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Two ISI agents caught in Noida
6 held for sodomy in juvenile home
Controversy over cow issue dies down due to BJP internal bickering
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Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit paying
obeisance to Acharya Sri Nagrajji at Nirman Vihar in the Capital on Sunday. —
Tribune photo by Rajeev Tyagi
Sharma’s plea rejected in Shivani murder case
Court dismisses complaint of cheque dishonour
2 businessmen get RI in cheque
bounce case
Corruption ails government hospitals
Man kills sister’s lover
Stree Shakti Camp opens in Netaji Nagar
Punjabi singers Daler Mehndi, Shankar Sahni and Ashu Punjabi distributing schoolbags to poor children at a function of National Akali Dal at Mansarovar Garden in the Capital on Sunday.
— Tribune photo
Deepalaya’s role in uplift of poor kids lauded
Holiday home for industrial workers in Himachal
Artscape
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Two ISI agents caught in Noida
Noida, July 17 With the help of the UP police, intelligence agencies are likely to nab a number of members of the terrorists network soon, it is learnt. The Pakistan intelligence ISI is learnt to be getting defence secrets with the help of some ex-servicemen. The enemy agents and members of ISI were also trying to provoke communal feelings among the youth, senior police officers said. Some of the Pak-trained terrorist agents had been trained in detonating explosives and some of them had been assigned the responsibility of creating communal unrest in Gujarat and UP, especially in and around religious places. Defence, civil intelligence authorities and the police had started interrogating the agents late last night. The network is well linked and some ex-servicemen and former Delhi policemen are reported to be connected with it. Javer town in Gautam Budh Nagar district is reported to have become the hub of all such anti-national activities. Hanif, son of Babu Khan of Javer had been arrested three days ago. Hanif, a former IAF man had been nabbed red-handed while passing some classified information to Pak agents. Hanif told the intelligence agencies that a number of others persons were also working for him. On getting a tip-off from the intelligence agencies, Noida police had nabbed Hanif, son of Latif along with Yasmin from Noida phase II. During interrogation of the duo in Delhi, the intelligence agencies have come to know about the presence of a well-oiled and extensive terrorist network. Hanif Latif was reported to be enlisting all poor and unemployed young men into his network from Javer and western UP. He is said to have sent a number of such recruits to Pakistan through the Pak agencies for training in terrorism and use of explosives, etc. Hanif is also reported to have established contacts with many retired and serving service officials whom he was using for obtaining information pertaining to defence and transmitting it to Pakistan. According to sources, some of Hanif’s relatives had gone over to Pakistan at the time of partition and settled in Karachi. He had been working as a junk dealer in Sayed Nagar of Ghaziabad and had visited Pakistan. After his return from Pakistan, he had started working for the ISI agency. According to sources, about two dozen persons connected with this network could be taken into custody shortly. According to police, a large number of ISI agents are operating in this area under the garb of tenants. Most of them are hiding in Harola, Chhalera, Mammura , Barola and a number of slum clusters in Noida area. The police had launched special campaigns many times to flush out Pak agents living as tenants in the area, but in vain.
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6 held for sodomy in juvenile home
New Delhi, July 17 Six boys have been arrested by the police on charges of sodomising a junior inmate for 25 days consecutively in the home following which he had to be hospitalised with serious injuries. The police have lodged an FIR against the six boys under
Section 377 (carnal intercourse against the order of nature), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (criminal act in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. All of them have been sent in judicial remand by a court till July 22. The Juvenile Justice Board Principal Magistrate Santosh Snehi Mann also ordered action against the superintendent of the observation home for “willfully neglecting the victim and exposing him to physical suffering.” The victim who was lodged in the home in connection with a theft case, in a complaint said, “I was sexually abused by six of my room mates for three weeks since June 5, the day I was sent there, till I finally reported the matter to the Monitor on June 30, finding it unbearable.” The juvenile home was in news early last month when the Juvenile Court issued warrants against the former Timarpur SHO, three guards and some officials of the Social Welfare Department on charges of “brutally torturing” four boys “out of frustration” after some inmates escaped from there. The court had pulled up the government following the incident.
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Controversy over cow issue dies down due to BJP internal bickering
New Delhi, July 17 The issue was raised in the corporation by Mr Bijender Gupta, the Leader of Opposition in the Standing Committee in the corporation a few months ago when he had alleged that illegal cow slaughtering was going on in the Capital. This issue was taken seriously and an inquiry was conducted by the veterinary department of the civic body which confirmed that cow meat was reportedly being brought from Rampur, Muzaffar Nagar and Kandla in UP and Mewat in Haryana to be stored in cold storage in the area of police station Keshav Puram in North-West Delhi. An FIR has also been registered against the owners of five cold storage units. When the issue was again raised in the Standing Committee meeting yesterday, two BJP leaders, Vijender Gupta and Narain Singh, fought with each other resulting in the diluting of the sensitive issue. The Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, said that cows were not being slaughtered in Delhi. Cow meat is being kept in cold storage in Keshav Puram area. The FIR has been lodged against the cold storage owners. Now the police should take legal action. It is brought from other states. The police officials have been informed. The Superintendent of Slaughterhouse, Dr R. B. S. Tyagi, said that cow meat was transported from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. “As far as I know, bull slaughtering is allowed in Rampur. But I am not aware of other cities. In Delhi, it is totally banned. Even one cannot transport the cow meat to the national Capital from other states,” he said. The Leader of the House, Mr Jitender Kochar, said that citizens of Delhi were aware that cow slaughtering was an illegal act. It is not done in Delhi. The BJP wants to make an issue, which is not possible because cases have already been registered and the police are investigating them.
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BSES fails to pass muster, rues Sheila
New Delhi, July 17 Ever since the power supply was privatised in the Capital, both the government and the public are unhappy with the performance of the distributing company, BSES. Annoyed with the gloomy performance of the discoms, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has shot off a letter to Reliance Energy Chairman Anil Ambani complaining about the performance of his company. “We had much higher expectations from BSES,” Dikshit wrote to Anil. Reliance Energy owns BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Ltd. The government is even understood to have warned BSES that it would be forced to review its contract with the discom if it does not pull up its socks. She also stated “Although AT&C loss reductions set forth have been achieved, keeping in view the performance of other distribution companies across the country and that of NDPL in Delhi, we had much higher expectations from BSES.” Mrs Diskhit even cited the findings of the evaluation study recently conducted by the Central Electricity Authority, which has given a “poor” report card to the power discom. Mrs Dikshit said, as per the report, Delhi’s consumers have to face more frequent and longer power cuts. “The BSES has been ranked 20th in the outage duration per tripping. In terms of tripping per feeder, the performance has been no better,” she wrote. One of the important areas of concern pointed out by the Chief Minister in the working of BSES is the long response time taken to deal with faults, also pointing out that the staff deployed in complaint centres needs to be more customer-friendly. According to the Delhi Residents’ Welfare Associations Joint Front (DRWAJF), which met Dikshit in the last week of June to voice its dissatisfaction with the functioning of BSES, while there is very good feedback from the capital’s residents about the Tata-owned NDPL, they were not very happy with the performance of BSES. The RWAs Front also recommended the entry of multiple players in the power distribution arena to end the “private monopoly” of BSES. Meanwhile, on the issue of power tariff, which was recently hiked, the RWAs have demanded that an independent authority should be asked to analyse the Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR) submitted by the power companies to Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to finalise the electricity rates.
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Sharma’s plea rejected in Shivani murder case
New Delhi, July 17 The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Sunil Gaur, while rejecting the petition for hearing for 12 days in a month instead of eight days, said “It is not possible to devote 12 days for recording of evidence in one case”. Sharma, the prime accused in the case, citing reasons for the plea of more dates in a month, had alleged that his bail petition on May 5 this year was withdrawn at the High Court on the assurance of the prosecution that the recording of evidence was likely to be over by August or September. Further, in the petition, it was apprehended that 34 more witnesses are yet to be examined and it may not conclude within the timeframe set at the instance of High Court. Disagreeing with the plea, the judge said that in June, dates in bulk were given, but it was the accused’s counsel who showed inability to attend court.
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Court dismisses complaint of cheque dishonour
New Delhi, July 17 Metropolitan Magistrate Anuradha Shukla while acquitting Arun Kumar
Srivastav, said in her order, “The accused has discharged his onus of rebutting the presumption (of liability) laid down under Section 139 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and has shown that the dishonoured cheque was not issued against any liability as the liability stood discharged by way of a subsequent
cheque.” Srivastav had engaged complainant Nishi Kant Chaturvedi to carry out market research. As the complainant did not perform well, he was told to stop work. For the work already done, Srivastav gave a cheque for Rs 27,100 to Chaturvedi. Later, on checking the accounts, Srivastav found that the cheque had been issued for a higher amount even though the complainant was entitled to Rs 21,570 only. He asked his bank to stop the payment of the earlier cheque and issued another cheque which was encashed by the complainant. On the basis of the dishonoured cheque lying with him, Chaturvedi filed the complaint.
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2 businessmen get RI in cheque
bounce case
New Delhi, July 17 The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mr Manoj Jain, awarded the punishment to Prakash Chand Surendra Kumar and Narendra Kumar Jain after finding them guilty under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The convicts will have to undergo an additional six months’ simple imprisonment in default of the payment of the fine of Rs 40 lakh which will go to the complainant. The convicts had purchased paper worth Rs 43 lakh from Swastik Trading Company located in Chawri Bazar for their printing firm and issued Rs 25 lakh as the first instalment through a cheque in favour of Punjab National Bank in August 1998. However, the cheque bounced on production in the bank thrice following which the complainant firm issued legal notice to the convicts on April 23, 2001.
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Corruption ails government hospitals
New Delhi, July 17 And this corruption is mostly to do with the non-availability of medicines, admissions to hospitals, consultation with doctors and diagnostic services, the study indicates. Conducted by the Centre for Media Studies, the study points out that the total monetary value of petty corruption in government hospitals in the country is estimated to be Rs 2,017 crore per annum. This is in addition to various corrupt practices like doctors asking patients to go to a particular diagnostic centre, over-prescription of drugs, prescribing diagnostic tests, which may not be necessary, and where the monetary value of corruption cannot be directly ascertained. While 55 per cent (11.3 crore) households sought services of government hospitals, dependency on them is significantly more in rural areas. As against 51 per cent households that refer to government hospitals in the urban areas, 59 per cent of rural households availed of their services. Of those who seek treatment at government hospitals, 26.5 per cent (3 crore households) paid bribe, of which 19 per cent (1.6 crore households) are in rural areas and 49 per cent (1.4 crore households) in urban areas, indicates the study released by Transparency International. While 43 per cent of those using government hospitals felt the quality of service in them to be poor, 67 per cent felt that corruption was widespread in these hospitals. Forty-five per cent of the respondents said that the hospital staff frequently demanded bribes. According to the survey, 23 per cent of the respondents who had visited a government hospital did not get any treatment or consultation during their visit to the hospital against nearly half of those who had received the treatment. Nearly 60 per cent of those who had to make repeated visits for treatment had to come again for manpower-related reasons—they could not get appointment or the doctor was not available. The remainder had to make repeated visits for the reasons related to infrastructure. Respondents also complained that doctors do not pay attention to patients and instead ask them to visit their private clinics. Long wait for getting any consultation or treatment is another problem as is the practice of doctors asking patients to get the diagnostic tests from a particular private laboratory. Prominent suggestions to counter this corruption included the formation of committees in every hospital to take up citizens’ grievances, provision of diagnostic services in the government hospitals and the government dispensaries be made to display the drugs received every month and position of daily stock.
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Man kills sister’s lover
Gurgaon, July 17 The deceased, Devender, owned a bicycle stand in Lakman Vihar here, and was a native of Jhajhar district. He was alleged to be having an affair with a married sister of the accused. He stayed in a rented accommodation in Surat Nagar in the landed property of the parents of the accused. After the illicit affair came to light, the deceased shifted house in Lakhman Vihar, about three months back. However, the two lovers kept meeting each other. The sister was married about sever years back. She, however, had no children. Last night the accused invited Devender to his house. He allegedly beat him up and then strangulated him. The police have registered a case, but no arrest has been made so far.
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Stree Shakti Camp opens in Netaji Nagar
New Delhi, July 17 The Chief Minister said that the objective of organising such camps is to provide various services to women in one place. The main services are provided by the health and welfare departments with the aim to help women raise their standard and ensure prosperity. In the camp all the three disciplines—allopathic, Ayurvedic and homoeopathicc—were arranged and medicines distributed. An exhibition on the HIV AIDS, family welfare and anti-smoking was organised. Health education material for awareness was also distributed, a press release said.
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Schoolbags given to poor students
New Delhi, July 17 Paramjeet Singh Pamma said that poor children are unable to complete their study. They just do petty jobs to help parents earn their livelihood. People who can afford should help them complete their studies, as children are the future of the country. The Punjabi pop singers enthralled the audience with their songs. Daler Mehndi appealed to social organisations and political parties to make the future of poor children bright.
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Deepalaya’s role in uplift of poor kids lauded
New Delhi, July 17 In his speech, the Lt-Governor lauded the role of Deepalaya in uplift of children from the economically weaker sections. He appreciated Deepalaya’s efforts in the field of gender equity. Mr Niehe, stressed the need to address NGOs as Civil Society Organizations, because he personally feels that the term NGO has a negative connotation. He emphasised the role of the service NGO and advocacy NGO, the former being widely prevalent in the developing countries and the later in the developed countries. Speaking about Deepalaya, he said, “It is evident from the brightness and the smile of the children that Deepalaya is making a difference.” The Ambassador also released a document ‘Yatra’, which is an institutional memory document of Deepalaya’s 25 years of progressive journey. The concluding day of the year-long celebrations included a colourful cultural programme performed by the children.
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Holiday home for industrial workers in Himachal
New Delhi, July 17 Delhi Labour and Industries Minister Mangat Ram Singhal will inaugurate the home in New Shimla tomorrow, officials said. Comprising eight flats, the holiday home will provide facilities at nominal cost to the employees, with a capacity to accommodate a maximum of 35 people at a time. Himachal Pradesh Minister of Labour Raj Kishor Gaur, trade union representatives, industrialists and Delhi Government officials are likely to be present during the inauguration. The Delhi Government’s Labour Department also runs holiday homes for industrial workers in Hardwar, Mussoorie and Allahabad. An official said that these vacation spots provide low-cost accommodation to the employees to spend holidays with their families.
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Sarojine’s paintings have an
element of subtle ‘intellectualism’
Ravi Bhatia Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 17 Born in Lahore in 1929, Mrs Chopra’s affair with arts started at a very early age thanks to the atmosphere at home and what with her elder brother, the famous artist, Mr Kishen Khanna, always there to guide and inspire her.
The guidance of the brother was much more educating and illuminating than a formal training in drawing and painting. Then came the partition and the family moved to Simla in Himachal Pradesh. The partition and the stay in Simla had tremendous influence over her paintings mostly oil on canvas. A teacher by profession, her close association with children also left a lasting impression on her paintings and drawings. The playfulness, the joy and the innocence of children found reflection in her paintings as did the emotional turmoil of the partition and the serenity and beauty of the hills. Although she continued painting despite a busy schedule, her tryst with art started in right earnest after her retirement some two decades ago. It was as if her art had matured along with her. No abstracts for this artist. She does not really understand the phenomenon, she confesses. Forms and figures painted in joyous colours are her mainstay. There is an element of subtle “intellectualism” to her paintings—the result of a rich and varied life, the contentment of having lived a full and fruitful life. Each stroke of the brush is well thought out, each line strong and vibrant. The colours—joyous and vibrant. The paintings are not only attractive to look at but also inspire introspection.. Her elder brother, the celebrated artist, Mr Kishen Khanna, has always been her main inspiration, critic and mentor. And it is only appropriate that he has been invited to inaugurate the exhibition. The exhibition-cum-sale will continue till the end of the month. Sitar recital
Also on July 21, on the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima, Sarada Mukherjee, a disciple of Pandit Manilal Nag and Pt. Biswajit Roychowdhary, will present a solo sitar recital as a tribute to the Guru Shishya Parampara at the Amaltas Hall, Habitat World in India Habitat Centre here. Abhijit Aich will accompany her on the tabla.
Engravings on Delhi
Those who are interested how artists view the Capital city should make it a point to visit Gallery 51 in Greater Kailash 1, which is exhibiting paintings, prints, oleographs and engravings exclusively on Delhi by some of the known names. The exhibition is on till July 25. Well-known artist Soumen Datta is also holding an exhibition of his sketches on Delhi at the India Habitat Centre here. This exhibition is on till the end of the month.
Tribal Art Show
The Lokayata–Mulk Raj Anand Centre at Hauz Khas village here is holding a Tribal Art Show comprising selected works of Gond and Bhil artists from Madhya Pradesh. The art show will continue till July 22. Gonds and Bhils, which are among the oldest tribes of the world, have an ancient tradition of art. This is the fourth attempt of the Centre to promote traditional tribal art.
German theatre expedition
The German Group, Flying Fish Theatre Company, is about to embark on a seven-month-long expedition of South Asia laying down in its path foundations of a lasting co-operation between Asian and European artists. Starting from August 2005, the “Flying Fish” company will play at a variety of venues, including market places, community centres, schools and theatres throughout India, Nepal and Pakistan. The members of the troupe will also hold interactive workshops for children in acting, puppetry, dance, music, acrobatics and juggling. The Flying Fish are eight young actors, two musicians, two dancers, a puppeteer, two stage and costume designers and the Director Harry Fuhrmann. The troupe will tell stories about European living. They will fuse, mix and integrate the art forms of South Asia in a spirit of sharing and development. From the collected scenes and stories of this part of the world, a play will be created which, once back in Europe, will be performed at international festivals. “The Flying Fish are interested in what aggravates and stimulates changes in Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani cultures. They are curious to find out what part theatre plays in this process and where theatre expresses itself as a commentator on change, or an instigator of change,” added Ashwath Bhat, the actor and the Indian link responsible in getting the theatre group to Nepal, India and Pakistan. The Flying Fish Theatre Company is being supported in its efforts by The Goethe Institute-Max Müller Bhavan (Government of Germany), The Indian Embassy (in Berlin), The German Embassy (New Delhi), The German Consulate (Chennai, India), The National School of Drama (New Delhi), Kala Academy (Goa), Jammu & Kashmir Cultural Academy, Sopanam (Thiruvanatapuram) and School of Drama (Thrissur).
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