2 School girls raped by 15 men

Again a teenage girl is ditched by her boy-friend at Betma near Indore in M.P who indulged himself and allowed others to gang-rape her along with cousin sister in broad daylight. The funniest part is that those workers in the neighbouring fields also joined in the crime instead of rescuing them.

Where is sanity in our humanity? It seems the female figures have become an object of pleasure and lust, probably enhanced by the constant exposure of sex appeals and catchy pictures and films and easy access to pornography. God helps these females from such vultures and satans.

Undue Delay resulting in commuting death penalty to life sentence

Once the Apex Court clears the death penalty after the duly conducted review, there is no question of a second review at the executive level except in the rarest of rare cases where extreme cases of passionate grounds deserving the action of the Head of the State exist. Commutation should not be ordered on political or extraneous grounds.

It is also very strange and pathetic that the Apex Court is once again forced to go through the records and adjudicate. It is not a good and welcome development under any circumstances. Discrimiantion in such cases would certainly set bad precedents and the citizens forced to lose faith in the Constitution and the laws made under it.

Ex-top official takes fight for retirement benefits to tribunal

K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty an I.A.S Officer of 1983 batch of Tamil Nadu cadre has sought the intervention of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Chennai Bench for directing the state government to release his retirement benefits by accepting the resignation letter.

Probably he is aggrieved by the state government's order transferring him to a lacklustre post namely, Special Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research last May by the new government. It is a part of the game in today's system. One has to have a big heart and tide over the situation unless he has an alternative avocation readily available for engagement. As usual the government will take revenge or try to teach the person a lesson by starting an enquiry to gain time and harass the individual as much as possible. In this case the officer served three months' notice on September 8, 2011 for voluntary retirement under Rule 16(2) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules 1958 but the VRS was rejected and a vigilance enquiry ordered just seven days before the expiry of the notice period i.e. December 9, 2011. The immediate provocation may be that the person was close to a politician in the previous regime and tried to implement the schemes of the government in all serious ways. When a person wants to retire peacefully one should be allowed to do so by setting a good precedent unless a strong and compelling reason like embezzlement of funds exists or is caught red-handed in office.

The act of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption is at times not above board like in the case of CBI at the Centre. Anyone can be taken to task for anything he has done in his career. Motive behind such vindictive actions should be flawless and purely on merits. Otherwise civil services would be totally ruined and society would stand to lose an impartial and efficient administration. And only the first-rate jokers would be in the helm of affairs.

I am doubtful whether this officer would get justice in the hands of C.A.T. After all it is headed by our brethren having less and less courage to question the wrong doing of the system or the set-up.

Heroines on the run

Are over-zealous industry insiders generating rumours to remain in the news, CT asks (Sunday, February 19, 2012).

Bollywood (Mumbai) heroines are on the queue for a call from Kollywood (Chennai). Chennai Times, a supplement of Times of India is awash with the hot news almost daily about the leading stars vying with each other to steal the show with the scantily-clad and the most attractive attire that would easily catch the attention of even the strong 'brahmachari' (avowed bachelor) too while reading the daily news. Everybody seems to be enjoying the pictures of those celluloid females.

Necessity to set right the Internal Order?

In an extra-ordinary move the top seven judges of the Madras High Court formed a Jumbo Bench headed by the Chief Justice Shri M.Y. Eqbal on Thursday, February 9, 2012 to "nip in the bud" the growing tendency of advocates and litigants writing contemptuous letters carrying allegations against Judges.

The Internal working of the High Courts and the equations enjoyed by the leading advocates in many such Courts across the country is suspected to be suffering from some sort of discrimination in regard to disposal of cases pending before those Courts. Many a time one could notice the special type of treatment being received by some advocates in the Courts of some Judges. The advocates take the liberty of adjourning cases at their sweet will and trying to influence the judgments to suit the convenience of their clients. It is also possible that some of the Judges who hail from the Bar initially are also under some kind of self-imposed influence with a result certain pleadings before Judges are unnecessarily taken up on record, cases delayed and judgment expected in their favour.

Another Incident

A gang-rape was committed by the son of an Industralist along with three more accomplices on an Anglo-Indian woman in his car while returning from a night-club on February 5, 2012 in Kolkatta. The lady Chief Minister of West Bengal Government Ms. Mamata Banerjee seems to be criticising the local Electronic Media for having published this news. She feels that the law-enforcing agency has over-reacted to an ordinary incident with a view to malaigning her government. This is very unfortunate that the C.M appears to be very insensitive to such occurrences in her regime without going into the veracity of the facts surrounding the incident. Any simplification or sidelining of such events in her state will convey wrong signals to her supporters in the long run. Her rule should set up good precedents ignoring political compulsions.

Cruelty to Humans and not to Animals?

A 'dalit' (socially backward community) boy's ears were held with much force by a couple of policemen that one of them came off. Surgeons have not been able to stitch it back. This is a handy-work of Madhya Pradesh Police in Sagar District of Bundelkhand region.

Similarly, a man allegedly threw a 12-year old 'dalit' girl out of a running train on Sunday, February 5, 2012 when his attempts to sexually abuse her failed. The victim, Manju Binzwar, a class VII student, has sustained serious injuries. Korba district (Chhattisgarh State) police said the accused, Ramdayal Kenvat (46), is absconding.

The devils spare no efforts to torture the people from the backward community at their sweet will. Dr.Ambedkars' Constitution of India and the laws made under it provide no practical guarantee against occurence of such atrocities. Even lip-sympathy is missing these days. What a pity?

GIRLS BEWARE - DEVILS AT WORK

Two days ago there was a news item in the media that a teen-age girl was ditched by her boy-friend who enacted a gang-rape on her. Apparently she was misguided by her boyfriend and taken to his friend's home where three more of his boyfriends were consuming liquour. Although initially she was shocked to see the boys' behaviour in a funny manner she was forced to drink and gang-raped by all the four boys and she could gain consciouness only the next evening when taken to her home by the same boyfriend. Although the police have taken 2-3 of them into custody, the shocking lesson to the teen-aged girls is that no male member whether boyfriend known for sometime or long could hardly be believed to be a well-wisher. They could be subject to personal violence anytime anywhere.

In another incident a lady officer working in a bank staying in Nungambakkam area by name Seethalakshmi (52) was strangulated to death on January 1, 2012 by a fellow named Arokiaswamy (35) for the sake of 22 soveriegns of gold jewellery.

Another shocking incident occurred in a reputed educational institution opposite Madras High Court in which a school teacher by name Uma Maheswari (39) was stabbed to death by a IX class student at 10.30 am on Thursday February 9, 2012 morning mainly to show his anger at her sending a report against him to his parents. The whole school and the parent community are agitated on this. As per reports she was a good teacher liked by everyone. But a single student literally pampered by his parents could go to the extent of killing a good-natured teacher, the mother of two children and the wife of a Circle Manager in a private cell-phone company. What a pity!

The female whether a teen-aged girl or a middle-aged mother is not safe in today's society. Unless they themselves become very cautious and adopt personal safety measures, nobody can come to their rescue at the hour of crisis or emergency.

POLITICS IS NO ANSWER FOR PLANNING?

It's very interesting - there is a comment by the former Chief Minister Mr Karunanidhi on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 to the effect that the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms Jeyalalitha keeps changing her version regarding the availability of electric power and doing away with the power cuts. In fact he was recollecting the statement by the Chief Minsiter made on 4.8.2011 during the budget presentation that the power cut in the State would be gradually improved and by August 2012 it would be totally removed. Ironically he has commented on her current statement that power cut will be totally removed by the middle of 2013 and he was wondering what would be her statement in the middle of 2013. He was lamenting that due to the existing power cut introduced by the Electricity Board in the District of Coimbatore alone about 40,000 Industrial units would remain closed on February 10, 2012.

If someone is able to recollect correctly a similar situation was prevalent during DMK rule when Arcot Veerasamy was Power Minister and the former Chief Miinister was unable to do anything in this regard except a similar assurance being given to the public from time to time.

Due to change of guard every 5 years the perspective plan including detailed annual plans have had become a big joke of Tamil Nadu Government. No authority from top to bottom, from Chief Minister to lowest functionary in the Electricity Board, has no time to do a serious reading of the situation, estimate the demand of power for the next 10 years, suggest and create new source of energy on a long term basis and make consistent efforts to fulfill demand on a regular basis without un-interrupted and adequate supply of power. Almost every sector of activity - be it agriculture, industrial, educational institutions or any other establishments in the state - everyone is effected by non-availability or un-interrupted power supply. Unless a detailed monthly or weekly action-plan is intelligently planned and effectively monitored by an authority or a team of officials, things are not likely to improve in the State of Tamil Nadu in the next one decade.

Chief Minister's announcement

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has announced on Tuesday, February 1, 2012 that as many as 9 lakhs concrete houses would be built in five years time throughout Tamil Nadu. During the discussion on the floor of the Legislative Assembly one DMK member by name Mr. A.V. Velu (Thiruvamallai) stated that earlier the DMK Government had estimated that there were about 18 lakh slum houses in the whole of Tamil Nadu. He therefore wondered how the present Government is going to meet such a huge demand in view of the fact that the Government/State Government would be able to construct only three laks concrete houses at the rate of 60,000 per annum. To this the Chief Minister replied that three lakhs concrete houses would be constructed in the next five years at the rate of Rs.1.80 lakh per dwelling unit as indicated in the state budget. In addition, under the Indira Gandhi Housing Scheme of the Central Government about five lakhs houses would be constructed and similarly about one lakh houses under the Thane Cyclone's Rehabilitation Programme would be built both in Cuddalore and Villipuram districts, thus making the total to 9 lakh houses.

It is an ambitious plan and it requires a solid commitment on the part of the officials to implement it in both letter and spirit when the allocation of adequate funds is made available by the concerned authorities. Normally, the quality of work executed by the said agencies and the contractors is not up to the mark.