Drug
scam in railway hospital, probe ordered
PATNA, May 6: A fake medicine
racket has come to light in the Danapur
Railway hospital with detection of supply
of alleged fake drugs like alprazolam,
paracetamol and a syrup, prompting the
East Central Railway (ECR) authorities to
order a thorough check of the drug
stores.
Senior
Divisional Medical Officer (SDMO),
Danapur Railway hospital, Ranjit Das
lodged an FIR in the Khagaul police
station against three pharmaceutical
firms, having registered offices in West
Bengal, Delhi and Jharkhand after
patients failed to respond to these
drugs.
It may be
an eyeopener for all the Government and
private hospitals as all these are
commonly prescribed drugs and are
purchased in bulk by most hospitals,
official sources said.
When
contacted, O N Sharma, Inspector of the
Khagaul police station, said according to
the FIR registered yesterday the
drugs-Alprazolam, Paracetamol and a
syrup, lacked effectiveness and the
quality of cotton and bandage were also
found to be sub-standard.
Sharma did
not not rule out the possibility of a
large fake drug racket involving other
railway hospitals under the ECR zone and
revealed that the doctors of Danapur
hospital were also under scanner.
Incidentally,
two railway employees lost their eyesight
soon after undergoing surgey at Danapur
railway hospital recently.
We will be
probing the racket from all the angles to
bring the culprits to justice, Sharma
said.
Divisional
Railway Manager (Danapur) B D Garg told
PTI that he had asked the Chief Medical
Director of the ECR Mahadik to get the
stocks thoroughly checked.
We have
asked the doctors to suspend prescribing
these drugs to the patients and
alternative drugs are being arranged for
the relief of patients, Garg said.
Stating
that the railways would take stringent
action against the medicine firms if it
was confirmed that the drugs supplied
were fake ones, Garg said the
confirmation would lead to blacklisting
these companies.
These
drugs are frequently prescribed but as
they failed to respond to a patient, the
drugs were then sent to for tests to
leading laboratories in Kolkata and
Delhi, a senior railway official said,
adding the reports confirmed these drugs
were sub-standard ones.
Meanwhile,
the ECR employees unions condemned the
malpractices relating to supply of
sub-standard drugs to patients at Danapur
railway station and called for a
high-level probe.
The unions
urged Railway minister Lalu Prasad to set
up a high-level committee of medicine
experts to ensure the quality of
medicines being received by the
hospitals. (PTI)
JNNURM
makes slow progress
SHIMLA, May 6: The Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM) has made a tardy progress in the
last three years in this hill
state’s capital owing to the Shimla
Municipal Corporation’s (SMC)
failure to prepare city development plan
and send detailed project reports (DPRs)
on time.
The
mission, which envisaged an expenditure
of about Rs 3,900 crore on various
schemes and programmes for this town, has
so far only allocated a meager amount of
Rs 30.66 crore only for the entire
mission period (2005-2012).
Of this
allocated amount, only Rs 5.21 crore has
been released for the setting up of a
solid waste management plant and widening
and lowering of existing tunnel near
Auckland House School, at a cost of Rs
10.09 crore.
Eleven
development projects of about Rs 120
crore were still pending for approval,
besides a proposal for Rs 650 crore water
supply scheme, which was also under
consideration by the Planning Commission.
JNNURM,
being implemented in 63 cities of the
country, promises to improve basic
infrastructure facilities and civic
amenities, meet the basic needs of urban
poor, upgrade and expand the road
network, augment water supply, remove
urban slums and ensure proper management
of solid waste.
Other
components of the mission were to improve
sewerage and sanitation and urban
transport, provide proper drainage
system, parking spaces, initiate steps
for the development of heritage areas,
preservation of water bodies and
prevention and rehabilitation of soil
erosion.
The
mission has also made very little
progress in meeting the targets fixed
under various heads for renewal and
planned development of capital town,
resulting in non-release of grants.
Besides,
it also failed in meeting the basic
targets like e-governance, shifting to
accrual based double entry accounting,
enactment of Community Participation Law
and entactment of Public Disclosure Law.
The SMC
made a provision of Rs 2.5 crore in its
budget for 2006-07 for implementation of
schemes under JNNURM and made ambitious
plans for the development of the town
over a period of next 20 to 25 years.
However,
no serious effort was made to prepare
detailed project reports (DPRs) in
respect of developmental plans and as a
result there was no response from the
Centre.
Shimla is
facing problems of congestion, water
shortage, parking space, deforestation,
solid waste management and rapid
transport systems.
To
overcome these problems, the mission
proposes construction of five tunnels,
four overhead bridges, seven pedestrian
way, more lanes and aerial roads,
development of alternate modes of
transport, expansion of runway for bigger
aircrafts and shifting commercial
establishments.
It also
proposes construction of parking lots,
argumentation of drinking water schemes
and systems, amusement parks, development
of tourist places, landscaping of the
town, construction of electric
crematorium, creation of mini-industrial
centre near bye pass and maintenance of
heritage buildings.
The
funding under the mission for the state
was in the ratio of 80:10:10 between the
Central Government, State Government and
the local municipality.
But all
these plans remained on the paper and no
concrete steps were taken to take
advantage of the mission under which 80
per cent grant was to be provided by the
centre and only ten per cent by the state
and remaining ten per cent by urban local
bodies. (UNI)
Smoking,
drinking scenes can’t be
kept
out of films: Pyarelal
NEW DELHI, May 6: Legendary music
director Pyarelal of the
Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo has joined the
debate triggered by Union Health Minister
Anbumani Ramadoss’ remarks on
smoking and drinking scenes in movies.
The music
director says such conditions are
impossible to implement. If scripts
demand such characters, clipping them
would mean limiting artistic creativity,
he adds.
"If
an actor is playing the role of a crook,
how can you expect that a devotional song
will be picturised on him? without a
cigarette or alcohol in his hand? I think
that will limit the creativity of the
writer or director,"says Prarelal.
"Or
please spare songs on Mirza Ghalib
‘shayaris’ because most of them
can’t be imagined without drinking
scenes," he adds.
Recently,
the Health Minister had commented that
actors should not drink or smoke on
screen in films and serials as drinking
or smoking scenes glorify the use of
alcohol and youngsters in their bid to
imitate their icons end up taking to
smoking or drinking.
"We
make music keeping the situation and
character in mind. I think Shahrukh Khan
or Dilip Kumar in a Devdas song without a
liquor bottle in hand would not be
acceptable. Sanjay Dutt in ‘Choli ke
peeche song’, Dev Anand in
‘Main Zindagi ka saath nibhata chala
gaya’ are some examples where you
cannot compromise with the
character’s demand," says the
veteran who together with Laxmikant gave
music for almost 500 films in a career
spanning 35 years.
The duo
won several awards including seven
Filmfare Awards, four times in a row, for
their musical scores.
Disapproving
the use of ‘drinking scenes’
just to inject a fun element Pyarelal
says, "It should be stopped. Most of
my songs were without these scenes. Its
not possible for me to imagine a drinking
or smoking song scene in films like
‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. Those
who are taking advantage of the freedom,
should be warned."
Laxmikant-Pyarelal
has worked with almost all notable
filmmakers of their times including Raj
Kapoor, Dev Anand, Feroze Khan, B.R.
Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai,
Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Manoj
Kumar.
Commenting
on the present day music, Pyarelal says
there is no dearth of talented singers or
music directors in the country but the
industry needs a revolution. "The
emphasis of the present day music is
instant popularity and not something
original. It can’t be changed in one
day and will take some time. It is up to
public what they want to hear."
Adding
that of late, the quality of Hindi film
music has seen a downfall and the
timeless melodies era of music directors
like Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan-Mohan,
Khayyam, O P Nayyar, S D Burman will
never be recreated, he says, "Today
the importance of lyrics has taken a back
seat and much attention is being given to
sound.
"There
are some great lyricists like Gulzar
Saheb who can write good lines even with
the present-day norms and new
values." (PTI)
Mayawati’s
ambition to become PM ‘not totally
impossible’
NEW DELHI, May 6: The
proclaimed ambition of Ms Mayawati, the
charismatic supremo of the Bahujan Samaj
Party, to become the Pime Minister of the
country "is not totally
impossible", if her party is able to
secure even 50-60 Lok Sabha seats
"in a hopelessly muddled post-Lok
Sabha poll scenario," says a new
book.
"...Mayawati
would be a frontrunner for the prime
minister’s job if neither the UPA
nor the NDA is in a position to form a
government in the next Lok Sabha
election," says the book,
"Behenji: A Political Biography of
Mayawati", written by noted
journalist Ajay Bose.
Mr Bose
argues that it is not totally impossible
in a muddled Lok Sabha poll scenario that
she manages to get one side or the other
to propose her as a compromise candidate
to head the Government.
"This
may seem far-fetched and smack of
political suicide by the Congress and the
BJP, but stranger things have known to
happen in politics," he says.
Expounding
on his premise, Mr Bose says there is a
big change in the perception of Ms
Mayawati after her sweeping victory in
the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly
elections. The BSP’s triumphant
Dalit-Brahmin alliance, the mainstay of
her social engineering, has overnight
become a blueprint for electoral success
across the country.
"The
fact that neither the Congress nor the
BJP has a clear prime ministerial
candidate is in Mayawati’s favour.
She has an excellent personal rapport
with Congres President Sonia Gandhi. The
BSP leader is also a favourite of the
Sangh Parivar, including powerful
sections of the RSS, who are strong
supporters of her Dalit-Brahmin
alliance."
Ms
Mayawati herself is supremely focused to
take the big leap forward. With
characteristic candour she announced
almost immediately after winning the
Uttar Pradesh polls that her next
challenge was to capture power at the
Centre.
Long
before the 2007 assembly polls in Uttar
Pradesh, she had meticulously planned for
each of the 400-odd assembly
constituencies in the state. She is now
doing a similar exercise for the 542
parliamentary constituencies which will
be up for grabs in the Lok Sabha polls.
"These
plans will naturally be of particular
relevance in Uttar Pradesh where Mayawati
hopes to win as many as 60 out of 80
seats. She is planning to virtually
obliterate the Congress and the BJP, and
reduce Mr Mulayam Singh’s Samajawadi
Party to single digits in the next Lok
Sabha," says the book.
Under
normal circumstances, it would be
ludicrous to suggest Ms Mayawati, who
commands less than 20 seats in the Lok
Sabha having 543 elected seats, can form
the Government in space of one general
election, says the author.
Even if
the BSP were to more than double their
present tally from Uttar Pradesh, getting
a maximum of 50 seats, it will still fall
short of securing a tenth of the elected
Lower House.
If in
addition, the party won 20 seats from
other states-a best-case scenario-it
would get a total of 70 seats. This will
take the BSP to third position behind the
Congress and the BJP.
"Obviously
the next general elections need to usher
in a period of considerable instability
if Mayawati is to have a crack at the top
job," says the book.
Mr Bose
also points out that there is little
scope for the BSP to add to its core
Dalit vote, since this is already close
to saturation-close to 80 per cent.
"But
the party should attract a much larger
component of the poorer backward castes
and Muslim votes, along with a
substantial section of the Brahmin and
Bania votes," he contends.
BSP
election managers are, however, aware
that they may need a larger percentage of
votes in the next general elections,
since politics in Uttar Pradesh is
increasingly polarised between the BSP
and the SP, which is also likely to
receive the consolidated backing of its
supporters.
"The
real challenge for the BSP in the general
elections will come in the adjoining
states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Rajasthan and Delhi, where the party
needs to pick up seats if Mayawati is to
make a serious bid for power after the
next general elections," says the
author, adding her return to power with a
full majority in Uttar Pradesh will have
an impact on these states.
Arguing
that there would be a major consolidation
of Dalits votes behind the BSP next time,
he says it would be important to see
whether the party is able to increase its
votes from tribals and poor backward
castes.
"It
would also need to replicate the alliance
with Brahmins beyond the borders of Uttar
Pradesh. This will not be easy because
Mayawati and the BSP are on a completely
different level in Utar Pradesh compared
to other states, where the party’s
winnability ratio is far less," says
the noted political commentator, who has
been associated with a wide range of
media at home and abroad, including BBC,
The Guardian, London and Time magazine.
Maharashtra
is the only state outside north India
where the BSP has a realistic chance of
winning a few seats, and that too in some
Dalit pockets of Vidarbha region.
"There
is often a subterranean current in favour
of a political leader or movement that is
not fully visible on the surface.
Mayawati comprehensively proved that in
Uttar Pradesh. It is possible that she
will do so again in a larger national
arena. Certainly for a long time no other
leader has been talked about with as much
excitement and anticipation across social
strata-from upper class living rooms to
working class slums."
Mr Bose
argues that even if Ms Mayawati were not
to make it as prime minister after the
coming Lok Sabha polls, she would remain
a strong contender for the post in future
electoral battles.
"With
a secure bastion in the country’s
largest state and an emotional
estranglehold over a countrywide group
like the Dalits, she has extremely strong
political cards to play in an
increasingly fractured polity. It is
perhaps just a matter of time before she
does become the Prime Minister of the
country," says the book. (UNI)
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