Theweeklyobserver issue 21

VOL  13  ISSUE  21                                                                                                                                                                                 Tuesday, January 21 , 2014

A farmer in Kengeri has been facing opposi-tion from a former government employee forthe last two years in his effort to build a roadleading up to his farm.

Prashant, 30, who owns a one-acre-large pieceof farmland in Kengeri, needed to build a roadto ensure that he could move heavy machineryand equipment like tractors and tools in and outof his farm.

But he wasn’t allowed to do so by Chikka-narasimaiah, a retired revenue secretary whomoved into a house on the adjacent plot.

According to the Bangalore Development Au-thority (BDA) layout drawn up for the area, thevacant strip of land behind Chikkanarasimaiah’shouse is meant for Prashant to construct a roadon. But the former government employee op-posed Prashant’s efforts to do so by complainingand blocking the entrance to the pathway.

As a result, the farmer claims he has incurreda loss of more than Rs. 3 Lakh in the last twoyears, with two full plantations of Ragi wasted inthe process. He was forced to seek other meansof earning a livelihood, despite owning a farm.

“How can I function as a farmer if I cannotbuild a road leading up to my farm?” askedPrashant, standing next to his farm, an inheri-tance that has been passed on in his family formore than four generations. “e only reason fortwo of my complete plantations getting destroyedwas because I couldn’t bring a tractor to ploughthe field aer planting the seeds.”

He added that despite repeated requests andpleas, Chikkanarasimaiah didn’t permit Prashantto construct the necessary road and complainedthat all the loose sand and noise resulting fromthe process will cause him “inconvenience.”

When Chikkanarasimaiah refused to budge,Prashant filed a complaint with the BDA. How-ever, he said, there was no action taken againstthe former government employee.

is forced Prashant to seek outside assistance

and he went to Vincent, a Right to Information(RTI) activist based in Kengeri, for help.

“He is a hard-working farmer who has a right-ful claim to the land in question. e law statesthat every farm must have a pathway leading upto it to facilitate the transport of heavy machin-ery such as tractors,” said Vincent. “I have nowhelped him file another complaint and this timeI have to make sure that his plea is heeded,” headded.

Prashant, whose farming operations have nowcome down to a dozen plants of spinach andradish, has now been forced to rely primarily ondairy farming for his livelihood. “But the milkfrom a dozen cows isn’t enough to feed my familyand maintain my land,” he said.

“is land has belonged to my family for morethan a hundred years now. I just hope that I getassistance from the authorities as soon as possi-ble so that I can start farming in earnest once

again. Otherwise, sustaining myself like this willbecome impossible over time,” he added.

Sources from the BDA, under the conditionof anonymity, confirmed that Prashant’s com-plaint had been received and that it will now betaken under advisement.

But they refused to comment on when theproblem will be solved.

Chikkanarasimaiah, despite repeated attempts,remained unavailable for comment.

PRANAY LAKSHMINARASIMHAN

Prashant at the strip of land adjacent to Chikkanarasimaiah’s house which he claims is earmarked for a road

Land access row leaves farmer on road to ruin

Farmer arrested for allegedly raping neighbor’s 15-year-old daughter

Paralympics championwaits in despair for a jobpromised to him by the

CM six months ago

PAGE 3 PAGE 4

The Weekly

Observer Tuesday, January 21,2014 2

ree people accused of strangling a woman to death were ar-rested yesterday by the Kamakshipalya police.

e three men were arrested by the Special Investigation Sqaud ofthe Kamakshipalya Police Station. e police seized gold worth Rs1,50,000 from them.

Revati was murdered by Mahalingappa, 25, Venkatesh, 30 and Kr-ishna, 45 on January 4, 2014. “ey stole a gold chain and a banglefrom the victim,” said Mr B Gowda, an investigating officer in thecase.

e accused had entered Revati’s house at 11am posing as sales-men, selling pots and plants. e three men tied her hands and legsand bound her mouth with a cloth before strangling her to death.

e men had come to the house in the guise of salesmen at 11 inthe morning. Revati’s husband, Balasubramanya was present at thehouse when they had come. ey went back saying that they wouldget more pots and plants and waited for Revati’s husband to go towork.

Aer Balasubramanya went to his office, the men came back to thehouse and asked Revati where she kept her plants and she took themto the terrace. While they were coming downstairs, they attackedand killed her.

e three accused had been entering different houses in the samearea for the last three years. ey used to enter houses in the guiseof salesmen and gardeners and steal money and jewellery from thehouses.

Bale Gowda said, “ey had been involved in more than 15 casesin the last three years and they usually stole Rs 2,000-10,000 fromthe houses. I cannot disclose more, the case is still under investiga-tion.”

APURVA VENKAT

Private hospitals demand hike in tariff under healthcare schemes

Private hospitals are demanding a price hike ina health benefits scheme and claim they arebeing flooded by claimants.

e claims have angered health care trust execu-tives who say the hospitals are free to opt out anytime they want.

Health care schemes introduced to help poorfarmers holding BPL cards afford their medical ex-penses are being hijacked by private hospitals inthe city, according to scheme organizers, who sayprivateers want to be able to charge farmers more

for life-saving operations.R M Nataraj, Chief Executive Officer of

Yeshasvini Health Care Trust said, “is schemewas introduced in 2003 by the state government.Until then, farmers had to be dependent on moneylenders for major medical ailments such as heartsurgeries and other major surgeries. e cost usedto be high and farmers were unable to meet the ex-penditure for treatment. erefore, this schemecame into being in order to help farmers finan-cially for their treatment.”

He added, “Every year private hospitals demanda revision of tariff under health schemes. We never

begged these hospitals to be a part of this scheme;they themselves volunteered to accept BPL cardholders so why complain now?”

Karnataka State Hospitals Forum (KPHF) com-prises 492 network hospitals that avail medicalservices under Yeshasvini and Vajpayee Arogyas-ree schemes for BPL card holders in the state. emembers of this forum have alleged rampant is-suance of BPL cards has led to a major crisis inhealthcare.

Dr. Prashant B Katakol, coordinator of KPHFsaid, “ese schemes pay less than the actual pro-cedure costs and the government has not revisedits charges since its inception 11 years ago. Sec-ondly, Yeshasvini scheme was started for the poorfarmers but the benefits are reaped by the richfarmers of the cooperative society.”

He added, “Due to the increase in the number ofBPL card holders, hospitals are forced to treatthem within a limited claim amount, which mostlyleads to loss for the hospital as well as the govern-ment. If this continues, private and public hospi-tals would soon die out.”

To this R M Nataraj said, “Management SupportService Provider (MSP) has revised the tariff in2012 and also several times before that. e falseclaims by the members of KPHF are absolutely un-acceptable. We would never force people into ourprogram. If they are not satisfied with how things

work here, they are free to walk out of the scheme.”He added, “ese private hospitals hire extraor-

dinary doctors from outside the country and ex-pect the poor farmers to pay the surgeon’s fee.Private hospitals are nothing but greedy, theirgreed never ends. Where a government hospitalcharges Rs. 4000 for a normal delivery, Fortis Hos-pital charges Rs. 40000. Under Yeshasvini scheme,823 surgeries can be operated at a low cost. enetwork hospitals know all this before signing forthe package then why demand for a revision everysecond year?”

e management committee has called for ameeting to resolve this issue and revise the tariffanother time for these hospitals.

R M Nataraj said, “If this time we revise the tariff,hospitals will keep demanding for a hike in thepackage every now and then.”

PRUTHA BHOSLE

Yeshasvini and Vajpayee Arogyasree scheme were introduced in 2003

‘The false claims by the members of

KPHF are absolutely unacceptable. We

would never force people into our pro-

gram. If they are not satisfied with how

things work here, they are free to walk

out of the scheme.

- R M Nataraj,

Chief Executive Officer of Yeshasvini

Health Care Trust.

Gold snatch gang held in murder probehad struck at least 15 times before - police

State bus company involved in over 700 passengerdeaths last year alone named country’s best operator

e Karnataka State RoadTransport Corporation haswon an award for being thecountry’s best public fleet op-erator despite over 700 com-muter fatalities involving thecompany’s coaches.

A press release on the KSRTCwebsite states: “KSRTC’s innova-tive passenger friendly bestpractices, efficient and disci-plined administrative policiesand traffic operations has led theorganization as the Country’sBest Public Fleet operator of theyear with prestigious CV award2014.”

Despite the awards and appre-ciation bagged by KSRTC in re-cent years, the reports ofaccidents involving bus driversof KSRTC make for stark read-ing..

According to statistics, a totalof 575 commuters in KSRTC

buses have died in 2,011 acci-dents in 2011, 714 persons diedin 2,001 accidents in 2012, and713 commuters have been killedin 1,839 mishaps in 2013.

e project which won thecompany the award is KSRTCIntelligent Transport System(ITS) which was an innovativeproject implemented at Mysorerecently. is project is thecountry's first ITS, implementedat an estimated cost of Rs 20.13crore.

It sends SMS messages to com-muters telling them up-to-datearrival times and has live timeta-bles along the KSRTC route.

e Transport Minister of Kar-nataka, Ramalinga Reddy, ex-pressed his happiness over theaward. He said: “KSRTC hasbeing winning a lot of awards inrecent years. ey have beingimproving for the good everyyear.”

Commenting on the rise of ac-cidents he said: “We test ourdrivers once a year. Most of thedrivers we have are good and re-sponsible. ere are some youngdrivers who lack responsibilitybecause of whom the accidentstake place.”

“It’s the driver’s responsibilitythat the passenger should reachhis destination.” When askedabout the lenient punishment

given to KSRTC drivers com-pared to private drivers, he re-fused to comment.

K. S Krishnamurthy, a KSRTCdriver said: “In case of accidents,there is a court case and man-agement discussion. In mostcases suspension is given for twoweeks.”e KSRTC officials remained

unavailable for comment as theywere busy in a road safety event.

Mrs Mini Harisson, Vice President of Zee Media, awarding KSRTC MD N. Manjunath Prasad at the ceremony

SNEHA MEJARI

The Weekly

Observer Tuesday, January 21,2014 3

Man accused of raping neighbor’s minor daughterA Chennapatna-based mar-

ried farmer raped the 15-year-old daughter of his neighbor to“fulfill his sexual desire”, localauthorities said.

According to Channapatnarural police station, the accused

was identified as VenkateshaApanna (28), who raped hisneighbour’s 15-year old daugh-ter. e incident took place atBehurmandya, a village which is

15km away from Chennapatna.e 15-year-old minor girl,

Keerti (name changed), in hercomplaint, said: “On December30, 2013, my neighbor,Venkatesh summoned me to hishouse at 2pm and asked me tocollect Rs. 100 to get some ma-

terials used in the production ofsilk from a nearby shop. I was athome when the incident tookplace, since my school hadarranged a trip on which I re-

fused to go”.Keerti added: “Before collect-

ing the amount from his room,the accused held me from be-hind and hauled me on his bedaer he bounded and gaggedme. When I started screamingfor help, he threatened to hang

me to death. ”Investigation officer, S. Nagaraj

of Chennapatna police stationsaid: “At the time of incident, noone was present at Venkatesha’s

house. He at once le the placeaer raping her and threatenedto kill her if she disclosed any-thing about the incident. egirl complained of stomach painand confided in her aunt regard-ing the incident”

e inspector added: “Since itis a village, the Panchayat takesthe decisions in the area. Hencethe girl registered the complaintat M.K Doddi police station onlyon January 7, 2014 since she didnot receive justice from the Pan-chayat heads.”

According to the police, the ac-cused Venkatesha was marriedfor a year and his wife was 8-months pregnant. His wife wasat her mother’s place when theincident took place.

Chennapatna rural police ar-rested Venkatesha on January 7under the Section 4 of POSCO(Protection of children fromsexual offences act, 2012) andunder sections 341 – punish-ment for wrongful restraint and

506 – punishment for criminalintimidation of the Indian PenalCode (IPC).

e Chennapatna court willhold its first hearing in this caseon January 21.

KARISHMA RAVINDRAN

Deepakanna (name changed), the farmer accused of raping the 15-year-

old daughter of his neighbor

15-year-old Keerti(name changed), the victim of

the alleged sexual assault by Deepakanna

‘Since it is a village, the Panchayat takes the decisions in the area. Hence the girl

registered the complaint at M.K Doddi police station only on January 7, 2014 sinceshe did not receive justice from the Panchayat heads.

- S. Nagaraj,Investigative Officer Chennapatna Police Station

e husband of the Bangalore ATMattack victim has questioned claimsmade by a security company that itcan make kiosks across India safer.

A private company believes it has de-veloped a system to make ATM kioskssafer and claims their “talking” camerascan reduce crime and protect banks andcustomers.

Securens has come up with a securitysystem which will alert the securitycompany if anyone tries to break into orrob an ATM kiosk. Motion sensors alsotrigger cameras as soon as someone en-ters the bank.

e company claims that these sen-sors recently monitored one customerhaving a heart attack inside a Mumbaikiosk and emergency services werecalled.

But Udaya Kumar, husband of JyothiUdaya, the ATM attack survivor, saidthe system would not have helped hiswife or helped in finding her attacker.

He said: “is system may help thepolice and people who are trapped insuch situations. But this would be effec-tive only if all ATMs have such kind ofa system along with a guard. e guardcan stop the accused from escapinguntil the police reach the spot. is willmake sure that the accused is caught. It

is two months since my wife was at-tacked. Even aer CCTV footage beingavailable, the police have not caught theattacker. “

Sunil Udupa, Managing Director ofSecurens, said: “We have a system thatwill prevent ATM thes and attacks. Itis not just a CCTV camera to record thecrime. People in our monitoring centerwould immediately talk to the defaulterand try to prevent the crime.”

He added: “We can also give correctdetails to the police immediately onwhat the person was wearing, what hewas attempting to do and in which di-rection he went. “

He said the company has already se-cured 1800 ATMs across India andaround 400 ATMs in Bangalore.

e system has multiple levels of se-curity. e first buzzer rings whensomeone tries to break, kick or hammer

the door of the machine. e motionsensor alerts the monitoring room assoon as a person enters and camerasbegin recording. e sirens also go offif somebody tries to li the machine oropen the machine.

Srinivas Popuri, CEO , said: “I have astaff of 60 people in Mumbai monitor-ing 1800 systems across the country.e response time of my staff to reachthe local area police in case of mishap

would be approximately 15 seconds toa minute. So there is no need to havemonitoring.”

e banking association has proposedto charge all its customers for using theATM more than five times in theirhome bank. is money would be usedfor setting up the mandatory securitynorms put forth by the police. at sys-tem includes guards.

Popuri added: “e total cost of thiswould be 12000 per month comparedto the salary of 33,000 to the guards. Ifthe system is put in place the bankswould not have to charge customers forsecurity. ”

“Talking” cameras would not have saved Jyothi - husband

One of the new security systems on display by Securens at their press conference.

NIKITA NARVEKAR &

APURVA VENKAT

I have a staff of 60 people

in Mumbai monitoring 1800

systems across the country.

The response time of my staff

to reach the local area police

in case of mishap

would be approxi-

mately 15 seconds

to a minute. So

there is no need

to have

monitoring.

-

Srinivas

Popuri,

CEO

‘

The Weekly

Tuesday, January 21,2014

Observer Team: Editor–Saikat Ghosh Chief Sub Editor–Prutha Bhosle Sub Editors– Sneha Mejari, Soumya Basu, Sushmita Sen, Shweta Nair News Editors- Rahul Sadhu, Pranay Lakshminarasimhan PictureEditor & Design Desk– Sreelakshmy Sivaram Reporters– Apurva Venkat, Ishan Bhattacharya, Nikita Narvekar, Mayuri J Ravi, Bhaskar Dutta, Anagha Sawant Proof Reader– Raju Peethala [email protected] An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

Events

MUSIC

THEATRE

SPORT

In collaboration with GoetheInstitut, theatre director StefanKaegi will showcase a game ofsorts, where people wearheadphones for a tour of thecity.Date – January 29 to February16Venue – Max Mueller BhavanContact – 91 80 25205305

Pt. Bhimsen Joshi MemorialConcert Sunaada Art Foundation is or-ganizing a memorial concertin the memory of BharatRatna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.Date – January 25Venue – Bangalore GayanaSamaj, K.R Road

Celebrities from eight majorregional film industries in thecountry will be battling onfield to win the cricket tourna-ment. Date – January 25 – February23Venue – Chinnaswamy Sta-dium, M.G Road.

FITNESS

Nirvana Nomads is organizingan adventurous trek throughZanskar Valley in Ladakh thisJanuary.Date – January 30Contact – 91 9739096412

Observer 4Double gold medal hero still awaiting CM’s promised job spot

One of India’s finest paralympic ath-letes is still waiting on the state govern-ment to give him the job he waspromised six months ago.C.V. Rajanna, a double gold medalist atthe recent World Dwarf Games, theworld’s biggest sporting event, revealedtravelling to compete in the games hadcost him money.He said the state government had onlyprovided airfare and had ignored re-quests for further funding to cover hotels,training and food.Rajanna, 38, was hailed a hero upon hisreturn and greeted by Chief Minister Sid-daramaiah, who promised the successfulathletes jobs.Six months on,as Rajannaprepares toapply forI n d i a ’ sh i g h e s ts p o r t i n gh o n o r ,t h e

Arjuna Award, he and hisfellow athletes are stillwithout funding andwithout jobs.Rajanna led the Indianteam in the 6th WorldDwarf Games held inMichigan, in August lastyear. He won gold medalsin the 200 meters sprintand Badminton singles(senior) events. He alsobagged two silver medalsin shot-put and the 100meters sprint.Rajanna has also beenawarded the prestigiousKempe Gowda Awardand the Ekalavya Award,for his contribution to so-ciety and his sporting prowess, respec-tively.But he is struggling to finance the sportshe loves and lives humbly, helping run thefamily print business.He was promised a government job bythe Chief Minister of Karnataka in Au-

gust 2013.To attend the World Dwarf Games in2013 the government provided Ra-janna with Rs.1.5 lakh for flights, buthe spent two lakh fieen thousandduring the competition. “We face a lot of financial problemswhile participating at international

level. My coach had to spend Rs 2 lakhfrom his own pocket,” Rajanna said.He added: “We get only 30% to 40%financial support from the govern-ment. It is difficult to get private

sponsors. e Government of Kar-nataka provided the athletes with onlythe air tickets for the World DwarfGames and nothing more, which is un-reasonable.”Along with Rajanna, Renu Kumar and MPrakash also won gold and silver medalsrespectively at the same event and were

promised help, but have received noth-ing.Despite achieving so much, Mr. Rajannafinds it very difficult to pursue his love forsports. “It is really difficult to go higherup as the government is not providingjob,” he said.At present Mr. Rajanna is unmarried andlives in Jalahalli Cross on Tumkur Road.He helps in running his family businessprinting press. But he said that this aloneis not sufficient enough for him. His fel-low athletes Mr. Renu Kumar and M.Prakash are also looking for a govern-ment job. Mr. Ratan Singh, Secretary General, Par-alympic Committee of India said: “InIndia we have to concentrate on promot-ing this kind of sport. We are trying togive better facilities to athletes and alsosending them outside to gain experienceat the international level.“As far as receiving financial support andproviding jobs is concerned, there is a lotof politics involved in this. We need tofree sports from politics so as to improvethe situation.”Rajanna, who is also in the process of ap-

plying for India’s highest sporting honor,the Arjuna Award, said: “I really feelproud to represent India. I may looksmall in height, but I am proud that I amrepresenting the world’s biggest demo-cratic country.

“Being small does not restrain me fromfeeling patriotic. Society’s perspectiveneeds to change. Para sports are equalwith other forms of sports. Everybodyneeds to view them equally and not lookdown upon it.“Despite our achievements there is still alack of awareness about this form ofsports in India. Our Indian society andgovernment have very little knowledgeabout para sports. But, day by day, thescenario is improving as awarenessamong people is increasing. Still, a lotneeds to be done.”With the upcoming National ParalympicGames, the National Badminton Cham-pionships and the Asian Games towardsthe latter half of the year, receiving properfinancial support and help from the StateGovernment has become all the more im-portant, he added.

RAHUL SADHU

EVENT |LALBAGH FLOWER SHOW

C.V. Rajanna enroute to his gold medal at the 2013 World Dwarf Games held in USA

SPORTS |2013 WORLD DWARF GAMES

A giant rabbit and the world’s biggest flower look setto steal the show at this year’s annual Lalbagh flowerfest.

Visitors to the 199th Annual Republic Day FlowerShow can also feast their eyes on huge fruits and vegeta-bles – made entirely of flowers.e show, jointly organ-ised by the Department of Horticulture and Mysore Horticulture Society started onJanuary 17 and will continue until January 26, 2014.

is is the 199th annual show in the city’s Lalbagh Gardens.

Mr Gunavantha, Deputy Director, Department of Hor-ticulture, said, "Our department of horticulture wasstarted in the 19th century and we are also celebratingthe 50th year of our department."

He added: "e central theme of the flower show is re-lated to horticulture. We have received good responsefrom the visitors regarding the theme."

e glasshouse comprised more than 100 variety offlowers that were used for arrangement and for fabricat-ing the structures of vegetables, fruits and a gigantic rab-

bit.On January 25 there will be distribution of cds in mem-

ory of former Director of Horticulture, Marigowda. Itwill be conducted at the back stand of Lalbagh BotanicalGarden. Gunavantha said: "e main attraction of thisflower show is the central theme itself. We have fabri-cated structures that are related to horticulture. We havemade structures of fruits such as banana, mango, pome-granate and cashew apple and vegetables such as garlicout of flowers."

In celebration of the 50th year, a huge sthamba (pillar)of 18 feet high and 4 feet wide has been arranged usingflowers. It is embedded on all four sides with four differ-ent emblems of Department of Horticulture, MysoreHorticultural Society and State and Central Government.

e largest individual flower on earth called the Raffle-sia Arnoldii, is also on show.

He said: "e teams that are competing in the gardeningcompetition in the glass house will be the BDA andBBMP who will showcase their flowers. Another teamhas been made to judge the competition. e prize distribution will be held on January 24, 2014."

MAYURI J RAVI

Garden city radiant with floral rabbits, rose sculptures and the world’s biggest flower

A giant bunny made entirely of flowers takespride of place at this year’s Lalbagh show