Guidelines framed for safety of girl students

With the gang-rape of a medical student from Manipal University bringing to fore the safety of girl students in the State, the Home department has prepared fresh guidelines to be followed by universities for ensuring safety of their students.

After a series of meetings on Monday, the department said the new guidelines would specifically focus on the feasible measures for ensuring security and safety of students of the state-run and private universities. The guidelines focus on adequate manpower to provide security, installation of closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) and adequate lighting on the campuses. 

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) V Umesh said the guidelines would come into effect after being approved by the government. The government will direct varsities to ensure that there is sufficient private security personnel on the campuses.

For students residing off-campus, the Home department has stated, that varsities would have to arrange separate transport facility. “In case students have their own mode of transport, colleges and universities should give an advisory on which roads to avoid and which to use,” he said.

The prime reason cited for  these safety guidelines is due to the location of varsities in the State. For instance, Manipal University, NLSIU and Bangalore University are situated in remote areas.

The enforcement of these guidelines will be taken up by the jurisdictional police and the superintendent of police of the district. The Higher Education department will be calling a meeting of all the VCs soon to collect details on their security requirements and provide a feasible response, said Rajane- esh Goel, principal secretary, Higher Education department.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/340812/guidelines-framed-safety-girl-students.html

ICC Champions Trophy: Life in a cocoon and India's private bodyguards!

Team India's high-profile cricket stars have lived in a cocoon ever since arriving in the United Kingdom on May 29 for the ICC Champions Trophy. By limiting its interaction, the team management has not only denied the media but many passionate autograph hunters. The players have mostly confined themselves to their hotel rooms and have only surfaced during nets a day before their Champions Trophy games. This pre-planned 'strategy' seems to be working fine.

Fans, whether in India or abroad, have always treated our cricketers like superstars. But mediapersons, who frequently travel with the cricket players overseas, say the Indians have the worst record in public relations. Probably the players don't need any more publicity. They are already rich and famous and running an extra yard for the avid fan is a waste of time.

To shut out the media was not unexpected. The script was already 'decided' much before India flew to London. In his pre-departure press conference in Mumbai on May 28, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni parried questions on the Indian Premier League scandals with a sweet smile and an agitated media manager tried his best to gag the Press, the message was clear.

With the Champions Trophy entering its business end and India rolling inexorably to the semifinals, the ever-thirsty media has no choice but to reconcile to BCCI's diktats. Fair enough. Right now, it's important that India win the trophy. Nothing is bigger than the game, certainly not the power struggle inside the BCCI and its controversial ways. But to deny the enthusiastic fan an autograph or a personal photograph is just choking the romanticism associated with the gentleman's game.

The BCCI has hired bodyguards to make sure the players are undisturbed. These hunks look like the bad men in Western movies. Big, bald-headed and with a mean demeanor, they are intensely guarding the jewels of Indian cricket! They have been omnipresent - pitch-side, at nets, during team exercises, at press conferences and even at dinner tables and shopping malls. The Indian players lovingly called them, Tinus, Craig and Kyle.

The BCCI has hired South African Tinus and Australian Craig Weatherly. The ICC has provided Englishman Kyle Gould. Tinus is a familiar face with Indian cricketers. Interestingly, the well above six feet and more than a 100 kilos man is nicknamed "Tiny!"


he 38-year-old from Pretoria, Tinus , is the most 'experienced' from an Indian point of view. This is his second assignment with Team India. The first was when India toured South Africa in 2010-11. Tinus has also worked with IPL teams like Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils and was on assignment when the IPL was played in South Africa in 2009.

Tinus, Craig and Kyle are private security guards. They are all trained in hand-to-hand combat and are no less than a thoroughbred commando. They do not carry any firearms. Craig, for example, has been guarding celebrities for over two decades.

They are officially supposed to keep a low profile, but you just can't miss them. Standing amidst the players with dark glasses and their heads sticking out like king-size periscopes, the bodyguards cut quite a daunting figure.

Why did BCCI hire foreign bodyguards? Don't we have Indians to protect the players?

Speaking to NDTV.com, a senior team source explains: "Familiarity breeds contempt. These foreigners are professionals and have no attachment with an Indian player. They have been given a job to do and they will just do it. So it's a big advantage not to have Indians."

The team management is extra careful on this tour due to the allegations of spot-fixing in IPL. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the bodyguards said the hacking of a British soldier to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street last month has necessitated 'extra' protection for players. "You never know who is a terrorist. They can kill anytime and cricketers are soft targets," he said.

Another said: "It's been nice keeping an eye on the boys. They are not naughty and they are quite respectful. It works well both ways." The IPL scandal has made the players extra careful and it is helping manage them better, he added.

The players have not been going out too much. The weather has been damp and that's another reason, one of them said. "Even when they go out, our job is to mingle with them and make sure the crowd doesn't disturb them too much," he said.

The BCCI team management is enforcing its own code of conduct. Unlike some of the Australians who went on a drinking binge till the early hours in a Birmingham pub, the Indians have curfew hours (see graphic) and curbs on usage of mobile phones and parcels.

"We have verbally briefed all the players. There is no need for any written notification. The message is very clear and the boys are doing fine," said a team source.

Source: http://sports.ndtv.com/icc-champions-trophy-2013/blogs/soumitra-bose/209397-icc-champions-trophy-life-in-a-cocoon-and-indias-private-bodyguards

Hollywood's Bodyguards: Inside the World of Celebrity Security Detail

 From Oscar Contenders to Lady Gaga, it seems everybody who is anybody in hollywood has a security detail in their entourage and there are some who see it as a big business opportunity.
Kent Moyer, who got his start working security for the Playboy Mansion, founded the World Protection Group 12 years ago as a bodyguard training program to produce professional alternatives to the hired thug.
"If you look at some of the Hollywood people and what we call the so-called 'bodyguard-type,' big people, no training, maybe bouncer from clubs, maybe friends that they picked that are really tall, big, those people get dead real quick because they don't have formal training," he said. "It's about using your brain. It's not about using physical."
Moyer now has 200 employees busy guarding all types of people, from former prime ministers of foreign countries and dignitaries out of Washington, D.C., to business executives, billionaires and "quite a few celebrities" from all over the world. And demand is growing, he said.
"I think we are in a dangerous time," Moyer said. "People are a little bit more concerned about their security."

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Before getting an assignment, Moyer's "agents," as he calls them, go to bodyguard boot camp where they learn how to deal with stalkers, manage crowd control and how to help their clients make a quick escape.
Like many in Moyer's program, agent Darrel Clark has a police and military background. He said the danger in protection work is real.
"It doesn't matter if you are an A- or B- or C-lister," he said. "There is always someone when you are in the spotlight who wants to cause you harm, you never know."
Personal protection is a huge business. Moyer said clients will pay between $250,000 and $1.5 million per year for security, and there are some who hire protection just to create a little buzz.
"There's a certain percentage of celebrity-type people that want to have that bodyguard for the purposes of saying, 'I got a bodyguard,' when there is really not much threat," Moyer said. "It's more a show piece."
In Hollywood, with flashing cameras, paparazzi and fans, bodyguards for the rich and famous are ever-present, hovering just out of camera range.
Most celebrities won't talk about their security details, but even young up-and-comers are shelling out money for bodyguards.
Jimmy Bennett is 17 years old but he is already a veteran actor with a ton of movie and TV credits, playing a hell-raising future Starfleet captain by the name of James Tiberius Kirk in the "Star Trek" movie. Most recently, he starred on ABC's TV series, "No Ordinary Family."
Bennett is not yet an A-lister, but bodyguards are part of his entourage the moment he steps off a private plane or walks up to an event.
"It's weird," he admitted, but said the hired protection is necessary because he said he has received threats on social media.
" I have just had too many incidents and too many things that I have just, you know, I liked having these guys around," Bennett said. "I like feeling protected and I like feeling safe."
Moyer said when Bennett is on his way to an event, such as a Hollywood party, his agents scan social media and crowds looking for "indicators."


 "Let's say somebody says right out, 'I'm going to kill you,' that actually is considered a lower threat then sending you a bullet in an envelope in the mail," Moyer said. "We're looking for bad guys. We're looking for body language, facial expressions, people who have a fixation on him that may want to come up to him and approach him."
Hollywood drama sometimes becomes real-life drama when bodyguard relationships turn hot and heavy. In an interview with ABC's Katie Couric last September, Heidi Klum admitted sparking a romance with her bodyguard after her divorce from Seal.
" I've known him for four years and he's been with my family for the last four years," Klum said at the time. "He's cared for our entire family, mostly for our four children. He's helped us tremendously. I trust him. I trust him with my children's life. He's a great man."

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In 2011, TV cameras caught Kim Kardashian and her former Australian bodyguard in a lip lock while filming her reality show, "Kim and Kourtney Take New York."
Then of course, who can forget the most iconic bodyguard-client relationship portrayed in the epic 1992 romance thriller, " The Bodyguard" -- the story about a music star, played by Whitney Houston, who falls in love with her bodyguard, played by Kevin Costner, after he is hired to protect her from a stalker.
But Moyer said romantic relationships between clients and their bodyguards are not appropriate.
"You are not their buddy, you are not their boyfriend or girlfriend and the reality is you have to maintain, always, the professional barrier," he said.
Sometimes those relationships turn sour. Justin Bieber and Britney Spears have both been sued by their former bodyguards. Spears settled the suit out of court. That professional barrier can also be tested by celebrities with illegal habits or those who are simply looking for a hired thug.
"If someone has an alcohol or drug problem and they are expecting their bodyguards to jump in and fight -- not what we do." Moyer said.
For Bennett, who is also branching out into a music career, he believes the risk of being hurt at a Hollywood party is low, but said the expense of a security detail is well worth the peace of mind.
"If you are more in the public space, there definitely is more of a threat," he said. "But I mean, as long as I have my guys, I don't think I would be worried."

Source:
 http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hollywoods-bodyguards-inside-world-celebrity-security-detail/story?id=18567443&page=2#.UcrekeuBA7A

'Mango' film shooting cancelled in Goa after bouncers attack doctor

Civic authorities in Panaji Tuesday cancelled the shooting of upcoming Bollywood film "Mango" after security personnel attached to the film unit roughed up a well-known city doctor on a public road.

Panaji mayor Surendra Furtado told reporters here that the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) ordered the shoot cancelled.

"This cannot be allowed to happen. Film crew cannot assault respected city dwellers like this. The permission given to them (film crew) was only for a small area. But they have illegally blocked other roads too," Furtado said.

The incident occurred when Oscar Rebello, a well-known medical professional, was crossing the road behind his clinic located near the city market, where 'bouncers' accompanying the film crew had "illegally" cordoned off the road, asked him to stay put.

When Oscar still went on and crossed the road, four bouncers started roughing him up and threatening him.

"I am lodging a complaint at the Panaji police station. This attitude is unacceptable," Rebello said.

The film producers had been charged Rs.30,000 by the state government towards permissions for a three-day shoot, which had been scheduled in Panaji. But Furtado now says, that the city corporation would take a call on whether the film crew would be allowed to shoot in Panaji at all following the assault.

Well-known MTV veejay-turned-actor Rannvijay Singh, who is part of the film, was present onsite when the incident occurred.

Source: http://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/bollywood/-mango-film-shooting-cancelled-in-goa-after-bouncers-attack-doc-8315.html

Road rage: 2 assaulted in south Delhi

A 28-year-old man and his relative were allegedly thrashed and stabbed near the Vasant Vihar police station in south Delhi on Sunday night. The victims have been identified as ‎Tarilung Kaurnita and Titus from Nagaland. Four men have been arrested, said cops.
The victims live in Munirka and had stepped out around 2.30am to bring a friend home from the main road. Kaurnita and his brother-in-law left home on foot and were returning with their friend when two men asked them to move aside at Baburam Chowk. The victims said that though he got to a side, the men, who seemed drunk, asked them to move further. This led to an argument and the two were attacked.


 The argument soon turned nasty when two more men arrived at the spot and attacked Titus with a brick. He was hit on the head and started to bleed. The men then targeted Tarilung and stabbed him with a sharp edged weapon in the abdomen and thighs. He was also punched and kicked several times.
The victims raised alarm after which neighbors and passersby gathered at the spot. The attackers then fled sensing trouble.
Tarilung and Titus were taken to Safdarjung Hospital. While Titus was discharged, Tarilung had sustained severe injuries in his eyes and stomach. He is recuperating and out of danger. The cops too were informed about the incident and they rushed to the spot. A case under section 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) has been registered and police have identified the accused.
The incidents of road rage are on the rise in the capital. On March 25, an 18-year-old boy was shot at by the Personal Security Officer (PSO) of a south Delhi businessman in an incident of road rage in Dhaula Kuan area. The accused PSO, Somdev, 35, was arrested. The boy and his friend had indulged in an argument with the businessman and his PSO over rash driving by the latter.
On November 4 last year, a 53-year-old man was assaulted by a man after their vehicles brushed past each other. The incident was reported from Safadrjung Enclave area in south Delhi. In the last week of October, two back-to-back incidents of road rage were reported in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-12/delhi/39924223_1_road-rage-south-delhi-titus

Delhi: Not enough men for PCR vans

They have more wheels, but not enough men. On a day home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde flagged off 100 more police control room (PCR) vehicles, his ministry, sources claimed, told the Delhi Police to ‘arrange for drivers’ on their own.

Thanks to the austerity drive of the ministry of home affairs (MHA), the police’s dream of a 1000-strong fleet of PCR vans won’t become reality for at least two more months.
And as if things weren’t bad enough, the force exercised the only alternative available — pulling out men from each of the 11 districts to drive the 100-odd new vans around. Around 1,600 personnel have been pulled out for the purpose so far.

Sources said this was an uphill task with officers deputed as assistant commissioners of police (ACP) and above, who ‘utilise’ the services of more than one driver, opposing the move.
“We have roughly been able to manage enough manpower for the 100 of the 370 sanctioned vehicles from within the department, which is from the central police control room (CPCR),” admitted an officer.
“The fate of the remaining fleet remains uncertain; we need at least 800 more personnel for the same.”
At the moment, between 50 and 70 PCR vans are officially dead while a hundred or so are sick — having reached the stage of ‘official condemnation’ as they have been in service for a period of six years or have run 1,50,000 kilometres — and on the verge of becoming unusable.
This takes the tally of functional PCR vans — after adding the 370 newly-sanctioned ones — to over 850; less than the magic number of a 1,000 which the department has been trying to reach since May last year.
“It’s not just about drivers,” the officer explained.
“The PCR is a specialised unit and each PCR van requires a team of at least four officers consisting of a driver, an operator who acts as in-charge and one to two gunmen to function efficiently.”
The personnel pulled out from district units will be replaced by fresh recruits currently undergoing training.

 Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Delhi-Not-enough-men-for-PCR-vans/Article1-1081797.aspx

I Am Scared, I Am a Single Woman in Delhi

I am a single woman in Delhi and I am scared and I am afraid. I am very, very scared – for my life, for my dignity, for my reputation but above all for my safety.

I am what the gossipy aunties of the city contemptuously refer to as “modern-types”:  I live with flatmates, not with my parents, and I go out with friends. Many of my friends are men; I wear pants and dresses.

I come home late after late-night movies, and go out for dinners. I have nobody who stays up to make sure I get home safe so it could happen that, one day, the fruits of this “modernity” could prove bitter for me.

Delhi can be very cruel to women, especially single ones.  You get used to the constant staring and to the unwanted comments. You almost get used to the occasional incident of groping and molestation. You also get used to every man, woman or politician – pretty much anyone with a mouth –giving you advice on what to wear, who to speak to, and which words to choose – all for the sake of your safety.

In the summer, I should be free to wear skirts if I want to. No one should tell me otherwise.

Yet I constantly hear unsolicited advice from unconnected neighbors and colleagues who tell me that, if I don’t dress or carry myself a certain way, I am inviting and provoking an attack on myself.  The implication of this logic feeds the stigma attached to single women in Delhi.

Last month, while I was house hunting, I asked the real estate agent how safe the neighborhood was. He said: “It is a very safe area, there have been only one or two incidents and that, too on the approach road, nothing inside the colony.” One incident is an incident too many. He suggested I should take self-defense classes and thought the local government take it upon itself to arm all women. I smiled. Women don’t want to be armed, they just want to be safe. I didn’t move to that house. I upped my budget and continued my search until I found a house in a gated community that I could afford.

People warn me against eye contact with men I don’t know. Yet I rarely hear anyone preaching to men about self-control, which – by the way – is one of the things that sets us apart from animals.

I am fairly sure that if I were molested or raped there will be those who say: “She was asking for it.” They may recall that I was wearing a skirt at the time, or that perhaps I was in a bar.

What scares me most about the latest, horrific, rape case in Delhi is that the young woman was raped and tortured for 45 minutes by several men, not just one, and none of them seemed to worry that what they were doing was wrong.

When Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit suggested setting up fast-track courts to ensure speedy justice in rape cases, calling the recent gang-rape a “shockingly extraordinary case”, I shuddered.

As a former journalist, I covered many such cases. I learnt that most rapists are people the victims know. I also learned that women should not talk to strangers, as that could provoke unwanted attention. I learnt that public transportation or autos should be avoided at night.

The conclusion is untenable: to be safe, women should avoid any interaction with known or unknown people, and avoid most forms of transportation after dark. Traveling with a male friend may not help: in the latest case, the friend was also assaulted.

I used to resent my parents for telling me not to go out till late, that Delhi is unforgiving and that I should be careful. Today, I understand their concerns. This makes me angry. But as a single woman in Delhi, I am still very scared.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/12/18/i-am-scared-i-am-a-single-woman-in-delhi/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Findiarealtime%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+India+Real+Time%29