Regional media

Veerupaksha  Hokrani, Karnataka

The Karnataka government has not taken any serious action to check arrack trade in districts along the Karnataka- Andhra Pradesh border, saying that the areas come under Andhra Pradesh

Despite the ban on arrack in Karnataka,  spurious liquor continues to flow illegally in the state, especially in districts along the Karnataka – Andhra Pradesh border. It is responsible for the hooch tragedy, causing a high number of deaths in Yadgiri, Raichur, Gulbarga and adjacent districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Karnataka  government has so far not taken any serious action to check it, citing the reason that the area comes under Andhra Pradesh. Veerupaksha Hokrani wrote a story on this after much investigation, and it got published in the op-edit page of Vijaya Karnataka, a leading daily of Karnataka. He had earlier broken another story on the victims of Haveri police firing, which gained attention nationally.

Veerupaksha  Hokrani, a 25-year-old young journalist, has been reporting for Vijaya Karnataka (Times of India Group) since 2010. He has done his masters degree in mass Communication and journalism from Karnataka State Open University and his stint started as a reporter in TOI, Kannada in 2008. Development journalism is Hokrani’s main theme of  writings. He covers stories related to rural problems, farmers’ woes and issues related to the common man. Hokrani hails from Raichur, which is part of Hyderabad–North Karnataka region, the most backward region of Karnataka and he likes to focus more on the problems faced by the people of that region. “People of Hyderabad-Karnataka region are deprived of basic amenities. Politicians misuse the funds allotted to people under various schemes,” he told Media Watch.

Hokrani dug up many laudable human interest stories. He reported extensively on common man’s problems and atrocities of the government.

He is another example of how the RTI channel can be effectively used for digging up buried misdeeds of government officials. “I get a great sense of satisfaction in doing such stories. Journalism is not a mere profession, it is my duty to help create a better society,” he said.

Tariq Ali Mir, Srinagar, Kashmir

The fifth century Gilgit manuscripts  tell the story of one of the first resistance movements launched by the native Kashmiri Nagas against the onslaught of Buddhist rulers

One of the most appreciated news stories by Tariq Ali Mir was about the “Gilgit manuscripts.” These manuscripts had been shifted to New Delhi during the Indo- Pak war in 1947 to safeguard them, but were never returned to the state.

These fifth century manuscripts, found by a shepherd in 1931, tell the story of one of the first resistance movements launched by the native Kashmiri Nagas against the onslaught of Buddhist rulers.

Tariq’s story informed that during the war between India and Pakistan in 1947, Indian prime minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru asked Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, the emergency administrator of the state, that manuscripts be flown to Delhi for “temporary safe keeping.” Sheikh agreed and a special plane was flown in from Delhi to transport the manuscript to National Archives, Delhi. After the ceasefire was announced, Sheikh asked Nehru to return the manuscript, but the reply from Delhi was that “Director General of Archives was out of country.” And when the DG returned, Nehru imprisoned Sheikh for “conspiracy against India.” In 1977 Sheikh became the chief minister again and asked then prime minster Indira Gandhi to return the manuscripts. The central government categorically refused to return them, saying ‘they are part of the National Archives.’

When this story got published, the J&K Tourism and Culture Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora wrote a letter to Union Minister for Culture Kumari Selja, asking for the return of the Gilgit manuscripts and other artifacts excavated in the state by the Archaeological Survey of India. “Our efforts to showcase the cultural wealth of the state under one roof will be incomplete in the absence of the artifacts excavated by ASI in the state,” Jora wrote in his letter. He also insisted on the ASI to return the fifth century manuscripts back to the state.

It was in the winter of 2006 when a man in his 30’s, Tariq Ali Mir, came to Srinagar from Dooru Shahabad of south Kashmir to join the just launched Urdu daily “Kashmir Uzma” by GK communication. Tariq was appointed as a reporter for the newspaper. He chose to work on culture and heritage, a beat normally journalists avoid in Kashmir. But Tariq’s decision proved prolific for him. Within a couple of years, he did many exclusive stories which forced the government and the concerned officials to take action.

Peerzada Muhammad Ashraf, deputy director, department of archives and archaeology, while acknowledging Tariq Ali Mir’s contribution in highlighting the issues regarding different cultural and archaeological things, says, “His stories have helped us to identify many issues. We have done many things after getting important information and clues through his stories.”

Gunagrahi Sahoo , Gujrat

The Synergy Shipping Pvt. Ltd of Paradip, while requesting for river sand, has offered to dredge the sand-cast riverbeds of Orissa which cause floods

Maldives government has been waiting for years to get sand from Orissa for its Tsunami rehabilitation programme. An exclusive report on the same was published in ‘Khabar’, a leading Oriya daily  on 19th July. Given below is the synopsis of the story published in Oriya in the front page of the publication.

A large part of countrymen of Maldives are eager to leave the land and settle elsewhere on this earth after the devastating tsunami in 2004.

To stop this possible exodus, Maldives government has launched a programme to raise the land level and rehabilitate the people, still living in camps. The Maldives government decided to procure sand and earth from India and Sri lanka. For this, a number of agencies were engaged. One of them, Synergy Shipping Private Limited of Paradip, has requested for shipment of 50,000 metric tonnes of river sand from Orissa. 

It wrote a letter on December 9, 2009 to Jagatsingpur District Collector. The latter forwarded the letter to revenue and disaster management department, which referred it to the water resources department for further examination. The letter was then sent to the forest and environment department for environmental clearances.

In the meantime, nearly two years lapsed. Even though the letter moved from government’s one department to another, the matter was not decided. The company, while requesting for river sand, has offered to dredge the sand-cast riverbeds of Orissa which cause floods. It has also agreed to pay royalty as per state government’s charges i.e. Rs. 15 per cubic foot. When asked, Environment Director Bhagirathi Behera said that the department has asked for opinions of experts regarding dredging of such a huge quantity of river sand.  A decision will be taken when we receive the expert report, he said.

Gunagrahi Sahoo, bureau chief of Oriya daily, Khabar, has worked as a correspondent in different  Odiya and English newspapers for the last 20 years. While briefing about this story Gunagrahi says, “When the file of procurement of river sand came to the environment department, I was there. The director was unhappy as the file was not attended to for a long time. I approached the dealing scientist and asked for the copies of some relevant letters. He obliged. Now my job was to ask the concerned departments for the sluggishness. As nobody took it to be such a serious issue, they were rather frank enough to tell me whatever progress was made so far. When the exclusive report was published in the front page, environment department took no time to solicit the experts’ report (not asked before). To my joy, The Telegraph carried the story afterwards.”

Anil K Ankur, Lucknow

The fraud was being done in various ways. Scholarships were being awarded when neither the school nor the student existed

Ankur was at the office of the director of Social Welfare in Lucknow when he noticed a group of students from Etawah desperate to meet the authorities concerned to share their woes. Even though social welfare was not Ankur’s beat, curiosity propelled him to find out what the students wanted.

“The students were trying to complain about a massive fraud in the government funded scholarship programme for minorities, backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The fraud was being done in a number of different ways. For instance the same student was being shown enrolled in different schools and the scholarship awarded twice. Also, scholarships were being awarded when neither the school, nor the student existed in some cases,” he said. But Ankur did not churn out the story just then. He asked the students to lodge a formal complaint with the director, Social Welfare. He personally followed it up to ensure that an inquiry into the fraud was conducted.

The details of the inquiry were shocking. Of the 103 recognised schools which had received the scholarship money, 38 did not even exist. Crores of scholarship money had thus been siphoned off in just one year which had seen close to Rs 8 crores being granted to the district.

“This was a classic case of a very good scheme getting undone during implementation,” said Ankur. In September, the report was published on the front page of his publication. Once the inquiry got underway, the District Social Welfare officer was dismissed.

Anil K Ankur (44), a principal correspondent in the Hindi daily, Hindustan, in Lucknow, is known for his fearless reporting. His love for journalism goes back to his childhood. “At seven, I began fashioning my own daily newspaper, complete with cartoons and make believe advertisements,” he says. On the kind of journalism that he aspires to do, Ankur says, “It should create some hope in the common man.”

One of Ankur’s stories, about how a minister in the first BSP-led government in Uttar Pradesh had created a mini zoo in his home, had the forest department swooping in to take charge of all the animals there. Another story exposed the arbitrary allocation of plots by the Lucknow Development Authority. Ankur is the recipient of two fellowships by the Centre for Science and Environment.