Intoxication is a social evil and GRP on duty must be prohibited from consuming liquor

COPS-SOLDIERS CLASH
Police to move court for custody of Army men
Military Police team visits Kathua rly station, begins probe
Tribune News Service Jammu, September 12, 2012
A day after registering an FIR against Army men, including two officers, following a clash at the Kathua railway station, the police has decided to approach court to get the custody of the personnel whose names figured in the report.
Sources said senior police officers felt that it was not possible for them to get the custody of those “involved” in assaulting the policemen and ransacking the police station so they had decided to approach the court.
Meanwhile, a team of the Military Police today visited the Kathua railway station and started investigations into the case.
The Defence PRO, however, issued a handout and clarified the Army’s position in the incident.
“Two jawans from the Army were proceeding on leave from the Kathua railway station. While waiting for the train around 9:30 pm at the railway station, one of the jawans went to charge the battery of his mobile phone from a plug point installed in the alleyway located at the entrance of the railway station. Immediately, a General Railway Police person came and started abusing the Army jawan and asked him why he charged his phone from the plug point. The jawan immediately apologised and removed his mobile phone,” the handout stated, adding, “The GRP person, who was visibly in a drunken state, used unparliamentary language and hit the jawan with his rifle butt. On being pushed by the Army jawan, the GRP person called his colleagues present at the railway station. All of them started beating up the Army jawan and dragged him to the GRP office at the railway station.”
While the Army jawan was being dragged by GRP personnel, he screamed for help. A local boy then alarmed the other jawan, who was waiting for his train at the station. The jawan immediately went towards the GRP personnel and asked them to stop beating up his unit colleague and also asked them why they were beating him up. The GRP personnel abused him also and tried to drag him inside the GRP office. However, he managed to escape and immediately called up his unit, the handout stated.
“The abducted jawan was severely beaten by over 15 GRP personnel with rifle butts, belts and sticks. Around 10:15 pm, when representatives from the Army reached the location, all the GRP personnel had left the scene except a head constable and a constable who were in their office. On being inquired about the incident and reasons for beating up the Army jawan, the head constable did not respond and refused to give contact numbers of his superiors to whom the Army representatives wanted to speak,” the handout said.
The Army representatives waited for one and a half hour for the GRP authorities, but nobody turned up. Finally, the Army representatives asked the GRP personnel to accompany them to the Kathua police station to which the head constable agreed.
“What is important is that no police station was ransacked, the alleged kidnapping of GRP men did not take place, as the head constable willingly accompanied the Army personnel to lodge an FIR and no GRP personnel were thrashed or beaten up as alleged in few media reports. The charges levelled against the Army are totally baseless,” the handout stated.
Police to move court for custody of Army men
Comment: It is common knowledge that Police in the Railway Stations (GRP) are drunk on duty. There is no one to monitor their indiscipline. Moreover their general behavior towards citizens is not friendly. This episode needs to be probed and culprits brought to book. Blaming the Army personnel for misbehavior is ridiculous.

India's Sanitation Lowers Development

India ranked 134th in terms of Human Development Index
Press Trust of India, Updated: November 02, 2011 18:45 IST
New Delhi: A United Nations study has ranked India at 134 out of 187 countries in terms of Human Development Index even as it has observed that life expectancy at birth in the country has increased by 10.1 per cent a year over the last two decades.

In the 2010 Human Development Report, prepared by UNDP, India had been ranked at 119 out of 169 countries. But the new report for 2011 says it is misleading to compare values and rankings with those of previously published reports, because the underlying data and methods have changed, as well as the number of countries included in the Human Development Index.

The report said India's Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2011 was 0.547 positioning the country in the 'medium human development category'. Neighbouring Pakistan was ranked at 145 (0.504) and Bangladesh at 146 (0.500) respectively in terms of HDI. It said between 1980 and 2011, India's HDI value increased from 0.344 to 0.547, an increase of 59 per cent or an average annual increase of about 1.5 per cent.

However, the report pointed that the country's HDI of 0.547 was below the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.548 for countries in South Asia.

The HDI is a measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development such as a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

The report said the "mean" year of schooling for the country increased by 3.9 years between 1980 and 2011 and expected years of schooling increased by 3.9 years.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was present at the report release function, however, sounded dismissive about the figures in the report.

He said a better way of analysing the progress made by countries including India is to measure comparative success they have achieved on this count in the last few years from their previous record rather than by the number of their positions in the international chart.

Ramesh said such presentation of human development indices is "grossly misleading" and the country's progress in this respect should be seen from a 20-year perspective.

He said India has made huge strides in the field of education and water supply system but admitted that the biggest block in the human development indices for India is in the field of sanitation where 58 per cent of open defecation in the world takes place in India.

He also rued that a mere expenditure of Rs. 2000 crore in the field of sanitation is being made while the budget for water supply was Rs. 20,000 crore.

Ramesh said that the answer to the problem of sanitation is massive public investment in the sector on the lines of what the Central Government has done in education sector.
Read more at: India ranked 134th in terms of Human Development Index

Incredible India, can we have a Clean India?

Peeing and spitting has become the National Hobby- You cannot miss or mask it
“Are you on the side of those who make India hang her head in shame or those who raise her head in pride,” asks Aamir Khan in an ‘Incredible India' advertisement. I am as big a patriot as is the next person, but sometimes, queries buzz about inside my head querulously. Is there any harm in talking about those aspects of our country that could be wished away!

Do you need that big gob of spit that just misses your big toe on your way to an important appointment? Or that red-flecked liquid spewed out so casually in a traffic snarl? What could be worse than that giant phlegm-filled hawk that begins from deep inside a champion ‘spitter', making you wince and shut your eyes and ears in anticipation of the actual event? And those artistic red squiggles on pristine walls, winding staircases, and ironically, below signs which scream “Please do not spit here!”

What about the male members of the human species with undoubtedly canine habits, when they sight a vacant wall, and proceed to let loose in public? The movie Three Idiots has a funny yet effective way of dealing with this, where the culprit receives a gentle jolt, just enough to bring him to his senses, yet does no permanent harm! Pedestrians are often caught between the devil and the deep blue sea; is it safer to sink into excreta, or step off the pavement and be hit by a bus! Tread on mush or turn into mush, as it were!

The tagline of Lays Chips (no one can eat just one!) rings true as one perceives bright wrappers forming part of the vast garbage dump that our roads have turned into. Plastic bottles, cans, fruit peels and groundnut shells turn the picture murkier! On one memorable suburban train ride from Guindy to Chetpet in Chennai, I walked in confidently to a deserted corner in the ladies' compartment, only to be assailed by a stench that made my insides churn. Someone had let her child squat on the floor and left the evidence behind! ‘Incredible India', anyone?
Forget about Incredible India, can we have a Clean India? by DEEPTI MENON: The Hindu
Related news:
Expanding cities, vanishing space for citizens by T. R. Bhat: The Hindu

"Kick the Bottle" sane advise by Pranab Mukherjee

Press Trust of India, Tuesday July 28, 2009, New Delhi
Kick the bottle, was the advice of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh in the Lok Sabha on Monday, leading to much mirth in the House.

The advice to Singh on the ill-effects of consuming alcohol at his age was given by Mukherjee when he was winding up a discussion on the Finance Bill.

While participating in the discussion, 71-year-old Singh had said in a jocular vein that the increase in exemption limit by Rs 10,000 for Income Tax was so meagre that it was not enough to buy even a bottle of whisky.

"I will advise him (Singh) that at this age it is not wise to have whisky as I have myself given up the habit of smoking pipe," Mukherjee said while replying to the debate over the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Kick the bottle at this age, Pranab tells Jaswant

Alcohol addiction
The Armed Forces and ESM organisations should fight this malady which afflicts a large percentage of Jawans and ESM whose life is ruined by addiction. Consumption of alcohol has increased manifold as revealed from CSD liquor sale statistics. This social evil needs to be curbed. Sadly the NCC Unit personnel who are looked upon by students for moral standards are more alcohol- dependent than the average military personnel. The NCC units dispense liquor to all in greater percentage than other CSD outfits.