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Elected
:
Mr.
Mahesh Padil has been elected as the new president and
Sri. Ashraf kariangal has been elected as the secretary
of the of the district unit of the student federation
of India. Sri. Sunil Kumar Bajaal, the district secretary
of DYFI has wished the office bearers the best of luck
through this portal.
Annual
feast: The annual feast of Sri. Jarunadya temple,
boloor, Mangalore was inaugurated this week, through a
Bhoomi pooja by Sri. Gurudevanand swami of the Odiyoor
temple which. This was followed by a religious programme.
On this occasion MLA, Sri. Yogis Bat, Sri. Shivanand Prabhu,
Sri. Chandrahas, corporator, Sri Padmanabha Amin , MCC
Engineer Sri. Veerabhadrayya and others were present.
Branch
opened: The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank Ltd.
has opened a branch on Ganapathy high school road. Gulvady
Gopinath Bhat, president of the Saraswath Education Society,
lighting the lamp, inaugurated this. Sri. Suresh Hejmady
wished the new branch the best of luck. The branch manager
and the staff of the new branch were present on this occasion.
Nominated:
Senior congressman and former finance minister Sri. Smt.
Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian national congress,
has nominated Janardhan Poojary as the additional president
of the agricultural cell of the AICC. Senior congress
leaders like Sri. A.C. Bhandari, former mayor Sri. Abdul
khader Haji, Youth congress president DK, Sri. Kallige
Tharantha Shetty, MLA Sri. Vijaya kumar Shetty, Sri. Ut
fareed, Sri. M. R. Shetty, mayor Smt. Sundari, north block
congress presient Smt. Geetha Rebello, Deputy mayor Sri.
Bashir Baikampady, Sri. Ut khader, Sri. Santhosh Shetty,
NSUI Vice president Sri. Kamalaksha Salian and others
have wished Sri. Janardhan Poojary all the best on his
new office.
Installed:
An automatic computerized wheel alignment machine by "precision"
at Nirmala service station, Ujjodi, Pumpwell, Mangalore.
It is stated to be one of the most advanced machines and
Nirmala service station is stated to be the first in the
district to have installed this machine.
Trouble
brewing at MCF: Trouble seems to be brewing up at
the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd. Mangalore,
which again may spell the death knell for the company,
which has been on the road to recovery. Both the management
and the labor unions have been trading charges and counter
charges against each other, and last week at a press conference
held at the MCF premises, the Executive director of MCF,
threw some light on the present problems at MCF, which
include low demand for the fertilizers, drought, competition
from private sector companies etc.
At a counter conference, the leader of the INTUC affiliated
labor union Sri. N. M. Adyanthaya, placed before the press
the charter of demands and stated that the D.P. Mehta
led management had been victimizing and ill-treating the
workers, and has been ignoring the efforts of the labor
union to solve the problems amicably. He stated that measures
like cut in salaries, demotions, suspensions, transfers
or terminations have become a day-to-day affair. He also
stated that the management, thinking that the labor unions
peaceful approach of not organizing strikes or lockouts
is a sign of its weakness, has compulsorily made about
70 workers accept voluntary retirement. Even the pay revisions,
which have been long due, have not been done, nor is the
management responding to the pleas of the union as regards
this. He said that the management was acting in a vindictive
manner because the labour union had made public the mismanagement
and misuse of the provident fund and other monies of the
factory. He also said that the D.P. Mehta led management
would be directly responsible for any problem caused to
the farmers, financial institutions, partners and the
public at large. The vice-presidents of the MCF workers
union P.V. Subraya, M. Nagesh and other office bearers
were present at the press conference.
Crime
busters: The Dandupalya Gang said to be involved in the
murder of noted doctor Aroor Bhaskar Rao and the double
murders at Alver-Mahal at Urwa, and more than 62 other
murders across the state was apprehended the past week
by the Chickpet police, under the leadership of super
cop national award winner, ACP Sri. G. A. Bava.
Trouble
in the tile industry: More than 6000 labourers working
in the tile factories on Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district
have been on strike from the last 14 days, demanding that
the minimum wages prescribed by the government and the
long pending pay revisions be implemented. The proposed
talks between the management and the workers not materialized,
as the management has never bothered to make it to the
meeting tables. And the strike continues. The President
of the management association Sri. George Albuquerque
it is alleged has been Victimizing the workers in his
factory, and pressurising them to take voluntary retirement.
It is also alleged that the managements even failed to
appear before the Labour Commissioner in Bangalore, who
had called a meeting to solve the problem. The workers
have severely criticized such vindictive attitude of the
managements and promised to fight harder than ever for
their rights. Special feature:
Std
booths: a bane or a boon: One of the most important links
in the communication channel are our very own red and
yellow boxes which we find dotting the horizons of Mangalore.
Yes the STD/ ISD public call booths. These lifelines of
the people now seem to be taking the life out of many
a phone using public with their non-co-operative attitudes,
pressure tactics, varying rates etc. One of the biggest
problems faced by the public is the daylight robbery committed
by these booth owners as regards the tariffs. An exhorbitant
rate of Rs. 2/- is charged for a local call, which is
metered at Rs. 1.26/- on their computers. A call to a
mobile, which incidentally is also a local call is not
allowed by many an operators. The reason? "They make calls
to mobiles in Bangalore, Mysore etc which becomes a local
call instead of our bread earning std calls". Though some
operators allow calls to mobile phones, they are charged
at a self-fixed tariff, which range from Rs. 3/- to 5/-.
Certain other booths seem to have rigged their computers
in such a way that a 150 second local call which should
which in normal conditions is charged at Rs. 1.26 is charged
at Rs. 2.52/- a public call booth near bunts hostel threatens
the public that no local calls should be made from there.
There are certain other booths at Kadri and Pumpwell,
which seem to be following a limiting and restrictive
communication policy, and cut off a local call if it exceeds
100 seconds. If a person who has to make a STD / ISD call,
arrives at the booth then the person making the local
call is unceremoniously shunted out by the operator by
either disconnecting the line or creating a lot of nuisance
that the person making the local call loses his mental
balance and disconnects the call himself!
The
booth owners / operators seem to have thrown all decency
and humility to the winds and are of the opinion that
they are the invincible supreme lot rather than a public
utility service. Enquiries about the tariffs charged by
the customers give nothing more than an abusive reply,
which makes the customer put his head down in shame. And
even women are not spared from the ordeal of listening
to filthy language. However not all booth operators are
the abusive or argumentative lot. We in our survey found
out that the booths at RTO circle still charge only Rs.
1.50/- for a local call.
It
is high time that the dot woke up and set right this anomaly
before the public get a feeling that the booth owners
are operating with the tacit approval of the dot, so that
the good old days where the customers could make a call
without any fear of abuse or overcharge come back, and
the std booths become once again a true public utility.
Donation
for Gujarat: Think of beedies and the first thing
that comes to out mind is the trade name "30" of the Bharath
Beedie Works Limited. On the birth anniversary of the
founder of M/S Bharath Beedies, the Late B. Majunath Pai,
on the 8th of February, a demand draft for Rs. 5,00,030
was sent to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, for relief
works.
Feast
of St. Sebastians church, Thokottu: St. Sebastians
Church, Thokotttu celebrated its annual feast this week.
A holy mass was held at the St. Sebastians chapel, Adankudru,
which was attended by the believing multitudes. This was
followed by a colourful procession with music and attractive
floats and scenes to the Permannur church. Thousands of
devotees joined in the procession with much devotion and
faith. The MLA of Ullal, Sri. U.T. Fareed, former member
of Zilla Panchayat Sri. Dennis D'souza, corporator of
Jeppinamogaru Sri. Nagendra Kumar, NSUI president Sri.
U.T. Khader, Gurkars of the church Leo D'souza, vice president
of the church Sri. Lazarus D'souza, and others also participated
in the procession.
Book
released: No moorings, a novel by noted dermatologist
and eminent writer Dr. Ganesh Pai was released yesterday
at 4 pm at book world, trade center by famous neurologist
Dr. K. R. Shetty.
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