Chief Justice John Roberts' vote with the court's liberal judges to overturn the Louisiana law wasn't the win for abortion rights advocates that many assumed.
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Thursday, July 2, 2020
Migrants in Bengaluru shelter continue to face poor living conditions, uncertainty
Activists allege that there is no government interest in coordination, which would make the process safer and easier for migrants waiting for trains to go home.
Pic: Rosemary Vishwanath
One might assume that the migrant crisis in Bengaluru, with thousands of workers wanting to go back to their hometowns, was over. But just this Monday, thousands of migrant workers converged at the Tripura Vasini convention centre in Palace Grounds, which holds migrants until they can board trains. Volunteers and activists working independently to support the government system say that there is a complete lack of process at this centre adding to the ordeal already being faced by the migrants. While many Shramik trains have been arranged to transport thousands of migrants from Bengaluru to various states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and Nagaland, the government is still processing people who want to leave Karnataka. Initially, there were about 1,500 people waiting for a train to north Indian states so that they could go home. When the government announced on Sunday night that there would be a train to Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, word spread quickly and several other migrants turned up at the convention centre. According to estimates by activists, there were nearly 3,000 people in total at the centre. “Since each train has a capacity of about 1,800 people, not all who gathered could take the train. This left more than 1,500 people behind,” says Tanveer Ahmed, who works with Mercy Mission, a coalition of NGOs in the city. Government inefficiency The main problem that migrants wanting to go home face is lack of information. The trains and their destinations are not announced until the night before the train is scheduled to leave, after which migrants gather at the designated convention centre. The government does not have an efficient way to communicate information, activists allege. “The helpline numbers are rarely useful. Even if someone picks up, they ask the person to go and get information from some other office. Then what is the point of the helpline?” says Rosemary Vishwanath, a volunteer with Bangalore with Migrants. Besides, there is no helpdesk at the convention centre where the migrants stay until there are enough people for a train to be arranged. There is no way to communicate with them on the ground, either. “We don’t have any sort of public address system. Even the two policemen stationed here were not given a van whose address system could be used to communicate information to the large crowds of people,” says Aditi from Bangalore with Migrants. Finally, the government was able to send about 1,800 people on the train to Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. There was some confusion about whether a second train would be announced, and the migrant workers were stuck in the convention centre for hours with no proper water, sanitation or lighting facilities. The large numbers of people who had gathered due to the lack of information also became a huge logistical problem for the government authorities. Activists said that there were over a thousand people who needed help with filling forms and only three government officials capturing the data. “A second train was announced in the evening and people were crowding together to get information. In the evening, there was only one person handling the data entry. Finally, the Joint Commissioner decided that no data would be entered, and they would only collect their forms and allow them to leave. The train left at 11.51 pm that night,” Tanveer says. He adds, “If the second train was routed better, through Bihar, then another 500 people could’ve also left that night.” The second train carried migrants to Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Lack of facilities at shelter The Tripura Vasini convention centre, situated about 5 km from the main train station in the city, hosts migrant workers who are set to leave to city, in order to process their forms and papers. With a majority of migrants having already left, the government seems to have lost interest in maintaining basic facilities, allege activists. Saniya, one of the few volunteers who continues to work with the migrants, says, “There are no basic facilities. The government has not paid the convention centre, so there is no water or electricity, and no one is cleaning the toilets. The hall can fit more than 1,000 people at a time, but there are just three toilets.” Since there is no electricity, there are neither lights nor fans, and the space becomes overheated when thousands are stuck at the centre, Saniya says.
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Karnataka conservationist receives lifetime free bus pass after praise from PM
Kame Gowda has been credited with afforesting an entire hillside and also reviving 16 ponds.
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The state Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation on Thursday awarded a lifetime free bus pass to Mandya man Kame Gowda to travel in all classes of KSRTC buses as directed by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. Kame Gowda (84), a shepherd from Mandya’s Mavali taluk had recently grabbed headlines after he was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his widely broadcasted speech as part of Mann ki Baat. He has been credited for afforesting an entire hillside and also reviving 16 ponds, all by his own efforts. Incidentally, Kame Gowda had risen to prominence in the recent years when he was accorded with the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in November 2018, along with former Union Minister Margaret Alva, former Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and former Olympics sprinter Kenneth Lawrence Powell. His desire for a bus pass was made public through an interview by the English daily The New Indian Express. He said he wants a bus pass so that he can visit temples in the vicinity. In the interview published on Thursday, he was quoted saying that during the award ceremony in 2018, he had asked the then CM HD Kumaraswamy to arrange a bus pass for him. But till date, he had not received it, despite assurances. In a statement, Shivayogi C Kalasad, Managing Director, KSRTC said, “Shri. Kame Gowda's unique environmental concerns and achievements is cited by the Hon'ble Prime Minister, during his Man Ki Baat Program. Hon'ble Chief Minister, Government of Karnataka, too appreciated his exemplary achievement and directed to issue free bus pass to Sri Kame Gowda.” He added, “Shri.Kame Gowda's contribution is immense, wonderful and replicatory. To recognise his yeoman service, a lifetime free bus pass to travel in KSRTC buses is being issued.” Following the mention by PM Modi, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat had also spoken with him via video call.
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Bengaluru govt hospital staff demand PPE after doctor, paramedics get COVID-19
Over the past one week alone, one doctor working in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital and two paramedic staff contracted the virus.
Representational image
Medical staff, including doctors and staff nurses at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health in Bengauru’s Jayanagar, have expressed concerns over the lack of adequate protective gear after three of their colleagues tested positive for coronavirus. While the staff had been demanding protection like face shields, gloves for triage area and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the doctors and nurses since the onset of the pandemic, the administration had remained unresponsive. Now, in the wake of the three such positive cases, the hospital administration has finally promised to give PPE starting from Thursday to all staff working in the emergency facilities. Until now it is only the staff at the ‘COVID-19 suspect ward’ who were provided PPE. Over the past one week alone, one doctor working in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital and two paramedic staff contracted the virus. The hospital is a 400-bed super speciality pediatric hospital and works as a government-run referral centre for children in Karnataka. The hospital runs as an autonomous body, registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960 functioning under the control of Ministry of Medical Education, Government of Karnataka. A staffer in the hospital said that the decision on PPEs was only taken when the hospital was forced with a severe staff crunch, given doctors and other staff who were in contact with the doctor who tested positive had to go in quarantine. A doctor in the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. “The situation was so bad that they were almost asking the staff who were in quarantine to join for work before the 14-day period in violation of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines. With this, the persons who are at a risk themselves already will put others at risk when forced to go on duty.” “Staff working in the triage area who are also at a greater risk still don’t have any protection. We have asked a number of times but all of the time we were told that we don’t need them. And much of the work as it is done by the masters’ students who don’t want to antagonise the administration,” the doctor said. The doctor also questioned the lack of quarantine facilities for the high-risk staff after some staff who were asked to quarantine themselves at their own homes. Dr Sanjay KS, director of the institute, denied that staff were not adequately protected. “Who told that the staff is not provided by PPE? We have got sufficient PPE and N95 masks?” he said, telling TNM that the allegations were false. ‘No shortage of PPEs’ When alerted about this allegation, Dr PG Girish, the state Director of Medical Education Department, said there should not be any reason for the shortage, given the hospital gets a significant allocation every year. “The PPEs are available everywhere. The institute is an autonomous body and the director has been given powers upto spend Rs 25,000 per day for procuring any emergency equipment. And otherwise for procuring any consumables there is a centralised repository in government-run Karnataka Drug Logistics and Warehousing Society (KDLWS), so they can approach there and get it,” he told TNM. The KDWLS is already supplying these things to all 15 district hospitals, 17 medical colleges and all other autonomous bodies.
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Following protests, Karnataka hikes salaries of 507 doctors on contract
An order issued by the Karnataka Health Department confirmed that the doctors who were receiving Rs 45,000 per month earlier, will now receive Rs 60,000 per month.
PTI : Image for representation
The salaries of 507 doctors working in Karnataka on a contract basis were hiked by the Karnataka government on Thursday. This has been a long-standing demand of the doctors, along with the regularisations of their posts. An order issued by the state Health and Family Welfare Department confirmed that the doctors who were receiving Rs 45,000 per month earlier will now receive Rs 60,000 per month. "MBBS doctors working on contract basis in rural, taluk, district, municipality limits under the Karnataka Health Department will receive a hike in monthly cumulative wages from Rs 45,000 a month to Rs 60,000 a month until further orders are issued," the order stated. The doctors working on a contract basis had written to the state government on Wednesday saying that they will not be providing services beyond July 8 if their jobs are not regularised. Even though around 30% of the posts for medical doctors were vacant in the state, the government is yet to regularise the contract doctors. The doctors on contract had been demanding for regularisation as there was a pay disparity between the two posts for the same work. On June 17, the state government assured the workers that their jobs will be regularised but no action has been taken on that front. The contract doctors had written to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa stating that many of them are involved in work related to the coronavirus outbreak in the state. Karnataka has reported 16,514 COVID-19 patients so far of which 8,194 are currently undergoing treatment. The capital city of Bengaluru recorded 5,290 COVID-19 cases of which 4,649 cases are active. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has asked doctors and healthcare workers in the state to be ready to fight the coronavirus for the next six months. In May, the Karnataka government had hiked the monthly stipends of over 8,000 resident doctors in the state.
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23 undertrial prisoners, six staff at Bengaluru jail test positive for coronavirus
The BBMP is currently in the process of tracing primary and secondary contacts, while the jail cells are being sanitised.
As many as 23 undertrial prisoners in Bengaluru's Parappana Agrahara Central Prison tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. In addition, 6 constables who were part of the jail staff also tested positive for the coronavirus. Speaking to TNM, BH Anil KUmar, Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, said that they are still trying to trace the primary and secondary contacts of the 23 undertrial prisoners. "About a week ago, several undertrial prisoners were brought to Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. As per procedure, their swab samples were taken for a second round of testing and the results came out positive for 23 undertrials and 6 prison staff," Anil Kumar said. According to the officials incharge of the prison, the 23 undertrial prisoners had tested negative, when they were produced in court over a week ago. "Before we produce an arrested accused to the magistrate, they ask for test results to determine whether it is safe or not. These prisoners had tested negative then. However, since around 150 undertrials were brought to our jail last week, we had to get them tested the second time as per protocol," a senior official at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison said. According to Anil Kumar, the jail cells where the undertrial prisoners were lodged, have been evacuated and sanitisation is underway. "We have not closed the whole barrack but just the jail cells and common areas where these 23 prisoners and the six staff members went. We are still in the process of quarantining them. Those who are being quarantined will be sent to COVID-19 Care Centres as they are prisoners," Anil Kumar added. The 23 prisoners are currently at Haj Bhavan's COVID-19 Care Centre. However, officials at the prison say that the prison currently has a population of 5,128 prisoners, of which half of them are undertrial prisoners. "We don't know how these prisoners got infected. Whether they got it because of the staff or whether there were any discrepancies in testing when they were arrested. We are trying to find out what happened so that we can work with BBMP to trace all contacts. Since our prison is overcrowded, there is concern of spread but BBMP has assured us that santisation will happen," the official added.
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Watch: Bangalore Broadway Company recreates Nordic Polska with acapella
The song, originally known as "Slängpolska efter Byss-Calle", is a combination of Swedish and Finnish folk songs.
The screen opens to a woman singing. The syllables don’t make sense, but it’s almost as though she is yodelling. The scene then shifts to three men, seemingly singing the same set as the woman, but it sounds different. They are hitting different notes. As the video goes on, more people and groups join the acapella performance, and the song unfolds through ripples and relays of the syllables as they are passed from one group of performers to another. This exotic, layered and melodious acapella performance is from the Bangalore Broadway Company (BBC). They recreated Nordic Polska, which is an arrangement of Swedish and Finnish folk songs into a performance. The BBC had adapted their acapella set from a group called Leveleleven, which had done it in 2016 with a composition originally known as ‘Slängpolska efter Byss-Calle’. While ‘Nordic’ refers to the origin of the music, ‘Polska’ is a music and dance form in the Nordic countries. Listening to Leveleleven and BBC’s respective renditions of Nordic Polska, it doesn’t take a musical genius to figure out how layered and complex the composition is. This makes the fact that the BBC’s members recreated it remotely during the pandemic, remarkable. Sowmya Raghavan, who founded BBC in 2017, tells TNM that putting together the performance and video remotely was challenging. “When you are together, you can play off each other’s cues and energy. If you miss something, you can wing it because others are performing with you. But when everyone had to do their individual parts, they had to hold on their own. If they slipped, it would be noticeable,” she says. Further, they were not able to shoot at a studio either. “We just had our phones. This video and the way it sounds wouldn’t have been possible without Leslie Charles, our music producer and bass player who tracked so many people’s audios, mixed and layered them to make it what it is,” Sowmya says. She adds that Siddharth Suresh, who plays the keyboard for them, was the one behind separating and translating everyone’s individual parts for the song so that the singers could learn. This isn’t the first time the BBC has dabbled in folk music though – it’s what they love doing the most. The 26-piece group with singers as well as instrument players loves bringing music from different parts of the world to its listeners. That, Sowmya says, makes folk music a good choice for them. “Folk music is all heart. It was taken from one place to another by travellers, and usually reveals something about the place where it is from. For example, folk music from colder countries like Russia and Siberia has a haunting, almost sad quality to it. Tropical music meanwhile is much more upbeat and livelier,” she says. While the Nordic Polska video was put together by the BBC remotely, they did perform it live last year as well. One of the greatest joys of art is witnessing and performing them in person. Sowmya knows this all too well, and was initially apprehensive about doing it virtually. “I thought, where will be the joy in doing this apart from each other? But then, the aim is to keep music alive. This was never a money-making project. We do it because there is an opportunity to submit to art. That hasn’t changed even now,” she says. BBC is working on another acapella piece, this time, a Japanese folk song. Another project they are working on is an African song, which will include musical instruments as well. Watch BBC's Nordic Polska here.
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