DEAR TOURIST PLEASE PAY YOUR HOSPITAL BILLS IN DELHI

From Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN


According to police, Dr B P Singh of orthopaedic surgeon and owner of Prayag Hospital in Sector 41 in Noida ( is a satellite city of Delhi with only 3 Mio habitants), had attempted to kill journalist Mahesh Vats because the latter had failed to pay his hospital bills.
Vats, who had reportedly paid a part of his Rs 32,000 bill to the hospital, had claimed that the treatment at the hospital was inadequate. Vats was admitted at the hospital a few years ago after he met with an accident. Matters got complicated in June 2007 when Dr Singh moved a city court to recover the remaining dues, about Rs 25,447, and the court directed the journalist to pay up. Vats then filed an application under RTI Act seeking information from Noida Authority over the alleged ‘‘illegal’’ construction in Prayag Hospital. Vats had even dragged the hospital to the consumer court and a local civil court.
On August 16, 2007, a speeding Alto car hit Vats, who was on his scooter near Sector 71. The driver of the car ‘‘fled’’, but eyewitnesses claimed that three men got out of the car after Vats fell on the road and started beating him up. ‘‘The unidentified assailants then admitted Vats in Prayag Hospital and left the place. When policemen went to the
hospital, they found the victim being treated in the general ward. It was only after the policemen intervened that Vats was admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU),’’ said an investigating officer.
The critically injured journalist was later shifted to Metro Hospital where he was placed under life support system. ‘‘The journalist had suffered severe head injuries and he succumbed to his injuries three days later,’’ added the officer.
Based on a FIR lodged by one of Vats friend — U K Bharadwaj, a property dealer — police registered a case of abduction against the doctor and arrested him.
Noida police sources admitted that they had received several letters from the journalist in which he had said that four men had tried to barge into his
house around 2am on August 11, 2007 — five days before he met with the accident. In the letters, the journalist had alleged that the unwanted visitors were policemen from Sector 58 police station. The scribe had also claimed he was threatened on July 18 and August 1, in 2007.

For 300 years, every dog had its day here



From Parvesh Sharma | TNN
TNN


Khanpur (Patiala):

In Punjab village, bark before you eat

Khanpur (Patiala): Unknown to most outside Patiala, a diktat by Alaa Singh (1695-1765) is cast in stone by villagers, and is followed till this day and dogs get to eat before worshippers at the temple — all three meals of the day.
Following tradition, head priest Anand Giri comes out thrice to the temple gate each day and, before food is served to villagers, starts howling like a dog to call the canines to the table. Within minutes a bunch of dogs gather and are, with due respect reserved for them, offered the best that the langar (community kitchen) has on its menu. “Its an old tradition and I always bark out to all the dogs here before start of a langar,’’ he said.
Fellow villager Khushdeep Singh added, “We never treat dogs the way others do. In fact, we never even raise a finger when our children are attacked or crops destroyed.’’ But good run that started for dogs here 300 hundred years ago, may just be completing its course.
The younger g e n e r at i o n , though still unable to rebel against what they see as a weird ritual, are both dismissive and embarassed.
“You know,’’ said Gursevak Singh, a student, “it’s okay to treat dogs well, but to worship them and make them eat before us is ridiculous. Though we have got used to it because almost everyone here behaves that way, it becomes awkward when we have visitors come over to our place. To hear the priest howling like that is just too much.’’

EVALUATION OF INDIAN ROAD CONDITIONS

6 FATAL MISHAPS EVERY KM
Ma Anandmayee Marg figures in the list of 10 most accident prone roads in Delhi. It saw 34 fatal mishaps in 2008. Times City drove down the busy 5.6km-long stretch with an expert to find out reasons behind accidents
Megha Suri | TNN

In this article the deplorable conditions for a particular road is described but more in general it can be used for almost all non- highway roads.

Abusy thoroughfare in south Delhi, Ma Anandmayee Marg has earned the dubious distinction of being a killer stretch, recording six deaths per kilometre in 2008. Figuring in the list of 10 most accident-prone roads in Delhi in 2008, it is the deadliest stretch that witnessed 34 fatal accidents last year. Bound by MB Road on one side and Outer Ring Road on the other, the 5.6km-long road leads up to Okhla Industrial Area and connects to Faridabad. Times City drove down the ‘‘killer’’ road on Wednesday and found that almost everything is out of shape — non-functional traffic signals, encroached footpaths, potholes, haphazard construction activity and absent road markings.
Traffic expert and president of Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) Rohit Baluja accompanied this correspondent to point out what makes the road stretch so perilous. ‘‘We are reaching a stage of congested failure and the main reason for this is the absence of standard procedures within agencies like MCD, PWD and DDA. There is no coordination between agencies either while planning or maintaining roads. Like on this stretch, the bus stops, Metro construction, road and street furniture, everything has been planned in isolation,’’ he said.
Here’s what’s not in order:
SIGNALS NOT WORKING
Six out of the 10 traffic signals on the stretch were not working, and even at crossings like the one near the Govindpuri market, where the signal was functional, it was not visible from a distance due to thick foliage and presence of light poles in front of the signal pole. At another intersection in Okhla, the secondary signal — the one on the other side of the crossing — was missing so vehicles which had stopped beyond the first signal are left with no option but to jump it.
INACCESSIBLE BUS SHELTERS
Critical bus shelters like the one opposite ESI Hospital and Okhla Phase II are in a shambles with missing roofs. The shelters have been constructed on concrete platforms which are several feet high, making them impossible to access. A bus shelter opposite the Govindpuri market was flooded with water and all the pedestrians had to stand on the main road to wait for buses.
NO SPACE FOR PEDESTRIANS

HAPHAZARD CONSTRUCTION
Despite the fact that the stretch sees very heavy pedestrian movement, there’s no footpath. This also reinforces why more than half the victims of road accidents in the city are pedestrians. At places like Okhla, the footpaths have been dug up. The situation is even worse near Indira Kalyan Vihar where all inhabitants of a slum cluster come out and defecate on the footpath. Near the local Govindpuri market, the footpath has been dug up forcing people to walk on the main road.
UNAUTHORISED PARKING
A market, bus terminus, busy industrial area and the Inland Container Depot are located next to the main road. This means that private vehicles and car mechanics near the Govindpuri market, chartered buses waiting to pick up staff from Okhla or big container trailer trucks waiting on the backside of the Tughlaqabad ICD occupy most of the extreme left lane meant for buses. As a result, there is rampant violation of SC orders as buses can be seen driving outside the bus lane and stopping at will.
BAD STATE OF ROAD
The road is in a pathetic condition and regular users say that accidents happen at an alarming frequency. At one of the main intersections, right next to a Delhi Jal Board pumping station, tankers move in and out splashing water all over the road. The surface has completely got eroded and traffic jams have become a regular feature on the stretch.
Part of the road between Kalkaji Mandir and the DTC depot at Okhla has been taken over by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for construction of the Badarpur line. Unlike the rest of the city, here the Metro barricades are missing and construction waste has been carelessly stacked in the middle of the road. At places, construction sites have been left unguarded as barricades abruptly start and end, or taper.
NO CYCLE TRACKS

In complete contrast to the pilot Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor where the government fought for cycle tracks for just a handful of cyclists, scores of cycle riders use Ma Anandmayee Marg on a daily basis to reach their workplaces in Okhla Industrial Area. Even though a cycle track runs along the main road through the stretch on paper, in places it is dug up or converted into a garbage dump or used as an unauthorised parking lot.

Copied from Indian Times

SEVEN YEARS OF INDIAN PRISON FOR FALSE ASSURANCE OF MARRIAGE

From Kartikeya | TNN

Mumbai: A sessions court has sentenced a physics tutor to seven years in prison for having a physical relation with his student after giving her false assurances of marriage.
The girl first came in contact with the tutor, Harshmohan Brijmohan Krishnatrey (42), in 2003 after a friend told her about him. In July 2003, the victim, who was then an HSC student, started going to his place in Wadala for physics classes. Between October 2003 and February 2004, they developed a physical relationship. Krishnatrey’s wife used to go out of the house along with her three daughters whenever he took classes, so that the students were not disturbed.
After the victim passed out of junior college, she thought Krishnatrey would get divorce his wife and marry her as he had promised. On November 29, 2004, she saw Krishnatrey with his wife and called him up to say that she wanted to meet him at his house.
Krishnatrey took it in writing from her that she was coming to meet him following a dispute with her father. The girl called her father and asked him not to look for her. The father then filed a complaint with the Antop Hill police. She was traced to Krishnatrey’s house and sent to her aunt’s place.
On December 4, 2004, the victim lodged a complaint against Krishnatrey for having sex with her under the false promise of marriage. He was arrested and tried with public prosecutor Kiran Raiker examining 20 witnesses.
The court convicted Krishnatrey for rape under Section 375 of the IPC. Judge Y G Khobragade also fined him Rs 75,000 of which Rs 50,000 would be given to the girl.

INDIAN MATERNAL MORTALITY FIGURES & CHILD FATALITIES

Every 7 minutes a woman dies due to childbirth complications’

From Kounteya Sinha | TNN

New Delhi: Avoidable complications during child birth are killing 78,000 women in India every year. This means on an average, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every seven minutes.
But not only the mothers are dying one million children born in India are dying every year even before they become 28 days old. A child born in India is 14 times more likely to die during the first 28 days than one born in the US or UK. These are some of the shocking findings of UNICEF’s ‘State of the World’s Children 2009’ report released on Thursday.
According to the report, an Indian woman is 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in America or England. For every mother who dies, 20 others suffer pregnancy-related illness. Around 10 million women annually experience such adverse outcomes. Despite an increase in institutional deliveries, 60% of pregnant women still deliver their babies at home.
In India, more than two thirds of all maternal deaths occur in a handful of states — UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam. In UP, one in every 42 women faces risk of maternal death, compared to 1 in 500 women in Kerala.