The weekly

VOL 13 ISSUE 17 ursday, November 14, 2013

ObserverPAGE 2 PAGE 4 PAGE 5

Muslims stage

hunger strike

over holy ground

Three generations

of drug dealers

busted by police

Increased health

risks due to fewer

ASHA workers

Rally for free rice

Hundreds of people were givenrice for attending a rally organ-ized by the Congress party.

Ten bus-loads of villagers fromKumbalgodu, Gollahalli andTagachaguppe were driven to Gol-larahatti on the NICE Road junc-tion for the rally which wasreportedly attended by more thanone lakh people.

Although local Congress mem-bers maintained that the event waspurely aimed at social upliment,locals were handed tokens which

they later exchanged for rice. e rice was being distributed at

a real estate office in Tagachaguppeand a Panchayat member’s house inKumbalgodu. e bags of rice werebranded with images of KarnatakaChief Minister Siddaramaiah andKarnataka Pradesh Congress Com-mittee President G. Parameshwara.

Some of those who attendedspoke to the Observer and claimedthey had been promised 20kg ofrice but only received 5kg. One ladyeven complained she only got 1kgof rice for attending.

e rally was attended by Siddara-maiah, G. Parameshwara and local

Congress MLA ST Somashekar.According to Sanjeev Raj, a

member of the KumbalgoduPanchayat and the CongressParty, the event, ‘Sahakara Sap-tah’ (Co-operation Week), is anannual one which provides foodgrains and pensions to the poorand aged people in the area.

Motamma, an elderly lady whoattended the rally said, “When

they took us for the meeting wewere promised 20 kilograms of rice.However, aer the rally was over,we were only given 5 kilograms.”

Narayanamma, a resident of De-vagere Colony, said, “e local Pan-chayat members told us there was ameeting at Tavarekere which is 20-25 kilometers from Kumbalgodu. Ido not know how much rice I havebeen given. We are just acceptingwhatever we are being given.”

Devaraj, the son of the Kumbal-godu Panchayat President, said “Sa-hakara Saptah is a commemorativeevent where we provide recognitionto people who have been active so-cial workers. e distribution of

food grains, however, is purely aninitiative of the Congress Party.”

He added, “ere is no connec-tion between the meeting and thedistribution of rice. We are notusing this as a promotional gim-mick. is is purely social work.”

According to Jayamma, 67, a res-ident of Ramanagara, “e ChiefMinister promised to providemonthly pensions worth Rs. 400 towidows. He also told us to stay withthe Congress Party and not cast ourvotes in favor of the Opposition.”

She added that despite beingpromised more, she was only givenone kilogram of rice for attendingthe rally.

Sushila, aresident ofK u m b a l -godu, said,“When peo-ple boardedthe bus theywere given atoken. Aerthe rally,e v e r y o n e

who attended was asked to producethe token in order to receive thepromised amount of rice. is ishow the Party keeps a count on thenumber of people who attended theevent.”

Swami, an auto-rickshaw driverfrom Kumbalgodu, said, “eclaims of the Congress that the dis-tribution of rice is only for helpingpeople are wrong. It is very evidentthat this is done to attract votes inthe upcoming elections. “

e event comes in the wake ofthe BJP Prime Ministerial candi-date Narendra Modi’s imminentvisit to the city.

MLA owns death crash bus

Seven people including three chil-dren died when a Volvo bus trav-elling from Bangalore to Mumbaicaught fire on ursday morning.

It’s the second time in 15 days aVolvo coach travelling from Banga-

lore has caught fire.Abdul Hamir, police inspector,

Haveri Police Station, said the bus,owned by three-time MLA and ex-minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, hitthe median at Haveri and caughtfire. Mr Khan’s company haspledged Rs. 5lakh to victims.

Hamir said, “A family of five, with

three children, died along with oneof the bus drivers, Nawaz, who wassleeping on the floor.

e identity of the seventh personis unknown.” e injured wererushed to Haveri District Hospitalfor treatment.

Bhaskar Dutta,

Mayuri J. Ravi & Pranay

Lakshminarasimhan

Anannya Sarkar &

Bhavika Bhuwalka

The charred Bangalore-Mumbai National Travels bus

A woman takes away bags of rice aer attending the rally

Continued on Page 5

A local Congress worker hands out bags of rice to rally attendees

Photo credit: Rajendra Ritti

e Weekly Observer ursday, 14 November , 2013 2

Muslims on hunger strike over holy ground

Channapatna’s muslim commu-nity is on hunger strike for thesecond time this year in a bid torecover holy ground they claimwas sold from under them.

Karnataka State Government hasconstructed the ChannapatnaCourt on Idgah ground, which wasearlier used for religious activity bymuslims locals.

e community, which was

formed by local muslims comingtogether, is now divided into twogroups- the Idgah Maidan Protec-tion Committee and the IdgahCompound Construction Commit-tee.

e Idgah Maidan ProtectionCommittee on Tuesday started ahunger strike in front of the talukhead office opposing the state gov-ernment’s order for construction of

the court. is is the second hungerstrike in the last two months.

According to the Idgah MaidanProtection Committee, members ofthe Idgah Compound ConstructionCommitte sold the land for busi-ness and political benefits.

Janatha Shakeel, leader of IdgahMaidan Protection Committeesaid: “e people have no rights tosell the ground. Every muslim hasa right on the Idgah ground. ecourt had already given judgmenton the property of Idgah ground in2005.”

e Karnataka State Board ofWakf had written a letter to theLand Acquisition Officer of Ram-nagaram in 2009 stating that in1994 they gave the land to the IdgahCompound Construction Commit-tee to perform prayers (namaaz)and other religious activities.

According to the Idgah Maidan

Protection Committee, names ofthe people involved in selling theproperty are Saleem Babu (Presi-dent of Idgah Compound Con-struction Committee), YadullaShah Qadri (Secretary), Sadath UllaSaqhaf, Saqhaf, Aejaz, FayazChoudri, Wasil Ali Khan, MeerMujahid Ali, Afsar Pasha, andShabbir Ulla Baig (Memebers of theIdgah Compund ConstructionCommittee).

Abdul Hasib, member of the Al-falfa Muslim Education Trust said:“e property is used for religiouspurpose. ey cannot sell the landwhich is used for religious pur-pose.”

According to the letter given tothe District Administration by Mo-hamed Saleem, President of theIdgah Compund ConstructionCommittee, they are ready to givethe Idgah ground property for con-

struction of the court, but in ex-change they need money or prop-erty.

Anjankumar, Circle Inspector ofChannapatna, said: “Channapatnais a sensitive area and communaltensions in this area are very com-mon. e main reason of the issueis the dissatisfaction of one com-mittee with regard to the transfer ofland done by another.”

e police official added that theIdgah Maidan Protection Commu-nity has given a letter to the Tahsil-dar stating that they want their landback. ey are ready to give thetotal amount of money they in-vested on the construction site toconstruct the court.

He added, “e protesters are notinterested in talking to the police.e strike is going peacefully, thereis no violence exhibited by the pro-testers till now.”

Traffic controller stabbed, accused on the run Mysore Rd site of 268 accidents in 12 weeks

Anagha Sawant

A BMTC bus driver cum conductor al-legedly attempted to murder a trafficcontroller at the Bidadi bus stand onSunday night.

S V Sheshadri, 54, a traffic controller atthe Bidadi bus station, said: “I receivedcomplaints from thepublic stating that theconductor, Putta-madhu does not issuetickets to the passen-gers and troubles theschool and collegestudents by not givingthem the daily pass. Itook up this issuewith the higher au-thorities.”

He added: “e conductor thought thatI was making all this up to put him introuble. On Sunday night at 8.20, whenI was at the bus stand, he came towardsme with a knife in his hand. He piercedit on the le side of my chest, rightshoulder and my face. He threatened tokill me if I complained to the police.”

T Mariswamayya, Assistant Sub In-spector, Bidadi police station, said that

they haven’t found any proof against Put-tamadhu. e investigation is still goingon and they are yet to nab the culprit.

Sheshadri said, “e day the incidenttook place there weren’t many people atthe bus stand and it was too dark. Apasserby saw me lying on the ground

and immediately took me toRajarajeshwari Hospital. edoctor said that I am out ofdanger and was discharged onTuesday.”

He added, “ere are otherconductors also like him whodo not follow rules. Strict ac-tion should be taken againsthim.”

Raghavendra Rao, DepotManager said, “e accused

had some personal problems with thevictim which is why he attacked him. Itis not because the public complainedagainst the conductor. e public isnowhere involved in the case”

e case has been registered at theBidadi police station and is under inves-tigation. e accused has been bookedfor attempt to murder under Section 307of the Indian Penal Code.

Over 250 accidents occurred on the MysoreRoad between August 2013and October 31, theRajarajeswari Hospital revealed.

e medical records department of the hospitalclaimed that on average five cases of accidentscome to them every day.

State Highway 17, also known as the MysoreRoad, has always had a reputation for being an ac-cident-prone zone. A number of extremely dan-gerous accidents have taken place on this stretch,killing many but the most deadly and recent onewas on September 9 when a military truck ranover four people, killing them all on the spot. edriver is currently in prison and has been chargesheeted in court.

Muniyamma, 40, died in May as she succumbedto her injuries aer being hit by a car on this road.She suffered serious injuries to her ribs and back.ipaiah, 80, also died in May aer he was hit bya truck on the same stretch. Muniraju, 32, fell offa bike aer it was hit by a car near the Nice Roadtoll-gate. He died in August.

Manjula, 26, was unconscious for ten weeks aershe was hit by a bus on October 10 and is now suf-fering from chronic back pain. Mukudhan, 50,met with an accident on November 6 which re-sulted in an orthopedic surgery.

Compared to the 268 cases that have been

treated at Rajarajeswari Hospital, the Kengeri Traf-fic Police Station has a record of only 30 such ac-cidents.

On being asked about the disparity in the figures,a traffic cop stationed at Kengeri who did not wantto be named said that all accidents happening onthe Mysore Road are not registered with them. Headded that their police station alone could not domuch to avert accidents.

According to him, they have taken all possiblemeasures such as keeping vigilance on the road,patrol the roads to catch two-wheelers withoutproper documents and helmets and to deal withdrunken driving strictly. He added that they haveasked the government for construction of morespeed-breakers along the road as most of these ac-cidents happen due to rash driving.

Protestors in Channapatna on hunger strike for Idgah Ground

Wounded: SV Sheshadri

Mayuri J. Ravi Anannya Sarkar

e Weekly Observer ursday, November 14, 2013 3

‘Doctor cut my wrong leg’A Bangalore laborer claims his doctor amputated the wrong legbut medics say they saved his life.

Bhaskar, 62, a building construc-tion contact laborer from Devegere,said that in his late 50s he came toknow that he was diabetic but dueto a financial crisis he could not af-ford to take medicines and propercare of his health, as he was the onlyearning member of his family.

He added that in 2011 he metwith an accident and badly hurt hisle leg. e worst part was that thewound was not healing aer nu-merous treatments.

He finally went to a private clinicfor a diagnosis where the doctorsaid that the wound was developinginto gangrene which could lead tothe amputation of the limb.

Girish, Bhaskar’s son, said, “Dr.Chandrashekhar, who runs a pri-vate clinic, diagnosed the wound onhis le limb and suggested to cutthe leg from above the knee, butaer the operation we found thatthe doctor has cut his right leg, and

when we asked him about it, he saidthat there was severe gangrene for-mation on the right leg as well so hecut the right leg in an emergencyand the le one was untouched.”

Dr. Rohit, Senior General Sur-geon, Rajarajeshwari Hospital, said:“ere are two aspects of diagnosis,one is medical and the other is sur-gery. Once the medical expert diag-noses the problem and says it isserious, he refers the case to thesurgical ward, where the problem isdiagnosed again and further deci-sions are taken. Gangrene due todiabetes is formed when the tissuesdie in a specific part of the bodyand develop bacteria, which leadsto clostridia because of the gas pro-duced by the bacteria and oengives out a foul smell. Graduallythat particular part of the skin turnspale and then it turns red or brownand finally greenish. e personloses sense in that part. And then toprevent the spread of gangrene toother parts of the body, that part isremoved from the body.”

When asked about the symptoms,

Bhaskar denied what the doctorsaid aer his surgery and said thathis right limb was perfect. Heclaimed that he was still having dif-ficulty in walking with the le leg.

e doctor who performed theoperation denied the statementmade by Bhaskar and said that hisdiagnosis says that there was severeformation of gangrene in his rightlimb as well and that he had to cutit off to prevent it from spreading toother parts of the body. He addedthat he has been practising for 10years now and he has never madesuch a mistake.

Bhaskar said, “My wounds havenot healed and are getting aggra-vated with every passing day. Itlooks like I will have to get the otherleg amputated as well. I will be ren-dered invalid for life. Also, even ifthis gangrene is a threat to my life,I cannot afford another surgery.”

Bhaskar having lost his right leg,has also lost his means of livelihoodand is scared of losing his otherlimb as well.

Nibedita Mohanta

Bhaskar claims the wrong leg was cut off during an op

Alarming trend of oral poisoning in Kumbalgoduere have been over a hundredregistered cases of oral poisoningin a city hospital in the last threemonths.

According to records providedby the Rajarajeswari Hospital inKumbalgodu, 114 cases of oralpoisoning have been registered

since August 2013. Most of thesecases have occurred in and aroundKengeri and Kumbalgodu.

Statistics provided by the Kar-nataka State Crime Records Bu-reau show that 85 people havedied due to poisoning in the Ban-galore District in the period be-tween January and September

2013. Fiy of these have been success-

ful suicide attempts.According to Mr. Ramachan-

dran, the officer in charge of theMedical Records Department ofRajarajeswari Hospital, the princi-pal reason behind the large num-ber of registered poisoning casesin this area is owing to unresolvedfamily disputes.

Several of these cases involvewomen between the ages of fieenand thirty.

Reshma, 17, attempted to killherself by consuming toilet clean-ing fluid. Her medical records atthe Rajarajeswari Hospital are reg-istered under the category of cor-rosive acid poisoning.

Vanaja, 15, attempted to kill her-self by consuming poisonous agri-cultural implements.

Asha, a 17- year- old girl fromRamnagara attempted suicide byconsuming insect -killing poisonaer fighting with her mother.

Gulnaaz, 20, attempted suicideby consuming acid aer a familydispute.

Dr. Subramaniam, the medicalofficer in charge of the casualtydepartment of the hospital, cited anumber of reasons behind thelarge number of oral poisoningcases that have been registered inthe hospital.

According to him these incidentsoccur due to a combination of so-cial pressure, love affairs and unre-

solved family disputes. Commenting on the remedial

measures taken by the hospital inorder to tackle the problem, hesaid: “All such cases are referred tothe psychiatric department forcounseling. In this way we hope toprevent this trend from rising.”

Bhaskar Dutta

Statistics of people who died of oral poisoning in last three months

Mr Ramachandran of Rajarajeshwari Hospital

e Weekly Observer ursday, November 14, 2013 4

Staff shortage threatens lives

Lack of Accredited Social HealthActivists (ASHAs) has increasedhealth problems in pregnantwomen and newly born childrenin Bidadi.

e National Rural Health Mis-

sion provides for one ASHA for apopulation of 1000 while the BidadiPanchayat has been assigned witheight Accredited Social Health Ac-tivists (ASHAs) for a population of15, 886.

Somsekhar, a resident of Bidadi,said: “e ASHA workers are irreg-ular in reaching us. We had no helpfrom them for our eldest child butthey reached us for our secondchild only once.”

e case of five-year-old Jaiveer,who is suffering from mental andphysical retardation is presentlybeing taken care of by the Angan-wadi near the Bidadi bus stop,stands out.

Vani, the Anganwadi in-chargesaid, “e ASHA workers were notable to provide the nutrient supple-ments, diagnosis and right advice atthe right time which led to the childsuffering from Jaundice fever lead-ing to permanent mental and phys-iological retardation of the child.”

Lala Singh, Jaiveer’s father, said:“When my wife was pregnant withmy second child, the ASHA work-ers never visited us. Neither didthey visit us aer the birth of Jai.But they had come twice to ourhome on our third child’s birth andwere there during her birth as well.”

Sujata, the ASHA worker in-charge of the area, said that it be-comes impossible for eight of themto monitor such a huge population.

She added, “It takes us at least onehour to monitor one household.Apart from monitoring pregnantwomen and new born babies thegovernment also assigns us with theduty of collecting census data. ismakes our work as ASHA workersmore difficult and hectic.”

e medical reports of Jaiveerstate that he suffers from delayedspeech and language with develop-ment delay and cerebral palsy.

Dr. Subrat Mishra, PediatricNeonatologist, formerly working

with Apollo Hospital, said: “Jaun-dice in a new born can happenwhen there is a higher concentra-tion of Bilirubin in blood. Condi-tions where there is a rapid breakdown of hemoglobin can causejaundice. ey usually appearwithin 24 hrs of birth and the ba-bies become rapidly sick.”

He added, “Higher concentrationof Billirubin can cross blood brainbarrier and affect the brain whichcauses convulsions initially andcause mental and physical retarda-tion in future. e most commonconditions are Rh incompatibility,heriditary spherocytosis, sepsis andmetabolic disorder. In the patientconcerned here, it could be sepsisor metabolic disorder.

Vani said that monitoring duringthe pregnancy and post-pregnancyperiod is indeed crucial. It is impor-tant to have pro-active ASHAworkers and neo-natal care.

Anita, Jaiveer’s mother, said: “We

have been to hospitals like- Rajara-jeshwari, NIMHANS, Chan-drasekhar Institute of Speech andHearing and others but it has nothelped us much. We realize that ashe grows up it is certainly going toget difficult for us to manage Jai.But as parents we are trying to pro-vide him all possible treatment wecan.”

Anima Mishra, Lecturer forSpeech Language Pathology at theChandrasekhar Institute of Speechand Hearing, said that such chil-dren exhibit delays in developmen-tal milestones and belong to thegroup of multiple- handicaps. erehabilitation of such children is amultidisciplinary process.

She added, “e treatment is pro-vided based upon developing func-tional communication skills alongwith treatment for slurring ofspeech due to neurological damageand difficulty in feeding and swal-lowing.”

Aurosmita Acharya

Jaiveer with his mother Anita

Denied rights, forced to live as slum-dwellerse people of a slum in Ramana-gara have been denied basicfacilities and face social discrimi-nation from fellow residents.

Rathnamma, a slum dweller atRayara Doddi, said that theyshied there 25 years ago, when thegovernment gave them a spaceabove the canal to build houses andsettle down.

According to her, 50 houses in theslum have been facing similar prob-lems for the past 25 years. ey are

deprived of water, electricity, andsanitation arrangements, all ofwhich the government is requiredto provide to households.

She said, “When we approachedthe concerned department to pro-vide us with water, electricity andbuild toilets and drainage, they re-fused to provide us with anythinguntil we provided them a proof thatthe land belongs to us.”

She added that at the time of thesettlement they were not given anydocuments supporting their right

to the land. On the other hand, they have

been provided with Below PovertyLevel cards and voter ID cards onthe address they are living cur-rently.

Shivamma, another slum dweller,said that all women from the slumhad once marched up to VidhanSoudha, demanding that the papersand their rights to the land be givento them. She added that at the timeof the march, 12 years ago, she waseight months pregnant with hersecond daughter.

According to Shivamma, a mancame forward to help them file acase in the high court aer theirprotest march.

Rathnamma told e Observerthat once a house in the slum wasdemolished and burnt by municipalofficials. But when the municipalauthorities were questioned withregard to this, they denied their in-volvement with any such incident.

Rathnamma and othersfrom the slum said thatthey are being discrimi-nated against by the resi-dents who live near theirhuts. She added that theybring water from a tapnearby, access to whichwas not allowed by theresidents before theyforcibly started takingwater.

She said that she is noteven allowed to put sheetson the rooops of theirhuts.

She said that the other residentsoffend them by addressing them as‘slum-dwellers’. She added thatChanajamma, with her four familymembers and eight goats, has tostay in a small hut because the res-idents there do not let them tie hergoats outside the house.

On asking the municipal officialsregarding the issues revolving

around the slum dwellers, they saidthat the land does not belong to thegovernment. It’s, in fact, a privateproperty owned by a person calledShivaswamy.

Shivaswamy refused to commenton this matter and said, “e case isin court, and I am not going tospeak anything about it.”

Neha Singh

Chanajamma with her eight goats tied beside her hut.

e18-year-old mother was married at16

e Weekly Observer ursday, November 14, 2013 5

Clash between landlord and govt leaves 60 families homelessSixty families were le homelessas the construction of their housesunder a government scheme washalted by a local landlord.

People of Ramayanapaliya villagein Kumbalgodu who were prom-ised houses under Indhira AwaasYojana scheme on 2008, are still liv-ing in huts on the allotted lands.

Even though the construction ofhouses was approved and fundswere allotted, the process wasstalled by a local land lord whoclaims that the land belongs to him. Miswasannappa, who has been living in the village for more than

20 years, said: “ere is some prob-lem between the government offi-cials and the village landlord. elandlord influenced the officials todrop the plan. We are living in huts;there is no electricity and toilet. Wehave complained a number of timesto the officials but the village land-lord is preventing the officials.

He added: “Even two years ago,the panchayat officials conducted asurvey of the land where the housesare supposed to be constructed. Butstill there is no improvement.”

Ramesh, another resident of the

village said, “More than forty fami-lies le the village and settled innearby Tagachaguppe village.”

When asked about the landlord,Ramesh said: “What will you do if Isay the name. Are you people goingto change our fate?”

Miswasannappa said, “e gov-ernment keeps changing but we stilllive in dark.”

e Panchayat Executive Officer,commenting on the issue, said: “Iam new to this village. I don’t knowanything about this problem. I willlook into this matter.”

Arrests end three generations of crime clanPolice claim they have ended threegenerations of drug dealing withthe arrest of two notorious crimi-nals.

Naveen, head constable, Ramana-gram Urban Police Station, said thatKaleem Bin Gafar, 27, was caught inhis apartment in Yarabnagar with 2.3kilograms of cannabis and cashworth Rs. 10,340 on November 16,2011.

His friend Amjad who was also in-volved in the business, fled the sightand was caught one year later in2012. ey are currently bookedunder the Narcotics Drugs and Psy-chotropic Substances Act.

Both men will be tried in court onJanuary 16 next year. Police say theirconviction will end a long family tra-dition of criminality.

Naveen said that Amjad’s family hasbeen selling drugs for three genera-tions. His father, Ganja Afeez fromMehboobnagar, got the name be-cause he is well known in the smug-gling industry. He had two casesregistered against him and Amjad’syounger brother, Ayub Khan, also hasa case against him. Afeez had fivesons and all of them have criminalrecords against them.

Naveen said: “College studentscome on bikes and buy packets ofdrugs from such sellers. e issue isof national concern.”

e police seized all the drug pack-ets from Yarabnagar and based on

Tehsildar Ravi’sreport, who is alsoan eye witness ofthe case, regis-tered a FIR on thesame day. Ravi in-vestigated the sitewith panchayatofficers, Chan-drashekhar andPrakash.

Ravi said:“Kaleem wascaught in front ofme. We triedcatching Amjadbut he fled.” Ana b s c o n d i n gcharge sheet wasfiled against himand he was out on anticipatory bailfrom the High Court.

Special investigation officer,Sateesh, said: “We have successfullycaught the culprits. Now it is up tothe court to finally convict the ac-cused. e house was sealed and isunder surveillance since.”

Kaleem in his statement said that heis the fourth son in the family andworks in the silk business. He has ahabit of smoking and gambling andthe money he makes from silk is notsufficient for his needs. He sells 50grams of cannabis for Rs. 100.

According to Sateesh, the drugsmuggling business is inter-state,with the dealers based in Mumbaiand Andhra Pradesh.

A 100 gram sample of the confis-cated drug was sent to the ForensicScience Laboratory for testing.Forensic officer, Mallesh, said that thesample tested by him turned positivefor cannabis.

Mohammed Rafiq alias Ganja Rafiqis another family member againstwhom more than one case is regis-tered regarding illegal drug selling.

Sateesh said: “e business is oper-ated by a huge gang. From 2011 to2013, 14 cases regarding the issuehave come up. Drugs are a majormarket and college students are theirmain consumers. ings like brownsugar, ganja (cannabis) and afeem(opium) are bought by students inBangalore.”

A constable with the seized packet of Cannabis

Ramayanapaliya villagers have lived in tents for the past 30 years

Chitharth Mathivanan

Bhavika Bhuwalka

e National Travels busstarted from Kalasipalayam at8pm yesterday and reachedHaveri by 3am. ere were atotal of 55 passengers onboard.

Zameer Ahmed Khan haspreviously had court cases ofdacoity, forgery and dishonestlyinducing delivery of propertyagainst him though he has notbeen convicted in any yet.

Vinayak, Casuality in-charge,said, “43 people are beingtreated for minor burns and in-juries. As of now we only haveone critical patient admitted.”

Shakeel Ahmed, his brotherand one of the partners in thecompany, said that 27 peoplehave been sent to Mumbai in asuper deluxe bus and the restare returning to Bangalore.

He added,“e families of thedead will be given five lacs as

compensation. Everybody elseis fine with only minor injuries.”

He added that five of the pas-sengers who are critical havebeen shied to Kings Hospitalin Hubli.

On being asked for ZameerAhmed Khan’s number, eObserver was told that he wascurrently at the site of the acci-dent and had forgotten to takehis phone.

He added that the TransportMinister, Ramalinga Reddy,was at the site of the accidentalong with his brother and thatthe government has declared acompensation of one lac for thefamilies of the deceased.

However the Transport Com-missioner, on being contacted,said that he had no knowledgeof anything pertaining to theaccident and that he was cur-rently on leave.

e police said that they arecurrently at the site of the acci-dent, investigating the case. Ac-cording to Shakeel, Muzaheed,the driver who was driving is atpresent absconding.

In a similar incident twoweeks ago, a Bangalore-Hyder-abad Volvo bus had caught firein Mahabubnagar, AndhraPradesh, killing 45 people.

Zameer Ahmed Khan

MLA’s bus company pledges5 lakh to bus crash victims(continued from page 1)

e Weekly Observer ursday, November 14, 2013 6

Observer Team: Reporters– Anand Jain & Bhavika Bhuwalka Emergency Call Services & Online Tracker– Nibedita Mohanta Proof Reader– Pranay Lakshminarasimhan &Bhaskar Dutta News Editors– Anannya Sarkar & Ishan Bhattacharya Design Desk– Karishma Ravindran Sub Editors– Anagha Sawant, Aurosmita Acharya, Chitharth Mathivanan& Neha Singh Splash Head– NikitaChief Sub Editor– Gaurav Kumar Editor- Apurva Venkat Email– editor@iijnm.org An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

EventsMUSIC

DANCE

Bacardi NH7 Weekender '13e Bacardi NH7 Weekenderreturns to your city for the sec-ond year!Venue: Embassy InternationalRiding School, # 149/2 and 223,Taruhunse Village, Jal Hobli,Taluk, Dist. 562157�, Devana-halli.Date: Nov. 23 to Nov. 24, 2013

PrayogPrayog will feature three chore-ographies – “Matsyaangnaa”,and Trishanku” choreographedby Madhuri Upadhya and“Chakra” choreographed bySathya BG. Venue: Chowdiah MemorialHall, 16th Cross, Vyalikaval ,Malleshwaram. Date: Nov. 22, 2013Time: 8 PM onwards

ART

Karen Knorr - India SongPhotographic series, India Song,by London-based artist KarenKnorr in Bangalore.Venue: Sua House , LavelleRoadDate: Nov. 30, 2013Time: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Intimidated by wife’s past, auto driver murders friend A man charged with murdering his friend incold blood will make another appearance incourt on Friday.

Yogesh, 23, alias Koli, murdered his 25-year-oldfriend Girish alias Giri Gowda on February 23,2013 in Byrapatna village of Channapatna taluk,the police said.

He will be present in the Ramanagara sessioncourt for the fourth hearing of the case.

According to Channapatna East Police Station,Yogesh fell in love with a girl named Vijayalakshiwho hailed from the same village and got mar-ried in the year 2011.

e deceased came to know about Yatish whowas once in love with Vijyalakshmi from Girish.He bugged Yogesh several times speaking illabout his wife and telling him about having a re-lationship with Yatish in the past.

e police said that altercations occurred be-tween them soon aer. During a cricket tourna-ment in the same village, the deceased who was

under the influence of alcohol attended the tour-nament where Yogesh was present and againbugged him speaking ill about Yatish and hiswife.

e Police said: “Since Yogesh wanted to put anend to it, he decided to kill the Girish. Once, hetook him to a nearby wine shop and got himdrunk. Soon aer he took Girish on a friend’sbike to a water pump house and hurled abusivesat each other”.

According to the police, the incident occurredat 10:15pm, when Girish died on the spot aerhe was hit by a huge stone, which was picked upfrom the front of the water house, by Yogesh.

e accused fled from the spot and was ab-sconding for two days until the police caught himin Hongamur on Febraury 26, a village five kilo-meter away from Byrapatna.

e accused in his statement written to the po-lice, said, “Girish, the deceased and I were com-panions from the past eight years and he buggedme several times speaking ill about my wife. I

eventually lost my cool and murdered him sinceI feared that my image would be tainted in thevillage where I lived.”

Yogesh was arrested on February 26, 2013 formurder and causing disappearance of evidence.

Kumbalgodu, a dumpyard for city’s solid waste

Concrete debris regularly brought from thecity is dumped illegally in Kumbalgodu.

The debris is produced after destruction ofbuildings or by construction work going on inthe city. Dumping it in Kombalgudu poses athreat to the surrounding environment of thearea, which is a part of Bangalore’s green belt.

Ullash Kumar, a Bangalore based environ-mentalist, said: “The debris that is disposed inKumbalgodu comes mainly from the city. Inorder to keep the city from getting dirtier, allthe debris is dumped there. It is the responsi-

bility of Karnataka State Pollution Con-trol Board (KSPCB) to clean it up.”

He added: “Such huge amounts of de-bris cause water percolation and when itrains, the drainage system of the area isseverely affected. The debris mixes withthe surrounding air and contaminates it.Breathing the same air can cause seriousbreathing problems and lung infections.”

Krishna, whose cigarette shop is lo-cated very close to a huge pile of debris,said: “Almost every day trucks full of de-bris come here and unload what all theyhave. No-one cleans it. Some of the de-

bris is produced by factories nearby, the restcomes from the city.”

Nagesh Gowda, a security guard stationedbeside a similar pile of concrete waste, saidthat the debris belonged to the factories. Headded that the factories dumped it there be-cause the land belonged to them.

Section 34 of the Indian Police Act statesthat dumping debris on the highway is a pun-ishable offence and that any person indulgingin such activity can be imprisoned for a pe-riod of six months.

Uday Kumar, senior environmental officer at

KSPCB, said that it is illegal to dump concretewaste on the highway. He added that it wasthe BBMP’s responsibility to address this issueand find a solution.

Kotresh, environmental officer in-charge ofthe Kengeri-Kumbalgodu region, KSPCB,said: “We do not handle such issues. It is theresponsibility of BBMP, BDA and the Plan-ning Authority to handle such things. Our de-partment is industrial waste. Those whoproduce the concrete waste pay money to thePlanning Authority and not us.”

Nataraj, superintendent engineer, BBMP, incharge of solid waste management, said: “Ourjurisdiction is till Nice Road, after that pointthe responsibility is shouldered by the ZillaPanchayat. We do not take any money fromthose who produce the debris. I think Mr.Kotresh does not have knowledge regardingthe limit of our jurisdiction.”

He added: “They dump debris in the nightwhen there is no police patrolling. If they arecaught red handed, they will be punished.Even if they dump solid waste in the morning,it is very difficult to catch them because thevehicles in which they bring debris mostly donot have any number plates.”

Yogesh, the accused who murdered Girish.

Karishma Ravindran

Huge pile of debris lying beside Mysore Road

Ishan Bhattacharya