DC Manivannan sir – Biased Demolition

S.O.S – e – Clarion Of Dalit – Weekly Newspaper On Web
Working For The Rights & Survival Of The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJ.M.R VOL.3 issue. 45 11 / 11 / 2009

Editorial : PUBLIC CROSS-EXAMINATION OF SHRI.MANIVANNAN , DISTIRCT MAGISTRATE MYSORE , COMMISSIONER , MYSORE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY – biased demolition drive ?
Our publications expresses it’s whole hearted support to your
demolition drive against land grabbers – small fishes. what about the
bigger fishes , whales who have grabbed huge govt lands worth
crores , illegally built over corporation drainages , right under HT
electric lines , right on CA sites , right on lakes. Some of these
violations has occurred during your present tenure only , even it has
been brought to your personal notice , no action by you till date ,
why ? Now , MUDA is on the verge of giving whole sale LAND USAGE
CONVERSION FOR HUGE ACRES OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS TO COMMERCIAL ,
RESIDENTIAL , INDUSTRIAL USAGE. Before doing that please publicly
answer the following questionaire.
For the failure to answer our RTI request & to legally prosecute land
grabbers , building bye-law violators , our publication has failed a
criminal complaint against Commissioner MUDA & Commissioner , MCC at
vijayanagar police station , Mysore. Visit following websites to know
about the crimes of Indian public servants
CROSS EXAM OF INDIAN JUDGES
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/cross-exam-of-indian…
,
POLICE NOT REGISTERING COMPLAINT
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/police-not-registeri…
,
Our publication has sought information as per RTI Act from MUDA , MCC
& district administration about various irregularities of land
allotment , conversions in & around mysore city. however till date MCC
has not cared to reply , MUDA has only given half truths , district
administration has not given full information at all. the officials of
said authorities are putting onus of giving information on the other.
thereby , the officials are indirectly protecting land mafia . now ,
you are the head of MUDA & DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION and you are well
known for your integrity , honesty of duty . we respect you & request
your kindself to publicly answer the following questions ( WHICH YOUR
OFFICIALS TRIED TO AVOID & HID ) , so that criminals will be put in
the open benefitting the larger public interest. JAI HIND. VANDE
MATARAM.
Your’s sincerely,
NAGARAJ.M.R.

PUBLIC CROSS-EXAMINATION OF SHRI.MANIVANNAN , I.A.S , HONOURABLE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE , MYSORE

1. how many times since 1987 , MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has revised /
modified the mysore city’s comprehensive city development plan ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP
revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say
from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality ,
if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic
amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT collecting
market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ?
if not why ?
7. in mysore city , many building complexes , buildings have been
built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking
space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action
by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered
by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status
report yearwise ?
9. how much of MUDA’s / MCC’s / GOVERNMENT’s lands , sites , buildings
& houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since
1987 ?
10. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against
each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report
yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just
through MUDA’s / MCC’s resolution instead of of reallotting the same
through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting
list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original
allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in
reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ?
what is the procedure followed ?
13. in mysore city , numerous housing societies & real estate
Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing
societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by
MUDA , MCC , GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against
such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not
why ?
15. what action MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real
estate firms & housing societies who have violated MUDA norms , layout
plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road ,
space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc
keeping high in the mind safety of people first. MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the
building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators &
legalizing those
violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally
neglected by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT . When public people die , suffer
injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to
lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of
a business complex as the complex doesn’t have a parking space of it’s
own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road
resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for out of
Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons ,
judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports
persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing
societies , who have violated MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority
people illegally live On MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT sites building
temporary huts , MUDA / AUTHORITIES with the help of police razes down
those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of
political bigwigs illegally occupy MUDA , MCC / GOVERNMENT lands worth
crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees
monthly rent , MUDA or authorities not even files police complaint
against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a
pittance as fine. Why this double standard by MUDA / MCC GOVERNMENT ?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by MUDA /
MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are
under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the MUDA ,AUTHORITIES
recovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals –
tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient
time to bidders about it’s auction schedules ?
26. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land
loosers ?
27. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands ,
for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the MUDA / AUTHORITIES acquiring lands at lower rates from
farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a
real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage
of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands
belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their
personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of
whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such
lands. When MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what
about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have
been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by
MUDA MCC or other land developers ?
31. has the MUDA , MCC taken alternate steps to create new lakes ,
ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around mysore city , high tension electric lines are there in
busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent
structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings
under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road.
The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks ,
rented out
advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending
lakhs of taxpayer’s money. This fencing obstructs the movement of
service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all
these structures under
& surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures
yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around mysore city , in how many areas developed by MUDA &
private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is
directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by
MUDA , MCC & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts
developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are
dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into
unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the
environment & creating public health hazard ? how the MUDA / MCC is
monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987
till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around mysore
city ? what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT against them ? action
taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around mysore city , vast areas of village farm lands ,
agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for
non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these
actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands
to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees.
Has the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to
industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of
agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB’s
comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the MUDA / MCC , KIADB given wide publicity , public notice
calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to MUDA’s /
MCC’s CDP & KIADB’s industrial area development plan ? violations how
many ?
42. is the MUDA & KIADB revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA
DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private
companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate
mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar’s report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has
been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is
shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S
THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to
MUDA’s CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL
JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after
purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only
industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that ,
said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it’s
objections , in it’s newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the
government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the
private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO’s , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are
allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they
will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts
are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other
than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been
taken by MUDA , MCC or government in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since
1987 till date? what action taken by MUDA , MCC & government action
taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized
by MUDA , MCC or authorities , on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987
till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public
objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some MUDA / MCC /
REVENUE officials & their family members , who have land acquisition /
denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial
lands by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said
trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT
before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for the
sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?

land scam in Karnataka – an appeal to honourable supreme court of
India & H.E.Honourable Governor Of Karnataka

When a crime is noticed , it is the duty of the government to
investigate who did it ? and to legally prosecute them in court &
provide justice . if thousands of criminals , lakhs of criminals got
together & did the same type of crimes , all of them must be legally
prosecuted. Just for the overwhelming numbers of criminals law of the
land cann’t be changed. However in the Karnataka state , many
political bigwigs , rich crooks have done the same crime , LAND
GRABBING – illegal possession of government land & illegal
constructions over it. Important land records of those government
lands , lands belonging to poor are lost in record rooms of civic
bodies ( cunningly destroyed by corrupt officials ) Now, their
political masters are legalizing the crimes . what a shame to the
government of Karnataka ?
The shri.A.T. RAMA SWAMY , (M.L.A) standing committee in the
legislative assembly is still probing the land grabbings in Karnataka.
However the government in a hurry , is auctioning – off those
government lands without proper publicity to the auction process ,
sufficient time for bidder’s expression of interest. In some cases , a
pittance is levied as penalty for the illegal occupation to get it
legalized. The government is not bothered about legally prosecuting
the illegal occupier of those lands. In many civic bodies , important
property documents belonging to the government & poor are missing from
the record rooms. All these point towards the government intention ,
to legalise the crimes of illegal land occupiers who are nothing but
their own political cronies.
The recent ordinance by government of Karnataka to regularize land
deals is envisaging to legalize the crimes of rich. The illegal land
conversions , land encroachments , encroachment of civic amenities
made by the rich are being legalized with levying a pittance as
penalty in the name of public welfare . Whereas the land worth at
today’s market prices are 10’s of thousands of crore it is only wefare
of the rich & mighty . IT IS GOING TO BE MOTHER OF ALL SCAMS. The
authorities evict poor tribal people from their ancestral forest area
in the name of conservation , evict tribal people from villages in the
name of development without proper rehabilitation measures. The
government is not giving land rights to slum dwellers , poor , dalits
over the land they are dwelling , the government is deaf to appeals of
dalits for land rights. However the same government is sympathetic to
rich who have encroached land & built huge commercial complexes worth
crores violating all norms with total disregard to civic amenity or
safety.
Hereby , HRW appeals to honourable supreme court of India , to annul
the bid process of government of Karnataka with respect to illegally
occupied government lands & to annul this ordinance of government of
Karnataka which seeks to legalize land crimes.

THE CLOUT OF LAND MAFIA IN INDIA -the governments daring to by-pass judiciary – An appeal ( PIL ) to the honourable supreme court of India
The recent attempts by government of India & other state governments
to legalise land grabbings by enacting new land laws in the name of
public welfare is farce . while crores of people are without shelter &
are living on streets , people in slums , tribal lands are struggling
for land rights since decades the governments were mum & deaf. Now ,
as the rulers themselves & their cronies have built illegal
constructions running into crores they are shedding crocodile tears in
the name of public welfare. In india, various state governments have
enacted ” town municipal / city corporation laws & building laws” , to
ensure orderly growth of cities & towns , to ensure the safety of
buildings & it’s occupants , to ensure the safety of pedestrians &
road users.
Numerous educated people , ruling elite – ministers , police ,
government officials , M.Ps , M.L.As , etc knowing fully well about
the laws have illegally built bungalows , commercial complexes ,
throwing to wind all laws. In their greed they have shown utter
contempt towards law. They have encroached dried –up lakes ,
rivulets , rain flow paths , drainages , foot paths , civic amenity
sites. In their building there are violations of- lack of fire safety
exits , lack of parking space , encroachment of foot paths ,
conservancy line , drainages , etc.
There is wide spread corruption in the corporation / municipal
authorities. For a price officials have converted CA sites to
commercial purposes , authorised deviations / encroachments of public
lands like foot paths , drainages , parking space , set-off , etc. The
corporation officials themselves are violating city master plans. Even
before authorising the conversions & encroachments of lands , the
corporation officials are not making alternate arrangements. By all
these corrupt deeds many of the corporation officilas have become
millionaires . however more & more road accidents are taking place ,
building collapses & fire tragedies are occurring , during heavy
rainfalls water is getting clogged – ALL THESE RESULTING IN LOSS OF
HUMAN LIVE & PROPERTIES. In recent days numerous murders have taken
place over the real estate issues . THE CRIMINAL LAND GRABBERS MADE
DEATH THREATS & FORCED THE PIL APPLICANT IN THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT
ABOUT LAND GRABBINGS IN KORAMANGALA LAYOUT BANGALORE. The government
of karnataka instead of protecting the PIL applicant & upholding the
law has taken sides with the land grabbers.
The state governments of karnataka & delhi has got M.L.As & officials
who have themselves violated building laws & grabbed govt lands. Now ,
the two govts are contemplating to bring in laws regularising these
land grabbing crimes for a pittance as penalty. All to by-pass
judiciary. The governments are least bothered about the lives of poor
& only too caring towards the land grabbing criminals. The same
governments have not yet given land rights to poor slum dwellers /
dalits , land rights to tribals living in forest since centuries ,
land rights to poor agricultural labourers, where as it is full of
concern towards rich & mighty land grabbers – criminals. Bottom line –
whatever be the magnitude of crime if you are rich & mighty law will
be bended to suit you , by bad luck if you are a poor folk you are
bound to suffer being on the right side of law also. Hereby , HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH urges requests the honourable supreme court of india , to
register this as a PIL , to provide protection to the PIL applicant in
bangalore & to take appropriate actions against the GOK & GOD nipping
at bud their illegal motives to regularise land grabbings.

ILLEGALITIES IN AUCTION OF M/S IDEAL JAWA LTD MYSORE

During the auction of above sick industry the land usage was for
industrial purpose only. so, people with other commercial objectives
were not allowed to participate in the auction. Thereby, the final
auctioned amount was very much less than the market value. This has a
direct bearing on employees of that industry , lending banks , govt
dept , etc who have all put forward their claims for dues from that
industry. noW, all of them are getting very much less than what is due
from the closed company. A loss of crores of rupees to banks ,
government , employees has been made by the cunningness of civic
bodies.
Now in a backdoor move the M.U.D.A , K.I.A.D.B , M.C.C are moving to
give land usage conversion to the new occupier, who is building posh
villas & resorts here. Is it right & justified ? should not they
conduct auction once again or charge market value to the new owner.
LAND MAFIA IN KARNATAKA
The land mafia which has links with political leadership & top govt
servants in the state, is running business widely in & around
bangalore,mysore & other major towns. The authorities like city
corporation , B.D.A, M.U.D.A , K.I.A.D.B , etc are denotifying the
lands meant for public welfare in favour of land mafia. The
authorities have earmarked these lands for public welfare ie parks ,
schools , hospitals at the planning stage itself for current & future
needs of the people. In most cases the land mafia has illegally
occupied the lands , built commercial complexes & sold it for crores
of rupees.
1. the authorities are not demolishing these illegal structures &
prosecuting the occupiers.
2. In some cases the authorities are denotifying , regularizing those
illegal occupations by levying a pittance as penalty which is very
much less than the market value.
3. In some cases for example a notified site for school is alloted to
an educational trust. They build 2 rooms in 25% of the site & state
that this is free school meant for weaker sections. After a year or
two , they state before the authority that to run this school they
need funds. So they are planning to build commercial complexes around
the school site & by the rent collected from shops they will run the
school. In this manner sites meant for schools , hospitals , temples &
other social organisations apply for conversion of land usage & use
major portion of the land for commercial purposes.
Hereby , our publication urges the govt of karnataka & other
authorities ,
1. to clearly demarcate the govt lands & announce it boldly to the
public.
2. To clearly demarcate lands meant for public amenities both for
current & future usage.
3. To clearly demarcate lands required for town planning say 20 years
down the line.
4. To clearly mention in such plans the purpose it is reserved for ie
parks , hospitals , schools , etc.
5. To impartially act against illegal occupiers – rich or poor.
6. Say while denotifying a land meant for school an alternate land for
school must be incorporated in the original plan.
7. Before denotification public objections must be called for &
considered responsibly.
8. After denotification the land must be sold at the market rate not
the govt rate.
9. In case of land usage conversion also the objections from the
public must be called for & considered responsibly.
10. After land usage conversion an alternate land must be incorporated
in the plan for the original use.
11. In case of land usage conversion also the occupier must be charged
at the market value.
12. To declare annually the property details of all officials with
denotifying / land usage conversion authorities together with details
of their family member’s properties with provision for public
scrutiny, cross checking.
13. To ruthlessly prosecute the corrupt officials & ministers.
14. To make public the report of past district magistrate mysore mr.
T.M. VIJAYA BHASKAR about illegal land dealings in & around mysore.
Also the action taken report.

ILLEGALITIES IN BANGALORE-MYSORE EXPRESSWAY PROJECT
Different political parties are trading charges against each other
about illegalities in the mysore-bangalore expressway project. Grave
mistakes have been committed by the previous state governments. The
saving grace is judiciary has taken note of it. The fundamental
principle behind land acquisitions by the governments is to use that
acquired lands for public welfare. As the govt acquires the land with
this noble intentions even the land looser contents himself with
compensation at govt rate. Always the govt rate is much below market
value. If at all the govt wants to give out that acquired land to a
private party for private use or for the use of a selected few, the
govt must give prevailing market rate to the land looser. In such
cases the govt does not have authority to force the land owner to sell
his property.
In this mysore-bangalore 4 lane expressway project, following
inconsistencies are there,
1. this road is not for free public use, but only for those who pays
the toll fees.
2. The luxurious resorts , townships , etc which are to be built
alongside this road are not open for free public usage but only for
the rich who can afford it.
3. The govt has concluded this deal in a hush-hush manner.
4. Any disputes raised by this project should be addressed to
international arbiter at london which a poor land owner or general
public can ill-afford.
5. The govt has not paid the prevailing market value to the land
loosers.
6. The govt has not given the option to land owners not to sell their
property.
7. This whole project is for rich , built by the rich for the rich &
not meant for public welfare.
The govt must give back the lands to the owners who wants it back &
must pay the market value to those willing to sell. As this project is
built by wealthy people for wealthy people why cann’t they cough- up
market value?
APPEAL UNDER SEC 19 (3) OF RTI ACT 2005 OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA & GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA
APPLICATION FOR INFORMATION AS PER RTI ACT 2005 ( SEE RULE 22 OF RTI ACT 2005 )
FULL NAME OF THE APPLICANT : NAGARAJ.M.R.
ADDRESS OF THE APPLICANT :
NAGARAJ.M.R.,
EDITOR , E-VOICE OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH,
# LIG-2 / 761, OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE,
HUDCO FIRST STAGE, LAXMIKANTANAGAR,
HEBBAL, MYSORE , KARNATAKA , PIN – 570017.
DETAILS OF DOCUMENTS / WRITTEN STATEMENTS / INFORMATION REQUIRED :
HEREBY , I DO HUMBLY REQUEST YOU TO GIVE ME WRITTEN STATEMENTS /
ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS – WHICH IN ITSELF ( ie answers )
ARE THE INFORMATION SOUGHT BY ME.
1. how many times since 1987 , MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has revised /
modified the mysore city’s comprehensive city development plan ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP
revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say
from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality ,
if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic
amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT collecting
market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ?
if not why ?
7. in mysore city , many building complexes , buildings have been
built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking
space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action
by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered
by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status
report yearwise ?
9. how much of MUDA’s / MCC’s / GOVERNMENT’s lands , sites , buildings
& houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since
1987 ?
10. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against
each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report
yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just
through MUDA’s / MCC’s resolution instead of of reallotting the same
through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting
list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original
allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in
reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ?
what is the procedure followed ?
13. in mysore city , numerous housing societies & real estate
Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing
societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by
MUDA , MCC , GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against
such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not
why ?
15. what action MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real
estate firms & housing societies who have violated MUDA norms , layout
plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road ,
space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc
keeping high in the mind safety of people first. MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the
building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators &
legalizing those
violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally
neglected by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT . When public people die , suffer
injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to
lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of
a business complex as the complex doesn’t have a parking space of it’s
own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road
resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for out of
Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons ,
judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports
persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing
societies , who have violated MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority
people illegally live On MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT sites building
temporary huts , MUDA / AUTHORITIES with the help of police razes down
those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of
political bigwigs illegally occupy MUDA , MCC / GOVERNMENT lands worth
crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees
monthly rent , MUDA or authorities not even files police complaint
against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a
pittance as fine. Why this double standard by MUDA / MCC GOVERNMENT ?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by MUDA /
MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are
under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the MUDA ,AUTHORITIES
recovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals –
tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient
time to bidders about it’s auction schedules ?
26. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land
loosers ?
27. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands ,
for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the MUDA / AUTHORITIES acquiring lands at lower rates from
farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a
real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage
of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands
belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their
personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of
whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such
lands. When MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what
about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have
been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by
MUDA MCC or other land developers ?
31. has the MUDA , MCC taken alternate steps to create new lakes ,
ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around mysore city , high tension electric lines are there in
busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent
structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings
under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road.
The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks ,
rented out
advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending
lakhs of taxpayer’s money. This fencing obstructs the movement of
service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all
these structures under
& surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by
MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures
yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around mysore city , in how many areas developed by MUDA &
private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is
directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by
MUDA , MCC & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts
developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are
dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into
unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the
environment & creating public health hazard ? how the MUDA / MCC is
monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987
till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around mysore
city ? what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT against them ? action
taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around mysore city , vast areas of village farm lands ,
agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for
non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these
actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands
to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees.
Has the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to
industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of
agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB’s
comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the MUDA / MCC , KIADB given wide publicity , public notice
calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to MUDA’s /
MCC’s CDP & KIADB’s industrial area development plan ? violations how
many ?
42. is the MUDA & KIADB revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA
DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private
companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate
mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar’s report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has
been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is
shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S
THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to
MUDA’s CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL
JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after
purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only
industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that ,
said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it’s
objections , in it’s newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the
government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the
private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO’s , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are
allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they
will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts
are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other
than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been
taken by MUDA , MCC or government in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since
1987 till date? what action taken by MUDA , MCC & government action
taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized
by MUDA , MCC or authorities , on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987
till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public
objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some MUDA / MCC /
REVENUE officials & their family members , who have land acquisition /
denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial
lands by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said
trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT
before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for the
sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?
YEAR TO WHICH ABOVE PERTAINS : MAJORITY OF DOCUMENTS PERTAINS TO YEAR
2006 & 2007 . SOME OF THE DOCUMENTS ARE DATED BACK TO 1947.
REMARKS :
PIO of O/O commissioner , Mysore urban development authority , Mysore failed to provide full information to us.
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER FROM WHOM THE INFORMATION IS REQUIRED :
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER , O/O COMMISSIONER , MYSORE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY , MYSORE .
DATE : 21.04.08 YOUR’S SINCERELY,
PLACE : MYSORE NAGARAJ.M.R.

CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –
http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,
Raja faces heat as CBI raids DoT on 2G scam
Turning the heat on telecom minister A. Raja, the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) has registered a case saying there was large scale
corruption in the allocation of 2G (second generation) radio spectrum
licences.
Raja, the second-time telecom minister in the UPA government, had
repeatedly denied any corruption in the 2G allocation to private
companies in 2008. The FIR filed by CBI on Thursday names no person
but merely mentions unknown officials of the department of
telecommunications (DoT) and unknown private persons and companies as
the accused.
The agency raided the DoT office in Sanchar Bhawan and the search for
incriminating documents was on till late night in the wireless
planning cell and in the office of the deputy directorgeneral (access
services) of DoT. Top bureaucrats of the ministry are under the CBI
scanner. The FIR confirms allegations of “serious irregularities” in
the award of the spectrum licenses and a criminal conspiracy woven
between DoT officials and certain private companies.
However, telecom minister A. Raja ruled out resignation in the wake of
CBI searches in his ministry. “The question of my resignation does not
arise. All decisions on spectrum licensing have been taken in
accordance with procedures laid down by Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (Trai) and in consultations with the Prime Minister,” he told
reporters.
But the CBI FIR said, “The licenses were awarded to these companies by
putting a cap on the number of applicants against the recommendations
of the Trai. The licences to these private companies were given on a
first-come-first-served basis at the rates of 2001 – which were very
low – without any competitive bidding.” CBI has acted within days of
the Central Vigilance Commission ( CVC) asking for a comprehensive CBI
probe. “The CVC findings show the spectrum was not allocated at the
present market- driven price, no auction process was followed and no
bids were invited. We will now quiz senior DoT officials, including an
IAS officer,” a senior CBI official said.
“The scam could run up to Rs 22,000 crore. Firms which got the
licences at throwaway prices later sold their stake to foreign
operators at huge prices,” he added. SOURCES said the CBI probe will
concentrate on specific aspects like why DoT did not go for the
auction process in accordance with Trai guidelines and instead opted
for a firstcome- first- served approach.
It will also examine why licences were not issued at current prices
and why no time cap was fixed for those who were given the licences.
” CBI will further analyse documents to ascertain if the DoT had
cabinet approval for going ahead with its idea of not inviting global
bids for such a big project,” according to sources.
Two companies that got these licences in 2008 – Swan Telecom and
Unitech – are allegedly under CBI investigation. Swan Telecom got the
license for a mere Rs 1,537 crore. It then sold its stake to a foreign
operator at nearly three times the amount within a few months. Unitech
got the spectrum licence for Rs 1,650 crore from the DoT, which too,
sold its stake to a Norwegian company for over four times this amount.
” The end loser was the government, which could have earned thousands
of crores more,” said a CBI official.
In 2008, the government had issued new licences bundled with start- up
4.4 MHz spectrum at a fee of Rs 1,651 crore.
UNDER SCANNER
CBI will probe why DoT didn’t go for the auction as per Trai norms &
opted for a first-come-first-served approach.
It will also examine why licences were not issued at current prices
and why no time cap was fixed for those who were given licences.
The scam could run up to Rs 22,000 crore. Firms which got the licences
at throwaway prices later sold their stakes to foreign telcos at big
prices.
Two firms that got these licences in 2008 – Swan Telecom and Unitech -
are under CBI investigation.

BJP demands sacking of A.Raja over 2G spectrum scam
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday reiterated its demand that
Telecom Minister A.Raja be sacked for his controversial role in the
allocation of 2G spectrum.
Addressing a news conference in the capital here this afternoon, BJP
General Secretary Arun Jaitely claimed that by allocating 2G spectrum
at prices that were in existence in 2001 and not what was the
prevailing rate in 2009, A.Raja had colluded in a fraud and loss of
more than Rs.60,000 crores, making it the largest scam in independent
India history.
“It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister has chosen to comment on
the innocence of the minister, even while the investigations are on.
There was no occasion for the Prime Minister to send such a signal to
the investigative agencies directly under him,” Jaitely said.
“This country has been robbed of a large amount of money by this
misdemeanour of the Telecom Department. The compulsions of the
coalition politics should not come in the way of an honest
investigation. Propriety requires that while the investigations are
under way, the minister should cease to be in office. His continuation
in that ministry is itself a deterrent to an honest and independent
investigation,” he added.
“The entire nation is closely watching this investigation. Let this
investigation not result in holding civil servants guilty and the
minister innocent. It was the minister who is the prime accused and
the civil servants were only carrying out his dictates,” Jaitely
further said.
He said that with the Central Bureau of Investigation registering a
regular case with regard to the allotment of spectrum for the 2-G
license issued by the Department of Telecommunications in 2007; the
offices of the Department of Telecommunications have been searched and
various documents have been seized, there was serious ground to assume
that an impropriety had been committed in the public domain.
“To Shri A. Raja’s statement that he had kept the Prime Minister
informed of what he was doing, the Prime Minister has said – ” I would
not like to join the issue in the public with my Cabinet colleague.”
Obviously, the Prime Minister is in no position to agree or disagree,”
Jaitely said. The allegations against Shri A. Raja and the officers of
the Department of Telecommunications are very clear, Jaitely said,
adding that the BJP had raised the issue in Parliament during the
Monsoon Session.
He said that the party had then demanded prosecution of the minister
and other officers under Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of
Corruption Act.
This provision provides for imprisonment of seven years, Jaitely said,
adding that Raja is primarily liable for this offence.(ANI)

2G row: Raja accuses NDA of Rs 1 lakh crore scam
NEW DELHI, INDIA: A.Raja, Union Minster for IT and Communication, has
alleged that the NDA Government had unlawfully allocated 2G spectrum
to some operators and reduced license fee without any approval from
the Cabinet or recommendation from TRAI. He alleged this has incurred
the government a loss of approximately one lakh crore rupees.
“On record it had been observed that the license fee was brought down
to Rs 1000 crore to benefit some of the operators. The whole spectrum
allocation and license fee reduction is estimated to have cost rupees
one lakh crore to the government,” alleged Raja.
While addressing the curtain raiser event of Indian Telecom 2009 here
today the minister also criticized BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who has
demanded his resignation, for defending a major operator in court.
“Arun Jaitley himself appeared before the court to defend an operator.
Now his legal brain is fighting with political brain. I don’t know
what will be the outcome,” said Raja.
Raja slammed the previous NDA regime for allocating excess spectrum
without any approval of the Cabinet and recommendation from TRAI.
“There was no policy of issuing beyond 4.4 MHz spectrum to an operator
but there were allocation made beyond 4.4 MHz to some of the
operators,” said the telecom minister.
Raja further added that despite clear orders which said that no
allocation should be made in the band of 900 MHz, NDA allocated
spectrum to some of the operators.
“The government has approved through clear orders that there should be
no allocation from 900 MHz spectrum band but willfully and ignoring
the law, this 900 MHz band was allocated to some operators during
NDA,” said Raja.
“There was allocation of 250 MHz spectrum without any upfront charge.
Additionally there was no revenue sharing for allocation of spectrum
beyond 8 to 10 MHz. What we mean to say, was 250 MHz spectrum their
ancestral property? I am the first minister to say that spectrum
allocation should be done on upfront charges,” said Raja.
He also said the NDA ministers did not go for TRAI recommendation and
also there was no revenue sharing.
The minister also said that the reduction in the license fee benefited
some of the operators.
However, Raja did not answer the questions on the amendment that were
made during NDA Government at the time of introduction of Unified
Access Service Licenses (UASL) on October 31, 2003, whereby it was
decided that the future licenses would not be given on ‘first come
first serve’ basis but should be auctioned.
On October 27, 2003, TRAI in its recommendation on UASL had opined
that on availability of additional spectrum additional players could
be added by multi-stage bidding process.
TRAI, in Section 7.39 of this recommendation, mentioned that “As the
existing players have to improve the efficiency of utilization of
spectrum and if Government ensures availability of additional spectrum
then in the existing Licensing Regime, they may introduce additional
players through a multi-stage bidding process as was followed for 4th
cellular operator.”

edited , printed , published & owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ : LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL , MYSORE -570017 INDIA cell :09341820313
home page: http://groups.google.co.in/group/e-clarion-of-dalit/ ,
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/ ,
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/e-clarionofdalit/ ,
e-mail : nagarajhrw@hotmail.com , naghrw@yahoo.com

PRICOL VP Murder by workers

S.O.S – e – Clarion Of Dalit – Weekly Newspaper On Web
Working For The Rights & Survival Of The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJ.M.R VOL.3 issue. 40 07 / 10 / 2009

Editorial: PRICOL VP MURDER , SATYAM CO FRAUD , SINGUR AGITATION & GRAZIONO CEO MASS MURDER
- An eye opener to irresponsible corporate India & GOI

In last week , in the state of tamilnadu India , some of the sacked laboureres of M/S PRICOL INDUSTRIES mass lynched & murdered a higher management official , for sacking them from their jobs. This act of laborers is a heinous crime , illegal & inhuman act. In India , nowadays the labour movement has been hijacked by lumpen elements , rowdies , criminals. These criminal elements are there in the posts of union leaders just to further their self interests rather than the welfare of the workers whom they represent. These lumpen elements , so called leaders thrive on controversies & creates disturbances , vitiates harmonious relations between the management – workers. The company as an organization needs team work to survive & thrive in business. These labor leaders even oppose for example OUTPUT BASED PRODUCTION INCENTIVE SCHEME – which is a win win situation for both the management & workers. These leaders go to the extent of killing the hen which lays golden eggs , all for their selfish gains. These rowdy leaders become leaders just to make money , to make political entry , to shirk-off work , to escape night shift work , etc. In the midst of these rowdy elements the genuine concerns of ordinary workers are not at all heard. The ordinary workers who depend on the organization for their livelihood , who work hard to earn more incentive , are the ultimate sufferers.

In the same manner , the management of companies must be sensible to the genuine concerns of it’s workers , it must properly balance the worker’s concern & company’s position . some of the managements enforce harsh rules on workers , o.k , the management personnel of those very same companies function without discipline , misuse company properties , siphons of company money , take commission from vendors , cheat the government of tax dues , violate environmental laws , tax laws , labor laws by bribing officials , etc. Finally this kills the organization as a whole – the end losers shareholders , lending banks , government & our economy.

The recent public agitation at singur west Bengal , India against the TATA NANO project , is nothing but a struggle for survival by the land loosers. The public of singur are living there since ancestral times , they fully depend for their livelihood on the vegetables & other small crops grown there by them. The livelihood , their survival is at stake. The irresponsible west Bengal government , to favour the corporate lobby , acquired the lands forcibly dirt cheap & gave it away at dirt cheap price to TATA’S. why such a cheap , long term lease period has been given to TATA’S ? The government literally has thrown the land loosers on street , it didn’t bother about their survival nor about their proper rehabilitation . Basically , TATA’S is a business house , their only intention is to make profits , more money , not the welfare of people. Why not TATA’S acquire land in open market ? the acquire of lands by state or central government for public good like for building dams , roads , channels are at least justified however the rehabilitation is more important. Other than for the projects concerning public good , for all the projects of private enterprises like pay & use roads , airports , industries , etc , the lands must be acquired in the open market at market prices . For some industrialists bid to make riches , lives , livelihood of thousands should not be sacrificed. It is not alround development. In a democracy , the voice of the public , locals should be honoured but not the diktats of ministers or babus in secretariats. The present corrupt system in India leading to rise of naxalism , underworld , separatist movements are all due to the government policies since independence till date according to the wisdom (?) of ministers & babus , totally dishonouring the public voice.

Now , take the case of Graziono CEO mass murder in noida , it is nothing but fallout of hire & fire policies. Every human being works for survival , on his meager salary there will be family dependents , all of a sudden if a person is fired from service , his whole family will be on streets. O.k , all corporates nowadays preach & breath the mantra of USA , for everything be it infrastructure , flexible labour policies , it compares itself with those prevailing in the USA. Now , the corporate India is getting infrastructure at dirt free prices ( very high in the USA ) , has got hire & fire mechanism by employing contract labour , very lenient environmental norms , very lenient food & drugs safety rules , relaxation in Factory Act , ESI & PF acts , etc add to it the rampant corruption in all govt departments by which you can get any certificate for a price.
In the USA , of course there is hire & fire policy , however the minimum wage levels are also very high , so that during good times workers can save money for their future. Also , there is social security net to take care of ousted workers , then why not Indian corporates paying good salary to workers during good times ? why not corporate India making good contribution to social security net ? in the USA , there are good infrastructure facilities they take pride in paying taxes to the government , the corporate India always lobbies for tax cuts , subsidies , loan waivers , etc. in the USA the environment norms are very strict , the companies manufacturing hazardous chemicals which were ousted by the US government have set up shop in India . Government of USA treats lives of people as precious , where as Indian government treats lives of it’s people as dispensable. In the USA , the food safety & drugs , medicines safety standards are very high , the drugs , high level adulteration food products banned by Government of USA are sold in the India , this is the difference between government of USA & India , the way they treat their people’s lives. Loan recovery , investor safety norms are very high in the USA , where as in India , loan defaulters , share holder swindling , Non Performing Assets is very high. Inspite of all the strict norms we have seen enron , Xerox debacles in the USA & recent bank fallouts in the USA. In India with such lax norms , only you can guess.
The lesson here for the government of India is , development must be allround , must not be at the cost of thousands. Listen to the voice of public but not to the commands of greedy selfish corporates , lobbies . Do stop thinking that only babus , IAS officers & minister are brilliant knowing all and the public people are fools fit to be herded by IAS officers. Do remember that India is a democracy not a BANANA REPUBLIC.
The lesson for corporate India , aping the USA intoto is O.k , but not by parts & bits , follow corporate USA in every aspect of corporate duties & responsibilities , transparency.
Final word , when it comes to the question of survival , life , livelihood , it know no bounds . After all STRUGGLE FOR SUVIVAL is a basic animal instinct , it is a basic human right of every individual . JAI HIND. VANDE MATARAM.

Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.

Six arrested for PRICOL VP Murder case
- by harsha subramaniam

Six sacked workers of Coimbatore-based auto component maker Pricol, who allegedly beat the HR head of the company to death, have been arrested. But this shocking incident reveals the deteriorating labour-management relations in the state.

The murder of 47-year-old Roy George, Vice President HR of Pricol, has sent shockwaves across the country. On Monday, 42 employees were sacked for deliberately disrupting production. Hearing this, seven of them attacked Roy with iron rods and beat him to death. Six have been arrested, one absconding and the government has promised action.

Said Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin, “Any form of violence is unacceptable and the law will take its own course, the case is investigated by the police.”

But it is government’s inaction that led to this situation in the first place says the management. The dispute began two years ago when one faction of workers led by Kumaraswamy, a Chennai based lawyer, created a parallel union and went on a strike. Calling the strike illegal, the management refused to recognise the faction. The management alleges that the workers-faction refused to negotiate and disrputed production that prompted the dismissal. Pricol Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Mohan said the government needs to play fair.

“For the management and the trade unions to function smoothly when there is a difference of opinion, when there is a rift, the government has to play a mediating role and in the mediating role they’ll have to take a neutral stand. If the management is at fault they’ll have to haul up the management. If the workers are at fault they have to haul up the workers.” Mohan said.
Pricol is not a case in isolation. In the past few months, issue of recognising trade union has created similar disputes in Hyundai and MRF. So far, the state has been a mute spectator even as investors seek more labour friendly destinations.

Turning The Tide of Labour Unrest in India

By
Santosh N Gambhire
Ajitsingh K Patil
Anurag Sinha
Student
Jamanalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
E-mail: an79wins@yahoo.co.in

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Recent clash between the Labour and Management of Honda Motors and Scooters India in Gurgaon has again brought back the bogey of strikes of socialist era. Everyone including MNCs, government, economist and employers are skeptical of resurgence of Labour movement. If labour Movement gets a new life, it can give a severe jolt to Indian economy. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the reason behind these events and curb the nip in the bud.
Globalization and Liberalization has forced government to give a serious thought to our anarchic labour law, which makes our companies uncompetitive globally and discourages foreign companies from investing in India. Indian labour laws are among the most rigid in the world. Some recent data compiled by the World Bank collate the level of rigidity of hiring and firing rules in different nations -100 being the score of the highest conceivable rigidity. India is among the most rigid countries with a score of 48. China has a score of 30, Korea 34, Norway 30; Singapore closes to 0. Therefore this crisscrossing network of chaotic, strangulating, overlapping and often- contradictory laws need an overhaul. The single most important labour law is arguably the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947. This was enacted a few months before India’s independence and guides the hiring and firing rules of the industrial sector and is a good example of a well-meaning policy that is founded on antiquated economics and a handsome misunderstanding of the way markets function. The IDA makes it very hard for firms to fire workers. This law has probably done more to hold back the growth of India’s manufacturing sector than any other policy.
In this scenario, Government recognized the need for increased flexibility in Labour market, but they can not bring the policy of hire and fire approach, more so, since the institutions of social security, particularly unemployment insurance are not well developed in our country. Therefore structural reforms in labour laws must ensure the welfare of workers. Reforming labour laws will boost industry and create more jobs.
Besides Government, it is the responsibility of the employer to develop some well specified procedure that must not create undue unrest among workers and whenever they need more manpower ,they should a give preference to the workers it is retrenching at present. They should also introduce some Unemployment Insurance schemes made by the contribution of employees and employer.
The fact that the less rigid nations also have more efficient economies, higher wages and a smaller share of laborers who are long-term unemployed is not a matter of coincidence. Given that the reform of labour laws is, contrary to popular perception, in the interests of the workers, what government needs to do is have this topic debated and explained so that workers, instead of opposing such reform, become its advocate.
INTRODUCTION
Are the labour unions back? The riot that followed the labour management dispute in Gurgaon over the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India spat could be the first major sign of things to come. After a decade-and-a-half of market friendly policy changes, the union seems to be sticking their neck out again to ensure they are being heard. Some says the left parties in power are the force behind this resurgence, the central unions disagree. They see the UPA government in the Center as a major conducive environment for their woes to be heard. For now, the battleground has been cleared and the soldiers are back home. A peace pipe is being passed around and the warring factions appear momentarily happy to take a drag as they put behind them the images of mayhem that hit the industrially flourishing Gurgaon-Manesar region in Haryana. But behind the wall of silence, tremors can still be felt. The question on everyone’s mind is how to ensure that what happened on Black Monday in Gurgaon does not happen again.
Research has revealed that labour strikes globally hit once in eight to 10 years. That period is now nearing. “The Honda incident should be taken as early warnings of a big wave of labour militancy in the future.” The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), which has just claimed a conquest by bringing Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India’s workers’ union into its fold, has now trained its guns on Maruti Udyog Ltd, the leading producer of passenger cars in the country pertaining to the dismissal of 92 employees during a labour trouble at Maruti in 2000-2001 and several hundreds opting for a voluntary retirement scheme, which, it is alleged, is not exactly voluntary.
These are the clear signs of tide of labor unrest to come.
LABOUR UNREST
A labour unrest is a social phenomenon of enormous complexity and it is very difficult to give any complete explanation of this phenomenon. It is a matter of controversy whether the predominant factors underlying labour unrest are economic or non-economic. It has been concluded that so long as income remained the all important means for satisfying human wants and needs, wage would continue to be major consideration in labour unrest.
Considering the nearing period of labour unrest with the recent cases of Honda and Maruti, it is the time to do root cause analysis and find out what are the possible reasons which lead to labour unrest so as to address these issues and untide the tide of labour unrest.
STATISTICS OF THE LABOUR UNREST

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

From the study of some of the strikes and lockouts over last 10 years, we concluded that all the possible reasons can be classified into five major heads. As specific problems are branched out from the major effect area, the result appears to look something like a fishbone diagram. The potential problems can then be researched to find the root cause and correct it. The five heads are as follows: –
• Monetary
• Political
• Legal
• Job Specific
• Others
FISHBONE DIAGRAM FOR ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

All the causes mentioned above have some impact on the labour dissatisfaction which may eventually lead in Labour Unrest depending on the intensity of the problem. But the study done for the last 10 years led to conclude that major reasons for the strike and lockouts are as follows:
• Wages
• Retrenchment of labour which calls for sorting out the differences between employers and employees regarding Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
• Management’s decisions to go for contract labours without giving them permanent job security and denying fair wages. This issue can be adderessed by bringing consensus between trade unions, employers, government and political parties in Contract Labour Act, 1947 based on their interests.
In order to bring down Labour unrest, there is need to cater for these issues separately.
UPGRADE LABOR SKILLS TO JUSTIFY HIGHER WAGES
Workers will not be happy to sacrifice on wage and job security. So long as income remained the all important means for satisfying human wants and needs, wage would continue to be major consideration in labor unrest. Government official warned that failure to upgrade labor skills in a globally integrated economy will make it more difficult for unskilled and low-skilled workers to demand higher wages. This situation, in turn, may worsen labor unrest.
As the economy globalizes, it would be difficult to increase wages for unskilled or low-skilled laborers. Companies need to continue improving their training programs to meet the critical skills needed in a globalizing economy, which can be identified through industry signals. Improving labor skills would effectively solve labor unrest in the country, as it will result in higher wages and, therefore, better quality of lives for the people.
A shortage in skilled labor would discourage investors from putting up factories or companies in the country. They might opt to transfer to other neighboring countries whose labor skills are comparative to those of the Philippines yet require less pay. So managers and factory owners should invest in people and machines in order to compete globally.
HONDA CASE
Honda says its 50 workers who were suspended for indiscipline will not be reinstated pending an independent inquiry – an issue that caused bloody clashes between its workers and police on Black Monday. Dismissing four employees, 13 more were suspended without reason in May, followed by suspension notices to 37 others a month later. HONDA took a stand of not allowing the suspended workers into gates until the third party inquiry is completed and management gets the report. Management decided to take a call on their reinstatement based on the inquiry’s findings. But in any case, four employees who had caused the initial disruption of work will not be taken back under any circumstances.
The trouble at the group’s two-wheeler unit began when some 2,000 workers protested a lockout of the factory and dismissal of some colleagues. This was followed by clashes with the police that left scores wounded after some irate workers vandalized civic facilities, police vehicles and shops.
But it stresses the need to study and find out the reasons for the labour unrest at Honda.
The misgivings between the Honda management and employees find roots in the demand for a union to protect workers’ interests. Though the demand for a union did not go well with the management, the government and other companies in Gurgaon, the workers applied for registering the union. And even after the union was registered, there was a lot of pressure from the management, which finally dismissed four employees in the first two weeks of May.
To conclude, an idea of forming union did not go well with the management of HMSI. This finds the root in Industrial Dispute Act (IDA), 1947 which restrict the labour market flexibility. Had IDA included sections allowing labour market flexibility, HONDA would not have taken action against employees forming a union. It necessitates the changes in labour laws and calls for labour reforms in such a way to protect the interests of both employers and employees.
EFFECT OF LIBERALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION ON LABOUR MARKET
Liberalization of the Indian economy is almost a decade and a half old. Of all the economic liberalization reforms, labour market reforms have gained maximum attention. It is widely argued by many economists that in the open economy and liberalized trade, the country can no longer afford to carry on labour market rigidities. The employers (industrialists) have been vehemently pressing for labour reforms on the plea that these are necessary for making Indian industry globally competitive and for attracting more of foreign direct investment. The existing laws, it is contended by employers, slow down growth and job creation. They say that under the existing labour laws the churning of new skills is slower, companies lose cost cutting flexibility and ability to bounce out of recession quickly. The employers further contend that Labour Market will become more flexible with the amendments; more workers can be hired legitimately and can ask for better benefits including better work conditions, safety standards, welfare measures and health benefits.

The structural analysis of Labour Reform
Any change or reform in labour law will depend on the four competitive forces: Trade Union, Employer, Political parties and Government. In these forces, Trade Union and Employer take diametrically opposite stand on any issue. Employer wants more flexibility in retrenchment policy to become competitive, whereas Trade Union primary concern is on Job security and their influence on workers, which determines their bargaining power with Management. Political parties want vote bank from workers as well as financial support from businessmen. Whereas Government is keen to bring the labour reforms in order to keep Country on the fast track of development but don’t want to create unrest among the workers.
LABOUR REFORMS IN INDIA
Labour laws need to be amended to suit the changing economic scenario. However, different stakeholders like Employers, trade unions and political parties seem to differ on the issue. For e.g. the political parties in the ruling coalition of the Central Government possess contradicting ideologies on labour related matter. Leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI), an important party of the coalition, have been opposing the flexibility to industry on labour related matters. The congress has been arguing for “labour reforms” to attract Foreign Direct Investment in the country. However, the journey for labour reforms seems to be difficult owing to inherent contradictions among the stakeholders involved in the process.
The trade union opposes the Employer’s demand saying that any loosening of government control over the industry by way of labour reforms would throw workers out of job safety net. They want among other thing strengthening of social security for the workers, extension of social security benefits to workers in the organized sector, and participation of workers in the management.
THREE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED
• Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
• Contract Labour (Regulations and Abolition) Act, 1970
• Social security net
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE ACT (ID ACT), 1947
It is a principal legislation dealing with the core labour issues like investigation and settlements of industrial disputes, regulation of strikes, lockouts, lay-offs, retrenchment, and other related matters. According to the chapter VB of ID Act it is compulsory for any industrial establishment employing more than 100 workers to seek permission before resorting to lay-off, retrenchment or closure. Employers and some political leaders have been arguing for a change in this provision.
Employers want that the limit for the application of Chapter VB should be raised to 1000. NDA government, during its tenure had expressed its willingness through various statements to amend ID Act to free employers from the restrictions on them in the chapter. It was proposed to give an additional retrenchment compensation of 45 days wages for every completed year of service. But trade unions are very much opposed to it, as almost every unit would come under this limit, giving employer’s unrestrained right to close their units.
POSITIONS AND INTERESTS OF DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS ON THIS LEGISLATION
Trade Unions: They oppose the increase of limit specified in Chapter VB from 100.
Behind this stance they want to safeguard some interest:

* Unions’ influence at the workplace will decrease by this amendment
* Their bargaining power will be reduced
* Loss of job will be a major threat to workers
* It may affect Worker’s economic welfare
* It will boos Union’s identity as savior of worker’s right

Employers: They support the idea of increasing the limit specified in Chapter VB up to 1000. They expect following favorable effects from this change.
• It will provide the flexibility at work.
• It will help in cutting cost
• They will gain global competence
• They will have favorable exit policy
• There will be less legal battles
• They will have better management control
Political parties: There is lack of consensus among different key personnel among political parties regarding this amendment. They face following threats and advantage by bringing the changes in law.
• They might lose the political support of worker
• They will get financial support from employers to meet election expenses.
Government: Every government talks about bringing the requisite change in the law. It is necessary to bring change in our archaic Labour law if government wants to attract huge amount of Foreign Direct Investment. But they don’t have the enough political will to take such concrete step, as it can adversely affect their chances in election. So they also talks about revival of sick units to protect employment. But such a step will only ensure the locking of huge fund in unproductive work, which could have used in more wealth creation and employment generation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN LEGISATION
As seen from the above list of interests, the ruling political parties carry a dilemma as to how to balance their interests regarding political support of the workers, financial support of the employers and attracting foreign investments. Clearly the interest of the trade unions and the employers are conflicting on the issues of managerial control at the workplace. The freedom to retrench people would construe to significantly higher managerial control of employers at the workplace. Unions are unlikely to agree to such scenario.
• One way to maintain the balance of control at the workplace between the employers and the trade unions would be to develop well specified procedures to retrench employees. Such procedures do not provide flexibility to the employers to retrench arbitrarily. Hence, it could protect the balance significantly.
• Some mechanism could be developed whereby, the company retrenching the employees should take an undertaking that whenever it needs to diversify or need more manpower, it shall give preference to the workers it is retrenching at present.
• Companies could also opt for unconventional problem solutions:
* Cutting working hours of workers to avoid possible retrenchments, transfer or redeployment of labour from excessive labour to labour deficient units.
* Labour can be given three to six weeks break and encouraged to go in for skill enhancement. It will lead to a two way gain: personal growth for the employee and employer can put to use worker’s enhanced skills.
There are a number of companies for e.g. Volkswagen, who have successfully used these methods to steer themselves out of the economically tough situations without opting for conventional means like freezing recruitments, going in for retrenchment or lay off etc.
• Amendments under Industrial Relations Bill of 1982 should be implemented as it contains many provisions that would attend to the current concerns like setting up of a time-bound grievance redressal, fixing a time limit for the adjudication of individual and collective disputes.
Contract Labour (Regulations and Abolition) Act, 1970
For some time past there has been growing agitation for the abolition of employment of contract labour, as it was realized that the execution of work on contract through a contractor, who as an employer of the employed labour, was primarily to deprive of its due wages and various privileges of labour laws. It was also realized that certain work by their very nature can conveniently be executed by contractors through contract labour, or by labour on contract basis. In this regard, the matter of abolition and regulation of contract labour, caught attention of law makers. According to the Section 10 of the Act ” Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the appropriate Government may, after consultation with the Central Board or, as the case may be, a State Board prohibit, by notification in the official Gazette, employment of contract Labour in any process, operation or other work in any establishment “.
On the current status, union leaders are of the opinion that a reference to labour reforms in the current context of economic liberalization can only mean a freedom to the employers to resort to a policy of ‘hire and fire’ as opposed to some what sheltered environment that the labour enjoys with the stringent norms on retrenchment, lay-offs and closure of industrial establishments under the present regulatory framework.
The law may forbid retrenchment or closure, but in practice employers simply stop paying salaries or running mills. Owners prevented from downsizing see no point in putting any more money or effort into a revamp. Instead they strip the assets of their ailing companies. Industrial sickness has been growing and many workers in the sick industries have employment security only in the theory. Employers search for escape routes has led to greater use of casual and contract workers. The growing casualisation of labour is reflected through employer’s preference to outsource drivers, gardeners, canteen staff etc.
POSITIONS AND INTERESTS OF DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS ON THIS LEGISLATION
Trade Unions: According to the Trade Union Section 10 should not be amended to the disadvantage of contract workers. It will ensure following favors for workers.
• Ensure due wages to workers.
• Job security
• Get benefits of labour laws.
Employers: Employers want amendment in Section 10 to facilitate of activities without any restrictions. It will help them in
• Reducing costs.
• Getting more flexibility at work place
• Power and control at work place.
• Saving from legal battles.
• More flexibility leads to better outputs and a more competitive working environment.
Political parties: There is lack of consensus among different key personnel in political parties. They have to make balance between the two diametrically opposite interests,
• Political support of workers
• Financial support of employers to meet election expenses.
Government: It varies with the political party in power; NDA government seemed more inclined to allow outsourcing and engaging workers on contract. It is the responsibility of government to bring requisite amendment in this act so that more money can flow in India in form of Foreign Direct investment.
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS
Though there are significant conflicts in the interests of the trade unions and employers, the contact workers are quite freely changed by employers owing to high vulnerability of those workers. The high job insecurity and unemployment in the country virtually forces the contract workers to insure compliance to employers. It enhances the control of the employers at the workplace. Hence, the trade unions are keen to develop strict norms of employing least number of contract labour and higher number of regular employees. In such scenario, it is a challenge to both the employers and trade unions to reach to a common ground to get solution to the present situation.
SOCIAL SECURITY NET
There is an urgent need to revisit our labour policies and other labour related issues, if India as a country has to remain competitive and in fact has to assume its legitimate share in global economy, give the country’s size and resources. But one of the major constraints in making our labour laws flexible has been absence of an adequate and broad based safety net for the country’s workforce.
India has two main social security schemes for workers in operation since 1950s in the organized sector. These are Employees Provident Fund Scheme and Employees State Insurance Scheme. The former provides social security like provident funds, pension on superannuation etc. to about four crore employees while the later caters to the medical care needs of specific group of workers particularly in the unorganized sector.
Despite being among the largest social security schemes in the world, the two main schemes mentioned above cater to not more than 8 to 9 per cent of the country’s total work force. Secondly, these schemes don’t have built-in mechanisms to neutralize/compensate for the adverse fall out of globalization like closures, retrenchments etc.
The closure of industrial Units and bankruptcies are normal feature in the developed economies all over the world. The workers of such unit do not feel adverse impact as they are covered by well-established social security system.
Cover during Unemployment
The advocate of the ‘hire and fire’ also wants to bring about a fundamental change in the nature or perception of employment. They want employment to be on the basis of contracts for stipulated periods- a total departure from the current system in vogue in most kind of employments.
Most of the developed countries where the majority of jobs are contacts have elaborate and effective system of social security. Even in China, to quote an instance, there are stringent laws on social security system that takes care of worker’s income and requirements at least for two or three years of transition or unemployment. In India we don’t have such provisions. There is a need of Unemployment Insurance. Let every worker in the organized worker pay Rs.10 per month into an unemployment insurance fund, and let every employer make a matching contribution. Rs.10 is a small sum but if 28 million workers contribute Rs.10 each, that means 28 crores per month. With matching contributions from employers, the sum rises to Rs.56 crores per month. Even allowing for the some defaults, that is sufficiently large and sustainable to take care of retrenchment compensation. Unemployment insurance can provide retrenched workers with 100 per cent of basic wages for six months, failing to 75 per cent, 50 per cent and 25 per cent in the next three six-month periods that will support workers for up to two years while find fresh jobs.
CONCLUSION
It must be recognized that labour market reforms are not going to be easy in a situation where employment opportunities have been shrinking. Also there is a larger question of providing social security to the workers employed in the organized sector. The vast unorganized labour force, which constitutes over 90 per cent of the total, is denied fair wages and even modest levels of social security. Hence, labour market flexibility must be accompanied by some kind of insurance and social security to the vast unorganized labour force in the country. Government should make all possible efforts to dispel the fears of trade unions by enlarging the scope and coverage of the social security net.
Hence no solution can be reached if the stakeholders continue to take extreme positions. There has to me a meeting ground to address everyone’s interests, to the extent possible. The immediate challenge in bringing about the desired labour reforms is to resolve the anti-labour stand in the employer’s mindset, and labour prejudices. They have to realize that employer and employee are not separate entities but two faces of the same coin. They equally need each other and the relationship between the two can only be harmonious if they work towards defending each other’s interest rather than contesting the same. Hence employers should pay more attention to human resource development and capacity building of their employees. Industrial bodies have to take up workers education. Workers on the other hand realize the importance of ‘no work no wages come’.
There should be a general consensus on the labour reform ideology among the major political parties. Political leaders should look beyond their narrow interests and develop consensus for the larger benefits of the Indian economy. It demands to bring in a balanced view whereby concerns of all the stakeholders, especially the trade unions and the employers are addressed. This may further be strengthened through a wider debate involving academicians, legal experts, policy makers and public at large. All the stakeholders should arrive at some consensus so that there is something for everyone.
Once such consensus is developed; it may be coupled with good and clean corporate governance.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN INDIA

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Scandals related to the appalling practices of multinational corporations like Union Carbide (now DOW), Enron, Coke, Cadbury, and
others may have shocked the nation and the world in the recent past, but the media rarely highlights corporate crimes that extend to murders, destroying habitats, threatening indigenous cultures, causing disease, contaminating the planet’s food supply, poisoning
our groundwater and even destroying the very air we breathe.

You think this is an exaggeration? Well consider this. In Bhopal, India more than 8,000 people died in the first three days after 40 tonnes of lethal gas spilled out from Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in December 1984. People woke in their homes to fits of coughing, their lungs filling with fluid. 520,000 people were exposed to poisonous gases. 150,000 victims are chronically ill, and even now one person dies every two days. Union Carbide merged with Dow Chemical Corporation two years ago and has ceased to exist as an entity while the present owners Dow refuse to accept any pending liabilities in Bhopal including clean-up of the abandoned site.

In Kodaikanal, India, Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of Unilever Plc, an Anglo-Dutch multinational dumped mercury waste from its thermometer factory in the surrounding forests and on an innocent local community. When the scandal was exposed, first the company denied that there was a problem and later fudged facts and figures until the Indian authorities forced them to come clean. Since then Unilever has retrieved and sent back to USA some of the waste for disposal but are shying away from compensating affected workers and further environmental remediation measures.

Monsanto, one of the world’s largest pesticide companies, continues to sell its genetically engineered seeds to farmers around the world despite growing evidence of failure of crops like Bt cotton, that has reduced once well-to-do farmers in the developing world to penury and poverty while the threat of contamination of indigenous species by GE
seeds increases everyday.

Bayer AG, a German transnational continues to manufacture and sell phased out pesticides like Methyl Parathion (brand name Folidol/Metacid) in Asia despite an assurance to their European investors and stake holders that they would stop manufacturing these organo-phosphate poisons.

Ship-owning companies (and indeed, their countries) like Bergesen (Norway), and Chandris (Greece) meanwhile, regularly violate international and national laws and dump their hazardous wastes at ship-breaking yards in India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and Bangladesh. The voluntary guidelines issued by International Marine Organisation
are not enough and it is imperative that these guidelines are made mandatory to make the ship-owners liable and responsible.

In the era of globalization, multinational companies increasingly move around assets, products and wastes on a global chessboard to maximize their profits and minimize their costs. These companies are using differences and loopholes in national environmental and health laws for example to export pesticides and destructive technologies to
poorer countries to the detriment of local communities. What international body oversees them, or sets rules for their behaviour, or holds them accountable when they transgress?

It is no longer just the conspiracy theorists who believe our world is increasingly ruled and ruined by large multinational corporations. The World Trade Organisation has supplanted environmental treaties and regulations. Corporations have become accountable only under the rules of a free market, free trade and a free for all on human rights and the environment.

The state of our environment has not improved, in fact it has deteriorated. The gap between the world’s rich and poor has widened. Instead of providing developing countries with the tools for sustainable development, corporations have pushed their dirty
technologies and polluting industries on to some of the world’s poorest countries.

A recent UN report revealed that Exxon, with $63 billion, is worth more than Peru or New Zealand. General Electric more than Kuwait. Shell is worth more than Morocco or Cuba.

In the past ten years, corporations have not only resisted
environmental challenges, they have lobbied to water down
international treaties and even succeeded in getting countries to
pull out of environmental agreements altogether. They have maintained
their unsustainable practices in all sectors. It is apparent that
more than just voluntary measures are needed to control these
corporations.

A recent report by WWF states that if we continue at current levels
of consumption we will use up all of the Earth’s resources within 50
years, and we will need two more planets to meet our resource needs.
We either take urgent action to save the planet, or we get off.
The UN Environmental Programme agrees that “the state of the planet
is getting worse.” They say “there is a growing gap between the
efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the
environment and the worsening state of the planet.”

At the root of our environmental problems are the unsustainable
practices of the corporations that shape our economies. But what is
the good of a short-term healthy economy if we can’t drink the water,
eat the foods in the fields or breathe the air?

Current systems of governance in Asia (as elsewhere) are proving to
be deficient against the activities of abusive multinational
corporations. To roll back the excessive powers of corporations and
to pressure governments to check corporate abuse and prosecute
corporate crimes, greater public participation is a must. The Rainbow
Warrior’s Corporate Accountability Tour of India is part of a global
movement to change the climate of opinion against abusive
corporations and to turn the tide in favour of fundamental human
rights.

Corporations need to be held accountable for their actions that are
destroying the planet, destroying people’s lives around the globe.
There is only one answer. We must stand up to the corporations. Our
governments must agree on international, legally binding rules for
corporate responsibility, accountability and liability: a set of
rules that business must follow, and governments must enforce.
The list of rules is long, but so are the crimes.

The world needs corporations to be held accountable to the following
laws – no matter where they operate in the world. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
is calling upon the Indian Government to endorse the Bhopal
Principles on Corporate Responsibility, which call on Multinational
Corporations to:
• Accept liability for environmental damage and compensate victims of
pollution;
• Accept liability for the damage, no matter when it happens, what
the cause or who in the corporation is responsible;
• Accept responsibility for damage and injury beyond national borders
including accidents in the oceans and atmosphere;
• Ensure that they do not infringe upon basic human rights;
• Disclose all information regarding releases into the environment to
the public;
• Protect human and social rights including the highest standards for
rights to health care and a clean environment;
• Avoid influence over governments, combat bribery and practice
transparency;
• Allow states to maintain their sovereignty over their own food
supply;
• Implement a precautionary principle and take preventative action
before environmental damages or health effects are incurred; and
• Promote and practice clean and sustainable development

INDIA’S ENTRY INTO WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION (W.T.O)-Right or
wrong?

Years back , india signed the general agreement on trade & tariffs
(G.A.T.T).
Recently, india has gained the full fledged entry into W.T.O . now, it has
started to pinch us. W.T.O’s objective of establishing a free
international
market is good. The market won’t be free if one continues with subsidies ,
patronisation & asks others to stop the same. Hypothetically, if the
market
became truly free, the advanced countries like U.S.A, U.K, FRANCE ,ALL G-8
COUNTRIES will only benefit due to their higher technical prowess,
productivity
& natural wealth. The people living in poorer countries with deficient
technical
prowess, productivity & natural wealth will suffer. In such an
eventuality the
traders & governments of advanced countries will takeover & control
the whole
economic systems of the poor countries. In turn looting the resources
of those
countries. the running race between ace athlete ben johnson & a
cripple is not
fair. If at all the race is to be conducted , it should be between ben
johnson &
the cripple mounted on a cycle, to bring parity & fairness.

Until the poorer countries achieve technical excellence , the advanced
countries
must transfer the technical know-how to them at affordable costs. The
advanced
countries must offer the patented medicines & food products to poorer
countries
at affordable costs. The advanced countries must provide financial
assistance to
poor countries orelse the poorer countries must be permitted to levy
taxes on
imports , to improve it’s domestic industry & infrastructure. By these
steps
only, a truly free , non-partisan global market is possible.

The people living in advanced countries like U.S.A are causing more
damage to
the environment , through their luxurious , wayward lifestyles . a single
american uses more fossil fuel, cuts more trees, releases more CFCs,
uses more
water than 1000 indians put together. The man who throws rubbish, is
bound to
clean it. All G-8 countries must give major contribution towards global
environment clean-up excercise.

The mechanism to resolve trade disputes, consumer disputes between
nations,
organisations & individuals must be instituted & must be fair ,
impartial &
fast.

Now, the time has come for poor countries to come together. The
domestic markets
of G-8 countries are saturated. To drive their huge growth engines
they utterly
need the markets of developing & poor countries. Now, all countries
other than
G-8 must come together , play our cards well. However the G-8
countries are
breaking this unity by inducing civil wars, terrorism in our
countries. They are
also breaking the unity by dangling economic loli pops, sops , etc. We
must be
careful about this. Entering W.T.O is right, but it must be on terms
conducive
to our society never on terms of others.

WHY MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES ARE INVESTING IN INDIA?
We condemn the brutal massacre by police on farmers – who are going to loss all their lands , sources.of livelihood for the sake of special economic zones , industrial parks , etc in various states of India.

In every mega projects undertaken by government , both the state government & central government have functioned like REAL ESTATE / COMMISSION AGENTS for the rich & mighty . the government says it is acquiring lands for development of industries , for public good. In reality there is only good of rich & mighty.

For forming S.E.Zs , corporates gets speedy single window approvals from government , lands at concessional rates – lower than market value , soft loans from Indian banks , tax exemptions for years from the government , dedicated power supply , etc , from the government . these corporates are even given free hand to raise share capital in the Indian market. the government has enacted flexible labour laws specifically for S.E.Zs , they can hire & fire without bothering to pay gratuity , etc and they are exempted from providing P.F / E.S.I coverage to their employees ie they need not worry about the occupational health hazards of their employees , they can employ them till they are fit & throw them on streets afterwards. These corporates take our own money, employ our own people , use our own natural resources & finally take away the net profits to their home countries – what they give back ? – environmental pollution , tax evasions , low paid occupational hazardous jobs to locals , stock market scams .

During Previous License Regime foreign, investment was not directly welcome in India. As people at that time perceived it as “Neo colonisation” & detested it. There were various restrictions on foreign investments. The local industrialists under monopolistic
environment thrived, who were no way better than day light robberers, of course with a few exception. Under the political patronage, the cunning industrialists looted public money, cheated the government of tax, cheated lending banks & cheated the investors
too. They easily flouted labour laws & made labourers to work in inhuman conditions.

During 1990’s under the international pressure India signed GATT & slowly started opening it’s economy. Now, from 01/01/05 even product patent has come into force in India. Are MNCs bringing high technology intensive industries to India? No, not at all. They are actually denying sophisticated technologies to India. They are only
bringing the FMCG industries – salt, chips, ketch-up, colas, for which India is a huge home market. They are into services like Hotels, medical care, marketing. In other cases, they are just marketing the products manufactured at their bases in U.S.A. or Europe.

They are not bringing in new production technologies in the areas like space research, nuclear energy, bio-technology, pharmaceuticals or pollution control, to India. Also, some MNCs are relocating their highly polluting industries to India, as they are subjected to stringent environmental protection standards in their own home countries. Whereas, In India the Government is highly corrupt & can be bought for a price. The attractive points for foreign direct investment (FDI) in India are,

1. There is lack of comprehensive environmental norms.

2. The enforcement of environmental norms is lax.

3. The cost of health coverage, social security net to be provided to the workers exposed to the occupational hazards is less.

4. The cost of compensation to be paid to the persons-who died or suffered damages due to occupational hazards/environmental pollution is meager.

5. The enforcement of labour laws are lax.

6. Public money can be easily raised through lending Banks, primary market within India & the public can be easily cheated.

7. The tax can be evaded through various loopholes like transferring money to holding companies situated at Mauritius or countries which have double taxation avoidance agreement with India.

8. The tax can be evaded, company money can be cheated by lending money to sister / holding concerns at low interest rates or by selling shares, materials to their private companies at low rates or by buying shares, materials from their holding/sister concerns at exhorbitant rates, etc.

9. The corporate governance laws are almost absent in India & it’s enforcement nil.

10. Above all, the time can be bought by very slow Indian legal system, if any dispute arise.

11. On top of it, well trained, technically qualified people are available at low rates through contractors.

Just consider the following cases which highlight the apathy, irresponsibility of government of India and emboldened the cunning, MNCs:-

1. The India which boasts of so much scientific/technological advancements, is till date has been unable to provide potable water to it’s people. People of west Bengal , Karnataka , Andrapradesh states are forced to drink Arsenic, Fluoride poisoned water.

2. The people living near the mines of R.E.M.P. in Kerala are suffering due to exposure to the radio active materials, Same is the case with the people of Jadaguda, Jharkhand, living near the U.C.I.L. plant. Both M/S R.E.M.P & M/s U.C.I.L are department of atomic energy enterprises.

3. Few years back, In Mysore railway station containers of radio- active materials were left unattended. The dome of reactor building at construction stage collapsed in nuclear power plant at Kaiga. A fire tragedy occurred in Kakrapar nuclear power plant. In the recent Tsunami waves onslaught, certain important facilities of Koodakulam atomic plant were damaged near Chennai.

4. In 1984, U.S. based MNC union carbide mass murdered nearly 20,000 people, injured lakhs who are still suffering health problems. The polluted poisonous accident site i.e. Union carbide plant in Bhopal is not yet cleared off toxic materials even after 20 years.
This is still further damaging the residents of Bhopal.

5. In the above union carbide disaster, the Government of India didn’t present the case properly before supreme courts of India & U.S.A.. As a result the MNC just paid a pittance as compensation. As per that the cost of Indian lives are just a fraction of cost of
American lives. Just imagine if a same disaster occurred in U.S.A. at the plant of a MNC headquartered in India, what would have been the consequence?

6. In India, hazardous chemicals laced with food additives are passed through the drinks, beverages like pepsi, cola, coco cola very easily.

7. The medicines like nimesulide, paracetamol, etc. with hazardous side effects which are banned in U.S.A.& Europe, are easily marketed by the same U.S.& Europe based MNCs in India.

8. In India spurious drugs, medicines, food stuffs are easily marketed.

9. In India, the clinical trials of new medicines under research are done without proper compensation structure to those being tried upon ie. Virtual guinea pigs.

10. In India, the genetically engineered BT crops are being introduced without paying attention to formers, ecology or eco-system.

11. In India, during setting up of large projects, scant attention is paid to environment, eco-system & the displaced persons.

Most of the times, in government projects itself the displaced persons are cheated by the government in numerous ways.

12. In India, various Government as well as private hospitals dumps hospital wastes with deadly viruses in the open, with scant regard to public health.

13. In India, aged ships belonging to foreign countries are breaked down to scrap in ship breaking yards of Gujarath , Maharashtra & AP. Various toxins like the Asbestos, lead, etc & the hazardous, dirty water, Oil inside the ship are drained into Indian seashore. The labourers here are forced to work without any safety gears.

14. When specific cases of human rights violations were brought before the government & Judiciary by us , both of them didn’t respond at all.

All the above cases highlight the fact that, government of India & Indian judiciary treats it’s citizens lives as cheap, dispensable at will. This is the major attracting force for MNCs to India.

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY 1984 -Bhopal, India

At the first instance the Government of India failed to ensure that Union carbide India Limited (U.C.I.L) has installed proper safety measures and fully implemented it in practice, at it’s plant in Bhopal. The Government of Madhyapradesh through it’s labour
department, factory inspectorate & pollution control board failed to enforce safety practices & environmental protection. In turn, the U.C.I.L didn’t install in full, the safety measures being followed by it’s parent company union carbide corporation (U.C.C) at it’s
Various plants in the U.S.A. The U.C.I.L. didn’t give community training to residents of nearby localities, to cope up with emergencies ie. Industrial accidents. U.C.I.L gave a go – by to safety practices, as it treated Indian lives as cheap. The government of Madhya pradesh instead of shifting slum dwellers around U.C.I.L, to other safe place, gave them legal title deeds just months before the tragedy in 1984.

Now, refer the following:-

1. After the accident at it’s U.C.I.L. plant at Bhopal, India in 1984, when the U.C.C. Chairman/C.E.O. came over to Bhopal from U.S.A to visit the accident site, local police arrested him on the charges of manslaughter. However, the Government of India got him released.

2. In 1985, Government of India enacted “Bhopal claims Act” took- away the right of appeal of all the Gas tragedy victims & declared itself as the sole representative of all victims. This said act itself is violative of victim’s fundamental & human rights. The
victims didn’t choose Government of India as it’s representative under will, agreement, trust or pleasure.

3. The paradox of this “Bhopal claims Act” is that, Government of India which is also a party to the crime, tragedy, itself is the appellant. The appellant (Petitioner),defendant are Government of India, Prosecution by Government of India & Judged by Government of
India.

4. In 1989, when an appeal about interim compensation to be paid by the U.C.I.L to all the victims was being heard in the apex court, the supreme court of India without giving a chance to the victims to make their point, without consulting them, without making a proper assessment of damages/losses, gave an arbitrary figure as verdict & dropped all civil, criminal proceedings against U.C.C.&U.C.I.L

5. In the same year 1989, the Government of India without consulting the victims of disaster, without making proper assessment of damages/ losses, negotiated a settlement with the U.C.C. and in turn gave full legal immunity to U.C.C.& U.C.I.L from civil &
Criminal proceedings

6. Even the Government of India didn’t present the case of victim’s-gas tragedy victims, properly before the U.S.courts, where the U.C.C is based. All these premeditated acts only benefited the criminals- U.C.C&UCIL. Are not the supreme court of India & Government of India, here to safeguard Indians and to safeguard Justice?

After all these crimes, the Government of India failed to distribute compensation in time to victims. It has failed even to provide safe drinking water to the residents near the accident site, It has failed to provide comprehensive medical care to the victims, till
date . It has even failed to get the accident site cleared off toxic wastes either by the culprit management or by it self, that too after 20 years. The very presence of these toxic wastes since 20 years is further contaminating, polluting the environment and taking toll of more victims.

Particularly in the case of “Bhopal Gas Tragedy” the supreme court of India & Government of India are deadlier criminals than U.C.I.L&U.C.C.

Just consider a case here, Just a few years back an U.S.based M.N.C ENRON set-up a power project in Maharashtra, India through it’s subsidiary. When Maharashtra state Electricity Board failed to lift power from Enron& pay them monthly guaranteed revenue, Enron threatened to invoke, open the “Eschrew Clause” with the Government
of India & to approach international arbiter U.K. Government of India has stood as conter-guarantee in this case. Finally the Government paid, of course subsequently the parent ENRON collapsed due to other reasons. If in this case if Government of India failed to pay-up as a counter guarantee & refused to comply with the award of International arbiter, definitely Government of U.S.A. would have stepped into the scene to protect it’s MNC. Hypothetically, In the same vein if Enron has caused damages to Indians either through negligence of safe practices or industrial accidents or bank frauds
amounting over and above it’s Capital base & insurance cover, then it would have been the duty of parent Enron & Government of U.S.A. to step in & pay-up.

In the same way, the U.C.I.L has caused massive damages to Indians & refusing to pay commensurate to damages. Dow chemicals which took- over U.C.C. is also refusing to pay. DOW chemicals which is the new owner of U.C.C. naturally inherits both profits, credits lent & liabilities to pay of U.C.C. Still it is refusing to pay. Now it is the turn of Government of U.S.A. to cough-up the sum.

Nowadays, it has become routine for central & State ministers to go- on foreign jaunts, to globe -trott inviting F.D.I / M.N.Cs to India. They do sign numerous agreements, only favouring MNC. When tragedies occur or when they cheat Indian banks/ investors, it is Indians who suffer. The ministers & bureaucrats thinks themselves as wizards and enters into agreements with MNCs, industrialists in a hush-hush manner, with vast scope for possible corruption. Is it not the duty of government to be transparent ?

CORPORATE CRIMINALS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ILLS IN INDIA

In India , a small shop owner to big industrialist have mastered the art of TAX EVASION . their teachers – some corrupt tax officials & auditors. The black money thus created is causing inflation, feeding the mafia , underworld. Some industrialists lobby ( bribe ) with the government & gets favourable laws enacted. This black money is the main source of funds for political parties , religious bodies & terrorist outfits.

The recent raids by C.B.I & KARNATAKA LOKAYUKTHA have proved how the tax officials have become multi-millionaires. The sad part is that some of the police officials who are on deputation to C.B.I & LOKAYUKTHA themselves are utterly corrupt.

This scourge can only be cured by corporate accountability intoto. However , all the industrialists , traders who are demanding for more flexible labour reforms , economic reforms , infrastructure , etc are not at all concerned about their own accountability with respect to tax , environment , other laws. The MNCs coming to India are not coming here for best Indian talents or infrastructure alone. In their own countries they are feeling the
heat of strict environment laws , consumer laws , share holder disclosures , corporate accountability. Some of these MNCs are being kicked out of their countries , by it’s own people .These MNCs are aware that in India , by greasing the palms environment laws , labour laws , tax laws , etc everything can be flouted , cases in courts can be dragged on for years . share holder disclosures , corporate transparency is minimum.

However when a concerned citizen complains about the crimes of guilty corporates , organizations or corrupt public servants , immediate action is not taken. The file is kept pending for months , years together , allowing the criminals to manipulate all the evidences , records , ground situations. Finally even if action is taken guilty will be let out due to favorable evidences , there are chances that the concerned citizen himself is falsely implicated & put behind bars . in all such cases all the involved parties must be subjected to lie detector tests .

Bottomline : development is a must , it must be all around . but not at the cost of majority to make a few richer.

An appeal to honourable supreme court of USA & HE Honourable president of USA Mr.Obama

Your government protects all Americans, all American companies both inside America & abroad. If an American tourist is murdered in a third country , American investigators fly over to that country to conduct investigation in total disregard to local laws. In the same way , if the interests of an American company is threatened in a third country American government goes to it’s rescue.

However , when an American company butchers , causes mass man slaughter in a third country , as an American company did in Bhopal India , no action by American government. Still the said American company has not removed , cleared the accident site of poisonous debris at Bhopal India since decades and still causing mass man slaughter , no action by American government why ?

Some US based companies are selling soft drinks , food products , medicines , drugs in third world countries , which are causing grave health damages to the public. The quality standards of these products are fit cases of rejections by US FDA. Some US companies are selling drugs ( which are banned in the USA ) to third world countries , still us companies are exporting such dangerous medicines , foods to third countries . no action by US government , why ? is it because you think that the lives of non Americans are cheaper than Americans ?

Hereby, I do request your kindself ,

1 . to initiate criminal prosecution against US based key management personnel responsible for Bhopal gas tragedy .

2 . to make either the respective company management or US government to pay compensation to victims of Bhopal gas tragedy on par with American lives , as if the same tragedy happened in the USA itself.

3 . to order the management of the said company to clean up Bhopal off poisonous debris , from the accident site at their own expense.

4 . To legally prosecute US exporters & US based companies selling products ( which violates US FDA regulations or banned in the USA for domestic consumption ) to third countries.

Doctors Aiding Police to inflict 3rd degree Torture on detainees
By Stephen Lendman
In April 2009, a confidential February 2007 ICRC torture report was publicly released. Titled, “ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value Detainees’ in CIA Custody,” it detailed harsh and abusive treatment from their time of arrest, detention, transfer, and incarceration at Guantanamo where ICRC professionals interviewed them.
Besides detailed information on torture and abusive treatment, they obtained damning, consistent detainee accounts of medical personnel involvement, including:
– their monitoring of and direct participation in torture procedures;
– instructing interrogators to continue, adjust, or stop certain ones;
– informing detainees that medical treatment depended on their cooperation;
– performing medical checks before and after each transfer; and
– treating the effects of torture as well as ailments and injuries during incarceration.
Condoning or participating in torture grievously breaches medical ethics and the 1975 World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Tokyo “Guidelines for Physicians Concerning Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Relation to Detention and Imprisonment.” It states:
– in all cases at all times, “physician(s) shall not countenance, condone or participate in” torture or any other form of abuse;
– they “shall not use nor allow to be used (their) medical knowledge or skills, or health information” to aid interrogation in any way;
– they “shall not be present during any procedure during which torture or any other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is used or threatened;”
– they “must have complete clinical independence” in treating persons for whom they’re medically responsible; and
– WMA encourages the international community and fellow physicians to support medical professionals who face “threats or reprisals resulting from a refusal to condone” all forms of torture and abuse.
Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions states:
“Persons engaged in medical activities shall neither be compelled to perform acts or to carry out work contrary to, nor be compelled to refrain from acts required by, the rules of medical ethics or other rules designed for the benefit of the wounded and sick, or this Protocol.”
On July 7, 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks published an article titled, “Doctors and Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay” in which they cited evidence that “Health information (was) routinely available to behavioral science consultants and others” engaged in interrogations, in violation of strict medical ethics.
In early 2003, detainee medical records were readily available, and since late 2002, psychiatrists and psychologists were involved in crafting extreme stress techniques “combined with behavior-shaping rewards to extract actionable intelligence from resistant captives.”
“Wholesale disregard for clinical confidentiality” seriously breaches medical ethics “since it makes every caregiver into an accessory to intelligence gathering.” It also “puts prisoners at greater risk for serious abuse.”
In July 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) published a report titled, “Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba” that included evidence of medical personnel involvement in torture.
Detainee Othman Abdulraheem Mohammad was told that medical treatment would depend on his cooperation. Lakhdar Boumediene said every time he requested care he was told to ask permission from his interrogators. They “controlled his access, (and it) was granted or denied based on the interrogator’s assessment of his level of cooperation.”
Bosnian prisoner medical records confirmed that medical staff were present during their interrogations “and authorized (them) to proceed.”
Medical personnel monitored Mohammed al Qahtani’s interrogation during nearly two months of “severe sleep deprivation and physical stress.” At one point, they rushed him to the base hospital when his heart rate dropped dangerously low. After stabilization, they returned him the next day for more interrogation.
Other prisoners described doctors performing unnecessary and abusive procedures, including forced amputations, after which they were denied proper treatment.
Psychiatrists and psychologists designed “extreme interrogation techniques as part of the Behavioral Science Consultation Team (BSCT).” In late 2002, it was tasked “to torment detainees in interrogations….”
International and US Laws Prohibiting Torture
Numerous international and US laws unequivocally ban torture under all conditions at all times with no allowed exceptions ever, for any reasons, including in times of war.
The Third Geneva Convention covers war prisoners and detainees. It prohibits torture and protects their right to be treated humanely against “violence to life and person (and) humiliating and degrading treatment” as well as to judicial fairness and proper medical treatment. The Fourth Geneva Convention affords the same rights to civilians in times of war.
The federal anti-torture statute (18 USC, 2340A) prohibits its use outside the US and defines it as “an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering….upon another person within his custody or physical control.”
The 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act authorizes civil suits in America against individuals, acting in an official capacity for a foreign state, who committed torture and/or extrajudicial killing.
The 1984 UN Convention Against Torture bans all forms of torture, cruel and degrading treatment in all circumstances at all times with no exceptions ever allowed.
The US Constitution’s Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
The US Army’s Field Manual 27-10 states that military or civilian persons may be punished for committing war crimes (that include abusive interrogations) under international law. Army Field Manual 34-52 outlines interrogation procedures and specifically prohibits force, mental torture, threats, and inhumane treatment.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) bans cruelty, oppression, actions intended to degrade or humiliate, and physical, menacing, and threatening assaults. Army Regulation (AR) 190-8 protects detainees from violence, assaults, and insults, and directs that they be treated humanely with respect.
The 1996 US War Crimes Act prohibits grave Geneva Convention breaches, including (as stipulated under Common Article III) “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture (as well as) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”
Other binding international laws also prohibit torture, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1992 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with no exceptions or justifications allowed, such as orders by field commanders, Pentagon officials, or the President of the United States.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
Founded in 1986, PHR “mobilizes health professionals to advance health, dignity, and justice and promotes the right to health for all.” It also “investigates human rights abuses and works to stop them” in conflict zones, US prisons, and offshore detention facilities where torture is routinely practiced.
In 2005, it published a report titled, “Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces,” which it called the first comprehensive examination of “the use of psychological torture by US personnel in the so-called ‘war on terror,’ ” including sensory deprivation, prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, using fierce dogs to instill fear, cultural and sexual humiliation, mock executions, and threatened violence against loved ones.
It called the effects devastating and longer-lasting than physical torture, and said psychological abuse is morally reprehensible and illegal under international and US law.
In August 2009, PHR published a new report titled, “Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Revealed in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report,” including ethical misconduct not previously known. It revealed the role of health professionals involved “at every stage in the development, implementation and legitimization of this torture program.”
It explained that doctors and psychologists actively participated in abusive interrogations and contributed to the physical and mental suffering of detainees. It called their actions “an unconscionable affront to the profession of medicine,” made worse by experimenting on inmates, then “aggregat(ing) data on (their) reaction to interrogation methods.”
PHR’s Steven Reisner said “They were experimenting and keeping records of the results,” a war crime under Geneva and the Nuremberg Code that requires “voluntary consent” of human subjects and prohibits experiments:
– that inflict “unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury;”
– if there’s “an a priori reason to believe death or disabling injury will occur;” and
– from being implemented if there’s reason to believe they’ll cause “injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.”
PHR’s report detailed the psychological and medical effects:
– forced shaving inflicts psychological harm “by means of humiliation, both personal and religious;”
– hooding disorients and causes acute anxiety depression, depersonalization, and abnormal behavior;
– dietary manipulation inflicts discomfort and psychological stress;
– prolonged diapering causes physical and psychological stress and harm;
– walling inflicts physical injuries as well as psychological stress, rage, and helplessness;
– confinement in a box in extreme stress positions causes extreme physical and psychological pain and trauma; and
– other abuses, including waterboarding that simulates drowning and the feeling of helplessness to prevent it.
Involvement of Medical Professionals
They help develop, implement, provide cover for, and justify torture and abusive practices. They’re actively involved in designing harmful interrogation techniques in clear violation of the law and medical ethics. They’re “complicit in selecting and then rationalizing (methods) whose safety and efficacy in eliciting accurate information have no valid basis in science.” Their actions constitute “a practice that approaches unlawful experimentation.”
CIA guidelines require health professionals, including a doctor and psychologist, to be present during enhanced interrogations, “thereby placing (them) in the untenable position of calibrating harm rather than serving as protectors and healers as” their ethical code demands.
They also participate in initial physical and psychological assessments, then monitor all subsequent interrogations. They know their actions are harmful, unethical, and illegal, yet they serve willingly.
PHR believes they should be investigated on charges of “alleged criminal conduct.” Those proved guilty should be prosecuted, lose their license, professional society memberships, and any standing in the medical community henceforth.

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ATROCITIES ON DALITS

e – Clarion Of Dalit – monthly newspaper on web
working for the rights & survival of the oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJ.M.R VOL.3 issue. 33 19 / 08 / 2009

Editorial : the most backward , neglected among the backward caste people – SCAVENGERS – an appeal to honourable supreme court of india

In India, since independence certain affirmative actions by the government like job reservations , reservations in educational institutions , loan facilities , etc are extended to the backward class , oppressed people. However , the persons who have economically, socially become stronger on the basis of these government affirmative actions are not letting their own brethren – scavenging community to utilize the same. The politicians are just making noises about sub caste reservation for scheduled castes & tribes , but doing nothing. As a result , today we find some sub-castes & tribes of SC / ST better off than their previous generation, some other sub-castes & tribes of SC / ST are reeling under utter poverty , social ostracism , etc.

A human being can be in a civilized form , healthy – if we have scavengers to clean our toilets , drainages , if we have barbers to cut our hairs. The very same people who keep us healthy & civilized are not treated in a civilized manner by the society , why ? most of the town municipalities , city corporations are employing scavengers on daily wages without any statuotary benefits & are paid less than the statuotary minimum wages. every towns & cities in India are bursting with population growth , however the number of scavengers has not been increased in proportion to the growth of population , In most of the cases the existing scavengers are overburdened with the work load. , Most of them are suffering from occupational health hazards , are dying at young ages leaving their families in the lurch.

Hereby, we appeal to honourable supreme court of India to treat this as a PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION & to order government of India , all state governments , statuotary bodies like city corporations , town municiapalities , etc,

1. to regularize the jobs of all scavengers , to provide all statuotary benefits like ESI,PF, etc.

2. to take all necessary steps to eradicate manual scavenging – carrying human excreta on heads.

3. to take all necessary steps to protect their health & occupational safety.

Bottomline : all the citizens , the society must learn to respect their brethren who keeps them healthy , tidy & civilized. JAI HIND.VANDE MATARAM.

Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.

AN APPEAL TO H.E.PRESIDENT OF INDIA – TO STOP ATROCITIES AGAINST DALITS

In India , even today after 62 years of independence & democratic governance , the plight of DALITS , TRIBALS , DOWNTRODDEN & POOR has not improved . in fact it has worsened . the government & public servants just pay lip service to dalits & have totally failed to uplift them in 59 years of independence . the public servants want dalits to be as such to ride over them & to use them as pawns in power politics , as a vote bank. let them answer how many dalits have become supreme court judges in india . even today in india , the practice of carrying human excreta on head still persists .

what is the use if india becomes an IT POWER or knowledge base . what is the use if india sends it’s own satellites on it’s own rockets ot space . did those scientific achievements has devolved , percolated to dalits & poor in the society , has it benefitted them ? NO . JUST SEE THE RECENT ATROCITIES AGAINST DALITS IN KADAKOLA , KARNATAKA & KARLINJARA , MAHARASHTRA. HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THE PAST ATROCITIES AGAINST DALITS IN BADANAVALU & KAMBALAPALLI , KARNATAKA. THIS IS AN APPEAL TO OUR HUMBLE , HUMANE FIRST CITIZEN H.E.PRESIDENT OF INDIA , TO HELP DALITS & POOR IN DISTRESS .

PRACTICE OF UNTOUCHABILITY BY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
- VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF DALITS

In india , rich people belonging to forward castes form educational trusts , proclaiming that they want to serve the society by providing education to all irrespective of caste or creed. By this declaration they get Civic Amenity sites from government authorities at concessional rates. Further they get tax , duty exemptions on materials , machines they import for the educational institution. However , while admitting students they are purely commercial minded , the highest bidder gets the seats.

IF AT ALL THE SOLE AIM OF THESE INSTITUTIONS IS COMMERCIAL – LET THEM BE REGISTERED AS COMMERCIAL BODIES , ASK THEM TO GET SITES AT COMMERCIAL MARKET RATES , ASK THEM TO PAY TAXES ON MATERIALS , MACHINES & THEIR YEARLY INCOME. ENFORCE MINIMUM WAGES ACT , GRATUITIES ACT , P.F & ESI ACT TO THESE INSTITUTIONS WHO ARE PAYING A PITTANCE TO THEIR STAFF.

Some institutions like industrial training institutes ( I.T.I) , polytechnics , engineering colleges & medical colleges run by trusts floated by forward castes lack basic infrastructure , to teach students properly , they only appoint staff belonging to their castes. Dalits ,minorities , weaker section people are not at all selected. They don’t publicly advertise for vacancies. They fill all posts with their own caste people & finally even get government grant in aid. How ? These institutions are getting affiliations , yearly approvals from the government , how ? actually they should have been shut. These trusts want government backing for tax exemptions , lands at concessional rates ,monetary benefits , etc , however the same trusts are not willing to implement the social welfare objectives of the government , by providing seats to weaker sections , by providing appointments to dalits few posts in all category of positions ( not just group D – dalits are also brilliant & capable of performing all jobs, they have proved it ).
Hereby , we urge honourable prime minister of india , government of india & honourable chief minister of karnataka , government of karnataka to :
1. before giving lands at concessional rate , tax exemptions , to any educational trusts the government must ensure that the trust must adhere to the social welfare norms of the government from day one.
2. Before giving affiliations to educational institutions the govt must ensure , are the institutions are providing sufficient infrastructure to students ?
3. Before giving grant in aid to any institution , the government must ensure have the management provided jobs to dalits , minorities , etc as per norms from the day one . if not grant in aid should be rejected. Here there is no meaning in giving reservation of jobs in future appointments in those institutions , as all the posts are presently filled with forward castes , there is no expansion projects. So , dalits have to wait for another 30-40 years to get the vacancies in those institutions after the retirement of forward caste employees , which is not at all practical or realistic .
4. In karnataka state , numerous Industrial Training Institutes ( ITI) have mushroomed , some don’t even have basic infrastructure. Still they are running the show , how ? these ITIs run by forward caste people have appointed only their caste people to all posts , not even a single dalit is there. Still they have got government grant in aid , how ? we urge honourable chief minister of karnataka , to look into this & in future to provide grant in aid in aid to only those I.T.Is which have proper infrastructure & dalits , weaker section employees on their pay-rolls.
5. To order all educational institutions to make public announcement of vacancies in their institutions even though not covered under grant in aid , as they have already taken sufficient monetary benefits from the government.
6. To order all educational institutions , to admit students as per government rates of fees. Some institutions are fleecing higher fees from the students , but are giving receipts for lesser amount only.
7. If any educational institutions don’t agree with the government norms , those institutions must be asked to be registered as commercial bodies , no tax exemptions , lands at concessional rates , allotment of CA sites should be given to them by the government. By these measures alone poor & weaker section people will get justice . you are aware of merited but poor students committing suicides year after year , CET fiasco – due to their financial inability to join medical or engineering colleges. Numerous similar cases are there with regard to admission to ITIs . polytechnics. The greed & casteism of these educational institutions is reigning high. In the positive hope that you will be kind enough to put an end to this menace.

ANOTHER INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE NEEDED IN INDIA
Salutes to our Freedom Fighters who enabled us to live in independence , salutes to our brave Jawans who are safe guarding our independence , salutes to our Kargil martyrs , salutes to our NSG Commondos , who are protecting us from deadly Terrorists. Our head bows to you all – the Brave sons of India.
After 63 years of india’s independence the lives of commoners is far worse than under britishers. The benefits of independence has reached only few , thus creating islands of few ultra rich people surrounded by vast sea of utterly poor. The rich people in nexus with those in power , are getting favourable laws enacted to suit their ends. Those in power are shamelessly enjoying 5-star luxuries all at tax payer’s expense , while more then 50 million are starving to death.
The criminalization of politics , executive & judiciary is almost complete. The corruption has spread it’s tentacles far & wide , there is corruption from womb to tomb ,from maternity hospital to grave yard. The injustices meated out , the atrocities perpetrated by by public servants are worse than britishers.
Ideally in a democracy, the legal recourse of grievance redressal / justice , when a commoner suffers injustice he can appeal to respective government official or police for justice , still if doesn’t get justice he can appeal to court of law , further the aggrieved can get the appropriate law enacted through his M.P / M.L.A. The sad part in India is no public servant is neither aware of the value of our hard won independence or the working of democracy.
When all the legal recourses to justice fail to respond , to provide justice to the aggrieved , when corrupt judges-police-politician-public servants act as a criminal nexus & block justice delivery, the commoner has only 2 options , either to suffer in silence or to take law into his own hands & get justice on his own.
Take for instance Bombay riots case several VVIPs – cabinet ministers , police were found to be guilty of torture , murders of innocents by justice sri Krishna enquiry commission. The government is sitting over enquiry commission report. The court is not taking suo-motto action in public interests a result , the guilty ministers & police who are fit cases for death sentences are roaming free & commiting more crimes , anti-national activities.
In some cases , involving the rich &mighty ,higher police officials , the cover-up begins right from start ie FIR Registration. Police conduct name sake enquiry , investigation, suppress evidences , witnesses , destroy some of them , the prosecution takes a favourable stand putting up weak arguments. Naturally, the guilty official , minister is acquitted by court for lack of evidences. So, the guilty who should have been rightfully put behind bars , hanged goes scot-free , to commit more crimes , more anti-national activities.
In such cases , if the suffering public give the legal punishment to the guilty , which should have been given by the court but failed. Are not such acts of public, to uphold law & dignity , national security right & patriotic ? if any body terms it as crime , that means guilty VVIPs , police , public servants should be left unpunished allowing them to commit more crimes , anti-national activities. Is that right from national security angle ? is it equality before law & equitable justice ?
Do remember that our freedom fighters ,martyrs ,sri.kudiram bose ,subhash Chandra bose , bhagath singh , veer savarkar others who took violent path of independence struggle & killed inhuman british officers, police & judges have contributed valuably ,immensely to our freedom struggle. One of the main causes of origin of naxalism ,separatist movements is the rampant corruption & unaccountability of public servants in India.
In this back drop , in India anarchy is not far away. The days of suffering public ,killing their tormentors corrupt police , corrupt judges , corrupt tax officials ,etc is not far away. No police security , no SPG cover can protect those corrupt , as police & SPG personnel work for pay , perks and will be on the wrong side of law – protecting criminals. The suffering public fighting for their survival , on the right side of natural justice , protecting the nation.
If the authorities term this act as illegal , crime then are the acts of corrupt public servants legal ? is the cover-up of such corrupt acts by police , vigilance officials & some judges by mis quoting /misinterpreting , misusing law is right , legal ? the GOI has created , funded , supported , given training , arms & ammunition to various terrorist outfits like LTTE , MUKTHI BAHINI ,MQM in foreign countries , resulting in destruction , mass murders of innocents there . In india itself in assam , Kashmir , the GOI has created counter terrorist outfits to reduce the reach of terrorist groups. The bihar , jharkhand , chattisgarh state governments have created armed gangs SALWA JUDUM to counter naxal outfits , are all these acts of government right , legal ? the days of dogs death for corrupt is quite nearby. it is high time , to the corrupt to reform , repent themselves.
In our own experience, e-voice didn’t get justice from authorities in many cases of injustices brought before it , most shameful fact even supreme court of India failed to register PILs , even shameful supreme court of India even failed to give information as per RTI Act , utterly shameful supreme court of India failed to protect the fundamental rights of editor of e-voice & obstructed him from performing his fundamental duties. Still, e-voice believes in peace , democratic practices. E-voice firmly believes that violence should not be practiced by anybody – neither state nor public.
Hereby, e-voice urges the corrupt public servants to mend their ways , to uphold law & dignity of democratic institutions. Atrocities , violence , corruption breeds more violence , invites dog’s death. Peace ,truth , honesty is the harbinger of prosperous democratic nation. Greetings to all my Indian brothers & sisters on the occasion of 63rd independence day celebrations, let us build a true democratic India , free of corrupt public servants.
JAI HIND. VANDE MATARAM.
Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.
CRIMES COMMITTED BY LAW COURTS IN INDIA
- An appeal to honourable supreme court of india
Indian prisons are meant to be reforming schools for the prisoners. By the corrupt practices of the officials , the prisons have become factories turning out hardened criminals.
Say , a person was caught by police on suspicion of pick-pocketing. The police produce the accussed before the magistrate , in turn he remands him for judicial custody. Let us consider , The punishment for this offence pick-pocketing as per law is 6 months imprisonment. However the case drags on for 3 years , finally the court finds him guilty of offence & orders for 6 months imprisonment. Totally, the offender serves 42 months imprisonment sentence in practice. In some cases , the courts consider the time already spent by the accussed behind the bars while giving judgement. In this example , even if the offender is let free taking 6 months imprisonment sentence, the offender has been given excess sentence of 36-6=30 months.
Taking the same example further, say the court finds the accused as innocent, not guilty of crime & lets him free. However , the poor chap has suffered 36 months imprisonment for no fault of his.
As per law, no body not even the courts of law are legally empowered to punish anybody beyond the legal procedures , rules established. In this way, due to delay in our legal system , faulty bail procedures , thousands of under-trials are suffering in various prisons throught India. Arew not the courts which remanded those accused to judicial custody responsible for this illegal act of excessive punishment ? what punishment should be given to those judges ?
The bail procedure in India , is also faulty without considering quantum of offence & financial status of the accused. A person accused of stealing rs.100 has to provide bail surety bond of rs.5000 or personal surety by a wealthy person / government servant. The poor person having personal contacts , friendship with rich persons / government servants is quite remote , so he can’nt secure bail on personal bond. The poor chaps family is not rich enough to spend rs.5000 surety amount. As a result, unable to secure bail the poor chap suffers in jail for years.
Say, a rich industrialist is accused of rs.20 crores tax evasion, he is let free on a personal bond of rs.1 lakh. Stamp paper scam kingpin karim lala telgi has swindled government to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, only few cases are registered against him. That too in one out of those cases involving rs.45 lakh worth stamp sale , judge has given him rigorous imprisonment plus a fine of rs.50000.
Considering the above examples it is quite clear the bail amount, fine amount are peanuts for the rich just a fraction of quantum of their crime , while for the poor it is huge many times more than the quantum of their crime.. it is biased towards rich & mighty criminals. As a result poor always suffers in jail, while rich are out on bail.
Even within prisons , the number of prisoners per sq.ft area , no of doctors , hospital beds , medicines available, weight of food per day given to prisoners , are all less & much below the statuotary limits. The food , health care , living conditions of prisoners , under-trials are worse than pigs. The prison authorities are utterly corrupt, which has been brought into light again & again by the media. If a poor prisoner questions the illegal acts of the officials , he is subjected to 3rd degree torture , roughed up by rowdy prisoners on the instigation of the officials themselves. Many poor prisoners are suffering from health problems , many are dying due to lack of proper health care & food in the prisons.
Whereas , the rich & mighty prisoners , by payting bribe get non-veg , alchoholic drinks from outside restaurants daily. They even secure drugs . they get spacious VIP rooms , television , mobile phones. They easily get parole & easily gets admitted in outside hospitals & roam free , while on record they are in-patients in hospitals.
The law of limitation which stipulates time limits for filing various cases is also biased towards the government as a party & rich , mighty. For the purposes of evidences , filing of cases one needs various government records. The concerned officials don’t provide those records for years unless bribed & sit over the files for years. Some times by making absurd , illogical file notings , rejects it back. There is no time limit for the performance of duties by public servants. When a commoner don�t get relevant records , files , evidences in time , how can he file cases in time without those records , evidences ?
Nowadays , numerous cases of irregularities , charges of corruption against judges are coming to light. However , in such cases judges are asked to resign from service but no criminal prosecution against them is instituted , only in cases involving lower court judges it is done. When a case of irregularity by a judge in a specific present case comes , there are every possibility that in the past also he has committed the same in cases handled by him which has not come to light. In such instances , all the cases handled by that particular judge throught his career must be reviewed , but is not done why ? does not it amount to cover-ups ?
In many cases the higher courts have turned down the verdicts of the lower courts , let free the innocents , absolved innocents of charges & annulled death sentences when appeals came before them. However , in all such cases , the lower court judges must be punished for giving out wrong judgements, meating out injustice to innocents. Here a fact must be noted , only a fraction of cases goes in appeal to higher courts, as in majority of cases the poor people lack the financial might to make the appeal. The so-called free legal services authority pre-judges the cases before giving legal aid. As a result , many innocents poor people resign to their fates suffer injustice in courts of law , undergo imprisonment punishment , some times even death sentence. So , the urgent need of the hour is to incorporate jury system or some outside monitoring system to review cases as & when decided.
In many cases involving the rich & mighty like telgi , case proceedings are conducted in-camera in judge’s chambers or proceedings are conducted through video conferencing . outside from public gaze. The tapes are not made public and the public cann’t even ascertain the validity of tapes , whether it is edited , doctored .
One of the basic reasons for delayed justice & worse prison conditions in India , is low number of judges , police personnel , higher rate of case adjournments and finally low amount of financial grants made by the government to judicial department / police department. The government states that it doesn’t have enough money to provide for judiciary & police. As a result, fundamental / human rights of innocent commoners are thwarted. The state governments & GOI , is one of either parties in 75% of cases before various courts in India, it is the biggest litigant & is influencing the judiciary by controlling the grants , recruitment to judiciary & by enticing some with post-retirement postings.
The government has got money to spend on lavish parties of VVIPs , IAS officers serving non-veg foods , alchoholic drinks . their foreign jaunts , 5-star bungalows , limousines , interior decorations of their bungalows, etc. which is of higher priority , importance , whether the luxury of VVIPs or the fundamental / human rights of commoners ? the courts should answer. The courts have the legal powers to order governments to provide enough financial grants to it , however it is keeping mum , turning blinds eye to crimes of VVIP�s. the government rewards such judges with salary hikes , promotions , luxury cars , bungalows , perks and post-retirement postings , sites at judicial lay-out , yelahanka , Bangalore , etc.
We at e-voice have utmost respect for the judiciary , but hereby humbly bringing the crimes of judiciary before the honest few judges seeking justice to the common folk. Please visit following websites for details,
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/failures-of-indian-legal-system ,
QUESTIONS FOR MONEY – PARLIAMENTARY ACTS/LEGISLATIONS FOR ???? -
improper functioning of democracy in india

the vohra committee report has proved the criminalisation of
politics in india. There are many number of criminals in the
parliament & state legislatures. Some of those criminals are cabinet
ministers as well as members of vital parliamentary committees.
Thereby, they are in a position to manipulate , enact laws favouring ,
benefitting the criminals their cronies.

Just see how the GOI gave export incentive of Rs.1800 crore to
reliance petroleum although it didn’t even export a barrel. Reliance
infocom & tata teleservices were CDMA mobile service providers & have
paid license fee of few crores only equal to landline fees without any
competitive bidding . They were supposed to provide mobile service to
operate like fixed phones within a radius of 40k.m. however they were
providing service like mobile service from one state to another like
GSM mobile service providers. By this act of RIC & TTSL , the GSM
providers who have paid thousands of license fee in competitive
bidding were economically hurt , the dispute went to court. The court
was on the verge of pronouncing it’s verdict awarding damages worth
Rs.18000 crore to GSM players & Rs. 3000 crore of license fees with
penalty to GOI. The government announced a unified telecom license
regime with retrospective effect. Thereby, the GOI lost thousands of
crores of rupees & the share holders of GSM players lost thousands of
crores. Onceagain the RIC was charged by PSU bsnl THAT RELIANCE IS
RE-ROUTING INTERNATIONAL CALLS AS LOCAL CALLS & SWINDLING THE GOI.
This time too, GOI bailed it out. during the dispute between ambani
brothers the younger ambani mr. Anil ambani director of reliance
himself has stated that for the favours received from the GOI , the
company gifted some shares to then IT & COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER mr.
Pramod mahajan. Also consider , the recent 3G SPECTRUM allotment scam by I&B ministry.

Various indian & multinational companies are looting indian
exchequer to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees , through
lobbying / bribing. Take the recent case of allotment of 3G spectrum.

In india, indirect democracy is the form of governance. In this
form, people’s representatives are bound to raise the questions ,
issues concerning their constituents on their behalf , on the floor of
the house. However the sad part in india even after 58 years of
democracy , is the lobbying is at it’s peak. The lobbying is a
gentleman’s white collared crook’s way of forming favour seeker’s
group , creating a corpus to pay lumpsum bribe & influencing decision
making.
The people’s representatives are bound to represent their people
first , then their party & party think tanks. India has come to this
sorry state of affairs , widespread corruption , huge black economy &
rampant poverty, all due to inefficient legislations & enforcements.
These think tanks & IAS lobby, consider themselves as most super
brains on earth & gives out suggestions . the present state of affairs
is a barometer of their brilliance. These think tanks & IAS lobby are
the hand maidens of lobbyists / bribers.

Now consider the following example :
Mr.raj gandhi is a member of parliament from mandya constituency in
karnataka state. He is a MBA graduate & member of ruling indian
progressive party. The multinational giant M/S GREY HOUND CORPORATION
wants to enter into paper manufacturing business in india. It’s sight
falls on the public sector paper giant mandya national paper mills (
MNPM) in mandya district of karnataka. The MNC effectively lobbies
with the government. The ruling party think tank & the cabinet
advisory group recommends to the government to make strategic
disinvestment in the PSU M/S MNPM. They bring out graph with full
power point presentation stating that it is good for the company as
well as the government. The lobbyists follows it up with media reports
on the positive aspect of strategic disinvestment. A favourable
impression is created in the minds of literate public. The cabinet
committee okays it.

The ” strategic dis investment issue ” comes before the parliament
for legislation / approval. The ruling party issues a party whip to
it’s members to vote in favour of dis investment. However M.P mr.raj
gandhi who is an MBA in his own wisdom also favours the dis
investment. However ,most importantly the constituents – people in
mandya parliamentary constituency through protest marches , mass post
card campaigns lakhs in numbers expresses their disagreement with the
dis investment & urges their MP mr.gandhi to vote against the
disinvestment legislation.

On the D-day in parliament , mr. Raj gandhi as per his party whip &
his own wisdom votes in favour of strategic disinvestment legislation,
much against the wishes of his people , constituents & mis represents
them in parliament. the democracy has failed here. in This way
democracy is being derailed since 62 years in india.

In democracy, party whip , MP or MLA’s own wisdom / brilliance,
think tank & IAS lobby recommendations are all secondary , the
constituent’s of his constituency , people’s wishes aspirations are
of primary importance & supreme. What people need is a honest
representative, who simply delivers the people’s aspirations on the
floor of the house back & forth , without superimposing it with his
own ideas & party ideas. For true democracy , the people’s
representatives must be true postmans.

Towards this end , the people must be educated about their
democratic rights & responsibilities. This is an appeal to the honest
few in the parliament & state legislatures to weed out their corrupt
colleagues , lobbyists, to uphold the dignity of the house & to
install democracy in it’s true form.
BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY 1984 -Bhopal, India

At the first instance the Government of India failed to ensure that Union carbide India Limited (U.C.I.L) has installed proper safety measures and fully implemented it in practice, at it’s plant in Bhopal. The Government of Madhyapradesh through it’s labour
department, factory inspectorate & pollution control board failed to enforce safety practices & environmental protection. In turn, the U.C.I.L didn’t install in full, the safety measures being followed by it’s parent company union carbide corporation (U.C.C) at it’s
Various plants in the U.S.A. The U.C.I.L. didn’t give community training to residents of nearby localities, to cope up with emergencies ie. Industrial accidents. U.C.I.L gave a go – by to safety practices, as it treated Indian lives as cheap. The government of Madhya pradesh instead of shifting slum dwellers around U.C.I.L, to other safe place, gave them legal title deeds just months before the tragedy in 1984.

Now, refer the following:-

1. After the accident at it’s U.C.I.L. plant at Bhopal, India in 1984, when the U.C.C. Chairman/C.E.O. came over to Bhopal from U.S.A to visit the accident site, local police arrested him on the charges of manslaughter. However, the Government of India got him released.

2. In 1985, Government of India enacted “Bhopal claims Act” took- away the right of appeal of all the Gas tragedy victims & declared itself as the sole representative of all victims. This said act itself is violative of victim’s fundamental & human rights. The
victims didn’t choose Government of India as it’s representative under will, agreement, trust or pleasure.

3. The paradox of this “Bhopal claims Act” is that, Government of India which is also a party to the crime, tragedy, itself is the appellant. The appellant (Petitioner),defendant are Government of India, Prosecution by Government of India & Judged by Government of
India.

4. In 1989, when an appeal about interim compensation to be paid by the U.C.I.L to all the victims was being heard in the apex court, the supreme court of India without giving a chance to the victims to make their point, without consulting them, without making a proper assessment of damages/losses, gave an arbitrary figure as verdict & dropped all civil, criminal proceedings against U.C.C.&U.C.I.L

5. In the same year 1989, the Government of India without consulting the victims of disaster, without making proper assessment of damages/ losses, negotiated a settlement with the U.C.C. and in turn gave full legal immunity to U.C.C.& U.C.I.L from civil &
Criminal proceedings

6. Even the Government of India didn’t present the case of victim’s-gas tragedy victims, properly before the U.S.courts, where the U.C.C is based. All these premeditated acts only benefited the criminals- U.C.C&UCIL. Are not the supreme court of India & Government of India, here to safeguard Indians and to safeguard Justice?

After all these crimes, the Government of India failed to distribute compensation in time to victims. It has failed even to provide safe drinking water to the residents near the accident site, It has failed to provide comprehensive medical care to the victims, till
date . It has even failed to get the accident site cleared off toxic wastes either by the culprit management or by it self, that too after 20 years. The very presence of these toxic wastes since 20 years is further contaminating, polluting the environment and taking toll of more victims.

Particularly in the case of “Bhopal Gas Tragedy” the supreme court of India & Government of India are deadlier criminals than U.C.I.L&U.C.C.

Just consider a case here, Just a few years back an U.S.based M.N.C ENRON set-up a power project in Maharashtra, India through it’s subsidiary. When Maharashtra state Electricity Board failed to lift power from Enron& pay them monthly guaranteed revenue, Enron threatened to invoke, open the “Eschrew Clause” with the Government
of India & to approach international arbiter U.K. Government of India has stood as conter-guarantee in this case. Finally the Government paid, of course subsequently the parent ENRON collapsed due to other reasons. If in this case if Government of India failed to pay-up as a counter guarantee & refused to comply with the award of International arbiter, definitely Government of U.S.A. would have stepped into the scene to protect it’s MNC. Hypothetically, In the same vein if Enron has caused damages to Indians either through negligence of safe practices or industrial accidents or bank frauds
amounting over and above it’s Capital base & insurance cover, then it would have been the duty of parent Enron & Government of U.S.A. to step in & pay-up.

In the same way, the U.C.I.L has caused massive damages to Indians & refusing to pay commensurate to damages. Dow chemicals which took- over U.C.C. is also refusing to pay. DOW chemicals which is the new owner of U.C.C. naturally inherits both profits, credits lent & liabilities to pay of U.C.C. Still it is refusing to pay. Now it is the turn of Government of U.S.A. to cough-up the sum.

Nowadays, it has become routine for central & State ministers to go- on foreign jaunts, to globe -trott inviting F.D.I/ M.N.Cs to India. They do sign numerous agreements, only favouring MNC. When tragedies occur or when they cheat Indian banks/ investors, it is Indians who suffer. The ministers & bureaucrats thinks themselves as wizards and enters into agreements with MNCs, industrialists in a hush-hush manner, with vast scope for possible corruption. Is it not the duty of government to be transparent ?
CRIMES OF USA IN THE NAME OF COUNTER TERRORISM
In the name of countering terrorism, the USA has violated the rights of individuals in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere. The human rights violations committed by and on behalf of the USA since 11 September 2001 are many and varied. This has been confirmed by documents, photographs, declassified legal opinion and official statements.

These violations have included enforced disappearances; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in some instances leading to deaths in custody; prolonged incommunicado detention; other forms of arbitrary and indefinite detention; secret transfers of detainees between countries; and violations of the right to fair trial.

Since President Barack Obama took office, more details of the abuse of detainees during his predecessor’s term in office have emerged, triggering a debate on accountability, including whether there should be investigations and prosecutions. Nevertheless, no action has been announced by the new administration to investigate and prosecute those responsible and many details surrounding these violations remain classified as secret.

The US government needs to demonstrate that it is genuinely and wholly committed to its international human rights obligations. To do so, the new administration and congress must not only address ongoing violations but must also ensure that truth and accountability for past violations are prioritized. A commitment to ending impunity would demonstrate that the USA is serious about dealing with past human rights violations but also committed to preventing such abuses recurring.

Holding perpetrators accountable for human rights violations is not only a matter of principle, but also a matter of law. Under international law the USA must thoroughly investigate every violation of human rights and bring those responsible to justice no matter what their current or former level of office.

Victims, their families and society as a whole have to right to know the truth about the violations, their causes and facts, the circumstances under which they occurred and, to the fullest extent practicable, to know the identity of the perpetrators. All victims have the right to redress and remedy for the violations to which they were subjected, including compensation, restitution, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition.

edited , printed , published & owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ : LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL , MYSORE -570017 INDIA cell :09341820313
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TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA

S.O.S – e – Clarion Of Dalit – Weekly Newspaper On Web

Working For The Rights & Survival Of The Oppressed

Editor: NAGARAJ.M.R VOL.3 issue. 29 22 / 07 / 2009

Editorial : TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA – 3RD DEGREE TORTURE PERPETRATED BY POLICE IN INDIA – Gross violations of human rights by police

At the outset , e – Voice salutes the few honest police personnel who are
silently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment by
political bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,
promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few are
silently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. we salute
them & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those few honest
to catch their corrupt colleagues.

The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by just
holding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigate like
“Sherlock holmes” and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , when
police are under various pressures , stresses – they are frequently
using 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there are 3
reasons for this :
1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlock
holmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degree torture on
innocents.
2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frame
innocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degree torture
is used on innocents.
3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but the
higher-ups need very quick results – under work stress I.O uses 3rd
degree torture on innocents.

Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punish
let alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Only
the judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Even
the judiciary doesn’t have the right to punish the accussed /
suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree torture unabetted.
Even during encounters , police only have the legal right , authority
to immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them.

There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that use
of 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false
& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100’s
of crores of public money – like stock scam , fodder scam , etc
involving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don’t police use 3rd
degree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of public
money where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a
pick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards by
police.

In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials in
league with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officials
bury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murder
innocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don’t police use 3rd
degree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aiding
criminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.

All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,
dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas , before
rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrows
before rich crooks.

Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purpose of
investigations police have scientific investigative tools like
polygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific tools
must be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.

Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :
1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degree
torture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounter
killings.
2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police service and to
forfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,
etc.
3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching government
contribution as compensation to family of the victim’s of 3rd degree
torture & encounter killings.
4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extracted from
innocents by 3rd degree torture.
5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whose
jurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.
6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide a
torture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before his
court.
7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid to forest
brigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar. To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva’s report on “torture of
tribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,
KARNATAKA”.
9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools of
investigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without bias
against suspects rich or poor.
10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refresher
training of police personnel.
11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude &
knack for investigations.
12) To insulate police from interference from politicians & superiors.
13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body instead of
political bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all service
matters of police.
14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in a humane
manner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then on
a reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.
15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties of biggies
& must be put on detective , investigative works.

Nowadays , we are seeing reports of corruption by police & judges in the media and are also seeing reports of raids by vigilance authorities seizing crores of wealth from such corrupt police. Some Judges have also amassed crores of wealth. Who gives them money ? it is rich criminals , anti-nationals . By taking bribe & hiding the crimes of criminals , the corrupt police & judges are themselves becoming active parties in the crimes , anti-national activities. Those shameless , corrupt police & judges are nothing but traitors & anti – nationals themselves. When an innocent is subjected to 3rd degree torture to extract truth with justification by investigating agencies that all for the sake of national security , what degree of torture these corrupt , anti-national police & judges qualify for ? what type of aeroplane or helicopter the corrupt police / judges must ride ? ofcourse , for protection of national security. Here also police & judges have double standards , what a shame.

We at e – voice are for “Rule of Law” & abhor all type of violence. Truly these police & judges are not building a Ram Rajya of our Mahatma Gandhi’s dream.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

Your’s sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

CRIMINALS IN POLICE UNIFORM
- An appeal to union home minister & Karnataka state home minister

The ABC of police force in India is apathy ,
brutality & corruption . in India, police are not impartially enforcing
law instead are working as hand maidens of rich & mighty. The corrupt
police officers are collecting protection money from criminals ,
collecting money to go slow on investigations , to file B- reports , to
fix innocents in fake cases , to murder innocents in lock-up /
encounters . they are hand in league with land mafia , today C.M of
Karnataka himself issued a warning to police officials about this.
Even in lock-ups , jails, the rich inmates bribe
officials get better food from outside , mobile phones , drugs , drinks
, cigareetes , etc. they get spacious cells & get best private medical
care . where as the poor inmates are even denied food , health care ,
living space as per the provisions of law. The corrupt jail officials
instigate rowdy elements in the jails to assault poor inmates & to toe
their line. More corrupt the police more wealthier he is. Even CBI
officials are no different. The only beacon of hope is still there are
few honest people left in the police force.
Hereby , e-voice urges you to make public the following
information in the interest of justice.

1.how many CBI officials & Karnataka state police officials are facing
charges of corruption , 3rd degree torture , lock-up/encounter deaths
, rapes , fake cases , etc ?

2.how you are monitoring the ever increasing wealth of corrupt police
officials?

3.how many officials from the ranks of constable to DGP have amassed
illegal wealth?

4.what action you have taken in these cases ? have you got
reinvestigated all the cases handled by tainted police?

5.how many policemen have been awarded death penalty & hanged till
death , for cold blooded murders in the form of lock-up deaths /
encounter deaths ?

6.why DGP of Karnataka is not registering my complaint dt 10/12/2004 , subsequent police complaints ?
is it because rich & mighty are involved ?

7.e – voice is ready to bring to book corrupt police officials subject to
conditions, are you ready ?

8.how many police personnel are charged with violations of people’s
human rights & fundamental rights ?

9.how many STF police deployed to nab veerappan were themselves
charged with theft of forest wealth?

10.how you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in jails?

11.how you are ensuring the medical care , health of prisoners in
hospitals & mental asylums?

12.How you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in juvenile homes ?

TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA

They are our own Gitmos. Where, far away from the eyes of the law, ‘enemies of the state’ are made to ’sing’. THE WEEK investigates

By Syed Nazakat

Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.

According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in 2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.

Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi’s joint interrogation centres, used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers spread across the country are our “precious assets”. They are our own little Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).

Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S. Subramanian, Tripura’s former director-general of police, who has also served in the Intelligence Bureau. “Such sites exist and are being used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time,” he told THE WEEK. “Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the system.” So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do not exist.

THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam. (One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.

The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan (name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006, here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh, accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months. “He was kept in isolation for days together,” said an officer. “He crumbled after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process.” The smallest of the three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.

Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police’s chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez’s flight itinerary, he travelled from Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m. (SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the Delhi airport.

Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi’s secret detention centres are located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south Delhi.)

“After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown pictures of many Kashmiri boys,” Parvez said in the letter. “They wanted me to identify them. As I didn’t know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured.”

Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over the traumatic experience. “There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a person will not be able to stand,” he said. “There is an interrogation centre within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly bring it down to freezing cold.”

Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the existence of such facilities. “Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret detention centres],” he said. “We don’t operate any such facility in our police stations.”
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an inevitable part of the war on terrorism. “Now I would never dream of doing the things I did when I was in charge,” said Dhar. “But security agencies need such facilities.” Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. “If you produce a suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that,” he said. In other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his lawyer.

An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. “The interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person they see each day,” he said. “In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It will make a person crazy.”

Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements could be tracked if he tried to escape. “He fears that the chip is still inside his skin,” said one of his relatives. “That has shattered him.”

Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. “A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres,” said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer. “Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the fields.”

That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2 interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months. Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.

The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.

Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today. “If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything,” he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal, coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. “The US had a debate on the Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,” she said.

No one wants to compromise the nation’s safety, but the torture becomes unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.

Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. “The primary mission of the agencies is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,” he said. “But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden.”
with Anupam Dasgupta

Forty secret interrogation cells unveil real face of India [The Nation] 05 Jul, 2009

Worlds oldest democracy United States may have been forced to close Guantanamo Bay detention centre, but the largest democracy India runs 40 such secret chambers across the country, where suspects are subjected to extreme interrogation for months and years.
A leading news magazine The Week in its forthcoming issue, accessed by KT News Service (KTNS), revealed the horror of torture chambers, far from the eyes of law.
The investigating team of the magazine identified 15 secret interrogation centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkatta and one in Assam. Officials admit that there could be more and roughly put their numbers at 40. In Palanpur region of Gujarat all security agencies share one detention centre, the magazine report said. It maintained that mostly suspects were brought blindfolded so they could hardly pinpoint the place, adding, the only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators.
The magazine quoted Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district, a student in Pune University, who was illegally detained in Delhi, as saying that he, in his open letter, from notorious Tihar jail, wrote that electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on during interrogation in the centre.
A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres, said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer.
The report further said that in Kashmir, there were many interrogation centres like the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district.
There are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Islamabad district and Talab Tillo in Jammu and one in Poonch.
It said that the lawyers in Kashmir had filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.
The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Aloochi Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family said that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up.
He died the same night.
Quoting KS Subramanian, former Director General of Indian police who had also served in the Intelligence Bureau, the report said that these sites existed and were being used to detain and interrogate suspects and it had been going on for a long time.
An officer, who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, was used to extract information from the detainees.
It included assault on the senses like sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity.

In India, Torture by Police Is Frequent and Often Deadly

By Rama Lakshmi

MEERUT, India — Rajeev Sharma, a young electrician, was sleeping when police barged into his house a month ago and dragged him out of bed on suspicion of a burglary in the neighborhood, his family recalled.

When his young wife and brother protested, the police, who did not show them an arrest warrant, said they were taking Sharma to the police station for “routine questioning.”

“Little did we know that we would lose him forever,” said Sunil Sharma, Rajeev’s brother, recounting how he died while in police custody. “Their routine questioning proved fatal,” he added, sitting beside his brother’s grieving widow.

Rajeev Sharma, 28, died at the police station within a day of his detention. Police said he committed suicide, but his family charges that he was beaten and killed.

The case highlights the frequent use of torture and deadly force at local police stations in India, a practice decried by human rights activists and the Indian Supreme Court. A little more than a decade after Parliament established the National Human Rights Commission to deal with such abuses, police torture continues unabated, according to human rights groups and the Supreme Court. According to the latest available government data, there were 1,307 reported deaths in police and judicial custody in India in 2002.

“India has the highest number of cases of police torture and custodial deaths among the world’s democracies and the weakest law against torture,” said Ravi Nair, who heads the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center. “The police often operate in a climate of impunity, where torture is seen as routine police behavior to extract confessions from small pickpockets to political suspects.” He said that laws governing police functions were framed under British colonial rule in 1861 “as an oppressive force designed to keep the population under control.”

Police records show that, two weeks before his detention, Rajeev Sharma made a electrician’s service call at the home of a wealthy businessman. On that day, the man reported that $500 worth of gold jewelry and about $100 in cash were missing, police said.

After Sharma’s detention, his brother called the police station and was told that Sharma had confessed to the theft, he said. The brother said he and other family members rushed to the station and were able to see Sharma briefly.

“His eyes were red, his mouth was bleeding and he could hardly walk. They had beaten him very badly. That was the last glimpse we had,” said Sunil Sharma, 35. “By the evening, the police informed us that he had committed suicide in the lockup by hanging himself with a blanket. The suicide story is a coverup; my brother died of police torture.”

The death in police custody sparked two days of rioting and protests in Meerut, about 45 miles from New Delhi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Angry residents surrounded and threw stones at the police station, burned police vehicles and blocked traffic.

Thousands participated in Sharma’s funeral procession; protesters demanded an open inquest by a panel of physicians and the immediate arrests of those responsible.

Police conducted an autopsy in private, lawyers close to the case said. But authorities did issue arrest warrants for the man who said he had been robbed and for six police officers, an apparent reaction to the unusual popular outcry, family members and lawyers said. The merchant is in jail, alleged to have participated in beating Sharma, but the police officers apparently have fled, authorities said.

Although the Indian government signed the international Convention Against Torture in 1997, it has not ratified the document. Some members of Parliament have argued against ratification, saying they oppose international scrutiny and asserting that Indian laws have adequate provisions to prevent torture. Human rights advocates said Uttar Pradesh ranks highest among Indian states in the incidence of police torture and custodial deaths.

Some police officers justify the use of torture to extract confessions and instill fear.

“The police in India are under tremendous pressure, as people need quick results. So we have to pick up and interrogate a lot of people. Sometimes things get out of control,” said Raghuraj Singh Chauhan, a newly assigned officer at the station where Rajeev Sharma died. “After all, confessions cannot be extracted with love. The fear of the police has to be kept alive — how else would you reduce crime?” he added, fanning himself with a police file folder.

A senior police officer in Meerut, on condition of anonymity, openly discussed torture methods with a visiting reporter. One technique, he said, involves a two-foot-long rubber belt attached to a wooden handle.

“We call this thing samaj sudharak,” the officer said, smiling, using the Hindi phrase for social reformer. “When we hit with this, there are no fractures, no blood, no major peeling of the skin. It is safe for us, as nothing shows up in the postmortem report. But the pain is such that the person can only appeal to God. He will confess to anything.”

Last September, in a written ruling in a case of police misconduct, the Supreme Court criticized the use of torture. “The dehumanizing torture, assault and death in custody which have assumed alarming proportions raise serious questions about the credibility of the rule of law and administration of the criminal justice system,” the court said. “The cry for justice becomes louder and warrants immediate remedial measure.”

In addition, the severity of the torture problem is probably worse than statistics indicate, because victims, fearing reprisals, rarely report cases against the police, human rights advocates said.

“About 40 percent of custodial torture cases are not even reported. They are just grateful for God’s mercy that they are alive and free,” said Pradeep Kumar, a human rights lawyer who has represented police torture victims in Uttar Pradesh. “Torture sometimes leads to permanent disability, psychological trauma, loss of faculties.”

The National Human Rights Commission, led by a retired Supreme Court justice, has faced criticism that it is too dependent on the government and lacks enforcement power.

“We have not been able to build a human rights culture in the police force,” said Shankar Sen, a former police officer and an ex-member of the commission. “It is not only individual aberration but a matter of systemic failure.”

The commission has ordered that cameras be installed in police stations to monitor and deter police brutality.

“In the past year we have spent about $600,000 to equip most of the police stations in New Delhi with a camera. This will make police functioning transparent and have a big impact on torture,” said Maxwell Pereira, a senior police official in the capital.

But critics and families of victims said they had not seen changes. In a much-publicized case in New Delhi last fall, five policemen were charged with beating and killing Sushil Kumar Nama at a police station.

Nama had been detained on suspicion that he was working with neighborhood gamblers. Four of the police officers were arrested in April, but one remains at large, authorities said. Police officials denied that Nama was tortured, saying he died of a heart attack after he was released from custody.

“My two children are so traumatized that now they run home scared every time they see a policeman on the street,” said Nama’s wife, Rekha, 29. “They know that danger lurks behind that uniform. They are not policemen, they are wolves.”

On the wrong side of law

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Chunchun Kumar

Chunchun Kumar’s wound is still raw

For Chunchun Kumar of Bihar’s Nawada district, it was just another evening as he lounged around at a tea stall in his village along with a friend.

But, then something happened that changed his life.

“It was 17 March of this year. There were six of them. When we first saw them, they were beating up the temple priest. He was lying on the ground, they were kicking and punching him,” Kumar says.

“Then they started hitting two other men. Then they came into the tea shop and they beat us black and blue. Then they fired at us.”

Kumar lifts up his shirt to show a bullet mark on his abdomen. The wound is still oozing.

The perpetrators were no ordinary criminals.

Says Kumar, “They were all policemen. I don’t know why they were angry. They were all drunk, they were like drunk elephants, they went on a rampage.”

The shocked villagers complained to the police authorities, and the offending policemen were suspended from duty and arrested.

‘Very serious’

Additional director general of police in Bihar Anil Sinha confirmed the incident.

“Two of the policemen who were inebriated vandalised the tea shop and began firing despite protests from their other colleagues. They were arrested and, although they have been released on bail, they are facing criminal charges.”

Kumar’s fight for justice recently brought him to the Indian capital, Delhi, where he narrated his story at India’s first National People’s Tribunal on Torture.

Activists say torture by police is rampant in India.

“The problem of torture is very serious. Today we have around 1.8 million cases of police torture each year in India,” says Henri Tiphagne of People’s Watch, an NGO.

Policemen in India

The police are often a law unto themselves, say campaigners

Mr Tiphagne says the victims mostly are from the poorer sections of society.

“They are generally the (low-caste) Dalits, the tribals and the Muslims. And torture is used by those who are in power, those who possess, the landlords and the companies who put pressure on the police to carry out torture,” Mr Tiphagne says.

Mr Anil Sinha says cases of human rights violations involving the police are “exaggerated” by activists.

“It’s a kind of stereotype being dished out by the NGOs and activists. And because police have a bad reputation, so people take such allegations to be correct.

“We do not condone any human rights violations by police in any manner, and such cases are rare. We have a mechanism in place to deal with such cases and penalise the guilty,” Mr Sinha says.

Shankar Sen, a retired police officer and former member of the human rights commission, says: “The policeman’s work is very complex, there are pressure on him to deliver results, the police are exposed to extraneous influences and pressures.”

But, he says, that does not condone torture. “It’s illegal, and as a policeman I know it doesn’t work.”

Mr Sen admits that police torture is prevalent. “Torture does take place, it’s very common, but it’s unacceptable. Some allegations against the police are shocking.”

Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says nearly every police station in India can be held guilty of torture.

‘Arbiter of justice’

In many parts of the country, she says, the situation is so bad that people will not got to a police station to file a case fearing prosecution and retribution.

“There is this pattern of impunity. The fact that police believe they can get away with it has added to the problem,” Ms Ganguly says.

“The greater problem is that an average policeman believes himself to be the arbiter of justice. Instead of going to the court, he himself is delivering justice.

Arun Kumar with parents PP Raju and Lakshmi

Arun Kumar’s mental age has been reduced to one year

“The policeman is not supposed to punish the criminal, he is supposed to catch the criminal,” she says.

For the victims of torture and their families, it is a long haul.

Arun Kumar of the southern city of Bangalore was picked up by the police after his employer suspected him of having an affair with his wife.

Kumar’s parents, PP Raju and Lakshmi, say their family home was ransacked, Kumar was taken to the police station where he was beaten up and tortured for days.

Unable to bear the pain and the trauma, Kumar drank pesticides in an attempt to kill himself.

He survived, but his parents say their son’s mental age has been reduced to one year – he is on medication and requires constant care.

The guilty policeman was suspended for a week, but reinstated later. The family has a long fight ahead of them.

‘Deterrence’

Says Mr Tiphagne, “A case I initiated in 1981 ended in 2007 with the dismissal of the officer. So I have hope in Arun Kumar’s case too.”

But, he says, this long wait can be a huge deterrence for even the most determined.

Henri Tiphagne of People’s Watch.

Mr Tiphagne says nearly 2 million cases of torture take place in India every year

“The torture at the police station ends, but the torture of institutions continues. It’s more of a psychological and mental nature, it is very challenging. Most people don’t have the courage to withstand that, very few survive that,” Mr Tiphagne says.

So while the victims continue to live with the trauma, most of the perpetrators get away.

They are also emboldened by the fact that India has no clear law on torture.

The country signed the UN Convention on Torture in 1997, but even 10 years later, it has not ratified it.

“We have to change our culture. We have to create awareness that torture is illegal. The civil society will have to get involved,” says Meenakshi Ganguly.

“People will have to get past the fact that torture happens only to other people. And once that happens, it will change,” she says.

Police Torture and Police Reform

INDIA: No to torture, establish rule of law!

The first Prime Minister of India Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru said “Police is standing on a quadrilateral from where they can protect and also violate human rights?” But it seems that his words are of no use in India today since there is an enormous increase in the incidents of police torture during past few decades.

It is apparent that police is the largest agency constituted with the purpose of establishing the rule of law and human rights. One can read into the Indian Penal Code, with certain difficulty, the prohibition against torture. Statements recorded from witnesses under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code are not blindly admissible in a criminal trial. If the law is so, the next obvious question is then why do the police resort to torture?

The main reasons are feudal and colonial structure of police, scarcity of resources in the police department, political intervention and the lack of an independent agency to investigate the crimes committed by the police themselves. Modern investigation is unheard of within the police department. In addition, India’s feudal society condones the use of torture.

The definition of torture as envisaged in the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as an “act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

Section 176 (A) of Cr.P.C. have provisions for the investigation in the each case of custodial death. However, this section is not used in any case in the entire Uttar Pradesh state. Neither have any Magistrates issued search warrants under Section 97 of Cr.P.C. when persons were taken into illegal custody.

The Supreme Court of India had issued guidelines to be followed by law-enforcement officers at the time of arrest and questioning in the case D.K Basu vs. West Bengal. It is mandatory for the law-enforcement agencies to follow, but is been negated in the state. Regarding encounter killings, the National Human Rights Commission has directed the country’s police to register cases in every case of reported encounter killings. The Commission has also directed to send it a video of the post-mortem examination in each case of custodial death. This also is not followed in the state and to the information of the PVCHR anywhere in the country. The question than is what is the value of the Supreme Court and the NHRC in the country?

There is a provision for interim relief to be awarded as compensation under Section 19 of Human Right Act. Article 21 of Indian Constitution guarantees the right to life with dignity, which is also against torture. But torture continues unabated in the state. Do laws in the country have any meaning then?

If we look at the statistics, it is mostly the poor, the marginalised, the Dalits and the members of the minority and backward communities are subjected to torture. Those who have mafia gangs and known antisocial elements are not victims of this, cruel practice other than some rare occasions. Only the ordinary people are afraid of the police and the torture they practice. So does India have two types of citizens — the one with rights and those who do not have them?

Police along with the criminals have established the rule of the lords. Corruption and discrimination are no more mere practices, but the second nature of the police. Rule of law can be established without preventing police torture. Let us come together to enlighten ourselves and fight against torture to stop it and thus establish rule of law.

What you can do?

1) Protest on 26th June against the practice of torture by street plays, organising discussions and sending letters to the Prime Minister, and through press releases in newspapers condemning torture and inform us what you did;
2) Indian Government has signed the UN Convention in 1997 but has failed to ratify it. Send letters to the Prime Minister and the President of India asking them to require the government to accede the convention;
3) In protest of the cases of torture happening right under the nose of the National Human Rights Commission, organise a protest in front of the Commission;
4) Write letters to the editor of publications condemning torture;
5) To sensitize the people about torture and its forms, take down cases that you come across and send it to us so that we could follow it up on your behalf;
6) Write to the Supreme Court asking why its orders and guidelines are not followed;
7) Write to the government urging the government to provide resources to the police to function properly.

Thank you

Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi
Convener – PVCHR
SA 4/2 A, Daulatpur
221002Varanasi
INDIA
Telephone: +91-9935599333
E-mail: pvchr.india@…

Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib… Bagram?
INVESTIGATION: US detention centre under suspicion as eerily familiar claims OF torture and rendition flights surface from the airbase on the outskirts of Kabul.

by Ian Pannell, BBC Afghanistan Correspondent

NOOR HABIB’S hands shake as he draws a picture of how he says he was abused. He claims that he was taken to a small, darkened cell where his arms were tied to the ceiling and he was made to stand in waist-deep water for six hours at a time.

[Mohammad Nasim says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.]Mohammad Nasim says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.

He says he was beaten, threatened with dogs, and deprived of sleep. He also claims there was nothing unusual about his treatment, “everyone else has the same story”.

Habib was an inmate at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, an American military detention center outside Kabul. Now, for the first time, detailed allegations of widespread abuse and neglect have been made about this top-secret camp.

“I didn’t think a prison like Bagram ever existed on earth. It is a place that has no rules or law,” says Sabrullah, another ex-inmate.

Over a period of more than two months, we tracked down 27 former detainees. There were others, but they were afraid to speak or had been warned not to. Just two said they had been treated well. Many allegations of ill-treatment appear repeatedly in the interviews; physical abuse, the use of stress positions, excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being forced to remove clothes in front of female soldiers and in four cases, being threatened with death at gunpoint.

The account of an inmate known as Dr Khandan is one of the most harrowing. He says he was kept in isolation for months and treated worse than an animal: “They deprived us of sleep, they put us in a cold room and turned the air conditioning on and would take away the blanket. They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol to your head and threatened you with death. They put some kind of medicine in the water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you.”

All the men who spoke to us were interviewed in isolation and they were all asked the same questions. They were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

None of the inmates were charged with any offense or put on trial; some even received apologies when they were released. While none of the allegations can be independently verified, the ill-treatment they describe also appears in an inquiry by US Senators into the handling of detainees in US custody, and they match the findings of interviews with ex-inmates conducted by human-rights organizations and legal groups. They are very similar to the methods that were used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

“The conditions at Bagram were harder than Guantanamo,” says Taj Mohammed. The camp has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new multi-million dollar detention center is currently under construction.

Most of the inmates are Afghans but some were captured abroad and brought here under a process known as “extraordinary rendition”, including at least two Britons. The Obama administration says they are dangerous men and it classifies them as “terrorist suspects” and “enemy combatants” rather than “prisoners of war”.

It is a legal classification that critics say deliberately denies inmates access to lawyers or the right to appeal or even complain about their treatment.

The Pentagon has denied the charges and it insists that all inmates are treated humanely. We were not allowed to visit Bagram, nor was anyone made available for an interview. Instead, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defense responded to written questions. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright insisted that conditions at Bagram meet international standards for care and custody. In a statement, he said: “Department of Defense policy is and always has been to treat detainees humanely. There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions.”

The US military said it would investigate any serious claims of abuse, but none of the men interviewed had been made aware of any formal complaints procedure.

But another former inmate, known as Mirwais, said: “They have no respect for human beings. They blame others for violating human rights. You just go and see how they violate human rights.”

Since coming to office, president Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and ordered a review of its policy on detainees, which is expected to report next month. But unlike Guantanamo Bay, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention.

Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, a legal support group which is bringing a test case in the States to try to win representation for four detainees, says the inmates at Bagram are being kept in “a legal black hole, without access to lawyers or courts”.

She is pursuing legal action that, if successful, would grant detainees the same rights as those still being held at Guantanamo Bay, but the Obama administration is trying to block the move.

Last summer, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo should be given legal rights. Speaking on the campaign trail, Obama applauded the ruling: “The Court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo. This is an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.”

Foster accuses Obama of abandoning that position and “using the same arguments as the Bush White House”.

In its legal submissions, the US Justice Department argues that because Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military resources at a crucial time. Pentagon spokesman Wright says: “Detention during wartime is not criminal punishment and therefore does not require that individuals be charged or tried in a court of law.”

Obama has also ruled against an earlier decision to release photos that show abuse of prisoners in US custody in Afghanistan.

Ex-inmate Esmatullah says he has trouble breathing when he thinks about Bagram, he gets nervous at the very mention of its name. Like many others, he also claims that he was beaten and threatened during interrogation: “The Afghan translator told me he has orders to take out my eyes, break my legs and hands. I said I am not afraid of dying. Then he hit me with a stick so hard that I had severe pains in my back for a month and a half.”

Unlike Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Bagram has received scant attention so far. The men would like an official apology, recognition of the abuse they say they have suffered and compensation.

These revelations come at a time when president Obama is trying to re-set America’s relationship with the Muslim world and he is redoubling US efforts to win the war in Afghanistan. It is a controversy that has already attracted much attention in the Afghan and Pakistan media and seriously threatens to tarnish the image of the new Obama administration on both sides of this troubled border.

INDIA: Structural breakdown of the justice system must be addressed

The reports that appeared yesterday in the Indian media quoting ‘informed sources’ that the Tamil Nadu state police has decided not to produce detainees in courts exposes the extent to which the justice institutions have broken down in India. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 it is the statutory duty of the state police to assist the courts in the country for its day-to-day functioning. It is also mandatory for the police to produce the detainees remanded to judicial custody before the courts, as and when required by the courts. Any decision by the police, express or implied, against this official duty must not go unpunished.

The decision of the Tamil Nadu state police is a wilful dereliction of official responsibility, negation of judicial supremacy and the very function of the police in maintaining law and order. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and its sister concern the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have been continuously reporting instances suggesting the systematic breakdown of rule of law in India, particularly concerning the police. The decision by the state police of Tamil Nadu to disregard the provisions of law, substantiates ALRC’s position that there are apparent and deep-rooted problems affecting the rule of law in India.

Lawyers engaged in professional misconduct, judges failing to perform duties and police officers committing crimes, assaulting persons and destroying property have become the defining characters of the justice dispensation system in the country. The structural breakdown is apparent. Yet, instead of gearing up to repair the ruptures, it appears that the government is forcing the people to get used to the reality.

The approval by the Government of India for recruiting, training and deploying Salwa Judum, in Chhattisgarh state, in the excuse of countering Naxalite activities in that state is an example. Salwa Judum is nothing but an armed mercenary group operating with impunity in Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh state administration finds it convenient to arm a faction of organised civilians to fight anti-state movements like the Naxalites. By promoting Salwa Judum, the state is trying to absolve from its responsibility of maintaining law and order in its territory.

The Government of India, instead of preventing the Chhattisgarh state administration from continuing with the deployment of Salwa Judum, insisted yet another state administration, the Manipur state government, to resort to similar tactics in 2008. The same practice was implemented years ago in the state of Jammu and Kashmir during the time of rightwing BJP led government in India. Neither in Jammu and Kashmir, nor in Chhattisgarh or in Manipur, has the situation improved since then.

In the past two years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of extra-judicial executions reported from India. In the Indian context, such murders are referred to as ‘encounter killings’. As of now, there is no legal framework in the country by which an impartial enquiry and investigation is possible in a case of encounter killing. The practice is, a superior officer and later the court, accepts a report sent in by the police involved in the murder and no further action is initiated. The murder is often rewarded by the administration, so much so, there are more than three dozen ‘encounter specialists’ serving as police officers in various parts of the country.

Impunity for the police to murder and the lack of punishment trivialises the practice of custodial torture in the country. The practice of torture is widespread and is accepted as an essential requirement for law enforcement.

On June 15 this year, the Speaker of the Kerala State Legislative Assembly, Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, declared at the annual conference of police officers of the state, that the use of third-degree methods by the state police cannot be condemned. The Speaker during his keynote address argued that it is ridiculous to insist that the police officers in India respect human rights. According to him, it is difficult to do policing and respect human rights at the same time. He made it clear that when the police investigate a crime, it is natural and often required for the investigating officer to use torture to prove the case. Among those listening to these remarks were the Director of the State Police Training College and the Director General of Police.

Breach of law by the law enforcement agencies in the country meets no bounds. Corruption, nepotism and the disregard to the law flourish within state agencies, particularly in the police. The society quiver under the writ of fear when the law enforcement agents commit crimes with impunity. In spite of repeated and legitimate requests from national and international human rights groups and the thematic mandates holders of the UN like the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Government of India has failed to criminalise the practice of torture or to ratify the Convention against Torture.

In fact, the government has failed in implementing the directives of its own Supreme Court. The directives of the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case are yet to be implemented in the country. The implementation of the Court’s directives is important for improving the state of policing in India, since half of the issues concerning the police, including the practice of torture and participation in crimes by the police officers, are carried out at the behest of corrupt politicians in the country. Having a law against torture while the ultimate writ above the police entrusted with a corrupt politician will not improve policing in India.

It is in this context that the protest called in by the Tamil Nadu state police becomes relevant in exposing and addressing the situation of rule of law in India. The very fact that the police can intentionally negate the supremacy of law shows the vacuum of authority in the country. The incident illuminates the impunity that the police have enjoyed so far that they have now dared to openly challenge judicial supremacy.

Instead of actively engaging in the situation, the Tamil Nadu state government has allowed the police to continue with their follies. The police action on February 19 inside the compound of Madras High Court that injured police officers, lawyers, judges, court staff and ordinary persons is not of such triviality that it could be resolved by a fast declared by the state Chief Minister. The police-lawyer confrontation and the subsequent sequels of non-cooperation between three important limbs of the justice dispensation system of the country is not an issue that can be camouflaged with political gimmicks and ignored.

The February 19 incident is the clarion call for intervention by a system, which is left to breakdown and disintegrate. The subsequent protest orchestrated by the state police refusing cooperation to the functioning of the judiciary is a failure of the constitutional machinery that require a legitimate intervention by the Government under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. The failure of the Government of India to take affirmative actions to correct and revitalise its criminal justice system poses legitimate challenges to India’s democracy and the country’s position in the UN Human Rights Council.

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