Police mobile helpline - Coimbatore

Coimbatore City Police can be reached on 9843100100. The following is a notification to this effect.

Members of the public could make use of this facility to report law and order problems, crime, criminal movement, drunken brawls and even traffic snarls on any of the roads when they saw them while travelling.
For people with speech disability or those who were in distress and not able to make voice calls could send messages over Short Message Service (SMS).

Coimbatore City Police Helpline

Police Commissioner CK Gandhirajan after taking charge as COP of Coimbatore has put up a number of way where the common man can reach the Police in a free and fast manner. First was the setting up of an email ID to write to the Commissioner of Police (COP).The latest is a police helpline number which can be used to report any law and order problem in the city. 9994310000 is the number to be called. The first instance of immediate police action is the arrest of a bus conductor of a private bus with route number 1C on charges of eve-teasing. This city surely need an upright and effective police force to keep up with the growth it's going through recently. Incidentally Coimbatore has seen some of the best officers in the country despite being a low profile destination. MS Jaffer Sait IPS who is currently the Inspector General of Police (Central Zone) worked as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in this city.

During my polytechnic days I've seen the amount of respect DSP Muthuswamy commanded in the city. I can remember names like Radhakrishnan, Lalawm Sangma, Karan Singha, Sanjay Arora, all COP's at some point of time. The last person was known for his no nonsense approach when it came to police matters. The current COP of Coimbatore has also been an officer who wants police to be friends of the people. This is a welcome move and will help both the police and citizens. Traffic is one of the bigger challenges in this city. With racing almost in every one's blood, every rider/drive in Coimbatore is a one man driving team. The Police are certainly doing a neat job of enforcement in terms of traffic violations and general road safety.

Coimbatore is also one of the safer cities to live in South India and most certainly safer than Chennai or Cochin. There are excellent avenues for primary and higher education and recently the job market has been also showing promise for the IT and Engineering sector. As this city grows, it needs good infrastructure to keep up with the demands of the population, good citizens and above all excellent law enforcement professionals. Men and Women of honour and integrity whom the citizens can look up to. In the way progress is being made by the Police force, we are on the right track. It's now simply going to be a matter of time. Many congrats to the COP for all the positive changes in the department in such a short span of time.

P.S - "Organized Crime" is a book authored by CK.Gandhirajan IPS, it's a good book that deals with what the titles refers to. Get the book, it's worth a read.

In the larger interest .....

Last night in a program on Times NOW Mahesh Bhatt narrated the following story. He met a boatman in a village and this man was charging Rs.1 per passenger to cross a river. Bhatt asked him if he knew that a bridge was being constructed across the river the boatman answered in the affirmative. Bhatt then asked him if he wasn't worried about loosing his livelihood to which the boatman replied, "Whatever happens to me, the bridge will certainly be good for the people".

A similar incident happened an year ago about which my brother recollected. This happened during one of his trips to Thattekad near Kothamangalam in Kerala. There was this boatman who was ferrying tourists across the river and my brother asked him if he knew about a bridge that was coming a little upstream. To my brother's surprise the boatman said that he was happy about the bridge because people who are sick and bitten by snakes in the forest can be driven to the town hospital much faster.

I salute these Indians!

Mullaperiyar - murky waters

A week ago I tried to bring Idukki dam into the Mullaperiyar debate because it appeared to be hiding something the Kerala government didn't want to disclose. This morning Sam Rajappa (political analyst who was with The Statesman earlier) reiterates his position on Mullaperiyar in a column in 'The New Indian Express'. Earlier in December last year Sam posted an article in The Statesman about the same subject. Here are some of his assertions.

The Idukki dam was not getting filled up fully after completion of it's construction because of not so copious rain in it's catchment areas and the KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) engineers hit upon an idea of reducing the storage level of Mullaperiyar (which is upstream) to 136ft to bring in enough water overflowing from there. It took 4 years after completion for all 6 power generators in Moolamattom power house (situated downstream of the Idukki dam) to generate power.

Given Kerala's energy situation, the fear is understandable. There is a 30 minute load shedding in summer in Ernakulam district (there could be in others, but I can't say for sure) and if there i no enough storage in Idukki dam which generates the bulk of Kerala's power for the Central region then the situation could worsen. If this assertion is entirely true then full marks to the Nostradamus' in Kerala for the successful campaign in instilling fear in the minds of people.

Previously I stated the following here.

# Despite copious rains the Idukki reservoir was filled only to the extent of 57.365 tmc though it's full storage was 70.500 tmc. The Idukki dam which is situated further downstream ahead of the Mullaperiyar dam can take in excess of 11 tmc water should the worst happen.

And now Sam's article reiterates that all the water from Mullaperiyar will add to about 1ft more water in the Idukki dam. He also makes another interesting observation. After leaving the Mullaperiyar dam the rivers meanders through thick hilly sections for 32 kms and for the remaining 16 kms there are pockets of human inhabitation. The article alleges that these hamlets will not be submerged but might get inundated.

The life of a dam has been a key question and if one was to view it from the Kerala government's perspective then the Stanley reservoir (Mettur), Bhakra Nangal dam, Nagarjuna Sagar dam and a couple of other dams are already running way past their life and could be an 'imminent' danger. This can be anything but true. A dam's life after construction entirely depends on how it's monitored and maintained from there on. Look at the Grand Anaicut (Kallanai) in Trichy, built by the Chola's, it's been in active service for about 1000 years.

All concerns raised by the Govt of Kerala could be valid. That's when you bring Idukki into the perspective. Mullaperiyar is surely not Kerala's only concern, the truth lies in Idukki which nobody is talking about.

Mullaperiyar Dam - Another perspective from the Kerala side

This is the URL to a Kerala government's video about the Mullaperiyar issue. The video somehow looks sensational and appears to be made to instigate fear in the minds of people. On the other hand Kerala's concerns appear to be valid too. But amidst all this smoke, what is the status of the Idukki dam? Word is out that the monitoring systems setup on it have not been working or are giving erraneous results since 1990. A little more light on the Idukki dam could open another can of worms and this time Kerala won't be able to deflect attention anywhere else.

Another advertisement from The Hindu published by the Govt of Kerala

Faith in the criminal justice system in India

The lower courts in India have always raised questions of the law being above partisan considerations but time and again and High Court in each state the the Supreme Court have stepped in to prove that the law is indeed fair in dealing with criminals. The conviction of the rapist and murdered of Priyadarshini Matoo today bring back the faith one needs to have on the Indian judiciary system. The media also cashed in on the case in a constructive sort of a way and got people to unite by calling for SMS campaigns and emails. Let's these sentences deter possible criminals from committing acts of brutality and instill a fear of having to face the law for their doings with no hope of getting away from them.

Pawn or Porn

Technology has grown exponentially in the past 55 yrs and more so in the past 10 yrs. The MMS clipping that has raised ripples all over recently must be seen in this perspective. Before getting in that, we need to ask some questions to ourselves. What is it that bothers us when we hear about two school children and their private activities. Is it the act that nauseates us, in the light of the fact that these were two minors in school? Are we concerned by what constituted the act? Is the technology that is used that demands our attention? Or is it simply the voyeur in us that is getting excited at the thought of getting a peek into these kids lives?

Whatever it is, one thing is for sure. This trend is not new in our schools, especially the so-called 'public' schools and boarding schools. Our society needs to be educated more on the values than condemning entities for transgressing what is perceived as right and wrong. Nobody is raising questions about the awareness that needs to be created. Sex has to be defined as intimate and personal connection between two people who have some bonding and is not something a school girl should be risking her personality and health with. The core issue is more of understanding and being comfortable with the most contentious topic on earth. Every living human being is a result of two people's carnal interests. What's the big deal in hiding behing a veil then?

Before getting into technology, the first question that I thought was that did we really need cameras on cell-phones? This was simply the case of one company wanting to create more value for their product. Today the market is not defined by need or value, but absolute reasonless additions in the name of offering the latest in technology. The fact that the sexual act was filmed shows the playfulness of two teenagers who were experimenting with their sexuality. The age is addictive where one person can easily get the other to submit to one's whims and fancies. These days students are not students anymore, they are pawns at the hands of their parents and peers.

Every parent wants his son/daughter to become a 'somebody' in society and keep pushing them to the edge of sanity and tolerance. Many become super-successful, some become sick mentally, others get into all the shady activities while there are a number who simply believe that there is place for every person on earth, but this reality dawns at a later stage in their lives. The third groups thrives on shady dealings solely with no other escape route. This coupled with the amount of secrecy and hush-hushness associated with sex, drugs, gambling creates a cult value for the act and gets people interested in it. One doesn't need to look beyond the TV to get an idea of the way the creators of the programmes perceive the market and their target audience.

Does every music video need to be accompanied with a sultry siren baring it all within its bits piece of cloth which would only be enough to cover one's face? Keep thinking while I'll go and get some more insight into the human psyche.