Retired SP runs from pillar to post for a cause

His efforts to convince authorities concerned that mobile towers emit radiation and that it should be shifted, failed to evoke any response

 It is a wellknown fact that a common man has to run from pillar to post to get any work done, especially in government offices. However, what if a retired superintendent of police has to run from pillar to post to get a work done, that too, for the benefit of many public / residents in the region... Well.

A case in point is a case pertaining to K S Ibrahim, who retired as the superintendent of police (Civil Rights Enforcement) in the year 2001.

It all began when Ibrahim learnt that his neighbour was planning to rent his land to erect a microwave communication tower (for a private cell phone operating firm) in November 2011. Immediately, he approached his neighbour and explained to him the ill effects of the tower, the electro magnetic radition it emits and other related consequences, including the possibility of tower collapse. But all fell into deaf ears.

Left with no choice, Ibrahim collected signatures of 20 families in the region and filed a complaint / request to Mangalore City Corporation Commissioner on November 24, 2011 (much before the tower was erected), not to give permission to the said firm to set up the tower. As the complaint failed to evoke any response, he then filed a complaint to the Deputy Commissioner, Town Planning Officer, Executive Engineer (Mescom) and Deputy Chief Electrical Inspector among others to name a few.

“As I could not succeed in my mission, even after approaching various authorities concerned, I had no choice, but to approach the media as a last resort,” he said and added that the recent reports on increasing danger-level of radiation even if the Department of Telecom curbs the levels of radiation emitted from mobile towers (as per the new norms), is a cause for concern.

Quite interestingly, Ibrahim and a few neighbours too had received the offer from the telecom company seeking space to establish the tower, but they refused to budge to the lucrative offer. However, one of his neighbours, accepted the offer making the life of neighbours miserable, he said.

Though MCC issued a notice to the owner of the house (where the tower is erected) on December 2, 2011, it was of little help, said Ibrahim and added that the rules are so lenient that anybody and everybody can set up a tower and all it requires is a permission from the house owner.

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Referring to the Supreme Court direction seeking responses from the Central government and the telecom department on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) describing the communication towers put up at prominent locations by mobile phone service providers as health hazards, the retired SP said that he will stop fighting for the cause if any firm or authority concerned gives him in writing that there is no harm from the mobile towers.

“Let any company give me in writing that there is no danger and I will stop fighting the case,” he said and added that it is a paradox that, on the one hand, the government is contemplating on reducing the cost of medicine for cancer and on the other hand, it is allowing mobile towers to set up at every place thus converting the region as cancer breeding centres. 

In fact, Ibrahim, who retired as SP (Civil Rights Enforcement) in 2001, has already undergone Angiogram and Angioplasty treatment and a diabetic, is also contemplating on changing his residence as soon as possible, if he fails in his mission.