in shooting; to Yogesh Malviya in Mallakhabh and Bhupendra Singh Chouhan in Fencing.
The Chief Minister handed over appointment orders for government jobs to 21 Vikram awardees. Saba Khan - Karate Vikram Awardees of 2007, Jagjit Singh Mand Taekwondo 2008 Vikram Awardee, and those of 209 including Jagrati, Shilpa – Wu-Shu, Sunil-Kyaking, Atul Jat-Taekwondo, Sachin Kasture-Softball, Dilip Sharma – power-lifting received appointment letters.
Secretary Sports V. S. Niranjan, Director Sports Sanjay Choudhary, Award winners and their families were present during the function. Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated gymnasium hall and dedicated to people state Martial Art Academy. He also released a souvenir brought out on the occasion. (pervezbari@et.net)
Dr. Zakaria of Bhopal elected as member of Central Homeopathic Council
Dr. Zakaria of Bhopal elected as member of Central Homeopathic Council
Bhopal, August 30 (Pervez Bari): Young and dynamic Dr. Mohammad Zakaria of Bhopal has been elected as the member of the Central Homeopathic Council, (CHC), New Delhi. The result of the election was announced for the lone representation from Madhya Pradesh on Monday. The elections were held in 2008 but the result was withheld due to anomalies in the election process.
Dr. Zakaria secured total 1754 votes and defeated his nearest rival Dr. Dinanath Mishra, who secured 1739 votes. Homeopathy fraternity of the State has congratulated Dr Zakaria on his election.
The CHC is the topmost statuary body responsible for specifying the parameters for homeopathy education and assigning recognition to the homeopathy colleges in the country.
One homeopathic physician each is elected as the representative from every state for this council. The place had fallen vacant in the state after the death of former member Dr. Suresh Panjwani in 2001.
According to Dr. Zakaria the election for this place was held in August 2008, following the directives of the High Court but the results were withheld due to gross irregularities. The Presiding Officer Dr. S. K. Mishra and Observer Dr. S. K. Tiwari appointed by the Central government removed all the anomalies in the process and got the counting done on August 21 and 22, 2010.
Dr. Zakaria claimed that his representation in the council would ensure speedy development in the field of homeopathy in the State. He said that he would ensure improvement in the standards of homeopathy colleges in the State. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Bhopal, August 30 (Pervez Bari): Young and dynamic Dr. Mohammad Zakaria of Bhopal has been elected as the member of the Central Homeopathic Council, (CHC), New Delhi. The result of the election was announced for the lone representation from Madhya Pradesh on Monday. The elections were held in 2008 but the result was withheld due to anomalies in the election process.
Dr. Zakaria secured total 1754 votes and defeated his nearest rival Dr. Dinanath Mishra, who secured 1739 votes. Homeopathy fraternity of the State has congratulated Dr Zakaria on his election.
The CHC is the topmost statuary body responsible for specifying the parameters for homeopathy education and assigning recognition to the homeopathy colleges in the country.
One homeopathic physician each is elected as the representative from every state for this council. The place had fallen vacant in the state after the death of former member Dr. Suresh Panjwani in 2001.
According to Dr. Zakaria the election for this place was held in August 2008, following the directives of the High Court but the results were withheld due to gross irregularities. The Presiding Officer Dr. S. K. Mishra and Observer Dr. S. K. Tiwari appointed by the Central government removed all the anomalies in the process and got the counting done on August 21 and 22, 2010.
Dr. Zakaria claimed that his representation in the council would ensure speedy development in the field of homeopathy in the State. He said that he would ensure improvement in the standards of homeopathy colleges in the State. (pervezbari@eth.net)
Dedicated police force to fight cyber crime in MP
Dedicated police force to fight cyber crime in MP
Bhopal, Sep 3, In a bid to tackle the growing menace of crime in cyber space, Madhya Pradesh Police has decided to constitute a dedicated Cyber Police Force by enrolling over 100 personnel in the first phase.
"We have sent a proposal to recruit over 700 police personnel for the newly-created Cyber Crime Cell of Madhya Pradesh and the police headquarter has initially given its nod to recruit 106 dedicated cyber police force in the state," Inspector General (IG), Rajendra Mishra told PTI.
"We will recruit plus-2 pass out candidates with basic knowledge of computers and then train them in the advanced computer applications by offering them diplomas, BCA and MCA degrees," he said.
Those who successfully complete the diploma course will be inducted between the ranks of Constable to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), BCA pass outs between Sub-Inspectors to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and those with MCA degrees as Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), the IG said.
They will not only be trained in handling hardware and software, but also in cyber laws to counter the challenge posed by the new generation of criminals who use sophisticated electronic gadgets to commit crimes of diverse nature,he said.
Mishra said the recently-created Cell has been discharging its duties with a skeleton staff of just 20 personnel drawn from different wings of the police. However, it has been able to solve some major cyber crimes including fraud of Rs 17 lakh committed by a Nigerian national. (MORE) PTI MAS LAL DK
-PTI
Bhopal, Sep 3, In a bid to tackle the growing menace of crime in cyber space, Madhya Pradesh Police has decided to constitute a dedicated Cyber Police Force by enrolling over 100 personnel in the first phase.
"We have sent a proposal to recruit over 700 police personnel for the newly-created Cyber Crime Cell of Madhya Pradesh and the police headquarter has initially given its nod to recruit 106 dedicated cyber police force in the state," Inspector General (IG), Rajendra Mishra told PTI.
"We will recruit plus-2 pass out candidates with basic knowledge of computers and then train them in the advanced computer applications by offering them diplomas, BCA and MCA degrees," he said.
Those who successfully complete the diploma course will be inducted between the ranks of Constable to Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), BCA pass outs between Sub-Inspectors to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and those with MCA degrees as Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), the IG said.
They will not only be trained in handling hardware and software, but also in cyber laws to counter the challenge posed by the new generation of criminals who use sophisticated electronic gadgets to commit crimes of diverse nature,he said.
Mishra said the recently-created Cell has been discharging its duties with a skeleton staff of just 20 personnel drawn from different wings of the police. However, it has been able to solve some major cyber crimes including fraud of Rs 17 lakh committed by a Nigerian national. (MORE) PTI MAS LAL DK
-PTI
MP encounter: Police maintain Khan was dismissed from Army
MP encounter: Police maintain Khan was dismissed from Army
Bhopal: Two weeks after the alleged fake encounter of Amjad Khan, the Madhya Pradesh police on Sunday said the 33-year-old had been dismissed from the Army after a court martial.
Khan, a Congress worker, was killed along with three other alleged dacoits in Baknasa in Bhind district in the wee hours of August 22 after what the police claimed was an exchange of fire.
Though some villagers living near the area claimed to have heard a few gunshots they doubted the police version that more than 70 rounds had been fired.
The family members of those killed alleged that the encounter was staged and that they were killed elsewhere before being brought to Baknasa.
Khan's wife Yasmeen, a president of Mahila Congress's Lahar Block unit, had alleged that he was wearing different clothes on August 19, when the police took him away from home, than those found on his body.
Bhopal: Two weeks after the alleged fake encounter of Amjad Khan, the Madhya Pradesh police on Sunday said the 33-year-old had been dismissed from the Army after a court martial.
Khan, a Congress worker, was killed along with three other alleged dacoits in Baknasa in Bhind district in the wee hours of August 22 after what the police claimed was an exchange of fire.
Though some villagers living near the area claimed to have heard a few gunshots they doubted the police version that more than 70 rounds had been fired.
The family members of those killed alleged that the encounter was staged and that they were killed elsewhere before being brought to Baknasa.
Khan's wife Yasmeen, a president of Mahila Congress's Lahar Block unit, had alleged that he was wearing different clothes on August 19, when the police took him away from home, than those found on his body.
Chinese woman files complaint against MP forest officer
Chinese woman files complaint against MP forest officer
A young woman of Chinese origin has accused an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer from Madhya Pradesh of misbehaving with her at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, where he attended a training programme last month. The officer denied the charges.
In her early 20s, the woman was an assistant to the UBC coordinator who conducted the mid-career training programme for 33 IFS officers from India.
The alleged incident happened at around 10.30 pm on August 20 when the victim had gone to the room of Dr A K Bhattacharya, CEO of the Madhya Pradesh Eco-tourism Development Board.
She complained about the alleged misbehaviour to the UBC authorities.
The first week-long module of the programme, held from August 2 to 28, was conducted in Bangalore followed by a two-week module in Vancouver.
The last module was held at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) in Dehradun, which functions as a staff college for Indian Forest Service officers and organises mid-career training programmes for them.
The UBC coordinator, who was scheduled to conduct the last phase of the programme as well, chose to personally hand over his university?s report to the director of IGNFA.
Dr Bhattacharya admitted that his course certificate had been held back but denied the misbehaviour charges. ?She was very vibrant and that?s why she came to my room at night. Nothing untoward happened. She is of my daughter?s age,? he said.
The 1983-batch officer claimed the woman wanted to see photographs on his laptop when they went for a field visit and stayed in the room only for five minutes.
?Maybe someone saw her leaving my room late in the night which prompted her to lodge a complaint in an attempt to save her skin,? he claimed.
He said it was a mistake to let her in the room so late. ?Her complaint was an afterthought.?
In his 50s, Bhattacharya claimed he came to know about the complaint after reaching Dehradun on August 28. He submitted a letter explaining his side of the story to the IGNFA director.
Deputy Director of IGNFA Dr A K Wahal said: ?Some incident happened and we have sent the matter to the forest ministry for further action.?
Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Sartaj Singh said the state government was yet to receive any report from the Union Forest Ministry and would act only after getting a written report.
Subdued Eid Celebrations with No Namaz-e-Eid-ul-Fitr at 48 Eidgahs in MP
- Subdued Eid Celebrations with No Namaz-e-Eid-ul-Fitr at 48 Eidgahs in MPMuslims offer Eid prayers with black arm-bands to protest police excesses; Magisterial probe demanded into Ratlam riots Bhopal, September 14 (Pervez Bari): The usual festivities associated with Eid-ul-Fitr, at the culmination of month-long Ramzan, in Madhya Pradesh were subdued as Muslims protesting the atrocities of police on them in Ratlam town, about 280 kms. from Bhopal, did not celebrate it but rather ?observed? it. There was no feasting after fasting for a month in the day-light hours.
Reportedly in about 48 Eidgahs all over Madhya Pradesh state Muslim men-folk did not offer Namaz-e-Eid-ul-Fitr (special Eid prayers) to register their protest against the police action and its brazen highhandedness in Ratlam town following communal violence after cow-dung was thrown in a Masjid of the town. The Muslim men and children abstaining from donning new outfits in Ratlam and adjoining districts offered Namaz in mosques in their cities in their old clothes while sporting black arm-bands. The residents of nearby villages and towns like Neemuch, Badnawar, Nemawar etc. celebrated Eid in a low-key manner in a show of solidarity towards the riot-affected Ratlam Muslims.
The Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims, Madhya Pradesh unit, submitted a memorandum on Tuesday to the chairman of Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission urging it to investigate the Ratlam riots and one-side police-action against Muslims wherein their human rights were infringed severely. Similarly, the memorandum is also being submitted to the state Governor Rameshwar Thakur, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta demanding a magisterial inquiry into the whole incident.
The Coordination Committee also demanded strict action including the transfer of Ratlam Superintendent of Police Dr. Mayank Jain, City Superintendent of Police, (CSP), Mahendra Tarnekar, Town Inspector, (TI), Ranawat and three constables namely Neeraj Tyagi, Jagdeesh Prasad and Vijay Kumar who played pro-active role in police-action against Muslims during and after the violence so that a fair magisterial inquiry could be conducted.
Meanwhile, another delegation of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, (MPCC), led by its president Suresh Pachauri along with spokesman Arif Masood and few victims of Ratlam police-action also submitted a memorandum to the state Governor and Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police S. K. Raut on Monday. The memorandum demanded immediate action against the guilty police officers and revoking of false cases under Section 307 IPC, (Indian Penal Code), against the innocent people including some women and minors. It also demanded arrests of those who threw cow-dung in the Masjid and necessary legal action against the culprits as they are still roaming free due to police inaction.
It may be mentioned here that the trouble started in Ratlam when some mischief-mongers objecting to ?Azaan? (call to faithful for prayers) on loudspeakers from Mohalla Danipura Masjid hurled cow-dung at about 7 p.m. on September 3 last from the balcony of an adjacent house to desecrate the place of worship and hurt the religious feelings of Muslims in the holy month of Ramzan. Despite forthwith complaint to police no action was taken by it for complete three hours after which communal frenzy erupted. Soon, thereafter, curfew was unnecessarily clamped in the affected areas and police took onus on itself to teach Muslims a lesson and thereby allegedly indulged in one-sided police-action.
Meanwhile, in Bhopal Shahar Qazi Maulana Syed Mohammad Fazil Qasmi while delivering his Eid sermon from the pulpit of Eidgah on Saturday narrated the heart-wrenching woes of the Muslims of riot-hit Ratlam whom he visited in a delegation headed by him a day earlier. The delegation met Ratlam Qazi Khursheed Ali and other prominent members of the community and had detailed discussions with them.
Delivering the sermon in an emotionally charged and chocked voice Maulana Fazil said that actually it was no Hindu-Muslim riot in Ratlam city but the rioters were the maintainers of law and order who forgot their duties and went berserk to unleash terror. It is no irony that peace enforcers became demon while ransacking Muslims? homes and picked up men and minors to send them to jail. They did not even spare aged men, women and children who became victims of their wrath while broken limbs and bruised body parts bore testimony to police?s barbaric action which in the end left them to writhe in agonizing pains, he moaned. He said that he was informed that over 500 members of the community, most of whom were innocent and minors, were incarcerated in police-action.
Tears welled up in the eyes of Maulana Fazil as he narrated what he saw without taking the name of Ratlam city or the police, who perpetuated the untold misery on Muslims. The huge assemblage of over 1000,000 people present at the packed to capacity Eidgah and even overflowing heard the Bhopal Shahar Qazi in rapt silence with a twitching in their hearts over the happenings their co-religionists had to undergo on the intervening night of September 3-4 and the following day after cow-dung was hurled from the balcony of an adjacent house in a Masjid of the town. He said the entire Muslim community in the city was writhing in pain after one-sided police-action while the district police maintained that it had done nothing abnormal.
Shahar Qazi said that he had gone to Ratlam with a delegation to appeal the aggrieved Ratlam Muslims to change their decision and celebrate Eid traditionally with offering Namaz-e-Eid-ul-Fitr at the Eidgah as it would not be a good gesture not to celebrate. However, seeing their pitiable plight and listening to the people?s grouse against police?s severe excesses on the community members during and after the violence, he could not gather courage to request Ratlam Shahar Qazi Khursheed Ali to call off the decision of not celebrating Eid in the traditional manner. It is a very sad moment that in some parts of the Madhya Pradesh state, which has be known as ?Aman Ka Tapu? (Island of Peace), Muslims feeling insecure from law enforcing agencies unanimously gave up the plan to offer the traditional Namaz-e-Eid-ul-Fitr at Eidgah and decided to offer it at local mosques, he bemoaned.
He said that during the day-long visit of Ratlam city wailing and weeping women-folk jostled with each other to narrate their woes of police atrocities on them to the delegation. He said men and women in the eighties and nineties and minors also had to bear the brunt of police?s ruthless terror as Muslims ran helter-skelter to save their skin. However, hardly anybody could run to safety as police laid siege and surrounded their houses from all exit points. The police became marauders as they vandalized homes and shops while smashing and overturning all utility household items such as refrigerators, TV sets, washing machines, cupboards, utensils etc. They also smashed mirrors, window-panes and wooden doors in a fit of anger, Shahar Qazi lamented. The tell-tale scenario which he and other members of the delegation saw saddened them to the core, he added.
Expressing deep concern over the incident, he appealed Muslims to restrain themselves from being provoked in any circumstances. Without naming the Babari Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi dispute he also appealed Muslims to accept the impending verdict gracefully and maintain peace in all circumstances. He cautioned Muslims about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) message of never to indulge in oppression, tyranny and outrage as it leads humanity towards self-destruction and keeps them away from seeking the blessings from Almighty Allah. He recalled that the Prophet had said if Muslims indulge in tyranny against non-Muslims then he would plead the case of the latter rather than the former.
The Muslims of Ratlam narrated in graphic details the mayhem unleashed by police on them and showed the wounds they sustained in the police-action to the delegation. They alleged that a police ASI even urinated in a mosque. The delegation saw cow-dung was still sticking to the walls, pillars, windows and floor of the Masjid. This Masjid is deserted and no Namaz is being held there and as such the cow-dung dirt is in its place. Some other Masjids are also deserted as Muslims fearing arrests are not venturing out of their homes.
Tablighi Jamaats (Groups of people working among Muslims calling them to path of Allah) from Bhopal, Gango in Uttar Pradesh and Godhra in Gujarat from Ratlam railway station along with local Muslims observing ?Etakaaf? (staying voluntarily in Masjids for last 10 days in Ramzan month) were picked up from Masjids and beaten up ruthlessly. Bhopal Jamaat was, however, let off at the intervention of Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police S. K. Raut. Later on the other two Jamaats along with three local persons observing ?Etakaaf? were released but not before they were beaten up black-and-blue.
Apart from Shahar Qazi the delegation comprised of Adv. Sajid Siddiqui, national vice president of Social Democratic Party of India; Masood Ahmad, secretary, & Abdul Wahid Naqvi (Haris), vice president, Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims Madhya Pradesh unit; Dr. Mohammad Mubarak Khan, a medical practitioner, and journalists Mushahid Saeed Khan & Ansar-ul-Hasan.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Police has maintained a defiant posture blaming Ratlam Muslims for the whole episode while charging them with indulgence in use of fire-arms, loot and arson. The Ratlam Superintendent of Police Dr. Mayank Jain reportedly told the delegation led by the Shahar Qazi that it is Muslims who initiated the attack and went berserk and fired at the members of other community. When pointed out the beating up of Muslim women Dr. Jain claimed that the police did not even look towards them.
The position was so grim Dr. Jain claimed, that police resorted only to air fire to control the situation and later cane charged but did not fire at the mob when a group of people set afire a number of vehicles. While Muslims claim that over 500 members of the community are under arrest, police has, however, officially stated that only 132 persons are under custody.
Inspector of Ujjain Range Pawan Jain has reportedly said that it did not behoove a community to support the goonda elements in its midst. Those who have been arrested were actively involved in flaring up violence and there is strong evidence against them, he has claimed.
It may be stated here that the riots in Ratlam and tension in Talen town in Ujjain district are only the latest manifestations of a series of similar communal conflicts in Madhya Pradesh in recent months. Badavda town in Ratlam district had also simmered recently but situation was controlled. Begumganj in Raisen and Nasrullahganj in Sehore district , have had tense days recently. In Obaidullahganj one person was killed in communal riot in July.
While the spreading, though sporadic, communal incidents have freshened memories of the conflicts that marked the Ram Janambhoomi agitation in the early nineties. However, the state Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta is not alarmed with these developments and sees the latest Ratlam flare up as an isolated incident. In an interview Gupta said that Ratlam incident does not have any relation with the ongoing movement of Vishva Hindu Parishad, (VHP), wherein the saffron outfit has claimed that it is creating awareness among the people about the Ayodhya dispute. He said that as such there is no possibility of recurrence of such incidents in the state. However, certain areas which did not have track record of being communally sensitive may become tense, the Home Minister said.
This is true and alarming. Nearly half-a-dozen towns in Madhya Pradesh that witnessed communal tension recently have had no such history. Earlier, tension had gripped Mandla and Raghogarh on the occasion of Ram Navami this year. A person was killed in the riot in Khategaon also in March. Maksi town in Shajapur district had also been rocked with communal tension in the beginning of the year when a minor fight between two groups while playing cricket had led to riot. One person was killed while over half-a-dozen persons were injured. Curfew had to be imposed in the town.
It may be mentioned here that it is for the second time in the history of Independent India when Muslims in Madhya Pradesh did not celebrate Eid in the traditional manner rejoicing the successful culmination of the month of Ramzan. It may be recalled here that in the late eighties of the last century Muslims in Bhopal did not celebrate Eid with pomp and show at the call of the then Shahar Qazi Syed Abid Ali Wajd-ul-Husaini to protest police brutalities following a communal flare up in the state capital. The cloth merchants, usually non-Muslims, were left high and dry as Muslims did not go for new clothes at the call of the Shahar Qazi. The cloth merchants, thus, lost business worth crores of rupees that year.
Meanwhile, it may be pointed out that MPCC had alleged that the violence which occurred in Ratlam on September 4 was pre-planned and sponsored. It was the political rehearsal of what a particular ideology intends to do after the decision on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque issue that is expected in this month.
MPCC spokesman KK Mishra in a statement had said, ?The manner in which communal violence spread in whole of Ratlam city after the two incidents in Danipura and Hakimwada areas proves that it was a well planned.?
Mishra had sought clarification from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the State that when the members of Muslim community informed the police at 7 pm about throwing of cow dung at their Masjid then why did the police not take action on it till 10 pm? If the incident was untoward, how come the district collector and Superintendent of Police were among the rioters and how come the firing was done in their presence? (pervezbari@eth.net)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)