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UGC set for
mid-term review
of Tenth Plan
Food firm seeks Punjab CM’s help to recover money
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Rohtak Medical College adopts hospital in Mewat
Two killed by dacoits in Phulpur village
DRDA to spend Rs 2.20 cr under self-employment projects
SKS flays retrenchment of 3,500 recruits of Industrial Force
Decision to cut VAT determination fee hailed
Doctors in the dock for ‘unwanted’ breast removal
Palak Munjhal, singing for a noble cause.
Poor coverage of ICDS centres: Study
Official apathy puts desilting work behind schedule
Need for
self-regulation in corporate sector stressed
Two killed, three injured in building collapse
Controversy over MLA’s voting right, MC elections postponed
BJP blames Sheila for water crisis
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20 children injured at India Gate
New Delhi, June 12 The children, most of them rescued from child labour, were to release the balloons at the end of a candlelight march, organised by the UK-based NGO, ‘Save the Children’. The children were being distributed the balloons by the organisers when a large number of them burst, an eyewitness said. The children with burn injuries were rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. The candlelight march to create awareness on child domestic work was to begin from the Boat Club and end at India Gate. While the senior police officials remained unavailable for comment on the issue, the police sources at the Tilak Marg police station said that even after special instructions were given to the police staff, not enough arrangements had been made for the event. According to the Joint Commissioner of Police, B. S Brar, “The children sustained minor injuries and most of them have been sent to their homes after first aid.”
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UGC set for
mid-term review
of Tenth Plan
New Delhi, June 12 The exercise is being undertaken to review “whether the objectives laid down in the beginning of the plan period are being met or not and to assess changes, if any, required in the remaining plan period”. The review exercise will be conducted through meetings, which the UGC has proposed to hold with every university. The fourth year of the 10th Plan is currently on. The universities have been instructed to send in information about the progress made by the university during the 10th Plan period in terms of physical and academic infrastructure. The UGC has also asked the universities to send in information related to up dating of the development radar. It had earlier sought information from universities for the preparation of the development radar at the beginning of the 10th Plan period. Noting that the “universities must have made further progress during the first three years of the 10th Plan and the UGC has decided to update the development radars of the universities based on the revised information”. The universities are required to send the information not later then June 15, 2005. The Tenth Plan period commenced from April 2002 and would be ending in March 2007. It was pointed out that in the beginning of the Plan period, the UGC expert committees visited all the eligible universities to review their progress during the 9th Plan period and to assess their requirements for the 10th Plan period. Based on the recommendations of the visiting committee and availability of funds with the UGC, the 10th Plan allocations were made to the universities.
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Food firm seeks Punjab CM’s help to recover money
New Delhi, June 12 The complainants alleged that even though an FIR was registered on February 22, 2004, no action has been taken against the culprits, who defrauded them. According to the complainants, an order was placed through an agent for the supply of 200 metric tonnes of wheat at the rate of Rs 595 per quintal. A draft for Rs 1,20,98,350 was later sent to the company on January 31, 2003. The draft was payable at the Ferozepur branch of the company. But to their surprise, neither the wheat was supplied nor the money returned. The complainants alleged that the matter was reported to the police and efforts were made to retrieve the money but of no avail. They alleged that the police were not taking the matter seriously and
had allowed the matter to linger on. Subsequently, the complainants also approached the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and the matter was referred to the SSP Ferozepur. But despite all this, the matter remained unresolved. Now the complainants have sought the help of senior officers to inquire into the delay and help recover the money from the Mumbai-based suppliers.
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Rohtak Medical College adopts hospital in Mewat
Gurgaon, June 12 The decision to accept the proposal was taken during a
visit of the Commissioner, Rohtak Division-cum-Director of the Rohtak Medical College and Hospital, Mr N.C.Wadhwa. The proposal for this was sent to the office of the Financial Commissioner-cum Secretary, Health, Haryana, by the office of the district (Gurgaon) medical chief, Dr D.V.Saharan. The Health Department at headquarters agreed to it and is said to have pushed the case with the Rohtak Medical College. According to official sources, the medical college will collaborate with the General Hospital on the pattern of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences providing help to the General Hospital in Ballabhgarh in Faridabad district. The Rohtak Medical College has decided to send five male and female doctors along with a faculty member every month on rotation basis. The general hospital is actually called ‘Al a Safia Hospital’ and was constructed by the Sultan of Oman for the people of Mewat, dominated by Meo Muslims and considered to be one of the most backward area of Haryana. The royal family of Oman then handed over the 50-beded institute to the Haryana Government, which changed its nomenclature to General Hospital. According to many, the management of the hospital by the government was marked by apathy. The lack of facility in the hospital and general poor health services was brought to the notice of Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Mewat, a few days ago. The apathy of the government towards the hospital and health services can be fathomed from the fact that out of 29 sanctioned posts of staff nurses, only two are presently posted there. Dr Saharan, who is also in-charge of health services of Mewat, said that the posts will be soon filled. The optimism stems from the fact that during his visit to Mewat, the Chief Minster directed that appointments of para-medical and doctors for health services of the area be made by the Mewat Development Board, constituted more than a decade back for the speedy and integrated development of Mewat area. With the structural change, the appointments can now be made expeditiously without the rigmarole of procedures and governmental delays.
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Two killed by dacoits in Phulpur village
Greater Noida, June 12 Two other persons, who were critically wounded in the firing by the dacoits, were rushed to a Ghaziabad hospital. The dacoits decamped with valuables, including gold jewellery worth lakhs of rupees. The residents of the area are in panic as this is the second dacoity case in Dadri in recent days. On Thursday, dacoits had killed one villager while looting a house in Karmrala village. The combing operations launched by the police failed to yield any result since the police party arrived hours after the dacoits had made their escape. According to information, Mahipal, a resident of Phulpur village, was a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Army and is now employed as a security officer in the Punjab National Bank in Noida. His younger brother, identified as Raguraj (40), his wife Kirshna (38) and children were at home on Friday night when about a dozen armed dacoits attacked the house. The dacoits fired at his son, identified as Dharminder, when he tried to awaken his father. The dacoits then fired at Raguraj and his wife. Both of them died on the spot. The dacoits also fired at some villagers who tried to prevent the dacoity. Even as some dacoits had surrounded the house, others were ransacking it. A 13-year-old boy Mintu from the neighbourhood was wounded in the chest when the dacoits fired at him. Later, the dacoits escaped with cash and jewellery worth lakhs of rupees. To make matters worse, the Dadri police arrived late and could not prevent the dacoits from escaping.
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DRDA to spend Rs 2.20 cr under
Faridabad, June 12 This was revealed at a meeting of the DRDA governing body held here recently under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner. It was stated that under the Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna, a scheme funded by the Central government, the DRDA will give Rs 2.20 crore to provide employment to about 620 persons. The beneficiaries will include about 50 per cent from the scheduled caste category and about 40 per cent women. It is interesting to note that as many as 725 persons had benefited by this scheme last year, though the amount of funds spent on this head had been lower by Rs 91 lakh. According to the details of the annual action plan under the self-employment scheme in the rural areas for year 2005-06, which was approved by the DRDA in the meeting, the key activities proposed to be taken up included setting up dairy units, mushroom cultivation, floriculture, village industries, trading and installation of multi-purpose machines for development schemes. The other activities to be covered include fish farming, handicrafts, handloom, tent house and financing of the light commercial vehicles. While the dairy unit project will get the maximum allocation of Rs 40 lakh, the work related to handloom will receive Rs 4 lakh. As far as the performance of the scheme during last year, it is stated that only 162 persons benefited against the target of 980 under the loan and subsidy component. It was stated that under the Sampooran Grameen Rojgar Yojna, development works worth Rs 4.40 crore were taken up and 4,165 tonnes of grain was distributed as wages to workers. Under the Indira Awas Yojna, another scheme to promote housing facilities in the rural areas, the agency provided Rs 1. 83 crore for construction of about 734 houses in the district last year. The district authorities also reviewed the progress made under various heads and found that the utilisation of funds in almost every scheme had been well short of the available funds, except in the case of the budget meant for the municipal bodies in the district. The DRDA also supplied various solar equipment, including 166 home lighting systems, 50 solar cookers, 130 mini home lights and 400 CFL lamps to rural people during the period.
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SKS flays retrenchment of 3,500 recruits
Faridabad, June 12 In a statement issued here, Mr R.C. Jagga and Mr Subhash Lamba, president and secretary of the SKS respectively condemned the decision and claimed that the move of the government would take away the source of livelihood of many youths. They said the selection of the candidates may have been done in a controversial manner, but claimed that the new government had no right to make anyone jobless. Instead of ordering their marching orders, they said the government could take legal help if there was any irregularity in the selection to various posts during the tenure of the earlier government. Stating that the Congress government had promised employment to a large number of unemployed in its election manifesto, the Sangh alleged that the results had not been favourable so far. Alleging that the previous government had retrenched about 20,000 employees from the various departments during its five-year tenure, the Sangh has asked the present government to revoke its decision on the 3,500 recruits of the Industrial Force.
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Decision to cut VAT determination fee hailed
New Delhi, June 12 Recently, the Delhi Finance Minister, Dr A. K. Walia, had announced that the determination fee would be reduced to Rs 500 from Rs 10,000. It is noted that under Section 84 of the Delhi Vat Act, it was mandatory for the traders to deposit an amount of Rs 10,000 in the event of asking any authenticated information from the department, causing great hardship to the traders. By reducing the amount, the traders will now be able to get clarifications from the various government departments. The CAIT’s secretary general, Mr Praveen Khandelwal, said that it is not only the Delhi Vat Act, which carries ambiguities and disparities, almost all states suffer similar situation affecting regular flow of business across the country.
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Doctors in the dock for ‘unwanted’ breast removal
New Delhi, June 12 “There are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused persons under Sections 326 (causing grevious hurt using dangerous weapon) and 420 (cheating) of IPC”, Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Yadav said, issuing summons to A. K. Handa and his wife Amarjeet Handa to appear on October 28. The woman, who was charged a huge bill, said in a complaint filed through her counsel Amit Grover that she had been “cheated by both the accused who removed her breast through an unwanted surgery”, as reports from two hospitals which she approached after the operation confirmed that there was no evidence of cancer. The complainant contacted Handa, who was running a nursing home, after feeling pain in her breast. He conducted some tests and sent the report to his wife Amarjeet, who owned a pathological lab. After two biopsy tests, Handa and Amarjeet told her that there was a cancerous growth on one breast and advised an immediate operation to remove the breast as “there was danger of the disease spreading all over the body”. The woman said she then sought time to take a second opinion before carrying out the surgery. But they went ahead and performed the operation opining that it was very urgent. Following the operation, she approached the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital and the Apollo Hospital, which gave a report that there was “no evidence” of cancer in any part of her body, the complainant said.
One held for murder in
Seelam Pur area
With the arrest of one person, the Delhi Police claimed to have solved the murder case that took place on June 11 in the Seelam Pur area in North-East district. The accused has been identified as
Mehboob, alias Bhaiya (25), a resident of Chauhan Bangar.—TNS
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Baby Palak: Financing heart surgeries with her voice Ravi Bhatia Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 12 What is amazing that the 13-year-old girl from Indore has so far financed 140 heart surgeries and collected over Rs 45 lakh for the noble cause. Baby Palak is a celebrity in her own right. She has been on many TV shows, received many commendations and blessed by those who were beneficiaries of her noble quest. Palak, belonging to an educated middle class family started singing on stage when very young as part of the little stars group directed by the legendary musical duo, Kalyanji- Anandji. Palak never charges any fees for her appearance. The money raised is used for financing heart surgeries. Baby Palak, whose ‘Save the Heart’ mission started several years ago, has a long list of patients requiring financial assistance but she is undaunted. She is confident that she will be able to meet the expenses of all of them. And she is untiring as she goes through her repertoire of over 175 songs in various cities. ‘Music from the World of Osho’ From times immemorial, music has always played a key role in the world of meditation, relaxation and introspection. And this has not evolved by a mere chance. Unlike other artistic expressions, music addresses itself directly to that more instinctive and intimate part of ones self, which does not require the logical mind to function. It was precisely for this reason that music was used extensively by Osho to support the inner journey, nourishing its aspect of silence and celebration. While the celebrative qualities of music are obvious, what is perhaps less obvious is its capacity to create silence, to awaken spirituality, to tickle the subtle energies that act as direction finders towards the mystery of our existence. For the first time ever, Music Today has launched 12 audio albums of ‘Music From the World of Osho’. This is an amazing series of meditative, celebrative, joyful, inspirational, serene and uplifting music from the world of Osho. The 12 albums traverse a huge range of sounds from the slow soft, tinkle of a piano that soothes ones mind to the crashing drums that will rouse the soul. The albums are a boon for all those stressed individuals caught up in the hustle and bustle of the modern day living. Calendar art paintings
The Lokayata: Mulk Raj Anand Centre at the Hauz Khas village here is presenting a unique exhibition of calendar art paintings by some of the well known artists from the Tirupati Crafts collection. Entitled ‘Faith’, the exhibition has on display paintings depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. The exhibition, which was inaugurated on June 10, will continue till June 22. Infinite possibilities at Wigan and Leigh College presented ‘Infinite Possibilities 2005’, an exhibition of the creative works of graduating students and also showcasing the award winning works of Wigan Design School Alumni at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre here on June 10. The exhibition was inaugurated by Professor Rajeev Lochan, Director of the National Gallery of Modern Arts.
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Poor coverage of ICDS centres: Study
New Delhi, June 12 The poor coverage of ICDS centres has been brought out in a series of studies on the ‘Status of ICDS Centres’ conducted by FORCES-a national network of organizations working to improve the efficacy of ‘Early Childhood Care and Development’
(ECCD) response-in the three states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The study has been supported by Plan International, a global children’s development agency. According to the study, the gap between the sanctioned and operational anganwadis is also very striking. While 7.5 lakh anganwadi centres were envisaged to be set up under the tenth plan and 7.4 lakh centres have already been sanctioned, only 6.49 lakh anganwadis are functional. Bihar has a dismal coverage of 30 per cent. There are districts in Bihar where the AWCs are not functioning for two months due to strike. UP and Rajasthan has 60 per cent coverage and above. With the highest number of children, Uttar Pradesh spends Rs 15 per beneficiary per month. And while Rajasthan spends Rs 18 per beneficiary per month, Bihar spends only Rs 6 per beneficiary per month as against the national average of Rs 18 per beneficiary per month.
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Official apathy puts desilting work behind schedule
New Delhi, June 12 According to a senior official of the department, there are 1,210 drains in the MCD areas, covering 80 per cent of the national Capital. However, only 105 drains have been desilted so far. What now seems to be an impossible task, the Corporation has given a deadline of June 25 by which date all the remaining drains have to be desilted. And clearly, sources in the Corporation indicate that it is not possible to desilt all the drains in the remaining period. Most of the big drains, including the Gokulpur drain, which is the lifeline of the North-East district, are yet to be desilted. As a result, there will be flood like situation in these areas. The MCD has a budget of Rs 25.32 crore for desilting the drains. The problem is that the officials concerned do not have the will to do the job. During the discussion hours in the House meeting of the MCD, the Municipal Commissioner said that 90 per cent of the drains are yet to be desilted. The work is being delayed due to the unavailability of labour and vehicles to carry away the silt, as the drains maintained by the Delhi Jal Board, DDA, Flood and Irrigation Department and the PWD are being cleaned simultaneously. He said that 1,098 drains were being desilted by private contractors and 112 drains by the Sanitation Department and NGOs. However, the Municipal Commissioner was confident that majority of the drains will be desilted by June 25. He said the department concerned had identified 108 low-lying areas where rainwater was found stagnant. The Corporation will install pumps to clear water from these spots.
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Need for
self-regulation in
New Delhi, June 12 The convenor of the programme and council member, Ms Preeti Malhotra, said that in the era of globalisation and deregulation, excessive regulation should give way to self-regulation.
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Two killed, three injured in building collapse
New Delhi, June 12 Even as police and fire officials were rushed to the spot immediately to rescue the people, the officials said that there was preliminary information that five persons were buried in the building. The fire officials have rescued three persons and have sent them to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. “The building was under construction and it was a DDA building on which the construction was going on. We have recovered two bodies so far. Three persons have been sent to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, who were seriously injured, said the DCP, North-West) district, Mr Rajesh Khurana. “There might be possibility of some more persons buried in the collapsed building,” he added.
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Spreading awareness about global hunger
New Delhi, June 12 The Delhi Health and Social Welfare Minister, Mr Yoganand Shastri, flagged- off the 5-km walk from India Gate this morning. Organised by the World Food Programme, the walk was held simultaneously in over 200 cities across 90 countries to draw the world’s attention to the 800 million hungry people, many of them children. ‘’The urgent need before the world is to care for its hungry people. We have a big task before us,’’ said Dr Shastri, who also joined the walkers on a warm summer morning today. The walk began from the India Gate and proceeded through the Ashoka Road before returning to the India Gate. The funds raised through the walk will be used to support the World Food Programme’s global school feeding campaign that aims to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills.
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Controversy over MLA’s voting right,
Gurgaon, June 12 According to official sources, the elections, as of now has been postponed indefinitely. The MLA, Mr Sukhvir Jaunapuria, has brought to the notice of the administration that as some of the areas like Hans Enclave, Harinagar, Rajiv Colony, Defence Colony and Nitin Vihar of his Assembly constituency fall in the municipal limits of Gurgaon city, falling in Gurgaon Assembly constituency, he too has a right to vote in the election to the two posts. As per the Haryana Municipal Act, the concerned MLA and MP have the right to vote along with the elected members of a Municipal Council/Municipal Committee. The anomalous situation has arisen, as a government notification only names the Congress MLA and the MP of Mahendergarh parliamentary constituency, which includes Gurgaon, in the eligible voters for the two posts of Gurgaon Municipal
Council. — TNS
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BJP blames Sheila for water crisis
New Delhi, June 12 Addressing the activists, the BJP chief, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said that while the people of Delhi were suffering without water, the Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, is busy setting up a ‘Dilli Haat’ in London. He also said that Mrs Dikshit, who herself in the Chairman of the Delhi Jal Board, has admitted that there is leakage of water at 4000 points in the pipelines of the Delhi Jal Board. Worse, the thousands of employees and inspectors of the DJB have not succeeded in preventing the water
leakage. — TNS
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