YMI

VIP Buffaloes’ recurring troubles for UP cops

Just days after nabbing the thief who fled with UP Minister Mohd Azam Khan’s bovines, the police now have to deal with the theft of a legislator’s eight buffaloes from his farmhouse in Bareilly district, reports IANS.
BJP legislator Dharam Pal Singh has made it clear that the police must act with same alacrity as it did in finding Azam Khan’s cattle in January 2014.  Bareilly police, sources say, is now in midst of an “unprecedented crisis” trying to “strike a balance between the other crimes and the VIP theft”.
 “Our hands are already full and now this new ‘musibat’ (trouble),” a frustrated senior police official told IANS while referring to the theft of eight buffaloes of the BJP legislator who is also a former state minister.
Eight buffaloes were stolen by armed men from Singh’s farmhouse at village Jhaunagla. The legislator said that eight buffaloes were stolen after a gun was pointed at the caretaker of the farmhouse.Singh referred to the speed with which policemen looked for Azam Khan’s buffaloes and demanded in his case too, the police must display the same alacrity. He alleged that the gang of cattle thieves had targeted him because of his relentless  campaign against them and threatened to raise the matter in the state assembly if his cattle is not recovered soon.  Officials said that an FIR has been lodged and that teams from three police stations have been “put on the job” to recover the stolen buffaloes.   Senior police officials say cattle theft takes place as it is a source of income owing to the mushrooming slaughter houses and the demand for the meat.  The issue has propelled to centre stage after the theft at Azam Khan’s farmhouse.

Indian men treat women as equals

New Delhi : A majority of men believe in treating women as equals, reveals a survey conducted by an online matchmaking survey. The Shaadi.com survey received over 9,800 responses from a mix of single as well as married Indian men (4,265) and women (5,604) ranging from 24 to 38 years of age, reports IANS.

With the festival season in mind, the survey was conducted to understand what Indian men and women think about equal responsibility in a marriage.  When men were asked ‘If they treat women as equals’, 86.3 percent said ‘Yes’, and when women were asked the question ‘If they are treated as equals’, 64.3 percent said ‘Yes’.  Also, Women were asked ‘Do you think it is only a woman’s responsibility to cook for the family’. To that, 79.3 percent of them said ‘No’, followed by 13.6 percent who said ‘Maybe’ and 7.1 percent said ‘Yes’. When men were asked about the same, 44.6 percent of respondents said ‘No’, followed by 17.1 percent who said ‘Maybe’, while 38.3 percent of them said ‘Yes’.

On the other hand, when women were asked ‘Especially during festival, should men indulge in cooking and other household activities?’, 84.5 percent said ‘Yes’, 12.4 percent said ‘Maybe’ and 3.1 percent said ‘No’. As far as men are concerned, 10.1 percent said ‘Yes’, 58.7 percent said ‘Maybe’ and 31.2 percent said ‘No’ to the same question.

IIT expels 73 students, but how did they get in!

Delhi : IIT Roorkee has expelled 73 students for faring badly in the first year B.Tech programme, scoring less than five in the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The expulsion was carried out after taking into account their mercy plea which was rejected by the institute’s apex academic body.During the admission, the parents had signed declaration that the poor performance could lead to expulsion of the students, IIT Roorkee officials said. The institute had warned the students in May to pull up their socks, after the second semester exams, and they were given time to file a mercy appeal. HRD Ministry officials maintained silence over the episode, saying the IITs are autonomous bodies, governed by their own rules.

Ministry officials said such expulsion (though large in this particular case) was not an aberration as it had happened earlier also in IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur. A professor of an IIT also raised questions over the revamped IIT-JEE entrance test which makes it “relatively easier” for a student to crack the objective type questions if ‘luck favours him’.

Height of medical negligence

Kolkata:  In an appalling case of medical negligence,the right thumb of a newborn baby girl was severed by a nurse in Balurghat government hospital in North Bengal’s South Dinajpur district while removing a bandage using surgical scissors, leading to tension in the region.

The eight-day-old infant’s father Babla Mondal alleged, “The nurse dumped my baby’s thumb as well as the pair of scissors into a dustbin in the ward. We retrieved the thumb and also the scissors from the bin. We were referred today(Monday) to the North Bengal Medical College, which is far away, after the incident took place last night(Sunday).

“However, when we rushed there we were asked to return to the same hospital as there were no facilities available at the medical college. My daughter is in a serious condition now,” he complained.

The parents were then directed to take the newborn to a better equipped government hospital in Kolkata, 440 km away from Balurghat, but they did not have the means to hire an ambulance for the long journey.Tapan Biswas, Superintendent of Balurghat hospital, while taking responsibility for the incident, said he had ordered a probe and sent the nurse on leave. There was a furore as local people started protesting after the incident came to light and complained of lack of facilities at the government-run hospital. They alleged that the poor family was sent off to North Bengal Medical College only to cover up the incident.

CPM leader Fuad Halim, who is a general surgeon, alleged, “Healthcare in West Bengal seems to have become child’s play. The North Bengal Medical College does have the facility for reconstructive surgery and it was illegal on their part to refuse admission to the newborn, who was in a critical state. There is a time factor for performing such (microvascular) surgery and now it seems it is too late for the thumb to be restored.”

 Incidentally, the Health Department is with  Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the MoS for Health, Chondrima Bhattacharya, is also the state’s Law Minister.

CCI can also mean Corruption Competition India

Mumbai:  Under fire from the Opposition over the graft charges against his Cabinet colleagues, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has decided to adopt a tit-for-tat policy.

And the young CM is all set to counter the Opposition-- which has been gunning for him in connection with state Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde’s alleged involvement in a `206- crore procurement scam--by exposing a Rs. 526 crore scam in which an NCP legislator Ramesh Kadam has been found ‘guilty’.

When the Maharashtra  Assembly’s  Monsoon session got under way, the Congress and the NCP MLAs welcomed the BJP Ministers with a comical take on the popular nursery jingle, ‘Johny Johny, Yes Papa’.

They recited the rhyme as, ‘Pankaja Munde, yes papa.. eating chikki, no papa.. Vinod Tawde, yes papa… bogus degree, no papa… Baban Lonikar, yes papa.. two wives, ha ha ha’. While Education Minister Vinod Tawde is facing the Opposition wrath for securing an engineering degree from an unauthorised college, Water Supply Baban Lonikar has been accused of hiding his second marriage from the Election Commission.

Incensed at the Opposition ridicule, the BJP has decided to use the CID findings in the scam involving the state-run Annabhau Sathe Backward Class Corporation.

In fact, the CID has unearthed a scam of ` 526 crore scam in the corporation, which had been headed by Kadam between 2010- 2014. A senior minister told Express that Fadnavis will table the report to take the wind out of the Opposition sails.

The report elaborates on how Kadam withdrew money running into several crores  illegally from the Corporation’s account.

Luxury cars, including Rolls Royce, Audi and BMW were purchased in the name of the backwards.However, the cars actually landed up in the houses of some influential politicians. A two-acre plot of land was purchased using the Corporation’s money in Aurangabad and a construction cost of `7,000 per sq ft was paid to the developer.

The fact of the matter is that the land is still vacant and the construction was carried out only on paper,” the minister said. He added that the report also stated that many people were dubiously given appointment letters on a particular day. The state government is likely to lodge an FIR against Kadam once the report is tabled.