Letters to the Editor: 1 March, 2020

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March 1, 2020

Let people live peacefully

We all are human beings created by one God although His name is different. Someone calls Him Bhagwan, some calls Him Allah some others call Him Eshwar, God and else but He is undoubtedly one and only, as we call our beloved country with different names like India, Bharat, Hindustan and Hind but it is also one.

God has created us all to love and respect each other and live peacefully on His earth not to fight against each other.

Everyone has a family, mother, father, sisters, brothers and other relatives and friends. No one wants to lose them. If a person attacks and kills your family members, would you be able to tolerate that. Definitely not!

Try to realise the pain of those who have lost their beloved ones in riots in Delhi. Come out from the religious strictness and be human first.

Love others.

Respect others feelings.

Live peacefully and let the people live peacefully. Be united against hate. Be united against divide and rule policy. Don’t indulge in spreading rumours against any community. A religion can never teach hate against anyone or anything else. Respect all the religions.

Md Saquib Anwar

Impose ban on service-charges levied by restaurants and hotels

It refers to highly irresponsible Guidelines No. J-24-9-2014-CPU(pt.) dated April 21, 2017 issued by Department of Consumer Affairs (Government of India) wherein consumers going to hotels and restaurants for enjoying food are advised to approach Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum against malpractice of certain restaurants and hotels charging compulsory service-charge in their invoices instead of the Department imposing ban on such levying of service-charges or even providing column for tip. Guidelines doubt of some under-the-table deal with associations of hotels and restaurants, because everyone knows that consumers go to hotels and restaurants for enjoyment and relaxation rather than fighting for their rights through cumbersome court-procedures.

If eateries are really sincere for staff-welfare, they can increase their wages on their own. Also since there is no limit on served food-prices, they can increase prices rather than adopting back-door route to fool consumers through unfair service-charge. Law must be tightened for incorporating prison-provision for eatery-owners levying service-charge in bills. Rather paying and accepting tips otherwise should be made an offence since gifts and tips are polished form of bribes. Provision of writing tip-amount on credit-card pay-slips must be abolished.

Central government should go ahead with its proposal to reduce GST on services provided by restaurants including also by air-conditioned ones to 12-percent slab by abolishing corruption-generating provision of Input-Tax-Credit (ITC) of raw material. Any objection by restaurant-owners against abolition of ITC must not be entertained.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal

Inoperative and matured accounts in post-offices

There is huge unclaimed money lying deposited in post-offices with even many account-holders and depositors died without having informed their legal heirs. There are always chances of frauds (like in banks) that some mischievous persons in connivance with certain postal-employees may try to grab such unknown deposits. Department of Posts should send letters by registered post in name of such account-holders and depositors not having operated their accounts and claimed for maturity-amounts of deposits in last say three years giving them a reasonable period of say three months to either renew their accounts or deposits. Otherwise all such unclaimed money may be freezed in some fixed account, which may be allowed to be withdrawn only after careful verification. Details of all such accounts then should be made public also so that legal heirs may be able to claim but only after a vigorous scrutiny-procedure. Even return of mailing envelope will let legal heirs sense about such unclaimed deposit in case of deceased account-holders and depositors.

Madhu Agrawal

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Never ending HATE between Hindu and Muslims

By

Vaidehi Taman

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February 28, 2020

These days there is a very unpleasant news about the dilemma of ‘Hindus’ in Pakistan. If Muslims from Bangladesh, who are impecunious are fleeing to India, these illegal immigrants are given every facility and privilege here. But Hindus in minority are treated like wasted creatures in Pakistan. BJP has been shouting on top of its voice for Pakistani Hindu’s safety and illegal migrants to be vacated from India! These Hindus from Pakistan coming to India should be welcomed by India. Congress, as usual, is freaking with its double standards. The party is happy to protect and shelter illegal migrants for vote bank politics and has no concern for Hindus in Pakistan. Anyways, the HATE between India and Pakistan will be breathing forever. Also, there has been a serious attempt at increasing the HATE proportion in this country for the last one week using the terrorist religious organisations, both from the Hindu and Muslim community! Looking at the present scenario, the Pakistan Government should pass the motion seriously to look into the root cause-not the effect of why Pak Hindus are forced to migrate and solve those issues. If Pakistan uses force to stop their migration out of the country, it would only result in Pak’s pants further slipping downward in front of the global community and lead to social and political chaos. Illegal migrants are never supported anywhere in the world other than India or some other country. There is a lot of difference in what happens in Assam and what happens in Mumbai.

Why are Muslims not protesting the killing of the people of their own religion in Syria Yemen Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq as it is ok for them if their own people die? When a non-believer kills their people they make noise. Recently in Mumbai for no major reason, some Muslim group caused the desecration. These mobs have far crossed the line by damaging the Amar Jawan monument. They do not have any sense of right and wrong, it is still beyond my understanding why Indian Muslims put their religion before the nation. They possibly do not have the Nation in their list of priorities. What happened after that? Just mere apologies for the Muslim leaders and warning to hooligans is not enough to solace the sentiments of fellow countrymen. Violence by anybody is equally condemnable. However, the difference is that the issues raised by them were genuine and that is why the Shiv Sena and the MNS have taken control together around 20-25 per cent vote share in Maharashtra. In contrast, what were the Muslims in Mumbai agitating for? They were not perturbed about the lack of infrastructure in Mumbai, crowded trains, price-rise, lack of educational and employment opportunities to Muslims. All these are valid issues. Instead, they went on a rampage on an issue totally unconnected with Mumbai. The Maharashtrian populace bears the burden of guilt for allowing them to be led over the cliff by scandalous governments. It is truly alarming that nothing causes outrage among the common people any more. A mass uprising and a rise in awareness is what is needed among the dormant middle-class to get the state and its politicians to be accountable to the populace.

I am not saying that Hindus have never created any violence; look at recent incidences in Delhi, but it was always a reaction for action by other communities. But a Hindu protest does not include hoisting the Pakistani flag or desecration of the Army Memorial. Another reason for their protest was ill-treatment of Muslims in Myanmar. So burn policemen here in protest? It was the ordinary policeman who took a bullet to stop Kasab. It is time the pain of our ordinary heroes is also understood. These events do not happen spontaneously, there is a clear-cut plan and more often than not you will see the source finally leads to organisations that come from a neighbourhood land. Friction between Hindus and Muslims in India is not new but the changing face of terror is a matter of concern. There are certain preparatory to maintain the HATE between these religions to grow.

During the partition, many Sindhis who were angry with the Mahatma for giving their birthplace to Pakistan did not want to come back to India and all migrated overseas and most of them are wealthy now. Many Sindhis who came to India are also doing well. The ones who stayed back in Pakistan got the whipping. They paid terribly for their grandfather’s misjudgment. Pakistan’s fanatic mentality is not going to change ever. Hindus and Christians should flee from Pakistan if they want to see light in their lives. Life is short. The world is too big. Why choose to live in a hell-like Pakistan. All these check post stopping is a drama. In their hearts, they want minorities to leave the country who do not want to convert. Tears were streaming down people’s faces as they stepped off the Samjhauta Express recently in India. Whether they were tears of relief on feeling safe on Indian soil or pain on being compelled to leave what was once their homeland, one couldn’t tell. Hindus are in real trouble in Pakistan especially in upper Sindh and Balochistan. Since it is suffocating, many decided to leave Pakistan forever and move to India after selling their houses. Enumerating the reasons why many Hindus feel unsafe in Pakistan is forcible conversions, atrocities, kidnappings, extortions- it is all happening and that is why Hindus there want to migrate.

There are many who want to come to India from Pakistan. But Muslims in India are treated here with special constitutional rights. I am forced to say that Muslims who choose to live here should definitely show their good intentions/deeds as India’s citizens and not join Pak’s college unions and parties, the minute they leave India. However, we all know that most of India’s Muslims are good honest folks as happy or as miserable, as poor or as rich as similar Hindus. The condition of minorities in India is far better than any other country in the world. Compare the situation of minorities in Burma, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, France, etc and etc with India. India is great; it has been a great example of humanity for thousands of years. It saved religion and life of paresis of Iran. It gave shelter to Tibetans. You and we should be proud to be a part of this great country. If you look at Burma, the majority is killing the Muslims. In China, fasting during the Ramzan period has been banned for Muslim government employees and students. In Pakistan, persecution of Hindus and Sikhs. Same is also happening in Afghanistan. In France, women cannot wear Hizab. We all know in India that everyone is free to practice any religion. Our country does not pressurise anyone to do or don’t practice any religious rituals. It is our responsibility to respect all those things that we got from our country.

Islam is a religion where non-believers are called kafirs and any person coming from a religion other than Islam are non-believers. All Paki political parties are characterised by an intense hatred for non-Muslim minorities. Hindus are soft targets in Pakistan. Once a Hindu has gone, it will be difficult for the follower of the evil cult to give up the habit. They will change the target to another section. It’s better for Hindus to migrate to India in bulk and see peacefully the destruction of evil cult. It will be destroyed sooner than anyone can think of. Seventy years of Independence but still our fellow Indians are facing the heat of partition.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

Rs.5000 Reward: MNS devises new strategy to fish out illegal immigrants

By

Web Team

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February 28, 2020

Amidst the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) that continue to plague the national capital, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has announced a reward of Rs. 5,000 to people who will provide them information about illegal Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators staying in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena leader Pratap Sarnaik told to AV, “Shiv Sena has also opposed the plan to extern Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants. And if Raj Thackeray is doing this by giving rewards, then we will welcome his initiative. Earlier too, the MNS caught some people alleging that they were Bangladeshis. However, after checking the documents, it was found out that they were Indians. I hope, Raj will not repeat the same mistake again.”

After the government of India passed the CAA bill last year that saw protests all across India, the Raj Thackeray-led party has come out with posters in Aurangabad stating that informers giving correct information regarding illegal Pakistani and Bangladeshi intruders would be rewarded Rs 5,000.

While on one hand the CAA and NRC has been opposed widely across India and rejected by several political parties, on the other hand, several political leaders and people have endorsed the NRC and the CAA.

When AV contacted Congress spokesperson Raju Waghmare he said, “I think it is all just a publicity stunt by Raj Thackeray ji to be in public domain because they have nothing else to do. Nobody has a right to ask anybody to show their documents. And if somebody does, he/she will create a nuisance. And nothing will happen; MNS will not be able to trace a single Bangladeshi or Pakistani immigrant.”

Akhil Chitre, a MNS party functionary has proposed rewards to people who would provide correct information of the ‘infiltrators’. He said that Rs 5, 000 will be given as a token of appreciation to them and the informants’ while keeping their identity a strict secret. The MNS has been continuously adopting an aggressive attitude towards illegal infiltrators.

On February 4, the MNS had put up posters threatening Bangladeshi immigrants in Raigad district’s Panvel area. Also, earlier this month MNS had put up a poster near Matoshree, the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray asking him to clean up his own locality first of infiltrators from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The poster read, “Respected Chief Minister, if you are serious about action against illegal infiltrators, start by cleaning your Bandra locality first which is filled with infiltrators.”

MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande he said, “I am not aware of it. The poster has been put in Aurangabad you can contact the leaders from that place.”

Earlier Raj Thackeray had said that Pakistani and Bangladeshi “infiltrators” should be evicted from the country and supported the Modi government on this. However, Raj Thackeray had been one of the most prominent critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the Lok Sabha elections. But by seeing his support to CAA and NRC, Thackeray has reportedly started to grow close to the BJP.

On January 23, Raj Thackeray had unveiled the party’s new flag and inducted his son Amit Thackeray in active politics. By the party’s new flag, it seems that he has been shifted to ‘Hindutva’ from his earlier ‘Marathi Manoos’ ideology. Many leaders and Shiv Sena too taunted Raj for his new stance.

Will everyone get a house under PM’s housing for all scheme by 2022?

By

Web Team

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February 28, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new housing scheme in 2015 under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana with the aim of providing housing for all by 2022. Under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Housing for All (Urban) scheme alone keeping in mind the slum decadal growth rate of 34%, the slum households were projected to go upto 18 million. Two million non-slum urban poor households are proposed to be covered under the mission. Hence, total housing shortage envisaged to be addressed through the new mission is 20 million (2 Crore). The re-structured rural housing scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) which has the objective of “Housing for All by 2022” was launched by PM on November 20, 2016 from Agra. 2.95 crore houses are set to be constructed by 2022 to achieve the set objective of PMAY-G which has been decided to achieve in phases. Thus a total of 4.95 crore houses are to be constructed by 2022.

In a tweet on PMO India (@PMOIndia) on Nov 21, 2015 , Prime Minister Narendra Modi (PM @narendramodi) tweeted, “We have launched a ‘Housing for All’ program. It involves building 20 million urban houses and 29.5 million rural houses.”

Who will get benefit of PMAY?

The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house (an all weather dwelling unit) either in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India. A beneficiary family will comprise husband, wife and unmarried children.

Under the new Housing Scheme – Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana launched with an aim of providing housing for all by 2022, EWS households are defined as households having an annual income of up to Rs.3,00,000.

LIG households are defined as households having an annual income between Rs.3,00,001 up to Rs.6,00,000. States/UTs have the flexibility to redefine the annual income criteria as per local conditions in consultation with the Centre.

To check the demand of houses, the Chandigarh Housing board (CHB) conducted a demand survey for allotment of 492 flats in sector 53 of Chandigarh against which only 129 applications were received. Out of which 71 applications were received for 3-BHK,23 for 2-BHK, 8 for one-BHK and 27 for EWS flats. The CHB has proposed to construct these 492 flats for allotment under self-financing scheme where the allottee will have to pay 100 % payment before possession. Even after a decrease , the price of 3BHK (HIG) kept at Rs.1.63 crore, 2BHK(MIG) Rs. 1.36crore, 1BHK (LIG) Rs. 90 lakh and a two-room flat for EWS Rs. 50 lakh.

The Economic Survey-2020 states that the decline in household investment in dwellings, other buildings and structures, since a six year span over 2011-12 to 2017-18 is a reflection of slower growth in purchase of houses by households.

A leading newspaper highlights the survey’s suggestions that real estate developers take a haircut to bring down housing prices, which it points out have remained high despite a huge inventory of 9.43 lakh units worth a whopping Rs 7.77 lakh crore stuck at various stages across the top 8 cities in the country.

But, would a slight hair cut in housing prices be sufficient to attract buyers? No, if we see the prices fixed ( 1BHK for LIG Rs. 90 lakh and a Two- Room flat for EWS Rs. 50 lakh) by the central government ruled Union Territory, Chandigarh for its Housing Board projects floated , can anyone belonging to LIG and EWS category purchase these houses? In Haryana also the prices of HUDA floated plots in Panchkula, Gurugram, Faridabad etc. for EWS and LIG categories have gone beyond the reach of these category buyers.

Shouldn’t the Finance Minister of India direct the government housing projects to lower down the prices of their projects, so that other private players may also follow them ?

With the passage of five years out of seven years, a major span has become the past and only two years are there in hand to fulfill the promise under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana with the aim of providing housing for all by 2022.

Monthly summary on the principal activities of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for the month of October, 2019 (No. A-42011/1/2019-Coord- Dated the 2 December, 2019 ) reveals that under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)/ Housing for All (HFA), more than 93 lakh dwelling units in 19,471 projects with an investment of Rs. 5,55,754 crore involving Central assistance of Rs. 1,45,949 crore have been approved. So far, 55 lakh houses have been grounded for construction, 28.02 lakh houses have already been constructed and 25.55 lakh houses have been occupied.

FactChecker.in, an India’s dedicated Fact Check initiative, writes, “About 1.44 million houses had been constructed under PMAY-Urban upto January 31, 2019, and 1.39 million had been occupied, according to the latest available ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) data presented in the Lok Sabha in February, 2019. This is 20% of the 7.6 million houses that have so far been sanctioned.

In rural India, the government had completed construction on 7.7 million houses, or 77% of the target of 10 million by the deadline of March 31, 2019 for the first phase of PMAY-Rural. It has yet to construct 2.3 million houses, even as the next phase of PMAY-Rural begins, according to the PMAY dashboard on April 15, 2019. However, only 34% of beneficiaries have so far received full payment, data show.”

But a leading newspaper in its report dated Aug 26, 2019, claims a very serious and dark side of PMAY, “The ambitious target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide ‘housing for all’ by 2022 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) seems to be in serious jeopardy, since as many as 14 states, where the BJP is directly in power or is in alliance with a regional party, have not sanctioned a single unit for construction in 2018-19, which was the last year of the first phase of the scheme.

These 14 laggard states are Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. Other than these 14 states, there are six more states, which have failed to open their account in terms of sanctioning housing units for construction under PMAY-G during 2018-19.”.

What a melancholic situation it is!

Showing the decreasing figures of loan disbursal to EWS and LIG categories for financing for affordable housing, RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) in association with international property consultant Knight Frank in its report dated 30 July 2019 mentions, “From fresh disbursals of HFCs and Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), it is evident that the share of EWS sector in new disbursals has come down each financial year from 21% in FY 2013 to just 10% in FY 2018. Moreover, even the share of LIG sector in fresh disbursals has also declined from 39% in FY 2013 to 33% in FY 2018.”

Why the banks are not disbursing the housing loans to the EWS and LIG categories as per their requirement to boost the housing sector? A retired banker says, “The prices of the houses are unchecked high ups and beyond the purchasing power of EWS and LIG sections. Banks finance the borrowers as per their repayment capacity. These categories neither have sufficient savings for their margin money share nor have the surplus funds to repay the loans out of their limited income. The only solution is either the government should halve the housing prices or to double up the income of these categories.”

-Jag Mohan Thaken

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Prevention is better than cure; keep house free from fire

By

C K Subramaniam

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February 28, 2020

Most flat owners use cylinder gas or piped gas in Navi Mumbai. A number of electrical short circuits are taking place as air-conditioners are used for a long time and computers are kept on during the night also. Prevention is better than cure is applicable to fire accidents as well. Before closing office premises, all the precautionary measures have to be taken to avoid fire mishaps.

Current statistics of deaths and injuries in relation to fires proves to be alarming and an increasing number of people affected by losses and fatal injuries are reported and accounted for each year. Leak in pipe gas and gas cylinders are the root cause for most of the fires in flats. This is in line with smoking, faulty wiring as well as heating equipment as some of the possible causes of home fires occurring throughout the country. It is necessary to know the importance of home fire prevention and tips.

First, invest in proper equipment. Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are some common examples of these. You may begin with installing smoke detectors on every level of your homes/offices and bedrooms. Maintenance is also required; therefore detectors must be kept clean and dust-free. Make sure to replace batteries regularly. In the case of fire extinguishers, it is also essential to know these simple reminders. Fire extinguishers should be mounted in accessible places like workshops or kitchens. Learn how to use extinguishers properly. You also need to read instructions and make sure to follow it accordingly.

Remind yourself that fire safety entails proper planning. You need to be ahead of yourself. Preparing oneself means considering relevant details like importance of escape ladders and fire exits. Some household owners take these things lightly but little do they know how useful these matters could be. Besides, with so many stores selling easy-to-use ladders, access is never really a problem. On the other hand, if you think that this option is still costly, you can just rely on awareness. For instance, sleep with your room’s door closed as this could help in holding back smoke. Also, make sure that your windows can be easily opened from the inside, thus allowing you to escape. Keep the house corridors and stairways free from obstructions. It is also advisable to keep track of unused supplies like newspapers as these are known combustibles. Clearing out unnecessary items in closets and garages are preventive measures too.

Another good tip on how to prevent home fires is through proper use of appliances and home equipment. Space heaters are useful items but can be a cause of concern if not properly installed. Any type of heating equipment must be maintained and subjected to regular inspection. Fire safety also entails the appropriate use of other tools like extension cords. It is also important that electric appliances are plugged in separate outlets more so placing space heaters away from magazines or old newspapers. The kitchen is one place where residents tend to play safe. Unfortunately, it is also the same area where home fires usually begin. Therefore, creating that ambiance of safety is crucial for any home owner. You can start by placing a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. Also try checking for possible frayed wires or loaded electrical outlets. Societies don’t maintain fire safety equipments in working condition and panic when fire erupts. Prevention is better than cure is very correct in case of fire in high rise buildings. Navi Mumbai towers needs to beef up fire prevention measures soon.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Letters to the Editor: 28 February, 2020

By

Web Team

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February 28, 2020

The national capital burning is cause for concern

Nobody seems to be bothered about the saddening events occurring in Delhi which has resulted in several deaths as well as loss of hundreds of crores to public property. Prime Minister was busy entertaining his US friend as President Donald Trump enjoyed our hospitality but unceremoniously rewarded Indians by calling Pakistan his friend from our very shores which was disheartening.

Delhi CM is simply not bothered to tackle the violence so that the blame game can be shifted on the Centre and vice versa. A few anti- CAA hired activists has put the entire nation to ransom and those supporting CAA too have no business to fight the activists which is the job of the police. Politicians have no business to divide the nation on the basis of castes and the highest court of the country should intervene if things go out of hand. Coronavirus Impact would be deadly on world economy and it is time to unite to fight the epidemic collectively rather than wasting our energies as well as resources on communal violence that serves none.

S.N.Kabra

CAA may render Muslims stateless

More than 39 people have been killed in the Delhi riots that erupted in the capital city during last five days between demonstrators and supporters of CAA and NRC. The sheepish silence of Modi government is making things worse. The fascist regime of India has turned the capital city into a battleground where the Muslims are assaulted, killed and their properties are being looted, ransacked, burnt and plundered.

The world’s largest democracy is breaking down swiftly, allowing the demons of Hindutva to come out and overpower every sane person of India. India must revisit its strategy to overcome these riots, lest it will become too late and the country will be engulfed in flames of prejudice and hatred. United Nation should intercede and stop India’s barbaric extremists from crushing over 300 Muslims who are right now at the mercy of eccentric majority.

Wisdom and sagacity does not appear to prevail in this atmosphere of clash and extinction. Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi has requested that army may be called in the city to control the situation as life of innocent Muslims is at stake. OIC should also take notice of this planned murder of Muslims and stop India from Muslims’ genocide.

Jubel D’Cruz

IRCTC should provide information about retiring rooms

Indian Railways provides the facility of online retiring room booking for the benefit of transit and overnight passengers. IRCTC website displays the list of places/stations where the facility of online booking is made available. The website however does not provide any details related to type of accommodation available, amenities, facilities etc provided in the retiring room for the benefit of transit passengers. A passenger is thus forced to make manual enquiry at railway station to know the accommodation details while ironically one has to book retiring rooms through online mode only.

Non availability of details thus causes inconvenience to many passengers intending for an overnight stay at retiring rooms through online booking mode. The same should otherwise be made available with details related to facilities and type of accommodation provided in all the retiring rooms across Indian Railway network for online booking. IRCTC is thus requested to provide the comprehensive list of all the retiring rooms with facilities on its website,for the benefit of its overnight and transit passengers.

Varun Dambal

Snake bites touch a new high

It was disheartening to note that animal bites in Maharashtra state is touching a new high. The reason for so many deaths due to snake bites is that the state is having a four month period of monsoon and the water logging in several places lead to the sighting of snakes in the city and suburbs. In all, there were 42,086 cases of snake bites in 2018-19. As the snake bite is poisonous and there is no proper medical care, the victim die after a struggle. But human life is lost in such bites and Maharashtra stands third in the list of deaths occurred due to these bites.

Abhisheck R. Swamy

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Science for people, people for science

By

Afternoon Voice

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February 28, 2020

Today, social media like Facebook is full of posts of ‘National Science Day’. But how many of us know as to why is the day celebrated and what is its importance. Every year on February 28 we celebrate National Science Day to commemorate the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’ which led to Indian scientist CV Raman winning the Noble Prize in Physics in 1930.

Now about the theme. The theme for the National Science Day 2019 is ‘Science for people and people for science’ while in 2018 it was “Science and Technology for a sustainable future.”

In 1986, the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) asked the Government of India to designate 28 February as National Science Day which the then Govt. of India accepted and declared the day as National Science Day in 1986. The first National Science Day was celebrated on February 28, 1987.

Raman Effect is characterised by a phenomenon in the field of spectroscopy which was found by the prominent physicist while working in a laboratory of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.

Now, we need to know a few things about the National Science Day

The fundamental goal celebrating this day as a National Science Day is to signify the message of the significance of science and its wide application amongst the inhabitants of India.

For National Science Day 2018 the theme chosen is making use of Science and Technology to create a sustainable future which has been opted to raise appreciation of the public for scientific issues and bring about a general awareness too.

National Council for Science and Technology Communication also known as NCSTC of Department is one of the nodal office which helps to catalyse and organise the celebrations associated with the National Science Day all over the nation, especially in logical research laboratories and scientific institutions.

In 1987, DST organised National Awards in 1987 to empower, recognse and encourage the exceptional endeavors in the stream of science communication and popularisation and in developing scientific temper. Dr. Raghbir Singh Khandpur from Punjab was chosen for National Award for his Outstanding Efforts in the field of S&T Communication in the year 2017. He was honored with a prize amount of Rs.2,00,000/ – (Rupees two lakh), a citation and also a memento. Apart from this, other National Awards were of a value of Rs.1,00,000/ – (Rupees one lakh), along with a citation and memento.

NSD also received another prestigious award in the year 2017 for the national award for women development by using science and technology. This award was bestowed on Socio-cultural development center located at Jagatsinghpur, Odisha. It was of a value of Rs 15 lakhs along with a citation and memento.

Sir CV Raman had received the highest civilian award which is Bharat Ratna in the year 1954. He began his experiments to study the light’s scattering and invented the Raman spectroscopy. It is used to observe the rational, vibrational and low frequency modes present in a system. It is commonly used in laboratories and is important to choose the substance using which light is scattered.

In the year 1930, the Nobel Prize in physics was won by Sir CV Raman for his contribution to the study of scattering of light and the discovery he made.

Humanity at stake in burning Delhi

By

Vaidehi Taman

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February 27, 2020

Silent protests, elections and humiliating results all that was very difficult for BJP to deal with and a thunderous silence on the part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu was not only shocking but it has surprised me. How come the government is the mute spectator? Venomous statements from leaders for the violence and ignition during the campaign and now are clear that a piece of legislation and the politics behind it are responsible for the Delhi violence. Presumably, taking advantage of the offending legislation, people from the opposition parties and those with vested interests are inciting the minority community that has been protesting against it. The response of the Delhi Police to the escalating violence has been rather delayed, a trait that has been seen consistently in the recent past at Tis Hazari during the lawyer-police clashes, Jamia Millia Islamia University, JNU, Shaheen Bagh and now in the trans-Yamuna area. The Delhi Police, generally adroit at dealing with such situations has appeared rudderless and listless, bereft of any sense of direction and purpose. There are hundreds of videos circulating on the social media showing how the Delhi police are not capable to break CCTV cameras but also directed the path to rioters.

They were gathering stones to throw and were supporting particular groups to eliminate Muslims. What can be horrific than this where the government is a mute spectator and the police are hand in gloves with rioters. It’s not Hindu or Muslim, it’s humanity that is on stake. Leadership, if any, is obviously absent. Men on the ground level don’t know what to do and when as they are not sure where they would stand if things go wrong. Officers in the field don’t seem to have a free hand. If one goes by TV visuals, the deployment seems unplanned. Large groups of police forces arrive, but there is no one to take charge of them. No attempt has been made towards area domination. They all were standing like bay watchers while goons were on a rampage. The prime minister was busy entertaining his guest while BJP leaders were even busier in making arrangements. Delhi Government hardly has any power as the police is under the Central government, law and order is under the home minister, but still he would have acted promptly but the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal waited two long days to respond. By then, a lot of damage was done. The opposition party, Congress tried meeting President Kovind who expressed his unavailability.

The Congress could hardly do anything as it is out of power. Now, the party would be undertaking a march to the President over the Delhi violence. The Congress however did not announce that a similar march would be taken out in riot-affected areas, a suggestion that Sonia Gandhi offered to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his 61 MLAs. Sonia Gandhi’s somewhat delayed press conference had an impact. Minutes after her outbursts against the government, the prime minister took to Twitter and appealed for peace and brotherhood in Delhi, just like the way he did last time during the Gujarat riots. Many BJP leaders have been spreading an atmosphere of fear and hate by making inflammatory speeches. BJP supporters on social media are rejoicing the riots, they were trending as #SaveHindu in Delhi but they advocated the killings of Muslims. Perhaps many of them took pride of killing and brutality to this community. Kapil Mishra who had threatened to “come out on the roads” and “will not listen to you [the police]” if they failed to remove anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters from Jafrabad and Chand Bagh in North East Delhi. Clashes broke out soon after, intensified through next two to three days but no action was taken against him. The PM did not even mention this in his tweet. The same Kapil Mishra when he was in the AAP used to abuse PM Modi with all sorts of unparliamentarily language. Now after he joined the BJP he is playing a different role to tarnish the image of the Aam Aadmi Party. His frustration is evident.

BJP needs to realise that the hate mongering is not going to help those grabbing votes. Earlier during the Delhi Assembly election campaign, BJP leaders Parvesh Verma and Anurag Thakur made statements that were provocative and the Election Commission punished them with periodic ban on electioneering by the two leaders. The anti-CAA protests began in mid-December with the amended citizenship law being linked to update of the National Population Register (NPR) and preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The narrative that troubled many were that the combination of the three CAA, NPR and NRC was aimed at one particular community. The government came out with clarification and even made a visible climb-down from its earlier position on both the NPR and the NRC. But it did not have much impact on the protesters who continued with their demand that the CAA should be withdrawn.

The central government limited its role in policing in which the Delhi Police proved ineffective due to lack of adequate experience and necessary guidance. The police either launched a crackdown in overreaction or preferred to keep its hands clean. In the process; the police suffered a loss of not only its personnel in death and injuries, but also of credibility. Reports quoting both sides of rioters in the North East Delhi say people have less trust in Delhi Police’s ability to deal with the current communal situation. After more than 37 people died and over hundreds got injured in communal clashes that broke out. Over 200 injured after four straight days of brutal violence over the citizenship law, 130 people have been arrested so far. WhatsApp was used to organise goons from Uttar Pradesh and to identify areas to target. Over 50 phones have been seized from the accused. Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel are patrolling the streets of the region. The Delhi Police has filed 48 FIRs and arrested 130 people in connection with the violence, which they say is now under control. But no one knows the ground reality. Hate is breeding and people are bleeding, I never wanted such new India. God save my country.

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Mumbaikars condemn Delhi violence

By

Suraj Chandran

-

February 27, 2020

Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, caa , nrc, npr, caa protests, nrc protests, npr protests, mumbai caa protests, delhi violence — Image Courtesy- Nikhil Sagare

Yesterday evening, the Alliance against CAA, NRC and NPR, Mumbai Chapter held a press conference at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Azad Maidan to condemn the anti-CAA violence which broke out in Delhi from past few days. Members of the group strongly condemned the communal violence that has been occurring in Delhi. They regretted the deaths of 37 people belonging to Hindu and Muslim communities including a police and IB personnel. According to them, some politicians have openly instigated violence in Delhi. They expressed their displeasure over Delhi Police’s failure to control riots in the city. Members stated that the machinery responsible for maintaining law and order has been completely paralysed. The dubious and prejudiced character of the Delhi Police is dangerous for a post-modern society like India.

Members of Alliance against CAA, NRC, and NPR, Mumbai Chapter expressed their views:

When AV spoke to Advocate Rakesh Rathod, he said, “We strongly have condemn the violence which has taken place in Delhi. We condemn the inaction of the Delhi Police and Home Department for allowing riots to occur. BJP and RSS have taken revenge against the people of Delhi for voting against them. Hence, they have taken no action against rioters.

He further stated, “We have demanded the resignation of honourable Home Minister Amit Shah. At the same time, we have demanded that strict action should be initiated on the policemen who failed to perform their duties. Also, victims should be compensated for the damage.”

Farid Shaikh, co-convenor said, “The entire violence is pre-planned and the police have failed to take action. The Home Minister should have given powers to act swiftly against rioters. Protest against CAA has been happening in Delhi since the last two and a half months. Every attempt is made to create a rift between Hindus and Muslims.”

Maulana Hafiz Athar Ali, co-convenor said, “This press conference has been organised to condemn the violence occurring in Delhi which claimed several lives and losses to property. We demand the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah.”

Narsing Tiwari said, “I have been residing in a Muslim locality in Delhi since the last 40 years. I condemn the violence occurring in Delhi.”

Father Ravi Kumar Stephen said, “The CAA and NRC is against the interest of minorities. The anti-CAA protestors were doing so peacefully, but some anti-social elements disrupted the protest. The riot incidents occurring in Delhi does not augur well for the Nation.”

Sachin Kambale, head of the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Brigade Organisation said, “The Delhi Police have failed to control the riots. Today, peaceful protests are happening against CAA and NRC in the country. Pro-CAA groups have been formed by RSS to avert anti-CAA protests.”

Sudhakar Shinde, joint secretary, Ambedkarite party, Maharashtra said, “We have organised this press conference to condemn the violence in Delhi. Amit Shah is responsible for the violence and he should step down. Steps should be taken to end violence and maintain peace.”

Midnight Decision: Delhi High Court Judge S Muralidhar transferred in swift move

By

Hema Singh

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February 27, 2020

Like it is said good people are either transferred from the position they hold or are killed. And it seems the same thing happened with Delhi High Court Judge S Muralidhar. The noted judge who pulled up the Delhi police for inaction during the violence in North-east Delhi that left 38 dead and over 200 injured, was overnight transferred by the Ministry of Law to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday.

Just about two weeks after it was recommended by the collegium of the Supreme Court on February 12, the Central government issued a transfer notice to Justice Muralidhar at around 11 pm on Wednesday night. The government notification read, “In exercise of the power conferred by Clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President after consultation with the Chief Justice of India is pleased to transfer Justice S Muralidhar, Judge of the Delhi High Court, as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.”

May this be noted that a transfer notification does not give any time to a judge to join his new post which was seen to infer. Besides justice Murlidhar, the central government also issued transfer notice to two more judges namely Justice Ranjit V More (Bombay) and Justice Ravi Malimath (Karnataka).

Soon after Muralidhr’s transfer notice, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi took to Twitter and launched a scathing attack on the Central government over the timing of transfer. Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote, “Remembering the brave Judge Loya, who wasn’t transferred.”

Justice Loya who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case of Gujarat in which Home Minister Amit Shah was one of the accused died of a cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter.

On the other hand, Priyanka Gandhi wrote, “The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isn’t shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certianly sad and shameful. Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient and upright judiciary; the government’s attempts to muzzle justice and break their faith are deplorable.”

The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isn’t shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certianly sad & shameful.

Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient & upright judiciary, the government’s attempts to muzzle justice & break their faith are deplorable. pic.twitter.com/KKt4IeAMyv

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) February 27, 2020

Earlier on Wednesday, Justice Muralidhar passed a series of orders regarding to the violence in North-East Delhi and said, “Another 1984-like situation cannot be allowed to happen in the city under its watch.”

“We have to be alert,” said Muralidhar as he ordered safe passage for the collection of the bodies of the deceased, setting up of adequate number of helplines and give shelter to people who have been displaced among other things.

The riots in North-East Delhi which killed more than 30 people including a head constable Ratan Lal injured over after clashes between pro-and anti-CAA protests turned violent.