ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 17 January 2008

India World’s Rape Capital?

STATES TIGHTEN MEASURES

By Insaf

Two more rape cases of foreign tourists has forced all the States and Union Territories to sit up and apply stringent measures, including increased policing to curb this most heinous of crimes. Especially against the backdrop of India that is Bharat fast gaining notoriety as the world’s rape capita! Two women, one British and the other Russian, were raped in just under a week in the lush tourist paradise of Goa. At the rate matters are deteriorating, the State will fast lose its title from a popular tourist country to a forbidding rape centre. In Rajasthan, it was bad enough for the State having to come to terms with the scandalous spectacle of a senior Orissa police Officer, BB Mohanty, surrendering for his son’s rape of a German tourist. Now the Government finds itself rocked by the news of another heinous rape of a Japanese tourist in the holy city of Pushkar and of a British woman in Udaipur.

According to the latest crime statistics released by the Union Home Ministry’s National Crime Bureau, 53 women become victims of rape daily. Shockingly, Delhi topped the list with 4,134 cases (nearly one-fifth of the total crime against women) followed by cyber city Hyderabad with 1,755 cases in 2006. Among the States, Andhra Pradesh had the highest number of ‘fair sex’ crimes --- 21,484 cases or over 13 per cent of the total cases, with Uttar Pradesh a close second with 9.9 per cent. To Madhya Pradesh went the ignominious honour of the highest number of rape and molestation cases (2,900).  Distressingly, over 7,618 women became victims of dowry deaths of which UP recorded the highest number at 1,798, with Bihar at 1,188. Clearly, this has shredded the last vestige of the UPA Government’s tall claims of being the leading champion for women. Notwithstanding Renuka Chowdhary assertion that she would personally monitor the probe into the Mumbai New Year day molestation of an NRI woman incident!

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Kolkota Fire Leaves CPM Red-faced

The woes of the West Bengal Government continue to multiply. Barely had the Nandigram conflagration been doused, when the Left State found itself singed by the fire that broke out in Kolkata’s high-rise Burrabazaar, India’s biggest wholesale market. The blazing inferno, which gutted over 4000 shops and reduced the 13-storey Nandagram Market to dust, took over three days to control, with the Army overseeing rescue operations. The market, known for keeping combustible goods like textiles, lubricants and gas cylinders, was notorious for many an illegal construction with the shopkeepers failing to reply to notices. Worse, it underscored the State Administration complete ill-preparedness to deal with a crisis. Out of 42 fire tenders pressed into service, only one was used at a time, thanks to lack of water. Ditto was the case with the turntable ladder and of the 112 fire fighters engaged in the operation, 70 per cent were over 40 years. Incredibly, the city had only one hydraulic ladder. Leaving many Left leaders red-faced!

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Dhumal Heralds Decentralised Era

The new Himachal Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, is poised to blaze a new trail in good democratic governance, al la Modi’s Gujarat. He is ready to decentralize power for faster delivery of growth and justice at the grassroots level. Making this the flagship of his Government, Dhumal has announced that the tehsildars would be directed to sort out the people’s problems, instead of their having to run to Shimla for everything. In his reply to the Governor’s address in the State Assembly, Dhumal alleged that the previous Congress regime had left empty coffers, and vowed to bring out a white paper on the State’s dismal fiscal health. Also on the anvil, are plans to increase road connectivity in the rural areas and a special cell in the Chief Minister’s Office for the welfare of ex-servicemen’s families, who constitute a sizeable section of the State’s population. How many of these promises materialize will remain to be seen.

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Yoga For Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has taken the lead in popularising yoga by including it in the school syllabus from the next academic session. Towards that end, the BJP’s Government organized a mass ‘surya namaskar’ exercise in the entire State last week. That yoga is, indeed, popular could be gauged by the attendance of a large number of people, led by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and including children and college students, at the main function in the State’s capital Bhopal. The Government plans to extol the virtues of yoga to enable the youth to be mentally and physically fit. However, after having burnt his fingers with the minority leaders last year, Chauhan has learnt his lesson: made yoga participation voluntary. Moreover, ‘Youth Day’ will hereafter be celebrated as ‘Yoga Day.

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States’ Satraps Jostle Over Bharat Ratna                               

With various States’ satraps and political heavy weights jostling that their ‘chosen favourite’ be given the Bharat Ratna, the Union Government may skip giving the award this year. Making it the seventh time in a row that the country’s highest civilian award is not announced. The first to lob the ‘give-the-award’ ball was BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate LK. Advani who suggested colleague and former Prime Minister Vajpayee, next came BSP supremo Mayawati who hooted for her mentor Late Kanshi Ram followed by the BJD Chief Naveen Patnaik and RLD’s Ajit Singh plugging for their respective fathers Biju Patnaik and Chaudhary Charan Singh. The irrepressible RJD chief  Laloo Yadav plugged for Karpoori Thakur, DMK for Karunanidhi and Ram Vilas Paswan  for Jagjivan Ram and Jyotiba Phule among various others. Needless to say, given our fractured polity the award has more to do with our leaders flexing their muscle and strengthening their constituencies rather than honouring national icons.

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New Constituencies For 24 States

Twenty four States are all set to give a makeover to the political landscape of the constituencies. This follows the Union Government’s decision to implement the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission. Barring Jharkhand, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, where there legal issues are involved, the rest of the country will go to the polls on the basis of the redrawn constituencies. Many political heavy weights, influential State leaders, senior BJP leaders and the Congress babalog are busy studying the effect of delimitation on their electoral prospects and hunting for new safe pastures to keep reaping a political harvest as their old constituency of committed voters has disappeared from the political map. Clearly, it is back to square one for our polity!

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J&K Minister Quits For Bribery

The Congress Government in Jammu & Kashmir has been rocked by bribery charges against the Education Minister and PCC Chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed leading to his resignation from the State Cabinet. Sayeed has been accused by the Independent MLA Lone of accepting a bribe of Rs.40,000 for sanctioning a school. To nip the ensuing crisis in the bud, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has ordered a probe into the charges against his close confidant and Minister. Coming on the heels of the Army’s confirmation of black-marketing of rations meant for soldiers posted on the Siachen glacier in picturesque Laddakh, the corruption woes of the State have mounted. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)