Why disabled don't get bus passes in Tamil Nadu?

Chennai, July 5: Tamil Nadu Social Welfare department has missed out on one thing according to at least two disability rights groups in the state. The department which had given exemptions on income ceiling for 12 welfare programmes has overlooked one of the most important schemes for the disabled. The income ceiling of Rs.12,000 per annum for availing local bus passes for the physically challenged is not done away with yet.

“We have been expecting that the state government would do away with the income ceiling for bus passes. But we were shocked to see that there was no mention of income ceiling exemption for the bus passes,” said K.Gopinath, a member of the Tamil Nadu disability welfare board.

Federation of Tamil Nadu Physically Handicapped Associations has also expressed shock over the apparent ‘oversight’ by the social welfare ministry. “Almost all the disability rights groups have been lobbying for the removal of the ceiling to avail local bus passes for several years. The ceiling of Rs.12,000 was fixed by a G.O in 1996. Revenue officials do not give income certificates for less than Rs.24,000 now,” said P.Simmachandran, state general secretary of the federation.

State social welfare minister P.Geetha Jeevan admits that it was an ‘oversight.’ “We definitely wanted to include exemption of ceiling for local bus passes for the disabled. I will try to correct it,” she assured when contacted by CBC.

Local bus passes are a great means to the mobility of the physically challenged across the state. As transport officials stick to the 1996 G.O that has fixed the income ceiling at Rs.12,000 to provide bus passes and the revenue officials refuse to give income certificates for less than Rs.24,000, thousands of disabled find it difficult to obtain their local bus passes.

Technorati Profile

An opinion poll from pollster Dr.S.Rajanayagam

AIADMK is much ahead of the DMK in popularity ratings, says an opinion poll conducted by the People Studies wing of the Loyola College.
While the AIADMK enjoys 38.3 per cent popular support, the DMK’s support has diminished to 25.8 per cent and the DMDK has increased it support to 19.5 per cent.
The poll conducted across the state from September 15 to 22 has a sample size of 2,709 (Urban: 40 per cent/Rural: 60 per cent).
“If a scenario emerges in which the AIADMK-PMK-MDMK-BJP combine faces the Lok Sabha elections, they have bright chances of a sweep. However, a four-cornered contest may go in favour of the DMK-Congress-VCK combine in the present situation,” Dr.S.Rajanayagam, Head of People Studies, told this journalist.
“If AIADMK and DMDK come together to face the elections, there will be a massive impact. Though the DMDK has eaten into the vote bank of the AIADMK in rural areas, the women voters remain loyal to the AIADMK,” he said.
The Re.1 PDS rice scheme introduced by the DMK government has really not help improve the DMK’s popularity as 52.7 per cent people said the scheme was of no use if the prices of other goods were still high. While 73.9 per cent welcomed the sops and welfare schemes of the DMK government, a whopping 72.5 percentage of they have not reached the people.
Among those surveyed, 55.5 per cent blamed the DMK government for the power crisis in the state while 56.1 per cent felt it had also failed to contain the price rise.
Even the performance of Central Ministers from the state has not invited a positive response from the public as only 39.4 per cent whom gave a thumbs up to Anbumani Ramadoss compared to the 39.7 per center cent who did not rate him high. Union finance minister P.Chidambaram has got 35.6 per cent plus and 54 per cent minus.
While 45.8 per cent of the sample said Rajinikanth should focus on full-time acting, 32.5 per cent said he should actually be retiring from films.
Mr Rajanayagam, a pollster known for predicting victory for the BJP in the recent Karnataka Assembly polls, conducted the opinion poll with a team of 27 people and used statistical process control (SPC) method to arrive at the conclusions.
While the DMDK chief Vijayakanth could make it to No.5 (10.7%) in the popularity chart for all-time favourite actors, actor Vijay (16.4%) ranked third next only to MGR (21.3%) and Sivaji Ganesan (18.9%). Rajinikanth stands fourth with 16.2 per cent. AIADMK chief Ms Jayalalithaa still ranks second in the list of all-time favourite female actors next only to Saroja Devi whereas Khushboo ranks fifth in the popularity listings.
Among the actor-politicians, Vijayakanth is way ahead of AISMK chief Sarath Kumar. While 43.4 per cent of the sample said Vijayakanth can create an impact, a mere 2.5 per cent said Sarath could make an impact on the state’s political landscape.
85.2 per cent of the people surveyed said power cut is the issue which requires an immediate attention from the DMK government. Apart from power cuts, price rise (opinion of 81.3 per cent) seems to be the factor which is creating an anti-incumbency wave.
While the present political climate works for Ms Jayalalithaa’s advantage, if she decides to go it alone, it will be a costly mistake, warned the pollster. While 40.5 per cent of the people surveyed said the AIADMK’s performance as the Opposition was good, 41 per cent felt it was average and 18.5 per cent said it was bad. AIADMK and the DMDK are the only parties who have got more support and less opposition according to the survey.

The untold story of the youth behind the bars

Chennai, August 12: International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) called the police’s bluff on the arrests of Muslim youth in Tamil Nadu post-Ahmedabad blasts. In a detailed fact-finding report on the arrests made by the state police after the Bengaluru and Ahmedabad blasts, 13 advocates in the fact-finding team claimed that the arrests were made without any “evidence.”
“Police are spreading news that the arrested Muslim youth have been plotting to blast Anna flyover on Independence Day. That has created panic among the public. We, as lawyers upholding the rule of law, wanted to ascertain the truth after meeting the five Muslim prisoners, their families and the concerned police officials,” said Mr Narayanan, joint secretary of IAPL.
Thirteen lawyers from three human rights organizations including IAPL visited the Muslim youth who are imprisoned post-Ahmedabad blasts for an alleged plot. They also interviewed the family members of the arrested youth and the concerned police officials.
“The police’s claims that the youth are planning terror strikes on Independence Day are false. The false propaganda is aimed at creating Islamophobia and getting more funds for the police force,” said Mr S.Manoharan, general secretary, IAPL.
“The youth are threatened with encounter killings and are forced to give statements according to the whims and fancies of the police. Human rights of the prisoners are violated during the interrogation,” said the fact-finding report.
“Late-night hour raids in the houses of Muslim youth, intimidation of the relatives of the prisoners are clear violation of the rule of law. The state government should order a judicial probe into the recent arrests of Muslim youth to put an end to the false propaganda spread by the intelligence agencies,” added the report.
In the meanwhile, imprisoned Abdul Gafoor’s wife Zeenat Najma petitioned the state human rights commission (SHRC) that her husband was implicated in a false case and sought the commission to order a CBI probe into her husband’s arrest. She said her husband was not a terrorist. Imprisoned Heera’s father Syed Nazeem wrote to the chief minister seeking fair retrial in the case of Heera.

CBC Exclusive - the blog post that created a storm

The blog post that created a controversy:

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Discrimination and Dissent
I have been working with India Today's Tamil Edition for the last seven years. This is my eighth year of service in that reputed organisation. India Today is known for its professionalism and seriousness. But the kind of discrimination I am facing within the organisation is unknown to the world. Between 2003 and 2004, I was not allowed to write anything except small news items for one and half years. Thanks to my Executive Editor Anand Natarajan, I am still given a meagre sum as a salary when compared to my colleagues.The interview I did with Tamil Actor Kushboo in September 2005 helped increase the circulation of the magazine for the next six months. I thought the discrimination era was over.The story of injustice does not stop there. During May 2007, I was asked to write about the tussle between Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi and his grandnephew and former IT minister Dayanidhi Maran for India Today English Edition. That was a Wednesday night when I was called by Mr.Anand Natarajan to do the story. I came back from my girlfriend's place to file the story. That was a four page story in English. It took me till 1 a.m to send the story. It appeared with Mr.Anand Natarajan's byline in English. When I asked him, he said it was Delhi's (India Today English Office) mistake.This piece of of information can cost me my job. But speaking out is much more important for a journalist than anything else.
Posted by Peer Mohamed

Poet Majeeth's interview to CBC

Poet Majeeth called up CBC from Srilanka today morning. He felt that the news item about the attempt on his life had given a feeling that LTTE might be behind the attack. CBC told him that it was not intended. Majeeth also informed CBC that the Srilankan Police could not confirm the forces behind the bomb attack.
The fact that Majeeth was criticising LTTE was reported in our news item. The veiled threats to the poet's life from LTTE was also confirmed by independent sources. That does not mean that CBC points fingers to LTTE for the recent bomb attack outside Majeeth's house (CBC).

Srilankan Tamil Poet Majeeth escapes attempt on life

Srilankan Tamil poet Majeeth(35), who had authored seven books and is one of the Editors of literary magazine "Peruveli", escaped unhurt in an attempt on his life. A powerful bomb exploded on Thursday, 19th July, 2007, 23.15 hrs SLT (Srilankan Time) in the verandah of his house at Beach Road, Akkaraipatru, Eastern Srilanka. The poet used to to have his literary meetings (which was attended by about dozen writers) in that portico of his house.
Majeeth writes on the pains of war and is an advocate of peace.
His famous line "Sarikanin pinangal thinnum kahangal pookkum thennaiyai tamil eelam" (Eelam looks like a coconut tree blooming with corpse-eating crows; the corpses are that of the righteous). Majeeth who supported the struggle for a separate Eelam since his early days became disillusioned with the LTTE in the recent years when they started using Muslims as pawns in their war against the Srilankan Army. The incident of Mutur where Muslims were used by LTTE as a shield against Srilankan Army was strongly criticised by Majeeth in "Peruveli".
His new book titled "Puli painthapothu iravugal kodaigalaga irunthana" (when tiger bounced, nights turned into summers) never got printed following veiled threats from LTTE sympathisers. Majeeth is also afflicted with some illness related to brain for quite sometime now. He lives with his wife and only daughter.
Though Majeeth's house has police protection after the incident, he feels insecure and threatened. (CBC)