The weekly Observer_ Issue 24

At least 10 Bangalore “study centers” are selling graduation certificates online and offering to provide surrogates to pass exams, an Observer investiga-tion has found.

Study centers are supposed to provide distance education to those who cannot travel to the University of their Choice in India. Some of the country’s most sought after busi-ness, law and engineering degrees are completed via distance learning at

study centers in a student’s home city.It is seen as a cheaper alter-

native to students physically moving to the university town.

After our investigation, online marketplace Quikr removed a series of adverts from study centers offer-ing certificates in return for cash.

The Bangalore based firm agreed to obtain pass certificates from various colleges for our re-porter – in exchange for fees over 13 times the fee to sit exams.

The ad put up by the firm has the heading – “Looking or require de-gree or certificate from recognized college – Bangalore.” The page also gives the contact number and the area in which the office is located.

The institutes promise to not reveal the name of the person who writes the exam, and the name of the Study center will not be mentioned in the Certificate.

Sameer Desai, from Indian In-stitute of Management Studies and technology (IIMS) Bangalore, said: “We can arrange someone to write your exam but you need to pay more. The actual fee for a 10th standard exam from Na-tional Institute of Open Univer-

sity is Rs 4,500; if you want us to arrange someone to write your exam you need to pay Rs 20,000.”

When The Weekly Observer approached Balaji Learning Centre in Bangalore, Manjula Devi, cli-ent manager, said: “We have four branches and three exam centers in Bangalore, and can get you cer-tificates from EIILM Sikkim Uni-versity and CV Raman University in three months. You don’t need to worry about exams as we have contacts with the university, who will give you the answer sheets.”

“We have our students working in companies like Accenture where they submitted the same certificate and did not face any trouble,” she added.

Samson from Exam Tuning Study Center promised our report-er a certificate from C.V Raman University and the state-funded Bangalore University. He said: “It is not a problem if you do not want to write the exam, we can ar-range a person to write it for you. You need not worry about the le-gal issues as everything is verified; even my cousin carries the same certificate as you are asking for.”

Riya Sharma from Sharma Insti-tute of Management and Technolo-

gy, Delhi, claimed that they function online, and provide all the impor-tant documents like migration and character certificates. She said, “We can get you certificate from Board of Higher Secondary, Delhi, where my students will write the exam and you can check your results online.”

“Two of my students who have done their 10th and 12th from our center are working in Dubai using the same certificate,” she added.

Similar cases were witnessed in two institutes, PNS Study Center and Career Academy, both in Bangalore.

(Continued on Page 3)

OBSERVERThe Weekly

Volume 14 | Issue 24 Thursday, March 05, 2015

Elizabeth Mani

BRIEFSUltimate – an upcoming sport in BangaloreThe Ultimate Frisbee of India team is leaving for Dubai for the World Cham-pionship of Beach Ultimate this Saturday. India took part in WCBU for the first time in 2011 in which US won.Page 2

What will the budget be for dalits - disappoint-ment or delight?Dalits of the state are doubtful about the up-coming Union budget due to massive fund diversion that took place with last year’s funds for them.Page 3

Marital discord leads to sui-cide of over 15K Indian men“She threatened me by holding my neck and asked me to leave the house at 2 in the night,” said Ab-hishek Kumar, 35, a bank employee.Page 4

Death toll increases but no relief for the poorThe total number of Swine Flu related deaths in Kar-nataka in the last two months is more than the total deaths last year.Page 5

Villagers refuse to play Nice - demand market rates for landVillagers who claim they are being cheated out of their lands have told de-velopers of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Cor-ridor they will not sell.Page 6

Blogs and social media help create authorsBeing active on social me-dia and writing blogs can help young writers become authors, says Jahid Akhtar, an upcoming writer whose book ‘Story of Tublu’ was recently published.

Page 6

For sale: degrees for money

Marksheet of Board of Secondary Education of Andhra Pradesh

EXCLUSIVE

Marksheet of Bangalore Univesity for Bachelor of Science

Nishu from IIBM, Meerut

Uma of Indo Global Academy

Pay to pass - with honors

Untrained instructors at a pri-vately run rock climbing institute are risking the lives of tourists.

In Badami, Manju, 19, on 20 February, fell from a height of at least 25ft while setting up equip-ment at the top of a hill. He is a local with minimal training in rock climbing who also works as a me-chanic in the town.

The ‘Ganesha’ rock climbing institute in Badami has been con-ducting camps since 2012 and con-ducts 10-12 camps in a month. “To be familiar with the mountains, we regularly climb the mountains on our own. The incident was unfor-tunate because he slipped from the top of the rock but these accidents

are rare,” said Ganesh, owner of the rock climbing institute.

The basic requirement for a trainer in India is a certificate of recognition from institutes like Hi-malayan Mountaineering Institute, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering.

“There are no re-takes when it comes to adventure sports. The trainers have the responsibility of the tourists, they cannot afford to be untrained and unequipped,” said, Deepak Singh Negi, a climber from Nainital Mountaineering Institute working with RockSports, India.

“These teenagers are locals who have been working for extra money from the tourists in Badami. These accidents are common here and government is not interested in tak-ing any measures,” said, Vikas, an auto driver in Badami.

The foreign tourists prefer to bring their own trainers over the local institute’s instructors. “We are adventure enthusiasts and have vis-ited Badami for the same. We have our own equipments and trainers for the rock climbing as we do not trust the local authorities,” said, Juana, a French tourist.

The Ultimate Frisbee of India team is leaving for Dubai for the World Championship of Beach Ultimate this Saturday. India took part in WCBU for the first time in 2011 in which US won.

“Yes we are more formative now. We practice more and spend more time now. But as far as win-ning the tournament is concerned, we are far away from countries like

US, Canada, Germany. These teams are really good,” said Bharath, one of the players.

Not many are aware that Banga-lore has an ultimate league called the Usha Bangalore Ultimate wherein there are eight teams that compete against each other.

The teams are Air Benders, Air Traffic Contro’, Disc O Deewane, Falcons, Learning to Fly, See Em-ily Play, Spin Doctors and Stonehill Madhatters.

Learning to Fly won the League in 2013 while Disc O Deewane won in 2014. One of the players, Preetham Kajekar, who has been playing since 2008 with Learning to Fly, shared his experience.

He said, “Frisbee is a very old sport and I have been playing it since I was a kid. We had our own version of it back then, we made our own rules. When I came to Bangalore, I was aware that the sport is here but not that there was anything official about it.” When asked whether he thinks the game is growing, he said, “The game is definitely growing. Last year, the Chennai Tournament had 16 teams competing.”

Chennai has been at the fore-front of this game and has a natural advantage due to the availability of beaches. “Chennai has about 300-400 active players. The scene is better in Chennai as they play on beaches so it’s very easy to attract crowds. But having said that, they have been working very hard. We too keep going to Chennai now and then to practice.”

Another Ultimate player from Bangalore, Bharath Pevanathan, said, “It is true that we do not have as much expertise to play on the

beach. Bangalore teams are really good on grass though.”

Both Preetham and Bharath have been in Learning to Fly since its very inception in 2008. Ultimate was catching up at that time.

For Bharath, it all started in the US where he actually started playing Frisbee. They used to play with the Yahoo team. “Among them was Bri-an Acton, who then became the co-founder of WhatsApp. He had been playing since he was a small kid. He gave me my first Frisbee.”

Both of them have been select-ed by the Ultimate Player Associa-tion of India, which is the official team of players representing India. “Although it’s the only Indian body representing Ultimate in India, UPI is not completely registered. So we are not recognized,” said Preetham.

Preetham is a working engineer and holds a 9-5 job while Bharath is the COO of GroupOn. They prac-tice at least thrice a week, either early in the morning or after office.

“Our team is diverse and in-teresting. There are architects, doc-tors, fashion designers etc,” said Preetham. “We do not get paid, al-though in US, professional League players get paid.”

2 The Weekly OBSERVER Thursday, March 05, 2015

Natasha Singh

Ultimate – an upcoming sport in BangaloreWhat is Ultimate Frisbee?

Ultimate is a limited contact disc-throwing field game • wherein a player can move only by passing the disc to his team mate and the goal is to cross the end line in the field.The game evolved in the 1960’s with students from the • Amherst College drawing up rules from various sports like American football, basketball and soccer.Like other sports, Ultimate Frisbee also allows substitu-• tions during an injury or while scoring points.

Both Preetham and Bharath are in Learning to Fly since 2008

Climber falls 25 feet, survives with injuriesPunita Maheshwari

Manju, 19,lying on the strecher after he sustained internal injuries

News Digest

Narendra Modi of-fered military and ci-vilian aid to countries in the Indian Ocean in an attempt to break the monopoly of Chi-nese influence in that region.

Bangalore Metropoli-tan Transport Corpo-ration (BMTC) buses are now going to be green, blue and or-ange in colour to help commuters identify its various bus services.

The family of the Delhi rape victim warned BBC saying that they will take legal action for revealing the iden-tity of their daughter in their documentary, ‘India’s Daughter’.

In spite of facing oppo-sition from the Indian government, the doc-umentary on the 2012 Delhi rape case was telecast in the UK by BBC, earlier this morn-ing at 3:30 a.m. IST.

US ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was attacked with a razor while he was on his way to a breakfast meeting in Seoul.

The last Ebola victim of Liberia was released today after a week of no new cases cropping up.

An ice cream ball filled with mud and water created a bomb scare in Shivamogga after a terrified jeep driver spotted the colourful object and alerted the bomb squad.

“There are no re-takes when it comes to adventure sports.”

- Deepak Singh Negi

25% of the dalit organizations boycotted a pre-budget meeting chaired by the Chief Minister yesterday amid claims that dal-its are not receiving the required share in the budget.

“CM’s last year’s promises have not been materialized till now. So there is no meaning in conducting pre budget meetings.” Dr Venka-daswamy of Samata Sainik Dal, one among the 18 boycotters.

Manjunath Prasad, Principal Secretary of the Social Welfare De-partment, said, “In the meeting dalit organizations made demands not to divert funds and the Chief Minister said that he will consider their demands.”

Social Welfare department,

which is the nodal agency for moni-toring of funds to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, headed by Minister H. Anjaneya has given rec-ommendations to all departments on the allocation of funds for the 2015-16 budget.

The recommendation reads: “Primary preference should be

given to the programs that directly benefit the SC-ST people.”

Last year 24.1 % of the budget, Rs 1580 crore was allocated for SC-ST,” said Srinivasan, President of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Industrialists’ Association.

“But about 51% of it, which amounts to about Rs 750 crore, was used for general purposes like tour-ism, films and building of courts etc,” he added.

Under planning commission guidelines SC-ST should be allotted a percentage of the budget equal to their population and there should not be diversion more than 8%.

Also Karnataka is one of the few states which have separate leg-islation to stop the diversion of these funds. But section 7(d) of the ‘The Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan Act’

allows funds to be used for general infrastructure purposes also.

“We are campaigning to amend section 7(d) of the act as officials are using this as an excuse to cut the funds for SC-ST,” said Beena J Pallickal, of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, an organi-zation based in Delhi. State is not alone in this problem.

Dalits were denied Rs 70,000 crore in the union budget that was presented last week, according to NCDHR.“Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi had promised to whip the budget into shape and make the economy fairer for Dalits, Adi-vasis and other marginalized sec-tions, unfortunately, his words have not translated into action,” said NCDHR General Secretary Paul Divakar.

“We have hopes that this year’s

state budget will be better for Dal-its,” Srinivasan added. With disap-pointment over the previous year’s budget and expectations on the present budget, SC-ST people will have to wait till March 13th to know what is in store for them in the bud-get.

Continued from Page 1Nishu Maheshwari from Indian

Institute of Business Management, Meerut, which offers international courses, said, “We have integrated courses like DBA+Masters in Busi-ness management which are recog-nized internationally.”

Uma from IndoGlobal Acad-emy, Bangalore, said that the cost of providing certificates from Kanpur University in a span of six months was in the range of Rs 15,000 and 30,000. When she was confronted with the truth, she said: “It is not true. Someone is blaming is the cen-tre. You can contact our head,” after which she abruptly cut the call.

When Goutham from the same academy was confronted with the truth, he said: “We don’t give any fake certificates. All the certificates we provide are genuine and I can get you details of the Centers which are selling fake certificates.”

Similarly, Sameer from Indian Institute of Business Manage-ment, Riya from Sharma Institute of Management, and Manjula from PNS Study Center denied the claims when the Weekly Observer revealed the investigation.

Nithin from Balaji Institute Bangalore assured our reporter that they have been running the institute for the past 30 years without any legal troubles and promised certifi-cates from prestigious universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University and Mysore University.

Simran, a student who gradu-ated from the Indian Institute of Business Management, will be ap-plying for a government job with a similar certificate. “I joined IIBM in 2005, and completed my 10th and 12th from there. I didn’t write my exams as the center arranged some-one else to write them for me. With-out facing any legal troubles, I now have my degree,” she said.

The firm Bangalore Institute of Learning Pvt. Ltd claims that they have 47 branches across the city. When our reporter replied to their Quikr advertisement, and told Am-reen, their employee, that her broth-er had a problem with writing the

exam, Amreen said,“Let him come and write the exam, it will be very easy, and it’s all general knowledge.”

When our reporter explicitly asked Amreen if it was possible for someone else to write the exam on her brother’s behalf, Amreen replied: “It is possible. I can’t tell everything over the phone; come to the centre with your brother and we can talk about it.” They demanded Rs 18,000 for one certificate when the exam fee is just Rs. 1,350, and then asked our reporter: “Is his English any good?”

Northwest Accreditation Com-mission, or NWAC, USA accepts admissions through the Bangalore Institute of Learning Pvt. Ltd. in Bangalore, and also has the option

of distance learning from Banga-lore.

When Deeptika Sharma, coun-selor of NWAC in Delhi, was in-formed about the illegal activities of Bangalore’s education centre, she said: “We are not aware of this. Thanks for letting us know, we will take strict action. Our senior will contact you soon.”

Another university with an of-fice in Bangalore, the Sikkim Mani-pal University, gives certificates in exchange for money, and also claims to be able to arrange for someone to write the exams.

Naresh (name changed), who received his certificate from this university, said: “I did my Bach-elors in Business Administration

through Sikkim Manipal University, or SMU. I paid Rs 35,000 for three years. Each year they have exams in their centers and guide you with the answers. If you can’t attend the ex-ams, they will arrange someone to write your exams. Anyone who pays above 30,000 gets 1st rank.”

Pradeep, employed with SMU distance education at a study-centre in Bangalore, said, “This is not true. You can contact our official number regarding this.”

India has always been in the news for scandals involving fake certificates. According to BBC re-ports in 2011, fourteen pilots were caught using fake certificates to get licenses. According to another BBC story published on July 2014, Education Department official Ram Sharnagat said that the department had received 52,000 complaints against teachers for submitting fake certificates.


Certificates for sale, no exams needed

What will the budget be for dalits - disappointment or delight?Nikhil M Babu

Venkadaswamy, President of SSD

Srinivasan, President of SC-ST organisation

Marksheet of Board of Intermediate Education, AP

Quikr advertisement for a graduation degree in six months

Provisional certificate of Jawaharlal Nehru University


Tweets of the day

@IndiaToday : Arvind Kejriwal needs detoxi-fication a day after AAP removed top leaders.

@vadakkus : Mean-while in the great Bangalore police state, students arrested for protesting for skywalk at the Hebbal accident spot.

@Bangaloremirror : BBMP has blown up a whopping Rs 631 crore in 22 months.

@joelpeterdavid : Kejriwal is in Bangalore. We demand 700 litres of beer and 450 litres of sambhar free.

@fakeriwal : I have put leave and come for this Bangalore trip. Now I don’t have any sick leave left if India reach-es World Cup finals.

@sardesairajdeep :If anyone should have problem with Nirbhaya documentary, it’s the parents. Rest should watch before outraging.

@PMOIndia :They saw we are anti-farmer. We will never oppose farmers. Asked other parties to tell me what to improve but they don’t say any-thing: PM

@PrernaVarun : I just finished watching the documentary #In-diasDaughter ...nd I feel so shame on the men-tality of ppl in sake of culture & tradition…

@DrunkVinodMehta : When founding mem-bers ask questions, they are removed from decision making body. Internal Democracy Kejriwal Style! Thx. #BroomWar

“She threatened me by holding my neck and asked me to leave the house at 2 in the night,” said Abhishek Kumar, 35, a bank em-ployee.

According to the reports of National Crime Records Bureau 64, 098 men have committed suicide in India in 2013. Out of these 15, 384 did so due to marital issues. How-ever, in 2012, out of 63, 343 men, 15, 836 committed suicide because of problems in marriage.

Save Indian Family Foundation, a men’s organization states that per month they get 100-150 cases of married men being harassed.

“There are no strict laws in In-dia to punish women. There is always talk about the rights of women but no one has bothered to give a sin-gle thought about men’s protection rights,” said Uday Shankar, a lawyer at the Karnataka High Court.

Abhishek said that he was mar-ried in November, 2012 and after two days of his marriage his wife started torturing him.

He added: “Two days after the marriage, she said that she doesn’t want to live with me. I was shocked to hear that. She said that the mar-riage was against her will and she will take the revenge by torturing me.

“The limit was crossed when we had a baby boy and she started blaming me for that because she always wanted a baby girl. She also threatened me and my family by making police complaints; however, by knowing her nature from day one, I already took the anticipatory bail from the court. And now, I have filed for divorce,” he continued.

According to Uday Shankar, I

have been practicing law for many years and have seen many families getting destroyed. I am not against women rights or not saying that men are always right; but yes I think there should be some forum for men also.

“Today, we are moving towards that society, where we think if an al-legation is made against any men, he must be guilty. But that is not true in every case. Being a man doesn’t equate to being guilty; there are chances that men are victims,” add-ed Uday Shankar.

“There are very few organiza-tions in India that work for men’s rights. Our organization is one of them. We have our branches in 10-12 major cities and we provide counseling and rehabilitation to the harassed men. However, we don’t recommend divorce or any legal ac-tion because it only destroys a fam-ily and takes away one’s peace of

mind,” said Sujit Deshpande of the SIFF.

Srinivasan P, 39, an auto-driver is also from that section of men who are fighting back against harassment and trying to get some peace of mind without any legal procedure.

“I am married for 15 years now but haven’t been successful to make my wife happy. She always com-plains that my earning is not enough to satisfy her. Sometimes, she also beats me up with her slippers or abuses me when she feels very frus-trated with our poverty,” said Srini-vasan.

He added: “Sometimes she threatens me by saying she will com-mit suicide or set her ablaze and will blame me for her suicide. I don’t understand where my fault is if I’m poor; I was not the one to force her to marry me. I seriously don’t un-derstand why she married me.

“I have not filed a complaint

anywhere about it because people will not believe me. And if I lodge a complaint in the police station, I know it’s of no use, rather they will arrest me for torturing my wife. Laws are only for the protection of women, not for men,” he contin-ued.

According to SIFF, Govern-ment of India has spent more than 2 billion dollars for women’s rights, while it has given “zero” amount for preventing domestic violence against men or reducing male sui-cides. Dowry harassment and do-mestic violence laws which are meant for women are misused by some women.

“Men don’t come to report a case of domestic violence. We get cases from women but not from men, they prefer to directly consult their lawyers or some organization working for men,” said Sunderrajya, Shivaji Nagar police station.

Marital discord leads to suicide of over 15K Indian men

Abhishek, who was being harassed by his wife

Divya Kishore

A school in Jamkhandi closed for a day as students skipped their classes and worshiped a dead monkey propped up outside the school gates.

The monkey - with eyes wide open - had been hit by an auto. The children along with some adults carried the dead body and placed it against the school’s wall.

Locals claimed that the teachers closed the primary school as children ‘worshiped’ the monkey.

Lalasab, a teacher at the school said that no holiday had been called and claimed the school was closed as 50 pupils had failed to turn up.

“She also beats me up with her slippers,” said Srinivasan P

Suharika Rachavelpula

Monkey business closes school

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal be-gan his treatment in the city to-day for high blood sugar level and diabetes which, according

to his doctor, was caused by the stress and pressures of poli-tics and election campaigning.

Kejriwal, with both his parents, checked into Jindal Naturecure Insti-tute on Tumkur road today, and plans to stay at the hospital for 10 days.

Dr. Babina Nandkumar, one of the four senior doctors who will be in charge of his treatment, said, “His blood sugar levels weren’t in control, neither were his cough and allergy. This was brought about by the stress of the election campaign.”

Dr. Nandkumar described Kejri-wal’s routine from tomorrow. It would start at 5 am, and would comprise of oil massages, steam baths, yoga, hydrotherapy and laughter therapy.

Talking about the treatment, Dr. Nandkumar said that detoxifica-tion was in process today, an ECG had been carried out, and the blood tests starting from the next morning would determine further treatment.

Laughter therapy helps to release natural painkillers into the blood stream. It works because body can-not differentiate between fake and real laughter and therapy will give the same effect of real laughter.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have also calculated that just 20 seconds of laughter could be as good for the lungs as three minutes spent on a rowing ma-chine as reported by The Guardian.

She added that he was currently following a frugal diet of chapat-tis, boiled vegetables and soups. She emphasised that outside food was never allowed in the hospital.

Speaking about the natur-opathy way of treatment, she said, “Naturopathy is a slow but sure process. A patient should spend 21 to 30 days here, and then he will go back 100% fit.”

She said that Kejriwal’s par-ents had also checked in at the

institute, and they were afflicted with arthritis and constipation.

The cost of treatment for Kejriwal and his parents is re-portedly Rs. 25,000 each.

Prempal Singh, a security guard at the institute, said that Anna Hazare had also received treatment at the same institute, and Kejriwal

was staying at the same room as his political and ideological mentor.

When Dr. Nandkumar was asked why the CM chose to come to this particular hospital, she said that it was because his blood sugar levels were not coming under control, and the fact that his earlier stint at the institute had been satisfactory.

The total number of Swine Flu related deaths in Karnataka in the last two months is more than the total deaths last year.

According to the Health Minis-try, there were 33 deaths in Karna-taka due to H1N1 last year whereas 34 people have died in 2015 in only two months.

According to the commissioner of Health and Family Welfare and Ayush Seevices, the virus causing Swine Flu can be battled by hot wa-ter “taken at regular intervals” and by keeping one’s hands clean.

P.S. Vastrad said that the whole issue of H1N1 outbreak was being “blown up” by the media, and the disease was in fact prevailing only in some parts of Bangalore.

Dr. Basavarajan, In-charge of Swine Flu ward of Victoria Hospi-tal, said, “No amount of hot water can save you from being infected with the virus.”

Victoria Hospital reported five deaths out of the 60 people who were tested positive for H1N1 in

February.Mani, a daily worker at an iron

industry plant, is a patient in Bow-ring and Lady Curzon Hospital.

Sujata, his wife, said: “My hus-band is eating food for the first time in seven days. He has severe chest pain, a fever and throat ache since a fortnight.”

Mani said: “I was shifted from the ICU to general ward today. We

have paid more than Rs 8,000. We had to pay Rs 1,500 just for the ini-tial test. I have borrowed money from friends to pay for this treat-ment. I don’t know how I will repay so much money. The government must do something.”

“Moreover, the facilities are not good. The ward is not isolated; only masks are used as protection. The doctor visits only once at 9:00 pm,” he added.

Savitri, 42, a resident of Tha-varekere, was admitted to Victoria Hospital. She said: “I was tested positive for H1N1. I have been in the Swine Flu ward since 15 days. According to the doctors, my con-dition is getting better.”

Srinivas, her husband, said: “The doctors might discharge her soon. We do not know how she caught the virus; nobody in the vicinity has caught the infection.”

“We had to pay Rs 1,500 for the tests here. I have already spent Rs 8,000 for her treatment in a private hospital in Sunnadakatta. I am a dai-ly wage worker and we cannot afford this. We have already paid Rs 10,000 for medicines and treatment. Even if the government introduces some scheme, by the time we avail it, we will have spent as much as possible for the treatment,” he added.

Aasha, a nurse in the Bowring

and Lady Curzon Hospital, said: “There are five patients here right now; two female and three male. The preventive measures are only masks here. Apart from that the workers are exposed to the virus. We do not like working in this environment but we don’t have any other choice.”

Sudha, a patient in Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, said: “I was admitted two days ago. My tests were positive here but some blood samples have been sent to NIMHANS and Victoria Hospital. Even my son is here with me in this environment.”

“My husband is a private taxi driver. The costs are too much; just the tests cost more than Rs 2500,” she added.

Mary, 54, another patient, said: “I have been suffering since two weeks. I was brought here in a very critical condition on Saturday but I am recovering now.

“My daughter is paying for the expenses since I am a widow and I have no source of income. We had to pay more than Rs 3,000 for the tests. There should be some con-cession by the government. They should definitely introduce some scheme for the poor. I saw a lady die two days ago since she did not have money to pay for medicines, in the same hospital,” she added.

Dr. Basavarajan said: The dis-ease has become an epidemic this

year since mid January. We have dealt with 370 suspects this month. On an average, the number of patients range from 20 to 30 every day. Since this disease thrives in the winter, so it should decrease this month.”

He added, “Women, children and diabetic people are more vul-nerable to this disease. However, people are developing resistance to the virus since they live in the same environment.”

Vastrad, commenting on the cost of treatment, said, “The tests aren’t mandatory. Only if there is fever for two days, then a test is carried out. However, the medicine can be given, which costs not even Rs 200. The private hospitals carry out the tests as they want to make money.”


Apoorva Choubey

Death toll increases but no relief for the poor

Laughter therapy in Bangalore best for KejriwalTushar KaushikNatasha Singh

H1N1 across Karnataka

In Indi taluk, Bijapur district, six people were positively • diagnosed with H1N1. Ashwini Jhalki, 19, a student, died within two days of catching the virus. There is no diagnostic facility or treatment for Swine Flu in Baradol or Indi and the patients have to be taken to Bijapur for treatment which is around 60 km away. In January 2015, in Vijayapur Taluk, there were two • positive cases and both the victims died. They have made a separate ward for Swine Flu as directed by the Health Ministry. While Muddebihal and Kundgol do not have any posi-• tive cases, they have separate wards for Swine Flu but they do not have medicines or doctors for the treat-ment.

Savitri has been undergoing treatment for the past two weeks

Health commisioner claims that hot water can cure H1N1Mani was discharged from the emergency ward on Tuesday

Kejriwal reached the Jindal Naturecure Institute this morning

Dr. Babina Nandkumar

Being active on social media and writing blogs can help young writers become authors, says Ja-hid Akhtar, an upcoming writer whose book ‘Story of Tublu’ was recently published.

Jahid never aimed to become an author but three years ago he started writing about his past experiences in a blog called ‘Flashbacks’. He feels that his blog helped him to find a publisher easily. “Blogs improve your writing skills. The fact that I am an active blogger helped me to get published,” he said.

He says that not only writing blogs but making connections on social media is also important. “One should keep networking and inter-acting with authors and publishers on social media. Building a network gives one an idea about how the

publishing industry works.”Jahid’s blog ‘Flashbacks’ was in-

cluded in the Top Indian Blogs of 2013-14. The blog has 164,421 page

views with readers mostly from In-dia, US, UK and France. Also, his book’s foreward was written by Dr Harish Narang, former Professor and chairperson at the Centre of English studies JNU and the Gen-eral Council of Sahitya Akademy, New Delhi.

Self PublishingJahid sent his book synopsis and

sample chapters to the top five pub-lishers in India. He didn’t get replies for a couple of months - like any other new author. Some rejected diplomatically, some didn’t even re-ply. Then, months later, the chief editor of LiFi Publications accepted his samples and agreed to sign a deal later.

“In these few months I came to know about self publishing and also contacted a few such publishers. I did some research on self publish-ing and found that it is a costly af-

fair. One has to spend around 60 to 70 thousand to self publish a book.” LiFi Publications are known to in-vite young writers and give them a platform to publish through their publication house.

Start up businessJahid feels that writing books

for the first time is like any start up business. “It is quite difficult for first time authors to get published. Usually publishers are not interested in them and they have valid reasons for that. It is hard to sell books from unknown authors.

Young writers for a change“Writing is an effective way of

expressing our heart. Be it entertain-ment or any serious issue, through writing we can share our feelings, our way of thinking.

“I think India really needs many more young writers to bring positive change,” Jahid says.

Story of Tublu is a contempo-rary work of fiction. The most attractive part of the novel is that everyone should be able to relate to it. From some interest-ing school and college humor, the story progresses and devel-ops into a mature narrative. The story has its share of drama that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions which define the amazing journey that is life.


OBSERVER Team: Editor - Apoorva Choubey, Chief Sub-Editor - Kimaya Varude, News Editor - Saheli Sen Gupta, News Desk - Shruti Suresh, Suharika Rachave-lpula, Layout Head- Aparna Singh, Layout Desk - C. L. Ramakrishnan, Soumya Chatterjee, Divya Kishore, Sub-Editors - Punita Maheshwari, Nikhil M Babu, Pulaha Roy, Devdatta Sukhdev, Picture Editor - Ridhi Agarwal, Proofreader - Elizabeth Mani, Vignesh SG, Reporters - Natasha Singh, Agnivesh Harshan, Tushar Kaushik

Blogs and social media help create authorsKimaya Varude

Born and brought up in Assam, Jahid resides in Bangalore with his wife Anjali and their daughter, Jia. He is a software developer and writes a blog, ‘Flashbacks’.

Villagers who claim they are be-ing cheated out of their lands have told developers of the Ban-galore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor they will not sell.

In spite of officials trying to convince farmers to give their land at low rates, farmers say they are re-luctant to sell up for a road project that includes townships.

On Monday, a meeting of vil-lagers with house panel officials, formed under the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), was held in the Gonipura village, near Kengeri .

Around 1000 villagers from Go-nipura and neighboring villages at-tended this meeting to discuss their issues with the panel. The land row has been raging for more than twen-ty years.

According to Nandi Infrastruc-ture Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Limited, the BMIC project aims at reducing travelling time by con-structing a peripheral road that con-nects Bangalore with Mysore. This will also help heavy vehicles avoid the city traffic by building a multi lane road.

Chinnappa is one of the farmers who was asked to give up five acres of his land. He said that the govern-ment and Ashok Kheny, owner of NICE, wanted the land for build-ing a township as well as the road that would connect Bangalore and Mysore.

Chinnappa said: “Initially we were told that they are coming up with a four-lane expressway but lat-er they said there would be a six-lane expressway and a township. What is the need to come up with a road connecting Bangalore and Mysore

after creating problems for the vil-lagers?

“A road already exists; they should improve that road to con-nect the cities instead of building a new one. We were continuously get-ting notices from the Karnataka In-dustrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) with who Kheny was in constant talks with. ” he added.

According to him, they were told that the contractor would pay them Rs.6 lakhs per acre though the government had set the price at Rs.41 lakhs per acre and a site mea-suring 60*40 square feet for those who give up their land.

“All of us decided that we won’t give up our lands for a township to come up. Why do we farmers need to give up our cultivatable land for Kheny to come up with a road and township? After the protests started, we haven’t got any notices from the

government but we aren’t going to give our land even if they approach us,” he said.

Villagers in Chinnakurchi were also against giving up their land for the project. Despite repeated at-tempts from the contractors and the government to acquire land, villag-ers who initially wanted to give their land later declined.

Padmanabh, a villager of Chin-nakurchi, said: “More than 20 vil-lagers from our village attended the meeting held at Gonipura. The pan-el offered us Rs.5 lakhs for an acre but the market evaluation is more than Rs.80 lakhs per acre.”

He said, “We are ready to give our lands for road purpose only if we get Rs.80 lakhs per acre.”

Another farmer, Maranna Kanchappa, said that they were be-ing paid lower amounts than the market value in exchange for their lands. Kheny had offered them around Rs.4 lakhs per acre for their land.

“We all have refused to give our land,” he added.

Lokesh CR, a bus driver with Bangalore Metro Transportation Corporation (BMTC), was giving 35 ghuntas of his land but didn’t.

“We are being offered much less than the market evaluation of our lands. Initially we were told that only a road would be constructed. Later we got to know that a township is being proposed to be constructed,” he said.

“A township is their private property but a road is a public ame-nity. We were ready to give our land for the upcoming expressway but

not when we learnt that they wanted to start a township there. Land is the means of livelihood for the people. If that’s also gone then what will happen? We don’t want road. It is fine to build but they give us money and say do whatever you want, but money doesn’t stay in our hands,” he continued.

“It is difficult to live and we have to educate our children. If we give land to township it creates problems for the people, but if given for road, it could benefit everyone,” another villager V Narayannappa said.

A spokesman for NICE said: “We are awaiting the response from government. A committee has been formed by them to send a report on the updates from the villages. A road of 42 km has been finished but the real estate work has not begun.”

Shruti SureshRidhi Agarwal

Villagers refuse to play Nice - demand market rates for land

Lokesh says that he is not ready to give up his land for township Maranna Kanchappa, one of the

farmers of Chinnakurchi

Chinnappa, a farmer from Gonipura who attended the meeting

The weekly Observer_ Issue 24

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Transcript of The weekly Observer_ Issue 24