Thought institution like NERIST is the breeding place for nerds and techies; but no, it has a place for musicians too 
. Don’t believe me? Check out the video below (which is though a bit amateurish).
The video above by Infringe Within features among the most viewed this week of the You Tube channel- Musicians (India)…Great no!
It was expected. It had to come sooner or later. How long would they (the consumers’) be taken for a ride by BSNL?
On behalf of President, BJP District Unit, Lower Subansiri District, Ziro a legal notice has been served to SDO, BSNL Ziro to refund the the rental charges paid by BSNL consumers’ of the District, for the period when the service was not available, within 15 days from the date of issue of the notice which was served on 22nd of October. The four point notice states that:
1. That the Mobile and WLL Telephone is not functioning in the Lower Subansiri District since 14th June 2008 till date. The Mobile and WLL Telephoone users have been charged monthly rent at the rate of Rs. 225/- for Mobile, Rs. 100/- for WLL Telephone, service tax @ 12% without providing service and education cess @3% per month for the period from June to till date without providing services to the consumers. The consumers have paid the monthly rent charges on demand even without the getting services out of fear of disconnection. But the BSNL has no right to charge monthly rent without providing services to the consumers.
2. That the monthly rent charged from the Mobile phone and WLL Tlelphone users for the defunct period is deserved to be exempted and they are entitled to be repaid by the BSNL.
3. That it has been found that call charges are also charged for the defunct period without making any call by the users. The Mobile and WLL Telephone users have paid it out of fear of disconnection. It is illegal to charge call charges without making call.
4. That the monthly rent charged from the Mobile phone and WLL Telephone users are deserved to be repaid without further delay and Mobile phone and WLL Telephone network be restored immediately.
Further, the notice warns that BSNL would attract legal proceedings in the event of failure to refund the rental charges. Find copy of the notice here.
This notice comes in the wake of intermittent or rather nil service provided by the service provider since June 14th last when the mobile connectivity of Ziro exchange of BSNL was disrupted reportedly due to the torrential rain and subsequent landslide that flushed away the OFC connecting Ziro exchange with Itanagar exchange. Since then, no sincere effort has been/was forthcoming from BSNL side to restore the mobile service. The mobile network would be up intermittently only for 10-15 mins, that too after gap of 3-4 days. However, despite no service, it was made sure that the mobile bills were raised and served to the consumers’ on time claiming rental charges, which made one wonder, rental charges for what? For luxury of having BSNL’s SIM card without being able to put it into use?
Now, it has to be seen if this notice would jostle BSNL to take the restoration business seriously and if the poor consumers’ would be freed from the misery of having mobile connections without any connectivity and from payment for no service.
Related reading:
Rants on BSNL Service at Ziro-Hapoli
Alcoholism and drug addiction are two ignored social evils which endorse for weakening people’s moral fibre. It spells disaster not only for the addict but also to his family and society as a whole. If we take a closer look of social and cultural fabric of our society, the “O” culture is most predominant. At this stage of globalization and modernization we surely are on backstage and struggling for identity. Every man of prudent mind can understand the evil effects of alcoholism and drug abuse but nobody is concerning and for why? Being a social animal we can atleast appreciate Apatani Youth Association (A.Y.A) and District Administration, Ziro for their noble initiative i.e., ‘Mission De-Addiction’ by banning GUTKA.
Legally, it is a crime in which the addict himself is criminal as well as victim. However, sociologists and criminologists reveals through investigation that a major chunk of the crimes are committed by a person in abuse of narcotic drugs and alcoholism. Under the influence of intoxication the person loses self- control and may develop criminal tendency which results into acts of misbehaving, indecency, aggression or assault at any moment.
The process of addiction starts when person makes stimulant like alcohol and narcotic drugs as relief for stress, depression, tension, family discord, discontentment etc. In broader sense the spread of these evils are mainly due to apparent failure in personal life, unemployment especially among youths, lack of parental care, careless habits of elders at home that arise interest among younger to taste it, negative influence of peer group and the recent development in pharmaceutical and medical sciences having capable to produce variety of toxic synthetic substances like nail polish remover, dendrite etc. Among the youngster it happens as fun or enjoyment on experimental basis at first and gradually good majority of them turn out to be habitual. Due to addiction they detach themselves from worldly affairs. Consequently, the individual’s health gets affected as mental faculty of an alcoholic does not function in a normal way and delinquency especially juvenile delinquency follows addiction.
To eradicate this twin menace there is a dire need to evolve an effective control mechanism to check unrestricted production and their sale in open market. Accordingly, the Constitution of India under Article 47 mandates that the State should endeavor to bring about prohibition of intoxicating beverages and drugs which are injurious to public health. But society cannot blame administration all the time for eroding social and cultural fabric mainly caused by individual’s irresponsible act. It is a part of individual’s duty to stay away or abstain/refrain from devastating melody of alcoholism and drug addiction. Administration, however, has corresponding duties to undertake corrective measures as India being one of signatory to International Convention on Drugs which reiterated faith in human dignity and the legitimate aspiration of humankind for a decent life. It insist the need for generating universal consciousness of, and determination to battle, the drug problems in all it’s pervasive forms at national, regional and international level. Under the auspices of United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 under proviso (1) of Article 38 and International Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 under proviso (1) of Article 20 has emphasized the need for prevention of abuse of psychotropic substances and early identification, treatment, education, after- care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the person involved. The Indian Parliament by taking legislative measures has enacted the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (Ammenament) Act, 1988 to tackle these menace in socio-legal perspective. Under Section 71 of the Act, it provides for rehabilitation and reformative measure for an addictive whether he is an offender or not. Thus the Act seeks to prevent people from the dangers of drug-abuse.
Despite existence of various tough and reformative laws the menace of alcoholism and drug addiction cannot be effectively controlled without the helping hand of voluntary social organization in cooperation with Government Authorities and self-realization of the addicts. To check these evils, every sections of the society should stand unitedly by saying ”No” to narcotic drugs & alcohol. Besides, the addicted should be given a chance for treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration and that would definitely turn out to be Midas touch to our society. Due to acute problems of drug-abuse in North -Eastern States the Government of India has decided to provide 100% liberal grants to start drug de-addiction centres in these states. For this noble venture, a voluntary social organization should come forward to bring awareness about it’s harmful effects and rehabilitation. As the principle and purpose of reformative penology is to “destroy criminality in a human being without destroying humanity in a criminal.”
Arunachal Diary wishes it’s reader a very Happy Diwali.
Say ‘No to Crackers’ this Deepavali.
