Gujarat police more approachable for public

progress of investigation, is a bid to make police more approachable for public


DILIP PATEL

Filing police complaints and FIRs will now be a click of a button away within six months as the Home Department has decided to make registration online in a bid to bring in more transparency in the investigation process.
People can also check the status of FIR and investigation after registering their complaints on www.home.gujarat.gov.in.
“Any citizen will be able to register a complaint sitting at home. He can also track case status and learn about investigation details. This will help us deal with the problems and complaints of the people more transparently. A provision has been made in the state budget to help put the system in place,” Minister of State for Home Amit Shah said.
The online complaint registration will first begin in major cities such as Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara. The service will be gradually extended to the entire state.
The pilot project has already started in the Dabhoda police station in Gandhinagar and the outcome has been satisfactory, said Gandhinagar DSP Piyush Patel.
Home Department officials said that the move was aimed at taking governance closer to the public and make the police more approachable. “This move will go far beyond the RTI as each office will have access to in-depth information. This will also increase the policepublic interface as heads of various departments be directly accessible to the citizens and in-depth information about the cases will be available to them.”
Complaints like reporting of missing persons and stolen vehicles can be filed online. Registration of tenant/servant will also be possible. Moreover, the status of passport and visa extension can be checked.
Patel told Mirror that the move would help citizens and the delivery of justice will be more transparent. “A pilot project has been launched at Dabhoda police station in Gandhinagar. It is a move towards having a paperless police station. The move will also help the police learn a lot about the needs of the people,” he said.
The portal of Home Department will have links to 70 individual web sites, including those of the Home Department, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Prohibition and Excise, Prisons, Gujarat Police (DGP, Commissionerate, DSPs, Armed Unit, Training, Human Rights, etc), Port and Transport Department, Commissioner Transport and all RTOs and ARTOs.

SERVICES & INFO TO BE AVAILABLE ONLINE


• Lodging complaints

• Search police station

• Tracking the FIR status/ passport status

• Knowing the organisational setup and contacts of government office and officers

• News and events

• Loging in as e-citizen and avail of more information

• Getting tenant/servant registration

• Booking the police band

• Crime statistics

• Know your rights,

• Reporting missing person, mobile and other things

• Finding details of missing/kidnapping

• Finding details of missing/ stolen Vehicle

• Providing feedback

• Acts and Rules, Do’s & Dont’s

• View various fee structure, licensing process

• Details of Right to Information

• Foreigner’s section

• Safety precaution (road, fire, war, quake)

• Community policing suggestions

• Blog (open discussion forum)

Premsankar Bhatt 81-yr-old fought for G’nagar civic body

Premshankar Bhatt, a retired IAS officer who once served as urban secretary, started a campaign to seek a municipality for the state capital 14 years ago

DILIP PATEL

The Narendra Modi government, following an order issued by the Gujarat High Court six months ago, on Tuesday took the first step in giving Gandhinagar a civic body. It formally announced in the assembly that Gandhinagar would become the eighth city in the state to get a municipal corporation.
However, it was not just the court’s directive that compelled the government to make the landmark announcement. It was an 81-yearold man’s relentless efforts that tipped the scales in the favour of state capital’s well-being.
Premshankar Bhatt, a retired IAS officer who once served Gujarat as the urban secretary, started a campaign to seek a municipal body for Gandhinagar 14 years ago. In fact, the court order is a result of a PIL filed by an NGO founded by Bhatt.
“I decided to take up the fight of helping Gandhinagar get a municipal corporation because I could not tolerate the increasing number of civic problems such as cleanliness affecting its denizens,” Bhatt said.
“Besides, I am a proud resident of Gandhinagar. How can I just stand and witness the city being denied a constitutional right.” According to the Constitution, every large urban area should have a local governing body.
Bhatt’s NGO, Gandhinagar Shahar Jagrut Nagrik Parishad, filed the PIL challenging the government’s reluctance to give the city such a body in 2007. On September 17, 2009, the high court asked the government to begin the process of forming a municipality in six months.
“The PIL was filed in 2007, but my battle began in 1996. I joined a senior citizen’s council and raked up the issue. The attempt didn’t bear results, so a few years later I formed Gandhinagar Shahar Jagrut Nagrik Parishad to my campaign forward,” he said.
The 81-year-old said that between 2001 and 2007 he wrote several letters to various government departments, officials and even the chief minister to seek a municipality for the city. The NGO, he said, also held a satyagraha.
“After the PIL was filed, there were attempts by the state government to delay the case. These attempts, however, failed,” he claimed.
Interestingly, the legal fight was not the only battle he won against the state government. During the course of his campaign, he filed an RTI application to seek copies of government documents relating to the issue.
The documents included notes made by officials during a meeting of the state cabinet. The government reportedly turned down the request for information, saying it was too sensitive to be shared.
Bhatt then approached the RTI commissioner, who ruled in his favour and asked the government to provide copies of requested documents. This was first of its kind ruling. The retired IAS officer’s campaign was carried forward his son and grandson, Jayant and Jeet.
Jayant, a lawyer, argued the case in the high court. Jeet, law student, conducted a research on cities with local governing bodies and presented his findings in the court to support the case. In the meantime, old age started to take a toll on Bhatt, but he didn’t budge.
Despite facing difficult in walking and hearing, he appeared in court hearings whenever needed. “It’s not just a victory for me or people of Gandhinagar. It’s a victory for the Constitution,” he said.

Arjuna awardee Parul Parmar

MASTERJI!

Postmaster J K Bhavsar denies Arjuna awardee Parul Parmar an hour’s leave to attend a Women’s Day felicitation So much for celebrating Women’s Day


DILIP PATEL

In 2009, this badminton player received the Arjuna Award, the highest national honour for achievement in sports. Parul Parmar, 36, was the first player from the state to receive the award in the paralympics category in the last 11 years.
On International Women’s Day on Monday, the polio-affected shuttler should have been one of the 20 proud women achievers to have been felicitated by Udgam, a Gandhinagar-based NGO.
But Parmar was busy handing out postal stamps to customers at Post and Telegraph Department office in Sector 11. She was denied permission to take an hour’s time off to attend that function.
This despite the NGO chairman Mayur Joshi requesting postmaster J K Bhavsar to grant her an hour’s time off for the felicitation ceremony.
“I was told that she looks after the stamps counter and cannot be given leave due to heavy workload. We were very disappointed. She is the only person from Gandhinagar to have been honoured with an Arjuna Award. She is a role model for so many women in the state. Now, we shall do the honours at her residence,” Joshi said. Parmar, whose right leg is polio-affected, was crowned singles and doubles champion at the world championships in Thailand in 2007 and the Asian championships in Bangalore in 2008.
She has 11 gold medals to her credit. She had even won the badminton championship held at first Asiad Paralympics in Kuala Lumpur in 2004.
In Gujarat, till today, 13 people have received the Arjuna Award. Former India wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia, was the last recipient of the award, way back in 1998. Since the Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961, only 12 sportspersons from Gujarat have made it to the illustrious list.
“My sister is the 13th sportsperson from the state and the only from the P&T Department in the country to have received the award. But here people do not value her,” says her brother Mahesh Parmar.
He says she always finds it difficult to get leave for badminton tournaments. “Twice in the past she was not granted permission to attend tournaments. Most of the times she is given permission at the eleventh hour. Officials say there is too much of work and they cannot let her go. As per rule, Central Government employees, who are selected to participate in sporting events of national or international importance are entitled to get period of actual days on which they participate in the event as also the time spent in travelling treated as duty,” he says adding, “She had to forego several days of casual leave in order to participate at the world championship in Thailand in 2007.”
When contacted postmaster Bhavsar said: “I don’t remember any NGO having told me about any such ceremony. Senior superintendent has to approve her leave. You better talk to him.”

TEACH MOTHER TONGUE, BUT DON’T IGNORE ENGLISH’

DILIP PATEL AND OJAS MEHTA

English no virodh murkhai che pan matrubhashani ni avganna maha murkhai che
(Only fools can condemn English language, but there cannot be a greater foolishness than ignoring the mother tongue)”. Columnist and writer Gunvant Shah is not known for mincing words. He came straight to the point when he delivered his lecture at a function organised by Gujarat Sahitya Parishad to mark the International Mother Language Day on Sunday.
Shah actively promotes the view that there is as need for Gujarati medium schools to teach good English as there is for English medium schools to teach Gujarati.
“We are taking this up as a campaign. We have prepared a team of 25 enlightened citizens in every city and urban area that will approach English schools to teach good Gujarati and Gujarati schools to teach good English. Enlightened citizens will ask the principals and school managements what they can do improve the standard of English and Gujarati languages.”
Meanwhile, thousands of students took out a rally in support of Gujarati literature on the ‘International Mother Language Day’ in Gandhinagar on Sunday. The rally, called ‘Granth Rath Yatra’, was organised by Gandhinagar Cultural Forum. This is the fourth year in a row that the forum has organised such a rally.

Black is back

Friday, January 2, 2009
Black is back -gagini



The city last saw movie tickets being sold in black 7 years ago. Ghajini has brought touts back in business despite multiplexes

By Dilip Patel, Shraddha Singh and Megha Bhatt
Posted On Monday, December 29, 2008 at 03:08:35 AM


AM’s Dilip Patel (circled, right) negotiates for a Ghajini ticket with a tout outside Cinemagic in Odhav. (Above) Aamir Khan in Ghajini
Aamir Khan’s much-hyped action thriller Ghajini, which hit the cinema halls on December 25, has gone far beyond just setting the cash registers ringing in the city.

Running house-full in Amdavad’s multiplexes and single-screen theatres, Ghajini has achieved what another Aamir Khan starrer, Lagaan, managed to do in 2001.

Lagaan, along with Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar, ran to packed houses for weeks, forcing Amdavadis to buy tickets illegally from touts.

But after Lagaan and Gadar, no other movie, including Sanjay Dutt’s Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai, has managed to capture Amdavadis’ imagination over the last seven years the way Ghajini has done.

Over the past couple of days, movie tickets touts are in business in the city once again. With Ghajini shows packed for weeks in advance, tickets for the movie are being sold in the black market for more than double the actual price.

One of our correspondents paid Rs 70 for an officially-priced-at-Rs 30 upper stall ticket of a 6.30 pm show at Cinemagic cinema on Sunday. This single-screen theatre, located off Odhav highway, has seen a Rs 60 ticket for the 9.30 show of Ghajini going for as high as Rs 200, according to those living in the theatre’s vicinity.

The movie’s success has lifted the pall of gloom that had descended upon single-cinema theatre owners as well as multiplexes’ managements in the wake of the economic slowdown.

Estimating that approximately, a mind-numbing 15 lakh people from Ahmedabad alone have already viewed Ghajini in theatres and multiplexes since its release, Vinod Kankare, owner of Anupam Theatre in Khokhra area, likened the movie’s success to blockbusters like Sholay and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.

Said Kankare, “Ghajini is a path-breaking film on the lines of Sholay, which is Bollywood’s greatest-ever hit, and Rajshree Productions’ Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, arguably the best-selling social drama ever in Hindi film industry.”

Kankare said the hype around Ghajini’s lead actor Aamir Khan’s look and physique, and the secrecy about its plot contributed to the film’s success.


Tickets bought and sold away from counters at a theatre screening Ghajini on Sunday
According to the experts, Ghajini is expected to sweep in a gross of about Rs 200 million only from western India.

In Ahmedabad, every multiplex is showing more than 15 shows of the movie every day. And all the shows are running house-full. In fact, Fun Cinema in Satellite is screening 17 shows of the film while City Pulse in Raipur has been holding 19 shows.

Neeraj Ahuja, general manager (Gujarat operations), Wide Angle Multiplex, said, “We are running 18 shows of the movie and all are going house-full.”

According to R World mall’s assistant manager (operations), Jitendra Chauhan, the mall has earned Rs 5,52,582 from Ghajini between December 25 and December 28. He said, “Ghajini has been getting awesome response and tickets, at least for another week, will be difficult to come by.”

Rejoicing at some good news in the times of economic slowdown, Vandan Shah, owner of Rupam Cinema said Ghajini was a godsend. “The crowds’ response to Ghajini has been historical. Almost all the shows in our theatre are running to packed houses. For us, who run single-cinema theatres, we could not have asked for a better New Year gift.”

Termite attack on Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram

Ashram officials destroy 100 books on Gandhiji damaged due to poor upkeep; some photos of the Mahatma also consigned to fire

DILIP PATEL

Gandhians will be shocked to learn this. Books on Mahtama Gandhi are not safe at his karambhoomi — Sabarmati Ashram. Stacked in a damp godown, termites are partying on them.
The Sabarmati Ashram authorities on Thursday evening destroyed at least a hundred damaged books on Gandhiji, penned by different authors, setting them afire. Termites had virtually reduced them to dust, courtesy poor upkeep.
The ashram authorities also set ablaze a few worned out photographs of the Father of the Nation.
Some of the books reduced to ashes were published 50 years ago. Damaged copies of the English and Gujarati versions of “Gandhiji Avtariya Gujarat Thi” (Gandhiji born in Gujarat) were also consigned to fire. Gujarat government had published the book in 1988.
Sabarmati Ashram Managing Director Amrut Modi said: “Sorting out around 100 damaged books among thousands in the godown on the ashram premises, we set them on fire. Feeding on them, termites reduced them to dust. Some damaged photographs of Gandhiji were also consigned to fire. ”
Taking a strong exception to the bonfire of books, an ashramite said: “Losing a hundred books on Gandhiji due to a termite attack exposes the lack of interest in authorities in preserving the books. They were not given enough attention. It’s a shame.”
A source said the rear wall of the book godown separates it from a toilet. “Its proximity to the loo could have led to its dampness. Subsequently termites, which thrive in damp conditions, ate into the books in the godown,” the source said.
Gandhians, however, can take heart from the fact that termites did not damage any rare book. “Exclusive books are safe,” said Modi.
There are around 3,000 books on and by Mahatma Gandhi in the godown on the ashram premises. “If the ashram authorities do not pull up their socks after losing 100 books, the rest can also be reduced to dust,” said a Gandhian.

SHAME

Shock discovery:

Sabarmati Ashram authorities on Thursday spotted 100 books on Gandhiji and a few pictures of the Father of the Nation, damaged by termites.They were in a godown on the ashram campus

Reduced to ashes:

The authorities destroyed them setting them on fire

Probable reason of termite attack:

Dampness inside the godown due to its proximity to a toilet

PROPERTY PAPERS TO BE DIGITALISED IN GUJARAT

The new system will ensure more transparency and public will have easy access to property documents

DILIP PATEL

The real estate scene in Gujarat has changed over the past few years. Realising the importance of having genuine documents to residential and commercial properties, the Gujarat government has decided to digitise its records. This will ensure more transparency and easy access to property records by the public.
Documents like the sale deed, mortgage deed, marriage registration, stamp paper (revenue and non-judicial), agreement stamps etc will be computerised. The revenue department has decided to outsource this work and has invited tenders from interested companies.
The revenue department has over 45 lakh documents that will have to be computerised. Of these, 1.20 lakh belong to Ahmedabad.
Principal secretary P Paneervel (revenue) said: “Digitalisation will reduce increasing workload. It will save a lot of time for people who would otherwise have to spend weeks to get their original documents and for other procedures.”

CLEANING UP CORRUPTION

PROPERTY BUYERS currently visit around 10 government offices to register land ownership. Under the proposed digitised system, all aspects of
land administration will be brought under one authority.

SOLVING DISPUTES

Due to lack of proper surveys, ownership of urban property is often subject to litigation. Digitising records will make it near impossible for people to forge documents.
Online documents will also make research of property documents easier. The research is not always for educational purpose. It is used by the government to fix property price, get information on the sort of property being sold, duty to be levied and much more.