നെയിം ബോര്‍ഡില്‍ എം. ഡി [മെറിറ്റ്]

തിരുവല്ലയിലെ ഒരു ആശുപത്രിയില്‍ തന്റെ ഡിഗ്രികളുടെ പിന്നില്‍ (മെറിറ്റ്) എന്നു പ്രദര്‍ശിപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന ഡോക്ടറെ പറ്റി കേരളകൌമുദി റിപ്പോര്‍ട് ചെയ്തിരിക്കുന്നു. അധികം താമസിയാതെ, ഇങ്ങനെ ചെയ്യുന്നത് ഐ.എം.എ നിയമവിരുദ്ധമാക്കുമെങ്കിലും, ജനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് ഗുണമുള്ള കാര്യമാണ്. ഡോക്ടറെ അഭിനന്ദിക്കുന്നു. 
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http://news.keralakaumudi.com/news.php?nid=1fdce0e48a7d2e64ceb097106d6ca157
Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2011

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The Padmanabhaswami Treasure

1. King Marthanda Varma usurped the crown from his King Uncle’s son, slaughtering the entire lot including the Nair chieftains who opposed it. The cruelty to the women folk was inhuman. This created extreme public anger against him. To continue would be risky.

2. He suddenly gifted the kingdom to Padmanabha, and told the people that it is the deity's crown and country now; so fight it at your own peril. The brilliant political trick paid off.

3. The treasure consists of plunders from conquered small nearby kingdoms, wealth entrusted for safe keeping by kings and Malabar people fleeing from Tippu, confiscations from enemies of the kings etc. It is not gifts to god by devotees.

4. The Royalty refused to sign the Accession unless they were allowed to keep the Temple as private property [among other real estate, aeroplane etc etc etc]. This was because their private get-away money was stored in the Temple. Duly influenced, VP Menon let them keep it all.

5. The time of the Accession was the time when the Royalty had been shooting people down for about 16 years under Sir. CP's Divanship. Understandably, the people would have shot them all after Independence. They used the sword on Sir. CP, though.

6. The Padmanabha treasure thus has nothing divine about it. It was the Royalty’s slush get-away money. It has blood on it. Only what is left of it after private utilisation through the years, is now being discovered.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE PADMANABHA TREASURES

A ‘rationalist’ of the conservative genre, opined on TV tonight that the wealth is the people’s and not of the Temple or the Royalty. It should therefore, be converted into currency and utilised to uplift the poor, to raise the BPL folks higher, and for their education and health care. Mr. P.J.Cherian of the Pattanam excavation also endorsed his views. I pity their intelligence, if any.

Churches and mosques also have such hidden treasure, if not already stolen by the Committees. If the Supreme Court or any government tries to excavate them, they would feel the real heat.

Left to myself, I find that the antique value of the stuff can never be estimated nor confirmed. It should therefore be converted into a highly secure Museum which might in time, become the greatest in the world. [I agree that valuables from Trivandrum museum are regularly pilfered.]

However, this is not likely to happen. Sonia Gandhi’s family runs an Indian antique shop in Italy. Subramanian Swami has spoken of it. Stolen antiques from Indian temples used to be smuggled out of India to Italy with the help of the LTTE.

As soon as the first UPA government took charge, the Italian PM was one of the first visitors to India. 15 agreements were signed without much publicity. One of the agreements stipulated that Italian companies be ‘consulted’ and allowed to manage all Indian archeological sites and antique stuff. [Another was to contract the entire Chandrayaan to Italian companies]. Sooner or later therefore, the Italians might step in in the matter of the Padmanabha treasures. If Oommen Chandy plays along, he might even overtake AK Anthony and be President of India soon, as reward.

THIS SHOULD BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS.

Sonia Gandhi: Supreme power with no responsibility – M.D. Nalapat

In times past, a section of society was treated as “untouchable” by the rest. They were not allowed to approach the others, and if by mistake one of them made physical contact with the “touchable” part of society, the unfortunate individual was put to death. In the south, a section of society was not merely “untouchable” but “unseeable”. This lowest of the low was forced to ring bells or shout out their location, so that others may be warned to keep away. They were not allowed to use the same paths as others did, having to content themselves with moving around inside fields and jungles, out of sight of others. The rigid stratification of society –which after a while became based on birth – helped weaken the different kingdoms within the country such that they became easy prey for invaders from Afghanistan, Arabia, Central Asia and the territory that is modern-day Iran.

One of the few benefits of British rule was the springing up of reform movements within the Hindu religion, many led by thinkers from Bengal. Raja Rammohun Roy and others like him understood that there was no way India could expel the British, unless society itself became more just. For millenia, learning had been confined to a small proportion of the total population. The rest were given no opportunity to study. This state of affairs continued till the Mughal era, when several from the lower orders of society discovered that they could vastly improve their status by adopting the faith of their conquerors. Of course, such individuals could not dream of equality with the Mughal princes and their retinue, just as later on Christian converts in India were still treated as inferior to the British,despite both having the same faith. However, the treatment given to them was far better than the discrimination they had endured when they were in their previous faith, a factor that encouraged a steady flow of converts for several centuries.
Ever since the 1857 uprising, the British in India were reluctant to force social change,or to impose their systems and standards on those who did not want them. Hence the country had to wait till independence in 1947 for laws to get passed that criminalized discrimination on the basis of caste. A section of government jobs was set aside for those from the castes that had suffered discrimination. This was meant to be a temporary measure, but now seems to have become permanent. Thanks to such policies, many from the former “untouchable” castes got educated, and these days, include within their midst some of the country’s most talented people. Since the 1990s, they have begun to vote tactically, such that in several parts of the country, chief ministers have come from their midst. An example is Chief Minister Mayawati of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. She has proved to be an effective administrator, as well as a determined campaigner.
Should she succeed in coalescing the underprivileged across the country, she may even emerge as India’s first-ever “Dalit” ( or “untouchable”) Prime Minister. At present, her only challenger for such an honour is the telegenic Speaker of the Lok Sabha ( or Lower House of Parliament), Meira Kumar, who entered the Indian Foreign Service due to her studious qualities, is the daughter of the late Jagjivan Ram, who for decades was a Union Cabinet Minister under successive PMs. Each portfolio that he handled was administered well. This columnist’s father was in charge of rural credit at the Reserve Bank,and he used to say that he found Minister Ram to be “the most efficient member of the Cabinet”. His daughter has clearly inherited these qualities, for she is handling her duties as Speaker very well, without once losing her temper. As a senior leader of the Congress Party, Meira Kumar has a chance to be the PM, except that she is scrupulously honest, and hence not popular with other party leaders, most of whom view politics as a means to riches. However, the decision on whether or not she gets selected as a replacement for Manmohan Singh is entirely in the hands of Sonia Gandhi. Of course, the choice of a non-family member to be PM is only in the event that her son Rahul decides not to take up the job. So deep-rooted is loyalty to the Nehru family within the Congress Party that Rahul Gandhi would have the support of 100% of Congress MPs,including current PM Manmohan Singh, if his mother decided to appoint him. His father Rajiv Gandhi was about the same age when he took charge of the country in 1984, and like Rahul today, Rajiv too had zero experience in government before taking up the Prime Ministership.
The steady drumbeat of scandal has lowered the chances of Home Minister Chidambaram or others in the Union Cabinet of ever replacing Manmohan Singh. Each day fresh reports of corruption are emerging, the latest being allegations of favouritism shown to two oil companies, one foreign and the other Indian. Should this scandal become too hot to handle,the way the telecom scam has developed, it is possible that some minister or the other may first be thrown out of the Union Cabinet and thereafter be sent to Tihar jail, the way the former Telecom Minister has been. The calculation would be that the sacrifice of a minister would satisfy the people and douse their anger. However, the reality in India is that although others sign on the files,the real decision-making power vests with Sonia Gandhi. Trusted officials and party members convey her commands to the ministers and even the PM.
Indeed, Manmohan Singh has been honest enough to admit before television cameras that he follows the “orders of Soniaji and Rahulji”
That Sonia Gandhi frequently uses the corporate aircraft of one of the oil companies that is the subject of public
attention is known to mediapersons and others in the national capital. That Sonia Gandhi, her two children and her two sisters travel extensively is equally known. Many times,such visits are made on corporate jets, although no photographer is permitted near the runway when such flights take off and land. The media in India is silent as a mouse about such travels of the First Family of the Republic.
And while the same ministers who dance to her commands get excoriated for possible corruption, Sonia Gandhi herself is kept out of controversy. Recently a Canadian diplomat even wrote in a newspaper that she was among the country’s most determined corruption fighters, an image shared by the foreign media, who give her favourable coverage even as they have now begun to expose the failings of Prime Minister Singh. Indeed, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has become the new “untouchable”, only this time, she is at the top of the heap rather than at the bottom. Whether it is key decisions or changes in personnel, hers is the final – often the only – say. So pervasive is her authority that many are now saying that it would be best for the constitutional fabric of the country if she were to take charge as PM, rather than – as now – exercise power without responsibility.
– Pakistan Observer, Islamabad, June 14, 2010

» Prof. M.D. Nalapat is Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics, Manipal University, Karnataka State, India.

NOTES ON SABARIMALA AYYAPPASWAMI AND ALANGAD YOGAM

The Notes have been posted as my Comments in BRP Bhaskar's Blog "Kerala Letter' on his blog post captioned 'Does Thazhamon family have a better story than Cheerappanchira and Malayarayans?' of May 28, 2011.

Alangad Yogam is the 'father's yogam'; and Ambalapuzha Yogam is the 'mother's yogam'. What connection does Ayyappan's father have with Alangad, and mother with Ambalapuzha?

Kesari Balakrishna Pillai's 'followers' tell the following story:
In one of his missions, Udayanan first plundered the Avalokiteswara Vihara for the treasures there and then proceeded to the Pandalam palace.

At the Pandalam palace, Kaampillil Panikkar was the Commander of the forces. He was thinking of retirement due to old age, and was training his son at the Palace, to take over.

At the time of Udayanan's attack, the younger Panikkar was away somewhere and the old Commander could not fight off Udayanan.

Udayanan overcame the Pandalam security and took away their Princess, who was the only sister of the King. Their mother had been married in from Ambalapuzha royalty.

After some hours, the younger Kaampillil Panikkar turned up and was grief-stricken to hear about the Princess' abduction. He immediately set off after Udayanan with his available assistants.

They reached Udayanan's camp at nightfall; and consensus was reached to attack at daybreak, for lack of light then.

However, the young Panikkar could not wait, presumed to be due to his emotions for the Princess. And he stole into the Camp alone, and managed to take off with the Princess in the darkness.

On their way back, the Princess who felt that her return would only cause loss of honour to the Royalty, and the consenting Panikkar decided not to return to the Palace, but to go into hiding and be together.

Pandalam was 'padma-dala-puram', with ten 'dalam's or villages; one of which was Ponnambalamedu in the forests. The romantic duo decided to settle at Ponnambalamedu, away from public view.

Eventually, they had a son, who grew up with the animals around, including tigers and leopards.

In one of his hunting expeditions some time later, the Pandalam king happened to pass Ponnambalamedu, and found his lost sister and former Commander-designate. The King requested them to return, and the couple refused. The King then demanded that his nephew, the heir to the throne be given to him. This had to be acceded to, and the King returned after the hunt with a son from the wilderness.

[Another version is that the King, enraged at the Commander-designate after hearing the story from the soldiers who returned to Pandalam, used to raid Ponnambalamedu often and was fought off by the Kampillil Panikkar. In the last expedition, Panikkar could not withstand; and the Royal party killed both parents of Ayyappa and set fire to the village. The King spared the child who was his blood-heir, and took him away with him to the palace.]

Kaampillil is a Nayar family at Muppathadom near Eloor in Ernakulam district. Muppathadom and the surrounding area were parts of the Alangad kingdom.

To get help against Udayanan later on, it was only natural for Ayyappan to go to Alangad and his father’s people. The subsequent story of the defeat of Udayanan in the combined attack by Alangad and Ambalappuzha yogam is known.

Dr.S.K.Nayar mentions Kaampillil Panikkar and Mulleppallil Nayar as being members of Ayyappan’s Alangad battallion. Mulleppalil is reportedly Dr.Nayar’s ancestors as well.

Two groups are now fighting in Court to be the Alangad Yogam, which position gives a lot of privileges at Sabarimala. One is at Manjapra, near Angamaly; and the other is at Alangad village itself. Both places were in Alangad kingdom in olden days. Manjapra group says that they are descendents of the Parvathyakar [pravarthyaar] of the Alangad Raja, entrusted with sending the Petta troupe to Sabarimala every year; and this right makes them the genuine Alangad Yogam. The Alangad set asks how people far away from Alangad village itself could be any Alangad Yogam.

I learned of the Kampillil connection from informal talk with both groups; and happened to learn of Kesari’s version only later on. I went to Muppathadom and met the current members of the family. They have an Ayyappa temple which the locals call the ‘original Alangad Yogam’.

The family has no male heir now. The 70 and above year old ladies that I talked to said that they are not interested in any Yogam recognition. One of them said her son had been the last male heir of the family. After the two other groups started fighting each other in Court over the title, one group sent goons after this heir though he was not involved in the title-battle. They attacked the house and terrorised the young man, who was a non-interfering KSEB worker. The trauma made him ill and he died soon after, while still in his thirties. ‘We don’t want any Yogam or its money, Sir; we want to be left alone’ were their words.

I had been to Cheerappan Chira also; and was only happy to hear their story that Ayyappan was their family member, that 3/4th of his divine powers are in their temple and that Sabarimala has only 1/4th. The 3/4th goes to Sabarimala for Makara Vilakku every year. I think that their selling their version stronger would help Arthunkal Palli also.

At the Arthunkal Palli nearby, I was told that 1. the then priest of the Church [Rev. Fr. Velutha] only recommended and got Ayyappan admitted into Cheerappan Chira Military Academy and 2. Arthunkal Palli was founded by Ayyappan’s first cousin and real son of Pandalam Raja. Sebastian had been the prince’s Christian name on conversion by Zabor Easo at Nilakkal. That is how Arthunkal Palli is ‘St.Sebastian’s Church’.

The Vellalas of Tamilnadu have in their own way, proved that Ayyappan was neither Nayar nor Eazhava; but is ‘Vellaalan Ayyan Ayyappa Swami’.

I write this impromptu and without preparation. By the way, did you ever read the 1920s-written Bhoothanaathopakhyaanam?

Kerala man sells wife for 15000 to buy drinks

Kochi: A man, who allegedly sold his wife for Rs 15,000 in Kerala's Kasaragod district to foot his liquor bills, has been arrested, police said Tuesday.

The arrest, two days ago, was on the basis of a complaint filed by the woman that her husband Prasad (29), a rubber tapper, had allegedly sold her to his close friend Manoj, also a rubber tapper, in January this year, they said.

He was later produced before a court and remanded to 14 days judicial custody. The woman had filed her complaint before the Hosdurg First Class Magistrate court following which the police had been directed to register a case and enquire.

The case was registered last month, Hosdurg Deputy SP Josy Cherian said. The woman, hailing from Choyyankod in northern Kasaragod district, had stated that the two men used to often consume liqour in their thatched house and she was allegedly raped after the money changed hands.

Police said they have no evidence about the money being paid by the second accused. Manoj, who is now absconding.

Manoj had been traced to Kollam by using the tower signals from his mobile, but he managed to give them the slip, police said. Kerala tops the list of states with the highest rate in per capita consumption of alcohol.
http://english.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/contentView.do?contentId=9583697&programId=1073750974&tabId=1&contentType=EDITORIAL&BV_ID=@@@"

WOMAN TECHIE ASSAULTED BY MORAL POLICE IN KOCHI

Woman techie alleges assault by moral police
Story Dated: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 17:58 hrs IST

Kochi: A woman techie returning from work was assaulted at Kakkanad here on Sunday night but police failed to take action on time.

Thasni Banu who works in IT company near Info Park, Kakkanad was returning after her shift when she was approached a group of people who showered abuses on her and assaulted her.

Thasni who was with a friend on a bike was slapped in the face by the men, according to her complaint. According to Thasni her assaulters were playing moral police and warned that the culture in Kochi is not the same as in Bangalore.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has now sought report from the city police regarding the incident.

Why do working women feel unsafe in Kerala?
1. Thank you for highlighting this news item on TV as well. 2. The culprits were drunk. If they had found the lady alone with no male escort, they would have taken her away and raped her somewhere. 3. The Police refused to register her complaint. If she had run into the Police Station alone at that time, it might have been the Police raping her, instead of the drunken goons. 4. The lady has a history of fighting NDF-Police earlier. She deserves an Award for bravery.
R.Sajan, Kochi , 21Jun'11 20:31:02

NOBODY IN KERALA EVEN TO BEG

Beggary on the wane in Kerala: Study
T.K. Devasia
14 June 2011
TRIVANDRUM - Beggary, once regarded as a huge social problem in the southern Indian state of Kerala, is on the wane.

A study by the Kerala Social Security Mission (KSSM) in the three cities of the state found a drastic fall in the number of people seeking alms on the streets. The beggars who were once seen everywhere have become a rare sight now.

A few who were traced by the study team in the cities of Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut were seen in better pastures with a paradigm shift in their dress, behaviour and modus operandi of begging.

As many as 65 per cent of the beggars were found in religious places, where arms are given as part of the religious ceremony. The beggars have found the religious places a safe haven since there they get not only money but also food and shelter.

“Nobody questions them or disturb them from begging. One cannot demarcate between a beggar and a religious devotee. Being a religious place they are safe and they use this place”, said the study report.

Interestingly, the study team could also spot able bodied and employed people among beggars at the religious places. One such person was a regular employee of the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. He had taken to begging by taking long leave from his office.

Dinesh Bhaskaran, regional director of the KSSM, said many people from the middle class were attracted to begging as they could easily earn Rs300 to Rs500 a day without doing any work. To earn this they need only to sit in one place for a few hours.

Another interesting finding of the study is that 41 per cent of the beggars seen in the cities were non-Keralites from outside the state. About 39 per cent of the beggars resorted to begging under the shade of religion.

Only nine per cent of the beggars had disability and 8 per cent mental and chronic illness that pushed many to begging earlier. Sixteen per cent of the beggars were in the field due to old age. Poverty pushed another 16 per cent to begging.

Professional beggars, who once dominated the field, constituted only six per cent now. The study attributes the decline in the number of beggars to enforcement of anti-begging laws, frequent raids by municipal corporation authorities, and intervention by agencies such as ‘Childline’.

The strong steps taken by the Railway Protection Force and the State police to check the activities of the begging mafia in the wake of many incidents of trapping children as well as the free rice made available to the poor in Tamil Nadu also brought down the number beggars coming form other states. If the declining trend continues, Kerala may soon become a state free of beggar menace.
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what of the begging mafia? it is big business in kerala.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/June/international_June519.xml§ion=international

This fasting Baba died away from the spotlight

Sandeep Rawat: Tribune News Service: Haridwar, June 13

While yoga guru Ramdev hogged the media limelight as religious leaders and political dignitaries made a beeline for the Himalayan Hospital at Jollygrant near Rishikesh to offer him juice to end his fast on Sunday, in another room in the same hospital lay another saint, Swami Nigmanand.

The latter had been fasting for the past two months to save the Ganga. Nigmanand died unsung early this morning. During the action-packed past three days, when the political and religious leaders converged at the hospital to meet Ramdev, no one cared to visit the unconscious young saint.

Swami Nigmanand of Matra Sadan passed away at the hospital at 2.30 am, leaving his followers and even his guru shocked. He had been on fast-unto-death since February 19, 2011, for the 68th consecutive day, when he was forcibly hospitalised by the district administration.

Nigmanand, who died at 34, was agitating against illegal quarrying being carried out in the Ganga river-bed with the alleged connivance of officials and quarrying mafia. After several rounds of litigation in the court, Matra Sadan (to which Swami Nigmanand belonged) won the case against illegal quarrying which still continued, forcing the young saint to observe a fast-unto-death to save the Ganga. The founder of the Matra Sadan Ashram, Shivanand Maharaj, the guru of the deceased, has announced that he too would lay down his life on the burning pyre of his disciple, if the state government failed to carry out a high-level probe into the death.

He also demanded the postmortem of Nigmanand to be carried out by doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, (AIIMS), New Delhi, as they no longer have faith in the district administration. He accused the district administration of playing a role in the death of Nigmanand. There was a raging controversy about how the saint was forcibly taken away by the district administration from his ashram and admitted to the district hospital following deterioration of his health on April 27, 2011. He went into coma. According to his associates, he was allegedly administered poison by the doctors, in connivance with the quarrying mafia. Brahamchari Dayanand, an associate of Matra Sadan, alleged that it was during his treatment at Haridwar hospital that a ‘suspicious’ nurse had injected poison into Nigmanand, after which his condition drastically deteriorated. A FIR was also lodged by the ashram functionaries against the medical superintendent of the government hospital at Haridwar

As his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to the Doon hospital but later referred to the Himalayan Hospital at Jollygrant. He did not regain consciousness and died.

Local people too were upset as the news of Swami Nigmanand’s death reached Haridwar. Many termed him equivalent to a true martyr since he was fighting for a social cause, while the administration and the BJP government did not pay any heed to this movement, probably under the influence of the quarrying mafia.

Motives of the state government have been questioned. Especially under the scanner has been the role of the local minister Madan Kaushik who accompanied Ramdev to Jolly Grant hospital but never visited Swami Nigmanand who had been fasting for more than two months.

For the next two days, Nigmanand’s body will be kept at the premises of the Matra Sadan to enable the devotees as well as the common public to pay their last tributes to the departed saint.

ENDOSULFAN CAMPAIGN - A HOAX ON KERALITES

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/vs-seeks-cms%E2%80%99-support-endosulfan-ban-836

This is only a paid and sponsored campaign by some rival company that manufactures costlier pesticides. Shame on all that are taken in by it!
The people of Kerala are being taken for a media ride again, as with the Manchium, goat farms swindles, and the false rosy publicity about the Smart City and other cities.

Disaster happened in Kasargode only because the Plantation Corporation owned by the government, kept on spraying the pesticide indiscriminately from the sky from helicopters, for decades together. Why they did so is clear; they acted at the behest of the helicopter leasers. This is/was an act of biological warfare by the State against its own citizens. PEOPLE WILL SUFFER IF IT IS MERE TALCUM POWDER THAT YOU SPRAY DOWN DAY IN DAY OUT FROM THE SKIES; NOT TO SPEAK OF PESTICIDES.
The pesticide is produced mostly by the public sector HIL and not by any private company alone. Some private interests are trying to dislodge this PSU from the field. For once, Pawar is being fair!

The media, politicians and the paid intellectuals are all acting under vicious influence. That the power to ban a pesticide is within the State government's jurisdiction from 2006, is very pertinent; and calls the lie on the LDF.
The unpleasant truth has to be told! NEVERTHELESS, ALL CHEMICAL FERTILISERS AND PESTICIDES ARE TO BE SHUNNED.

RARE BBOOK ON AYYAPPASWAMI

Sree Bhoothanaathopakhyaanam was the first ever work to be printed about Ayyappa Swami, in any language.

Published in 1929, this Malayalam Kilippaattu brought the story of Ayyappa to popular attention for the first time in literature. It is from this work that the traditions and procedures of the pilgrimage came to be followed.

The author Kallaraykkal Krishnan Kartha died in the late 1930s and the book was not available in print after 1947.

The Ayyappa Documentation Project of the Sabari Sharanasramam Trust followed the book up and managed to obtain a copy of the 1947 edition. The book is now reprinted by them and copies are again available for the first time after 1947.

The status of Sree Bhoothanaathopakhyaanam Kilippaattu as far as religion and spirituality are concerned, is the same as that of the Ramayanam and Bhaagavatham Kilippaatu by Ezhuthacchan. Those works brought Sriram and Srikrishna to the popular mind in Kerala. Sree Bhoothanaathopakhyaanam did so about our own indigenous deity, the Ayyappaswami.

In his Foreword to the new print edition, Sri. Kummanam Rajasekharan has exhorted devotees to use the book for daily reading in temples and at home. He has also asked that the holy Vrischikam month be observed henceforth as Sree Bhoothanaatha Maasam.

The book is priced at Rs.100/-.

For copies:

Phone: 04842355575, 9447105579, 9567904159

Email: sabarisharanasramam@gmail.com

swamiayyappa@hotmail.com

Postal address:
Sabari Sharanasramam,
“Rashtrachetana”,
Pulleppady Road,
Kochi 682018

ABOUT HDFC

Subject: ABOUT YOUR RANKING H.D.F.C AS ETHICAL
From: "R.Sajan"
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:20:37 +0530
To: support@ethisphere.org
It creates doubt in the minds of HDFC borrowers about your integrity, after you find HDFC to be an ethical company. They are the masters of thieving recovery in India.
I recently came across HDFC, advertising that their Cochin office had taken over some properties for non-repayment. The majority of the cases had total outstanding balances of less than Rs. 1.75 lakhs, to read from the advertisements. Considering that even a Cent of housing property in Ernakulam district is worth more than Rs. 2 lakhs, this seemed to be over enthusiasm for some reason on the part of the lenders.
It was seen that these loans had all been taken around 2002-2003 when the interest rates were around 7 or 8%. Within a few months however, rates began to climb. Currently, this particular lender charges 12.5%. The extra interest on each defaulted EMI is 18% additionally. The pathetic situation of the non-wilfully defaulting borrower can be imagined. The initial rosy interest rates offered are called Teasers; to tease the innocent public with!
In the current scenario, the borrower would have to again pay at least Rs. 5000/- extra per lakh for each year of the loan, to get his title deeds back in the end even if agreed instalments are regularly remitted. This is because interest has been raised to 1 ½ times arbitrarily after getting
the borrower to sign for the loan at 7 to 8% interest. If it be a twenty year loan, he ends up paying Rs. 1 lakh additionally for each Rs. 1 lakh borrowed, over and above the originally agreed repayment. If three instalments are defaulted, the loan becomes an NPA and within 6
months of continued default, this lender moves in under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 [SARFAESI], no questions asked. This draconian law was put in place to hide and shift from bank officials, accountability of deliberate bad loans. The take-over of property draws attention away from official misdemeanours in processing, sanction and conduct of the bad loans. The fixing of NPA at the end of three months is even anti-Indian when we admit our slow pace of national life.
The RBI has laid down that a defaulting borrower should be advised in advance of the lenders’ intention of deeming him a wilful defaulter; his objections to it should be called for and heard.
This is not done by the Company or for that matter, by most banks. It might be that the default is due to temporary issues like illness or loss of job. What the non-wilful defaulter receives out of the blue at the end of six months of default is a Notice telling him that his property would be
taken over if he does not remit the entire dues and costs within 60 days. Till recently, the borrower had to first remit 75% of the dues if his petition against re-possessing was to be even admitted by Courts. Even now, the waiving or fixing of such remittance is left to the discretion of
the Judge. While the Act requires the Notice to be issued only by an authorised officer of the financier, HDFC gets a top lawyer to issue it. The charges of Rs. 5000/- for that small notice is immediately loaded into the loan dues.
At the end of the 60 day period, the Company would make a request to the Collector. The lower officials would then be properly met by the Recovery agents of the Company and assistance of the Revenue and Police officials are immediately made available for possession of the house by the lender.
And no Keralite would ever default on a housing or gold ornament loan unless it is his suicidal only option. No middle class borrower can fight the financier in Court because of the financial might of latter to get the costliest lawyers.
I enquired about why the final dues in the aforementioned cases were less than Rs. 1.75 lakhs and yet such drastic measures were employed. I was astounded to hear that the actual dues are even less! And this is how it happens.
RBI has instructed that if the dues are Rs. 1 lakh or less, coercive measures of recovery should not be used. Such dues are to be only settled on arbitration. To overcome this difficulty, the Company has ways of bringing the balance to above one lakh. The intended possession of the property is advertised in all the editions of the biggest newspaper of the Company’s choice. Advertising costs come to around Rs. 50000/-. Each demand call by the Recovery officials is charged to the borrower at a minimum of Rs. 750/- per visit. Expenses of recovery procedure at the government official levels are at least Rs. 25000/- and may go up to any amount. Thus even if the loan dues is only Rs. 20000/-, the amount claimed for recovery is easily boosted to above Rs.1 lakh. There is no mechanism anywhere to check costs of such recovery procedure. Neither government nor the law comes to the poor innocent defaulter’s aid. In the cases we talked about earlier, the actual dues were only around Rs. 75000/- to Rs. 90000/-.
The Company’s Recovery officers who engage the Recovery agents etc have vested interests. It is known that the Officers receive Commission/kickback for all services acquired as part of Recovery. I was told that the same group of buyers purchases all the property put to auction by the Company, in different names. One might suspect some collusion here. HDFC officials are NOT bothered about any social commitment. They advise the borrower to sell the property and offer to find buyers. Imagine a borrower in temporary difficulties being thus coerced into selling his 10 cents with house so that a Rs. 10000/- or Rs. 20000/- of overdues can be normalised in the Company’s books.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
R.Sajan,

UNION HOME SECRETARY GOPAL KRISHNA PILLAI

http://sify.com/finance/our-police-will-be-effective-in-7-8-years-news--people-kcoausecgae.html

Excerpts from Interview with Home Secretary GK Pillai, published in Business Standard on 14.2.2010:

1. What is the situation today? If a policeman is recruited on merit, he is good at his job. But if he pays money to get recruited, he spends the rest of his professional life looking for ways to get back his ‘investment’. So, recruitment has to be fair, and it has to be transparent.

2. Every political party thinks it owns the police and can use it to get people to vote for it. There are four police training schools in Jammu and Kashmir, but training there is virtually nil. Bihar has no training school at all. As a result, a policeman gets into the force and is thrown into the deep end. He learns on the job how things are done. He learns how not to file first information reports (FIRs) and how to write FIRs so that he doesn’t have to exert himself too much. Take a simple thing like cyber crime: Even a deputy superintendent of police might not know how to use a computer, let alone how to solve cyber crime – in his 35-year career, there is only one spell of training. How can he track new developments in this area?

3. Let me give you an example of shortages. In an area as sensitive to left wing insurgency as Dantewada (Chhattisgarh), there is only one police station, in Antagarh. Until a year ago, its sanctioned strength was 11. At a given time, six-seven policemen used to be present there. They were given no arms because there was a danger that the Naxalites would snatch their arms. The Naxalites were, of course, happy about this as overpowering the policemen would have taken them 40-60 minutes. Now, the strength has been increased to 30. We’ve deployed the Border Security Force there as well.

4. Transfers are governed by the Police Establishment Board. In UP, for instance, the average tenure of a superintendent of police (SP) is two months. They land in the district not knowing what it is all about. Before they can find their feet, they are moved out. Subversion is the easiest thing.

5. I can say without hesitation that in this matter, AK Antony, to whom I was a special assistant when he was the chief minister, was exemplary in his conduct. He refused to interfere in appointment of policemen. But if anything went wrong, the SP was held responsible. On the other hand, if the SP is beholden to a particular MLA for his appointment, he has to become a servant to that MLA. This happens all along the line.

6. West Bengal is a classic case. When the Lalgarh operation (against Naxalites) was on, we posted the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) there, but the force was not familiar with local operations and language. So, we got the police station reinforced by policemen from Kolkata. One weekend, we found the police station was deserted. So, we made some enquiries. We were told that the policemen had left for Kolkata — they belonged to the CPI(M) union and observed a five-day week.

7. In West Bengal, if you have to file an FIR, the police will direct you to the CPI(M) area committee office. The first thing you will be asked is: Are you a member of the party. If you’re not, the chap there will say: ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you’. If you are, you will be given a chit and asked to go back to the police station, where your FIR will be registered.
So, West Bengal has no law and order problem because the party has solved them all.
======================================================================

KERALA MUST BEGIN RADIATION TOURISM

Right from the 1950s, scientists have identified the seashores of Kerala as one of the greatest hot spots of background radiation on Earth. Subsequent surveys have established that Karunagapalli taluk of Kollam district has the highest background radiation in the world. Around 750 new cancer cases are registered every year from the 12 panchayaths around Karunagapalli. The most concentrated deposits of radioactive Monazites are found along the 55 km stretch of coast from Neendakara in Kollam district to Purakkad in Alappuzha district.

It is a pity that popular administrations have not bothered to raise the issue in international forums or seek help from agencies like the WHO to tackle this risk. The 55 kilometre stretch should be declared as a radioactive risky area forthwith. Government employees working there should demand and be given special risk allowances.

Pending such initiatives, Kerala government can immediately publish the area as the world’s only radiation tourism spot and try to sell it to foreigners.

Termites eat up Rs 1 crore at SBI branch in Uttar Pradesh

Barabanki (UP), 2011 April 21: Currency notes worth over Rs 1 crore were reduced to dust in the chest of State Bank of India (SBI) in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district, officials said on Thursday. The mutilated notes were found in the chest on Wednesday. Apparently, termites ate the stacks of notes. The officials at the bank remained non-committal about the amount of cash destroyed. However they estimated that the loss of currencies could be worth over Rs 1 crore.



The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been informed about the incident and anti-termite treatment was underway at the branch. Branch Manager Sunil Dwivedi said, "I am not sure where the termites came from, but as you can see this building is quite old. Anti-termite treatment is now underway."

Lucknow, April 22: Though the exact amount of loss arising out of termites eating up currency notes inside a steel chest at a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh is yet to be quantified, it will be borne solely by the SBI itself and there would be no loss to the public at large. This was stated by Amarendra Sahoo, regional director of Reserve Bank of India, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.



Talking to FE, Sahoo said that the joint team of senior RBI and SBI officials, which had visited the bank in Barabanki, has found that though mutilated, most of the notes eaten up by the termites had their numbers intact. “Those notes in which the numbers are intact, will be replicated by the RBI while the fate of those which have been mutilated beyond repair will be adjudicated once the investigation is complete,” said Sahoo, adding “there would be no loss to the public. The bank will bear the loss, if any.”



It may be mentioned that in an almost outlandish case, aghast bank officials on Wednesday found termites to have made a hearty meal out of currency notes worth approximately Rs 1 crore kept inside the strong room at a SBI branch in Fatehpur block of Barabank district near Lucknow. A team of senior officials of the SBI and RBI visited the branch on Thursday to investigate the matter. SBI AGM Geeta Tripathi, who headed the inquiry team said after the visit prima facie it appeared that the notes in the currency chest had been damaged by termites as the branch was housed in a very old building which was ridden by termites. Cases of files and furniture being damaged due to this malice had already been brought to the notice of the management and efforts were on to relocate the bank at some other place.



The SBI, had in a press release late on Thursday night clarified that “no discrepancy has been detected in the currency chest except that some notes have been found to be slightly damaged. We don't expect any loss arising out of this and all corrective measures have been taken”.