The Observer
An IIJNM publication
Hostellers who chose junk over healthy diet now realise bad effects of unhealthy food | P 4
Vol. 21, Issue 32
Friday, May 13, 2022
https://facebook.com/ iijnmbangalore https://twitter.com/ observer_weekly Epaper: https://issu.com/ theweeklyobserver/docs Website: http://www. theweeklyobserver.in
Kerala’s tomato flu scare does not overly scare Bengalureans; causes still unclear, say docs | P 5
People blinded at ’13 camp left high & dry They have not been paid any compensation
By Shristi Achar
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arakka sits outside her small house in Devagere village clutching a bamboo stick. She has cloudy vision in her right eye. “It has been like this way for so long now...I am told I should get it operated, but after the last operation I had years ago, I feel scared,” she said. Marakka (in picture), now in her seventies, lost vision in her right eye after she had it operated at an eye camp in her village in April 2013. She was prescribed an eye surgery by doctors
News Briefs SSLC results will be declared on May 19 The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board will announce the class 10 results on May 19. Candidates who appeared for the examination can check their results on the official website: sslc.karnataka.gov.in, a board release said. About 8.7 lakh students had appeared for the examination.
NEET PG to be held on May 21 after SC ‘no’
The top court has rejected an appeal for the postponement of the NEET PG 2022 exam. The postgraduate entrance exam will be held on May 21. The bench was led by J DY Chandrachud.
Sonia attacks Modi govt at Chintan Shivir
The Congress’ three-day Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir began in Udaipur on Friday with party president Sonia Gandhi launching an attack on PM Modi. It is clear, she said, that his government wants to polarize communities, brutalize minorities and threaten its political opponents.
in the camp. She is one of the 22 persons who got operated at the free eye camp . “My eyesight was only a little fuzzy before that, but after the operation at the camp, I lost it completely. Now I only see through my left eye,” Marakka informed The Observer. Another woman named Marakka, then 45, lost her eye sight four months after the camp was held in Devagere. In October 2014, The Observer reported that at least eight of the people operated on at the free camp, organized by the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, in Devagere village had lost their sight. Residents of the village who lost their eyesight due to faulty surgeries at the camp say that neither have they received any compensation nor has any hospital or healthcare facility contacted them to rectify their botched eye surgeries.
The Observer had reported the blinding tragedy in October 2014 Marakka said: “No one came after the operation to check on
us or ask about us. I didn’t get any money or help so that I could go to a hospital and get a proper eye surgery done.” Pointing to a house in front of hers, she told The Observer about another such victim who had a similar experience. “Malasidaiyya lived here... even he lost his eyesight in that camp. He died a couple of years ago… and had turned completely blind.” Most of the victims mentioned in the October 2014 Observer report have either died or moved to different places with their families. Their neighbours, however, recalled the tragedy. They said that none of them received any compensation and they were either left blind or spent their own money to get their vision rectified. Dr Sowbhagya HN, a former Head of Department of Ophthalmology at KIMS and supervising doctor at the camp, was in 2014 quoted by The Observer as say-
Opposition attacks govt move to issue anti-conversion ordinance BJP stands in support of the decision By Swarali Bodas
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he Karnataka government’s decision to have an ordinance issued to ban religious conversions has drawn the ire of the opposition and received support from the BJP. Congress member and lawyer Brijesh Kalappa said: “They seem to be targeting the Christian community. As per my knowledge, the Christian community’s population has been decreased in the past few years. How are they converting then? The law doesn’t make any sense. The basis for it is skewed.” He accused the BJP of playing a communal card. “The azaan, halal and hijab issues, and now the anti-conversion Bill, are all examples of how the minority communities are targeted.” The Bill was passed by the leg-
The Bill has imprisonment up to three to five years for forced conversion | Credit: Arshreet S islative assembly during in the Belagavi session in December 2021, but the BJP did not have a majority in the legislative council at that time. N. Chidambaram, a journalist and CPI member, noted: “The BJP is not sure of 2024 and somehow wants to come to power. The communal angle will get them all Hindu votes. BJP just wants ‘Hindu Rashtra’.” Faith and religion are personal matters. “Why is the government interfering in someone’s personal matter? If two people fall in love, they don’t see religion. Now, they
have to prove their love.” About the halal and hijab issues, he said: “Who are they (government) to say what one should do, eat or wear?” About the timing of the ordinance, he said: “They want to divert the people’s attention from the actual issues like the flawed education system and healthcare system, and corruption within their own party.” The decision to have the governor promulgate an ordinance found a supporter in BJP spokesman M.G. Mahesh. “In the past decades, some elements of society are forcefully converting people. They say it is in the name of humanity, but they just want to change the demography of our country. Forced conversions should be stopped.” It is for the good of vulnerable sections of society. For its part, the Karnataka Christian Social Welfare Association will submit a memorandum against the proposed ordinance to the chief minister and other ministers. ►Continued on page 4
ing they had done their best. She had claimed the patients who lost vision were already visually impaired before the surgery was performed on them. However, she now claims to have no knowledge or memory of being involved in any such eye camp in Devagere. According to the study ‘Estimation of blindness in India from 2000 through 2020’, conducted by the International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care, about 30 million people in India are estimated to be blind. Additionally, a research study in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology by Dr Neeraj Nagpal mentioned that often multiple surgeries performed in the assembly line in such free eye camps and the use of “spurious, contaminated and off the label drugs” on patients have been repeatedly found as the causes of such tragedies after eye surgeries. shristi.a@iijnm.org
No safety gear in plastic units
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ack of safety measures in the some plastic industry is dangerous for workers, reports Swarali Bodas. Workers at some plastic factories in Bengaluru have some or no safety gear when they work. Some don’t have proper uniforms, resulting in their veils or dupattas that they wear getting entangled in machines. Recently, a woman working in a plastic factory in Bengaluru died after her veil got entangled in a machine. While some factory owners neglect these safety measures by not considering them important, others say they could not provide safety gear to the workers due to the Covid pandemic. According to the Factories Act, 1948, factories should make arrangements to ensure the safety of workers, and eliminate all the risk factors. Also, there should be instructions given to the workers and training must be provided to them as well. All operations must be supervised. ►Full story on page 2