N-K girls palmed off to areas bordering Pak

N-K girls palmed off to areas bordering Pak
The Newindpress.com

Wednesday December 6 2006 09:02 IST

HUBLI: It now turns out that young girls hoodwinked into marrying ‘wealthy’ but aged north Indians are often palmed off to brothels operating along Pakistan borders.

Girls from north Karnataka region, particularly from Lambani and Jain communities, are said to be the most sought-after for agents involved in racket in western part of Gujarat, Kutch, and areas of Rajasthan and Punjab bordering Pakistan.

This newspaper quizzed Gurunathsa Basava, who is now cooling his heels in the district prison after being caught by the Police in connection with girl-trafficking, said that the local middlemen will get commission four times the normal rate of they sell a girl to an agent operating in the border areas of Pak.

They pay between Rs 1-2 lakh for a Lambani or a Jain girl. Asked why they preferred these girls, he said they could speak the language of north India fluently. Police sources said the girls belonging to other communities like Valmiki, Bhajantri, Gondhali, Vaddar, Gouli and others were vulnerable to flesh trade locally.

The incident of Soumya and her sister Neelamma of Soratur village of Shirahatti taluk in Gadag district reveled the ugly face of trafficking in girls.

Both sisters, studying in 10th standard, went missing from Gadag bus stand a month ago. But it has now turned out that Soumya escaped from her captors in Surat and is under the care of Gujarat police.

What is intriguing is that these two girls were sold by their father, and he never filed a police complaint after his children went ‘missing.’

Villagers suspect a person of the same village acted as a middleman in the sale for Rs 1 lakh each to some men in Gujarat. They feel that many other missing cases too might reveal a similar tale.

A team of Gadag police are on their way to Surat to bring the two girls back to Soratur village. Once they are back, the entire case is sure to bring out many more startling details.

The story of Lakshmi (16) in Hubli is no different from that of Soumya.

Lakshmi’s father Prakash Baddi struck a deal with four Maharastrians and made her to marry aged Rajesh Ramalal Bedhmuth in a farmhouse here. However, Hubli Police rescued her and arrested Bedhmuth and his aides before they fled. The police here are keeping a close vigil on matrimonial centres.

Scant regard for helmet rule in twin-cities

Scant regard for helmet rule in twin-cities
TIMES NEWS NETWORK - M L Kapur

5 Dec, 2006 2311hrs IST

HUBLI: More than a month after wearing of helmets for twowheeler riders was made compulsory in the state, people of Hubli-Dharwad seem to have rejected it contemptuously after showing some signs of compliance initially.

Even as people were reluctant to follow the rule despite it being in their own interests, the state government had no option but to enforce it after repeated postponements as it was mandated by a high court order.

The fence-sitters in the twincities were relieved when chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and home minister M P Prakash sent wrong signals during the Chamundeshwari assembly byelection campaign that the rule would be reviewed.

Though no order abrogating the enforcement of the rule has been issued, two-wheeler riders in the twin cities have presumed on the basis of media reports that the rule has been put in abeyance till further directions.

The net result is that today almost all two-wheeler riders can be seen riding without helmets in the twin cities. Even those who had purchased helmets thinking that the government was serious about enforcing it this time, are not wearing them.

Half of a miniscule percentage of those who are wearing it were doing so even before the rule came into force. Gauging the public mood, even the local police have dropped their campaign agains violators after enforcing the rule enthusiastically in the initial days.

Despite medical studies indicating that most deaths in road accidents were due to head injuries, those bent upon not following the helmet rule are imputing strange motives to the government's decision to make helmets mandatory.

A residents' association in Hubli has come out with a survey of its own indicating that as many as 95 per cent of the 4,000 respondents, including college students, were against the rule. Just sample some of the other findings of the survey done by Walwekar Plot Residents' Association: "Advantages to government: helmet manufacturers making crores of rupees, additional income to ministers involved."

Disadvantages to public include: "health problems such as headache and loss of hair (hair style hassles in case of girls). It encourages chain snatching, hitand-run cases and acid attacks!" So what is the remedy suggested by RWA president K D Kanakgeri? "It is better to leave it to the pubic. It is their head and their headache," he says, adding that, "all creature have to depart one or the other day."

But city police commissioner Narayan Nadamani maintained that the rule is in force and it is being implemented. "I can provide you figures about the number of people booked for violating the rule and the amount of fine collected," he said.