YEH MERA INDIA


24x7 Mental Helpline from BMC



Mumbai: Considering the urgent need for people with mental health problems to just have someone to talk to, the BMC will be launching a 24 x 7 mental helpline.
The helpline is aimed at reducing the increasing number of suicides every year, violence against women and stress. “It has been shown that just talking to a suicidal person reduces the chances of committing suicide,” said Dr Shubhangi Parkar, Deputy Dean of KEM Hospital and Head of its Psychiatry Department. She said the helpline will have trained counsellors who will counsel those who call at length. Dr Sandhya Kamath, Dean of KEM Hospital, said that they are in the process of hiring trained counsellors for the helpline.

Swiss wants to check black money flow

New Delhi/Bern: Often accused of providing safe havens to black money from India and other countries, Switzerland has proposed a new bill to prevent its banks and other institutions from accepting “untaxed assets” from their clients and put in place a stricter due diligence regime.The Switzerland Federal Council, the apex decision making body of Swiss government, has asked its finance ministry, the Federal Department of Finance (FDF), to submit a consultation draft at the start of 2013 to meet its goal of preventing banks from accepting untaxed funds from their clients.While a revised tax treaty has come into force between India and Switzerland for exchange of information on untaxed assets and money laundering related activities, the rules require sufficient information for any banking details to be shared and many requests face the risk of getting rejected in the name of ‘fishing expeditions’.

Less than1% conviction out of 635 rape cases in Delhi

New Delhi : There has been only one conviction out of over 600 cases of rape reported to Delhi Police this year even as crime against women has been on the rise in the national capital.
As many as 754 accused were arrested in the 635 cases reported to Delhi Police between January and November, the highest in past five-years, Home Ministry data said.
Of these total accused, only one was convicted while 403 were facing trials, investigations were pending against 348 and two others were discharged. A total of 572 rape cases were reported to Delhi Police last year as against 507 in 2010, 469 in 2009 and 466 in 2008.
The Delhi Police arrested 745 accused last year. Of these, 18 were convicted, 34 were acquitted, 597 were facing trials in different courts, 86 were still being investigated and 10 were discharged for the crime. In 2010, out of 685 arrested accused, 37 were convicted and 107 were acquitted. Trials were going on against 518 accused and investigations were pending against 13 others, the data said. Whereas, a total of 675 and 604 persons were arrested for rape in 2009 and 2008 respectively. Of these, 82 were convicted in 2009 and 52 in 2008, the data said. As many as 211 were acquitted in 2009 and 119 in 2008. During 2009, investigation was pending against one accused and in 2008, probe involving 17 accused was yet to be completed, the Home Ministry data said.
The national capital has also reported 624 cases of molestation of women between January and November and the police have arrested 768 accused. However, conviction was done in only one case. The trials were pending against 402 accused and investigations were pending against 356 others suspected to have molested women, it said. A total of 657 cases of molestation of women were reported last year in which 910 were arrested. Whereas, in 601 cases of molestation of women reported in 2010, 552 in 2009 and 611 in 2008, 867 accused were arrested in 2010, 826 in 2009 and 912 in 2008, the data said.
Only three were convicted for molesting women last year, 12 in 2010, 11 in 2009 and 16 in 2008, it said. A total of 835 accused arrested in 2011 were facing trials. Also, the trials were pending against 811, 737 and 780 accused arrested in 2010, 2009 and 2008 respectively, the data said. The national capital has reported 111 cases of dowry harassment between January and November this year. Besides, 98 such cases were reported to Delhi Police last year, 78 in 2010, 118 in 2009 and 104 in 2008.
There were 128 dowry deaths reported in the national capital in the first eleven months this year as against 142 and 143 such deaths in 2011 and 2010 respectively, it said. A total of 193 cases of eve teasing were reported to Delhi Police between January and November in which 200 accused were arrested. Of these, 105 were still under investigation and 95 were facing trials, the data said adding that there was no conviction in any of the reported cases.

Youth tied to car, dragged nearly a kilometre

Jabalpur: Three persons were arrested  for allegedly dragging a physically challenged youth by tying him to a car. 
The accused have been been identified as - Devendra Baidehi, Anil Sahu and Sanjay Sen, garha police station in-charge JCM Chandel said. Ajay (23) alias Ajju Thakur’s father Ratan Singh said that all the three accused were his son’s friends. Last year, due to an alleged accidental firing Ajju had suffered serious injuries in which one of his legs was amputated.
Though all of them had assured him that they would bear the expenses of his medical treatment, they refused following which Ajju gave a statement to the police against them. 
However, the police said after Ajju suffered bullet injuries in his leg he was admitted in the government medical college hospital and police had registered a case against him under Arms Act and other sections. 
According to police, on Friday, there was heated argument between the victim and Devendra over the their friends Sanju’s love interest . Following the argument, Devendra threatened Ajay with dire consequences. Devendra walked into to Ajay’s house at around 6 am with his friends, forcibly took him out and tied him to his car. Ajay sustained serious injuries after he was dragged behind their car for nearly a kilometre, police said.

Shoot the messenger–BMC way

Mumbai : Instead of initiating an inquiry into its own deeds to find out the reasons behind such massive corruption, the standing committee of the BMC decided to ask for an inquiry into why a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report was filed on the civic body without the State sanctioning it.
Rahul Shewale, chairperson of the standing committee said, ” The CAG made this report on the BMC although the State did not ask it to do so. We will ask for an inquiry into why this was done.”
The CAG had slammed the civic body for increasing the cost of road projects in the city and spending an additional Rs 702 crore of the taxpayers’ money without following the necessary procedures, in the report that was presented to the State Legislature during the Winter Session in December.
The CAG scrutinised road works done from December 2009 to October 2011 and the Sena-BJP-led civic body has been severely criticised in the report for the poor state of the city roads and massive corruption. The audit scrutiny reported that roadwork contracts, originally worth Rs 1,160 crore were increased to Rs 1,863 crore without inviting fresh tenders, which is mandatory. The cost of 30 of 46 cement-concrete roads was increased by Rs 469 crore and 29 of 42 asphalt roads by Rs 233 crore. These additional contracts were awarded to the same contractors.
The report said that the increased cost, called variation, was 62% for cement-concrete roads and 57% for asphalt roads.
Corporators from the NCP and the MNS demanded that a CBI inquiry be initiated on the basis of the CAG report against BMC officials who had been in charge during the time when the report was filed. However, the very same corporators, led by MNS group leader Dilip Lande and NCP group leader Rais Shaikh, walked out of the meeting when Yashodhar Phanse, Leader of the House in the BMC, offered to read out the names of corporators who had made proposals that were under the scanner in the CAG report.
The standing committee has now decided that since the BMC has been maligned in the CAG report, it shall ask for an inquiry into why a CAG report was filed without sanction from the State.
D M Sukhtankar, former municipal commissioner, said that the CAG does not need anybody’s sanction to carry out an audit. “It is a statutory authority and has every right to look into public money. The BMC has its own auditor but the CAG does its own auditing because a lot of roadwork in the city is undertaken by the State. Such a decision would not have been taken at the bureaucratic level,” he said.





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