YOUNG LOVE IS A CRIME IN BIHAR!

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AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when a brutal attack happened to a very young couple in the Jamui district of Bihar. For a Saturday following the week when there was a clear lack of compatibility between the Atal Setu bridge built by Manohar Parrikar and the elevated Porvorim flyover built by Rohan Khaunte and Digambar Kamat. For a Saturday following the week when Vijai Sardesai was forced to reconsider his alliance with Arvind Kejriwal. For a Saturday following the week when we sympathized with Omkar, the restless elephant.
AND a few stray thoughts on the brutal attack on a very young couple in the Jamui district of Bihar. A Class 10 girl and a male classmate, while returning from their coaching classes at the Jamui district of Bihar, two teenagers, were reportedly surrounded by a group of young adults who reportedly beat up the boy and repeatedly rape the girl. Apparently, the motive was disapproval of the two young 10th teenage students having a romantic evening in a park.
Worst still the perpetrators recorded the whole episode on a mobile phone. The duration of the incident was more than 20 minutes. The male student who attempted to intervene and tried to protect the girl was severely assaulted by the self-appointed moral police. Apparently, the police did not lodge the complaint immediately, though the victim girl contacted them.
The police acted only after the videos became public. The police claim to have arrested Nandan Yadav of Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist. They even claimed that Nandan Yadav was shot in the leg during the police encounter. The total number of arrests has now added up to five. This is not an isolated incident and there have been half a dozen similar incidents in the last two months alone. This is apart from attacks on interfaith couples. Though the Supreme Court has made it clear that inter-religious marriage is not a crime and nobody has any right to do any moral police.

INCOMPATIBLE ENGINEERING!
AND a few stray thoughts on the lack of compatibility between the Atal Setu bridge built by Manohar Parrikar and the elevated Porvorim flyover corridor built by Rohan Khaunte and Digambar Kamat. It has now been revealed that Atal Setu bridge, which is just 300mts from the elevated corridor has a 4.25-mts wide lane compared with 3.5 mts on the elevated corridor. The Atal Setu has four lanes but the new Porvorim bridge has six lanes. The speed limit on the wider lane Atal Setu is 50 km/h. The speed limit on the smaller lane of the Rohan Khaunte bridge 65 km.
The question then is how will people come at the speed of 100km or more on the elevated flyover — against the official speed limit of 65km — manage to control the speed limit within 300 mts to 50km on the Atal Setu bridge?
For national highways the speed limit the country over is 70-80 km per hour. In the United States in their highways, called motorways, the minimum speed is 80- 100 km. The autobahn, the high-speed highways in Germany, minimum speed can be 150km. A researcher has pointed out that there cannot be smooth passage from a very narrow service road at the Neo Majestic Hotel junction to the six-lane narrow elevated corridor in Porvorim.
There is not enough distance for the traffic to adjust to the differing speed limit on the six-lane corridor and the Atal Setu corridor. A road safety expert has pointed out that a 3.5meter lane could be restricted for heavy vehicles travelling at 65km per hour. The Porvorim highway was supposed to make the passage to the Mopa Airport easier and faster. With access to the elevated corridor from the Panaji side restricted there are huge traffic jams below the bridge and the Merces junction which connects to the Atal Setu.
The logical thing would have been keep the Rohan Khaunte highway also limited to four lanes with the same width as Atal Setu. It may be noted that the Atal Setu was built by the country’s leading engineering firm Larsen & Tubro. The Porvorim corridor was built by Rajendra Singh Bhanboo, a small private limited company based in Uttar Pradesh. The original cost was Rs364.68crore, it rolled to Rs650crore plus. The RRSM infra owned by Bhanboo is responsible for maintenance for ten years. It is obvious that the Bhamboo company has no specialized experience in building an elevated six-lane corridor.

VIJAY & ARVIND ALLIANCE
AND a few stray thoughts on Vijai Sardesai being forced to reconsider his alliance with Arvind Kejriwal. There is been a revolt against Vijai Sardesai’s recently formed alliance within his own Goa Forward party. The main supporters of Vijai are senior office bearers Dilip Phrabudesai, Prashant Naik and Cleofat Coutinho and they have objected to the alliance with Arvind Kejriwal.
Apparently, they were not consulted as Vijai rushed into the alliance because he was promised the chief minister’s post Arvind Kejriwal. Vijai is now insisting that he is open to an alliance with the Congress. But now Girish Chodankar is praying hard-to-get. Interestingly, Sudhin Dhavalikar of the MGP, who is with the alliance with BJP, is unhappy with Pramod Sawant. Sudhin has reminded Pramod Sawant that he lost to the MGP candidate in Pale in his first election. Now the Congress is reaching out for an alliance with the MGP. All the alliances in Goa are about kodels.

BJP VICTIM OF ELECTION COMMISSION!
AND a few stray thoughts on the latest special intensive revision of the electoral rolls, this time in New Delhi. It is the BJP which is now the victim of the Election Commission. Heading the list of people who received the notice to prove their identity is External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jayshankar and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. The people who may be rejected by the EC shockingly include the BJP veteran, the 90-year-old Lal Krishna Advani, former deputy PM of the country. Even the former BJP Delhi President VK Sachideva has received a notice. Not surprisingly, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia and Kapil Sibal, former Union law minister, are among those likely to be dropped by the 47 lakh Delhi voters apparently — 33 lakh voters have been issued notice. So the SIR has come to haunt the BJP party in the national capital.

OMKAR, THE RESTLESS ELEPHANT
AND a last stray thought on Omkar, the restless elephant. The elephant, reportedly a resident of Maharashtra forests, seems to be very fond of Goa’s forests. However many times it is driven back to Maharashtra, Omkar returns to Goa. Omkar does not have table manners. Omkar has to eat whatever is available in the orchards and paddy fields in Pernem. One of this days he may even enter the Mopa airport.
We would like to suggest that Anant Ambani be requested to take Omkar to the Vantara elephant sanctuary in Jamnagar.