A Dose of Protest from Doctors

It has been more than four months after central government cancelled the licenses of three government units producing vaccines. It has been creating its effect and the prices of vaccines are expected to be hiked. Now, an organisation from Pune has decided to oppose the decision and approach public representatives to raise their voices.

Union government cancelled the production of three units producing vaccines in BCG Vaccine Laboratory at Guindy, Chennai; the Pasteur Institute, Coonoor and the Central Research Institute, Kasauli on account of bad manufacturing practises. These units were producing vaccines for BCG, TT and DPT. They will be produced henceforth from Vaccines and Science Park, which is being erected at Chennai. It is expected to come up upto 2011 and will cost about Rs. 300 crores.

The plan has come under the fire as allegations have been labeled regarding a close nexus between Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and a private vaccine manufacturing company. The ministry has not only stopped the production from existing units, it has also ordered to pull out the existing stock from the market. It has not even assigned any reasons thereof.

Interestingly, government has iniated Expanded Program for Immunization on account of which demand-supply gap has increased. In view of this, the prices of vaccines are expected to increase. Dr. Abhijeet Vaidya, Arogy Sena, said, "While the government produces DTP (triple dose) cost Rs. 2.25, it cost Rs. 3 now. In cases of vaccines like Hepatitis, which government does not make, the prices are as high as Rs. 32 to 180 for children and Rs. 52 to Rs. 323 for adults. Therefore it seems a ploy by government to create shortage and benefit private companies."

The organisation however is not sitting idle and aims to approach member of Parliaments, political leaders and organisations so that they can create pressure to revoke the decision by union government.
The increase in the price was confirmed by Dr. Avinash Bhondave, president of Indian Medical Association and who is actively involved in vaccination drive. "The prices of vaccines have been increased by 20 percent over the years. Supply of DPT vaccines does not fall short, but supply of vaccines for measles and rabies is not sufficient."

(Published in Pune Mirror on 9 june 2008)

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Addicted to Orkut? or MySpace instead? There is danger ahead. As the Pune is poised to become a Cyber City, it is also home to most crimes targeted against women in the cyber world. The commonest of all the abuses are posting duplicate or bogus profiles on the social networking sites causing harassment to women.

The fact has been revealed by experts in the field and also police records. According to Vishal Kumar, legal consultant with city based Asian School of Cyber Laws, "This is the most common of cyber crimes found in Pune. Unfortunately not much cases are reported with police and thus escape the public eye. But as a consultant firm and private investigator, we can surely say that this is the biggest problem in the city.

The record available with police says it clearly. Out of the 50-odd crime registered in the city since IT Act came into existence, some 13 offences pertain to harassment of girls and women. In the last six years, one fourth of the registered cyber crimes fall under this category. Remaining two thirds of the crime include all types of offence ranging from credit card theft and misuse to data and source code theft.

These include creating false profiles on orkut, sending obscene mails, text messages and pictures. "Registered crimes are just tip of the iceberg. We sometimes get complaints or just applications to block a particular site. In most of the cases, girls do not come forward for various reasons. They fear their image being maligned," said Chandrakant Thakur, assistant police inspector in the cyber crime branch."

One worrying aspect in cyber crimes pertaining to creating obscene profiles is large number of ‘unidentified’ culprits. Cyber sleuths say they can trace an offending PC’s Internet Protocol number. But if it happens to be from an internet cafe, which usually do not keep detailed records of users, the culprit can not be traced. It lefts victims with the only option of removing the offending site form the cyber world.

Vishal Kumar says since student community is high in the Pune, it is obvious that such types of crimes do happen. But he has a word of solace to the citizens also. "Cyber crimes do happen everywhere, but in Pune the awareness for the same is very high. This is a good factor in all this story."

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Major Cases In Pune

7/10/03
Accused sent many obscene emails to the victim and threatened to send it to police, so that the matter is reported in the press girl’s image gets maligned. The accused also asked Rs. 15,000 to settle the matter.

10/10/03
One identified man posted a bogus profile of one girl on internet with obscene photos and content.

27/03/07
Accused used to call the victim on phone in filthy language. He thereafter posted an obscene profile showing the girl as call girl.

28/06/07
A girl student posted an obscene profile of her friend as a call girl. The profile contained all the details of the friend. The victim who was from a business family in Kothrud, filed a complaint with police. Investigations revealed that the incidence occurred out of love triangle.

6/09/07
One unidentified person sent nude and obscene photos of a woman to her colleagues and relatives so as to malign her.

4/01/2008
A woman’s cell no. was posted in the RediffBol chat tool in the Pune group. The woman was mentioned as a call girl and another no. was given as her pimp who was actually her father-in-law. The culprit remains unidentified.

1/02/2008
One unidentified person sent obscene and threatening mails to a student of MIT college. When the girl blocked his mails, the person posted some derogatory scraps on two of her friend’s Orkut account. The person also threatened to beat the two guys also.

March 2008
A girl was sent obscene emails and her duplicate profile was created on Orkut. Even numbers from the family members of the girl were given on the profile who in turn began received obscene calls.

(Published in Pune Mirror on 30 April)

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While Maharashtra government has started an ambitious project to implement e-governance scheme in all its office, it is experiencing a manpower crunch. As the government is finding it difficult to offer competitive remuneration to IT professionals, it has devised a novel way to find the candidates: hire them from other offices.

State department of Information and Technology has sent a letter to various departments to send applications for an appointment on deputation to work on state e-governance project, called as SETU. The applications have been invited from state government and semi-government employees and even from local bodies.

According to Waman Kale, who is in charge of the process of Department of Information and technology, Maharashtra, told Pune Mirror from Mumbai, "IT professionals come to us and once they get the experience, they leave the department for greener pastures in private companies. It has seriously hampered our number of projects. As this plan is a very new one, we want to work on it without interruption. So we have devised this way of to incorporate other government servants with It skills to implement our projects."

Kale said, "There are lot of e-governance projects going on in the state and Pune also. Our aim is to work paperless but it is a distant dream as of now. This is a part of the national e-governance project."

While expressing inability to say exactly how much shortage of men the department is facing, Kale said that we have just invited the applications and we will depute the employees depending on the response we get." Under the national e-governance scheme, state government is required to create Maharashtra State Wide Area Network (MSWAN), Common Service Centre (CSC) and Data Centres.
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Departments to be covered
under State E-governance projects
· Agriculture
· Commercial Taxes
· e-District
· Employment Exchange
· Land Records
· Municipalities
· Panchayats
· Police
· Property Registration
· Road Transport
· Treasuries

(Published in Pune Mirror on 23 April)

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A Bhandar of Controversies

Till now, people used to talk about Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute as a place of scholars. But for the last one month, they are witness to an ugly brawl of accusations and re-accusations between various parties. The premier institute in indology is now in the midst of a fight which is attributed to the power struggle in the institute. The thing settles to one thing : the contrlo of the grant of Rs. 7.5 Crores which BORI, is getting from central government.

Election is being conducted for BORI’s executive council on 5 June. For 25 seats in the institute, a total of 48 candidates are in the fray. The main players in this election are M. G. Dadhphale, present honourary secretary of the institute and Saroja Bhate and Dr. Lila Arjuwadkar, ex-honourary secretary. While Dhadphale is facing accusations from all quarters ranging from misappropriation of the funds to patronising encorachments, he refutes the charge that rival camp is making the charges keeping in view impending elections.

The issue came to surface on 5 May when Bhate and Arjunwadkar announced a one day silent protest against an alleged ‘encroachment’ in the institute. The matter was related to Green Glory Nursery, which was given a place in the premise on a one year lease. The lease period was over in January 08 still the nursery has not moved out. Bhate and Arjunwadkar camp alleges that Dhadphale is patronising this encroachment. Dhadphale refutes the charge and claims that he had issued notice to nursery. Meanwhile, Surekha Pathak, who runs this nursery has alleged that her nursery has made a scapegoat in the internal politics of the institute.

Commenting about the controvesy, Saroja Bhate, a member of the Executive Body of the institute, said, "We are not in conflict with Dhadphale but we have some points to make. First he cliamed that he has bought Rs. 11 Cores to institute, then he came to Rs. 7 crore and now he is settling on Rs. 5 Crores. This grant is government’s decision, he has no hand in it. He does not have any document to prove his claims and our information is that Rs. 2 Crore which were to be received for digitization project have returned because the money was not used as stipulated. He is not convening meeting and information aboout anything is not provided. Angered with Dhadphale’s this style of functioning, all members of the executive body had resigned last year."

Bhate expressed unhappiness over this controversy bringing disrepute to institute. "Each one of us is trying to avoid any harm being done to the image of BORI. We are approching the press. But in this situation, what more can we do," she asked.

Leela Arjunwadkar, who has stood against Dhadphale said, "The institute has run into mismanagement in all respect. Dhadphale even does not give any information about anything. He does not honour even senior members. Even in his earlier stint in 2002-05, the institute was better. After that, he claimed that he has changed for the better. When I asked him how can he say so, he couldn’t say anything."

Arjunwadkar said that for the last two years, there has been no commendable research in the institute. The image of the institute has been spoiled bacause of the various controversies, which was never happened in the past . "Dhadphale’s claims about bringing the grant on his own as well as about the status of the nursery were challenged. In BORI, General Body is supreme. Then come Regulating Council and Executive Body. Secretary is only a chief executive officer. Still he functions as though he is responsible to none. Even our election are staring in the face and still there is no scrutinizer for the process, which is mandatory by the rules."

M. G. Dhadphale could not be contacted in his office as well as his residence even after repeated attempts.
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This is not the only issue dragged to the public glory. Court cases to money matters, the drama involves all.
Just a week ago, distirct magistrate S. S. Phanasalkar-Joshi dismissed a resolution passed by the excutive body of the institute prohibiting Dhadphale from functioning as honorary secretary.

A controversy is raging wherein new applications for life membership are pending for over six months. G. T. Panse, executive board chairman of the institute have accused Dhadphale for this saying he is not following the statuary rules. Dhadphale has obviously refused the charges. The issue assumes siginificanse as more than 1,600 life members eligible for votijg in the election.

Pandit Vasantrao Gadgil and Dhadphale were involved in a controversy some time ago as ‘differences’ among them caused a delay in payment of the salary to employees. Folowing some exchanges between them, Pt. Gadgil offered to resign from the post of treasurer but later resented and cancelled the offer.
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The new governing council will control the use of grant money announced by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in his budget for the year 2007-08. The raging controversies are attributed to the full flowing coffers of the institute. After the vandalization of the institute in January 2004, it has survived on the limited funds which came largely from the state government.

Some three months back, Bori received Rs 5 crore as a first instalment of the Rs 7.5-crore share that came its way through the Rs 30-crore special grants announced in the Union Budget 2007, for four premier institutions in the country.

Apart from this special grant, Chidambaram had announced a grant of Rs. 2 crore grant during his visit to theb institute in December 2006 for the digitisation of rare manuscripts and books.

Chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murthy had donated Rs 20 lakh to the institute.

National Manuscript Mission too has donated Rs 5 lakh for preservation of the 29 rare Rigveda manuscripts that have figured in the UNESCO’s ‘World Memory’ list.

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A Drive to the Discipline

"The employees of the call centres indulge in sexual acts in their premise and we have no objection to it. But they should behave properly in our cabs. That is why we have made this code of conduct to be followed in all BPO employees," says Nana Kshirsagar, heading Maharashtra Call Centre Chalak Malak Sanghtana (association of owners and drivers of call centres.) The organisation, which was formed some two months ago, has called for a strike on 19 May which means on Monday most of the call centre vehicles will remain off the road.

While Kshirsagar has attributed various reasons for the strike, including getting raw treatment in terms of payment and facilities, his organisation has finalised a code of conduct for the call centre employees who travel by the cabs. The code is meant to bring ‘discipline’ in the employees of the BPOs and according to Kshirasagar, "to avoid untoward incidences which have taken place in the past."

"The conduct of these employees should be scrutinized on the lines of Rajneesh followers. Our drivers suffer most because of their behaviour. We have been witness to hugging, kissing and all sorts of acts. That’s why we are demanding this code," said Kshirsagar.

Some drivers attested Kshirsagar’s claims. Namdeo Ghorpade, whose cab is running for IBM domestic BPO on Fursungi road said that drivers get raw deal in BPOs. While maltreatment at the hands of company and employees is rampant, it is the behaviour in the cab itself that is a cause of concern. "We do not get enough sleep. Still employees insist on going. They do act in such a manner that we get distracted. We are witness to such acts."

Salim Khan, who plies cab in Vishrantwadi area has another story. He said, "Companies does not provide us a lateral list of pick up and drops. Areas in different directions are given to us. When two or thre men-women employees are in vehicle, they talk obscenity with intention. But we are not supposed to see their acts or hear their conversations. Glasses of Tavera cabs are being covered with cloth, that is a regular practise."

Still, some like Santosh Jain, who plies cab in Hinjwadi area seem not encountered this behaviour. He said, "I am in this strike for payment rise. I have no problem with behaviours of BPO employees."
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Code of Conduct for employees

n Employees should not idulge in obscene behaviour in cabs.

n Ganja, hard drink, beer, cigarete, Hukka should not be consumed in the cabs.
n Women employees sitting in the cabs should wear clothes according to Indian culture.
n They should not use mobiles in running vehicles.
n Co-passengers and friends should not be taken in in vehicles.
n The vehicle should be used only for plying between home and office.
n Driver should not be pursued to drive to other locations.
n Insistence on playing music in the vehicle should be allowed.
n Conversation with drivers should be done only in Marathi and Hindi.

n Personal task should not be given to drivers.
n Driver should not be made to wait anywhere without reason.
n Friendship with drivers should be avoided and conversation with him should be minimum.
n Employees should not sleep in cabs.
n Vehicle should be cleaned by employees in case of vomitting, urinating and spitting.
n Employees should carry an identy card with him.

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The members of the Siddhivinayak Manas Co-operative Society are up in arms against their builder, Siddhivinayak Anutej Group. The members are opposing construction of a new road through the garden of their society and allege that builder has used muscle power to crush their opposition.

The 180 member society witnessed some stressful moments on Thursday as the friction between builder and members took a violent turn. According to a complaint filed with the Abhiruchi police chowky, some 50 to 60 goons were allegedly sent by the builder to threaten the members. A wall in the sounthern direction of the building was borken to pave the way for construction of the phase 2 of the builder’s project.

Surendra Bhosale, chairman of the society said, "The builder firm have four parteners viz. Vijay Agarwal, Sursh Aiyar, Sunil alias Pavan Mittal and Dhavan. They had promised us that society will have a compund wall on four sides and a garden will be in the middle. Now they want to pave the way for this new road. Yesterday we tried to oppose the goons but they manhandled and abused us and even misbehaved with women in the society."

Meanwhile, Sunil Mittal, one of the partners of the firm described these accusations as malicious and false. He said that the firm has nothing to do with the incidence as the road in dispute does not fall in the area of their work. He even accused that the members of the society are trying to exert pressure on them to extort money.

This is only one of the cases where consumers and builders are standing face to face. The complaints against the builder community are on the rise. Said Suryakant Pathak of Grahak Panchayat, "Builders try to manage everything by lobbying. We have all types of complaints perataining to builders ranging from one flat selling to four people, cheating, selling apartments belonging to others or on another’s land."

Grahak Panchayat experienced so heavy an increase in complaints against the builders that it established a separate cell for the purpose. Informing about the situation, Vijay Sagar, who handles these compalainst, said, "We have some 50 cases each month in this category and we have identified about 53 ways in which builders cheat the consumers. There is no builder in Pune against whom there is not a complaint. These complaints belong to various categories like not giving the possession of the flat, asking more rate."

In his argument, Sagar cited a case of a businessman from Gujrat who paid Rs. 28 lakhs for a flat. After the completion of the flat, builder refused to hand over the possession and asked Rs. 1 Lakh 76 thousand for additional charges. "Such cases are rampant," Sagar said. He also has advice for the consumers : never buy a property without purchase deed. "Among lakhs of buildings in the city, only 12,000 societies have been registered. Among these societies, only 2,500 purchase deeds have been registered," he said cautioning that consumer can lose his possession in the absence of purchase deed.
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Experts advise citizens to look for all the documents. There are many builders who promise the moon, but the right choice is always difficult. Before deciding on a apartment/flat, check if the builder has the following documents:

• Sale deed / Lease deed / Development Agreement
• Power of Attorney from the landowner, if a Development agreement is executed
• Layout approval
• Approved building plans
• Commencement certificate from Municipal Council / Corporation.
• N.A. permission and latest N.A. tax receipt.
• Latest 7 / 12 extract.
• Copy of ULC clearance certificate.
• Title report for the property under construction.
• Stamp Duty Cleareance Certificate.

(Publsihed in Pune Mirror on 18 May)

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No to Terrorism from Muslims in Pune

A Muslim organisation in Pune has come forward to repeat what was hailed as the historic declaration in Deoband in February. An anti-terrorism conference is being organised in the city which is just an extension of the Deoband development. The conference will see many scholars and activists from Muslim community debating the issue deeply.

All Maharashtra Rabta Madaarise Dinia, Pune is organising a one day conference in the city. The theme of this conference is anti-terrorism and overall development of the community. After the conference in Deoband condemned terrorism anti-Islamic, it was proposed that such types of discussions should be organised all over the country. Accordingly, the conference in Pune will be the first of its kind in the country after Deoband.

Mushtak Umar Patel, who was instrumental in bringing this conference to Pune said, "Actually this conference was scheduled to be held at Malegaon as it has large number of Muslim scholars. But we wanted it to be held here, as Pune has more number of Muslims pursuing modern education as well as scholars. Also anything happening here goes down to large people than in the other parts. We had to toil a lot for that but it is a pleasure to say that, yes, Pune is hosting the event."

Some 36 maulanas from all over Maharashtra have consented to attend the conference. They will dwell on the reasons behind the terrorism, problems affecting Muslim community and persuading the discontented youths away from the terrorism. Efforts will be done to spread the message to everyone. Maulana Abdul Aleem Farooqi of Darul Muballigheen, who was one of the speakers at Deoband conference on 25 February will be one of the speakers on the occasion.

The conference will be a community effort in all. While Patel and Maulana Nijamuddin Fakaruddin are looking after the organising responsibilities, big names like Amanulla Khan and Adv. A. Rahman, president of the Pune Cantonment Bar Association and Munawwar Pirbhoy, secretary of Haji Ghulam Mohammed Azam Education Trust have chipped in with their contributions.
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(Publsihed in Pune Mirror on 16 May 2008)
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Maulana Mohammad Abdulla Mughaisi from Meerat arrived at Mumbai airport from Delhi on Monday. But he was unwell and had to hospitalised in a private hospital. On Tuesday morning, he left the hospital against the advice from doctors and arrived in Pune. "It was the love and affection from Puneites that brought me here," he said after addressing a one day anti-terrorism seminar in the city.

About 500 to 600 muslim clerics all over the state today unanimously announced that there is no place in Islam to terrorism. Maulana Mugaisi who hails from Meerut was the key speaker at the event. All Maharashtra Rabta Madaarise Dinia, Pune had organised this seminar which deliberated for whole one day on various aspects of terrorism and ways to confront it.

Maulan Mughaisi, who is the president of All India Milli Council, said, "Terrorism activities of any kind are not Isalmic nor does it allows killing. Islam does not support terrorism and there is no place for anti-social activities in the religion. I can even say that those who indulge in such activities do not follow the path of Holy Quran." Warning that injustice makes a man take up the wrong path, he advised youth to take education and contribute to the progress of India.

Maulan Amanulla Khan called upon everybody to owe up the resposibility of eachone’s religious places. "Let’s keep an eye and enquire about the strangers coming to our shrines," he said.

Dilshad Jakhmi, himself a blind scholar from Delhi, won over everybody’s heart saying that Muslims are as much part of India as much anyone else. He said that everyone should come forward for the defence of the country.
Maulana Nizamuddin Khan from Pune also spoke at the occassion. Informing about the event, Mushtak Umar Patel said, "We were expecting just 300 persons in the seminar. But we were pleasently surprised that there were 500 persons coming from Nanded, Aurangabad, Akola, Malegaon and even Banglore and Delhi." The seminar ended with a prayer for the peace and wellbeing of Maharashtra and India.
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Resolutions Passed at Seminar
- Muslims in Pune city, district and state condemn all incidences of terrrorism and suicide attacks.
- Real culprits in such incidences should be brought to justice and innocent people should be harrased in the name of investigation.
- Muslim clerics and community should arrange such seminars and conferences all over the state in their respective cities and spread the mesasge of peace.
(Publsihed in Pune Mirror on 28 May 2008)

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