Acid attack survivors allege threat by accused.Dalits Media Watch - News Updates 31.07.15
Chanchal Paswan, 20, is waiting for her full compensation and justice to be delivered to her. On Thursday, she appealed to CM Nitish Kumar for justice to her. A resident of Chitnawan under Maner police station area, Chanchal and her younger sister Sonam, now 17, suffered burn injuries on October 21, 2012 when they were asleep on their rooftop. Four boys — Anil Rai, Raj Rai, Badal Rai and Ghanshyam Rai - allegedly threw acid on the two girls for protesting sexual harassment and advances. Chanchal had suffered 28% burns. Her face and torso were completely disfigured.
Chanchal has undergone six surgeries, each costing Rs 5-6 lakh. Doctors say she will need to undergo surgeries whole life."The compensation for acid attack survivors is Rs 3 lakh, but we have received Rs 1 lakh each, that, too, after some gratification. The accused throw stones at my house and we can't sleep many a night," says Chanchal, who once wanted to become a computer engineer, but now pursues political science (Hons).
Chanchal's father Shailesh Paswan is a labourer who sometimes works as a gardener at the IGIMS here."A number of people come and offer their sympathies and assurances. But very few have actually done anything substantial to help us," he said.
Chanchal and her father narrate instances of apathy shown by the PMCH doctors. The PMCH has not submitted the injury report in the court. Because of that, the girls' statements have not been recorded yet. Chanchal now undergoes treatment at Safdarjang Hospital, Delhi.
A separate all-encompassing law for acid attack cases, instead of monetary compensation, is what Chanchal demands."These offences should be non-bailable. Such cases fall in the rarest of the rare category and should be heard by fast-track courts and with sensitivity," says Varsha Atmasiddha, whose NGO has taken up the cause of acid attack survivors. Bollywood actor John Abraham has also come out in their support.
Atmasiddha says the government claims to be working for women empowerment, but Chanchal and her sister are yet to get any justice."It is not just compensation. Their rehabilitation takes a lot of time and resources. Acid is still available in the open market despite law against it. The government needs to think," she told media on Thursday to highlight the acid attack issue.
The NGO had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in July last year regarding acid attack issue. The apex court on July 26 last year had asked the state governments to reply within six weeks."But nothing has been done so far," Atmasiddha said.
According to the police, tension prevailed in Parkham village of Mathura after the incident as upper caste villagers stopped the movement of trains on Mathura-Achnera route while Dalits demanded arrest of the men responsible for lynching of the youth.
Inspector general of police, Agra zone, DC Mishra told TOI that the cops on duty had claimed on Tuesday that the mob took away the rape accused while they were bringing him to Parkham police post. A detailed report of the incident prepared by senior officials, however, revealed that the mob actually dragged away the youth from inside the police post.
"The eyewitnesses revealed that the cops at the Parkham police post didn't attempt to stop the mob even once. Later, the cops just reached the spot where the boys were found lying in an unconscious state. Four cops have been suspended for laxity. An inquiry has also been set up into the matter," Mishra said.
Mathura senior superintendent of police Rakesh Singh said that an FIR has been lodged against 100 unidentified men under sections 302 (murder) and 147 (disturbing law and order) of IPC. Raids are being conducted to arrest the accused.
On Tuesday, violence had broken out in the village after the body of a 12-year-old upper caste girl who had gone missing on Monday was found in the bushes. The girl's clothes were torn, which made the police suspect that she was raped. Cops later sent the body for a post-mortem. After local residents got to know that the girl was last seen with a Dalit boy, the went on a hunt for him, finally plucking him out of the police station. They claimed that the boy had "confessed" to the crime and therefore the action on him.
The Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Crime Branch on Thursday arrested five persons in connection with their involvement in the illegal kidney sale and transplantation in Kandhamal district recently.
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 31.07.15
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· Acid attack survivors allege threat by accused - The Times Of India
· Vigilante mob storms police post, gives 'death' to rape accused - The Times Of India
· BJP casts wide its net, set to fete Dalit students, retd bureaucrats - The Indian Express
· Dalit Liberation Movement objects ‘untouchability wall’ - The Hindu
· Restive farmers till land in defiance - The Hindu
· Odisha Crime Branch arrest five in Phulbani kidney sale case - Odisha Sun Times
· Why a Dalit basti in Mathura has been a ghost town for last three days - The Indian Express
· Sanitation workers stage novel protest - The Hindu
Please Watch:
Part I - Untouchability & Casteism (Castes) Still EXISTS even Today
in India- 2015.Must Watch It
Note : Please find attachment for DMW Hindi ( PDf)
The Times Of India
Acid attack survivors allege threat by accused
Vithika Salomi,TNN | Jul 31, 2015, 03.36 AM IST
PATNA: It's close to three years since the two Dalit sisters survived an acid attack. They have neither received the full compensation amount nor the accused have been punished yet. Rather, the four boys accused in the case are roaming free on bail and still threatening the girls' family.
Chanchal Paswan, 20, is waiting for her full compensation and justice to be delivered to her. On Thursday, she appealed to CM Nitish Kumar for justice to her. A resident of Chitnawan under Maner police station area, Chanchal and her younger sister Sonam, now 17, suffered burn injuries on October 21, 2012 when they were asleep on their rooftop. Four boys — Anil Rai, Raj Rai, Badal Rai and Ghanshyam Rai - allegedly threw acid on the two girls for protesting sexual harassment and advances. Chanchal had suffered 28% burns. Her face and torso were completely disfigured.
Chanchal has undergone six surgeries, each costing Rs 5-6 lakh. Doctors say she will need to undergo surgeries whole life."The compensation for acid attack survivors is Rs 3 lakh, but we have received Rs 1 lakh each, that, too, after some gratification. The accused throw stones at my house and we can't sleep many a night," says Chanchal, who once wanted to become a computer engineer, but now pursues political science (Hons).
Chanchal's father Shailesh Paswan is a labourer who sometimes works as a gardener at the IGIMS here."A number of people come and offer their sympathies and assurances. But very few have actually done anything substantial to help us," he said.
Chanchal and her father narrate instances of apathy shown by the PMCH doctors. The PMCH has not submitted the injury report in the court. Because of that, the girls' statements have not been recorded yet. Chanchal now undergoes treatment at Safdarjang Hospital, Delhi.
A separate all-encompassing law for acid attack cases, instead of monetary compensation, is what Chanchal demands."These offences should be non-bailable. Such cases fall in the rarest of the rare category and should be heard by fast-track courts and with sensitivity," says Varsha Atmasiddha, whose NGO has taken up the cause of acid attack survivors. Bollywood actor John Abraham has also come out in their support.
Atmasiddha says the government claims to be working for women empowerment, but Chanchal and her sister are yet to get any justice."It is not just compensation. Their rehabilitation takes a lot of time and resources. Acid is still available in the open market despite law against it. The government needs to think," she told media on Thursday to highlight the acid attack issue.
The NGO had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in July last year regarding acid attack issue. The apex court on July 26 last year had asked the state governments to reply within six weeks."But nothing has been done so far," Atmasiddha said.
The Times Of India
Vigilante mob storms police post, gives 'death' to rape accused
Ishita Mishra,TNN | Jul 30, 2015, 10.26 PM IST
AGRA: Police in Mathura have lodged FIRs against 100 men under section 302 (murder) after self-styled vigilantes stormed a police post in Farah block and dragged away a Dalit youth accused of raping and killing a minor girl. The police report on Wednesday claimed that the mob took away the accused from inside the lockup while cops couldn't gather courage to confront the agitated men. Four policemen have been suspended for laxity even as another boy, who had also been beaten up, is struggling for life in a hospital in Agra.
According to the police, tension prevailed in Parkham village of Mathura after the incident as upper caste villagers stopped the movement of trains on Mathura-Achnera route while Dalits demanded arrest of the men responsible for lynching of the youth.
Inspector general of police, Agra zone, DC Mishra told TOI that the cops on duty had claimed on Tuesday that the mob took away the rape accused while they were bringing him to Parkham police post. A detailed report of the incident prepared by senior officials, however, revealed that the mob actually dragged away the youth from inside the police post.
"The eyewitnesses revealed that the cops at the Parkham police post didn't attempt to stop the mob even once. Later, the cops just reached the spot where the boys were found lying in an unconscious state. Four cops have been suspended for laxity. An inquiry has also been set up into the matter," Mishra said.
Mathura senior superintendent of police Rakesh Singh said that an FIR has been lodged against 100 unidentified men under sections 302 (murder) and 147 (disturbing law and order) of IPC. Raids are being conducted to arrest the accused.
On Tuesday, violence had broken out in the village after the body of a 12-year-old upper caste girl who had gone missing on Monday was found in the bushes. The girl's clothes were torn, which made the police suspect that she was raped. Cops later sent the body for a post-mortem. After local residents got to know that the girl was last seen with a Dalit boy, the went on a hunt for him, finally plucking him out of the police station. They claimed that the boy had "confessed" to the crime and therefore the action on him.
The Indian Express
BJP casts wide its net, set to fete Dalit students, retd bureaucrats
The party has also planned to felicitate retired Scheduled Caste IAS, IPS and PCS officers at such functions.
After claiming Dalit icon Bhim Rao Ambedkar as its own, the BJP is now making efforts to make inroads in the politically important community in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Assembly elections in 2017.
The party has now decided to felicitate both the meritorious students from the Scheduled Castes and their parents in public functions.
The party has also planned to felicitate retired Scheduled Caste IAS, IPS and PCS officers at such functions.
A resolution in this regard was passed in the two-day state executive meeting of the Scheduled Caste Morcha of the state BJP that concluded in Hathras districtTuesday.
Sources said the district units of the party would organise these felicitation function where senior SC leaders such as Union Minister of State for HRD Ram Shanker Katheria and MPs like Savitri Bai Phule and others would be invited as chief guests.
BJP SC Morcha’s state president Gautam Chaudhary told The Indian Express that such SC category students who secured 80 per cent or more in Class X and XII examinations of any board in 2015 will be felicitated. Likewise, SC students who have cracked the pre-medical and engineering entrance examinations with higher ranks would also be felicitated.
“Such events would be held at district headquarters in August and September followed by programmes at mandal level in October and November. Regional level events would be organised in December. Later, a major event would be organised next year on April 14 on Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary,” Chaudhary said.
During the functions, the students and their parents would be welcomed with garlands on stage and given appreciation letters for their achievements.
“Retired IAS, IPS and PCS officers would also be felicitated and would be requested to share experiences of their life and service with the gathering so that other people from the community get inspiration from them to provide better education to their children,” Chaudhary said.
He said that the decision of holding such programmes was aimed at promoting education among SC community, which was “also Ambedkar’s vision as he wanted social equality and education for all”.
“If these retired officer will wish, BJP will include them in the party as members. These programmes will connect the party with a large number of people in next few months,” Chaudhary claimed.
Earlier, the BJP had launched week long “Samajik Samrasta Abhiyan” from April 13, a day ahead of Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, in which party’s upper caste leaders had been directed to visit slums and have food with dalits and invite them to their homes.
The Hindu
Dalit Liberation Movement objects ‘untouchability wall’
Dalit Liberation Movement (DLM) registered objection to a wall raised recently that restricts vehicular movement between Ambedkar Nagar and Muthvinayagar Koil Street near bus stand here.
DLM termed the wall as ‘untouchability wall’ that was raised with an aim of restricting the movement of dalits (Arunthathiyars) from Ambedkar Nagar to Muthuvinayagar Koil Street.
However official sources said that the wall was raised by a private person in his land.
Moreover pedestrian movement between the two streets has not been restricted.
Police deny permission for demonstration
Meanwhile, police denied permission to DLM to hold demonstration in front of Revenue Divisional Office on Wednesday.
Hence the representatives of the movement including its head quarters secretary Parimala handed over a petition to Revenue Divisional Officer Uma Maheswari.
Official’s said that the wall has been raised in a private land. Parimala said that the “path was in use since the days of forefathers.”
Government interference
When asked particularly if it was a public path or private land, Parimala said that “Even if it is a private land, government should buy the land and make it a path as it provides connectivity to people of Ambedkar Street to municipal dispensary and Uzhavar Shandy.”
The Hindu
Restive farmers till land in defiance
Rumbles of discontent in the capital region of Amaravati are beginning to get louder with farmers in this village in Guntur district defiantly resuming agricultural operations on Thursday.
These are cultivators tilling ceiling and assigned lands, which means that they do not have ownership rights in the eyes of the government although they do possess legit documents such as pattadar passbooks.
The tillers of Thullur say ministers P. Narayana and Prattipati Pulla Rao and Tadikonda MLA Tenali Sravan Kumar have in the past promised them compensation for surrendering the land to the Amaravati project. While not on par with benefits promised to owner farmers, these tillers had been promised developed land and annuity payments if they would cease operations on the land needed for the upcoming capital. Encouraged by the promises, these farmers gave their consent to the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS).
But since they did so, there has been no official communication from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) confirming their annuity or other benefits. Having ceased agriculture operations along with owner farmers, they had been sitting idle after the kharif season began. Their patience ran out on Thursday, on the eve of a cabinet meeting called by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada on Friday.
At daybreak on Thursday, a clutch of farmers rolled out in their tractors to their fields and began clearing up the brush that had grown in their fields since winter.
“We’ve neither here nor there,” said Ch. Ramulu, a 65-year old. “We don’t get pensions like landless labourers in the capital region, nor annuity like owner farmers.”
Some of the farmers pointed out that they are being denied benefits because they are Dalits. Farmers Jetti Lakshmi and Kanteti Veerlankaiah said they had made countless rounds of the CRDA offices seeking compensation. The ministers’ promises were oral.
The CRDA needs hard and fast rules like government orders to hand out annuities and pensions.
Ironically, it was the government that distributed ceiling lands to 94 farmers in this village back in 1992. Each farmer got 41 cents.
Possession, meaning the title papers, was given in 2002. Since, then they have been cultivating the land.
Odisha Sun Times
Odisha Crime Branch arrest five in Phulbani kidney sale case
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 31:
The Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Crime Branch on Thursday arrested five persons in connection with their involvement in the illegal kidney sale and transplantation in Kandhamal district recently.
The arrested have been identified as Mahendra Patnaik, his wife, Mahendra’s brother-in-law Kiran Patnaik, brother Rajendra Patnaik and broker Trinath Behera.
Informing this to the media today, Crime Branch ADG, BK Sharma said of the five arrested, Mahendra Patnaik and his wife have been bailed out of the case on health ground.
He said the STF, during the probe, came to know that Mahendra Patnaik who had received the kidney from Kanhu, had mentioned him as his step brother.
“The kidney transplantation was held in Colombo in Sri Lanka,” Sharma said, adding that investigation is on to trace out the involvement of others in the case.
As per a complaint lodged in the Phulbani Police Station on June 13 this year, Kanhu Behera, a dalit young man of Phulani district, sold his kidney to Mahendra Patnaik of Brahmapur. He was taken to Chennai from Phulbani via Bhubaneswar and then to Sri Lanka by air for the transplant.
While the case was intially probed by the Kandhamal collector, the state government later handed over the investigation to Crime Branch.
The Indian Express
Why a Dalit basti in Mathura has been a ghost town for last three days
It was here on July 28 that a mob lynched Lalua alias Shyam, a Dalit, for allegedly raping and killing a 12-year-old upper caste girl Lali.
The Valmiki Basti in Parkham village, about 10 km from the Mathura refinery in western Uttar Pradesh, has been a ghost town for the last three days. At the front is the house of Lalua with household items lying strewn across the floor and cots turned upside down — with no people to drive them away, chickens and dogs have laid claim to everything inside. It was here on July 28 that a mob lynched Lalua alias Shyam, a Dalit, for allegedly raping and killing a 12-year-old upper caste girl Lali. Sonu, the other man that the mob attacked that day, is lying on a hospital bed in Agra with both his legs and an arm covered in bandages. “It was Lalua, I did no wrong,” he said.
Today, the tension in the village is so high that about 20 families living in the basti have fled their homes fearing for their safety. And the Parkham railway station, where the girl was last seen talking to Lalua and which acted as a border on each side of which the Thakurs and the Valmikis lived, is now guarded by about 20 to 25 armed policemen deployed to keep peace. Groaning in pain on his hospital bed, Sonu said, “Not one villager wanted to save my life. Had the police not arrived in time I would have been dead, too, like Lalua.” The deceased girl’s father Mukesh Singh, who belongs to the Thakur community, is an agricultural labourer. His family is in mourning and he is agitated about his daughter’s “brutal murder”. “Anybody who would have seen the condition in which my daughter’s body was found, would have wanted to kill those two men right there. She was raped, her face was disfigured and she was dumped in the shrubbery near the railway track. What the villagers did to those two men is absolutely right. Had I handed them over to the police, I would have never got justice,” Singh, now a father of five, told The Indian Express. Senior Superintendent of Police Rakesh Singh said the UP police have registered two FIRs — one in the rape and murder of Lali, naming Lalua and Sonu as accused, and the other in Lalua’s death against unknown persons. Singh added that they will investigate the case further after Sonu, who is under treatment at the Sarojini Naidu government hospital, is fit to give a statement. “This (the mob attack) is not lawlessness but a sudden reaction to the incident. In a charged mob, even unknown people participate.
A mob does not intend to kill but such things happen in society. It cannot be justified legally. They have taken the law into their hands and they will be arrested and sent to jail,” said the officer. Following the lynching, Inspector Tejbir Singh, Constable Pradeep Kumar and the local chowki in-charge Nepal Singh were suspended, Singh added. Mukesh said his daughter took her cow for grazing near the railway station at about 2.30 pm on July 27 and did not return. “At night there are no lights in village. We looked for her with our torches but did not find her,” he said.
The next morning, the Thakurs confronted Lalua after Brijesh, Mukesh’s neighbour, said that he had seen Lali talking to him near the railway station. According to the FIR, the villagers “sternly asked” Sonu and Lalua about Lali following which the two confessed and led them to the spot in the dense shrubbery where she was raped and killed. The outraged villagers then decided to take the two to the police chowki, it added. Police said Lalua, however, made an attempt to flee and was chased down. The villagers then took the two to a spot 4 km away from the chowki and allegedly thrashed them, it added. “As soon as we got information about the incident, we rushed there and took both of them to the hospital. But Lalua did not survive,” said Singh. Sonu, who worked as a sweeper at the railway station, said he was combing his hair at his home when the agitated villagers reached there. “Lalua had done wrong. He had two similar cases pending against him. He used to go to Mathura for court dates. When the villagers confronted him he took my name and that of two others — Arjun and Rajkumar. I could have run away but I had no fear because I did no wrong,” he said. Sonu’s father Shyamlal had been a sweeper with the Railways for 30 years. The family hails from Agra but has been living in Parkham due to Shyamlal’s job which Sonu took over. Sonu said his wife is mentally ill and two of their children died soon after birth.
“The Thakurs took us near a canal. They hit my head repeatedly with a lathi. Then they hit my feet and then broke my legs. I can’t remember all the faces. There were about 50 to 60 people,” Sonu alleged. On Wednesday, Sonu’s parents waited by his bedside along with two police officers posted at the hospital for his protection. “My son took over my job because I was too old to work,” Shyamlal said. Sonu’s mother Ramsinghi broke down when asked about her son. “We will never go back to Parkham. We are too scared. My son has a sick wife, both his children died and now he is on a hospital bed,” she said. “We don’t know where the rest of the Valmikis in the village went. All we know is we can never go back,” Shyamlal said.
The Hindu
Sanitation workers stage novel protest
Special Correspondent
Gram panchayat sanitation workers staged a protest here on Thursday demanding hike in their salary and other benefits.
They said that though their strike entered 30th day on Thursday, the government is still silent on their demands and is not coming forward to hold talks on the demands which include provision of PF, ESI, health and life insurance. Leaders of Telangana Gram Panchayat Employees and Workers Union - Kishan, Lakshmipathi and others - were present.
Khammam Staff Reporter writes: Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) founder and Mahajana Socialist Party (MSP) president Manda Krishna criticised the TRS government for trying to “suppress” the ongoing strike by contract sanitation workers in the State. Mr. Krishna interacted with the striking contract workers near the municipal corporation office here on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, he alleged that the TRS government is acting in a dictatorial manner by attempting to weaken the contract sanitation workers’ ongoing indefinite strike. “Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is exhibiting dictatorial tendencies towards the striking contract sanitation workers, mainly comprising dalits,” he charged.
He said the MRPS will launch an intensive agitation if the government fails to concede the long standing demands of the striking contract workers.
News monitored by Girish Pant & AJEET
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
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