Gurgaon, October 11
The administration launched anti-encroachment drive against farmhouses in Raisnia-Sohan areas, many of which have been set up illegally. The farmhouses, which came under the scanner, were part of Green Valley colony.

As many as 42 farmhouses were targeted by the demolition squad, which included the Director (Enforcement), Town and Country Planning, Gurgaon, Mr B.B.L. Kaushik and 50 police personnel. Some of the farmhouses were completely demolished in the operation.

According to the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, Mr R.P. Bhardwaj, many of the farmhouses were set up illegally in the colony.

A large number of them are said to be on government land, which had been given by it to the village panchyats.

The land falls under “Gaair Mumkeen” category, which can not be sold to the private persons or for commercial purposes. These were sold by the land mafia to private persons apparently with the collusion of the revenue officials, said an official.

Many of these farmhouses have been apparently set up after levelling a portion of Aravali hills. The district administration officials said that punitive action would continue against the illegal farmhouses in days to come.

New Delhi, October 11
A major blaze raged on for hours in a godown in an electrical goods market in the Chandni Chowk area while 25 shops were gutted in a fire near the Red Fort early
today, Fire Department officials said.

The fire in the godown in Deep Mahal building in Bhagirath Place broke out at 1:25 am and firemen could bring it under control after an over four-hour struggle. As many as 33 fire engines were despatched to douse the fire, the officials said.

While there was no casualty, the firefighters succeeded in saving 50 per cent of the goods stored in the godown spread over an area of 450 sq metres. The godown was storing highly inflammable photographic film.

While there was no exact estimate available immediately, sources said that goods worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes in the fire.

Fire was also reported from Kabadi Bazaar near Lal Qila in which 25 shops were destroyed, the officials said, adding that there was no casualty. The fire broke out at around 3:40 am and was extinguished at 5.20 am, they said. Thirteen fire engines were sent to bring the blaze under control.

The police said that cases had been registered and efforts were being made to ascertain the causes of the fires. Electrical short circuits having caused the fires was not being ruled out.

New Delhi, October 11
A Delhi-based voluntary organisation has succeeded in ushering in a literacy revolution in Alwar, Bharatpur and Baran districts of Rajasthan.

Forty-three villages in Alwar, Bharatpur and Baran districts have begun subscribing to a unique model of education that promises children quality education in exchange for a discretionary portion of crop yield or labour.

It was in 1999 that the Society for All Round Development (SARD), a voluntary organisation dedicated to changing the lives of the underprivileged, began work in the Mewat region of Bharatpur.

Concerned over negligible attendance in schools in Bharatpur, SARD set up quality education centres and named them taleem ghars. The QECs were set up to serve as a bridge school to encourage and prepare first time school-goers and dropouts for entrance to mainstream schools. As it began working in the Mewat region of Deeg block of Bharatpur district, SARD found that more than 65 per cent of the population had never attended school of which 95 per cent were girls. The block is dominated by Meo Muslims who were originally Rajputs.

Volunteers from SARD found that the formal education system in the region was very dismal. Besides high absenteeism among teachers, a student-teacher ratio ranging from 59:1 to 100:1, lack of infrastructure, the community had a low level of motivation to education. Children were being sent out to madrasas for religious education and this was considered sufficient especially for the girls.

The organisation encountered enormous rigidity and resistance in making a start. SARD scripted its success story by setting up grain banks with the help of community based organisations (CBOs). The CBOs comprised 10 to 12 influential leaders and were entrusted the task of going door to door collecting grains at the time of harvest. The community response was overwhelming. The grain collected by the CBOs was stored and sold by the CBOs at remunerative price in the market.

Earnings from the sale of wheat, mustard and millets was then used for infrastructure development as repair of handpumps, toilets, construction of boundary walls of QECs and chaupals.

Children of landless villagers are not deprived of education. Such villagers can offer to work at sites for infrastructural development.

Today, SARD is running 18 QECs in 14 villages of Bharatpur with help from the European Commission and the Aga Khan Foundation.

It spread its wings to Alwar and Baran in 2004-2005. In Alwar, the NGO is backed by Sriram Fibres and has two QECs in four villages.

It is working in three blocks of Bharatpur, Deeg, Kama and Nagar. In Baran, SARD is supported by ITC and is running 30 QECs in 25 villages.

Gradually, SARD plans to expand its area of work to Eastern Rajasthan.

Asked why SARD chose these three districts of Rajasthan, SARD CEO, Sudhir Bhatnagar said, ``SARD was founded in 1996. Right from the beginning, we had been working in these areas and we were familiar with the socio-economic problems.’’ In Delhi, SARD is running educational programmes for urban deprived children. ``We are running 30 QECs in slums and resettlement colonies of South West district. We have joined hands with Delhi State AIDS Control Society and UNESCO to conduct lifeskill programmes for adolescents that has awareness on HIV AIDS as a component. Besides, we are also running vocational training programmes in South West district for women.’’

SARD completed in September 2004 a workplace HIV AIDS intervention programme for GENCO and TRANSO, major companies of Delhi power sector.

New Delhi, October 11
Rejected by students and teachers alike, the amendments made to the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) have now become a part of the agenda for the forthcoming elections to the Students’ Union in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

With almost all factions having expressed their disapproval for the amendments that catalysed agitation within the campus, a demand for reverting to the earlier format is likely to figure high on everyone’s agenda.

Student representatives are piqued at what they perceive is “an attempt to scuttle the autonomy of the GSCASH”. Outgoing JNUSU president Mona Das said, “These amendments were brought in without any discussion or debate. We will take it up in a major way. The Executive Council of the university, which had ratified
these changes, will have to recall them”.

The Vice-Chancellor’s proposal to keep these amendments in abeyance has done nothing to soothe tempers. “Keeping them in abeyance is keeping the whole GSCASH in abeyance. There is a categorical demand to revert to the old format and that should be met,” asserted Ms Das of the All India Students Association (AISA).

The Students’ Federation of India and the All India Students’ Federation who are contesting together have also criticised the amendments. “The SFI and the AISF are the ones who should be more vocal in their protest against the changes because they were part of the union when the GSCASH was constituted,” AISF’s Muqbil Ahmar said.

The SFI’s Rohit added, “Restoring the original form of the GSCASH is a major issue for us. We will press for the restoration of the GSCASH as it was envisaged”.

The JNU community was peeved at the inclusion of some provisions in the GSCASH that calls for reporting any “sexually deviant” behaviour on the campus, keeping the Vice-Chancellor and the Rector informed of each important stage in any ongoing case of harassment and classifying offences as minor, major and serious.

New Delhi, October 11
Jaya Bachchan will be there. So would be Dimple Kapadia, Neetu Singh and Rishi Kapoor.

These Bollywood personalities -like sportstars P T Usha, Shiny Wilson, Milkha Singh and Ajit Pal Singh – would all be at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium at 7 am on October 16 to cheer up over 2500 Silver Citizens (55 years plus) who would participate in the Senior Citizens Run.

The Senior Citizens Run was initiated by Harmony in Mumbai early this year (January 16, 2005) as celebration of the independent spirit of the elders Harmony - a social initiative of the Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Trust and headed by Tina Ambani -is an organisation intensely involved with the concerns and community interests of the senior citizens. Harmony now takes pride to bring the event to Delhi.

An integral part of the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon 2005, the Senior Citizens Run would also witness the inspiring presence of many other sports personalities who are specially flying in to the national capital to support the cause of the country’s elders.

Those who would be cheering and conversing with the elders include athletes like Kamaljit Kaooner, G S Randhawa and Sriram Singh, hockey wizards like Harvinder Singh, Aslam Sher Khan and M P Ganesh, badminton stars like Dinesh

Khanna and Damayanti Tambe and table tennis players like Indu Puri.

The Senior Citizens Run will be flagged off at 8 am from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. It would cover a route of 4.3 km and pass through Bhishm Pitahma Marg, Lodhi Road and return by the same route to finally culminate at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Harmony has, in case of a contingency, organised for paramedical teams to be present at the marquee, specially erected for the convenience of all the participants, as well as positioned all along the route. Required teams of doctors and standby ambulances has also been organised to attend to the elders in case of any emergency.

New Delhi, October 11
Rejecting the ongoing drive to test electrical meters in the Capital, a citizens’ group today wrote to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and the Power Ministry asking them to focus instead on comparison of bills.

The People’s Action called for focussing on investigating cases that have been recorded through a validated format such as the Bill Comparison Forms that are being filed by the residents through RWAs.

“This format is worthy of following simply because these forms are being filed by people whose bills show inordinate differences in billing between comparable periods over a year,” said Col D K Shandilya of People’s Action.

“This is a more scientific and logical methodology apart from being more credible and practical in essence,” he said.

People’s Action, he said, has received close to a hundred such forms.

Using these forms, residents are able to file their new meter readings and bill amounts for corresponding periods before and after the new electronic meter was installed and validates on paper the need for an enquiry.

New Delhi, October 11
A doctor, who had written to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit alleging gross misuse of funds sanctioned for leprosy patients, has opposed a move by the Delhi Police to close the case registered on the basis of his complaint over three years ago.

Special Judge S. N. Aggarwal, before whom the Anti-Corruption Branch filed the closure report, has posted the matter for consideration on October 27.

Dr Brahm Dutt had complained before the Chief Minister on July 30, 2002, that funds sanctioned for leprosy victims were being misappropriated by public servants. The Chief Minister had, thereafter, forwarded the complaint to the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi Police for investigation.

Dr Dutt of the Kusth Asha Deep Federation had alleged government servants were misappropriating funds sanctioned for leprosy homes and rehabilitation purposes.

Besides handing over the matter to the Delhi Police which registered a case against some unknown persons, a special audit committee was also set up to detect the alleged misuse.

After probing the matter, the police sought to close the case submitting that there was no evidence of any embezzlement. A departmental inquiry, however, revealed some procedural lapses and violation of rules in certain purchases by the department concerned. 

New Delhi, October 11
The police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly murdering his minor daughter in the Dariba Kalan area of North Delhi.

Mangal Singh strangled his 12-year-old daughter on the night of October 9 at the residence of his employer, a sweets shop owner, in Dariba Kalan where he had come to stay for the festival season, the police said today.

A resident of Karawal Nagar, Mangal Singh suspected that his wife was having an affair with his brother-in-law and that his daughter was ‘his’ offspring.

After strangling her Singh rushed his daughter near the staircase when there was nobody in the house.

Father of three, Singh later told his neighbours that she had lost consciousness and needed to be taken to the hospital. She was rushed to the Lok Narain Jai Prakash Hospital where she was declared brought dead.

After the doctors reported the matter to the police, Singh was arrested.

The neighbours said the girl had also been raped, which was denied by the police. A senior police official said as the post-mortem report was yet to come nothing could be said.

Noida, October 11
Even as the district administration has imposed Section 144, prohibiting the assembling of more than five people and carrying of sharp-edged weapons and fire-arms for the forthcoming festive season, there have been flagrant violations noticed here.

During the nomination process for the panchayat elections, the candidates were clearly seen flexing their muscles and moving around with guns and revolvers.

The police authorities failed to stop the supporters of the candidates violating Section 144, which clearly prohibits assembling of more than five persons, processions, rallies and carrying of lathis, knives, swords and fire-arms.

Armed supporters were seen entering the office of the SDMs for filling the nomination papers. The official, including the District Magistrate, Mr Santosh Yadav, agreed that there was a need for taking action to maintain law and order. However, the way candidates and their supporters are brazenly violating section 144, it will be a tough job to maintain law and order during the campaigning process.

New Delhi, October 11
Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar today inaugurated the state-of-the-art High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS) at the Hastsal resettlement colony.

The system was dedicated to the residents of the area in a simple but impressive ceremony attended among others by Hastsal MLA Mukesh Sharma, councillor Satpal Sethi and a senior BSES officer Vijay Khullar.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Mr Sajjan Kumar complimented the BSES for its efforts to modernise the distribution network for providing quality and reliable power and undertaking a drive to eliminate power theft. He assured his support and cooperation to the BSES’s efforts to curb the menace of electricity theft in the national capital.

Installed at an estimated cost of over Rs 10 crore, the Hastsal HVDS would go a long way in providing quality and reliable power to over 4, 000 residents in the resettlement colony. The project has been completed in a record time of six months including survey work, designing, material procurement and installation.

The project entailed erection of 426 poles, 385 25 MVA transformers nearly 8000 meters of insulated cable, four ring main units and 37 isolators. The electrification work has been extended even to the narrow lanes where steel poles were erected in an innovative manner.

New Delhi, October 11
More than 500 key administrators, e-government practitioners from various parts of the country will take part in a conference organised by the Delhi Government and the Centre for Science Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), starting from October 17.

The main objective of the conference is to showcase e-government developments in India and the Asia Pacific and learn from successful practices in the region to provide a knowledge-sharing platform. It would also serve as a forum for policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians for converting e-government vision into actionable program.

Mr Prakash Kumar, IT, Secretary, Delhi Government, said the topics that would be discussed during the meet included rural computing, e-panchayat, IT in Agriculture, education, health and e-governance for various citizen services. Besides, special focus would also be given to digital learning.

The conference would be inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and keynote speakers included Prof. V S Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Mr R Chandershekhar, Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, and other specialists in the field.

Noida, October 11
The incidence of diarrhoea cases is on the rise in the district. Besides malaria cases, as many as 36 diarrhoea patients have been admitted in the district hospital in the last 36 hours.

According to doctors, the rise in diarrhoea cases is mainly due to polluted drinking water and cut fruits and vegetables being kept in the open.

It was pointed out that most of the 36 new patients admitted to the government hospital in Sector-30 were from slum colonies in the town or from the surrounding rural areas.

Although this is not “a season for the outbreak of diarrhoea”, the supply of polluted potable water in the town and neighbourhood is primarily responsible for the incidence of diarrhoea, said Dr Akhlesh Mohan, the doctor in charge emergencies in district administration hospital.

New Delhi, October 11
A man who raped a one-year-old baby last year has been sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment by a Delhi court.

An Additional Sessions Judge at the Tis Hazari courts also imposed a fine of Rs 6,000 on 27-year-old Amir Singh for raping the daughter of his neighbour in the Mongolpuri area of North Delhi.

The crime was detected on the morning of August 16 last year when the victim’s eight-year-old sister found the accused, whom they called “Ami chacha (uncle)”, inside their house under suspicious circumstances.

Their mother, Saroj, a domestic help, had gone out for work at the time. On checking the infant, the girl found her lying on the bed in a pool of blood.

Saroj was immediately informed and the baby was rushed to the local hospital where tests were conducted. 

New Delhi, October 11
Thirty-two years after a trader was charged with evading sales tax by forging documents, a Delhi court has convicted him for various offences under the IPC and the Bengal Finance Act.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Madhu Jain held Murli Manohar guilty of cheating the government by preparing forged sales tax forms in 1973 but preferred not to send him to jail by sentencing him to a period already undergone.

The court noted the accused had falsely represented a registered dealer and had even taken an exemption under the Sales Tax Act.

It, however, gave a lenient sentence because the accused had to face a long trial.

Noida, October 11
In a shocking incident, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly abducted in broad daylight from the house of her brother-in-law in Bijhode. Vijay, a resident of Baghpat alleged that two persons, identified as Sonu and Shyam of Sahibabad, had enticed and abducted his sister-in-law Mohini (name changed).

According to Vijay, Mohini had failed to come back to her house on Sunday. He received a tip-off that Mohini had been seen with Sonu and Shyam.

New Delhi, October 11
Delhi Lt- Governor B L Joshi today ordered the postings and transfers of five senior police officers with immediate effect.

According to the order, Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Y S Dadwal has been posted as Special Commissioner of Police (Administration) and Mr U K Katna, Director-General of Police, Goa, has been asked to take over as Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence).

Joint Commissioner of Police (Security) J K Sharma has been posted as Joint Commissioner of Police (Training) while Joint Commissioner of Police (P&I) N S Rana has been kept on compulsory waiting. Another officer, Joint Commissioner of Police S K Jain has been asked to take over as Joint Commissioner of Police (P&I).

Noida, October 11
A body found on the Expressway two days ago has been identified as that of a car driver, Govind, who was murdered by car-jackers. A missing repot had been filed in Hauz Khas police station, New Delhi. According to the police Govind was a native of Rae Bareilly district and was living in Kathuriya in Hauz Khas area. — OC