VOLUME No 14 ISSUE No 3

The Central Government has set a deadline for public transport vehicles running in cities with a population of over 10 lakh to install Global Positioning System (GPS) devices by February 20, this year. According to a circular from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, owners of public service vehicles are required to get GPS installed in their vehicles, failing which necessary action shall be taken against the defaulters. R Radhakrishnan, Joint Working Commissioner, said the Government was looking at ways to improve women's safety in cities; these include setting up GPS-based control rooms to monitor public transport, installing video cameras inside buses to provide real-time assistance to women at risk in cities, using GPS to direct police vehicles to reach crime spots and installing a panic button in mobile phones. We have received the letter for allotment of Rs.1, 405 crore under Nirbhaya Fund to install GPS devices for womes safety, but no action has been taken for transferring the funds,said Radhakrishan. The Ministry had earlier asked passenger vehicle owners to install these devices by September 30, 2013. In January, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the project to track and monitor public transport vehicles and provide alarm buttons for aler-

SUNANDA JHA

GPS must for public vehicles

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Alcohol trends in the city

LAB JOURNAL OF THE ASIAN COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM

Page 3 Nurses protest for govt. jobs

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 14, 2014

PHOTO: SREYASHI MAZUMDAR

VIDYA S

Three years on, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, has claimed to have admitted 50,000 children in the 25 per cent quota for disadvantaged sections across more than 7000 schools across Tamil Nadu. But there are contentious issues such as reimbursement of fees as the law does not make it time bound. As a result, many a school are unwilling to admit students under the quota giving various reasons and using various methods to evade the law such as demanding certificates from local educational authorities stating there is no government school within a radius of one kilometre which can admit them. Sridevi Rudraiah, Principal, KumararaniMeenaMuthiah Matriculation Higher Secondary School, said, The Chettinad Foundation is a big group hence the management is willing to wait. They keep in touch with me regularly if there is any communication on the reimbursement. But they are willing to wait. They have not given up. Who will say no if money is promised to be reimbursed? Its been two years now and I have kids from LKG going to UKG and 1st Standard. Every year the burden is increasing. We have 60 students in LKG, I have all the 15 seats filled up. Our fees is Rs.12,000 but even the promised

SURAKSHA P

WHAT THE LAW SAYS All private, unaided, non-minority schools required to have 25% quota for children from disadvantaged groups in the society. Disadvantaged includes children of parents whose income is less than Rs.2 lakh, orphans, HIV positive children, a transgender child or children of transgenders, children of scavengers and SC/ST/MBC children. SC order says class one should be considered entry level but many schools continue to reserve seats in LKG and UKG

Rs.10,000 has not come in yet. I know of schools with smaller managements who are not as big as ours. It will be a problem for them. Allaying fears that the children from disadvantaged groups have a negative impact on the language and behaviour of others in the class she said, We have to change our thinking. Kids from affluent backgrounds give us more trouble than these kids, you know with all their gadgets and all. Kids can be moulded. By giving them simple reward points and constantly telling them whats good from bad. R Pitchai, Director of Matriculation Schools, said the directorate could not give a tentative date on when the funds were likely to come. Pooja Kulkarni, State Project Director of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan -- the central government scheme to provide elementary education to all children in the age group 6-14 years said that the

SSA budget was earmarked under various heads like teachers salary, uniforms and books. They could only spend from the SSA budget for earmarked heads. No funds have beenearmarked as reimbursement. We will be going for our budget presentation by the end of this month. We consider two parameters for reimbursement. The actual fee charged by the school and the second is the cost incurred by the state government in educating a child per year. Right now for Tamil Nadu, it is about Rs.10,000 to Rs.11,000. Whichever is lesser among the two will be sanctioned to the school. If a school charges Rs.6000, we will give them that but not anything more than 10 to 11K, she said. The proposal she had received for 2013-14 from the directorate was about Rs.25.13 crore reimbursements for the admission of nearly 50,000 children across the state, she said. If it comes as a part of the SSA

budget, it will be shared. The SSA budget is itself shared in the ratio of 65:35 by the Centre and State, she added. Henry Tiphagne, a former RTE State Representative, came out angrily against the noise created over the lack of reimbursement by schools. There is no reason why civil society should be bothered about reimbursement. It is nobodys battle to fight. If the private schools have a problem, they are well within their right to file an appeal before the Supreme Court. Another former RTE State representative, Ossie Fernandes said that private schools had increasingly used the minority clause to circumvent the law. Under the Act, minority schools are exempted from having a quota. This being the case private schools, a majority of them Christian are exempted from the reservation. Even the Jains, who recently acquired a minority status and have a significant number of educational institutions are exempt. Tiphagne said, Even the 50,000 figure given by the education department is a farce. The quality of admissions needs to be checked. The objective of the 25 per cent quota is plurality and diversity and not charity.
Interview with Former RTE State Representative on page 4.

The recent Madras High Court ruling setting aside the Tamil Nadu Governments order for regularising buildings built till 2007 in violation of rules will reportedly have little impact on the construction business in the city, sources said. The First Bench, comprising (former) Chief Justice A.K Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayan had ordered a revision of the guidelines for the regularization, particularly G.Os 234 and 235; these GOs allowed conditional regularization of buildings constructed up to July 1,2007. The Bench had recommended that the Government constitute a new committee, or consult with the existing committee under former Judge of Supreme Court S. Mohan, to form the new guidelines. However, A. S Selvakumar, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Real Estate Owners Association, pointed

ZAYAN ASIF

HC order expected to have little impact

High-rise buildings flanking narrow roads like Ranganathan street (in picture) raise safety concerns out that the earlier committee, set up in 2007, had not been successful in coming up with any valuable suggestions, despite having conducted around 33 meetings. Three lakh buildings have been identified as illegal in the city. The whole process of regularization, if it happens, will take around three years to finish at the rate in which they are working, he said. The judgement was restricted to recommeding the formation of a new committee, with no details on the action to be taken once a building was classified as illegal. Selvakumar alleged that with the way the Corporation worked, it was too much to expect regularization to be carried out properly. The so-called illegal buildings have electricity, water and drainage connections, all approved by the government. There are no illegal buildings, only illegal businesses. Selvakumar pointed out that two years back, several buildings along

the Ranganathan street stretch had been sealed on charges of illegal construction, but within a few days, they were back in business. Buildings cannot be regularized without rooting out corruption in the Corporation, he added. The judgement agreed with the Mohan Committee recommendation to uphold Section 113-C of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, which allows for regularisation of buildings for a fee. According to A. Srivatsan, Senior Deputy Editor at The Hindu and expert on urban studies, G.Os 234 and 235 specify the extent of violations admissible for a building before it applies for regularisation. Certain levels of violation on some matters, like floor space index and parking spaces were admissible, but multi-storeyed buildings in narrow streets that would not allow the smooth passage of emergency services like fire engines could not be allowed, he said.

PHOTO: ZAYAN ASIF

State representatives say schools make enough money

RTE law silent on timely reimbursement of schools

ting authorities. R. Manivannan, Assistant Manager, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) said "Once all the vehicles installed with GPS are linked to the control room, we will get alerts as soon as the vehicles go off track or get diverted. We can work closely with the police to get their help. He said that all these initiatives had to be interlinked and this was easily possible since these were technology interventions to make roads and modes of public transport safer for women. We have planned to install an online electronic ticketing machine, under which with the tickets purchased the passengers movements can also be monitored on mobile phones. It can only be done if we receive the funds. Metropolitan Transport Corporation is already running at a loss, he said. Earlier the Central Government provided the funds under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for buying onboard equipments and its maintenance. We had 51 LED display boards at different bus stops and in three buses there was on board announcement but it closed as MTC didnt get any futher incentives to promote it, Manivannan added. The project was formulated in the wake of gang rape of a 23-year old paramedic in a moving bus, on December 16, 2012. The victim died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

Members of the May 17th Movement launched a protest outside the UNICEF office at Adyar on February 12, protesting the callous attitude of the United Nations to the genocide in Sri Lanka. The UN officials have a vested interest owing to the their personal connections with the Sri Lankan and Indian bureaucracy, says Thirumurugan Gandhi, an activist and founder of the May 17th Movement. The movement was started in May 2009 after the war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan Government ended with death of the rebel leader V Prabhakaran. The movement says it has launched a struggle to protect the interests of Sri Lankan Tamils and ensure justice for the genocide of thousands of Tamils during the last days of the war. The Indian government had never taken a stern step in order to descalate the situation in Sri Lanka

SREYASHI MAZUMDAR

Protests on Sri Lankan genocide anniversary

Protestors burning United Nations posters outside the office in Adyar and prevent the genocide.Passing mere resolutions cannot be a solution; whatever the government has been doing till date is a sham, says Manoj Kumar, a member of the movement. India since the very beginning has been an active accomplice of the Sri Lankan government and it was quite evident during Rajiv Gandhis rule, when he helped the perpetrators against the LTTE. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a LTTE suicide squad at Sriperambudur on May 21, 1991. The protesters burnt pictures of UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and shouted slogans. The Tamil Nadu state government has been a silent spectator; it has not taken any considerable step to move the central government on this particular issue, says Diason, a management student. A people`s tribunal in Germany has accused the Sri Lankan state of genocide against the Eelam Tamils. It further alleged that since the Sri Lankan army was incapable of

committing genocide all alone,nations like the US,the UK and India had helped the Sri Lankan army . Recalling the tribunals allegations, the protestors demanded an international investigation and a referendum for the Sri Lankan Tamil people . An international investigation has to be conducted, a simple war crime investigation cannot be a solution for the massacre which took place in Sri Lanka, says Karthikeya Prabhu, a member of May 17th Movement .According to him a war crime investigation would be a mere compromise,wherein people from both the parties would be arrested leaving out the other perpetrators. Similar demonstrations took place outside the UN offices in the US, France, Norway, Australia , the UK and Malaysia. We will continue to protest outside the UN offices wherever we live in this world and demand justice on the day, says Thirumurugan Gandhi.

sign as guarantors. The Mahalir Thittam scheme Women, belonging to lower to is good. It would be better if they middle income groups, are falling increased the loan amount to prey to a loan-sharking racket in around Rs.30, 000, she said. Mahalir Thittam, a scheme imAshok Nagar, West Mambalam and adjacent areas, forcing borrowers plemented by Tamil Nadu Corporawho are unable to repay on time to tion for Development of Women, provides loans for enterprise deveattempt suicide. Bhanu*, a resident of West lopment and skill-training among Mambalam said, They threaten us other things in association with Self-Help Groups and (debtors) and say even NGOs. if you die, we will not Describing haraslet your funeral hapWe will sment by loan sharks, pen. Calling loan not let your many of whom were sharks ruthless, she women, Leela said, said they borrowed funeral They speak in a very from them in an emerhappen. vulgar way to us. gency. The women comLeela*, a victim of plained that they locusurious loans, living in Ashok Nagar, said that this issue ked them inside their houses or had become a matter of life and sometimes even threatened to kill their children. death. As pressure from these mafia It is illegal under the Tamil Nadu Money Lenders Act, 1957 and the mounts, the debtors borrow from Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Char- another lender to pay off the loan; ging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2003, and before they know it, pile up a to practice Kanthu vaddi or huge debt and resort to taking their speed-finance or to charge a rate lives. Jaya*, who runs a mess, is anotof interest higher than that chargeaher victim from Ashok Nagar. Her ble by the Government. Bhanu, who runs an old-age friends said she had attempted suihome, claimed that for a principal cide because of loan sharks. Jaya also said that many of those of Rs.10,000 they were charged Rs.1000 every five days as interest. loan sharkers enjoyed police bacThis patthu paisa vaddi amounts king. An official at the Crime branch to a rate of 730 per cent per annum, while the nationalized banks offer in R-3 Police Station, Ashok Nagar said they had not received any loans at around nine per cent. Reasoning that banks asked for complaints and that victims had to collateral security and signatures take the initiative to complain. How can we prevent people from guarantors, Bhanu said she, as a small entrepreneur, would not be from borrowing money from these able to provide collateral security loan sharks? he asked. *Names changed on request and that people were hesitant to

Women fall into loan sharks nets

Changing South Indian weddings Page 4