Karnataka : FIR Registered Against Mohammad Nalapad

The police have registered an FIR against Mohammad Nalapad, the Bengaluru district youth Congress leader and son of Shantinagar MLA N A Haris in Karnataka, 

Mohammad Nalapad has been charged for allegedly beating up a person along with 10 of his supporters in a restaurant last night in UB city of Bengaluru. He has also been accused of threatening the victim at a hospital not to register any police complaint. The state Congress has already expelled Nalapad from the party for six years. 

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has tweeted that he has directed the police to take action as per the rules. Nalapad's whereabouts were not known. The man, identified as Vidwat, has been hospitalised, police said. Nalapad, General Secretary of Bengaluru District Youth Congress, is the son of Shantinagar MLA N A Harris.

According to the FIR, Nalapad and 10 of his supporters thrashed Dollars Colony resident Vidwath after a heated exchange. Vidwath, who already had a fractured leg, was rushed to a nearby hospital, but Nalapad and his supporters reportedly followed him there and threatened against pressing charges.

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Five killed, Four injured in blast at Cochin Shipyard

In Kerala, five workers were killed and four injured in a blast that occurred in the maintenance dock of Cochin Shipyard today. The blast occurred inside ONGC ship, Sagar Bhusan which was under maintenance in the dock.
All the injured workers have been admitted to hospital. The condition of one injured is reportedly critical. The situation is under control now as per official reports. The deceased were believed to be contract workers.
Minister of Shipping, Nitin Gadkari has directed MD Cochin Shipyard to provide all medical support to victims and initiate enquiry into the incident. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condoled the death of the five persons in the blast.

Three injured people have been admitted to a private hospital here, a CSL official said adding that the condition of one of them, who suffered 40 per cent burns, is stated to be critical.
The CSL spokesperson earlier today said 11 people trapped inside the ship were evacuated and rushed to city hospitals.
City Police Commissioner M P Dinesh visited the accident site and said those trapped on the ship were evacuated and the situation was under control now.
The blast reportedly occurred in a water tank on the front side of the ship docked in the yard for repair.
The incident occurred at around 10 AM when those on the vessel were about to deboard it for breakfast break.

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Pune's Blackberry Experiment To Go Global

After having won accolades from the government and people alike, the traff-i-cop experiment started in the city is set to reach to international level. The designers of the Blackberry-based system presented it to a conference in Orlando and countries like Bermuda are looking at it for the implementation.

"Right now Kolkata and states like Assam, Punjab and Gujarat have asked us for the implementation of this system. In a conference at Orlando, US, the company officials had a presentation on this system to which Bermuda has responded positively,” said Hitesh Shah, Director, Commercial Relationship India of Research In Motion (RIM), the producers of the Blackberry. The conference was organised by RIM for its worldwide partners showing their applications where traff-i-cop was applauded by all.

In November 2009, the traff-i-cop system was experimented by the Pune Traffic police with the application for the system developed by Omni Bridge Systems, a city based company. The system envisages tracking down the traffic offenders with the help of Blackberry. Initially the project was meant to be for three months but it was extended to 13 months.

"Right now we are in talks with the Pune police, RTO and other officials. Even though it is away from public glare, the work is underway to update the system and removing whatever shortcoming which came or might come in future,” said Shah.

The application has been awarded ‘Best innovative project/technological application’ by Ministry of Urban Development last week.  By using this application, traffic police could easily identify the offenders and trace them real time. Now, this is set to be used for detecting the stolen vehicles which are taken to other cities.

"National Informatics Centre (NIC) is digitising the databases of all Regional Transport Offices in the state. Once it will be available on the server, the stolen vehicles or vehicles found violating traffic norms will also be traced easily,” said Amit Shitole, director of the Omni Bridge Systems Pvt. Ltd.

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The Shocking Announcement …In More Sense Than One

On the eve of the Ganesh festival in Maharashtra, the police, Chief Minister and media all have come with this 'shocking' announcement…that two terrorists are roaming in the street and cause havoc. Now in a state where a history-sheeter with two criminal cases against his name and known links with banned outfit Students Islamic of India can roam freely for two years, it is not a news that two terrorists have arrived in Mumbai in a bid to carry out their violent plans.

Joint Police Commissioner Himanshu Roy told reporters that intelligence reports received by the police and state home department said the pair -- said to be a Bangladeshi and a Pakistani -- entered Mumbai sometime ago.

The police fear that the two may carry out attacks during the Ganesh festival, which is celebrated in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra on a grand scale.

What was more dreadful for me was the manner in which the officials went public with the information which, as has come out, seems little helping towards nabbing the terrorists. Probably the administration was buoyed by the success in arresting two main conspirators in German Bakery blast cast, as was claimed just a day ago by the same police. Now if the officials could carry out that operation with such swift and silent moves, what stopped them from doing same in this case?

Exactly what type of precaution did the officials wanted the public to take while issuing the alert to citizens in this manner. Does the administration think that their alert will be consumed only by common public and not the men whom they are searching or who have given them the shelter? If they want to create panic, they have succeeded. Alert citizens are not made through panicky notifications. They are made through the consistent efforts, which sadly lacked all through these years.

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Announcements Galore, Now For Some Action!

Maharashtra government has acquired the habit of taking course to law books whenever the situation seems to go out of control. Giving a classic example of this, the state government has recommended to central government for more punishment for crimes against women.

Home Minister R. R. Patil said in Legislative Council,

"We would send a proposal to the Centre to increase punishment to perpetrators of crime against women and strengthen the laws.

The minister also announced to set up a Women Security Committee comprising women doctors, lawyers, professors and NGO representatives.

Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe had raised the issue of rise in number of crime cases against women in the state. While Gorhe claimed that

The crime rate against women has gone up by 5.4 per cent in Pune region alone and the government should address the issue.

Patil claimed something otherwise. He said that the crime rate in the state has come down in the last three years.

 

With the controversies over shielding the criminals making it to headlines, it would be better for Patil to reign in the culprits. But as he is accustomed to, he will be more bent on making announcements which hardly can come into reality. For the time being, game of statistics is on while people are scared in the city as well as state.

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Burning Miraj Comes to Peace

Ganesh Immersion in City Tomorrow 

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other Hindu organisations have voiced their objection over the riots in Miraj and Sangli. According to press releases issued by the organisations, murder of Afzal Khan was one of the illustrious incidents of the history of Maharashtra and India. There is hardly any counterpoint against this argument.  The riots in the southern part of the state were a unfortunate development.  Statement from the Hindu organisations have come one day after Gopinath Munde, leader of Bharatiya Janata Party was prohibited from visiting three cities by Sangli district administration.

Meanwhile, curfew in was relaxed in Sangli, Miraj and Ichalkaranji on Wednesday, as the situation was gradually improving. Communal clashes had broken out at in Miraj town and Sangli city last week. 

Trouble started on September 2 (a day before Anant Chaturdashi), when some pro-Hindutva organisations tried to raise an arch on the immersion procession route, depicting the killing of the Mughal warrior Afzal Khan by Maratha King Shivaji. This led to group clashes. According to primary reports, Muslim groups took objection to this.. But now it is clear that the police department was main hurdle in the erection of this structure. It was destroyed which gave way to riots. After three days, the fire spread to nearby cities. The gravity of the situation can be gauged by the fact that Sangli is hometown of Maharashtra's home minister Jayant Patil.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan had convened an all party meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday in this regard. A deal was struck in the meeting. Meanwhile, Sarvajanik Ganesh mandal representatives in Miraj have decided to immerse the idols tomorrow during 10:30 to 11:00 AM

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Reigning the Foreigners

Pune Police Issue Notices to College Authorities

After having a field day in the city, the foreign students in Pune are facing the heat. The foreigners registration branch of Pune police has turned its focus on the foreign students residing in Pune.

The Foreigners' Registration Office (FRO) has issued notices to college authorities in city to provide information about foreign students. The notices have been issued to keep a check on the activities of foreign students.

There are 23,432 foreign nationals registered in Pune, of which 14,800 are students. The issue has assumed importance in view of the heightened security measures in the country as well as the city. Even today, there was a bomb hoax call in the Fergusson College and Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple.

This is the second step of the measures against the foreign students in Pune. The Pune police had issued notices to more than 100 students in the month of December. The notice was given because the students were living in the city without permission.

Interestingly, I had given a story of how the number of foreign students is dwindling in the city and those of others is increasing. The reason attributed are large numbers of companies in Pune which employ foreigners. In the past, the city had overseas visitors mainly because of Osho Ashram in Koregaon Park area. But it is thing of the past now. While the persons in IT and other industries come mostly from European countries, those from Sudan, Nigeria and other African countries constitute the students.

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Police a Tired Lot

Two BJP Bigwigs in Two Days

For the last three days, I am in Nanded. Like other class C cities in the Maharashtra, Nanded is also agog with the talk of elections. There seems nothing else to discuss for media except the political gossiping and guessing games. Unfortunately though, the public is not concerned much with the goings on in that field. They are more concerned with the heat created by sun rather than the election fever. The mercury here has almost touched 42 degrees Celsius and it is still only the first week of April. The summer season lasts till the June 7th and as happens each passing year, the rising temperature will post new records.

Thanks to the strict implementation of the code of conduct for polls, or the fear of it at least, has kept the poll frenzy to the minimum. The posters, loudspeakers, party workers visiting the households several times in a day and vehicles studded with stickers and posters…all these visuals are not there on the streets this time because nobody wants to offend the election officers.

Today, L. K. Advani addressed a rally in Deglur, some 100 kilometres from Nanded. The rally was attended by a large gathering, we were told by local people. I was in Deglur today morning itself. I could sense the enthusiasm in the local people with respect to this rally. But I suspect how many people actually turned out at the site. One reason why Advani might have decided to hold a rally in this small town with population barely touching a lakh (0.1 million) is its proximity to the Andhra Pradesh. Deglur is a boundary town between Maharashtra and Andhra. It has a sizeable population with people knowing Telugu and some towns in Andhra are barely two hours away from here.

A large number of policemen were deputed in the town for the security arrangement of the BJP leader. The police personnel were brought here last night. The rally was scheduled in the morning 9:30 am but was started only in the afternoon. It was over at 3:00 pm and poor policemen were relieved in 4:00 pm. But they were not supposed to enjoy their freedom as Narendra Modi, another VVIP is in Nanded tomorrow to address another election rally. Some policemen were heard talking to their colleagues deputed at the airport for the next day. The rally will take place at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium.

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Clashes on Shivneri Fort

12 policemen, 20 activists injured

Fort Shivneri, where Chhatrapati Shivaji was born Image Courtesy WikiMedia

The fort of Shivneri witnessed yet another battlelike situation on Thursday as thousands of activists clashed with police. The activists of Sambhaji Bridage were demanding reservation Demonstrators demanding reservation for Maratha community. They pelted stones in the direction of helicopter carrying Maharashtra's finance minister Dilip Walse-Patil at Shivneri.

Three activists of Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade and a policeman are reported injured in the clashes. The orgnisation had warned the state government if the quota for their community was not announced, they would not allowed the chief minister Ashok Chavan to step his foot on the fort. When Chavan was to arrive there, the acivists turned unruly and hurled stones at the helicopter. Police lathi-charged the protesters.

Maharashtra government has declared Feb. 19th as the Shiv Jayanti, birth day of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Though organisations and parties like Shiv Sena differ on the matter and they celebrate the day as per Hindu calendar. A ceremony took place on this fort where Shivaji was born in 1627. Walse-Patil's chopper was landing when the trouble began. Officials said, Chavan's helicopter arrived there around half an hour later.

PTI has quoted Pune rural police superintendent Ravindra Kadam that although stones were thrown, they did not hit the helicopter and by the time Chavan landed, the situation had been brought under control.

Earlier, three activists of Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade and a policeman were injured when the police indulged in lathi charge as the protesters turned unruly and hurled stones at a government helicopter that landed before the Chief Minister's chopper in the fort.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Chavan said that an all party meet would be convened next week to take a decision on this contentious issue. A meeting in this regard took place in Mumbai on Wednesday night and it was reported that the said agitation was called off after a promise given by Chavan.

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