Judicial system of two neighbours

Pakistan supreme court rejected review petition of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian citizen convicted for espionage and bomb blasts in various cities of Pakistan. The petition was rejected on the grounds that Sarabjit's lawyer was not present in the court for the procedings. (Link)

Contrary to this, in India the court will not prosecute Ajmal Kasab (a Pakistani citizen arrested for being responsible for the mumbai terrorist attacks) unless he had a lawyer to represent him. Even though everyone in the world saw Kasab live firing from his assault rifle at the commuters on VT station. This is a striking difference between the judicial system of the two neighbouring countries.

If Sarabjit Singh had a lawyer representing him in the court, the result might have been different. However, the court decided to reject his case because his lawyer deserted him. The judicial system has to be something better than this.

This should also be an eye opener for all the people who were lynching the lawyers agreeing to represent Ajmal Kasab, just to make sure that the trial moves forward. Also, the people who were against any trial for terrorism convicts and direct death sentence. We would never want our judicial system to reach those shallow levels. India has always been and should always provide proper legal assistance before trying any criminals. With proper working legal system we can solve these issues and earn respect in eyes of a common human being.

Providing food with dignity

The calamity times can be really bad on a person's dignity. In these times when one is fighting against the nature to feed his/her family, keeping ones dignity intact is even tougher. How to accept the relief material, the food, clothes and medicines. If it was from govt, there would be a right to ask for it. But if it comes from foreign corners, how would someone feel while taking it. What to do if there is no other alternative available?

Mukti, NGO being supported by AID made the dilemma easier for the people affected by cyclone Aila. The next biggest danger people in these areas were facing was the disaster coming in form of high tide at the full moon night. The embankments to the river need urgent repair to avoid the destruction by high tide. At one hand people are dying of hunger, on the other hand the embankment won't be repaired because of lack of manpower. Since the paycheck from govt comes really late, its hard to motivate people to work while their family is dying of hunger. Mukti volunteers proposed to give food to the people who worked to repair the embankment. "Mukti motivated the villagers by providing snacks (breakfast) in the morning session and 2kg of rice and 200 grams Dal and 250 grams potato 100 grams of onion at the end of the day in addition to wages which they will get in time." This was a good enough motivator to feed their family and save their village while keeping their dignity intact. There were 450 people working on first day and 900 from second day onwards. The model is being appreciated by the govt officials and other NGOs and is being replicated in other villages too.

Link for Mukti report

So end of the story is that even in middle of such devastation there are people working really hard and coming up with intelligent solution to odd problems.

Another news: A supporter have pledged to donate $1500 if AID can generate $5000 for cyclone aila relief fund. So go ahead and donate generously. Every $10 of yours will mean $13 to the needy people.

News reports: TheBigPicture | Telegraph | ToI | ToI | IndianExpress | DeccanHerald

Cyclone Aila updates

Life is still paused in the areas affected by cyclone Aila. However, the relief given by AID is reaching to some parts of these areas. The most satisfying fact is that the money I saved from not eating my meal at a restaurant actually fed almost a whole village in these difficult times. If you are able to contribute even a penny to this effort, please do not think twice. Every dime and a dollar will be used to save human lives.

Here are few updates from the ground. The video has some stats and then pictures from the relief camp being run by Mukti, an NGO working with AID in the affected villages.



Here is a report from M. A. Wohab, Director of SHIS, another NGO conducting clinics everyday in the affected villages besides providing water and food. If you are a doctor, or know a doctor who might want to help these people let me know.

Report

Here is a detailed survey from BTS/Mukti covered areas giving an idea of the damage and the type of relief available.

Link

Budget from BTS/Mukti for the relief work in the villages.

Link

For regular updated on the relief work click here

To donate to the relief fund click here

Cyclone Aila relief work

Cyclone Aila struck the coasts of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India killing more than 200 people and destroying 180,000 homes. Over 3 million people have been displaced as per the estimates.

The govt help is as always not adequate. Association for India's Development (AID) is partnering with local NGO partners to provide food, water and shelter. AID has already disbursed $21,000 to one of the partner NGO Baikanthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS) for this work.

If you would like to help the relief work please donate to AID All India Relief Fund.

Click here if you would like to follow the regular updates (from people working right in the middle of it and not from seasoned journalists)

If you would like to go and help in the relief work drop a hint in the comments section.


Cyclone Aila in press : BBC | The Daily Star | CNN | ToI | The Hindu

Urban Legend - Act 49-O

While the parliamentary election were on in India, I received several emails to exercise my right of not giving my vote to anyone. The general email reads as follows:

"Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn't want to vote anyone !!!! Yes, such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called"49-O".
Why should you go and say "I VOTE NOBODY"... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than 123, then that polling will be canceled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system... it is seemingly surprising why, and election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public.... please spread this news to as many as you know... Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India... show your power, expressing your desire not to vote anybody, is even more powerful than voting... so don't miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on..."

While there is some truth in the email, some of it is false.

Truth: Yes there is a clause in "Conduct of Election Rules, 1961" called 49-O, which is very similar to the one described in the email. The clause says:

"49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark." [Ref]

False: Although there is a clause named 49-O and it also give you a right not to vote, it has no tooth. I mean there is no provision for re-election, re-polling, or removal of the candidature of the candidates.

The clause is mainly to help avoid proxy voting. If you don't want to give your vote to anyone, and also don't want someone else to do proxy voting in your name, you can go and exercise your right to not to vote. This would make it impossible for someone else to cast vote in your name.

The problem in exercising this right is that your identity would be revealed. Earlier, in times of old Ballot Paper, you could leave the paper blank and drop it in the box. However, the new EVMs doesn't have an option of 'None of the above'. If you exercise this right, the polling official and the polling agent would come to know about it. The proposed election reforms have considered this issue, and have suggested an extra option on the EVMs. [Ref]

Now about the tooth part, there are PILs and several activists trying to convice Supreme Court and Election Commission to amend this clause and give it some tooth.

So there exists a clause named 49-O and it does take care of 'Negative / Neutral Voting'. However it doesn't have any option of cancelling the election in the particular are, or forcing re-polling.

Chashme Buddoor [1981]

Chamko detergent, does that rings a bell to you? you might never have seen this brand of detergent, however if you watched hindi movies on doordarshan in early 90's you cant miss this brand.

This is kinda identification for the movie: Chashme Buddoor (1981). Farooq Shaikh, Deepti Nawal.

A very simple Middle-of-the-road movie.

Brain Drain

15 bright students of Indian origin, sitting in a small room in one of the biggest university of USA. Any guesses what they were doing in there?

Discussing the economy? No
Celebrating the rise of India? No
Talking over the rising oil prices? No

They were concerned about the lack of interest of poor dalit children in education. They were discussing how to support a group to take initiative and teach those children in their own homes. These students were discussing the living conditions of the poor people in one of the small village of West Bengal.

I have been hearing about brain drain since I joined IIT Kharagpur. It was hard to convince people that even after coming out of country, people do think about India. A small meeting yesterday evening bolstered my belief in indian brain's worry about their country.

wanna know more?? AID India

Indian Healthcare

This article in TOI caught my attention.

Link


First of all it proves my view that medical services in India are much better and cheaper than USA.

Apart from that I see it as a really good business scheme and a very good opportunity for indian healthcare industry to get an international standing. I have always judged economic developments from the impact to the last person in the chain. If you look at this piece of information, its bound to increase profits of big hospitals and attract more investment into the healthcare sector. This will in turn improve the services provided by them and availability at various places.

Above all, more money into the market means greater spending power for a common man which makes everyone happy!!

Do you like Paan?

You heard of the vibrating ring and the moral police's reaction to it. Since Hindustan Latex couldn't earn much from that product, they have come with a new one. Now this one has got flavor of Paan.
The new product having flavor of betel leaf has been designed mostly for sex workers. The paan flavor was tested with the prototypes of chocolate, banana and strawberry. and guess what, paan flavored one topped the tests!!!

I am waiting for the reaction of our self appointed moral police. Lets see if they like to chew it or spit it!!

Murder weapons of delhi back on the road

The Delhi govt has bowed to the blueline operators again. These are the same buses involved in rash drivings, tripping over and killing people and school kids. After the outcry over several cases in a row, the delhi police started enforcing law in proper way. The next thing you know is that all the blueline buses are on strike.

This is the respect of law in this country. The moment you try to force the law, we will hijack the basic services and disrupt the life of common public and force you to forget all the law and order. We will never tolerate the enforcement of law against us whatever happens. You can't make us follow these stupid laws of drivers license and vehicle insurance. Surprisingly, many people happily put life of their kids in hands of these law breaking drivers.

Right To Information!!

• Do you want to stop paying bribes but worried if your work will get done or not?

• Do you think your municipality is skipping the sanitation duty in your area?
• Do you wish to do social audit of a particular department in any area?
• Do you wish to inspect the material used in any government work?
• Do you want to see how the MLA of your constituency spent all that development fund?

Being an Indian if you haven't heard of RTI than you must have been deep asleep while a storm swept over the countries bureaucracy. If you have any of the questions above but don't know whom to ask or where to ask, then check this website out.

Parivartan

I am impressed by the work they are doing and the help they are providing to information seekers. Hope it helps to anyone who wants to change something in the system!!

is your credit card company cheating on you??

Have you wondered why the credit card agents are so anxious to give you those life time free credit cards??
Have you thought how the credit card companies earn profit, while giving you interest free credit for 40 days?
Is your credit card statement perpetually late?? do you have to suffer the late fee because of delay on part of the credit card company?

Link to story

Stop paying late fee, and be cautious while using those cards!!
The credit card companies have earned 6000 crore rs. from customers in terms of various fees. They have been violating norms using unfair practices and making false promises. Its one of their strategy to delay the issue of statement and then levy the high late fee. Another practice they have is selling the credit card in the name of life time free and then levying annual fee one year later!!

*Tip* : If you are victim of your credit card companies bad practices, talk to their customer service and threaten to discontinue the card. Its a tested method and works most of the time.

Great Bihar Police

Bihar faced communal clash in January this year. Bihar policed filed FIR against 7 people for attack on police force and inciting riots. and guess who is among those 7.
A two year old kid who can't even eat his food on his own (according to his aunt). Now that the matter is in media, police says it might be a clerical error. I wonder how many clerical errors of this kind have gone unnoticed, and how many of those innocent people have been booked for the crimes they never did. If they can book a two year old for rioting then there is no stopping them to book anyone for any crime they want.

Link to the story

I remember a joke, once a police commissioner called inspector that his watch and ring are missing. The inspector gets on work. The commissioner calls back in few minutes saying he found his watch and ring in bathroom, the inspector says, "How is it possible sir, I have five different people locked up here saying they stole those items."

Rang de Basanti

We all saw it, we all liked it.

But someone took it to heart, and went ahead to do their part to the society. I always had a bad impression of the rich kids, but then you don't need a million deeds to change your view. These kids know their forte and are using it in a great way. They know they are rich and have contacts with similar people and they have channeled the effort in a very right way. I know it would be too much to ask for everyone doing their part, but even half of us did it, the world would be a much better place to live.


Link to story

I salute you "DSP Sarabjeet Singh"

This article on meri-news touched my heart. The officer went against the 'fatwa' by terrorists and performed the last rituals for the son of a 70 year old lady. I salute to the officer for his brave deed!! These are the people who command respect. His duty did not require him to do that but he chose to do it. That makes it more touching. I have seen this kind of scenes in bollywood movies, but it makes me happy to know that there are real people playing those roles in real life!!
I know it'll take few years for this kind of article to feature in the mainstream print or electronic media. But I hope it happen sooner than later.

Link to the article

Slum Free Dharavi

This is a continuing post to my last post about slum free dharavi.
Here are many more links to the plan ...

Maharashtra Govt plan's ppt (beware its 118mbs)

Rediff

Hindu

Slum Rehabilitation Authority page.

DNA (Daily News & Analysis)

Mumbai NEWSLine1

Mumbai NewsLine2

Mumbai facelift: is it too good to be true?

Imagine 70 million sq ft land changing from slums to skyscrapers!!! That is the plan IAS officer I.S. Chahal (Vice-President of Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority) is looking after.

The plan include giving the land to a builder for development and major points are

• The slum dwellers will be given 225 sq ft flats in some of those buildings. I know the place would be very small but i guess its still more than the place they have currently.
• The govt. will get 450Rs per sq ft premium which would not be very great but still worth mentioning.
• There will be a focus on local amenities like building of schools, colleges, hospitals and police stations.

I know there will be questions about corruption, feasibility, resistance etc etc. But I am happy just to think that there are plans for this thing.
Some of the pluses I see in this:

• Think of all the problems slum dwellers have from from garbage, sanitation, roads, congestion, etc. Slum dwellers doesn't even have proper sanitary arrangements. It would be a change of lifetime for them.
  
• It would solve the land shortage problem of Mumbai to a very great extent.
  
• If planned and executed properly, it would have lots of schools, parks, hospitals etc. Social improvement in line.

The story : ibnlive

Do share your views on this.

Wal-Mart India Story!!!

Wal-Mart is entering Indian retail market in partnership with Bharti Enterprise. I see a major change in the retail industry in India, not that it was not changing anyways!! Big-Bazaar, Tru-Mart etc have been fighting to change the scenario. They have been trying to allure the customer from mom 'n' pop stores, but have been finding it tough except in some categories.
Given wal-mart's expertise in supply chain, it might do wonders in the market.

How will it affect the Indian markets:

• As always happens in competition, consumer will be the biggest winner in the show. Quality stuff at competitive prices at all times (if the store open 24x7).
• Producers might have to give in some of their profits, but in long run might be happy to do business with wal-mart (situation in US is different as it does not have a small shop culture, so producers are forced to concede to the whims of wal-mart, but I don't see similar thing happening in India.)
• Best part might be fighting the food article's adulteration. As I hope wal-mart will look for better quality.
• Small shop owners will be forced to improve their quality of product and service but should not lose much in the competition.
• In the end, wal-mart wont be going deep in small towns, so small shop owners in those cities need not worry.
  

Daughters of Bihar

Thanx to Dilip D'Souza for highlighting this.

Bihar ki Betiya, a wonderful festival to get the poorest of poor connected to mainstream. Educating them is the best thing you can give.

Two things I want to say:
1. Will Arjun Singh and other state's chief ministers open their eyes, and try to follow this?
2. Will media stop showing Cho Seung-Hui and give some time to this kind of stories??

Are you a voter?

I found this information while browsing through Indian Govt. official website. You can search the Electoral Rolls (Voter Lists) of the Election Commission of India. I found my information there, Check out if your name is there in it or not.

Search Electoral Rolls (Voter Lists)

Hope this information helps someone. You might want to browse National Portal of India, It has plethora of information on it.