Chennai police are on a look out for a notorious female trafficker. A special team has been formed to arrest her. Sonalaxmi from Andra is a well known accused for trafficking girls for prostitution. Police say that Sonalaxmi besides being arrested and punished many times is still an active trafficker. For past 20 years Sonalaxmi has indulged in prostitution. She has contacts with sixty brokers and more than 200 sex workers. Most of the girls are from Calcutta, Mumbai or they are Telegu cinema junior artists. Police accuses Sonalaxmi for brainwashing bar dancers in Mumbai and Calcutta. It is alleged sonalaxmi convinces the girls about more money if they to agree to dance in Chennai hotels. When girls agree, she brings them to Chennai on flight. In Chennai, she allegedly keeps them on house arrest and tortures them to indulge in prostitution. Few days back Anti vice squad arrested a lodge owner in Egmore. Few brokers were also arrested. Two Calcutta bar dancers were rescued. Sonalaxmi is said to have escaped in the raid. Special team police are on look out for Sonalaxmi now.

The Sri Lanka Disaster Minister is quoted by the Sunday Times (23 July 2006, p. 2) as stating that “In the wake of last week’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Indonesia, the country was fully prepared within 23 minutes as an early warning reached the Met Department.”
According to the 17 July timeline.ppt, the PTWC and the Japanese Center issued the first bulletin within 17 minutes of the earthquake. The Minister indicates that the entire country was fully prepared within 6 minutes of receiving that bulletin. This may possibly be a world record.
If we assume the 23 minutes was counted from the time the warning was received, the country was ready 40 minutes after the earthquake. Even that is extraordinary. The Sri Lankan official who was interviewed by the Associated Press does not seem to have been aware of this great achievement and simply talked about plans and sirens in religious establishments. It appears that the international press is badly informed or is maliciously supressing Sri Lanka’s achievements.

The Minister further stated ” all we need is 20 minutes to warn the people if they are in imminent danger since there are 15-20 disaster management officials in all coastal districts who are ready to evacuate the people.” The Times states that the disaster management personnel are mainly army, navy and air force officers who have undergone “vigorous training to evacuate people living on the coast to higher grounds which have now been identified.”“The people in these areas too are trained to follow route maps to reach safety in case of a tsunami. Police in these areas have been given megaphones to help in the process.”
The Ministry has already received funds from UNESCAP to build three tsunami warning towers in the Eastern, Northern and Southern Provinces and hopes to build another 25 towers by December 26 [2006] to mark the second anniversary of the disaster, according to the Times.
To summarize:
Sri Lanka only needs twenty minutes to act on a tsunami warning. It took precisely 23 minutes on 17 July 2006, but action is being taken to shave off 3 minutes from the response time.
There are 15-20 disaster management officials in each coastal district, mainly from the forces, giving a total of 15 x 10 = 150 in all. [One assumes different arrangements are in place for Jaffna, Mulativu, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Trinco, Batticaloa, Ampara districts which are not fully under government control]
They have identified the vulnerable populations and trained them.
They have also identified the evacuation paths and the safe locations to move the people to.
The Police, not the disaster management personnel, have been issued megaphones to assist in evacuations, suggesting close coordination between the Police and the disaster personnel.
Funds have been received for three warning towers, one each for the Northern, Eastern and Southern provinces.
Funds have not been received, but will be sought for 25 additional towers. Fund raising, procurment under government procedures and construction will be all completed within five months, giving a total of 28 operational warning towers along the coastline by 26 December 2006.
If all this is true, there is no question that Sri Lanka is the country that is best prepared for a tsunami. On this strength alone, the Disaster Minister should be nominated to a UN post, shortly after the inauguration of the 28 warning towers on 26 December 2006. We have no doubt he will be accepted with acclaim.

In Health Ministry's AIIMS, AIDS no objectiveChandan MitraIt was probably the most high profile and meaningful meeting on the issue of Trafficking and HIV/AIDS. Organised by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), a statutory body headed by the Chief Justice of India, and the UNDP-TAHA project, it brought together judicial luminaries, two dozen MPs, top bureaucrats from 11 States where the UNDP-funded project is going on, and head honchos of all major voluntary organisations working in the arena of HIV/AIDS and human trafficking.Significantly, however, one crucial component was missing. No senior representative of the nodal Government agency, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) was present. Nor were any officials from the Union Health Ministry. Apparently, they were detained in Delhi to assist their belligerent Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, exact terrible vengeance on India's highly celebrated cardiac surgeon Dr P Venugopal. But why was NACO, the officially designated body for AIDS control, also absent? Some speculated it was the result of a turf war: NACO was unwilling to cede any space even to NALSA on AIDS-related issues. Others said they took the cue from the Health Minister's current obsession: AIDS could wait; Dr Venugopal's ouster could not.These abstentions came in for sharp criticism from other participants. First, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar mentioned this. Thereafter Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party general-secretary took serious exception to it. And finally, Supreme Court's senior-most judge, Justice KG Balakrishnan, executive president of NALSA, roundly condemned the Ministry's and NACO's attitude. Considering Justice Balakrishnan will soon become CJI and hold the position till 2010, the absentees may have really asked for trouble.
Dr Ramadoss keeps queering his own\n pitch!The two-day conference at the Leela Kempinski resort in picturesque Kovalam on Thiruvananthapuram\'s outskirts on July 8 and 9 threw up some new dimensions on the issue. Particularly significant was the linkage made between trafficking and HIV/AIDS. This was perhaps the first occasion that so many policy makers interacted with those implementing the policies on the ground.Sushma Swaraj, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, made a major contribution to the discussion by virtue of her experience as Health Minister in the NDA Government. She emphatically called for enactment of a Victim Protection Protocol for trafficked women to bring them legally on par with rape victims.Justice Nazik Bilal of the Andhra Pradesh High Court pointed to the multiplicity of Acts with regard to trafficking and asked if there were enough policemen to enforce them or enough magistrates and\n judges to try those cases. There was a sustained debate on the advisability of Section 5(c) of the Immorally Trafficked Persons Act (ITPA), which has replaced the erstwhile SITA. The disputed clause, many participants such as lawyer Anand Grover and former sex worker Putul Singh argued, would "criminalise" clients whereas the need was to de-criminalise the profession. Almost all participants emphasised the relationship between trafficking and AIDS. They pressed Government agencies, particularly NACO, to broaden its horizon, not to look at AIDS as a purely medical problem that could be curbed by enhancing free distribution of condoms, but also address the social and psychological dimensions of both HIV-infected and trafficked people, especially women and children.In many senses, the two-day interaction between MPs representing seven Parliamentary Standing Committees, the higher judiciary, Government and\n non-Government organisations, was an eye-opener for ",1]
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Dr Ramadoss keeps queering his own pitch!The two-day conference at the Leela Kempinski resort in picturesque Kovalam on Thiruvananthapuram's outskirts on July 8 and 9 threw up some new dimensions on the issue. Particularly significant was the linkage made between trafficking and HIV/AIDS. This was perhaps the first occasion that so many policy makers interacted with those implementing the policies on the ground.Sushma Swaraj, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, made a major contribution to the discussion by virtue of her experience as Health Minister in the NDA Government. She emphatically called for enactment of a Victim Protection Protocol for trafficked women to bring them legally on par with rape victims.Justice Nazik Bilal of the Andhra Pradesh High Court pointed to the multiplicity of Acts with regard to trafficking and asked if there were enough policemen to enforce them or enough magistrates and judges to try those cases. There was a sustained debate on the advisability of Section 5(c) of the Immorally Trafficked Persons Act (ITPA), which has replaced the erstwhile SITA. The disputed clause, many participants such as lawyer Anand Grover and former sex worker Putul Singh argued, would "criminalise" clients whereas the need was to de-criminalise the profession. Almost all participants emphasised the relationship between trafficking and AIDS. They pressed Government agencies, particularly NACO, to broaden its horizon, not to look at AIDS as a purely medical problem that could be curbed by enhancing free distribution of condoms, but also address the social and psychological dimensions of both HIV-infected and trafficked people, especially women and children.In many senses, the two-day interaction between MPs representing seven Parliamentary Standing Committees, the higher judiciary, Government and non-Government organisations, was an eye-opener for
us. Interestingly, it also marked a serious effort by the judiciary to reach out to various agencies and acknowledge the need to sensitise magistrates and judges to the human dimension of this humungous problem. Several delegates pointed to the fact that despite lot of official efforts and deployment of resources the number of HIV-infected persons in India had gone up from one in 1986 to over 5 million in 2006.The presence of four Standing Committee chairpersons, Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Amar Singh, Ms Sumitra Mahajan and EMS Natchiappan, and MPs like SS Ahluwalia, Vinay Katiyar, Anusuiya Uikey (all BJP) K Chandran Pillai, P Madhu, Sebastian Paul (CPI-M), SG Indira (TDP), DK Sharma, Silvius Condopan (Congress) and this correspondent, lent an importance to the brainstorming rarely experienced hitherto. This will undoubtedly impact the forthcoming debate on the\n long-awaited AIDS Bill 2005 in Parliament.The Kovalam conference was the first foray into a wide consultative process by the judiciary. Hopefully, this will become the norm on many social issues that have a legal and legislative dimension. If the legislature, judiciary and executive engage in such dialogue along with NGOs in different specialised areas, both the framing of laws and their implementation could improve dramatically.http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp? \n\t\t \nTry the all-new Yahoo! Mail . "The New Version is radically easier to use" – The Wall Street Journal\n \n\n \n __._,_.___\n \n \n ",1]
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us. Interestingly, it also marked a serious effort by the judiciary to reach out to various agencies and acknowledge the need to sensitise magistrates and judges to the human dimension of this humungous problem. Several delegates pointed to the fact that despite lot of official efforts and deployment of resources the number of HIV-infected persons in India had gone up from one in 1986 to over 5 million in 2006.The presence of four Standing Committee chairpersons, Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Amar Singh, Ms Sumitra Mahajan and EMS Natchiappan, and MPs like SS Ahluwalia, Vinay Katiyar, Anusuiya Uikey (all BJP) K Chandran Pillai, P Madhu, Sebastian Paul (CPI-M), SG Indira (TDP), DK Sharma, Silvius Condopan (Congress) and this correspondent, lent an importance to the brainstorming rarely experienced hitherto. This will undoubtedly impact the forthcoming debate on the long-awaited AIDS Bill 2005 in Parliament.The Kovalam conference was the first foray into a wide consultative process by the judiciary. Hopefully, this will become the norm on many social issues that have a legal and legislative dimension. If the legislature, judiciary and executive engage in such dialogue along with NGOs in different specialised areas, both the framing of laws and their implementation could improve dramatically.http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?

Fraud HunterTrafficked abroad, she finds father 23yrs laterThe axiom -- truth is stranger than fiction -- so happily became a reality for Matiur Rahman who lost his daughter Rina in the late 80s and dramatically found her, along with her Dutch husband, when they came to Bangladesh for a visit recently.
Taking advantage of poverty and vulnerability of Matiur's family, a gang of child lifters posing as social workers sold Rina to a Dutch couple when she was only six-month old.
Rina, educated in the Netherlands and now a lawyer there, came to Bangladesh and saw her father for the first time at the initiative of an NGO -- Hotline Bangladesh -- at its Malibagh office in the capital. Overwhelmed with emotion, the father and daughter hugged each other.
"I am the happiest man in the world now. My heart was in flames for so many years and it is now over," Matiur said at the NGO office on Wednesday.
Equally moved, Rina said , "It is really strange and great. Visiting my country and finding out my parents has been a dream for me since I came to learn that I was from Bangladesh."
Matiur, Rina and her husband Danish went to Hotline office before the couple left the country yesterday.
Rina told The Daily Star, "I do not know the background of my migration to the Netherlands. I also do not know when and how my foster parents in that country adopted me as their daughter. I got all love and affection from them. The love and affection that my father here in Bangladesh has for me is also above anything else."
She went on, "I would like to visit my father here whenever possible and look after his wellbeing."
At one stage, such a reunion between the father and daughter had almost become impossible as there was no response even after Rina and Danish held a press conference in early August in Faridpur, seeking the address of her father.
Following a report in a Dhaka daily, Matiur, now an employee of Birdem Hospital in the city, rushed to the daily's office that sent him to Rosaline D Costa of Hotline. D Costa then contacted Rina to make the reunion possible at her office.
Matiur, who hails from Faridpur, was a rickshawpuller in Old Dhaka before independence. In 1972, he got a government-allotted room in Tongi. He along with his first wife Hasina, daughters Nilu and Laily and a son lived there. Later, he got separated from Hasina and married Halima, who gave birth to Rina in 1979.
Recalling the past, Matiur said some local employees of the Netherlands-based organisation Tere Des Homes had lured him into keeping his daughters in the Homes for proper care and education. And he could also visit them frequently. "They also took my signature on some stamps, saying that it was a contract for educating my children,"
Following the lucrative offer, poor Matiur sent Nilu and Laily to the Home in Tongi, which virtually was a shelter for children of the women dishonoured by the occupation forces during the Liberation War.
A few months later, Matiur went to see his daughters but did not find them there. He said, "I heard that my daughters were sold." All his efforts to find them out failed and his complaints against Home staff went ignored.
Later, some goons kidnapped Matiur and took him to Dhanmondi in the capital but he managed to escape.
He then filed a case against the Home staff for masterminding his abduction but his first wife Hasina sided with the abductors. "Hasina asked me to leave the place, saying that otherwise the Home staff would endanger his life. Halima and I then left the area, keeping Rina with Hasina," Matiur said.
It was sometime in 1980 when Matiur went to Tongi to see Hasina and Rina but found none of them. Locals told him that Hasina, in connivance with Tere Des Homes officials, sold Rina.
Matiur said like a mad he then started moving here and there to trace his daughters and lost contact also with his second wife Halima. "I did not know what had happened with the case I filed, but I just wanted to see my daughters. I went to offices of many NGOs and newspapers seeking their help."
He went on, "Allah has finally heard my prayers."
Matiur bought a saree for Rina and a lungi and fotua for his son-in-law, Danish. Wearing the local dress, they posed for a photo session with him on the premises of Hotline office.
"The feeling is strange, marvellous. It is above everything," Rina said.
Matiur said he has come to know that his eldest daughter Nilu is also in the Netherlands.
Rina said she would try to find out her sister." Life is really more cinematic than cinema," she added.

Mr. Washboum estimated that 1arge container ship worth $75 milhon (40 mulion)would pay about 0.02 per cent of its worth, or $15,000, for an annual insurance policy, which would cover the vessel to make unlimited visits to the world’s safe ports for 12 months. However, the ship would have to pay the same amount for every single visit that it made to a port on the “enhanced risks” list, he told “The Times”.
Sn Lankan exporters once again may have to face insurance premium surcharges on freight as a result of this move, shipping sources said on Friday.
Initially Sn Lanka was included to the list of excluded countries by the joint war committee at Lloyds of London after the terrorist attach in the Bandaranaike International Air Port on 24th July2001. As a result, Sri Lankan exporters were charged US $150 per 20 foot container as an insurance surcharge to offset the additional insurance costs of lines.
A deposit of Sterling Pounds 50 million had to be placed by the Government of Sri Lanka and a security audit of port of Colombo had to be carried out to persuade the Lloyds of London to reduce the very high levels of additional war risk premium. When the security situation in Sri Lanka improved, the additional premium was reduced and the surcharge imposed on exporters was initially reduced and then withdrawn.
Trident, a London based company was appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka to do an external audit of the security in Sri
related perils only on 20th June 2005 resulting in shipping lines being relieved of the additional premium for Hull & machinery. However Sri Lanka continued appear in the list of war risk countries with The Joint Cargo Committee without change & the cargo importers & exporters continued to pay higher war premiums since 2001. Even after the ceasefire agreement was signed in February 2002, The Joint War Committee retained Sri Lanka under the held cover status without a break.
Due to additional insurance premium paid continuously by exporters and importers Sri Lanka continued to lose heavily financially and economically, in addition to the impact in various other ways including the coiThtry ratings by credit rating agencies while the authorities turned a blind eye.
“We have not handled this matter professionally. There were many questions even on the ISPS certification where the governments took controversial steps. Were the representatives who visited Lloyds according to this report competent and were they well informed?” asked a source from the insurance industry.
;1] Sri Lanka, Yemen, Malacca Strait stays on ‘risk’ list;0]
Additional insurance
premium, a heavy
economic, financial loss
The Lloyd’s Market Association Joint War Lankan ports and canvass Lloyds of London. Committee (JWC) in London revised its list This company was later closed under a of areas at risk for Hull, War, Strikes, cloud of controversy. Lloyds of London how- Terrorism and Related Perils as of 20 April, ever appointed their own Security 2006. Sri Lanka and Yemen have been Consultant, Rubicon to asses the security of added to the list; the port of Algiers has been the ports of Sri Lanka. Under a fresh effort removed, and the Malacca Strait stays. later the Government appointed
• Accordingo a report in “T1Ti0ieson anothar connftatLBagndi& 22nd of May, representatives of the Sn Associates, vihise assignment Lankan Government visited Lloyd’s of was abandoned by the govern- London underwriters last week to discuss ment half way, without completing, concerns that the country’s inclusion on the due to unknown reasons. list will damage trade. Clive Washboum, The Joint War Committee head of the marine division at Beazley, the removed Sri Lanka from the listing London insurer, told The Times “There was a in respect of Hull war risk and full and frank discussion about the risk and
what they’re doing from a security point of view.”

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