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20 THE HINDU SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2012CHENNAINEWS

KARWAR (KARNATAKA): The ag-itation by villagers near theKaiga atomic power projectcould not be more differentfrom the one being stagedagainst the Kudankulam nu-clear power plant in TamilNadu.

As their protest outside theDeputy Commissioner’s of-fice here entered the 60th dayon Thursday, members of the‘Struggle Committee of Vil-lagers Within Five Kilo-metres of the Kaiga Plant’ areas frustrated with the govern-ment as they are with publicignorance of their struggleand demands.

“We are not against nuclearenergy or the plant,” said Vi-mala Gaonkar of the commit-tee. It was the media thatstarted referring to them asthe anti-Kaiga committee.

Committee president Shy-amnath Naik said, “All wewant is the government ac-quire the villages in the radiusof five km from the plant andrehabilitate the residents.”This zone has six villages —Hartuga, Balemane, Kache-gar, Belse, Harur and Sulageri— with at least 500households.

The width of the safety ringor ‘exclusion zone’ is the cen-tral point of disagreement inthe tug-of-war between thenuclear plant authorities andthe agitators. The commit-tee’s demands are based on aplan submitted by the Nucle-

ar Power Board in July 1986and it recommended a five-km buffer.

Plant director J.P. Guptaquotes more recent studiesthat recommend a 1.6-km-wide no-habitation zone. Infact, he favours reducing theexclusion zone to 1 km.

Radiation debate?Prakash Ganapati Naik

(37), a resident of Sulageri,lined up several people af-flicted with skin and otherdiseases, besides cancer pa-tients, when this correspond-ent visited the village.“Almost every householdhere has a member with somestrange disease,” he claimed.

The plant managementcounters this claim withhealth studies conducted byit. These studies show thatthe prevalence of diseases inthe area is no more than inother regions.

“If these diseases are a re-sult of radiation as alleged bythe activists, then I and mystaff, who work inside theplant, should have been thefirst to contract illness,” Mr.Gupta argued.

Abdul Ravoof Sheikh Mo-hammed (45) of Balemani,whose sister recently died ofcancer said, “If there is nothreat from radiation and apossible nuclear disaster,why did they [the plant au-thorities] build their residen-tial colony 20 km from here?”

Mr. Gupta replied that theForest Department did not

give clearance for locating acolony nearer the plant, as itwould affect the ecology ofthe region. “If they are soscared of radiation, why dothey want one job in the planta family as part of the rehabil-itation package?”

Gokul Narain Pagi, whoseson is suffering from an undi-agnosed mental illness for thelast one year, says: “We wantjobs so that our families may

survive. By working there afew of us might die. But bystaying here, all of us mightdie.”

Both sides eagerly awaitthe outcome of the study onthe impact of radiation on thelocal population. It is con-ducted by the Manipal Uni-versity and the TataMemorial Cancer ResearchInstitute. The Karnataka gov-ernment commissioned the

study in response to the pro-tests.

While activists and theplant authorities countereach other point by point, thedistrict administration haskept itself out of the issue.

Deputy Commissioner Im-kongla Jamir said the districtadministration and the Stategovernment have no role toplay in rehabilitation as thiswas a Central project.

In Kaiga, villagers raise a different chant Sudipto Mondal

KEEPING UP MOMENTUM: Members of the ‘Struggle Committee of VillagersWithin Five Kilometres of Kaiga Plant’ protest outside the DeputyCommissioner’s office in Karwar on Thursday. — PHOTO: SUDIPTO MONDAL

HYDERABAD: Thursday’s freakmishap at the City CentreMall in Banjara Hills hasbrought to the fore the safetyof visitors using escalators inmalls and multiplexes and themeasures taken by manage-ments to avoid such inci-dents. A four-month-oldinfant died instantly after sheslipped and fell from hermother’s arms after the lat-ter’s dress got caught in theescalator.

While mall managementsmaintain that enough precau-tions were taken for using es-calators safely, manycomplain of laxity on themanagement’s part to edu-cate visitors on using themeffectively. Such is the apathyof some managements thatthey tend to ignore servicingof escalators periodically.

Manufacturers put up es-calators with one-year war-ranty from the date ofinstallation. Periodical ser-vicing and maintenancewould be taken care of during

this period by manufacturers.“After the warranty ex-

pires, several owners fail toenter into maintenanceagreements. If proper main-tenance is not done, then es-calators pose danger tousers,” explains V.Y.L.N.Murthy, an expert inelevators.

The worrisome aspect atthese establishments is theabsence of maintenance staffto stop the escalator in anemergency situation like a sa-ri or any other dress materialgetting stuck in the stepteeth-mesh.

Each escalator has aswitch-off button to be usedin case of an emergency. Atrained person has to be post-ed to oversee these oper-ations. But most malls ignorethis safety aspect, Mr. Murthyargues.

On the other hand, mallowners point out that visitorsoften overlook the safety pre-cautions which are displayedat the escalator. “It’s not fea-sible for us to keep track ofevery individual using the es-

calator. They can read thesafety measures displayed onthe balustrade before step-ping onto the escalator,”points out an official of theCity Centre Mall, where themishap took place onThursday.

However, a few mall man-agements seem to have learnta lesson from Thursday’s in-cident. At many malls theyput up warning signs andboards to caution those usingescalators. “We have also in-structed security guards tomonitor people, particularlywomen and children, who useescalators,” says AmarnathSingh, manager of Home Cen-tre Lifestyle at Somajiguda.

The Banjara Hills policefeel there is no negligence onthe part of the mall

The baby’s mother wasabout to step on to the escala-tor to go to the upper floorwhen one end of her dress gotstuck in the teeth-mesh. Asthe mother lost her balance,the baby slipped from herarms and fell from over 15feet.

M. Srinivas

Focus on escalators’safety after death of baby

NEW DELHI: A day after thelandmark judgment in the 2Gspectrum case, old telecomoperators and those affectedby the Supreme Court order,began an ad war to woo overseven crore mobile subscrib-ers in circles where the 122licences issued in 2008 will bescrapped.

Interestingly, Thursday’sjudgment can also have itsimplications on the diplomat-ic front, as nations whosefirms’ investments are jeop-ardised are likely to pressurethe Indian government tofind an amicable solution tothe issue.

Meanwhile, new operatorslike Uninor (in which Nor-way’s Telenor is the majoritystakeholder), Etisalat DB (inwhich the UAE’s Etisalat is a

partner) and Sistema-Shyam(run by the Sistema Group ofRussia) have reiterated thatthey are committed to theirIndia operations and aremulling over moving the Su-preme Court to seek relief onthe licence issue.

These companies are alsochalking out future strategiesin consultation with theirparent firms. But all this willdepend on the process theTelecom Regulatory Author-ity of India (TRAI) adopts.

Uninor (with over 3.63crore subscribers), Sistema-Shyam (over 1.5 crore users),Videocon (54 lakh users) andEtisalat DB (16 lakh subscrib-ers) are now fearing a flood ofsurrogate advertisements, inwhich competitors Airtel andVodafone are likely to targettheir customers.

On Friday, Vodafone issued

newspaper advertisements,highlighting its strengths andasking people to make use ofthe mobile number portabil-ity (MNP) facility to switchport to its network.

To counter this, the affect-ed telecom firms are planninga full-fledged campaign toavoid poaching by their rivals,besides exploring the legaloptions.

“To safeguard its interests,Sistema and Sistema ShyamTeleServices Ltd [SSTL] willcontest this [court] order bypursuing all available legal re-medies. In the meantime, In-dian operations will remainbusiness as usual for the com-pany,” the Russia conglomer-ate said in a statement.

Similarly, Telenor said: Ourintention is to fight to protectour lawful investments in thecountry. We are looking to the

government to arrive at a fairsolution. We expect that theintention remains [one] ofbringing new competition toIndia.”

In a statement, the TelenorGroup added: “The Norwe-gian government has an-nounced that it is monitoringthe situation and will activelycontribute to find solutions tosecure Telenor’s investmentsand presence in India.”

Videocon Telecommunica-tion said it would await theTRAI recommendation be-fore deciding its course of ac-tion. “I think we have to waitfor four months [the time giv-en by the court for spectrumauction]. Let the rebiddingprocess come...then we haveto look at TRAI recommenda-tion,” Videocon Telecommu-nications MD R.N. Dhootsaid.

Post-verdict, poaching aworry for telecom firms Ad war to woo subscribers in circles where 122 licences are cancelled

Sandeep Joshi

TIRUMALA: The Tirumala Tiru-pati Devasthanams (TTD) isseriously contemplating in-troduction of a dress code forall pilgrims.

TTD Executive Officer L.V.Subramanyam disclosed thisat the monthly “Dial TTD EO”programme on Friday.

The TTD had introduced adress code for those participa-ting in the arjitha sevas.

Devotees can henceforthuse any bank card for onlinereservation of the “arjitha se-vas.” At present, only Citibankcards are being honoured.

Given the “unprecedented”response from the local resi-dents to “Srinivasa Kalya-nams” recently organised atMaharashtra, the TTD hadproposed an exclusive body tomonitor the ambitious pro-gramme.

Negotiations were on withmobile phone companies forlive telecast of the daily ritualsperformed at the temple.

TTD dresscode understudyG.P. Shukla

TH Puducherry/ 1 Back_Pg User: cci 02-03-2012 22:35 Color: CMYK