Don't resort to sorcerers - Oman Daily Observer

MUMBAI — The nationalist
party governing Mumbai has
handed out kitchen knives and
chilli powder to women following
the brutal New Delhi
assault that ignited a national
debate on the best way to tackle
sex crimes.
The Shiv Sena party, an
ally of the main opposition
BJP, said it had handed out
21,000 knives with three-inch
(7 cm) blades to women in the
city and surrounding areas and
plans to distribute 100,000.
Mumbai police said they
were examining the knives
and considering legal action.
“This is a symbolic gesture,”
said Shiv Sena spokesman
Rahul Narvekar, adding
that a knife shorter than six
inches in length does not fit
the definition of a weapon.
The party also handed out
small bags of chilli powder —
apparently to throw into an attacker’s
eyes.
“It’s only to pass a signal
to eve-teasers, anti-social elements
and perpetrators of
crime against women that
women are empowered and
they can take care of themselves,”
Narvekar said. Eveteasing
is a euphemism for
molesting women.
“Don’t be afraid of using
this knife if someone attacks
you,” Ajay Chaudhari, running
the knife campaign, was
quoted by the party newspaper,
Saamana, as saying. “We
have set up a team of nine
advocates to protect you from
any potential court cases.”
A 23-year-old physiotherapy
student was assaulted and
beaten on a moving bus before
being thrown bleeding on
a expressway in New Delhi.
Mumbai is generally considered
a safer city for women.
The attack and the student’s
death two weeks later caused
public outrage at the failure
of the government and police
to protect women from rising
sexual offences in a country
where one rape is reported on
average every 20 minutes.
In response, more women
are taking up self-defence
classes and carrying pepper
spray.
A government commission
set up to recommend revisions
to India’s sex crime laws this
week said women who kill an
attacker during a attempted
rape should be able to plead
self-defence.
8 INDIA
OMAN DAILY Observer
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2013
SIKH devotees carry the Palki Sahib — Sikh Holy Book — Guru Granth Sahib — during a procession at the Golden Temple in Amritsar yesterday on
the eve of the 331th Birth Anniversary of Sikh warrior, Shaheed Baba Deep Singh. The Gurdwara Shaheed Bunga Baba Deep Singh
at the Golden Temple commemorates the memory of Singh and his great deeds. — AFP
Rahul lagging behind Modi: poll
NEW DELHI — The ruling
Congress party is headed for
defeat in elections next year
with barely one in five voters
thinking Rahul Gandhi, its
likely candidate, would be the
best prime minister, a poll suggested
yesterday.
Gandhi — whose father,
grandmother and great-grandfather
have all served as prime
minister — is widely expected
to lead Congress into the polls
after being elevated to the post
of party vice-president last
weekend.
But only 22 per cent of voters
surveyed by the magazine
India Today said he would
make the best prime minister
— well behind the hardline
Hindu nationalist politician
Narendra Modi who had a 36
per cent rating.
The same poll showed the
left-leaning Congress and its
allies are on course to get 152-
162 seats in the 552-seat Lok
Sabha while the right-wing
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)
and its allies were projected to
get 198-208 seats.
The BJP’s Modi, who is
chief minister of the western
state of Gujarat, is widely seen
as pushing to lead the party into
the polls amid a fierce internal
power struggle.
The 42-year-old Gandhi
has often appeared less than
hungry for power after rejecting
repeated requests to take on
ministerial responsibilities.
But he is now his party’s
official number two behind his
mother Sonia and a senior min-
MUMBAI — Maharashtra
Governor K Sankaranarayanan
yesterday felicitated Prema
Jayakumar for topping the
chartered accountancy (CA)
examinations, an official said.
At a function in Raj Bhavan,
the governor awarded
Prema Rs 1 lakh and asked her
to take care of her parents, autorickshaw
driver Jayakumar
Perumal and his home-maker
ister said on Wednesday that
he was the party’s “consensus”
choice to be its prime ministerial
candidate in elections due
early next year. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, who is 80, is
not expected to stand in 2014.
The BJP chose the veteran
Rajnath Singh as its new president
earlier this week after the
scandal-plagued incumbent Nitin
Gadkari abruptly resigned.
But analysts expect Modi,
who was re-elected as Gujarat
chief minister for a third time
last month, to launch a bid
for the party leadership in the
coming months and few expect
Rajnath Singh to be the final
candidate.
Modi, whose humble roots
are in sharp contrast to Gandhi’s
privileged upbringing,
FIRE fighters works to put out a fire in a gutted building in a slum in Mumbai yesterday.
Six people died and several people were injured when a fire tore through a slum during
the early hours in the Mahim area of Mumbai, local media reported. — Reuters
‘End dual
pricing
for diesel’
CHENNAI — Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa
has urged Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh to immediately
end the dual pricing
in diesel, saying it hurt the
common man.
She also threatened to file
a case in the Supreme Court
if the central government
did not revoke the decision
to hike the diesel prices for
bulk consumers.
"I really wonder whether
there is any justification for
the partial decontrol of retail
diesel prices and the huge
increase in the price for bulk
consumer," she added.
Dated on January 24, the
text of the letter was released
to the media yesterday.
"In normal marketing
practice, it is the bulk consumers
who enjoy discounts.
All this leads me to question
what the true motive behind
these perverse decisions
could be.
The central government
has decided to hike diesel
price by Rs 11 a litre for bulk
consumers and 0.55 paise a
litre per month for retail consumers.
— IANS
wife, Lingammal.
Sankaranarayanan also
invited Prema, her younger
brother Dhanaraj and their
parents to attend the Republic
Day function with VVIPs at
Raj Bhavan today.
Prema was accompanied by
Dhanaraj — who also cleared
the CA exams in his first attempt
— and Ancy Jose, principal
of Nagindas Khandwala
remains a hugely divisive figure
as he was at the helm in
Gujarat during religious riots
in 2002 in which some 2,000
people were killed.
While the survey made
grim reading for Congress, it
also represents a blow for the
BJP as regional parties appear
to be the chief beneficiaries of
voters’ frustration.
According to government
forecasts for the fiscal year
ending in March, India’s economy
is growing at less than six
per cent a year — its worst performance
in a decade.
Congress has also been hit
by corruption scandals but allegations
surrounding Gadkari
have also damaged the BJP’s
standing, according to the survey
of 12,823 people.
PATNA — Nearly seven million
school students in Bihar
will not get free cycle and
uniform under a government
scheme as they lack the mandatory
75 per cent attendance.
And despite protests from
parents, Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar is standing firm.
Nitish Kumar has made it
clear that the government will
not compromise on the mandatory
attendance criteria for
providing cycle and uniform
to school children.
“What is the use of spending
so much money if children
don’t go to school?” he said.
“Parents should ensure that
they attend school.”
Kitchen knives, chilli for defence
No cycle for students
with poor attendance
College, Malad, where she
studied.
Daughter of a migrant from
Tamil Nadu, Prema lives with
her family in a tiny 300 sq ft
tenement in a congested and
noisy neighbourhood in Malad,
a north Mumbai suburb.
Her achievement stunned the
nation earlier this week.
Ever since the exam result
was announced, the family
Subsidy may
exceed
budget: FAI
NEW DELHI — Fertiliser
subsidy burden is likely to
overshoot budgetary estimate
by at least Rs 40,000 crore
($7.4 billion) to Rs 1 lakh
crore in the financial year
ending on March 31, officials
of the Fertiliser Association
of India said yesterday.
Satish Chander, Director
General of Fertiliser Association
of India (FAI), told reporters
here that the budgetary
estimate for the fertiliser
subsidy was not realistic as
the actual burden is likely to
be much more. In the union
budget for 2012-13, a provision
of Rs 61,000 crore was
made for fertiliser subsidy.
Education Minister P K
Shahi echoed the view: “The
government is not going to
make any change on the attendance
issue.
“Only those students will
be eligible for funds (to buy
cycle and uniform) who have
at least 75 per cent attendance
between April and September
2012,” Shahi said. Under the
scheme, Rs 700 is given to
students to buy school uniform
and Rs 2,500 for a cycle.
In over a dozen districts,
students and their parents after
being denied the cash blocked
roads and burnt tyres. In some
places they ransacked the offices
of the schools. — IANS
Chawl girl who topped CA exams felicitated Smart card for Bihar prisoners
PATNA — Bihar will issue a
has been besieged with phone
calls from the national and
international media, with top
Indian and foreign companies
eager to hire her.
Along with Prema, 24,
her 22-year-old brother also
cleared the same CA exam,
the results of which were announced
January 21.
Prema had scored 607/800
marks. — IANS
Omar
Abdullah
calls for talks
JAMMU — Jammu and
Kashmir Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah yesterday
asked separatists to talk to
the central government.
Addressing people of the
state on the eve of the Republic
Day here, Abdullah
said separatist leaders had
been holding talks with Pakistan
but were making excuses
against talking to the
government of India.
Abdullah’s speech tempered
with the theme of
peace and the need for dialogue
was crisp. He emphasised
that guns and money
would not be able to achieve
anything. — IANS
Karnataka CM: Governor
didn’t ask to prove majority
BANGALORE — Karnataka
Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar
yesterday met Governor H
R Bhardwaj and said he has
not been asked to prove his
majority though 13 BJP legislators
have quit the assembly.
“The governor brought
to my notice the resignation
of the 13 legislators. I have
assured him that I have the
majority and that there is no
problem for the government,”
Shettar told reporters.
Ahead of the meeting,
Bhardwaj had said that “if
necessary I will direct the
chief minister to prove his majority.”
Shettar said Bhardwaj had
accepted the government’s
invitation to address the joint
sitting of the legislature on
February 4.
The 10-day session is the
first this year and it is customary
for the governor to address
it detailing the government’s
programme for the year.
Shettar is scheduled to
UID to revolutionise public
health delivery system
By Ashraf Padanna
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
— Those having the national
unique identification (UID)
card, Adhaar, will get a better
healthcare in Kerala as part of
the federal government’s pilot
project being implemented in
the state.
The state’s health department
has won a project grant
from the federal department of
IT (DeITY) for total automation
of public healthcare delivery
system with automation
of demographic data indexed
on UID.
It also includes State Data
Centre (where all individual
data would be stored) linked
HYDERABAD — Congress
MPs from Telangana yesterday
said they were ready for
any sacrifice if the central government
failed to announce its
decision on separate statehood
for the region by January 28.
The MPs, who met here,
decided to meet again Jan
29 to announce their future
course of action.
The meeting was held to
discuss the latest developments
in view of Congress
General-Secretary Ghulam
Nabi Azad’s statement that a
decision on Telangana issue
was not likely by January 28.
The MPs reiterated that
the central government should
stick to the one-month deadline
announced by Home
multi-purpose smart card — a
first of its kind in the country
— to more than 33,000 prisoners
in its 56 jails, an official
said yesterday. Inspector-General
(Prisons) Anand Kishore
said that Bihar would be the
first state to issue such smart
cards that would enable them
to access services ranging
from buying snacks, to get
present the budget for 2013-
14 on February 8.
Bhardwaj asked Shettar to
meet him following the decision
of the 13 legislators, all
loyalists of former BJP Chief
minister B S Yeddyurappa, to
quit the assembly.
Their decision to quit is
part of a plan to prevent Shettar
from presenting the budget.
Yeddyurappa, who quit the
BJP and the assembly in November
last to head the Karnataka
Janata Party (KJP), wants
Shettar’s ministers to resign
and not go in for the budget
session as elections are due in
May.
C M Udasi and Shobha
Karandlaje, who resigned
from the Shettar ministry on
Wednesday, are among the 13
legislators.
The resignation of the 13
legislators, which the speaker
has no option but to accept,
would bring down the BJP’s
strength to 105, including the
to all health institutions and
accessed by field workers
through 3G-enabled tablets
and hospital automation.
The field workers will digitise
the family health register
where each individual will be
identified by UID. This data
would be sent to the state data
centre (SDC) through the Kerala
State Wide Area Network
(KSWAN).
“The field worker will be
able to down load the demographic
data she needs for her
planned work for the data and
be able to update the individual
data at the SDC with new
data generated (immunisation,
blood pressure data, etc)
during her work for the day,”
Minister Sushilkumar Shinde
after the all-party meeting on
December 28.
Senior leader K Keshava
Rao told reporters that they
were ready to work with any
party to achieve the goal of a
separate state.
G Vivek, one of the MPs,
said if the central government
failed to take a decision soon
to carve out Telangana, it
would have serious repercussions.
“This time we will have to
take some hard decision because
we are losing our credibility
among the people in Telangana,”
said MP S Rajaiah.
“The Congress party’s image
will suffer further damage,”
warned Manda Jagan-
information about court cases,
wages and health services.
“The smart card is going to
change prisoners’ life. It will
enable them to buy daily use
items like soap, shaving kit...
and food items like bread, tea
and biscuits from the jail canteen,”
Kishore said.
The smart card, christened
e-Prison, Bihar, could also be
used as a health card. Kishore
speaker, in the 225-member
assembly.
Of the 225, a total of 224
are elected and one is a nominated
member.
The effective strength
of the assembly now is 223
as two — Yeddyurappa
and another BJP legislator Haladi
Srinivas Shetty — have
quit.
The BJP has the support
of one of the seven independent
members who is a cabinet
minister.
The party is said to be wooing
the other six independents
to back it.
The Congress has 71 members
and the Janata Dal-Secular
26. The two parties are also
opposing Shettar’s move to
present the budget.
While the speaker and his
office have remained silent on
his whereabouts, Sports and
Youth Affairs Minister Appachu
Ranjan said that he had
gone abroad and would return
January 28. — IANS
a post on the department’s
Facebook page KeralaHealth
said.
The data will be available
at a mouse click when a person
visits any government
health institution which can be
downloaded to the local server
of the institution.
It will contain alerts for
the physician, pharmacist and
other staff on pre-existing
condition, allergies etc. Communication
between different
faculties like clinician and
laboratory or ward nurse and
pharmacy will be through
this system. At the time of
discharge an abstract will go
back to update the data at the
SDC.
Ready for ‘any sacrifice’
natham, at whose residence
the meeting was held.
G Sukhender Reddy
said they would not hesitate
to quit the party if it takes a
decision against a Telangana
state.
Meanwhile, Congress legislator
Komatireddy Venkatreddy
called on Telangana
Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Chief
K Chandrasekhara Rao yesterday
amid speculations that he
and his brother Komatireddy
Rajagopalreddy, a Congress
MP, plan to join TRS.
“We will take a hard decision
after January 28,” said
Venkatreddy, who had resigned
as state minister last
year to press the demand for a
separate state. — IANS
said that information kiosks
would be set up in all the jails
to facilitate the users.
The prisoners will have the
option to recharge the cards
from their wages in jail.
“We hope to provide these
cards by end of February. The
prison and correctional service
inspectorate will implement
the smart card project,”
he said. — IANS
WOMEN pose with knives, distributed by the Shiv Sena, in Mumbai.