YEH MERA INDIA

UNDERSTANDING COP
Near Dadar in Mumbai, a boy was riding his bike in top gear and jumped the signal. The traffic constable caught him and very politely asked him as why he was speeding. The boy merely wanted to know the fine. The traffic constable said, “It is not the question of a fine. You could have lost your life. You should follow the traffic rules to avoid accidents. You have not read the instruction displayed on the screen near traffic signals?” The boy said, no. The traffic constable took him to the monitor which was displaying the messages about safe driving and asked him to read them. The boy read out, “Sar Salamat hai to pagdi Hazar hain, If you want to stay married, divorce speed, Go to home in peace and not in pieces.” Thereafter, the traffic constable fined him and let him go.

LONELY IN BIG CITY
At Santa Cruz station, a correspondent saw a very old man walk by. He was wearing a crisp white shirt and starched trousers and was walking very slowly, his eyesight being poor.
As he walked past, the correspondent smiled at him and he smiled back. He took five minutes in walking past her. After he had left she got busy with her book when somebody tapped her from the back. She turned back to find that he had taken extra energy to come back to her for asking something.
“Do you know me?” said the old man.
“No sir. I smiled just like that,” said the correspondent.
“Oh I thought you know me. Actually, my daughter has shifted to USA. Her friends often see me and I don’t recognize them because of my eyesight. My daughter rarely calls me. So, I thought if you were one of her friends, I will talk to you and remember her. I miss her,” said the old man.
He paused for a brief moment looking at the other side of the platform. Then he looked at the foot over bridge. “Anyway, I have to cover a long distance now. And you observed my walking speed I think. I must go. God bless you,” he said.

As he walked past the platform on the staircase and from the bridge this correspondent kept looking at him. He walked and paused after every five steps, as he felt drowsy. That was Mumbai for old and lonely.

Indian cars fail crash test              under European conditions 

New Delhi: Some of the popular small cars sold in India, including Maruti Alto 800, Tata Nano, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and Volkswagen Polo, have failed crash tests, a global safety group, the New Car Assessment Programme.

Small vehicles are the biggest segment of the Indian price-sensitive car market: almost all two-wheeler owners aspire to own a hatchback as they upgrade. Incidentally, the Tata Nano is billed as the world’s cheapest car. As per the tests conducted by the safety group, an independent charity based in the UK, the aforesaid five cars received zero for adult protection ratings in a frontal impact at 64 km / hr. 

Incidentally, the combined sales of these five cars accounted for 20 per cent of all the new cars sold in India last year.

India is now a major global market and production centre for small cars, so it’s worrying to see levels of safety that are 20 years behind the five-star standards now common in Europe and North America, the safety group said. 

When contacted, spokespersons of the companies named said their products met Indian safety norms. According to the findings, in Maruti Alto 800, Tata Nano and Hyundai i10, the vehicle structures proved inadequate and collapsed to varying degrees on impact, resulting in high risks of life-threatening injuries to the occupants. The extent of the structural weaknesses in these models were such that fitting air bags would not be effective in reducing the risk of serious injury, the group said.

Cops booked: bribe from foreigner

Mumbai: A senior Inspector of Railway Police and a Constable allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs 50,000 from an overseas businessman to release him from illegal detention and return his belongings, including passport, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Maharashtra said on Thursday. 

An FIR in this regard has been registered against Senior Inspector Devram Wadmare, attached to Dadar Railway Police Crime Branch, and Constable Sushil Kharat. 

The businessman, who hails from Cameroon and deals in garments, was illegally detained for three days. The 32-year-old was freed only after he paid Rs 50000 out of the original bribe amount of Rs 1 lakh, an ACB officer told PTI. 

The cops were booked for corruption on Saturday. 

The Victim had on March 14 gone to Kurla railway terminus to board a Hyderabad-bound train. Kharat approached the Cameroonian national and told him he required to go to Dadar to catch a train to the southern city, the ACB said. On pretext of helping him to reach Dadar station, Kharat took the foreigner to Crime Branch office, where his passport and other belongings were seized. 

“Wadmare and Kharat told us they detained the victim suspecting his involvement in drug trade. The foreigner, who arrived here in December last, was asked to shell out Rs five lakh for his release. 

“He was illegally kept at the Crime Branch office for three days. Wadmare later agreed to release him for Rs 1 lakh after the victim expressed helplessness to arrange Rs 5 lakh,” the Investigating Officer said. 

On March 17, the Cameroonian called his friend to Crime Branch office and handed him over some US dollars, which were exchanged and Rs 50,000 was handed over to Wadmare. The businessman was later released. 

The victim was told to shell out the remaining amount on March 24. On March 21, he approached ACB and lodged a complaint. The next day, the policemen were booked. 

ACB laid a trap last Monday when the victim went to Wadmare’s office with Rs 5000 in cash, instead of Rs 50000. However, Wadmare did not take the cash but returned the businessman’s passport and his three mobile phones, after possibly getting a wind of the trap. – PTI.   

Sit on RTI query & Pay from pocket

Mumbai: A senior citizen who had been denied information under the RTI Act has been awarded a compensation of Rs. 50,000 to be paid by the civic official who sat on her query. 

In his order dated April 1, 2014, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Ratnakar Gaikwad has told the officer concerned to pay up by April 30. He has also instructed the official to let the senior citizen inspect all the documents pertaining to her case. Further, the documents sought by the senior citizen are to be posted free of charge to her by April 25. 

It does not end here. The official who held back the information, assistant engineer N M Kotkar, has been ordered to appear in the CIC’s court on April 25 and explain why he should not face disciplinary action. 

The case which pertains to a property dispute in south Mumbai shows the extent to which the BMC can go to favour one party in such matters. 

Nandu Kapadia (85), the senior citizen, had sold one of her four rooms on the top floor of Mulji Jetha CHS at Princess Street to a man who then created an illegal entrance to the mezzanine floor. On Kapadia’s complaint, the local ward officer had it inspected and ordered the man to restore it. However, after complying with the order and attaching photographic evidence, the man compounded the offence by knocking off an even bigger section. 

Kapadia then filed an RTI application on October 11, 2013 seeking the inspection report, site photographs taken by the inspecting officer along with his name and designation. She also wanted to know the reason for not initiating any action as deemed fit under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act for non-compliance with the notice issued by the civic official. 

Gaikwad’s order notes that the ‘C’ ward office refused to part with any information which Kapadia badly needed for presenting her side in the dispute which had moved to the court. 

He further notes that the first appellate authority under the RTI Act (the executive engineer) had on January 15, 2014 ordered that the information be provided to Kapadia. The order was ignored.  

Kapadia then took her case to the CIC on February 24 where she alleged that the public information officer (assistant engineer N M Kotkar from the building and factory department) and the first appellate authority were both guilty of flouting the RTI Act.