Kiran’s plan to reform cops’ families
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 4 — Personal lives of local policemen, their families and wives are not going to be the same again. While cops have been guided to seek solace in religious pursuits and meditation, their wives — those who have the capability — are being cajoled to volunteer their time and energy to impart vocational training to the wives of other cops and their children.

The reformist streak in the IGP, Dr Kiran Bedi, has brought out this new idea. A wives welfare association, on the lines of the highly successful wives welfare associations run by the three armed forces, is to be formed. For their husbands meditation programmes like the one run under the name of “art of living” is being organised in the second week of this month.

The concept was to teach them to have a sense of gratitude, harmony and pride in the force, Dr Bedi said. The ones who consumed alcohol on regular basis were being listed out. However, the IGP said the idea of sending the salary of such cops to their families was to empower the women. At a meeting with families of the cops at the Police Lines recently the IGP told the wives that their husbands did long stressful duties and thus this aspect had to be kept in mind before any unreasonable demands were made on their time.

A long-standing demand of women police personnel to have a creche has been met and a day-care centre for children was opened in the Police Lines on May 1. Another creche is to start in Sector 46 where women ASIs and SIs live. The basic thrust at the moment is on the welfare of wives. “ We have given them some time to tell us what they can volunteer to teach,” said Dr Bedi, while giving an example of how a wife of a constable approached her, saying that she knew embroidery and could teach children of other cops.

A wives welfare association will be formed and wives of cops volunteering for work will be paid remuneration. However, this remuneration will be paid only to the wives of inspectors and below. The compensation will be through the existing welfare fund. Wives of senior officials are also being involved in the project . Special sports, cultural and music events will be organised for children of cops and the SSP, Headquarters, Mr Ajay Kashyap, will be looking after this aspect. A scheme for instituting scholarships for the children, who want to study in colleges, is also being worked out.

The police band will be used to teach music, to those interested in music while special tuition classes for children are next on the agenda. “The idea is to get the kids, who suffer from a fixed mindset, out of this sub-culture of general deterioration,” Dr Bedi opined. The kids of cops should see what was happening in the outside world, the IG said while adding that it was more than a contact programme and was like inculcating a “family culture” .Furthermore, those children of cops who wanted to go in for higher studies would be given an option to join as Home Guards jawans to enable them to pay for their studies. Their duty hours would be regulated. However, the kids of cops would have to pass the routine tests that were required for recruitment as a Home Guard jawan. The next round of reform would include the formation of a residents welfare association.

So even before the tennis player in Dr Bedi has “served”, she has become “didi” for the wives.

‘Money, indiscipline make youth arrogant’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 4 — The murder of model Jessica Lal and the alleged involvement of sons of VIPs at a social evening in Delhi has once again brought into sharp focus the cult of violence prevalent among the neo-rich class of today.

Not only have the incidents of violence among this section of society witnessed an increase during the past few years, but also the terror generated by such incidents is more upbeat, upscale and trendy.

Dr Sudha Jain, SMO in charge, Department of Psychiatry, General Hospital, Sector 16, attributes this to the exposure of children to violence in media. The glorification of violence, particularly in the visual media, motivates children to take to violence. The attitude of “permissive” parents in small families, who tolerate all acts of their wards is also responsible for their indisciplined behaviour. She says values of parents have also undergone a change, who now like to their lives through their children. They like their children to flash around and show off things. Overindulgence and over- protective temperaments without realising the repercussions of the same also give rise to bloated egos, which leads to violence.

Mr Sanjay Mishra, a senior official of the Railways, is of the view that increasing violence in today’s social system is part of a much larger trend, which is not just confined to the youth. As a result of globalisation and economic development, the established norms are breaking down and emphasis is on easy availability of money. In fact, the “just do it’’ attitude, which is prevalent among the youth of today, is very dangerous. In this age of information and opportunity, the rate of change of society is very fast and problems arise due to lack of respect for the authority for sheer power display.

“Society has very systematically cultivated a feeling of no accountability among the youngsters of this new class, ‘’ maintains Dr Surinder S Jodhka,a reader in the Sociology Department, PU. The general feeling among the children of rich and powerful people is that they are above the civil rules and that they can take the law in their own hands. The freedom of such children is not only an assertion of the status of their fathers but a class statement. The money culture in this neo-rich class has brought in arrogance, which gives them a feeling that they have complete power over people and that they can get away with anything.

Dr J.M. Jerath from Panjab University’s Psychology Department asserts that growing cult of violence in this section of society is a mere show of greater capacity to influence others. The social mechanism has weakened considerably, especially in bigger cities, and the frustrations of the youth manifest in the shape of such social horrors. Lack of intimacy and contact between children and parents causes insecurity among children who grow up with complexes, and violence is just one form of it.

Parents, who feel that their duty is over once they provide them the facilities required by them do not have the right approach towards their children. They do not wait to watch how those facilities are being used by their wards. He feels that parents should take more interest in their children and constantly guide them about what is good and bad so that they are on the right track. Dr Jerath maintains that false show of strength on the part of youth only signifies lack of maturity in the absence of required support system and counselling.

Mrs Meena Dutta, a lecturer in Political Science, feels that the violence has increased due to the growing outside influences, especially the projection of violence on the television and the Internet. They try to copy them in real lives, without giving a thought to the repercussions. Lack of interaction between parents and children often leads to aggressiveness, which comes up in the form of anger.

“Our society is suffering from indiscipline at various levels. The basic approach to discipline in the psychology of an average Indian is discipline and that has lost its credibility because of economic development and social rivalries,’’ rues Mr P.S Chohan, a social activist. However, the problem is acute among the rich and the influential as they do not even fear the law and believe in just having their way and say in life at any cost. Wards of VIPs are no longer scared of getting involved in such crimes for they know that their parents will support them and will pay any price to change evidence in their favour and protect them by hiding them at safe places. He is of the view that fear of law and discipline will be able to rectify these ills.

Public sector banks lag in Y2K compliance
By U.K. Bhanot
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 4 — While new private sector banks have more or less complied with the Y2K requirements, most of the 27 public sector banks have failed to meet the deadline of March 31 fixed for the adoption of the technology.

Only one bank in the public sector — Corporation Bank — had announced before March 31 that it had complied with Y2K requirements.

The RBI which had given top priority to the task of Y2K compliance as early as September 1997 fears that international rating agencies may downgrade India if enough is not done on this issue.

With this in view, the RBI has now decided to classify banks on the basis of their Y2K compliance status. The banks will be categorised under three levels — satisfactory, need improvement and unsatisfactory.

The RBI is said to have worked out a three-pronged strategy to monitor the banks so as to meet the Y2K challenges. For off-site monitoring, each bank will be expected to submit an unaudited certificate of compliance to the RBI. Most of the banks have already submitted the report. The third and final step involves an on-site inspection. The RBI has already decided on a set of enforcement measures if any bank is found to be lagging in the compliance efforts.

The RBI has told the banks that the onus of implementation will fall directly on the chief executives of the banks rather than the departments dealing with information technology.

In view of the massive cost of Y2K compliance — believed to be over $ 500 billion — chief executives of the public sector banks have requested the RBI to shift the deadline from the new deadline of June 30, as announced by the apex bank, to the end of September next.

The banks will not only have to move fast towards new technology but also keep a check on their expenditure so as to meet the huge cost of Y2K compliance.

The RBI has also pointed out that the top executives of the banks must understand the issues involved in their true perspective and monitor progress of compliance regularly.

Unfortunately, the government does not so far have a clear idea of the quantum of work involved in the compliance effort as it does not have adequate information about the steps taken in this direction by all 5,800 banks having computers for the past five years or so. If these banks fail to meet the new deadlines, some of the branches of even top banks may have to go back to the manual system of operations.

One wonders why a thorough inquiry is not made into the purchases of the computers without Y2K compliance in the public sector banks during the past five years and responsibility for the loss incurred by these banks fixed. If the new private sector banks could buy computers with Y2K compliance, one wonders what prevented those at the helm of affairs in the public sector from doing so.

Water supply to UT villages grim
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 4 — The summer has started to take its toll on the state of water supply, besides exposing its inadequacies to many villages surrounding the city.

Villagers complain that every time they are told by the authorities that the supply of water would be augmented by laying more pipelines or that their demand would be met by sinking more tubewells. But with every passing year, the situation worsens and in some of the villages the daily supply gets limited to a great extent.

Mr Bhushan Lal, a resident of Burail village who is also the general secretary of the Burail Shopkeepers Welfare Association, said while the population of the village had increased manifold, the supply had not kept pace. Being a village, people make do with stocking water from handpumps but even that is not enough to meet the demands of a large numbers of residents.

Mr Ajay Pal Singh, a resident of the Quilla Mohalla, the highest point in the village, says the problem is compounded as during whole summers they have to fetch water from the handpumps and the public taps in low-lying areas. The water supply starts at about 3. 30 a.m. in these areas and we have to be there much before that to form a queue.

“The supply is just a trickle and keeping in view the needs of others, only small amounts are stocked for the basic needs of a family. Carrying containers requires a lot of effort and some families use rehris for the purpose, he added.

Mr Satpal Gupta, president of the local unit of the Panchayat Parishad, says despite representations to the authorities, nothing has been done till date. The augmentation system installed for pumping water to high areas of the village has not been used as it was wrongly designed. The power supply is even worse, he lamented.

Similarly, the condition of water in Dhanas village is no better. The village has received a meagre supply for the past four days and residents say that not only have they to do without electricity, it is going to affect the water supply also.

Mr Badal Singh, a resident, said for the past four days, the water pressure has been low, resulting in empty overhead tanks and no water for villagers living on the first floor. Villagers have to store water fetched from the handpumps installed in the village.

There was no supply yesterday evening as some of the power supply lines developed a snag. Although the fault was repaired by midnight, the village went without water. Today also there was supply for about 20 minutes. The worst affected are the dairy owners. Some of them had to hire water tankers to meet their daily requirements, he added.

Mr Shingara Singh, a resident of Daria village, said the village is always affected during the summers. With growing population, little attention has been paid to meeting the basic civic amenities of the residents. The village has been getting a low-pressure water supply for the past one week.

Many people from the interior areas and the ones living in areas outside the “abadi” areas are resorting to opening the pressure valves on the main supply lines for their daily requirements, says Mr Gurpreet Singh, another village resident.