6 days after marriage, woman ends life; one held

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:06.09.2019

Six days after marriage, an engineering college student committed suicide at her house near Trisulam.

Police said Manisha, 21, a final year engineering student fell in love with Abinraju, 24, a driver from the locality. She married him on August 25. Police said the woman was already pregnant. After marriage, Abinraju told her that he was in love with another woman. Following this, Manisha ended her life on August 30. The woman’s parents lodged a complaint following which police arrested Abinraju on Wednesday.

Police collected an audio clip from Manisha’s phone wherein the woman, Abinraju and his girlfriend could be heard having a lengthy conversion. Abinraju is heard asking Manisha to allow him to live with the other woman.

The man has been booked for abetting the suicide and was produced before a court that sent him to judicial custody.

One-third of traffickers are women and neighbours, says new study 

Of the 429 accused, 50% are in the age group of 25 to 45 years

06/09/2019 , Shiv Sahay Singh, Kolkata 


 
In need of help: Lack of legal support to survivors and a prolonged trial give impunity to traffickers in many cases. R. Ragu

A recent study conducted on the profile of persons accused in trafficking in almost 200 cases in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh has revealed that one-third of them are women.

“One-third, or 162 out of 429 traffickers (accused in cases of trafficking) are female. Fifty per cent, or 216 accused in these cases are from the age group of 25 to 45 years,” Snigdha Sen, a researcher who has come out with the findings, told The Hindu.

For the study and analysis, Ms. Sen collaborated with several organizations such as HELP from Andhra Pradesh, Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK) from West Bengal and Partners for Anti-Traficcking (PAT), which is a consortium of eight community-based organizations in Bengal.

Not family members

In the study, Ms. Sen analysed documents such as chargesheets, FIRS and police general diaries related to 198 human trafficking cases registered between 2008 and 2018. Of the 429 people whose names appeared as accused in these 198 cases, only in 30 were the accused family members, including from the extended family.

“There was a belief in some people that in many cases family members are involved in trafficking. That does not hold true in this research. In most cases, if the survivors are asked they will say Didi (sister) took them from their village. But on a more detailed inquiry, it will be revealed that the accused is not a relative but a neighbour or an acquaintance,” Subhasree Raptan, programme manager of GGBK said.

The largest group of the traffickers (34%, or 148) were neighbours, while 31% were completely unknown to the survivors, the study said.

Lack of legal support

According to Ms. Sen, of the 198 cases analyzed — in which the names of 429 accused have figured — only one trafficker from the source area was convicted. Similarly, in all the cases analysed, only two other traffickers were convicted from the destination area. According the researcher and the organisations who are part of the study, a “lack of legal support to survivors and a prolonged trial give impunity to traffickers”.

Ms. Raptan highlighted that in many cases of trafficking, survivors were not told that they were entitled to victim compensation from public prosecutors representing their case in courts.

The last published report of the National Crime Record Bureau for 2016 recorded 8,132 cases of human trafficking in the country, of which 3,579 cases (around 44%) were from West Bengal alone.

Delhi zoo welcomes cobras, pythons, gharials 

Two exchange programmes were held 

 06/09/2019 , Staff Reporter , New Delhi

In two exchange programmes with two other zoos, the Delhi zoo has got 19 snakes, including Indian cobras and Rock Pythons, a pair of ‘gharial’ (long snout crocodile), and a pair of wolf.

The National Zoological Park, commonly known as the Delhi zoo, now has a total of 27 snakes and as it had only eight before the exchange happened, officials said.

The zoo has obtained four Indian cobras, five rock pythons, two monitor lizards, four rat snakes, two common sand boa and two red sand boa.

“We got the snakes on August 26 and in return we have given them six red jungle fowl, six painted stork among other animals,” a zoo official said.

“Though the snakes are in the enclosure, it is not put for public viewing yet,” the official added.

Officials also said that the Delhi zoo had more snakes earlier and as numbers kept on decreasing, the exchange programme was conducted.

The Delhi zoo had obtained the pair of ‘gharial’ and the pair of wolves from Jaipur zoo and gave a pair of hippopotamus in return.

Earlier programme

In July, the Delhi zoo had got a male white tiger in another such exchange programme with the Lucknow zoo.

Are you game for train delays? 

Vizag railway station gets first-of-its-kind gaming zone
 
06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, VISAKHAPATNAM 


 
Children playing video games at the Gaming Zone at Visakhapatnam Railway Station on Thursday.K.R. Deepak

A ‘Gaming Zone’, set up on Platform 1 of Visakhapatnam Railway Station, was opened for the public by Divisional Railway Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava on Thursday.

A first-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian Railways, the facility was set up by Waltair Division under non-fare revenue to provide paid entertainment to waiting passengers and children.

The project was developed under NINFRIS (New, Innovative Non-Fare Revenue Ideas Scheme) of the Ministry of Railways to improve passenger convenience and service apart from promoting innovative ideas and concepts for enhancement of non-fare revenue. The ‘open tender’ was bagged by ES Fun Time at a cost of ₹3.6 lakh per annum. The facility is spread across a 400 sft area. The gaming zone is for bonafide passengers/rail users who can utilise the facility on payment of ₹50 per game, during their visit to the railway station.

The zone offers modern gaming facilities and Virtual Reality (VR) games, such as car racing and gunfighting. Other games like Hit Mouse, Doraemon, DoraemonFriend, Musical Play, Basketball and Air Hockey are also available. Mr. Shrivastava said that the goal is to provide entertainment to passengers and children besides utilising the vacant space for generating revenue.

Traffic fines: ₹30 lakh in 5 hours

06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, Bengaluru 


 
Minsk Square on Thursday evening. SOMASHEKAR 
G.R.N.SOMASHEKAR G R N

Motorists beware. The Traffic Police have announced that they will be strictly implementing the hefty penalties under the amended Motor Vehicles Act. In a span of five hours, the police, on Thursday, collected ₹30.11 lakh as fines for traffic violations.

On September 4, the first day the new fines were levied, the total collection reached ₹21.8 lakh within a few hours.

Traffic police had booked 2,978 cases till Thursday 1 p.m. The bulk, 2,639, were for riding without a helmet. That alone accounted for ₹26.3 lakh.

At a press conference on Thursday, City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told presspersons that the traffic police will be tough and are conducting special drives to ensure that people follow the rules.

“The special drive is not to earn revenue but to act as a means of deterrence,” he said, adding that the city’s traffic problems have become infamous nationally.

“This is due to pedestrians not following rules and a lack of traffic sense especially among two-wheeler riders,” he said.

Many motorists feel that the high penalties will only embolden people to bribe police personnel in an attempt to avoid the high fines. A senior police official said any cop caught accepting bribes will be severely punished. “Citizens are welcome to file complaints with us,” added Mr. Rao.

This monsoon, Mumbai has got more rain than annual average 

06/09/2019 , Tanvi Deshpande, Mumbai 



has received more than 3,000 mm rainfall this season, way beyond its annual average of 2,514 mm. The last time this happened was in 2011.

Schools and colleges remained closed on Thursday. Rain has largely abated and the Met Department has scaled down its alert from orange to yellow.

The Hindu reported on Thursday that the city received more than the entire month’s rainfall in the first four days of September (496.5mm). This brings the total rainfall in Mumbai since June 1 to 3078.2 mm — 1117.3 mm above normal. Mumbai has already received 122.4% of its annual average rainfall.

The city received 242.2 mm rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, the second highest in a decade. The highest was 303.7 mm in 2017. The all time record for the highest 24-hour September rainfall is 318.2 mm in 1981.

According to data from BMC’s automated weather systems, some areas that received the highest rainfall between 3 p.m. on Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday are Vikhroli (354 mm), Borivali (330 mm), Marol (314 mm), Wadala (310 mm), Andheri West (304 mm), Kandivali (303 mm) and Dharavi (300 mm).

There is still a month to go for the monsoon season to end, tweeted K.S. Hosalikar, Deputy Director General, IMD, on Thursday. “As on date, Santacruz has received 3078.2 mm and Colaba has received 2162.2 mm.”

The IMD had issued an ‘orange alert’ (heavy to very heavy rain) for Mumbai for Thursday, but scaled it down to ‘yellow alert’ (heavy rain at a few places). Between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., Mumbai received only 8.9 mm rainfall.

Headmistress, teacher arrested for electrocution of boy in school
Kin of the deceased accept body

06/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, RAMANATHAPURAM

The headmistress and a teacher of the Government High School near Uchipuli in the district were arrested on Thursday, a day after a Class VIII boy was electrocuted while operating the electric motor in the school.

A day after the boy – R. Kartheeswaran, son of Ramesh, a construction worker – was electrocuted, police arrested Headmistress A. Rosemary, 55, and teacher G. Tamizharasu, 44, who allegedly asked the victim and other boys to operate the electric motor installed to pump water into the overhead tank.

Acting on the complaint lodged by Mr. Ramesh, Uchipuli police arrested them under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code. They were produced before Judicial Magistrate Radhakrishnan here in the evening and remanded in judicial custody at Ramanathapuram District Jail.

Though the HM was in Ramanathapuram to attend a meeting convened by the Chief Educational Officer when the accident occurred, she was arraigned in the case as she was the head of the school, the police said. Sources in the CEO office said that she would also be placed under suspension in view of her arrest.

The CEO had already ordered the suspension of Tamizharasu and Abilasha, the victim’s class teacher. Abilasha’s name, however, did not figure in the FIR. When contacted, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rameswaram) S. Magesh said that she would be arraigned in the case if necessary, after a detailed investigation.

Meanwhile, the family members of the boy, who had been refusing to accept the body, demanding compensation and action against the teachers, accepted the body on Thursday.