On October 3, the fourth day of their hunger protest, three more students of DD Medical College, Tiruvallur fainted on the campus of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University. The students — Muthu Ulagamai, Premnath and Illakya Das — fainted one after another as the fast progressed into the afternoon. They were rushed to Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH) for treatment. Seven students, all women, had fainted during the fast on October 2, and another student had fainted at midnight. All eight are undergoing treatment at GRH.
The students had been on a hunger strike since September 30, demanding a meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalitha. Their sit-in protest on the campus of the medical university had now gone on for nearly 50 days. They have been demanding the government’s intervention to continue their medical education after the Medical Council of India de-recognised their college in 2011. The students want the government to take over their college.
The Madras High Court on October 4 ordered notice on writ petitions seeking direction to the government to take over D.D. Medical College in Tiruvallur district. The petitions were filed at the instance of the college’s 2012-13 MBBS Students Welfare Association to enable them to complete the course and to regularise admission for the year’s batch.
Earlier, when the petitions came up for hearing, the petitioners’ counsel had sought issue of notice to the authorities and to take up the petitions early. The counsel submitted that the students had withdrawn the fast from October 4 in view of the court’s stand that they should call of their indefinite fast. Following this, the court took up the matter and ordered notice to the State government returnable by October 28.
This is not the only incident in which the Chief Minister was inaccessible to agitating students to hear their plight and the Madras High Court had to intervene and take their issue to the corridors of power.
Of all the differently abled persons the ones who immediately evoke our sympathy are the visually challenged persons, that is humane; but not for ‘Her Highness’ Jayalalitha, the present Chief Minister.
Last month, a group of visually challenged persons in Chennai were proving that physical disabilities are no barrier when it comes to putting up a fight for their rights. Since September 16, for ten consecutive days, more than 300 members of the College Students and Graduates Association for the Blind (CSGAB) courted arrests by staging a road roko in different places in the city. Their only demand – a public place where they can stage an indefinite fast over their demands and an appointment with the Chief Minister.
The police resorted to several intimidating tactics to disperse them, (to be fair to the police personnel, they must be carrying out orders ‘from above’, because they are also human beings and would not willingly wish to be rough to visually challenged persons and hurt them), including leaving them in far off places without telling them where they were dropped or misleading them about the location– once at Kovalam Beach and once at Madurantakam and Uththandi. “They told us we were at the Marina beach,” said Velmurugan, general secretary of the organisation. “We only wanted a secure place where nine of our members can stage their indefinite fast. We do not wish to stage the road roko and create trouble for public. But we are forced to do it as the police are denying us even the basic right to protest,” said R Raja, one of the protesters.
They said the police mercilessly physically dragged them on roads, forcefully thrusting them into their vehicles, they dropped them past midnight in crematoriums and hospitals. Many of the protesters were women some carrying kids. Their colleagues were agitating in other towns in the State. In support of them, visually challenged students have also joined the protests.
Four meetings with Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi proved futile as the protesters say that the officials were only keen on stopping the protests rather than lending an earnest ear to their demands. “We started our protest in front Government Guest House at Chepauk without causing any trouble for the public. But the police forcefully removed us from the spot forcing us to stage a road roko,” said N Murthy, one of the protestors.
On September 23, representatives of the visually challenged persons held a meeting with Valarmathi. “The minister gave us mere oral promises. As she refused to give it as a form of statement to press, we have decided to continue our protest,” said a representative of CSGAB.
All the protesters are postgraduates and doctorate-holders who say that they still have to do menial jobs to earn a livelihood despite their educational qualifications. Their main demand is recruitment of visually challenged persons to teaching jobs and relaxation of the eligibility criteria for teaching recruitment in government and government-aided institutions.
A group of nine visually-challenged graduates in the city were on indefinite fast were removed to the Royapettah Government Hospital where they continued their fast in a corner of the hospital veranda. The condition of three of them turned serious on the ninth day of the fast and others were also laying unconscious. As the condition of Thangaraj caused concern, he was admitted in ICU. The condition of three others Veerappan, Vilwanathan and Ravichandran was worsening and intensive treatment was provided to them.
When social welfare minister B. Valarmathi, who called on them on September 23, said she would need some more time to decide on their placements, the protestors did not budge and continued their fast. She further told them that an appointment with the Chief Minister would take a month’s time and urged them to call off their fast. But the fasting persons refused to give up their fast.
The protesters were demanding 3 per cent reservation under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 to be followed in all government jobs, including placement of teachers in government schools after they had appeared in the teacher eligibility test (TET). (Now the Supreme Court on October 8 directed the Centre and all state governments to provide three per cent job reservation to disabled persons in all their departments, companies and institutions. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam also clarified that the principle of not exceeding more than 50 per cent reservation would not be applicable while granting quota for disabled persons.)
They said the Director of Welfare of the Physically Disabled Persons issued an order for qualifying mark to be reduced to 40 in the TET but the Secretary of the Teachers Recruitment Board refused to entertain the order of the Director. “A majority of us take up teaching as our profession as it provides us a suitable working environment,” Mahendran, a visually challenged protester said.
“Passing school and college education itself would be a big deal for us. If we continue to be a burden on our families by not being employed, no one would care for us. We do not want to beg or steal; we want to lead a decent life. We have the qualifications needed for a teacher’s job or jobs in other sectors. And the government is the only institution to provide us the platform,” said J. Sakthivel (28). He added that compared to socially disadvantaged groups, disabled persons needed more attention.
On September 24, when they tried to meet the Director of welfare of Differently abled Persons in K.K.Nagar in Chennai, they were stopped by the police and brutally attacked and disbursed. In Madurai, visually challenged graduates resorted to dharna in front of Differently Abled Welfare office. When they tried to picket the road they were prevented and arrested.
The Association President Nagarajan has told reporters that though the government claimed to spend crores every year for their welfare, except supply of folding sticks and glasses nothing was done. The IAS officer posted last year for their welfare was disinterested and hence other officers also didn’t work with interest. Hundreds of their associations in the State had been organising protests pressing for their demands and now they had no other go than coming to streets. If their welfare schemes were properly implemented they would have progressed long back, he had said.
In a discussion programme ‘Nerpada Pesu’ in ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’ news channel in which the functionaries of the GSGAB, a retired government officer and a retired police official participated, the functionaries of the Association were asked why they insisted on meeting the Chief Minister and not others and whether it was correct for them to picket roads causing difficulties to the public. They listed the details of officials at various levels and the minister, the dates on which they met them in the last two years and what was their responses. At every level the invariable reply was that they would convey their representation to ‘the higher authority’ but nothing happened. That is they sought meeting with the highest authority in the State, the Chief Minister.
And they did not take to road immediately as they didn’t want to cause any nuisance to people. They started the fast near Chepauk Guest House but the police removed them. Then they sought a different place in the city to observe fast but the police did not give permission. So they were forced to resort to road roko to get the attention of the government more particularly the Chief Minister, the only authority in this regime.
Till the tenth day of their stir, Chief Minister Jayalalitha, who was otherwise busy’ with Indian Cinema Centenary Celebrations, had no time or mind for these hapless persons.
Finally the Madras High Court on September 26, took up a letter written by a visually challenged lawyer to the Chief Justice on the issue as a petition and directed the State government to file the response in a counter on October 3. In the letter addressed to the Chief Justice, the visually challenged lawyer Mohamed Nazrullah stated that the police were severely treating the visually challenged who were conducting peaceful demonstration and fast and assaulting them. These men and women were taken by the police in nights to far-off places and leave them near crematorium and other secluded places. A woman was injured in police assault and admitted to hospital. They were also on an indefinite fast. He pleaded the Chief Justice to intervene to stop the highhandedness of police and allow them to conduct the stir in a peaceful manner.
The First Bench of Chief Justice (in-charge) Agarwal and Justice Sathyanarayanan took up the letter as petition for hearing and ordered notice to the government. Receiving the order government pleader S.T.S.Moorthy asked for time to file reply of the government and the Bench posted the case on October 3. Earlier the Bench asked the counsel for the protestors to ask them to call off their stir including fast, which was obliged.
It was only after the intervention of the High Court that on October 1, a statement of Jayalalitha was issued by the government on the demands of the protestors.
These are not an isolated incidents of aggrieved sections of the society going on different forms of agitations to get their grievance ‘noticed’ and redressed after all their attempts in meetings with authorities at various levels did not bear fruit, because at every level they were invariably told that their representation would be forwarded to the higher authorities and so on. By sheer experience, people have learnt that there is only one ‘super authority’ in ADMK regime, i.e., the Chief Minister and the ministers, Chief Secretary, secretaries of departments, Director General of Police and his lower rank police officers et al., are just ‘powerless messengers’. They have also learnt that it is not at all possible to get the audience of the Chief Minister and the only way to take their issues to her notice is to knock the doors of the High Court.
They now only wonder as to whom did they vote for, if ‘Fort’ St George had to be made responsive by the ‘Court’! r
The students had been on a hunger strike since September 30, demanding a meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalitha. Their sit-in protest on the campus of the medical university had now gone on for nearly 50 days. They have been demanding the government’s intervention to continue their medical education after the Medical Council of India de-recognised their college in 2011. The students want the government to take over their college.
The Madras High Court on October 4 ordered notice on writ petitions seeking direction to the government to take over D.D. Medical College in Tiruvallur district. The petitions were filed at the instance of the college’s 2012-13 MBBS Students Welfare Association to enable them to complete the course and to regularise admission for the year’s batch.
Earlier, when the petitions came up for hearing, the petitioners’ counsel had sought issue of notice to the authorities and to take up the petitions early. The counsel submitted that the students had withdrawn the fast from October 4 in view of the court’s stand that they should call of their indefinite fast. Following this, the court took up the matter and ordered notice to the State government returnable by October 28.
This is not the only incident in which the Chief Minister was inaccessible to agitating students to hear their plight and the Madras High Court had to intervene and take their issue to the corridors of power.
Of all the differently abled persons the ones who immediately evoke our sympathy are the visually challenged persons, that is humane; but not for ‘Her Highness’ Jayalalitha, the present Chief Minister.
Last month, a group of visually challenged persons in Chennai were proving that physical disabilities are no barrier when it comes to putting up a fight for their rights. Since September 16, for ten consecutive days, more than 300 members of the College Students and Graduates Association for the Blind (CSGAB) courted arrests by staging a road roko in different places in the city. Their only demand – a public place where they can stage an indefinite fast over their demands and an appointment with the Chief Minister.
The police resorted to several intimidating tactics to disperse them, (to be fair to the police personnel, they must be carrying out orders ‘from above’, because they are also human beings and would not willingly wish to be rough to visually challenged persons and hurt them), including leaving them in far off places without telling them where they were dropped or misleading them about the location– once at Kovalam Beach and once at Madurantakam and Uththandi. “They told us we were at the Marina beach,” said Velmurugan, general secretary of the organisation. “We only wanted a secure place where nine of our members can stage their indefinite fast. We do not wish to stage the road roko and create trouble for public. But we are forced to do it as the police are denying us even the basic right to protest,” said R Raja, one of the protesters.
They said the police mercilessly physically dragged them on roads, forcefully thrusting them into their vehicles, they dropped them past midnight in crematoriums and hospitals. Many of the protesters were women some carrying kids. Their colleagues were agitating in other towns in the State. In support of them, visually challenged students have also joined the protests.
Four meetings with Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi proved futile as the protesters say that the officials were only keen on stopping the protests rather than lending an earnest ear to their demands. “We started our protest in front Government Guest House at Chepauk without causing any trouble for the public. But the police forcefully removed us from the spot forcing us to stage a road roko,” said N Murthy, one of the protestors.
On September 23, representatives of the visually challenged persons held a meeting with Valarmathi. “The minister gave us mere oral promises. As she refused to give it as a form of statement to press, we have decided to continue our protest,” said a representative of CSGAB.
All the protesters are postgraduates and doctorate-holders who say that they still have to do menial jobs to earn a livelihood despite their educational qualifications. Their main demand is recruitment of visually challenged persons to teaching jobs and relaxation of the eligibility criteria for teaching recruitment in government and government-aided institutions.
A group of nine visually-challenged graduates in the city were on indefinite fast were removed to the Royapettah Government Hospital where they continued their fast in a corner of the hospital veranda. The condition of three of them turned serious on the ninth day of the fast and others were also laying unconscious. As the condition of Thangaraj caused concern, he was admitted in ICU. The condition of three others Veerappan, Vilwanathan and Ravichandran was worsening and intensive treatment was provided to them.
When social welfare minister B. Valarmathi, who called on them on September 23, said she would need some more time to decide on their placements, the protestors did not budge and continued their fast. She further told them that an appointment with the Chief Minister would take a month’s time and urged them to call off their fast. But the fasting persons refused to give up their fast.
The protesters were demanding 3 per cent reservation under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 to be followed in all government jobs, including placement of teachers in government schools after they had appeared in the teacher eligibility test (TET). (Now the Supreme Court on October 8 directed the Centre and all state governments to provide three per cent job reservation to disabled persons in all their departments, companies and institutions. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam also clarified that the principle of not exceeding more than 50 per cent reservation would not be applicable while granting quota for disabled persons.)
They said the Director of Welfare of the Physically Disabled Persons issued an order for qualifying mark to be reduced to 40 in the TET but the Secretary of the Teachers Recruitment Board refused to entertain the order of the Director. “A majority of us take up teaching as our profession as it provides us a suitable working environment,” Mahendran, a visually challenged protester said.
“Passing school and college education itself would be a big deal for us. If we continue to be a burden on our families by not being employed, no one would care for us. We do not want to beg or steal; we want to lead a decent life. We have the qualifications needed for a teacher’s job or jobs in other sectors. And the government is the only institution to provide us the platform,” said J. Sakthivel (28). He added that compared to socially disadvantaged groups, disabled persons needed more attention.
On September 24, when they tried to meet the Director of welfare of Differently abled Persons in K.K.Nagar in Chennai, they were stopped by the police and brutally attacked and disbursed. In Madurai, visually challenged graduates resorted to dharna in front of Differently Abled Welfare office. When they tried to picket the road they were prevented and arrested.
The Association President Nagarajan has told reporters that though the government claimed to spend crores every year for their welfare, except supply of folding sticks and glasses nothing was done. The IAS officer posted last year for their welfare was disinterested and hence other officers also didn’t work with interest. Hundreds of their associations in the State had been organising protests pressing for their demands and now they had no other go than coming to streets. If their welfare schemes were properly implemented they would have progressed long back, he had said.
In a discussion programme ‘Nerpada Pesu’ in ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’ news channel in which the functionaries of the GSGAB, a retired government officer and a retired police official participated, the functionaries of the Association were asked why they insisted on meeting the Chief Minister and not others and whether it was correct for them to picket roads causing difficulties to the public. They listed the details of officials at various levels and the minister, the dates on which they met them in the last two years and what was their responses. At every level the invariable reply was that they would convey their representation to ‘the higher authority’ but nothing happened. That is they sought meeting with the highest authority in the State, the Chief Minister.
And they did not take to road immediately as they didn’t want to cause any nuisance to people. They started the fast near Chepauk Guest House but the police removed them. Then they sought a different place in the city to observe fast but the police did not give permission. So they were forced to resort to road roko to get the attention of the government more particularly the Chief Minister, the only authority in this regime.
Till the tenth day of their stir, Chief Minister Jayalalitha, who was otherwise busy’ with Indian Cinema Centenary Celebrations, had no time or mind for these hapless persons.
Finally the Madras High Court on September 26, took up a letter written by a visually challenged lawyer to the Chief Justice on the issue as a petition and directed the State government to file the response in a counter on October 3. In the letter addressed to the Chief Justice, the visually challenged lawyer Mohamed Nazrullah stated that the police were severely treating the visually challenged who were conducting peaceful demonstration and fast and assaulting them. These men and women were taken by the police in nights to far-off places and leave them near crematorium and other secluded places. A woman was injured in police assault and admitted to hospital. They were also on an indefinite fast. He pleaded the Chief Justice to intervene to stop the highhandedness of police and allow them to conduct the stir in a peaceful manner.
The First Bench of Chief Justice (in-charge) Agarwal and Justice Sathyanarayanan took up the letter as petition for hearing and ordered notice to the government. Receiving the order government pleader S.T.S.Moorthy asked for time to file reply of the government and the Bench posted the case on October 3. Earlier the Bench asked the counsel for the protestors to ask them to call off their stir including fast, which was obliged.
It was only after the intervention of the High Court that on October 1, a statement of Jayalalitha was issued by the government on the demands of the protestors.
These are not an isolated incidents of aggrieved sections of the society going on different forms of agitations to get their grievance ‘noticed’ and redressed after all their attempts in meetings with authorities at various levels did not bear fruit, because at every level they were invariably told that their representation would be forwarded to the higher authorities and so on. By sheer experience, people have learnt that there is only one ‘super authority’ in ADMK regime, i.e., the Chief Minister and the ministers, Chief Secretary, secretaries of departments, Director General of Police and his lower rank police officers et al., are just ‘powerless messengers’. They have also learnt that it is not at all possible to get the audience of the Chief Minister and the only way to take their issues to her notice is to knock the doors of the High Court.
They now only wonder as to whom did they vote for, if ‘Fort’ St George had to be made responsive by the ‘Court’! r
No comments:
Post a Comment