New Indian-Chennai News + more

78 tribal girls run away from Orissa hostel

Berhampur: Seventy-eight girls ran away from Shankarakhola kanyashram,a state government-run school for tribals,in Orissas Kandhamal district.They were found by policemen who gave them shelter.
Late Thursday night,the girls were found loitering on the streets by some policemen of Tikabali police station,about 8km from their school.The cops gave them shelter for the night and also informed the hostel about the girls.
Student of classes VIII and IX,the girls fled because they were unhappy with the food served at the hostel.They were given a breakfast of chuda,instead of their afternoon rice meal,police said.So,they ran awayand tried to go back home.
The kanyashram,run by Orissas Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) welfare department,has 420 girls.Inspector-in-charge of Tikabali PS Pradipta Panigrahi said the students returned to the hostel after their headmaster and hostel superintendent came to fetch them from the police station on Friday.TNN

An RTI petitioner in the city has filed a criminal complaint against an assistant commissioner of Corporation of Chennai for allegedly furnishing wrong information under the Right to Information Act.

In his complaint lodged with R-6 Kumaran Nagar police station on November 9, 2010, I. Senkol, a resident of Jaffarkhanpet, accused the assistant commissioner of zone-IX of Chennai Corporation of furnishing

wrong information in response to his RTI petition.

Mr Senkol had sought details like the length and width of Munusamy Street in Jaffarkhanpet and the amount of maintenance work done to maintain the street in the past few years.

He also asked the civic body if the street had been encroached.

He complained that a portion of the street had been encroached by a private party for over two years and civic officials were guarding the encroachers by ‘purposefully’ providing wrong information even without doing field verification.

In fact, Mr Senkol said, he

received information for his RTI petition nearly a year after he applied on December 19, 2008.

Worse, he obtained the information only after moving the State Information Commission and it directed the Corporation Appellate Authority, who treated the direction as an appeal, to reply to the RTI petition.

Assuring Mr Senkol that the issue would be looked into, a senior corporation official said the information had been furnished last year and a new assistant commissioner assumed office less than two months ago.

Confirming the receipt of the complaint, Kumaran Nagar inspector (crime) Subramaniam told Deccan Chronicle that the police had approached legal experts of the department to ascertain whether criminal action could be taken in such cases.

It may be noted that the appellate authority of the corporation, in his reply, had advised the petitioner to approach the state information commissioner if he was not satisfied with the reply.

With the November 15 deadline looming, as many as 500 government colleges across the state have failed to register for the fee reimbursement scheme. The state government has made mandatory for all the colleges to register online from this year to claim fee reimbursement for their students.

Nearly two lakh students pursuing various courses in junior and degree colleges and ITIs stand to lose the benefit of free education if their colleges don’t register

in time, as the government has made it mandatory for all colleges to register online from this year to claim the fee reimbursement for their students.

Of the 1,200 government junior colleges, nearly 400 process of identifying these colleges and has asked district collectors to initiate criminal proceedings against them and recover the money they have siphoned off by invoking the Revenue Recovery Act.

According to officials, the government colleges might have also failed to register as hundreds of these colleges either had no principals or incharges concerned to take up the job. In some cases, the colleges even had no budget to get the registration done.

Several govern ment colleges that lack computers and Internet connections have failed to register for the fee reimbursement scheme.

“It came to our notice that many government colleges had no computers or Internet connection. In some other colleges there are no principals who can take the responsibility of getting the registration done. We were also told that the colleges had no funds to get the registration done in private Internet centres,” said Mr Raymond Peter, principal secretary, BC welfare department.

Of the total 27 lakh fee reimbursement beneficiaries, nearly 17 lakh fall under BC welfare department alone.

He said lack of awareness on the online registration among the staff in government colleges could have

also contributed to the present situation.

"We will get a clarity on the exact number of colleges which failed to get registered only after November 15. We expect many colleges to get registered till November 15 as there are still three days left for the deadline," Mr Peter said.

Meanwhile, the government lecturers blamed the welfare department officials for the mess. “The entire process was made online without realising that many government colleges had no computers, scanners and Internet connection. They have not bothered to allot money required for the purpose even if we have to opt for private computer centres outside to get the job done. Nearly 100 junior colleges had no principals. There are none to take the responsibility,” said Mr K. Phani Kumar, representative of the government lecturers association.

The government is now in the process of identifying the remaining 1,760 colleges that claimed fee reimbursement last year and failed to register for this year till now.

The government asked the respective district collectors to take steps to identify these colleges and initiate criminal proceeding against the managements apart from recovering the among by invoking Revenue Recovery Act.

Indian Cambridge dean harassed by drunk students

London: An Indian-origin woman dean of a reputed college of Cambridge University claimed to have had become a victim of drunken misbehaviour of students,one of whom even prepositioned her during a naked rampage through the institution,a media report said.
Dr Priyamvada Gopal,the dean of Churchill College,said in her complaint to the college how she had to reject the advances of the inebriated student in March 2007,after being caught up in a groups naked rampage through the institution,the Daily Mail reported.
Several very drunk students and alumni after a rugby dinner,some of whom were running naked around college,and one of whom propositioned me, she said in her complaint.
In fact,indecent exposure,vandalism,violence and alcohol-fuelled high jinks are a regular part of the social scene in the college.Since 2005,some 91 incidents involving over 100 students have been recorded at Churchill College,it emerged after a Freedom of Information request.In October 2006,two amorous students were caught indecently exposing themselves in the library.A report states: Two students,one female,were cautioned and told to see the librarian to apologise. In March 2008,members of the outlawed Bulldogs drinking society booked a fake sports dinner under the name of the University Lacrosse Club.The result was extreme drunken behaviour,damage and fouling of the room and adjacent toilets, it was recorded.AGENCIES

Senior advocate and former law minister Shanti Bhushan and his lawyer son Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday turned down the Supreme Court proposal for apology in a contempt case arising out of junior Bhushan’s interview allegedly casting aspersion on Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for hearing Vedanta case a few years ago when he was not the CJI.

As a special bench of Justices Altamas Kabir, Cyriac Joseph and H.L. Dattu said that it at the very beginning of the hearing earlier had proposed the option of apology, which is also a part of contempt proceedings but

Shanti Bhushan outrightly rejected it.

"The question of apology does not arise. Whatever has been said we have repeated it in a detailed reply. I would rather like to go to jail," the former law minister said interject while senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan was arguing on behalf of Tehlka editor Tarun Tejpal, also facing the contempt proceedings for publishing the interview.

In his interview Prashant Bhushan had questioned the presence of Justice Kapadia in a bench that heard Vedanta's Orissa mining case and passed interim order permitting the mining.

Mr Bhushan raised the question of "propriety" as Justice Kapadia allegedly held some shares of the company.

In the contempt proceedings initiated on a reference by amicus curiae Harish Salve, Bhushan and Tejpal were accused of trying to sensationalise the whole issue without any basis and facts on record.

During Wednesday's hearing also Justice Kabir asked Tejpal's counsel as to what is the exact meaning of Tehlka when Dhawan tried to bring home a point that whatever had been stated in the said publication, was done "bona fide" in the public interest not with any ill intention and the publication had a track record of exposing corruption.

Parents unreliable witnesses in fratricide cases: SC

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

New Delhi: Parents are not reliable witnesses in fratricide cases as they invariably turn hostile to save the other child from long incarceration or even gallows,which is the punishment for murder.
The Supreme Court has come to this conclusion after looking into the behaviour of parents,who have witnessed incidents of one of their child killing another,be it over property or other disputes.
It does not blame the parents and,instead,tries to understand the feelings that lead them to turn hostile during the trial or when supporting the accused child.The case in hand related to the murder of one brother by another in a remote village of Tamil Nadu.During the trial the mother turned hostile.Though the attempt by the mother to save her accused son from life imprisonment failed as the apex court upheld the life sentence to one of her son,Ram Gounder,a Bench comprising Justices H S Bedi and R M Lodha understood the psychology behind the mothers decision not to support the prosecution against the accused son to fasten the guilt on him for murdering her other son.
It said,We are not surprised that the mother of the deceased and the appellant,who had been cited as a prosecution witness,had instead appeared in court as defence witness,as this is a common tendency in fratricides,and particularly where parents are involved as witnesses. 
After tempers cool and there is time for reflection,they (parents) find that while one child has been murdered and the other faces the prospect of serving a long sentence on their evidence,which will,without doubt,be believed,and this invariably makes them resile from their police statements, the Bench said.
But,what stood against Ram Gounder despite his mother resiling from her police statement was the unimpeachable medical evidence that clearly pointed towards his guilt in murdering his brother.The Bench dismissed his appeal and upheld the previous life sentence.

SWAMINOMICS 
Killing microfinance will help moneylenders

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

Its actually a boon to moneylenders.For two decades,microfinance institutions (MFIs) have spread fast in Andhra Pradesh,reaching millions of poor women and filling the space once dominated by moneylenders.But last week,the state government issued an ordinance that temporarily shuts down and permanently maims MFIs in the state.This also threatens to maim MFIs across India,since equity investors and bankers will be reluctant to finance a sector with such political risks.
The AP government says it is protecting borrowers from coercive loan recovery by MFIs that reportedly has caused 30 suicides.Its not-so-hidden agenda is to give the governments own microfinance scheme through self help groups (SHGs) a lending monopoly,eliminating MFI rivals.The preamble of the ordinance clearly says that MFIs are a threat to SHGs and must be quashed.
The government is supposed to be a referee.But in AP,the referee is also a big player and it wins by disqualifying rivals.The state alone cannot provide enough inclusive finance,so villagers will be driven back to moneylenders.Money lending thugs posing as MFIs have apparently caused some suicides.
We need a regulatory regime that checks malpractices while encouraging the positive aspects of microfinance.But local politicians dont want to empower people through independent access to finance: they prefer patronage networks that can be used as vote banks.Government-driven SHGs can serve that purpose,but not MFIs.
Of the 30 reported suicides,17 were borrowers from SKS,the biggest MFI.SKS says that none of the 17 was a defaulter or in arrears,so their deaths could not be due to microfinance.The authorities should look at all possible causes.Right now,MFIs have been branded as killers without conclusive evidence.
Many MFI agents have been arrested.Arrests were feared of the most distinguished MFI stalwarts like Vikram Akula of SKS and Vijay Mahajan of Basix,who have for years won national and international awards for their pioneering social work.The high court has fortunately stopped this.
Among millions of borrowers,there will always be some looking for any excuse to default.The ordinance provides them a readymade route.Even complaints of having been insulted or annoyed are,under the ordinance,enough to put MFI officials in jail.
The ordinance halts all MFI operations until they register with district authorities,which MFIs fear will take weeks.The ordinance also forbids any MFI to lend to a member of an SHG without first getting a no-objection certificate.
The MFI model depends critically on the discipline of weekly meetings with borrowers,for loan disbursements and repayments.The ordinance stops all weekly meetings till the rural administration gears itself to register all MFIs,and a delay of weeks can destroy the entire loan discipline.Some politicians will be happy to encourage default (as in loan melas) and kill MFIs.
But that will be an appalling loss for India.A globally acclaimed industry that employs thousands and benefits millions is at risk.New Delhi should intervene to amend the most noxious clauses of the AP ordinance.
Most MFIs started as NGOs,as did Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus.But NGOs had limited reach,being dependent on donor finance.So,many switched to a forprofit model,which enabled them to raise money for expansion from equity investors and banks.Such MFIs expanded hugely,reaching not just thousands but millions.
But success bred problems.Some MFIs expanded at over 100% per year,affecting quality.In some areas,multiple MFIs gave multiple loans to the same womens groups,leading to excessive and unviable debts.Some field agents reportedly used force to recover loans,although managements prohibited this.In some areas,moneylenders posed as MFIs,and used muscle for loan recovery.
Award-winning heads of MFIs are outraged at being treated like criminals and want to sue for defamation.But the political threat can only be met with people power.MFIs should organize thousands of women borrowers to demonstrate in their favour.This will convince the public that MFIs are benefactors,not exploiters.Once politicians and bureaucrats are surrounded by thousands of women demonstrators,their hostility to MFIs will ebb or evaporate.
Organizing women for this will take effort,time,and a radically new training manual.The first step might be to mobilize borrowers for annual awards for the best borrowing group,most successful entrepreneur and demonstrating in support.Later,the same organizational skills can be used to demonstrate against political attacks on MFIs.So,apart from canvassing support from New Delhi and the RBI,MFIs must immediately start harnessing woman power.The question remains whether they will survive long enough to achieve this.
(Disclosure: The author has invested in three MFIs)

On a high: 45% teens drink excessively

Priya M Menon | TNN

Chennai: Peer pressure,plenty of pocket money,easy access to alcohol and low parental supervision is leading to a rise in drinking among teenagers in Indian cities.One in 10 teenagers binge drink and a third of all teenagers are likely to have their first drink before they go to college,according to a new survey.
Alcohol consumption among teenagers in metros is increasing,with 45% of class XII students drinking excessively,five to six times a month,reveals the survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.The study covered more than 2,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19.