VOL. 13 ISSUE 7 Tuesday, March 18, 2014

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PAGE 6PAGES 4 & 5

Election special: A look at where the BJP stands

Health special: An Observer check-up on the city’s deteriorating health

D A I L Y

Banned super strength drugs still on sale in city

Drugs banned by the Drug-Control Department continue to make their way to medical stores in Bangalore.

A survey revealed that as many as 10 out of 15 medical stores in Bangalore continue to sell banned drugs.

In February this year, the Drug Control Department (DCD) an-

nounced a list of banned drugs and appealed to the public not to consume them.

An official from the depart-ment, who does not want to be named, said: “There are three different drugs that we have list-ed as Not of Standard Quality. We came to the conclusion of banning these drugs after carry-ing sample tests and subjecting them to quality tests.”

The list of drugs which were

banned by the DCD in Febru-ary are, Tincture Iodine manu-factured by M/s Sovereign Remedies Pvt. Ltd., Enteromy-cetin Syrup manufactured by M/s Dey’s medical stores (Man-ufacturing) Ltd., and Melosafe Power (Meloxicam injection) manufactured by M/s Safecon Life Sciences Works.

Dr. Bharath (MBBS), Jaya Clin-ic, Kumbalgodu, said: “These medicines are banned due to their adverse effect on the pa-

tient’s body. Consumption of the three listed drugs can affect organs of your body in a nega-tive way.”

He added, “Tincture Iodine is an antiseptic used to clean wounds. Enteromycetin Syrup is basically an antibiotic con-sumed for throat infections. It is also used for skin or soft tis-sue infections. Lastly, Melosafe Power is an injection that works as a painkiller.”

The owner of Prashanth Medi-cal Store in Rajajinagar, who de-clined to be named, said: “Tinc-ture Iodine is used for wound dressing. We sell this drug for different rates depending on the amount. A bottle of 50ml is sold for Rs46, 100ml for Rs90 and 400 ml for Rs350.”

Kumar, owner of Nataraja Medicals in Rajajinagar, said, “We sell all three drugs. On demand we can even order the drugs from one of our 60 dis-tributers.”

Shailaja, owner of Sri Ma-hadeshwara Medical Store, said: “We sell all three drugs as they are sold at an average rate to our buyers. I’m surprised to hear a ban on these drugs as I have never heard of any complaints

after its consumption before.”

Rajesh, owner of Sanjeevini Drug House, said: “I can or-der the three drugs on de-mand from our distributors.”

When the medical store owners were asked if they were aware of the ban im-posed on certain drugs, they said they were “unaware” of it.

Dinesh, owner of Dinesh medical store, said, “I’ am unaware about any an-nouncement made by the Drug Control Department. They should inform us in person or send a notice to keep us updated with the list. An announcement in newspapers is not enough. We are not to be blamed for selling these drugs.”

On asking the owners if in-spectors visit their stores to check on the quality of products sold, they said that they are nev-er visited by any officials.

Owner of Gururaja Medicals, Majestic said, “Not once has any inspection being conducted by any official in my store. I own this store for past 20 years now. I have never been surprised by

any

s u c h i n - spections.”

While sale of banned drugs continues in the city’s medical stores, the drugs controller and the deputy drugs controller offi-cers remain unavailable to com-ment on the issue.

prutha Bhosle

Sanjeevini drug house in Kengeri Satellite Town sells the banned medi-cines

Alleged assault victim tests negative for rape

Amid speculation about the alleged attempted rape of a girl in a state transport bus, medical reports have ruled out the possibility that the girl was raped.

According to doctors at the Kempegowda Institute of Medi-cal Sciences(KIMS), the girl said that she had jumped off the bus as she did not know where she was and was trying to avoid the advances made towards her by the driver.

It was reported that on Fri-day night, the girl was alone in a Bangalore Metropolitan Trans-port Corporation bus and had to jump off as the driver alleg-edly tried to assault her.

According to the FIR filed by her, she hails from Mumbai and lives near Devegowda petrol pump, where she was headed in the bus. She jumped off the bus as the driver allegedly changed his route when she was the last passenger.

The FIR does not mention the accused’s name and lists the girl’s age as 29.

A doctor at KIMS, who

asked to remain anoymous, said, “She has a head injury and minor bruises on her leg. She is depressed and is in a state of shock. She is taking medicines on time. We are giving painkill-ers and medication to reduce the swelling.”

He added that the girl was in the Intensive Care Unit for four days and was shifted to a special ward yesterday.

However, locals of the area seem to have no knowledge of the whole incident.

P Manjunath, 55, owner of Manjunath stores, Chamrajpet, Bazaar Street, said: “I close my

shop at 10.30 pm so I did not know about it. I got to know after reading the newspaper. If something like that has hap-pened at least somebody in this area should know something about it. I am surprised that none of us know anything about it.”

The driver in question al-legedly has a previous record of misbehavior with a female col-league in 2012.

Ramesh, Investigating Of-ficer, Chamrajpet Police Station said,” the accused is in Pappana Agrahara jail right now. The case is under investigation so we cannot give you any details.”

Mayuri J. ravi, sneha MeJari & shweta nair

Picture exclusive: BMTC bus driver Siddhartha, 31, accused of allegedly assaulting the girl

EXCLUsIVE

The Daily

Observer 2Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Bangalore’s police control room is “manned” entirely by women.

Female constables are better at working efficiently in the control room, according to the Assistant Commissioner of Police.

L. Chandrashekar, Assistant Police Commissioner at the Police Control Room, (PCR) said: “Women work more effi-ciently than men in the police control room. Hence we have appointed only women in the control room.”

He added: “Women are dis-ciplined towards their work. Most of the work in a police control room comprises of attending phone calls, which needs patience. And women have more patience than men, which is required for this job.

“Particularly, a women’s voice seems appropriate for the tel-ephonic conversation”, he said. “Women work with dedication here and they do not leave the place unnecessarily unlike men which is the reason why we appoint women constables here”, Chandrashekar added.

There are 12 female con-stables working in each of the three shifts. Their working hours are 8 am to 1 pm, 1 pm to 8 pm and 8 pm to 8 am re-spectively. The PCR or ‘Dial 100’ is also termed as an emer-gency call centre.

The city control room is linked to the Zonal Control Room (ZCR) which works under the supervision of the

Deputy Commissioner of Po-lice (DCP) while the Master Control Room works directly under the Commissioner of Police. The room has various Sub-zones covering police sta-tions, mainly north, south, west, east, south-east and north-east, to which the calls are directed from the control room.

Aarti, 38, is a WPC who has been working in the control room for the past 18 months. She had more than 19 years of work experience in a private firm before gaining her inspi-ration from movies to become a police constable.

She said: “We call ourselves social workers who work for the public under the law and order of the state. Before join-ing, we all are given one week’s training by Infosys where they check our voice and train us on improving our communi-cation skills.”

She added: “We also deal with women related grievances and counsel them to avoid any un-toward incidents. If the situ-ation goes out of control, the calls are directed to the NGO Vanita Sahayavani which is housed in the premises of the Police Commissioner’s office”.

The constables who work in the control room are expected to know at least five languages namely, Kannada, Tamil, Telu-gu, Hindi, and English. There are ten computers, each with software to enter data of the calls received at the control room, and the constables re-ceive, on average one call ev-

ery 18 seconds.The police control room is

directly linked to the zonal control room. Once these con-stables receive a call from peo-ple in need, they at once alert the ZCR.

Aarti added, “Once the ZCR receives an alert from the con-trol room, they further inform the police jeeps, ‘Hoysalas,’ which reach the spot.”

Interestingly, the police con-trol room has a wide screen LCD display, which shows the GPS tracking of ‘Hoysa-las’ (police jeeps). Aarti said the GPS tracking of the police

jeep helps them keep track of which vehicles have reached a spot and those vehicles on the way.

A 20 minute deadline is given to the constable to redress the grievances of the people. The lady constable working here makes sure that the vehicles reach the spot on time.

During emergencies, the constables use walkie-talkies(wireless communi-cation) to fasten the pace of communication with the sub zones (police stations). The constables also deal with as-sault cases by alerting the am-

bulances whenever necessary.Geeta, 27, a WPC working in

the control room from the past five years said, “2 am to 4 am is the time when we receive less number of calls; the rest of the time the control room is always busy with calls”.

The control room officials have two vehicles which they track, Hoysala and Cheetah (two wheeler), which are used by the police to reach a crime spot. The Cheetah is used dur-ing emergencies to fasten the pace of vehicular moment.

The police control room offi-cials also make special arrange-

ments called Bandobast dur-ing festivals. Chandrashekar, said, “The Deputy Commis-sioner of Police requested 30 platoons ahead of the Holi fes-tival which act as a strike force during festivals”.

With the elections around the corner, Bangalore police have planned to deploy one civil policeman and one home guard at each election booth. He said: “We will try our best to make the elections a peace-ful affair. We are also planning to make arrangements for pa-trolling vehicles which will su-pervise the entire election.”

Pavements in Kengeri are in a dilapidated state, despite being constructed by the city corpora-tion only two months ago.

In an effort to improve the quality and safety of pavements in the city, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) constructed tiled pavements in Kengeri Satellite Town two months ago.

A series of visits to Kengeri revealed that most of them have started disintegrating and crumbling and the tiles have started popping out.

Nanjundaiah, a resident of Kengeri who has repeatedly voiced his displeasure over pe-destrian safety in the locality, said, “If this is the quality of life the government is going to pro-vide us with, then we are better off by ourselves.”

Moreover, in some places, the pavement has completely disap-peared and has been replaced with piles of garbage. Long-time residents of the area have said that this can be attributed to the lack of waste-manage-ment facilities provided by the government.

Krishnappa, a 63-year-old re-tired engineer and a resident of Kengeri for the past 17 years, said: “Over the years, as new buildings started springing up

in this neighborhood, the qual-ity of life has been continuously deteriorating. The government’s waste management services are completely defunct here and therefore, people have been forced to dump garbage in open fields and pavements.”

As a result, locals reckon that their faith in the quality of gov-ernance in their area is gradu-ally fading.

Vincent, a Right to Informa-tion (RTI) activist based in the area, said, “The corporator and the local government don’t seem to take any initiative in improv-

ing the infrastructure here.”R. Anjanappa, the corporator

for the Kengeri ward, said that this wasn’t in their hands. He said that the person at fault was the BBMP and the contractor responsible for constructing the pavements. “What can we do about this? Even we are disap-pointed with the state of pave-ments in Kengeri. The person to be blamed is the contractor who has obviously done a poor job,” he said.

The BBMP is now aware of this situation and is claiming to have started looking into it. K.T. Na-

garaj, Superintendant Engineer (Major Roads), BBMP, said: “We are aware of the problem. Our inspectors have gone and examined the place and have acknowledged that the prob-lem, though small, is a serious one since the pavements were constructed only a short while ago.”

He added that the contractor, about whom he refused to di-vulge any details, is going to be questioned with regard to this issue. “We are hoping to get an-swers and a sustainable solution soon,” he said.

Karishma ravindran

One call every 18 seconds to police hotline

New footpaths in Kengeri crumble after just eight weeksPranay LaKshminarasimhan

Pavements constructed just two months ago are already in a poor state

Women police officers are more efficient in attending phone calls at the Police Control Room.

Vatal Nagaraj, Kannada Cha-luvali Vatal Paksha leader, staged a protest against Arvind Kejriwal’s dinner campaign near Kempegowda Bus Stand Tuesday.

In the protest cum campaign, he fed people food worth Rs 5 in order to criticize Arvind Ke-jriwal for spending Rs 20,000 on dinner in Capitol Hotel in Bangalore last week.

Arvind Kejriwal, as part of Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign in Bangalore, had announced a fee of Rs. 20,000 to people who wished to have dinner with the

ex-Chief Minister of Delhi. The Daily Observer report-

ed on Monday that Kejriwal’s rally was not as successful as it was deemed to be.

To counter Kejwriwal’s idea, Vatal Nagaraj organized this protest.

The meal provided by Vatal comprised of ragi balls and pickle.

Protestors accompanying the leader shouted slogans that said: “Our food for 5 rupees while yours for 20, 000”.

Vatal himself served food to the people who joined the pro-test.

Vatal challenges Kejriwal by servingstreet food for Rs.5

Photo: Rahul Sadhu

The Daily

Observer 3Tuesday, March 18 , 2014

Minor kidnapped, human trafficking suspected

A 15-year-old girl who was kid-napped from Kengeri was traced to West Bengal by Kumbalgodu police.

Officers involved in the case said they were treating the girl’s ordeal as a case of human trafficking.

Maya (name changed), 15, a student of class 9th of the Rotary School, went missing on January 26 this year. She was dating a local migrant construction worker called Bishu, according to police.

Bishu was a Bangladeshi refugee who had migrated to South India from West Bengal. He used to work as a construction worker at Kalyani Motors in Kengeri.

Bhimappa, Maya’s father said: “There was no news of Maya since January 26. However, she managed to call her mother twice and said that she was kept in a house in Mumbai. She also complained that Bishu and his brother were not allowing her to get out of the house.”

He added, “We got a call from Maya and she described whatever she could see outside the window. She said there was a Ganesh temple nearby. Maya was locked in this house for long.”

On knowing this, a city NGO suspected it to be a human traffick-ing case. They registered a com-plaint with the Kumbalgodu police station on February 20.

Deepak, Sub Inspector, Kumbal-godu said, “The complaint was reg-istered under section 363 IPC. Even if Maya had gone of her own wish, we registered a case of kidnap im-mediately since she is a minor.”

He added: “We also suspected human trafficking. We, along with

the NGO, traced Maya’s location in West Bengal. I went there with three men. We found Maya and Bishu in a refugee camp at Bhirogi in Nadia district. They had come there from Mumbai a week back. The two even got married 15 days back. However, the marriage will be illegal.”

Bishu and Maya were produced in the local court, West Bengal on March 7, and a transition warrant was is-sued. They were brought to Bangalore on March 11.

Both Maya and Bishu underwent medical tests. The reports revealed that there was no sexual inter-course or any signs of phys-ical abuse.

Bishu is in judicial cus-tody. Maya has been sent to a Child Welfare Committee home. Her statement will be recorded there and she will be counselled. Later, if she is willing, she will be allowed to go back to her parents.

Deepak said: “We sus-pect that Maya would have been sold to a brothel had

we not traced her on time. Most girls in brothels in Mumbai and West Bengal are from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Girls are being cheated on the pretext of marriage, love, and jobs and sold to brothels. This is one of the rising concerns in Bangalore now.”

ApurvA venkAt

The 15-year-old girl was kidnapped from Kengeri

Bishu, the migrant construction worker suspected of kidnapping

Janta Dal (Secular) candidate Geetha Shivaraj Kumar will fight against BJP’s BS Yed-dyurappa in Shimoga in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elec-tions.

Speaking about Geetha, her husband, actor Shivaraj-kumar, said: “She had been a good daughter, good daughter in law, good wife and a good mother, now she wants to do good for her people by serving them.”

He said: “I have told her to work for the people not for any specific caste or other such things. I will be her po-litical custodian.”

Geetha will be contesting elections for the first time.

Except for speaking about the reason why she got into politics, Geetha remained silent throughout the Press Conference, which was domi-nated by her husband.

Geetha said, “The only rea-son I joined politics is to serve the people as my father did.”

Shivarajkumar said: ‘I won’t compel my fans to sup-port my wife, it’s their wish. If they want to campaign they can but almost 95 per cent of my fans are happy with the de-cision. Apart from few other JD(S) candidates I will cam-paign only for my wife.”

Once again answering a question posed at his wife, Shivarajkumar said, “I do not follow politics much, so I will not be able to tell whom shall I prefer as a Prime Minister, Narendra Modi or Rahul Gan-dhi. My wife believes she can create an anti-corruption wave like Anna Hazare”

A seemingly confused Geetha said “I think woman should get their due respect in political parties,” while an-swering a question on women not being given their due re-spect by their parties..

She concluded the Press Conference by saying that she can talk “only on Shimoga and not on Modi”.

Election hopeful mute as actor hubby steals the show

SureSh kumAr

Geeta Shivarajan’s husband receiving the wel-come bouquet

After announcing their candi-dates for the upcoming elec-tions, the Republican Party of India declared that their ef-forts to forge an alliance with the BJP in the state had been unsuccessful.

The list of candidates in-clude Golahalli Shivaprasad (Kolar), J. Lakshman (Banga-lore South), Kadogudi Son-nappa (Bangalore Central), Muthuraj (Bangalore North), Govindaraju (Bangalore Rural), Manjunath (Chikkaballapur), Shantaraju (Tumkur), Suresh (Chitradurga), Kumarahalli Krishnamurthy (Mandya), Ish-wara Toremahur ( Mysore).

Venkataswamy, State Presi-dent, Republican Party of India (RPI), said, “We were ready to form an alliance with the BJP, but it failed so we will contest independently.”

Commenting on this, Ka-dogudi Sonnappa, Secretary, RPI, said, “We wanted a Mem-ber of Parliament (MP) from our Party at Kolar.

“We had spoken to Ananth Kumar, Swadananda Gowda

and Prahlad Joshi of the core committee of the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP), but they did not respond to our demands.

“If not for this we would have extended support to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).”

According to reports, the RPI declared earlier this month that it would extend support to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in Maharashtra, at possible cost to the Congress.

Sonnappa added that Ram-das Athawale, National Presi-dent, RPI, would take the final call regarding the RPI’s support to the NDA after the elections.

RPI members stated that Athawale had decided against collaborating with the BJP after he visited Kolar on March 6.

During the conference Ven-kataswamy referred to other political parties as ‘unconstitu-tional’.

“Our Party was founded by B.R. Ambedkar and the pre-amble to the constitution is our motto. The other entire parties disregard the constitution”, he added.

Speaking about the Indian National Congress Venkatas-wamy said, “The Congress ranks number one as far as cor-ruption is concerned. It has be-come a mother-son Party. “

“The Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) is a father-son Party and the BJP functions on the basis of caste”, he added.

Commenting on the RPI’s campaign strategy, T.M. Bavi-doddi, a senior member who is contesting from Bidar, said, “We will campaign from door-to-door and protect the consti-tution.”

RPI-BJP alliance falls throughAnAnnyA & BhASkAr

Sonnappa, RPI secretary

Amid confusion that the Ad-vocate-General of the state had resigned on Monday, the Karnataka Law Minister la-beled the reports inaccurate.

According to published re-ports, Ravivarma Kumar, Ad-vocate-General of Karnataka, had submitted his resignation on Monday regarding dis-agreements over recent gov-ernment decisions concerning the Krishna water dispute.

In contrast to these re-ports, state Law Minister, T. B. Jayachandra emphasized that Kumar had not resigned and was continuing to perform his duties as Advocate-General. Kumar himself could not be reached for comment.

The state’s Special Public Prosecutor also confirmed that Kumar has certainly submitted a resignation letter. Whether the resignation had been ac-cepted was another matter.

Speaking exclusively to the ‘Daily Observer’, Jayachandra said, “Ravivarma Kumar has not resigned. I had a long dis-cussion with him this morning where we discussed day-to-day matters. He has not resigned.”

On being questioned fur-ther about the issue, Jayachan-dra added, “These are merely rumors. Matters are carrying on as usual. This morning we discussed the Pushpa River and other legal matters.”

However, when the Ad-ministrative Officer of the Advocate-General was con-tacted, he said, “The Advo-cate-General has resigned. We are not aware as to why he has resigned.”

A former member of the State Public Prosecutor’s Of-fice, who preferred to be un-named, said, “The issue is deeper than what has been re-ported. It is not only about the Krishna water dispute. It has a deeper political connection.”

He added that Kumar had been appointed as the Advo-cate-General during the ten-ure of the present Chief Min-ister Siddaramaiah as he was close to him.

“Initially Kumar had been appointed because he was close to Siddaramaiah, but they fell out because he wanted to appoint his preferred list of people as law officers. I spoke to the Law Minister today and

he told me that he himself did not want to continue in his position as he did not like the manner in which the present government was functioning.”

Commenting on the issue, B.T. Venkatesh, Special Public Prosecutor, said, “Kumar has submitted a resignation letter. I am not aware of the contents of the letter.

“I’m sure there are other reasons apart from the Krish-na issue such as inaction by the government.”

Kumar, who was the first Chairman of the Backward Classes Commission, was ap-pointed as the Advocate-Gen-eral in 2013, replacing C.H. Vijayashankar.

Law Minister maintains Advocate-General has not resigned from top postAnAnnyA & BhASkAr

Ravivarma Kumar, Advocate-General of Kar-nataka

The Daily Observer4 Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Name of the Candidate: PC MohanAge: 51Constituency: Bangalore Central

Mohan began his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1993. Soon after, he was promoted to the post of Treasurer. He was also appointed as the President of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Wing of the BJP in Karnataka.An experienced businessman, Mohan has actively par-ticipated in social activities such as distributing note-books to economically backward students and providing free eye check-ups for the poor.Mohan represented the Chickpet Assembly from 1998 to 2004 and then again from 2004 to 2008.In 2008, Mohan lost the Gandhinagar Assembly seat but staged a comeback by winning the Lok Sabha elections from the Bangalore Central constituency.

Name of the Candidate: Sadananda GowdaAge: 61Constituency: Bangalore North

Gowda came to the forefront after being elected as the 20th Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2011 fol-lowing the resignation of Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurappa. He holds a degree in law and science and has briefly held the position of Public Prosecutor at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada.Gowda began his political career as the secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP.Soon after, in 1983, he was elected to the state as-sembly.In 1992, he was given a Lok Sabha ticket for Man-galore from where he emerged victorious.Presently, Gowda is the Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is contesting from the Bangalore North constituency where the Party is counting on his influence over the Vokkaliga community.

Name of the Candidate: Ananth KumarAge: 54Constituency: Bangalore South

54-year-old Kumar is the National Secretary of the BJP. His maiden Lok Sabha victory came from the Banga-lore South constituency.Subsequently, Kumar went on to become a Union Minister during the regime of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) where he held the Civil Aviation port-folio.He played key roles in various committees formed un-der the Ministry of Railways and Industry. He has not lost an election since 1996.As a student, Kumar was actively involved with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the stu-dent wing of the BJP.During the emergency he was imprisoned with several other students of the organization.Kumar holds a law degree from the Karnataka Univer-sity in Hubli.Ananth Kumar, BJP candidate for Bangalore south said, “My chances of winning are brilliant. The entire of country is going to vote for Narendra Modi and BJP. My constituency is like home to me. I know my con-stituency well.”

Name of the Candidate: Muniraju GowdaAge: 35Constituency: Bangalore Rural

Fielded from the Bangalore Rural constituency, Gowda hails from Golahalli village in Bangalore South Taluk.A businessman by profession, Gowda was judged as the ‘Best Cadet’ by the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in Delhi.He was educated at the National College in Bangalore.Currently, Gowda is the State President of the Bharati-ya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He was also part of L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra in 2010.Being a member of the Vokkaliga community, the BJP is counting on him to perform well in the upcoming

elections.

Bharatiya Janata PartyElection 2014: BJP candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Bangalore

SAIKAT GHOSH

The Daily Observer 5 Tuesday, March 18, 2014

I do not know who the BJP candidate for my zone is. I will not vote for BJP as Narendra Modi belongs to that party. Voting for BJP is like voting for Modi and I will not do it. I do not like Modi because he does not really like Muslims. - Asba Khan, 21, housewife, BTM Layout

I really do not know whether to support BJP or criticize Congress. Narendra Modi, if me-dia is to be believed, has done great work in Gujarat, but I really doubt whether his so called Gujarat model of development will work for India. Modi is a very good orator, but I do not think that one should believe all that he says. The Congress has been in power for a long time now and any party which is around for a long time becomes vulnerable to corrup-tion and so, I think the nation should give some other party a chance to prove their mettle.

- Abhishek Dutta, store manager at Van Heusen

I have no idea about the BJP candidate of my zone. I am not interested in voting for any party as I don’t admire the work of any of the contenders.

- Matru P. Acharya, 30, Business Analyst, Hennur Cross

I don’t really know which party should i vote for, they all are the same. No one is keen on working for the public be it BJP or any other party. But I might vote for BJP as it seems to be a little better of the lot. - Amol Virnodkar, Engineer

If BJP comes to power, communalism will surely increase RSS, Shiv Sena’s dominance will increase. Brands like Walmart etc will get access inside India leading to more globalization. Modi is getting more hype than he actually deserves. He is being portrayed as the hero India needs and deserves but I’m not too sure about it - Arindam Sen, guitarist at What Es-capes Me

Narendra Modi who dedicat-edly helped Gujarat prosper , is against western culture, yet he uses social media like Facebook page, Twitter and web pages which is a sign of hypocrisy. And over all population of India is not as rich as Gujarat which is hub of rich business men so Mr Modi will find it difficult to implement what he had done to gujarat in a larger scale. - Pritam Mandal, PES College

May 25, 2008

May 30, 2008

October 26, 2009

July 31, 2011

August 4, 2011

October 15, 2011

November 8, 2011

July 11,2012

May 8,2013

BJP Voted to power, wins 110 seats among the 224 assembly seats in the state.

BS Yeddyurappa takes over as CM.

Reddy brothers and BSR Sriramalu revolts against Yeddyurappa.

Yeddyurappa Resigns, after charges of corruption leveled by the Lo-kayaukta.

Sadananda Gowda succeeds Yed-dyurappa as CM.

Yeddyurappa surrenders in front of Lokayukta in land scam, sent to jail.

Yeddyurappa gets bail.

Under pressure from Yeddyurappa, BJP makes Jagdish Shettar the 21st CM of Karnataka.

BJP voted out of Power, Siddara-maiah becomes the CM.

Timeline

Yes, I’ am aware that Sadanand Gowda is the BJP candidate for my zone. But, I do not favor him nor have I decided yet whom to support. Time will tell. - Priyanka Bhosle

The election results will be similar to inki pinky ponki results. BJP has loads of corrupt politicians with strong influence. Let them finish fighting among themselevs first. - Aayush Salampuria, Business-man

I am not a supporter of the BJP. I dont know who the BJP candidate in my constituency is but I dont mind voting for BJP as there is a need for change in the government system. - Rohit Shettigar, Execu-tive Planning Engineer

I haven’t yet come to know who is contesting for Ma-thikere, but I am going to vote this time.- Gaurav Samuel, 21, Engineering student.

If Modi and BJP come to power, they will bring about some radical changes in the country.Last time BJP was in power, they pioneered some landmark infra-structure projects which were a driving force in India development.Narendra Modi has undertaken a massive overhaul in his image after the riots in gujrat.

Now Gujrat has increased his indus-trial output as many international companies has setup shop at their backyard, with promise of investment from many developed nations.If the development in gujrat is anything to go by, then I am definitely sure, that great things are waiting to happen for India, with Narendra Modi at it’s helm.- Ritam Roy Choudhury, TCS

The Daily

Observer 6 Tuesday, March 18 , 2014

EVENTS FILM

Observer Team: Editor–Apurva Venkat Chief Sub Editor-Nikita Narvekar Sub Editors– Anand Jain, Anagha Sawant & Neha Singh News Editors -Ishan Bhattacharya Picture Editor & Design Desk/ Emergency calls tracker – Aurosmita Acharya, Chitharth Mathivanan & Karishma Ravindran Reporters– Mayuri Ravi, Tulana Nayak & Vaishnavi Desai Email- editor@iijnm.org An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

ART

19th European Union Film Festival - Blind

SpotThe mysterious and charis-matic Inspector Hastert takes on one final case before he re-tires: the death of a fellow cop.Venue: Bangalore Interna-tional CentreTERI Complex, 4th Main 2nd Cross , DomlurDate: March 21Time: 6 pm onwards

Art JugalbandhiIt is a combination of Char-coal Drawing and Water color painting One Day Charcoal Drawing Workshop.Venue: Government Museum & Venkatappa Art Gallery, Kasturba RoadDate: March 23Time: 10:30 am - 4:30 pm

Dance Like A Man

M a h e s h D a t t a n i ` s `Dance Like A Man` cen-ters on an indiv idua l`s

plight, where a dying form of art serves as the backdrop.Venue: Ranga Shankara, No.36/2, 8th Cross, 2nd Phase RV Dental College , JP NagarDate: March 30Time: 7 pm onwards

ART

Retro WednesdaysImmerse yourself in nostalgia and revel in the best of the de-cades that have passed. They’ve also got an all-new Beverage and Tapas menu with signa-ture cocktails and European favourites.Venue: Bricklane Grill, 5th Floor , Indiranagar, HAL 2nd StageDate: March 26Time: 8 pm onwards

Graffiti art—from a means of revolt to a choice of professionWhile Kashmiris use colorful wall painting as a means to rebel and protest against their prob-lems, artists in Bangalore are turning graffiti into a career path.

Graffiti generally evolved as writings or paintings done on walls at public places to rebel or protest against social and politi-cal happenings. Many artists in India started to paint the walls or boundaries of cities to ex-press sociopolitical meanings, to bring out awareness to issues.

There has been a slight shift in this art form, instead of con-sidering it illegal and condon-ing it people are sort of accept-ing it. “Although people like it they fail to understand the message behind the graffiti art,” said the Bathroom Painter, a graffiti artist in Bangalore who insists he be called by this name.

His graffiti artwork started from painting bathroom walls which was to earn him his rent. It was then when his friend named him Bathroom Painter and when he moved on to streets; paint-

ing walls, he adopted “Bath-Room Painter” as his name.

He took forth his passion for art from the bathroom to the streets for the purpose of “spreading peace” around him-self. The reason he chose graf-fiti as his artwork was not just to spread peace around him but also because he is passion-ate about art. He said: “I love the feeling when you have a spray can in your hand and the world as your canvas. I love the way the paint flows and the sound of the cans. The blends, the shades and the challenge and everything else about it.

“Nothing much goes on in my head when I paint, it is just the emotions or something I read about.” Most of his graffiti is based on his perception of so-ciety. “I think the world is dark; people have forgotten basic hu-man ethics.” In order to covey his message he tries to paint or draw different abstract faces and his tagline is always “PEACE.”

Bathroom Painter, who eventually revealed his real name is Sunnal, feels the trend

of graffiti is taking a turn now more and more people are com-ing out and starting to paint. “The cost of the spray paint is around Rs 450-500 per can, there are cheaper cans too but with fat caps which is not good for detail work,” he added.

In Bangalore, graffiti is still new to people. “Bangalore is kind of starting now. People like and appreciate graffiti but they don’t understand the mes-sage behind it,” said Shunnal.

He added that the people don’t understand that graffiti is another form of art; they con-sider it similar to other forms of painting. “About painting peo-ple know it only to be done on canvas. It is sad to see that they fail to understand the message you tried to convey through your work, this somehow does not fulfill the purpose,” he said.

Though their purpose re-mains unfulfilled, they are posi-tive that someday when graffiti will become more prominent in the city people might start to understand it. And as the po-lice in Bangalore are unaware

about this form of art, they find this an advantage, as there is no one to stop them. “Also, BBMP is painting everywhere around the city so this is anoth-er advantage too,” said Shunnal.

But he always wishes to work professionally without obstruc-tion, “I would love to hit the streets with spray cans and paint brush professionally,” he said.

Talking about the efforts made by students in Kashmir to fight back in the state through colors and paints, he views it to be the best way to protest and said, “Banksy, UK based graffiti artist, has done it in the past. So, it might work for them too, at least to help spread awareness among people.”

Neha SiNgh

“Bathroom Painter” Shunnal Ligade at work .

Photo Source: Shunnal Ligade

Liver related diseases like Hepatitis A, B & C are most common among people living in Bangalore as most of them are unaware of these diseases, says one of the city’s doctors.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Observer, Dr. Kaiser Raja, Chief Hepatologist for global integrated liver care team at BGS Global Hospitals, Bangalore, said “Hepatitis is the most common chronic disease in India and several reasons are there for the cause of this disease.”

In a survey conducted on 5000 healthy individuals in Bangalore, 2.6 per cent of them were found to suffer from Hepatitis B and 0.4 percent from Hepatitis C. However, rural Karnataka reported 4.5% of people suffer from Hepatitis B and 0.5 per cent suffer from hepatitis C.

Talking about the primary causes, he said: “Alcohol consumption is one of the main causes of liver related dis-eases. Blood transmissions, usage of contaminated instrument and unsafe

sex are some of the other causes.” He said, “Most of them are not

aware about this harmful disease and severe awareness is needed to stop the rise in the number of liver-related dis-eases.”

The doctor said: “In a month, 50 out of 100 patients suffer from liver related diseases. Almost 30 per cent of them are due to excess fat content in the body and 10 percent are hereditary. ”

Speaking on Hepatitis C, he said: “It

is a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV causes the liver to swell and prevents it from working well. HCV usually causes long-term or chronic infection of the liver and unless successfully treated with medications, can lead to cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer and liver failure.”

He added: “HCV damages the liver slowly over a period of 20-30 years. More than 50 per cent of patients with untreated Hepatitis C progress to liver cirrhosis causing scarring of the liver. Once cirrhosis develops patients are at a risk of developing liver failure. Five to 10 percent of these patients develop liver cancer.”

Kaiser said: “There is no vaccine to prevent HCV. The only way to stop the spread of HCV is to avoid direct con-tact with infected blood.”

Speaking about the role of the liver, Kaiser said our liver plays a vital role in our health and well being and is one of the most important organs in the hu-man body. Consumption of junk food, lack of exercise, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol

could adversely affect the health of a person’s liver.

He said: “Most individuals with early liver disease may not have any symptoms. As liver disease advances one gets yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes (jaundice), fluid accu-mulation in the abdomen (ascites) and feet (edema), gastrointestinal bleeding (vomiting of blood, passing blood in stools), sleep disturbance and mental confusion (encephalopathy).”

About the vaccines and safety mea-sures, he said: “A simple test can tell you whether you have hepatitis B or C. There is an effective vaccine against hepatitis A and B. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. Never share razors, nail clippers, or toothbrushes, Cover wounds, Practice safe sex.If you need medical treatment make sure only ster-ile equipment is used and also avoid tattoo and body piercing.”

Kaiser said, “The most amazing thing about the liver is that it is the only organ that is capable of natural regen-eration, so if we take care of it we can lead healthy and happy lives.”

Raju peethala

“Safe sex can help prevent Hepatitis”

Dr. Kaiser raja, chief hepa-tologist at BGS

One of his works at Indiranagar