YEH MERA INDIA

Assault victim fighting to get her FIR registered

Mumbai: Almost two months after a 42-year-old woman was allegedly raped, no First Information Report (FIR) has been registered by the police. The victim woman was allegedly raped by her 39-year-old former boss on July 29 in Pune.

According to the victim Meena Desai, (name changed to protect identity), “The incident took place in Pune. I reside at Girgaon area and worked at a corporate in Saki Vihar in Powai. The VP road police station under which Girgaon area falls and Powai police station under whose jurisdiction my office falls and Chatushrungi police station in Pune under whose jurisdiction the crime took place refused to file an FIR or a zero FIR. The police have been stating that it is not in their jurisdiction. They refused to file a complaint.”

The victim was working as a Deputy Marketing Manager at a multi-national company in Powai. The accused Sanjeev Sharma, (name changed) is a General Manager in the same company.

“We were supposed to get married in August 2016. On July 29, Sharma drugged and raped me at a hotel in Pune when we had gone there to participate in a conference.”

Later, Sharma threatened me not to register her complaint in the company or else he would circulate the obscene clip that he claimed to have made. Being scared of defamation and under extreme duress, I resigned from my job. Finally, I confided to my parents about the incident, said the rape victim.

“I approached the concerned police stations but the police refused to file an FIR. Later, I came in touch with National Anti- Corruption and Crime Preventive Council, an NGO which has been helping me to file the complaint,” said Desai.

A police officer from the Powai police station, requesting anonymity, said, “An inquiry has been initiated. We are investigating the matter.”

Several calls and text messages were made to API Bomble who is the investigating officer at Chaturshrungi police station. However, there was no response.

The victim is a resident of VP road in Mumbai. In the year 2007, the victim got divorced from her husband and has been staying with her parents since then.

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Son carried dead father in a hand cart

Pilibhit (UP): A youth had to carry his father’s body in a hand cart as he was allegedly refused a vehicle by the district hospital to take the body home in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit town.

A video showing Suraj, who is a labourer belonging to Madinashah locality, carrying the body of his 70-year-old father Tulsiram who died in the district hospital, in a hand cart went viral in the social media.

Suraj claimed that he had rushed his father on a private vehicle to the government hospital around 8 am, but was told to wait for an hour and half before the doctors attended to the patient.

According to the death certificate issued by the hospital, the deceased was admitted at 9.40 AM and he died at 11 AM. “The hospital staff then asked me to take away the body and said that no vehicle was available for taking the body home,” Suraj claimed, adding that he was left with no other option but to arrange a hand cart.

Suraj alleged that he had made several phone calls to get an ambulance for taking his father to hospital in the morning but to no avail.

The superintendent of district hospital Dr. RC Sharma when contacted, however, said that he was not contacted by the family of any deceased for the vehicle for carrying the body.

The District Magistrate Masoom Ali Sarwar has said he will order an inquiry if a complaint is made to him in this regard.

Similar videos of a man carrying his dead wife in Odisha and patients being carried by their family members in Uttar Pradesh have been viral on the social media in the recent past.

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Implicated contractors get contracts again

Mumbai: In a bid to avoid repeating mistakes in the post monsoon road repair work, the civic body officials will be more vigilant this time since the contractors implicated in the recent road scam have been reassigned by the civic body for the repair work which starts next month. As tainted contractors get on the city roads for a revamp, a senior official from the roads department said, “We are ordered by the top brass to give special attention on contractors that are accused for the previous road scam.”

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s infamous roads repair scam worth Rs 352 crore was uncovered last year when the city’s civic chief Ajoy Mehta ordered a probe into the shoddy road work across the city following a complaint from Mayor Snehal Ambekar. However, the civic body has cleared that the contract for this year’s road work was given to the tainted contractors before they were implicated in the scam. The six accused contractors in the road repair scam are Mahavir Road Infrastructure, KR Construction, Jay Kumar Infra, Relcon Infraprojects, RPS Infraprojects and RK Madhani.

Some of the roads given to these tainted contractors include August Kranti Road, Jayshankar Yagnik road, Javji Dadaji Marg, Tardeo road, Balaram street, Khetwadi road, Acharya Donde road, G D Ambekar road, Tokershi Jivraj road, Sai Baba road, Jerbai Wadia Road, M A road, B A road, road no 32 in Sion, N C Kelkar Marg V N Purav Marg and R.C Marg. All these contracts have been given to RPS Infraprojects, RK Madhani and Mahavir Infrastructure.

The civic body has received regular flak from citizens for increasing potholes on the roads which is why the civic officials are more pressurized for this year’s road repair work.

Parliament Canteen to be expensive

New Delhi: The prices of eatables in Parliament canteen may again go up, as revision of rates of food items and subsidy given to catering units are again on the table of a House panel. The Lok Sabha Speaker, in consultation with the Rajya Sabha Chairman, has reconstituted the joint committee on food management with terms of reference including “to consider the revision of rates of eatables served at Railway Catering Units located in Parliament House Complex….” According to the Lok Sabha bulletin, the panel will also consider the level of subsidy to be given for running these catering units in the house.

The panel is led by AP Jithender Reddy and has 15 members – 10 from Lower House and 5 from Upper House. The move assumes significance as in January this year rates were hiked after much criticism over subsidised food being served in Parliament.

Malnutrition killed740 tribal students

Mumbai: Over 740 students studying in residential schools across Maharashtra have died due to malnutrition and other health related issues in the last 10 years, according to an internal report of the Maharashtra government’s tribal development department. There are a total of 552 residential schools for tribal children in the state run by the department.

The tribal population is largely concentrated in regions like Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Nashik, Palghar, Raigad, Ahmadnagar, Pune (Sahyadri region) and in the eastern forest districts like Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Nagpur, Amravati, Yavatmal and Nanded (Gondwana region).

“The internal report of the tribal development department has found that on an average, 70-80 students from tribal residential schools die every year and in the last 10 years over 740 has died,” an official from the department said. “The government has formed a committee to study the issue and suggest ways to improve the situation. Their report is awaited,” he added.

Activists working in the tribal areas allege that lack of health services and basic amenities provided by the government are the main reasons for their death.

“Tribals are the most neglected community. Of the 552 government run residential schools, only 50-60 get drinking water from pipeline, which is the basic need. All other schools either get water from a tanker, a borewell or well  water to drink,” alleged Kavita Ware, who has done her masters in Philosophy (M Phil) on tribal residential schools and an activist working for tribals.

Apart from providing basic amenities like good food, drinking clean water, the government should fill all vacant posts in the residential schools and funds should get utilised in a proper manner, she said.