YEH MERA INDIA

Proposed hospital remains wasted for 7 years due to apathetic govt.

Mumbai: Amidst the residential area of Khar (west), lies a five storey maternity home which is not functional since the time it was constructed. The maternity home, which is just opposite to the Khar Gymkhana, is a property of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and has been lying vacant since the past seven years.

The maternity home was constructed by Diwan builders and was then handed over to the BMC on the basis of accommodation reservation policy. But since the time of its construction, the hospital has never started. The property is locked at present without any caretaker.

Residents have complained that the maternity home was constructed for the people but after constructing it the BMC realised that there was no need for a maternity home. The whole building is dark during the night as there is no activity happening over there. A resident said, “I have never seen anyone entering the maternity home and the structure lies completely vacant amidst the adjacent residential complexes. If the BMC did not want to start this facility, why did they construct it?”

Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer of the BMC, told, “There is no need for a maternity home or a hospital in that area as there are other hospitals like Bhabha hospital nearby. The hospital has been dysfunctional since over seven years but we will now try to use it for any other alternate facility.”

A watchman of the adjacent building said, “The authorities are not even bothered to either clean or maintain this home. Every monsoon we write a letter to the BMC to clean this property as it gets flooded due to water logging. The structure could be given on rent and can be used for residential purposes.”

Cannot blame government if you do not vote

New Delhi: If you don’t vote, then you have “no right” to question or blame the government, the Supreme Court has observed. The candid admission of an activist seeking a blanket order to remove encroachments in the country and saying he has never cast his vote, did not go down well with the apex court leading it to make the observation.

Observing that the court cannot pass a sweeping order on encroachments in a matter involving all states, the bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said “One can’t blame the government for everything. If a person does not cast his vote, then he has no right to question the government.”

The bench, which also comprised Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud, said it was not possible for it to look into encroachments sitting in Delhi and asked the petitioner to approach different High Courts wherever he saw such encroachments on roads or pavements.

The hard-hitting observation came when Dhanesh Ieshdhan, appearing in person for Delhi-based NGO ‘Voice of India’, said the governments do not do anything to remove encroachments and kept on insisting for a blanket order to remove them from across the country. The bench asked Ieshdhan whether he has voted or not.

“To be honest, I have never voted in my life,” Ieshdhan said candidly.

This irked the bench which said, “If you have not voted, then you have no right to question or blame the government”. “We do not have so much power to order a clean sweep of encroachments. If we pass any order, then contempt cases and other petitions will pile up. It’s not possible,” the bench said after the petitioner kept on seeking a blanket order.

“If you do not move High Courts, we will feel that you are here for publicity,” the bench said and noted in the order that an open-ended direction to remove encroachments will not serve any purpose. It granted liberty to the NGO to seek remedy state-wise before the High Courts. On August 26 last year, the apex court, while hearing the plea, had said it cannot order the establishment of ‘Ram Rajya’ in the country and cannot do several things it wanted to due to its “limited capacity”.

“Do you think with our directions, everything will be done? Do you (petitioner) think we will pass an order that there will be no corruption in the country and all corruption will go? Should we pass an order that there will be ‘Ram Rajya’ in the country? It cannot be like this,” the apex court had then observed. The NGO had said that in 2014, the apex court had asked concerned authorities to deal with the issue raised it its plea.

95-year-old in fray for UP poll

Agra: A 95-year-old woman, perhaps the oldest candidate to file nomination papers, is one among 166 candidates who have entered the electoral fray for the nine assembly seats of Agra district which goes to the polls. Jal Devi filed her papers from Khairagarh assembly seat, while her son Ram Nath Sikarwar also filed as an independent. She reached the Collectorate in a wheel chair escorted by her son and a lawyer. Devi, who cannot even stand on her legs without support, is hopeful of fighting corruption and giving a new direction to development. She won the last panchayat election with a record number of 13,000 votes from Jagner block.

No frivolous litigation- MLA fined Rs.10L

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court made an example of RJD MLA Ravindra Singh by fining him `10 lakh for wasting "precious judicial time" through frivolous litigation, thus sending a message to habitual PIL petitioners to be wary of hefty costs.

Half-an-hour before slapping Singh with a hefty fine and rejecting the plea for leniency, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud had imposed a cost of `1 lakh on a retired 66-year-old teacher from Maharashtra who had moved the SC to challenge a reservation related notification of the state government.

In both cases, CJI Khehar was ruthless and laid out the apex court's new mantra: "weed out frivolous litigation". "Every day, we waste precious judicial time by going through these voluminous frivolous petitions. These busybodies must be stopped. Why should we accept such petitions? These petitions are multiplying with each passing day. What is going on? Why should three judges of the SC waste time dealing with such trash?" he asked.

Drunk Woman Pilot of AI grounded

New Delhi: A woman pilot and another crew member of state-owned Air India were grounded for three months after they failed a pre-flight alcohol test.

The crew members, who have been taken off from flying for failing to clear the pre-flight medical test were to operate Air India’s Rajkot flight from New Delhi on January 25, sources said.

As part of the DGCA safety regulations, all pilots and cabin crew must undergo breath analyser test before and after flights.

Incidentally, airline’s head of operations, himself a senior executive pilot, is under probe by a committee for allegedly skipping the mandatory test close to a month.

“The woman pilot and cabin crew along with other operating crew were rostered for Air India flight AI-9631 on January 25 for Rajkot from New Delhi. After they reported for duty, as per norms, they were told to undertake breath analyser test.

However, the findings were positive,” a source said. The matter was reported to the DGCA and the two crew members were taken off for flying for three months, the source said.

Air India spokesperson was not available for comments.

Aircraft rules prohibit crew members from taking any alcoholic drink 12 hours prior to the commencement of a flight, and it is mandatory for the employee to undergo an alcohol test both before and after operating a flight.

Any crew member who tests positive in the pre-flight medical check or refuses to take a breath-analyser test is required to be taken off flying duty for at least four weeks and the airline is required to initiate disciplinary proceedings.