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Showing posts from October, 1978

NK's Post

Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...

Madhya Pradesh tribals die to earn a living

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NK SINGH Driven by acute poverty, the Gauds, an aboriginal tribe living in the villages around the two military-proof ranges at Itarsi and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, have taken to an unusual and dangerous occupation. They sneak into the artillery-proof range, entry into which is strictly prohibited, and pick up shells of the fused bombs which are exploded there. The shells contain brass, copper, aluminium and iron, which are processed separated and sold to unscrupulous traders at a fraction of the original value of the metal. The rich traders, who are alleged to wield political influence in the state, sell the stolen metal at an exorbitant profit through their well-organised network. The half-clad, illiterate people, including many adolescents and even women, wait behind nearby bushes and trees as the heavy mortars roar. Most of them race towards the fused shells even before the smoke caused by the firing clears. Experience gained through years in the trade has developed in them a cru...