Social activist and Aam Aadmi Party candidate for upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai north-east seat, Medha Patkar said her decision to enter the electoral fray was very tough.
“My decision and consent to become a candidate for the AAP in the Lok Sabha elections was very tough owing to a number of factors,” the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader told.
Citing reasons for not taking the plunge earlier, Patkar said AAP itself was in initial stage although it had formed a short-lived government in New Delhi and apart from NBA, she is involved in several other agitations.
The NBA activist is also a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner.
The 59-year-old social activist said that people like her were almost forced into political arena due to the present-day leaders, who are “corrupt” and “disconnected from reality” as well as the electorate.
“Many of them after getting elected to the Parliament do not even bother to visit the constituencies they represent,” she alleged.
Patkar said she understood that if voted to power, the road ahead would involve a lot of hard work. However, support of people from all quarters would help her to some extent, she said.
Patkar is pitted against sitting MP Sanjay Patil of the NCP from the Mumbai North-East constituency.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed the family of slain activist Narendra Dabholkar to intervene in a PIL seeking probe by CBI into his murder to find out whether Hindu right-wing members were involved in the crime.
Dabholkar’s daughter Mukta Dabholkar urged the court through her lawyer to allow the family to intervene in the matter. Her lawyer informed that Mukta had given certain details about Dabholkar to Pune police probing the murder, but since the investigators did not look into them the kin of the slain rationalist wanted to intervene in the PIL.
A bench headed by Justice P V Hardas then asked the lawyer to file a written application seeking permission to intervene, and posted the matter after two weeks. Meanwhile, police submitted case diaries and progress report in a sealed cover to the court. However, the Judge asked them to produce these files on next occasion.
Last week, the court had issued notice to CBI after petitioner Ketan Tirodkar amended his petition to include the agency as a respondent instead of NIA. Tirodkar argued that NIA had restricted jurisdiction as it was involved only in cases of terror, while CBI has wider powers as it investigates serious crimes.
Dabholkar, who spearheaded the anti-superstition movement in Maharashtra, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013 while on morning walk. The police are still clueless about identity of his assailants.
Earlier, police had informed the court that there was no evidence suggesting the involvement of right-wing extremists in Dabholkar’s killing. Police also said the deceased was not facing any threat and so there was no question of police preparing a perception report (prior to the murder) and monitoring his activities.
The prosecution on Tuesday closed the Shakti mill telephone operator gang-rape case of July 31, 2013 as it has examined all the witnesses.
“We have closed the case today and the court will start recording statements of the accused under section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code on Friday”, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told.
In a statement under section 313 of CrPC, the accused is given a chance to explain the circumstances and the allegations against him/her.
Nikam said the prosecution has examined 332 witnesses, including the telephone operator, to strengthen their case.
He also added that the photo-journalist gang rape case was at the fag end with only 8 to 10 witnesses remaining to be examined.
Police had arrested Mohammed Ashfaq Sheikh, Mohamed Kasim Hafiz Sheikh alias Kasim Bangali, Salim Ansari, Vijay Jadhav and a minor for gang rape of the 18-year-old telephone operator on July 31, 2013.
The police on October 8 filed a 362-page chargesheet against four accused in connection with telephone operator gang rape case. The minor’s case was separated.
In another case, a journalist, who was interning with an English magazine here, was gangraped by five persons, including a juvenile, when she had gone to the deserted mill compound with her male colleague on an assignment on August 22, 2013.
The accused – Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari and Siraj Rehman – have been charged with rape, conspiracy, common intention, unnatural sex and charges under Information Technology Act, while the trial of the juvenile was separated.
The Mumbai crime branch had on September 19 filed a chargesheet against the four accused.
The Bombay High Court asked singer Lata Mangeshkar to file rejoinder to a Maharashtra government affidavit alleging that she had violated conditions imposed by authorities to regularise her scheme for reserving houses for people below poverty line on her land in Kolhapur. Mangeshkar denied allegations that she had violated conditions as stated by government, following which the court asked her to file a rejoinder within a fortnight.
The matter has been posted for hearing after two weeks before a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka. The court was hearing a petition filed by Mangeshkar challenging a notice issued to her on January 4 this year by a state body, saying that she had to obtain permission before selling immovable property on her land at Kolhapur. The government said in an affidavit that the time limit to implement the housing scheme proposed by the singer was to end on July 2011.
At her request, the state extended the time frame to October 2014. However, while extending the time limit, the state said that it had also penalised Mangeshkar by asking her to pay Rs 5 per square foot per year, from 2011 to 2014, on the underdeveloped land, but she chose not to pay, thus violating the condition. Her lawyer argued today that she had refused to comply with conditions since they were “unreasonable”.
He denied that the singer had “violated” them as alleged by the state. Thereupon, the court asked the lawyer to file a rejoinder within two weeks. The singer has sought quashing and setting aside the January 4 notice issued by the Competent Authority under the Urban Land Ceiling Act.
Mangeshkar owns land admeasuring 38,623 square metres in Kolhapur and wanted to give it to Vikesh Oswal to develop residential and commercial tenements. However, Competent Authority under the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act had declared that 23,889 square metres land is “surplus”.
Mangeshkar then proposed a scheme under section 20 of the ULC Act which was approved by the authorities on July 2, 2007. The scheme envisaged giving some houses to the government at subsided rates, but she did not execute the scheme, since the ULC Act was repealed in November 2007, her petition said.
Thane Municipal Corporation in its Rs 2166 crore Budget (2014-15) today has proposed a 2 per cent surcharge on property tax to finance ‘Shelter Fund’ which is aimed at constructing tenements for residents of dilapidated buildings.
Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta presented the budget to the Standing Committee.
In his speech, Gupta touched upon various issues that went into making of the budget.
“We have not proposed any hike in the water charges but the charges will depend on spending on account of raw water, power bill and administrative expenses as of April 01, 2014,” the civic chief said.
This indirectly means that as components charges increase the water charges may also shoot up.
He said flat owners will have to pay additional 1% charge towards administrative expenses based on the annual tax.
Expenses proposed in the budget under various heads are: Public Health and Waste Management (Rs 459 crore), Roads, Bridges, subways (Rs 274 crore) Water supply (Rs 249 crore), Basic Facilities for economically backward (Rs 240 crores), Education (Rs 163 crore), Transport (Rs 149 crore), Sewerage (Rs 124 crore), Social Security (Rs 92 crore), and Development work in municipal wards (Rs 92 crore).
The budget envisages revenue of Rs 355 crore from developmental charges; Rs. 650 crore from LBT, Rs 302 crore from Property Tax; Rs 105 crore from Water Tax; Rs 44 crore from Fire charges and Rs 16 crore from PWD.
Apart from other projects, the civic chief also announced an integrated Crematorium development scheme, allocating Rs 9 crore per year.
He said those projects which aid in maintaining environment of the city will get sufficient concession in charges and taxes.
“Citizens opting for online payment of taxes and through ECS will also be given rebate of certain percentage in the taxes,” Gupta said.
“Each corporator would be provided with a tablet to make him techno-savvy and all correspondence and details including the notices of the meetings would be made available on these gadgets,” the municipal commissioner said.
In a noble gesture, the TMC has has decided to impart basic education to its Class-IV employees.
“They will be trained by certain agencies to identify letters for three months and when they take their salary for the fourth month they should be able to at least sign the papers,” Gupta said.
If they fail to sign, the corporation will deduct a sum of Rs. 100 from their salaries to be refunded only after they can sign the documents, he added.
Tehelka founder editor Tarun Tejpal, who has been accused by his junior colleague of sexual assault, today alleged he has been framed because of “political vendetta.”
50-year-old Tejpal, who pleaded innocence, made the claim as he failed to get any relief from the Bombay High Court, which deferred hearing of his bail plea till next month, a day after he was charged with rape and sexual assault of the young woman journalist here in November last year.
“The charge sheet against me is out of political vendetta. I have done nothing wrong. I am innocent. I am not involved,” he told waiting reporters while emerging from the court.
“The entire truth is in the CCTV footage and it will be known to the world,” he said.
Dressed in a white kurta and grey trousers, Tejpal was brought in a police van to the court where he sat in the front row beside his lawyer Sandip Kapoor.
Tejpal has been charged with rape, sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of a woman journalist in the lift of a five-star hotel in Goa when they had gone to see off Hollywood star Robert de Niro to his room. De Niro was there to attend ThinkFest, an event organised by Tehelka.
Goa police yesterday filed a 2,846-page charge sheet against Tejpal, in jail since December 1, under sections 354, 354-A (sexual harassment), 341 and 342 (wrongful restraint), 376 (rape), 376(2)(f) and 376 (2)(k) (taking advantage of official position and raping a woman in custody).
Doctors at the Kalwa civic hospital gave a new lease of life to a seven-year-old girl, who had a tiny mouth opening since birth, rendering her incapable of consuming normal food.
Roshni Yadav was operated upon by a team of doctors led by Dr. Vivek P Soni (Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon) at the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital during the weekend free-of-cost, hospital authorities said.
Her father Ghanshyam Yadav, a poor labourer, had lost hope for his minor daughter, who could not open her mouth until now due to left temporomandibular jaw ankylosis, a condition in which the lower jaw gets fused to the upper jaw and the patient is unable to eat a normal diet due to limited opening.
The Yadavs, who are happy to see their daughter limping back to a normal life after opening her mouth for the first time, could not thank enough the doctors for performing this complex operation.
According to a hospital spokesperson, the surgery will prove to be a boon for Roshni’s further growth and development as she would be able to consume normal diet.
Dr. Vivek was assisted in this rare surgery by Dr. Prabhavati M Jadhav, Dr. Pallavi A Khale, Dr. Ramya Premchandran, Mr. Pravin Poojary and anaesthetist Dr. Dilip Chauhan.
The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of three men convicted of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to life in prison, rejecting the government’s view that an 11-year delay in deciding their mercy petition was not agony for them. The convicts, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, can also walk out of jail if the Tamil Nadu government grants them remission, the court ruled. The decision is a politically motivated one and ahead of the General election, due by May. The court did not accept the government’s view that the convicts did not deserve mercy. Tuesday’s verdict follows the Supreme Court’s January 21 order commuting the death sentences of 15 convicts, announcing that “inordinate and inexplicable” delays in carrying out executions were grounds for reducing their original punishment.
Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were convicted in 1998 for Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination by a woman who greeted him with a garland and a bomb strapped to her chest during a rally in 1991. Their mercy petition was sent to the President, the last stage in the process of appeals, in 2000 and was rejected 11 years later. Their hanging was stayed in 2011 on the orders of the Madras High Court. That year, the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed a resolution urging the President to grant mercy to the convicts and consider “Tamil sentiment.” The ruling that the state government will decide whether to free them has inevitably taken a political turn.
The three convicts are locked up in individual cells between 6 pm and 6 am ever since they were lodged in Vellore Central Prison in 1998. Keeping prisoners in introverted imprisonment was a severe punishment as they would not be able to ventilate their feelings by way of interacting with others. Considering the steep rise in the number of psychological problems among prisoners, the Tamil Nadu government had appointed qualified psychologists in all prisons. The State Health Department had directed all psychiatrists attached to the DMHP to visit prisons once in a fortnight and provide treatment to the needy. He said prisoners suffering separation from family, friends and the society and those subjected to solitary confinement were likely to develop mental illness.
The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, on 21 May 1991. At least, 14 others were also killed. It was carried out by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, also known as Dhanu. The attack was blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist organisation from Sri Lanka; at the time India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War. Subsequent accusations of conspiracy have been addressed by two commissions of inquiry and have brought down at least one national government. Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning for the upcoming elections. On 21 May, after successfully campaigning in Visakhapatnam, his next stop was Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. About two hours after arriving in Madras (now Chennai), Rajiv Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur, stopping along the way at a few other election campaigning venues. When he reached a campaign rally in Sriperumbudur, he got out of his car and began to walk towards the dais where he would deliver a speech. Along the way, he was garlanded by many well-wishers, Congress party workers and school children.
At 22:21, the assassin, Dhanu, approached and greeted him. She then bent down to touch his feet and detonated an RDX explosive-laden belt tucked below her dress.
Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the explosion. The assassination was caught on film by a local photographer, whose camera and film was found at the site though the photographer himself died in the blast. Don’t forget that Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination came at a time when the Indian state was facing its worst-ever period, even an existential crisis. Many enemies of the state and their foreign collaborators were hyperactive in 1991 in trying to dismember India; but we know nothing about this, thanks to our media’s relative blindness on such issues.
Perarivalan did one mistake. The conspirators gave him (he was just 19!) money and told him to buy them batteries, which he did. He did not know who they were or what their intentions were. For this, he lost the best years of his life and his health. He was brutally tortured during the investigation in those years. Those police officers are still being held in high regard. Meanwhile, Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination is a bit mysterious, no one has been punished. With our government commuting the death sentence previously awarded to the terrorists who plotted the death of Rajiv Gandhi, we are setting up a dangerous precedence which would encourage other anti-national elements and terrorists to commit more heinous crimes against the citizens of this country. Is this move meant to condone the activities of the LTTE or is it aimed at trying to garner a few votes from Tamil Nadu for the UPA, one is tempted to ask. However, no Indian with self -respect can forget the way our sentiments were betrayed by the Lankan Tamils when the assassinators killed Rajiv Gandhi and two thousand army personnel in the 1980’s. What about the families of the victims, who waited for decade to see the culprits hanging? It was not their fault that justice has been delayed. Who will provide justice to them?
Moreover, if the Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence on the ground of delay in deciding on the mercy petition then what is the accountability of the president who was putting the decision in cold storage? Moreover, along with Rajiv, some 15 innocent people had lost their lives. Who will give them justice? Agreed, these three convicts have suffered a lot in jail and that too in solitary confinement but they had committed a brutal crime. However, the atrocities done by Sri Lankans in the war and post war were genocide with the help of Indian Army. Who was responsible for that?
Belgium has become the first nation to permit euthanasia for terminally ill children of any age. The landmark legislation was passed by the lower house of parliament. Anyway children who are in their imaginary world of fairy tale will never understand the concept of suicide. Of course, euthanasia is quite a dramatic issue to debate as the decisions are made by heart and emotions and instead of using brains. Some parents are pleased with the legislation while some others are not happy with it as it doesn’t resolve the issue. Which parent would like their children to die?
In a statement preceding the upper house vote in December, the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic movement of lay people, said it expressed concern that sick people, especially the young, may choose to die as they don’t want to become a burden for others. But how would a child even realise whether he or she would become a burden for others. Instead their expectations from their parents would be high.
Since childhood, children are taught to fear about death and most of them don’t even know about it. In such circumstances who would take the decision pertaining to mercy killing? No doubt a child suffering hazardous pain and illness like chemo, aids, cancers etc won’t be aware how his or her phenotype is under attack.
On the other hand, what if parents are fully ready to support and go that extra mile to let their child live an abnormal life. Even though children stay with parents but they become a burden on them.
Once again how can anyone allow their child to undergo unbearable pain when there is no relief and death is certain anyway?
Of course, young children may not understand about this issue but do you? Do you become smarter just because you are old? If a child has been suffering with no end in sight, why shouldn’t he be allowed to take a decision about his life? I hear about parents ask children to undergo endless treatments so that the former don’t feel guilty. Maybe the child is tired of the bearing the pain.
Also why should parents lose their lifetime savings and see their child undergoing relentless pain dying a slow death that seeps through their body steadily taking them away?
It is often said that if you smile, the world smiles right back. This holiday season, perhaps the most important thing you can wear is your smile. Here points out the dos and don’ts of keeping your smile at its sparkling best and dazzle everyone at the party.
Brush and floss daily: Everyone knows that we need to brush our teeth twice and floss daily, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t follow this advice regularly. While brushing, don’t forget to scrape your tongue to remove any food residue stuck in its folds or taste buds.
For people with braces, crown bridges, diastema (space between their teeth) or periodontally compromised teeth (excessive gap between gums & teeth) should utilise special interdental toothbrushes, which are specially designed for these conditions.
Snack right: While healthy foods help you avoid unwanted weight, they are also beneficial in maintaining oral hygiene. Munching on a stick of celery, carrot, or an apple cleans sticky food off your teeth. Chewing on parsley and mint leaves acts as a deodorizer. It increases the flow of saliva in your mouth, washing away bacteria that cause bad breath.
Don’t drink: Drinks are an inseparable part of any party, especially in the North. You should, however, avoid aerated drinks (diet included), black tea or coffee, and red wine, as these cause teeth stains. Drink water instead – it doesn’t stain; it rinses away any food stuck in your mouth and also keeps you well hydrated.
Fluoride Mouthwash: Mouthwash with high alcohol content can actually worsen bad breath. Instead, choose to rinse your mouth with a few drops of peppermint oil mixed in water. Chewing on sugarless candy/gum causes salivation, which washes bad bacteria away.
By Dr. Rashika Vijan
(Writer has been practising dentistry since the past decade. She is also known as the dentist of choice for celebrities like Vivek Oberoi, Ashish Choudhary and Upen Patel to name a few. She also practises Paediatric Dentistry at her dental clinic, Dr. Rashika Vijan’s Dental Studio in Bandra. )
The prosecution on Tuesday closed the Shakti mill telephone operator gang-rape case of July 31, 2013 as it has examined all the witnesses. 
Thane Municipal Corporation in its Rs 2166 crore Budget (2014-15) today has proposed a 2 per cent surcharge on property tax to finance ‘Shelter Fund’ which is aimed at constructing tenements for residents of dilapidated buildings.
It is often said that if you smile, the world smiles right back. This holiday season, perhaps the most important thing you can wear is your smile. Here points out the dos and don’ts of keeping your smile at its sparkling best and dazzle everyone at the party.