004. Are Our Women And Children Safe In Our Hospitals?

016. 

Are Our Women And Children Safe In Our Hospitals?  

Doctors like to think that they have immunity against crimes they commit on human lives caused by their ignorance, negligence and dereliction. This true story from India illustrates how unsafe the lives of our women and children are in our hospitals and how incapable and submissive are governments towards crimes by the blue-collared in India. 

World people's money squandered on opulence and luxuries. 

Human newborn: will the world allow to live?

World Health Organization extends assistance of millions of dollars of world people’s money each year to developing countries and under developed countries, but lets go unpardonable crimes committed with the opulence and lavishness of this world money. It is time the death of thousands of Indian Mothers in simple PPS operations be investigated by international agencies. The sad and heart-rending pictures from other Asian countries also are not different. It is true diseases attack us when we are left with no money in our pockets, but that is when jackals and hyenas in gowns demand us money for treating us in hospitals. The famous free system of Indian hospitals is crushed down inch by inch by the rulers of India to please the greedy new generation body mechanics.

25000 Rupees for carrying an operating knife buried in the abdomen for 20 years. 

Mother's love vast, deep and limitless as the brine.

News reports from Tamil Nadu in India say that the State Human Rights Commission there ordered government to pay compensation of 25000 rupees to Coimbatore VeeraKeralam Thentral Nagar-native Mohanraj’s wife Nandini. In 1989 she gave birth to a child in the Coimbatore government hospital after which underwent a Post Partum Surgery. Following this simple surgery which is done for birth control, she began to experience severe pain in her lower abdomen and sought treatment in a number of hospitals. After consuming a load of pain killers through the years, she was advised by Dr. Nandakumar of Coimbatore to scan her abdomen which she did. Presence of an operating knife in her lower abdomen was detected in the scan. The doctors of Coimbatore government hospital after a caesarian operation had closed her abdomen leaving an operating knife negligently there. The State Human Rights Commission registered a case based on a 2008 newspaper report, after 20 years of the incident. Even though 25000 Indian rupees, i.e. nearly 5000 dollars for carrying an operating knife for 20 years in one’s lower abdomen buried there by the insolent negligence of a surgeon is a paltry sum, the goodwill of the Human Rights Commission of Tamil Nadu to order payment of compensation as token of admittance of a state crime against a woman of India is applaudable though a very rare verdict.

Murder of thousands of mothers in simple PPS operations by negligent psychopaths. 

Maternal affection immortalized in marble.

It is primary responsibility of attending surgeons to count the number of articles going in and taken out. It is they who have to ensure that whatever has gone in have also taken out. Do not anyone even think that the health services are a wild jungle. Everything is protocolled in advance. If something is left behind, it is someone’s responsibility. If death results as a consequence, it is plain murder. The Indian Law is such clear and plain, unless confused by authorities who wish to save the asses of their darlings. If government does not take action, the government is accessory to the crime. The Constitution of India does not offer immunity to doctors against crimes resulting from their ignorance or negligence. The question is, whether the government has allowed the culprits to continue in their posts as surgeons and if already retired, whether the government would be willing and prepared to prosecute them and cut their pensions. Is the responsibility of government simply to pay compensations for the misdeeds and the mistakes made by surgeons or to arrest and prosecute them for their crimes? The above case is one of nearly a million in Tamil Nadu. During the 1980s there was a feverish rush of PPS operations going on in almost all states of India, following the central government’s offering of handsome incentives to doctors, as part of national birth control activities. Hundred thousands of PPS operations were done then by incompetent doctors everywhere, not less than ten percent of them resulting in casualties such as those discussed above. Kerala was the number one state with the highest number of PPS operations done. Awards were given, merit certificates issued and money transferred. Kerala is considered perhaps the state with the highest rate of literacy in India but the following incident would reveal that this higher literacy rate of any state in India does not make the killing of women and children in hospitals by ignorant, negligent and psychopathic doctors impossible to happen or punishable by practice in India.

One time bribe for male; each visit bribe for lady. 

Not at all a burden.

In 1984, a young lady named Shanta from Kurupuzha Village in Trivandrum District was admitted in the Nedumangadu Taluk Headquarters Hospital for delivery. She had no relatives except husband serving in the Middle East and a very old grandfather who stayed with her. The two gynecologists, one male and the other female who worked in that hospital at that time had only one difference between them. The male got satisfied with a one-time bribe. The lady insisted on bribe each day she visited a patient. It will look and feel like we are in the Barbarian Ages as regard to hospitals in Kerala whether the state is ruled by the Congress or the Communists. The old man who accompanied her did not know anything about how to give bribes to doctors. So when the day of delivery arrived she gave birth to a healthy boy child in an inevitable and indispensable caesarian operation. Following a PPS operation also, she was returned to her home. The very next day the patient was rushed back to the hospital following fits, which was unusual after ordinary, common and simple PPS operations. So the patient with her nascent child was referred to the Sree Avittam Tirunal Hospital for Women & Children in the capital city of Trivandrum.

Blood-stained cotton mop discovered inside Peritonis membrane in the abdomen. 

Mother posed and the child didn't.

The patient lying on bed in the SAT Hospital would rise up and fall onto the floor as if picked up and thrown down there by some unknown hands. Even the skilled doctors in that prestigious institution could not diagnose the true cause of this symptom. Because she could not breast-feed her child, he died after 3 months. She lay there in the hospital for nine more months, after which she too succumbed to death. In normal cases hospital deaths won’t be subjected to post mortem examinations. But this being a unique case which had brain-teased the skilled doctors there for months, they decided to post-mortem operate and study it as a unique case. A months-old, blood-stained cotton mop was discovered from inside the Peritonis membrane of the abdomen. Human body’s involuntary effort and strain to oust this foreign body out was what was causing those fits. Think about the compensation that will have to be paid, in European standards. Even in the Asian standards, it will not come lower than Five hundred thousand rupees for two deaths with a single life. Had those doctors who did PPS confessed earlier or had even expressed a doubt from the beginning as to any mistake that might have happened on their part, the patient would have been examined on the very first day for any mistakes, ignorance or negligence on the part of the surgeons, the cotton mop would have been detected and removed, and the patient and her child would have gone to their home alive and would have been living today. Loss of two precious human lives to the greed and negligence of two insolent incompetent doctors! The two culprits had depended on the sure chance of a hospital death not being post-mortem examined. The SAT Hospital recorded Peritonitis as the cause of death in their Post Mortem Report.

Are governments to pay compensation for doctors’ follies with people’s money? 

Mother and child face to face.

Every Peritonitis death will have a responsible person behind it. Memo of charges were issued, explanations received and accepted and the file closed. Media withdrew from pursuing the case. Complaints made by the relatives and natives of the deceased came to nothing. Government declined to interfere for fear of thousands and thousands of such PPS deaths and blunders coming to daylight and being investigated and prosecuted, resulting in payment of huge amounts as compensations. People normally fear to make complaints against doctors, as all know that doctors are closely associated with police officers in witnessing and evidencing medico-legal cases in judicial courts and in issuance of wound certificates and post-mortem certificates. So people are reluctant to pursue complaints against doctors as a general rule. Doctors are licensed to practice till the end of their days where as IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers in India have to retire at an age. People’s representatives and legislators also know that they someday will lose their power and authority and will become sick. That is why in India doctors are not answerable to anyone for their crimes. Will anyone believe that the culprit in this crime eventually became director for the entire health service activities in the state?

Toppling a world famous health infra structure by fake doctors. 

 

Solacing each other, the eternal duo.

Justice M.P.Menon Commission that enquired into the fake university mark list cases in Kerala concluded their report by commenting that they had the opportunity to expose only a few of the fake doctors in Kerala and that thousands of them were continuing in the health services department as doctors, unquestioned and unexamined by anybody. The Commission expected that government will pursue what action the Honorable Commission could not undertake with their limited time and resources. Why government did not take any continued action was due to the majority of them being sons and daughters of those higher officials, business men and industrial houses who run the state. The argument then had been that exposing and dismissing thousands of such doctors from health service would topple the health infrastructure in the state which was then being held in high esteem by even the W.H.O., but later developments in the state and Kerala’s later falling a prey to indefensible serial fevers which claimed thousands of lives and incapacitated tens of thousands more, proved that health infrastructure in the state had already been toppled by them.

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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003. Darlings Of The Department. The Story Of Harry Vinoir.

003.
042. 
Darlings Of The Department. The Story Of Harry Vinoir. 

When someone steals 3.2 millions from government treasury, causes the death of one woman, two children and three men in this adventure and escapes into the safety of a promotion post of a very senior officer in that government, a few will admire him but the majority of the people in the world will wonder who is ruling Kerala and if there is any law and policing there. Any sensible person will ask who that rogue is. Read here the true story. 

A Story from the The Hospital Window Series- True stories of what one sees through hospital windows from the inside and from the outside.

This story is from the archives of the imaginary investigative organization ‘Kerala Peoplez Vigilenze’, included in their forthcoming book 'The Hospital Window'. 'The Hospital Window Series' contains true stories of what one sees through hospital windows from the inside and from the outside. Many people have the notion that educational qualifications, ability and skill are the determinants for selection and promotion in government services. This notion is held by more and more people nowadays, following the American government’s decision to recruit persons into their services more through telephone interviews than through face to face interviews so that the colour and beauty of applicants shall not be a consideration. The American government's decision is admirable in that selecting only the beautiful, fleshy and protein-rich ladies into the services can be avoided and coloured people too, if with enough abilities, could get their rightful chances. It is an action which several nations and states in the world, some of them claiming to have achieved complete socialism and some claiming even to be God's Own Native Land have not been bold enough to take. But wait till you read this story which I tell you here, before deciding who will eventually become the darlings of government departments. 

Doctors never commit suicide because they have enough patients there to kill through their blunders.

Many years back, when it was a time of no mobile phones, internet or television, the newspapers in Kerala celebrated a story. An employee in the District Surgeon’s Office in Trivandrum organized large scale monetary crimes following which a doctor and his family, including his wife and two children, were found dead in a hotel room in the capital city, with burned currency notes of higher denominations scattered everywhere around them in the hotel room. It should be noted here that doctors rarely take their own lives when there are enough poor patients for them there to kill silently and deliberatively through their greed and blunders. It should also be considered that whatever complexities they themselves have got into, they would be having highly placed persons in their contact to get them out of any kind of problem and that theirs is a profession they are licensed to practice till the end of their days unlike those of the other senior civil servants of their rank and genre. That is why the world seldom hears about doctors committing suicide anywhere. So naturally the revelations following this multiple suicide, if it was suicide, became exceptionally sensational in Kerala and remained bold frontline headlines for months to come in all major and minor newspapers in the state. Since old dated copies of these papers are available in the State Public Library in Trivandrum for the reference of anyone who is interested and also since it is not the right thing to give undue publicity to these papers, we shall avoid mentioning their names here. 

Where did all those bundles of currency notes to burn in a hotel room come from?

Now since it was a multiple suicide by a reputed doctor and his family in a hotel room, with currency notes scattered everywhere which in itself was rare, it became great news. The social, political and civil service life of this doctor was scrutinized into and in the investigation which followed it was revealed that this doctor was a very generous person whenever money came his way. It was reported that he was generous in presenting rich sarees and gold ornaments to his subordinates, especially ladies, frequently. It mostly happened when bills for the special expenses of his hospital were cashed from the government treasury. He was an Assistant Surgeon in charge of a rural Primary Health Centre in a very remote hamlet called Vellappil. It is now relevant here to note how funds for a small hospital are received encashed and accounted for. The money to be paid as salaries to the staff would be provided in advance in the budget plan of the department for the year, for the encashment of which no allotments of funds are needed. Medicines and other stores for the hospital would be issued from the government stores according to requirement and indents. All other inevitable expenses will have to be got approved by the District Surgeon’s Office and allotment of funds will have to be received both in the institution and in the concerned treasury before presenting the bills. 

Simply put a zero on the right side of 10,000 in a government communication and 1, 00,000 will come your way.

How does an allotment for a certain amount reach a remote hospital? Newspapers also brought out how it is done, every single stage explained in detail, for a column is a column, a page is a page and here the news is anyway free. Suppose an amount of Ten Thousand rupees has to be allotted to Vellappil Hospital for purchasing stationary, sanitation materials for field services or for securing local services such as loading and unloading of materials or coolie labour. A triplicate allotment letter would be prepared in the District Surgeon’s Office. A Yellow copy will go to the concerned government treasury to enable them to set aside sufficient amount to pay when the bill is presented. A Blue copy will go to the concerned institution. A White copy will remain in the District Office as office copy. Then there will be the ledgers and registers in the office wherein notings will be made. The clerk will write 10000 toward the left of the column, leaving space for a single digit on the right edge of the entry in the paper. The higher officers will compare the figure with the ledgers and registers, approve and sign the allotment and return the file to the clerk’s table. The clerk will then put an additional Zero on the right, making the figure 100000 and send the allotment letters to the Vellappil Hospital and the Treasury there. The additional Zero will be put only in the Yellow and Blue copies and the White copy will remain unchanged in the original file. Thus the officials in the District Surgeon’s Office normally will not know about this cheating until one of them becomes suspicious or it is caught in the next audit by the internal wing of the department or by the Accountant General, provided none other is involved in this racket. Thus the doctor will mix original vouchers for 10000 with bogus vouchers for 90000, present a bill for 100000 rupees in the treasury and encash the amount. It was later revealed that the actual 10000 indeed was utilized in the hospital against original vouchers, another 10000 was spent on silencing a few, 30000 became the doctor’s lavish money to be spent at his will and the rest 50000 straight went to the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office. A very lucrative deal indeed, until caught. 

Perpetrators of a crime taking their own lives, one, two, three, except the original plotter.

Burning currency is a serious crime. Those officers who went after the burned, semi burned and unburned bundles of notes in the hotel room eventually found out that the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office was the original planner and founder of this racket, that he was simply captivating a convenient doctor from a peripheral institution to execute his agenda and that they had already stolen 32 Lakhs rupees within a period of one year. It was also found out that the treasury officials could easily have detected this theft when inconceivably high bills began to be presented from a minor institution while annual such expenditure from other similar lower hospitals remained below just two lakhs rupees during those decades, and that not less than two treasury officials were receiving their share of the loot. The peon of the hospital who was assigned the duty of going to treasury for cashing the bills was satisfied with just his liquor money. When investigations progressed and the vigilance net came closer and closer, this person took his life, leaving his family orphans. Then there was the clerk of the institution who actually prepared the ballooned up bills. The next mysterious death was his, which also was supposed to be suicide. The death toll now has reached six. The stealing of 32 lakhs rupees from government coffers took the lives of three men, one woman and two innocent children. Now, of the four perpetrators of the crime, only one person is alive - the clerk in the District Surgeon’s Office, the original plotter of the crime. Newspapers happily brought out how many cars he bought, how many bungalows he bought and how many acres of land he bought in Trivandrum city. A heinous crime committed by a greedy government official resulted in leaving behind it a trail of suicides, the unwanted death of six persons, including two infants. Any alert administration and people will shake the world with news of apt immediate punishment, but not civilized Kerala. When faced with such sinful a situation, some will suicide, some will confess and go to the confines and solitude of prison and some others will repent, but not our man. The greatest wonder in Kerala is that even the loss of six human lives and 32 lakhs rupees from government treasury caused no prosecution, conviction and jail terms. This was an incident which seriously raised the question, whether any real laws are really existing there in Kerala or is Kerala simply boasting about civilization. 

Steal 32 lakhs from government, join ranks of caste zealots, escape punishment, and get promoted as officer.

Now we come to our character, Harry Vinoir, the original plotter and designer of the scheme. He is now the only alive perpetrator of the crime which took the toll of six human lives. Everything regarding his past and present have been brought out by the newspapers. His two bungalows, three cars, five bank deposits and four stretches of purchased land in the city are now public knowledge. The department could do only one thing decent-promote him. He deserves it, considering the department standards. But due to public pressure and wide media attention they reluctantly had to suspend him from service, ordering a departmental enquiry the order for which was issued not by the reluctant department but by the government in the face of public accusation and considering the gravity of the situation after six deaths. Been recruited into service following the death of a relative in service, this employee had strong family supporters in the department. Moreover, he belonged to the forward Vinoir community of Kerala, the rotten caste system of which land is famous all over the world for its notoriety and unjust favouritism. He did not hesitate to join their ranks and make his way to the upper leadership of the caste organization. The Vinoir community in Trivandrum did not find it an abomination and shame to elect him a leader in the Vazhuthanakkadu branch of their organization which assured him impunity from punishment for his crimes. They simply became bound to help him in spite of the notoriety of his crimes. 

If one is skilled enough to steal millions from government, generous enough to share it and belongs to some upper caste, Kerala is God’s Own Country for him.

We will think that the person, our Harry Vinoir, is now spending his life in jail or he is engaged in some other employment after serving his jail term. Actually his protectors in the department, the community figure heads, by stalling the enquiry, gave him enough time and lee way to argue that the enquiry is belated, he is already punished psychologically, there is no evidence against him and that he should be retaken into service. With lightning speed, they sent him to some remote institution where it was some fouled up doctor’s duty to re-enter him in service by simply writing in his service book ‘reinstated in service and rejoined duty’ without mention of number or date of a reinstatement order or even affixing a copy of the suspension and reinstatement orders in the book. In fact, the government that suspended him later revealed that it never issued an order reinstating him. Neither the department did, for that matter. It was another trick employed by devious minded government officials. Wait for one or two years till the uproar over the issue silences, simply fabricate orders, simply sent the favourite to some distant institution and simply write that some he has rejoined duty. It is that simple in Kerala, provided one is a member of the crooks’ clan. Now there is no hindrance to promoting him and the machinery moved on, well oiled up. The fact that the top authorities who reviewed his requests for these many promotions failed to note that copies of suspension and reinstatement orders and number and date of reinstatement order were absent in his service book serves as proof for how wide and omnipotent the hold of the crook’s clan and caste zealots is in the administration in the state. Within a few years Harry Vinoir was first promoted as an Upper Division Clerk, then as a Head Clerk, then as a Junior Superintendent and now he is on the brink of promotion to the post of a Superintendent. If one is skilled enough to steal millions from government, generous enough to share it and belongs to some upper caste, anything is possible in Kerala: Kerala is God’s Own Country for him. It is the benefit of being a darling of the department. Not one government official from the top most to the bottom ever asked that most feared question: “Why was the money stolen from government not ever recovered?” 

Some sinners, when they reach the tranquil abodes of saints and holy people will repent deeply and redeem part of what humanity was lost from them.

Sin is something that creates in some of us the false notions of religion. When we know that everyone knows we are crooked thieves who did unspeakable crimes, some of us will decide it is time to make a show of religion and piety. So Harry Vinoir decided to lean on some respected man of miracles so that the blood of half a dozen human lives could be somewhat washed from his hands. Now we are entering a part of our story which never should have happened. Who served hundred thousands of acres of parched fields and villages in dry Andhra Pradesh with water? Who inspired thousands and thousands of writers, singers and dancers with sweet melodious songs in the bygone era? Who solaced desolate millions, sitting in a bamboo hut in the midst of a vast yellow mustard field in his rustic native hamlet? Who founded and directed the biggest free hospital in Asia? Our animal which is Harry Vinoir selected the learned Satya Sai Baba to lean on. What can Baba do against such sinners and hypocrites joining and maligning his sacred organizations? Vinoir made it a great show, sang bhajans and went pilgrimages. Some sinners, when they reach the tranquil abodes of saints and holy people will repent deeply and transform their minds into other configurations without knowing, redeeming a part of humanity that was lost from them, but not our man! He is in his heart and blood a beast that wallows deep in the wormy pits of fleshly pleasures. One will wonder if this creation has a family of his own and why his wife and children did not enter anywhere in our story. Let us not further pain them, those pining human souls who on their way to eternity, though for a very short time, got entangled in the clutches of this wretched god-abandoned thing. 

He, in his heart and blood, is a beast which wallows deep in the wormy pits of fleshly pleasures.

Flesh is something important and influential in government services. When a fleshy, protein-rich lady with sufficient curves and projections comes to work in an office, several changes in seating arrangements and sections would be made there to sit her as lightly and cozily as the sex-starving officers of that office could do. In a particular government office, the clerks were previously sitting in two rows facing each other. One saw the face of the other and communicated well. With the arrival of one such lady, the junior superintendent of that office ordered the seats to be placed one behind the other, all facing him so that he can feast on the face and curves of the new arrival. Now all see another’s back, which is taboo in the East and now there is no communication between anyone but discord. The officer looked up some book, coined a new phrase and said it was Ahmadabad- Model Administrative Change! When the new arrival did not like one particular section since it involved actual work, another rearrangement in sections was made to suit her disturbing all others and when she did not like the second one too, a third rearrangement was ordered. One senior and reliable officer of that institution commented that the girl had to learn to do actual work, not show curves. Curvaceous flesh can move officers but not office files. It needs learned work and dedication to move them. Then one day the husband of this lady came to that office shouting that his wife has been going out with that junior superintendent, their family is on the brink of ruin and that this cannot go on. Following advice from her new lover, she filed law suit for divorce and her two little children thus lost a father. It needn’t be specially told here that this junior superintendent was our Harry Vinoir. So now we know that a born sinner will never repent and that heaven will not touch the devil. A mad dog will not cure and that is why the world kills it. A person who is left at liberty and freedom to destroy human lives everywhere will continue to do it without remorse or hesitance. He leaves a trail of destruction behind him, his intolerance for having been exposed once brutally expressing itself in causing him to destruct whatever solid human creations and relations he comes across. Learning about this incident of the birth of two new orphans and the prospect of two more suicides, many wondered how long he will continue this destruction of human lives. A few say, till he also takes his own life.

[True story that happened in Trivandrum District. Replace the hospital's place name with Vilappil]

002. How stadiums in Trivandrum were destroyed brick by brick by hateful bureaucrats.

002.

How stadiums in Trivandrum were destroyed brick by brick by hateful bureaucrats.

8th April, 2012.

The famous stadium at Palayam.


Let us examine how stadiums in Trivandrum were destroyed brick by brick by government experts at government expense. Palayam was a very important and famous junction in Trivandrum with a canopied bus shelter, shops, cathedral, mosque, temple, banks, hotels and a stadium. People waiting for buses would sit on the concrete railings surrounding the stadium, watch volley ball and foot ball going on at each corners, admire, enjoy and assess players, judge teams, and when their buses come jump out, jump in their buses and go their ways, to destinations as distant as Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannoor. It was very good and freshening to sit on these railings in the evenings and during the nights, watching the games, drinking tea from the nearby plank tea shops, smoking, talking politics literature and cinema and enjoying fresh night wind coming from Shangummughom. Not all sitting on those stadium railings were awaiting their buses but were residents of the city, young and old and toddlers, come there or taken there to enjoy the night life of Trivandrum. Women could safely wait for buses and walk the road at any time of night because there was unbroken vigil by the people of Kerala. There was no mugging, pick pocketing or gold chain snatching. As we will see, these vices were introduced later due to the intervention of intolerant authorities. This place reminded one of the disciplined city life of Kozhikode, people walking roads at all times of the night and shops functioning day and night. In those days this stadium was occasionally allocated for circuses, dramas, musical programmes and public meetings. When commercial programmes with ticketed admissions were conducted, temporary walls of considerable height would be raised. People will look for holes in the temporary wall to see if anything could be seen. When this kind of temporary walling had been going on for a long time, a few people of authority began to think about permanently walling in the stadium. In our society there are many people who dislike public enjoyment of sports, arts, music, drama and other fine arts who are born with hatred in their hearts but with authority in their lineage. We will wish these people were never born. So, as they are the people of authority, they walled in this stadium. The decline of Palayam was sudden. People no more could sit anywhere, plank tea shops were closed by police, smoking banned, the bus stop canopy dismantled and even the buses began to not stopping there. The shops closed, the junction fell into darkness and insecurity and became a haunt of pick pockets, muggers and gold chain snatchers. People thought: If there was a king, the person responsible for this would have been hanged! But our new authorities are worse than these cut-throats. When the government spends millions of rupees for reviving sports and the sports won’t revive, remember the person who took the decision to wall in the Palayam Stadium. People will remember and retaliate in many ways. 

Jimmy George Indoor Stadium.

Three furlongs away from Palayam is the famous Wellington Water Works which supplies water to the entire city, with the swimming pool there. It was this swimming pool which made many swimmers in Trivandrum. It is public, and the swimmers need only observing the general rules of cleanliness. Mr. Jimmy George was a famous volley ball player and smasher of Kerala and when it was decided to construct an appropriate memorial for him, it was suggested that it would be good to construct a good indoor stadium in his name in Trivandrum. The Wellington Water Works of the old and decent Public Health Engineering Department of Kerala posthumously renamed as the notorious Kerala Water and Waste Water Authority, willingly handed over a few acres of land from their campus. Thus we see the board there: ‘Jimmy George Indoor Stadium owned by the Sports and Youth Affairs Department of Kerala’. This site was leased to the Sports Department. A very good indoor stadium with many modern facilities was constructed there where shuttle badminton, gymnastics and Thai-Kondo were taught and practiced admirably for a few years. Hundreds of young boys and girls living not only in the Trivandrum city but from outside city limits, even from Nedumangadu, found their career in this stadium. It was a time when sports authorities in Kerala were comparatively corruptionless. Then a few corrupt officers noted this place and there began a series of unending betterment and renovation programmes, all unnecessary there. Crores of rupees were spent and pocketed in the name of sports. Floors, walls, ceilings, pillars and even name boards which needed no renovations were noted in estimates and tenders and quotations as to be renovated, new bills of claim presented, passed and encashed. More crores passed through corrupt hands after all which the stadium became insecure and unsafe for players. Now it is closed for two long years. It is explained that it is once again going to be renovated for National Games. Is this sports or naked and authoritative corruption? So Trivandrum lost one more stadium. Simply put, it was piece by piece destruction of the Jimmy George Indoor Stadium donated in a way by the Wellington Water Works. Now we have two more good stadiums in Trivandrum to dismantle, the Colonel Goda Varma Raja Indoor Stadium and the Central Stadium, which we intend to finish soon. 

Colonel Goda Varma Raja Indoor Stadium.

Colonel Goda Varma Raja was a great sponsor and patron of sports, one belonging to the royal family of Travancore. To commemorate him, another indoor stadium, the G.V.Raja Indoor Stadium was started in a very good and convenient building previously owned by the Maharajas of Travancore. It was very good and stimulating to practice here, the building being situated very close to the breezy beach of Shangummughom. There were a few indoor shuttle courts and an outside roller skating rink which caused the emergence of many proficient players. This piece of invaluable real estate came to the attention of some greedy influential prospector who could not shed away his desire to purchase this land and build one of the greatest hotels and entertainment centre in Kerala, surpassing even the recent one built in Quilon, and the Indian Coffee House housed in one part of this stadium building was immediately ordered to be closed. The stadium soon followed and was shut down. The curse of Kerala is, the politicians who are the decision makers also, are almost all born in very poor families where there never was good food or money. Therefore, when they see a rich man with a huge wad of currency notes in his suitcase, they crave on their knees, bend rules and order everything that he dictates. This kind of slavishness never existed among politicians when there were real sports in India. Sports are something that takes away the vices of men and imbibes men with virtues. That is why rigid, corrupt administrators hate sports and pulls the curtain down whenever and wherever they can. So that was the death knoll for the ‘Colonel G.V.Raja Indoor Stadium of Shangummughom, owned and operated by the Kerala Sports Council.’ If someone anxious goes to the Kerala Sports Council, Department of Sports and Youth Affairs or even the Sports Minister and asks why this stadium is remaining closed, there will come the standard immediate reply from the Indian Administrative Service: “It is going to be renovated for the National Games.” A lame reply, which even his lowest subordinate can give. Without continuous training and practice, what National Games? With stadiums remaining closed for years and ministers and government secretaries receiving salary for keeping them closed, what scope for Kerala in national games? 

Government Central Stadium.

There is one more famous stadium in Trivandrum soon to be destroyed, but not too easy to be done with. It is the Central Stadium owned by the government, situated just behind the Secretariate, the seat of administration. Because it is situated just there, and because the watchful eyes of so many government officers glance there when they come out to the back and stand there for a while to breathe fresh breeze, only very slowly can it be destroyed and packed up. Anyway, the sports authorities of this state are trying their very best. For this, they allocate the stadium for frequent public meetings and other functions when stages and divider barricades would be built, podiums erected and march pasts done. When the practicing children come to the stadium the next day, the barricades and the stages would still be there, or if dismantled, the countless pole holes on the ground would still be there unfilled, so that the runners, jumpers and pole vaulters shall sprint their legs. The stadium turf would be trampled upon and the practicing ground littered with plastic cups and left-over food and what unspeakable things not. What else can we do to support and encourage sports? We already have fully succeeded in making the ground turf-free. They are weeds anyway. These children practicing in these grounds almost all come from poor families, hoping sports will uplift them one day. Does the world know how much they are paid as food allowance each day when the School Games comes? 30 rupees, enough for just one tea and one glass of lime juice: not enough for a meal. That is the sin of Kerala. Does anyone know how much an authority will pocket when the games ends? Let your imagination take off on wings. That is the way the crores and crores of rupees Kerala spend on sports go. When all these things happened in Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala, under the very nose and eyes of the people whom we pay high salaries for looking after these things for us, where was the Sports Minister of Kerala? We will wonder whether he was on long leave for five or ten years serving abroad. One day in March 2012, he wakes up, declares that corruption in sports will be dealt with, and goes backs to his sleep. Why did he wake up? His dreams were filled with nightmares and beloved Jimmy George and respected Goda Varma Raja began to haunt him.

001. Trivandrum City Corporation's Betrayal of Vilappilsala Village People.

001.

Trivandrum City Corporation's Betrayal of Vilappilsala Village People.

Supreme Court upholds High Court order on Vilappilsala waste plant.  

NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an order of the Kerala high court directing the Kerala government to give protection for the smooth functioning of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation's garbage treatment plant at Vilappilsala.

TNN | Apr 18, 2012, 05.36AM IST

Can We Dispose Waste In Our Neighbor’s Property? Trivandrum City grows each day by receiving more people from all over Kerala, as every other capital city in the world does. Large quantities of man made waste is therefore accumulated in the city each day. Many years back the city authorities burned the waste generated at a place there itself. Large waste bins and cans were placed in different parts of the city where people could deposit their wastes which the city corporation staff would come and collect each day and dispose of decently. No one had any complaints. The city was clean and neat. The corporation councilors then represented a race that was dedicated to people. They then did engage themselves in some occupation to make their living and served the corporation as councillors as a service. Then this changed and a new race of politicians who do no work but take serving the society as their work and earning began to be got elected as city councillors. They considered cleaning the city as a detestable and mean work and in their general laxity the Trivandrum city lost its world famous cleanliness and neatness. The city began to smell. People began to complain and a private company came forward with a solution as if there have been no solutions to this kind of problem in the world. ‘Purchase a few acres of land in a distant village, construct a burning yard there and forget.’ No Corporation Mayor, Commissioner or Environmental Adviser was willing to raise the question of why spending huge amounts of money for long – distance transportation and creating hell in a remote peaceful and quiet village. No political parties, trade or youth organizations or nature activists questioned the authority of this city corporation to purchase land in another distant village and pollute it. Everyone was eager to share the new pie, involving many million rupees, all tax payers’ money. Thus the hell in Vilappilsala was created. Now they wish to destroy other beauty spots such as Brymore, Tenmala and Nettukaltherry. The corporation mayor of Trivandrum accompanied by other councillors toured Kozhikode to study how waste is being disposed there. Why go to the distant Kozhikode? There is an excellent and model waste disposal plant just 32 kilometres from Trivandrum, run by the efficient local body of Attingal Municipality. Why don't imitate them? It was government's good will to allot a huge amount of 5.7 crores to Trivandrum Corporation for waste management and disposing waste in its sources. The city corporation shall not utilize this amount for fighting the people of Vilappilsala Village. The Trivandrum city corporation went too far when they initiated legal litigation against the people of Vilappilsala. Moreover, nowadays they are fighting like mad against the state administration for purely political reasons. Government does not seem to keep any animosity towards this hostile corporation. People have the right to know how this amount is going too be spent.

Capital's mayor in Kozhikode for waste disposal tips.  

KOZHIKODE: A delegation led by Thiruvananthapuram corporation mayor K Chandrika visited the Njeliyanparamba trenching ground on Sunday to study the waste disposal method adopted by the city corporation.

Mar 19, 2012, 04.26AM IST

Can We Dispose Waste In Our Neighbour’s Property? Trivandrum City grows each day by receiving more people from all over Kerala, as every other capital city in the world does. Large quantities of man made waste is therefore accumulated in the city each day. Many years back the city authorities burned the waste generated at a place there itself. Large waste bins and cans were placed in different parts of the city where people could deposit their wastes which the city corporation staff would come and collect each day and dispose of decently. No one had any complaints. The city was clean and neat. The corporation councilors then represented a race who were dedicated to people. They then did engage themselves in some occupation to make their living and served the corporation as councillors as a service. Then this changed and a new race of politicians who do no work but take serving the society as their work and earning began to be got elected as city councillors. They considered cleaning the city as a detestable and mean work and in their general laxity the Trivandrum city lost its world famous cleanliness and neatness. The city began to smell. People began to complain and a private company came forward with a solution as if there have been no solutions to this kind of problem in the world. ‘Purchase a few acres of land in a distant village, construct a burning yard there and forget.’ No Corporation Mayor, Commissioner or Environmental Advisers was willing to raise the question of why spending huge amounts of money for long – distance transportation and creating hell in a remote peaceful and quiet village. No political parties, trade or youth organizations or nature activists questioned the authority of this city corporation to purchase land in another distant village and polluting it. Everyone was eager to share the new pie, involving many million rupees, all tax payers’ money. Thus the hell in Vilappilsala was created. Now they wish to destroy other beauty spots such as Brymore, Tenmala and Nettukaltherry. Why go to the distant Kozhikode? There is an excellent and model waste disposal plant just 32 kilometres from Trivandrum, run by the efficient local body of Attingal Municipality. Why don't imitate them?

Corporation plans to treat waste on government office premises. 

 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the state government giving clear signs of bowing to the pressure of Vilappilsala panchayat, despite a Supreme Court order in favour of the former, the corporation is planning to forward a proposal to allocate land from government office premises for burying the waste.

TNN | Apr 21, 2012, 06.12AM IST

The Corporation of Trivandrum deciding to dispose waste in government office compounds clears all doubts about the sanity of many of its members. The corporation does have enough places of their own to dispose their waste. These places are scattered throughout the city, in prime spots, with good real estate value. “If these places are set apart for disposal of our waste, what shall we say, when such and such persons who contributed heavily to our funds come with some proposal to construct something there?” This is what hinders all councilors from raising the subject of utilizing their own places for burial or burning of these wastes. Money and future political gains come first; people’s hygiene and safety come only the second, for them. The government offices in Trivandrum city have space, which are a blessing to the people from our old administrators, which are not places for the city corporation to trample. They did plan the city well, and paid salaries to technical personnel for doing their jobs well. How much amount does the Trivandrum City Corporation pay as salaries to technical personnel who do nothing to solve technical problems brilliantly? The recent wicked ideas coming from the city corporation have no justification or people’s mandate. Court orders are not people’s mandate but one of the many explanations of a law. We all know that there is only one law in a matter, but courts from the Municipal to the Supreme gives verdicts differently, in every country. That is why appeals go to the Supreme Court level. Whatever the law says, in the matter of their persecuting the people of Vilappilsala and threatening the people of Ponmudi, Brymore, Idinjar and Nettukaltherry, and now Kottakkakom and Poojapura, the Trivandrum Corporation has no people’s mandate. The entire state of Kerala, especially the people of Vilappilsala, and their government are right, and against them. Who are they fighting with, people? If they are shivering with duty consciousness, why doesn’t this corporation inspect homes for dog licenses and make some money? Why don’t remove the dogs responsible for spreading dengue and chikungunya?

Incinerators just don't measure up.  

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The approval given to mobile incinerators in the city are in violation of the guidelines of central pollution control board (CPCB). The technical committee appointed to evaluate the mobile incinerators has given consent to set up incinerators with a stack height of 11 metres.

TNN | Apr 10, 2012, 11.12PM IST

When we hear about technical committees constituted for purchasing things for government departments, municipalities or corporations, we needn’t wonder about the technical visions and discussions that would have gone into the making of their decisions. Almost all such technical committees are made up of members of government who reached technical positions just through toe licking and favouritism, not through any type of technical proficiency. So, practically, no thinking goes into the making of their decisions. From the purchase of heavy duty trucks to the purchase of simple x-ray machines, that is what is going on in government. Because they are not fairly recruited, most of them would not have any commitment to the community or any respect for regulations. Moreover, most of them would be departmental canvassing agents for the supplying firms. That is why the names, posts and technical qualifications of these so called technical committee members are never disclosed when the deals are closed, how much costly the deal. It is evident that the Trivandrum City Corporation is thrust upon with a fleet of illegally designed and manufactured Waste Incinerating Machines and a few more lakhs of public money have been squandered by them. This is the cost people pay for electing the ignoramus who does not have even basic scientific knowledge to see things in advance and the backbone to say ‘no’ when necessary. After seeing the show of turning against the people of the nearby Vilappilsala Village, suing them in the law-court, running away from the responsibility of the city’s waste disposal, touring the world for studying waste disposal and now purchasing a few incinerators unconforming to norms and violating all rules, the people of Trivandrum can say only one thing to their Corporation authorities: Just resign and do some decent job to make a living.