What's in a name? Rs 5 lakh!

PATNA: Lack of education at times costs the illiterate dear, literally. Mohan and his wife seem to have learnt it the costly way with a compensation of Rs 5 lakh eluding them because of a goofy mistake.

Mohan's wife along with her mother-in-law and 18-month-old daughter went for the 'Shahi Snan' at Haridwar in April 2010. In the tragic stampede that marred the pilgrimage on April 14, several devotees were crushed to death and Mohan's little one was among them.

As the Uttarakhand government announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of deceased, hospital and police authorities in Haridwar took details from the relatives of the deceased. Mohan's wife gave her husband's name as Mohan Sah and daughter's name as Kumari Rekha. Mohan later rushed to Haridwar to bring back his mother and wife after cremating his daughter in Haridwar.

When the cheque reached the Patna administration in March this year, Mohan made the claim and submitted his voter id-card as proof of his identity. But lo, the id-card has his name registered as Mohan Gupta and the officials refused to give the cheque to him. The district administration later sent the cheque to the social security department.

Mohan of Lohanipur is a hawker who earns Rs 150 every day by selling 'namkeen'. His desperation to get the cheque is, therefore, understandable.

However, social security department official Shrutidev Narain expressed helplessness to oblige him. The birth certificate of Kumari Rekha, issued by the Patna Municipal Corporation, also has her father's name as Mohan Gupta. But the name of the father of deceased Kumari Rekha has been mentioned as Mohan Sah in the death certificate issued by the Haridwar Nagar Palika on May 31, 2010, he said.

Having made to run in circles by government officials for over seven months now, Mohan is a frustrated man. "We come from a community which uses surnames like Sah, Sahu, Gupta and Prasad. In many homes of poor people like me, wives don't know the 'official' name of their husbands," he said.

"God has snatched our daughter from us. And now officials are depriving us of the money paid to compensate her death because of my wife's minor mistake," he said, tears welling up in his eyes.

Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Singh said such payments could not be made without verifying the identity of the targeted beneficiary. "I will recheck... Let's see," he told TOI.

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Porn viewing, a favourite pastime for teens

PATNA: Among the city's teenagers, particularly boys, watching a 'blue film'-a euphemism for pornography- seems to have become a habit. Over the past few years, this furtive doing has taken over other extra-curricular activities.

On an investigative visit to different cybercafes in the city, this correspondent came across a revelation which may take parents aback.

A check of the web browsing history at a cyber cafe in Boring Road revealed that of the 100 web pages, 80 page titles referred to pornographic materials and porn video downloads.

Cybercafes in the city are mostly frequented by school and college-going boys and girls. Visitors, constituting boys and girls in a virtually equal number, download porn movies in their mobile phones and also store them in data cards.

Cybercafe owners have not limited themselves to allowing porn surfing to the visitors. Many have jumped on the flesh trade bandwagon as well. They provide beds, girls and also condoms to those looking for them.

During a raid on around 12-13 cybercafes in Gandhi Maidan, Kadamkuan, Kotwali and Buddha Colony police station areas on March 8, SP (City) Shivdeep Lande had found condoms and beds in a cybercafe.

Not only that, the cops had also caught 40 and odd couples in compromising position. Most of the couples were students in the age group of 16 to 18 years, belonging to well-off families.

Igniting the trend is easy accessibility of porn materials to these students. X-rated CDs and DVDs are flooding the city markets. It is alarming that children are the ones who are buying and selling them. Patna, of late, has become a major centre for the production and illegal sale of pornographic materials. Dozens of music shops are engaged in this business. "The children always want new products. And come looking for them," said a CD seller on busy Fraser Road, near Buddha Smriti Park.

About a dozen such stalls are situated around the railway station. Bakerganj, considered the city's largest electronic market, is believed to be the principal supplier of the CDs.

So high is the demand that a grocery shop near Kurji was found hoarding some of these DVDs. These shop owners display some popular CDs and then put the X-rated stuff beneath. Asked how they manage to escape the police net, he said, "The cops themselves come looking for DVDs as bribe. We gift them when they come."

In proof that flesh trade has caught up in upmarket apartments, hotels, guesthouses and in beauty parlours, Patna police had caught bar girls dancing semi-naked at a restaurant situated on Fraser Road in the night of May 8. The police had caught four girls, three bikes, one SUV and a huge cache of liquor. Earlier, such raids had also been conducted in upmarket apartments and beauty parlours, among other places.

The Patna police are up against such elements. "The police are actively working to check such elements. We will conduct raids whenever we get any tip," said Shivdeep Lande.

 

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‘Singham’ shift has Patnaites in shock

PATNA: "But why didn't the CM Sir throw out the proposal of your transfer? He must be in the know of your hard work which was contributing to the maintenance of CM Sir's 'sushasan'..." asked one from the mob of collegians who thronged the official residence of Patna's SP (city) Shivdeep Waman Lande on Wednesday, a day after the Nitish Kumar government notified his transfer on the state police HQ's recommendation within ten months of the posting of the 2006-batch officer as Patna's SP (city).

Lande did not reply to the question. The officer, however, obliged almost every youth, hundreds of them, who visited him with a request for an autograph.

Referring to the story of Lande's Yuvak Sangathan in Akola, published in this newspaper on Wednesday, a movie buff among the girls said, "You are our 'Singham' (the officer played by Ajay Devgan in the Bollywood blockbuster)." Another asked, "Who will save us from molesters?" Lande looked at her and said smilingly, "Araria-Patna is 8-hour journey."

To MBA professional Neelima Gupta of Ara Garden, the transfer was shocking. "My illness deteriorated due to spurious drugs as spurious druglords were having a field day in the state capital before Lande launched the crackdown," she told TOI. Nodded Suman Kumar, an accountant. "Milawatkhoro ki phir se chandi ho jayegi," he said.

"Now I won't feel as safe as I used to with Lande as the SP," rued the Magadh Mahila College (MMC) girl Reena Kumari (name changed) on whom a molestation attempt was made and whose father was assaulted for resisting the bid near a liquor shop at the I-T roundabout in broad daylight a few weeks back. Thankfully, the girl had the SP (city)'s number in her cellphone and Lande had come rushing to rescue her within minutes of getting a call. The molesters absconded, but police hunted them down.

"I won't say girls would feel unsafe now. But this is a fact that Lande's style of policing was good, rather striking," MMC principal Dolly Sinha said. According to her, Lande did not only police but also appeared to be policing Patna and, as such, created a sense of confidence among girls.

Lande's exit has many parents worried, albeit for a different reason. "The cybercafes, restaurants and parlours, which facilitated illegal activities and spoilt youths, may reopen their shutters," said a parent.

A former Bihar DGP said Lande was excellent and outstanding as SP (city). "The kind of operations he helmed was never seen in Patna town earlier. Lande's mission is incomplete and his transfer premature," he said. He also pooh-poohed the reported claims of the police HQ that Lande's transfer to Araria was actually his elevation in that he would be the kingpin of the district police. "It would have been a promotion had he been sent to a divisional town," he said.

Many of the traffic constables were also in a state of bewilderment. "He had almost stopped 'laheriya'-cut biking in the city," a constable said.

Not only citizens, netizens were also upset. "Everyone in our family is feeling bad about unwarranted transfer. He was one of the Best we have seen," Neelesh Sinha from New York wrote on a site.

Back home, activists of All India Students' Federation said it burned an effigy of the government on Boring Road in protest against the transfer. A candlelight procession was also taken out in the evening, demanding cancellation of the transfer notification.

 

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10-year-old Patna girl with 500 sugar level

Patna: High on sweets, 10-year-old Richika was a Mamma’s girl. One day Richika was surprised when her mother refused her sweets.

“Why? Why have you stopped loving me mummy? Why have you changed?” was the only sentence, Richika’s blocked throat could utter as her housewife-mother would refuse her chocolates or ice cream, for that matter.

Richika’s parents came to know that her only daughter had developed diabetes at an age of nine. Richika was losing weight fast. The flow of glucose into her blood stream was huge. Within one month, Richika had lost over 10 kg weight.

“It was a real challenge, convincing Richika that her now ‘cruel mother’ is still the same ‘sweet mother’. It was “Richika” who was no longer that ‘Richika’,” said city based diabetologist Dr Subash Kumar.

Dr Subash told TOI: “When Richika was brought to me, about five months ago, her average blood sugar level was 500. Not only Richika, her parents were also having panic attacks (emotional).”

Richika’s father who is senior official in Public sector undertakings in Patna, however, refuses to divulge any details on his daughter.

More than physical, diabetes was torturing Richika, a class IV student at Notre Dame Academy, mentally. “She had become an unusual student. She would have bouts of sudden and extreme hunger. Sometimes she would start eating her tiffin while her class would be in progress,” her doctor said quoting Richika parents.

“Richika underwent a six-month comprehensive treatment plan with restrictions on foods. Richika was provided requisite medicines and a psychological support,” said a doctor.

 “My strengths awe all of my peers. I carry insulin injections to school. I stab myself whenever I feel the panic attack. It has made my classmates who would once laugh on me, love me,” the girl told her doctor recently.

An equally shocking case is of a 2.5-year-old-boy Mohit Kumar from Machhuatoli. “The boy was brought to me in 2009 that had 300 blood sugar (fasting). It was a serious case because in place of the patient his parents were to be treated mentally,” former PMCH diabetes head of the department Dr H K Singh told TOI.

The situation is serious due to lack of awareness among parents about it. “A parent from Ramakrishna Nagar brought their 8-year-old child to me around 2 years ago. The boy was suffering from diabetes for the last two years and was in a critical condition,” Singh added.

Singh, a member to the International Diabetic Federation Society, who recounted cases of an 11-year-old girl Shalini Kumari from Gardanibagh and Poonam from Kankarbagh, said: “I am witnessing over 40% growth in the number of cases during the past five years.”

He added: “Apart from genetic disorder and immune system deficiency, unhealthy foods, lack of physical activity, childhood obesity also lead to causing diabetes.”

(names changed to protect identity)

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JEE qualified cobbler's son engineering dream in tatters

PATNA: A cobbler's son, Deepak Kumar, became a hero of his village Tiuri under Biharsharif block in Nalanda district when he cracked IIT-JEE this year. But months later, his dreams are likely to get shattered.

Deepak, who obtained AIR (all-India rank) 943 (SC), got calls from IIT-Kanpur and Indian School of Mines (ISM)-Dhanbad, among others. In the entrance test of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (ISAT), Thiruvananthapuram, he secured AIR 56 (SC).

"When I got call from ISAT, the image of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam crossed my eyes. Kalam may have had a feeling similar to mine when he had made it to Madras Institute of Technology in mid 1950s. It provided me great strength," Deepak, son of Rajvali Ravidas, 60, told TOI. In July 2011, Deepak was offered admission to space engineering at ISAT. Incidentally, Kalam is the chancellor of ISAT.

However, before ISAT, ISM-Dhanbad offered him admission to the mechanical engineering course, which the boy readily accepted. But sudden quirks of fate have brought darkness before his eyes. And, for the past few months, he has been knocking at several doors, hoping that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

Pangs of poverty forced Deepak to take his plus 2 examination through Bihar School Examination Board, and he could secure only 53.8% marks. He ought to have obtained at least 55% marks in plus 2 to continue his studies at ISM-Dhanbad. "I have been given 279 out of 500. I need just 11 more marks," Deepak told TOI. Incidentally, Deepak had completed his matriculation from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), Rajgir in 2008, getting 70% marks.

For the last three months, Deepak has been beseeching Bihar School Examination Board chairman Rajmani Prasad Sinha, Bihar HRD principal secretary and has even sought the blessings of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, but to no avail till date.

In 2008, Dakshana Foundation, which provides 1-2 years of IIT-JEE coaching to gifted but poor students from rural areas, had selected Deepak, who was then a student of JNV in Rajgir, among 40 students from about 5,000 in Patna region comprising Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand for free coaching. After that, he had shifted to JNV, Ranchi to take Dakshana coaching.

"I underwent operation for removal of appendicitis in February 2009. Due to it, I missed my Class XI examination. I was sick and unable to stay at JNV, Ranchi. Finally, I took admission at Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav College, Biharsharif in 2009," Deepak said.

This seems to have turned out to be his undoing. "I really don't care being forced out from ISM-Dhanbad. But this will devastate my seven-member family. My father is too old to eke out a living, but still works. If I don't start earning a living two-three years from now, God knows what will happen," a weeping Deepak said. His elder brother, a private tutor, manages to earn Rs 2,500 to 3,000 every month.

Rajmani Prasad Sinha told TOI: "My heartfelt sympathies are with Deepak. Now, ISM-Dhanbad may treat him as a special case." However, ISM-Dhanbad director, D C Panigrahi, told TOI: "We can treat Deepak as a special case if IIT-JEE (2011) organizing committee takes a call in this regard."

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