News from NDTV and Siti News Channel on Chandigarh going Smoke-Free from July 1, 2007
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News From CNN-IBN
News from CNN-IBN TV about the success of Chandigarh's smoke-free initiative. June 22, 2007
The Lost Track - Sports in India (Dreams, Hopes and Reality)
A documentary on state of Sports in India. Produced by Burning Brain Society under "Mission - Zero Tolerance." (Directed by: Hemant Goswami).
Why Indian sports' is in such a pathetic condition? Why our athletes can't even get through the heats? Despite being one fifth of the global population why we can't even get five medals in Olympics? To investigate all this and find answer, an independent report prepared by a citizens' group under the initiative of "Mission Zero Tolerance" was prepared.
The report, supported by a 14 minutes video documentary "The Lost Track – Sports in India" was also released on the occasion. The documentary highlighted the apathy towards sports and the reasons for failure by taking one of the best cities of the country, "Chandigarh" as an example. The "Citizens' report" researched by Nidhi Arora, Dechen Yangdol, Amit Gulati and Hemant Goswami demonstrated that there was a wide gap of availability of resources for the affluent class and the general public. Sharp gender bias was also discovered causing uncomfortable divide between males and females.
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The Red Cross Scam
: Money meant for relief for the widows of Kargil War heroes and victims of earthquakes have been spent buying air conditioners, five-star dinners and toiletries for infants.
The money was all spent by the Patiala Red Cross at the instructions of IAS officers who control the funds. This shocking revelation was made thanks to the Right To Information Act.
“The pilferage in these societies turns into crores of rupees. If it goes on to other parts of the country then the nation-wide ramifications are likely to run into thousands of crores,” says Hitender Jain, an RTI applicant.
The RTI documents show siphoning off or diversion of funds or other irregularities pertaining to Red Cross span a period of seven years from 1999 to 2006.
In several cases the IAS officers have disbursed loans without any written sanction or permission.
The Punjab government has now ordered an inquiry.
"The Chief Minister has ordered an inquiry into the matter," says HS Bains, media advisor to the Punjab CM.
But RTI activists want an impartial probe by the CBI.
“IAS officers are very intelligent and no state agency will be able to do justice to this investigation. It should be carried out by CBI to unearth the scam all over the country,” says Hemant Goswami, an anti-corruption activist.
The Last Song
"The Last Song" is the reflection of false glamorization of tobacco felt by yet another victim of tobacco. Mr. Babu Lal. As a young adult, Babu Lal saw all his friends and companions smoking and thought it to be a good thing. He fell in for tobacco and consumed "Beedi's" (Indian Local Cigarette) for 20 years.
He was proud of his voice but his tobacco addiction made him a victim of CANCER. His voice box is to be removed (At the time of recording of this clip). When he realized that this might be his last day with voice, he sings his last song. In the background is the song of a popular Hindi movie (Bidi Jaliye Leh) which in a way shows how tobacco smoking is glamorized through movies.
The shots have been clicked on an amateurist non-professional camera (by a young doctor) and have been transformed into an awareness movie by Burning Brain Society.
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NDTV Story on Smoke-Free Chandigarh
NDTV Story on how Chandigarh made way for successful smoke-free campaign for the rest of India.
Video Statement on Alternatives to Tobacco Crop
Video statement of Hemant Goswami on "agricultural diversification and crop alternatives to tobacco." Feb. 27 and 28, 2007 at the WHO office in Brasilia, Brazil.
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Tobacco in Movies and Impact on Youth (7 Minute Cut from the 32 minute Documentary)
Despite film industry promises to self-police tobacco promotion on screen, tobacco brands popped up in more than 40 percent of Indian films released since 2004. That is almost triple the 15 percent incidence observed before the enforcement of a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. As per the research study by the Chandigarh based NGO, Burning Brain Society and supported by WHO, 89 percent of the films released and analyzed after the tobacco advertising ban included generic or branded tobacco imagery. Complete study on "Tobacco in Movies and Impact on Youth" is available at http://www.burningbrain.org/tobaccoinmovies
