Meghalaya MLA Julius K Dorphang arrested for allegedly raping minor girl

January 7, 2017

Independent Meghalaya MLA Julius Dorphang, who was wanted in connection with a sex-racket case involving a 14-year old girl in Shillong, was arrested on Saturday from his hideout in neighbouring Assam, the police said.

www.kosovapress.com

The arrest came a day after a look out notice was issued and the state police sought cooperation from their counterparts in neighbouring states.

“We have arrested Dorphang and he was brought here. He will now face trial,” East Khasi Hills district SP M Kharkrang told PTI.

The arrest was made from a place which he used as a hideout, he said, without divulging details.

In fact several raids were conducted within the state and even several places in Assam where the legislator frequented till Friday morning but the raids were futile.

A joint raid was also conducted at Hatigaon area on Thursday where the surrendered ULFA leaders are running their offices but they did not find him there.

Dorphang, who had co-founded an armed organization until he surrendered in 2007, went into hiding after the police booked him under section 366 (A) of the IPC and registered section 3 (a)/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and under section 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) against him.

The sex racket came to light after an employee of a guest house owned by senior Congress leader and Home Minister H D R Lyngdoh’s son was arrested for trafficking of the 14-yr-old victim last month.

The victim was rescued from near the guest house and brought to the police station where she named all those involved in sexually exploiting her. Five of the eight people, including four women, named in separate FIRs have been arrested till date.

On 4 January, the court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Dorphang, following which the manhunt began.

ब्राह्मण प्रवक्ता पार्टी ! – रविश कुमार

January 7, 2017

उत्तर प्रदेश भाजपा ने प्रवक्ताओं की सूची जारी की है। इसमें चार श्रेणियों के लिए 27 प्रवक्ताओं के नाम हैं।ये श्रेणियाँ हैं,प्रदेश प्रवक्ता,प्रदेश मीडिया संपर्क प्रमुख,प्रदेश मीडिया सहप्रभारी और मीडिया पैनल। प्रदेश अध्यक्ष केशव प्रसाद मौर्य ने अपने दस्तख़त से इन नामों को जारी किया है।

मैं इन नामों को सरनेम के हिसाब से देखने लगा। सिंह सरनेम को लेकर चूक हो सकती है क्योंकि कई जाति के लोग सिंह सरनेम रखते हैं। इसे बाद में सुधार कर लिया जाएगा लेकिन सिंह को मुख्य रूप से ठाकुर मान लें तो इस सूची में सवर्ण ही ज़्यादा हैं। चोटी की तीन श्रेणियों के सभी 12 प्रवक्ता सवर्ण हैं। 27 प्रवक्ताओं में से 10 प्रवक्ता ब्राह्मण हैं। आप सूची देखेंगे तो मिंश्रा,दुबे,शुक्ला,दीक्षित और त्रिपाठी सरनेम का बोलबाला है। यह सरनेम बताते हैं कि पार्टी में किस जाति के लोग सहज रूप से फलते फूलते हैं।

दूसरी सवर्ण जातियों में कायस्थ और राजपूत हैं। इनकी संख्या सात है।जैसा कि मैंने कहा कि सिंह सरनेम को लेकर चूक हो सकती है और कुछ नामों का पता ही नहीं चला। सत्ताईस प्रवक्ताओं में 17 सवर्ण ही हुए,जिनमें ब्राह्मण सबसे अधिक हैं।
27 प्रवक्ताओं में दो महिलाएं हैं।श्रीमती अनिला सिंह और बरेली की डाक्टर दीप्ति भारद्वाज।दीप्ति भारद्वाज भी ब्राह्मण प्रतीत होती हैं। अगर सही है तो 27 प्रवक्ताओं में ब्राह्मण प्रवक्ताओं की संख्या 11 तक पहुँचती लगती है। मीडिया पैनल यानी टीपी की बहसों में जाने वाले 15 प्रवक्ताओं की श्रेणी में एक नाम जाटव समाज से है।बुलंदशहर के मुंशीलाल गौतम। गौतम अच्छे नेता और प्रवक्ता माने जाते हैं। दो नाम कोरी समाज से है। देवेश कोरी और बृजलाल कोरी। मथुरा के भुवनभूषण कोमल नाई समाज से आते हैं। अब क्या इस पर ख़ुश होना पड़ेगा कि चलो कृपा तो हुई, मौका तो दिया! देखना है कि टीवी की बहसों में जाटव,कोरी और नाई समाज के नेताओं को कितना बुलाया जाता है या वे नाम के लिए ही हैं। पार्टी ही तय करती है कि किस चैनल में कौन प्रवक्ता जाएगा।

मीडिया पैनल में ग़ाज़ियाबाद के रूप चौधरी का नाम है। पूर्व पत्रकार और पूर्व विधायक रूप चौधरी मीडिया का काम करते रहे हैं और अच्छे प्रवक्ता है।रूप चौधरी गुर्जर समाज से आते हैं।इनसे मिलने का मौका मिला है और घोर राजनीतिक हैं।दफ़्तरी प्रवक्ता नहीं है। इतने सीनियर व्यक्ति का नाम सबसे आख़िर में है। सूची में एक मुसलमान हैं।पूर्व क्रिकेटर मोहसिन रज़ा।मोहसिन रज़ा तो टीवी प्रादेशिक स्टुडियो में जाते भी रहे हैं।रज़ा कभी राजनाथ सिंह को माला पहनाते दिखते हैं तो कभी स्मृति ईरानी का स्वागत करते हुए।मौर्य के साथ तो दिखते ही हैं। सक्रिय नेता हैं।

हफ्ता भर पहले IBN 7 न्यूज चैनल से भाजपा में आए शलभमणि का नाम 27 प्रवक्ताओं की सूची में पहले नंबर पर है। हर किसी को चुनावी राजनीति में किस्मत आज़मानी चाहिए।कोई पत्रकार ग़ैर भाजपा दलों में जाता तो उनके पीछे अनगिनत ऑनलाइन मच्छर छोड़ दिये जाते।ऑनलाइन गैंग व्हाट्स अप की दुनिया में बवाल मचा देता कि पहले पत्रकारिता बेच रहे थे,अब उस पार्टी का माल बेचेंगे।दलाल वग़ैरह कहना तो छोटी मोटी बात हो गई है।शलभ का प्रवक्ताओं की सूची में पहले नंबर पर आना भाजपा और संघ को लेकर रचे गए कई मिथकों को तोड़ता है।यही कि संगठन है,विचारधारा है,ट्रेनिंग है।एक से एक प्रवक्ता हैं।अगर ऐसा है तो हफ्ता भर पहले आया शख्स अव्वल कैसे आ गया?शलभमणि को बधाई और शुभकामनायें।चाहूँगा कि वे चुनाव लड़ें और जीतें और जब दूसरा पत्रकार ग़ैर भाजपा दल में जाए तो ऑनलाइन गैंग से मुक़ाबला करें कि वे उन्हें दलाल न कहें। शलभ बच गए कि वो बीजेपी में गए हैं वर्ना उनका सोशल मीडिया पर उनकी ही पार्टी के समर्थक बुरा हाल कर देते। लगता है कि मीडिया को तटस्थता सीखाने वाला दल न्यू ईयर की पार्टी मना रहा है! गुड लक शलभ।

कांग्रेस और सपा की तरफ से ऐसी सूची जारी हुई तो उनका भी इसी तरह विश्लेषण करूँगा।बसपा इस तरह की कोई सूची जारी नहीं करती है। भाजपा की यह सूची काफी कुछ कहती है। प्रवक्ता ही पार्टी के दैनिक और सार्वजनिक चेहरे होते हैं। भाजपा में पिछड़े और अति पिछड़े नेतृत्व पर ज़ोर दिया जा रहा है। चुनाव जीतने के लिए इस तबके के नेताओं को खूब टिकिट भी दिये जा रहे हैं। जब इस तबके से चुनाव लड़ने वाले उम्मीदवार मिल जाते हैं तो प्रवक्ता क्यों नहीं मिल सकते हैं?प्रदेश अध्यक्ष ख़ुद अति पिछड़ा समाज से हैं। प्रधानमंत्री पिछड़े तबके से हैं। चुनाव में उम्होंने ही बताया था कि वे पिछड़े तबके से है। नेता मिल जाता है मगर प्रवक्ता नहीं। ये सूची भारतीय जनता पार्टी की कम ब्राह्मण प्रवक्ता पार्टी की ज़्यादा लगती है।

Courtesy: Naisadak.org

Watch: Hijab-clad woman, family called ‘bunch of terrorists’ in United States

January 7, 2017

A hijab-clad woman and her family were allegedly taunted and called a “bunch of terrorists” at a busy town square near Houston, the latest in a series of hate incidents in which headscarf-wearing women have been targeted in the US following Donald Trump’s win.

(Shifa Abuzaid via Facebook)

21-year-old Shifa Abuzaid and some of her younger cousins and siblings strolled through Sugar Land Town Square, Texas, when a man called them a “bunch of terrorists,” she recounted in a Facebook post. The taunting episode caught the public’s attention and soon her post had been shared more than 2,500 times.

Abuzaid and her family members had been walking to their car after lunch when they passed the verbally abusive man and a woman, Abuzaid told Houston Chronicle about Saturday’s incident. She and her cousins live on the same street near Sugar Land, southwest of Houston.

Mayor Joe Zimmerman was swift to condemn the incident, saying, “prejudice of any kind is unacceptable.” “We still have racism in Houston and we still have people who hate Muslims in Houston,” Mustafaa Carroll, executive director for the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was quoted as saying.

Recounting the incident, Abuzaid said she was the eldest of her family members present at the time. The youngest was 10 years old. She was in front as they walked to the car and was the only one with a hijab.

When they passed the couple, she said she tried to appear friendly. But the younger kids in her family stopped in their tracks after the “terrorists” remark, she said. They told Abuzaid what they had heard the man say. She felt shocked — then she decided to try to talk to him about it.

She followed the man into a store, Abuzaid said, and asked him politely why he had called them terrorists. She found his reaction confrontational. Her sister began to cry as the man got close to her face, and when her 15-year-old brother stepped in front of her, the man pushed him, according to Abuzaid.

The man then began to deny their account, Abuzaid said. A manager at the store stepped in to help. The store had called security, and the man and woman left. A police officer later told Abuzaid he could not do anything because no one was physically harmed, she said.

Later, Sugar Land Police Chief Douglas Brinkley said he believed the officer was told no one had been injured but that police planned to look again at it. The incident comes amid a series of such cases of intimidation and assault that have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women following Trump’s win.

Last month, a Hijab-clad Muslim student was allegedly struck in the face with a glass bottle in broad daylight at the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter

पंजाब में दलितों को दलितों से ही लड़ा रही है भाजपा

January 7, 2017

चंडीगढ़। गुजरात के ऊना कांड से लेकर भाजपा के अलग-अलग राज्यों में दलितों पर हो रहे अत्याचार बताते हैं कि बीजेपी शासित राज्यों में दलितों की क्या स्थिति है। पंजाब में भारतीय जनता पार्टी (भाजपा) ने दलित वोट बैंक को आकर्षित करने के लिए दलित नेता व केंद्रीय मंत्री विजय सांपला को प्रदेश की कमान सौंपी लेकिन पार्टी की दलितों के प्रति आकर्षण की यह योजना सफल नहीं हो पा रही है बल्कि उलटा दलित समुदाय के लोग आपस में ही उलझ गए हैं। प्रदेश भाजपा की तरफ से इस खींचतान को समाप्त करने के लिए कोई ठोस कदम न उठाए जाने के कारण नेताओं के भीतर वैर-विरोध बढ़ता जा रहा है।

होशियारपुर लोकसभा सीट के तहत आते फगवाड़ा विधानसभा क्षेत्र में सोम प्रकाश तथा विजय सांपला के बीच गुटबाजी किसी से छुपी नहीं है। जानकारी के अनुसार मंगलवार को विजय संकल्प यात्रा के दौरान भी दोनों गुटों की तरफ से एक-दूसरे पर खूब हमले किए गए।

सवाल यह पैदा हो रहा है कि भाजपा के एक दलित नेता जो वहां पर विधायक हैं, को साथ लेकर चलने की बजाय उनको उत्साहित किया जा रहा है जो फिलहाल न तो विधायक हैं और न ही पार्टी की तरफ से उन्हें उम्मीदवारी दी गई है। प्रदेश भाजपा की गलत नीतियों के कारण फगवाड़ा सीट पर दलित बनाम दलित वाली स्थिति पैदा हो रही है जोकि पार्टी के लिए नुकसानदायक साबित हो सकती है।

भगत चूनी लाल पंजाब में कैबिनेट मंत्री हैं तथा वह पिछले विधानसभा चुनाव में जालंधर जिले में भाजपा के नेताओं में सबसे अच्छे मार्जिन से जीते हैं। इस सीट पर भी विजय सांपला तथा भगत चूनी लाल के बीच तकरार रहती है। यही कारण है कि सांपला चाहते हैं कि इस सीट पर उनके किसी अपने खासमखास को टिकट मिल जाए।

इस सीट पर भी सांपला के करीबी कुछ लोगों ने उम्मीदवारी का दावा कर रखा है। बात दावे तक होती तो ठीक थी लेकिन जिस तरह की बातें भाजपा के वृद्ध नेता भगत चूनी लाल के बारे में की जा रही हैं उससे यह बात साफ है कि भाजपा पंजाब में दलित वर्ग को एकजुट रखने में असफल रही है तथा भाजपा का दलित वोट बैंक दलित नेताओं की गलतियों के कारण तार-तार हो रहा है। कुल मिलाकर दलित नेताओं को हराने के लिए दलित नेताओं को ही मैदान में उतारा जा रहा है।

पंजाब में दलित वर्ग की 5 सीटों में से तीसरी भोआ सीट पर भी दलित समुदाय में खींचतान पैदा की जा चुकी है। यहां से विधायक सीमा देवी की टिकट कटवाने के लिए राज्य के सत्तासीन दलित नेता के करीबी खींचतान कर रहे हैं। मैदान में कई अन्य लोगों को उतार कर उनके माध्यम से सीमा देवी की टिकट काटने का प्रयास किया जा रहा है। ऊपर से दिलचस्प बात यह है कि जिस प्रकार अपने ही विधायक के खिलाफ कुछ भाजपा के दलित नेता प्रचार कर हे हैं, उससे यह बात साफ है कि टिकट जिसे भी मिले पर जीत हासिल करना आसान नहीं होगा।

Courtesy: National Dastak

Internal report confirms sexual harassment charges against Chhattisgarh IG, but no action taken yet

January 7, 2017

'If we do not hear of any action on the report, I will take it to the higher levels,' vows the complainant.

It examined close to 30 persons and had over 40 sittings. When it finally submitted its report on December 2, the four-member committee investigating the sexual harassment charges made by Vishakha*, a woman constable from Mungeli district in Chhattisgarh, against an Inspector General of Police in the state named Pavan Dev, it corroborated most of them.

Yet, more than a month later, no action has been taken against the senior officer.

Vishakha had filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Dev in June. Dev was Inspector General of Bilaspur division at that time. The following month, the state police chief formed the investigation committee to look into her complaint.

The report, which should have been completed in 90 days as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, was delayed by over three months primarily due to delays in acquiring relevant information, noted the report.
It said that two key elements could not be investigated.

Despite repeated requests by the investigating committee, Pawan Dev made excuses to avoid appearing for a voice sample analysis test that could have been compared to the voice in recordings of phone calls made by the complainant.
Similarly, Ashok Chaturvedi, a liquor contractor, in whose name the mobile phone SIM used to make some of the phonecalls to the woman constable, was registered, also avoided appearing before the committee.

How it started

Vishakha, a young woman in her early twenties, was selected for the post of woman constable in 2013. With this job, she became the main earning member of her family, which comprises her ailing mother, an older sister with a life-threatening ailment and younger siblings. After her selection, she attended Police Training School in Rajnandgaon from June 2013 to March 2014.

According to Vishakha, it was during this training period that she first met the Inspector General of Police during his routine inspection of the training school.

After her training was completed, Vishakha was posted at Lormi thana in the state’s Mungeli district. That is when she met the police officer again, during his visit to the district headquarters on official business.

The next day, she got a call from Dev. She said it surprised her.

“I was unsure of what to make of these calls from a senior officer,” she said.

After exchanging pleasantries, Dev asked her to keep him informed of all the illegal activities in her jurisdiction, as well as misdeeds in the thana. “From now on, you shall be my informer, he had said,” recollected Vishakha.

From then, until she filed her complaint in July 2016, Vishakha said she began receiving phone calls from the senior officer regularly. Some were during duty hours, but most were after duty hours, late at night or in the early hours of the morning.

Vishakha said that while the phone calls were not unpleasant initially, they subsequently began to disturb her when the officer started making objectionable personal comments, commenting on her Facebook posts, WhatsApp profile and her figure.

A nightmare

The initial excitement of being connected directly to the big boss gradually turned into a nightmare, with Vishakha receiving repeated calls in which the officer, often seemingly in a drunken stupor, asked her to meet him at his home, and to apply for a transfer to the Bilaspur police headquarters where his office was located.

Vishakha said she changed her mobile phone number in an attempt to bring an end to the unwanted attention. She was only able to avoid him for a week. She said that the officer soon started calling her on her new number.

Vishakha said she would be contacted by Dev whenever she was posted on VIP duty outside Lormi thana. During these calls, she said, he would urge her to meet him at night.

“I would somehow make excuses expressing my inability to meet him,” said Vishakha. When the constable refused to pick up Dev’s phonecalls, he would send her WhatsApp messages to notify her of his imminent arrival at the Lormi thana. She said that this would scare her further. She said that she managed to dodge the senior officer’s presence in her area a couple of times by finding excuses to do work outside the thana.

During one such visit by Dev, Vishakha recollected that the officer messaged her to say that he had announced an appreciation reward for all the thana staff so that she could benefit from it.

Vishakha said that the senior police officer would arrive at nearby official guesthouses on the pretext of inspections, from where he would call her to meet him. She said that she would avoid these meetings by stating that her duty was in another location.

Vishakha said that she made sure that she never met Dev in private. The 20-odd times in two years that the police constable met the senior police officer were all in public view, while on duty.

On one occasion, Vishakha was scheduled for a posting to Punjab on duty, but the Inspector General of Police got the posting cancelled after speaking to the Superintendent of Police in her district. This fact was established by the committee in its investigation. That night, the senior police officer called her to meet him. Vishakha ignored his subsequent phone calls.

While most of Vishakha’s colleagues in the thana knew that she received phone calls from the senior police officer, she said that she did not share the content of the conversations except with a few due to fear and shame.
During interrogation from the committee most of her colleagues feigned ignorance that Vishakha had received such phone calls. Only one deposed in her favour, highlighting the trauma the constable went through because of it.

The last straw

Vishakha said that she suffered in silence for close to two years until the harassment became unbearable.

She said she felt she was constantly followed or watched.

Then on the night of June 17, Vishakha was sent to Bilaspur on VVIP duty to attend to the visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. That night, an insistent Dev called her early in the morning.

“The IG continued to call until 3 in the morning, some of which I have recorded,” said Vishakha.

This was the last straw, and Vishakha decided to bring the harassment to the notice of her immediate seniors.

On June 23 last year, she mentioned the matter at a meeting with her Superintendent of Police in Mungeli district, also a woman. The decision backfired.

The officer reprimanded her, accused her of lying and sent her off almost immediately.

The constable’s fear grew when the senior police officer called her that evening and indicated that he was aware of her attempt to apprise her immediate seniors of his calls.

Vishakha said that the senior police officer threatened her: “So you have started complaining about me to your seniors? You cannot do anything to me. I will have you suspended or transferred.”

She began to consider other ways to make her complaint.

No option

But wasn’t she scared for her personal safety or at the prospect of losing her job?

“I realised there was no turning back now,” said Vishakha. “The sleepless nights and the agony was too much to bear…if I do not go ahead, I knew I will be forced to succumb…and I cannot justify this to myself.”

Though familiar with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, Vishakha had no idea how to use it in her case.

With help from lawyer Nirupama Bajpai, Vishakha finally filed a formal complaint at her place of posting in Chakkarbhata thana in Mungeli district on June 30, 2016.

By then, Vishakha said that she had also realised that no one would stand witness in her favour because of the seniority of the officer she was accusing of harassment. With the advice of her lawyer, she began recording his subsequent phonecalls, a few of which she submitted to the investigation committee.

Filing a police complaint against one of the state’s seniormost police officers was not easy.

“We waited for over 45 minutes at the Chakkarbhatta thana wondering what the SHO [Station House Officer] had done with her complaint,” said Bajpai. “…[T]hey went to the SP [Superintendent of Police] with the complaint, who then advised them to file it back in the same thana which was her duty area.”

That evening Vishakha was shocked when she saw her photographs from Facebook had been splashed on local channels along with derogratory comments about her character. She was informed that Inspector General Pawan Dev was already holding a press conference, slandering her and defending himself from charges of sexual harassment.

For over 24 hours there was no assurance from anyone about how her case would be handled. Vishakha said that she even attempted to contact the state’s senior most police officer – the Director General of Police – the next day, without success.

She also decided to share with the media her side of the story, which was widely shared on social media. This created pressure that led to the Director General of Police constituting the internal investigation committee.

The four-member internal investigation committee headed by Indian Police Service officers Renu G Pillai, BP Pausharya and Sonal Mishra, and Manisha Sharma from the Non-Governmental Organisation Sankalp, was constituted on July 4. Around the same time, Pawan Dev was transferred from Bilaspur to Raipur as Inspector General, Intelligence.

Following her complaint, the police constable said that she has been threatened by strangers.

On one occasion, when Vishakha went to the Bilaspur High Court to meet her lawyer, she was accosted by two men who told her to withdraw the case, and that if she desired she could quote an amount of money to do so too.
“Nothing will come of the report and you will be ruined,” the men told her, she said.

On another occasion, some of her colleagues informed her that enquiries were being made about her ailing mother and what the family’s financial status was.

‘No comment’

Pawan Dev told Scroll.in that he did not wish to comment on the report’s findings or on the allegations of sexual harassment against him. The Director General of Police’s office has not given any official response to the media on this matter so far. Telephone calls and written queries by this reporter to the Director General of Police’s office yielded no response either

Vishakha’s lawyer said that the investigation committee’s report gave the state police chief enough evidence to proceed further.

“Although the internal investigation committee report does not bring in clear recommendations on the steps to be taken, the report, by closely examining each aspect of the complaint, has found prima facie substance in most of the complaints,” said Bajpai. “This leaves enough scope for the Director General of Police, Chhattisgarh, to take appropriate steps in the matter.”

Bajpai criticised the local media for incorrectly reporting that the investigation report had given Dev a clean chit.

“On what grounds is the local media reporting that the IG has got a clean chit while the report vindicates Vishakha’s complaint?” asked Bajpai.

She also pointed out that while the entire police department in the state as well as the government was quiet over the report’s findings, the local media was abuzz with speculation that the accused police officer had been cleared for a promotion.

“I do not care who gets promoted, but I deserve justice,” is the one line that Vishakha kept repeating. “If we do not hear of any action on the report, I will take it to the higher levels…. it cannot end in this manner.”

This is not the first time a senior police officer in Chhattisgarh has been accused of sexual harassment in the workplace. In April 2015, a woman police sub-inspector accused Additional Inspector General Sanjay Sharma, who was posted in the intelligence department at Raipur at that time, of molesting her in the elevator of the old police headquarters in Raipur. An internal complaint committee found Sharma guilty following which the state Home Department suspended the officer.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

Note-ban impact: SBI Research predicts GDP for FY17 down to 6.7%

January 7, 2017

Even as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today revised downwards the GDP growth estimate for the current financial year to 7.1 per cent, SBI Research pegged it further down at 6.7 per cent, citing the note-ban impact on consumption and therefore production.

The report said even though an objective assessment of the demonetisation exercise on output growth is a difficult one now, it expects GDP growth to be decisively lower than 6 per cent in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, it could only make a gradual comeback, it said.

The report estimates GDP growth for the second half and for the full year at 6.3 per cent and 6.7 per cent, respectively with a downward bias.

“Our assessment of a 6.7 per cent GDP growth (in FY17) with a downward bias is based on the premise that the liquidity shock has led to a drastic consumer spending shock,” an SBI Research’s Ecowrap report said.

It said even as RBI has replaced around 44 per cent of the banned currency, the money is not coming back decisively into the financial system as people are averse to spending.

“This, in turn, is leading to a vicious cycle of banks being unable to replenish cash thereby precipitating the shock.”

Earlier in the day, the CSO pegged GDP growth at 7.1 per cent, from 7.6 per cent in 2015-16, mainly due to slump in manufacturing, mining and construction sectors. However, the data did not factor in ‘volatile’ post-demonetisation figures.

The report said the service sector growth rate is indeed having a significant downward bias. It said sectors like construction, real estate, cement and FMCG are likely to witness a double-digit decline in sales in the third quarter.

The possible solace could be that the companies in the construction sector with a high share of government orders are likely to be less impacted, it said.

“On the whole, the upside to a lower than anticipated GDP estimate in the current financial year will give the government a first mover advantage in terms of a higher than normal trend nominal GDP in the financial year 2017-18.”

This may allow an absolute expansion in fiscal deficit numbers for the financial year 2017-18, without harming the fiscal deficit ratio in totality, it added.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter

In Mumbai, Kanhaiya Kumar and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani give a boost to sanitation workers’ rally

January 7, 2017

Safai karamcharis in Maharashtra have not been paid minimum wages for nearly two years, and are demanding an end to the contract system.

As a sanitation worker employed on contract to clean drains in Mumbai, Shivaji Bhadekar is entitled to a monthly minimum wage of Rs 14,000. But he has never been paid more than Rs 7,000 a month for the past two years, despite attending numerous union rallies to demand minimum wages for safai karamcharis (sanitation workers).

But on Friday afternoon, at a protest rally of more than 2,000 sweepers, garbage collectors, sewer cleaners and dumping ground workers at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, Bhadekar felt more upbeat and hopeful than ever. “Seeing the atmosphere this time, I am 100% confident that our demands will finally be met,” he said.

The special atmosphere in Friday’s rally was largely due to the presence of young leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani as chief guests at the union rally. Kumar, former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, shot to national fame last year after the Delhi police briefly arrested him for alleged anti-national sloganeering. Mevani, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the main leaders of the Dalit agitation in Gujarat after four Dalit leather tanners were assaulted by cow protection vigilantes in July 2016.

More than 2,000 safai karamcharis from across Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra attended the rally on Friday. Photo: Aarefa Johari

The two leaders attended the rally to give a boost to a long-standing protest by Maharashtra’s safai karamcharis, who have not been paid minimum wages for the past 22 months. Protesters also demanded an end to the contract labour system in sanitation work.

“We have been crying ourselves hoarse about these demands in so many protests and rallies, but our voices are never usually heard,” said Vijay Dalvi, a union leader speaking at the rally. “This time, with Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani here, even the media has come to cover us.”

Seeking justice

According to the Kachra Vahtuk Shramik Sangh, which organised Friday’s rally, there are at least 6,500 sanitation workers in Mumbai, and more than 35,000 across Maharashtra. The vast majority of these workers are not directly employed by municipal bodies, but hired as temporary contract labour by private companies.

Contractors routinely deny safai karamcharis their most basic rights, including timely minimum wages, paid leave, medical expenses, protective masks, gloves, boots and other gear. Since the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 allows all contract workers the right to demand permanent jobs after 240 days of service, contractors are also known to employ devious tricks – like offering only 210-day contracts – to circumvent the law.

In February 2015, the Maharashtra government announced that municipal workers would get Rs 14,000 as monthly minimum wages. However, most contract workers who keep municipal areas clean have been paid a mere Rs 7,000 or Rs 9,000 a month for the past 22 months. “The arrears of the minimum wages of the last 22 months in Mumbai are Rs 110,000 per worker,” said Milind Ranade, a leader of the Kachra Vahtuk Shramik Sangh. Meanwhile, the Thane and Nashik Municipal Corporations owe workers Rs 121,000 each as arrears, the Satara civic body owes Rs 198,000 and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation owes workers Rs 83,600.

If municipal bodies are also made to pay workers the fine levied for not paying minimum wages, every worker in Mumbai would be entitled to arrears worth Rs 11 lakh for the past 22 years.

Speeches by the stars

At the rally, Kanhaiya Kumar was introduced to the protesters as the leader for whom Mumbai’s safai karamcharis had collected Rs 10,000 last year, so that he could pay the fine imposed on him by JNU after he was released from jail. Kumar led the crowds in chanting his popular “Azadi” slogans, and began his speech with some Marathi.

Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani were media magnets at the rally.

“You are all aware that the contractors who employ you are the ones pocketing your minimum wages,” said Kumar. “But you have the power not only to clean the garbage of this city, but also the garbage in the minds of the politicians who ask for your votes.”

Mevani, who is leading a similar agitation of sanitation workers in Gujarat, used his speech to tear into the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. “When Swachh Bharat was launched, the prime minister and big Bollywood stars posed for photos in which they pretended to sweep roads,” said Mevani, who went on to ask workers to stay firm in their demand for minimum wages, even if they had to strike work. “Don’t worry about garbage accumulating on the roads, because if that happens, all those Bollywood stars will be inspired by Swachh Bharat and clean it themselves.”

Posters mocking the central government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at the rally.

Equal pay for equal work

Besides demanding minimum wages and arrears, sanitation workers at the rally also demanded an implementation of the October 2016 Supreme Court judgement allowing temporary contract workers to receive equal pay for equal work. This would mean that contracted safai karamcharis would be entitled to the same monthly wage of Rs 24,000 as their counterparts employed by Mumbai’s municipal corporation.

More than just equal pay as temporary workers, however, the workers’ union demanded an end to the contract labour system altogether, and permanent jobs for safai karamcharis directly with municipal bodies.

“The contractors don’t treat us as humans, and offer no support at all in cases of accidents, which happen quite frequently when we work in the gutters,” said Sachin Goru, a drainage worker in central Mumbai who suffered a rib fracture when he accidentally fell inside a gutter while on the job two years ago. Because the injury has not healed fully, Goru can now only work short half shifts. “The contractor has now reduced my wages by half, but till today, I haven’t received any money for my many medical expenses.”

Drainage workers like Shivaji Bhadekar and Sachin Goru wore black bands over their mouths to protest their silenced voices.

Mangesh Kamble, another drainage worker, claimed that many contractors do not even keep official records or time logs of sanitation workers’ hours. “This allows contractors to claim in labour courts that we were not working with them at all, or that we were employed as labour in their private shops, not for sanitation work,” said Kamble. “For a while, my contractor has also not been giving payment slips for the salary, and it turned out that the PF [Provident Fund] documents they gave us were fraudulent.”

Through the rally, the workers’ union hoped to get a meeting directly with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, to put forth their demands. However, the union has now been granted a meeting with the state’s chief secretary on January 10.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

जमालुद्दीन के परिवार के 11 शव उठे तो रो पड़ा अमेठी…

January 7, 2017

अमेठी। जिले के थाना बाजार शुक्ल के गाँव महोना में मंगलवार की देर रात हुई एक ही परिवार के 11 लोगो की दिल दहलाने वाली दर्द नाक मौत से पूरा इलाका सहम गया। इस दिल दहला देने वाली वारदात के करीब 24 घंटे बाद वारदात के शिकार हुए लोगों के पोस्टमार्टम से लौटे शवों को बेहद ग़मगीन माहौल में सुपुर्दे खाक कर दिया गया।

इस ग़मज़दा माहौल में शरीक होने के लिए सैकड़ों की संख्या में इलाके के लोग समाजसेवी और नेता मौजूद रहे। वहीँ बुधवार को इस हादसे के बाद स्थानीय लोगों के उपद्रव की घटना से सबक लेते हुए बड़ी संख्या में पुलिस बल मौके पर मौजूद रहा।

11 शवों को एक साथ किया गया सुपुर्दे ख़ाक
आत्मा को झकझोर देने वाली इस वारदात के शिकार हुए लोगों के पोस्टमार्टम से लौटे शवों का उनके पुस्तैनी गांव पुरे बहादुर (दौलतपुर निसूरा ) परम्परागत रूप से अंतिम संस्कार कर दिया गया। एक साथ खोदी गयी 11 कब्रों को देखकर लोग दहल उठे और हर कोई उस मनहूस घड़ी को कोसने लगा जिस पल इतना बड़ा नरसंहार हुआ। सुपुर्दे ख़ाक की कार्यवाही में नमाजे जनाजा सुन्नी जामा मस्जिद व ईद गाह पेश इमाम हाफिज इसरार ने पढाई व दुवाए मगफिरत के लिए दुआ माँगी।नमाजे जनाजा में सैकड़ो से अधिक तादात में लोगो ने नमाज अदा की व मगफिरत की दुआए मांगी।

घटना मंगलवार की देर रात अमेठी जनपद की है के थाना शुकुल बाज़ार इलाके के महोना गाँव में हुई। इस परिवार के 11 लोगों की हत्या हुई है जबकि पुलिस इसको आर्थिक तंगी के चलते आत्महत्या कदम करार दे रही है और मीडिया में भी कुछ इस तरह की कहानी चल रही है।

10 लोगों की गला रेतकर दर्दनाक हत्या और प्राथमिक तौर पर इस घटना का ज़िम्मेदार माने जाने वाले मुखिया जमालुद्दीन ने जिन अपने ही परिवार के जिन 10 लोगों का कत्ल किया उनमें जमालुद्दीन ने अपनी बेटी आफरीन 18 वर्ष,मरियम 11 वर्ष,सानिया 8 वर्ष उज्मा 5 वर्ष के अलावा भाई की पत्नी हुस्ना बानो 35 वर्ष और उसकी बेटी रुबीना 17 वर्ष तहसीन बानो 8 और अपने एक और भाई रईस की पत्नी तब्बसुम 30 वर्ष के साथ उसकी भी बेटियों महक 7 वर्ष और निगार 6 वर्ष फातिमा 6 वर्ष का बेरहमी से कत्ल करने के बाद खुद भी फांसी लगाकर जान दे दी। इस भीषण नरसंहार में जमालुद्दीन के घर की 10 महिलाओं और खुद जमालुद्दीनन को मिलाकर 11 लोगों की मौत हो गयी।

Courtesy: National Dastak

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Meghalaya MLA Julius K Dorphang arrested for allegedly raping minor girl

ब्राह्मण प्रवक्ता पार्टी ! – रविश कुमार

Watch: Hijab-clad woman, family called ‘bunch of terrorists’ in United States

पंजाब में दलितों को दलितों से ही लड़ा रही है भाजपा

Internal report confirms sexual harassment charges against Chhattisgarh IG, but no action taken yet

'If we do not hear of any action on the report, I will take it to the higher levels,' vows the complainant.

How it started

A nightmare

The last straw

No option

‘No comment’

Note-ban impact: SBI Research predicts GDP for FY17 down to 6.7%

In Mumbai, Kanhaiya Kumar and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani give a boost to sanitation workers’ rally

Safai karamcharis in Maharashtra have not been paid minimum wages for nearly two years, and are demanding an end to the contract system.

Seeking justice

Speeches by the stars

Equal pay for equal work

जमालुद्दीन के परिवार के 11 शव उठे तो रो पड़ा अमेठी…

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