QBengaluru: 4.90 Crore Voters as per Draft Electoral Rolls, & More
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1. Draft Electoral Rolls out, State Has 4.90 Crore Voters
Office of the Chief Electoral Officer-Karnataka (OCEO) has published the draft electoral list for the 2018 Assembly polls on its website, and will also be launching a special voters' enrolment drive later this month.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Monday, 4 December, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar said the draft electoral rolls of all the 224 Assembly constituencies in the state have been hosted on the website (www.ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in).
He said citizens can find out whether their names appear in the draft electoral rolls by searching on the CEO website. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the state during April-May next year.
Those who turn 18 years on 1 January 2018 can enroll their names as new voters. If a name is missing or there needs to be a change or modification, than it can be filed in the relevant forms. Forms are available with the Electoral Registration Officer (EROs) or the Block Level Officers (BLOs) and may also be downloaded from CEO website.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
2. Gauri Memorial Trust Opens
The formal announcement of the Gauri Memorial Trust was made on Monday, 4 December, by the core committee members, including activist Teesta Setalvad, journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, writer Devanur Mahadeva, former legislator AK Subbaiah, and environmentalist Chukki Nanjundaswamy, among others. The trust, which also launched its website, will be led by freedom fighter HS Doreswamy.
The focus is to launch a paper to take forward Gauri’s ideology, conduct annual State and national-level seminars in her memory; institute an award in her name for journalists and activists working to uphold Gauri’s values, and conduct orientations and offer scholarships to young journalists.
Setalvad said the trust has resolved to make sure that the kind of journalism practiced by Gauri, who was killed on September 5, survives. “The fear of death pervades the public spaces today. To puncture it, we need to create spaces of courage and resistance. This is what Gauri did,” she said.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. In Bengaluru, Bonded Labour Still a Harsh Reality
A wailing mother begging at her master's feet for a day's leave to cremate her young son, who died as the family had no money for his treatment. A woman mortgaging her toddlers, leaving them with her master in exchange for a day's leave to meet her dying brother.
No sick leave, no permission to step out of their workplace for years, little to eat, bare drinking water and sanitation facilities, nominal pay for 12 to 14 hours of bone crushing work, and repeated physical torture against both men and women.
These were the conditions in which 258 bonded labourers from Bengaluru Urban, Mysuru and Ramanagara districts lived, till the International Justice Mission (IJM) – a Washington DC-based international non-governmental organisation focused on human rights, law and law enforcement – carried out a series of rescue missions from January 2017 till now.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. 'Drunk Driving Led City to Second Spot in Crime List'
It isn’t violent crimes but drunk driving and the intention of the police to curb the menace by filing stringent cases that has seen Bengaluru rise up the ranks of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) list, said Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Monday, 4 December.
With 45,797 cases under the Indian Penal Code, Bengaluru had registered a staggering 28.7 percent jump in crimes, as per the NCRB report for 2016 that was released recently. The increase in crimes had seen Bengaluru displace Mumbai from the second position of crimes in metropolitan cities.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Reddy said the rise was not owing to violent crimes. “In fact, major crimes such as theft, house-break in and murders have reduced from 13,958 in 2015 to 13,341 in 2016,” he said.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. After Simha BJP, Congress Keep Poll Pot Boiling
The arrest of Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and subsequent developments triggered a political slugfest, with the BJP holding protests across the state on Monday, 4 December. Alleging “political vendetta” by the Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah, the BJP workers hit the streets in protest. The Congress, on its part, said the BJP is trying to vitiate the atmosphere ahead of the Assembly elections slated early next year.
Siddaramaiah asked whether Simha’s conduct befitted a person holding the position of an MP.
The Chief Minister said a case was registered against Simha on charges of assault or criminal force deterring public servants from discharging his duty, rash driving and endangering life or personal safety of others, which were non-bailable.
(Source: Bangalore Mirror)
6. Eight Juveniles Escape From Observation Home; One Traced
Eight juveniles, who are in conflict with the law, escaped from the Government Observation Home they were in, highlighting the lack of security as well as institutional means of dealing with juvenile delinquency.
On Sunday, 3 December, while most of the children in the home in Madiwala were being supervised in the television room, eight children – all of them accused of violent crimes and most of them ‘repeat offenders’ – managed to escape from a toilet in the room. “They broke open the bars of the toilet and fled,” said Vasanti, superintendent of the home.
Officials then called up the police as well as parents of the boys. One of the boys, who made his way home, was sent back. The search for the other seven is on.
(Source: The Hindu)
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