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Jamia varsity closed as violence erupts
MCD to take care of entire desilting from next year
DJB official rules
out privatisation
Crime graph records decline in Faridabad
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Only POTA can end terrorism: Joshi
Oriflame to sponsor education of 1000 girls
Games 2010 could see tickets made of recycled paper
Three cops held for taking bribe from truck drivers
Switching off overhead lines a ‘precautionary measure’
Land in Bulandshahr likely to be allotted to Tatas
Priyadarshani’s father seeks retrial
10-year RI for rapist
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Jamia varsity closed as violence erupts
New Delhi, July 19 Student unrest spiralled due to their dissatisfaction with the admissions recently carried out. Many students allege that a large number of deserving old students who had cleared the examination were denied admission. Their number is said to be 200. Shams Pervez, former union president, accompanied by three other students, had gone to represent students’ grievances on the issue to the Vice-Chancellor. However, students allege that Pervez and the boys accompanying him were roughed up and then beaten up. They hold the university administration responsible for this high-handedness. Pervez and two other boys are admitted in hospital. Two others are in the ICU. Sajid Ali, a former student leader, informed The Tribune, “Students have been very unhappy about the manner in which recent admissions were carried out. Many old students have been unfairly denied admission. To further complicate matters, certain students were given admission but this was later cancelled. So naturally, the union took up the issue and the president, Shams Pervez, accompanied by three other boys went to discuss the matter with the VC. However, unfortunately, the proctor had the boys beaten up and at least two of them are in the ICU.” After this development, students in Jamia went on the rampage, setting fire to university property, smashing cars and breaking windows. Throughout the day today, students congregated outside the VC’s office to register their protest, raised slogans and burnt the VC’s effigy. The police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed on the campus. A visibly tense Vice-Chancellor held a press conference here today. Mr Hassan, taking a tough line on the violence, declared that “the university has unanimously decided that students demanding admission will not be admitted. Also, except for one student those involved in the violence yesterday are not our students. A scuffle did take place outside my office and colleagues took care of it. I really did not know what was going on outside.” The Vice-Chancellor further said, “I’m shocked at the scale of the violence. Students smashed cars, damaged university property etc. We will certainly not give admission to those declared persona non grata. I am not going to let these people hold the university to ransom and I am not going to let hooliganism take over Jamia’s campus.” He also said, “This year, so much has been done for Jamia. New centres have been built, new courses started, we have increased the number of seats in most departments, hired new faculty. I am pained at these developments and you have to understand that the interest of the university is supreme and I will not let a handful of students wrest control by resorting to hooliganism.” He added, “I think this violence is very unfortunate, especially when I’ve had to work so hard to re-build Jamia’s image and raise money for this institution. A few hours of violence is all it takes to shake up what we have been doing here.” He also informed that he shut down the university as he feared escalation of violence and wanted to protect the lives of colleagues and university property. Meanwhile, students at Jamia remain unsatisfied and are determined to continue with the protest. |
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MCD to take care of entire desilting from next year
New Delhi, July 19 The MCD would be responsible for desilting of all drains in Delhi except the NDMC area. He said this after taking a round of waterlogging-prone areas around the ITO in pouring rain. He was accompanied by Commissioner (MCD), Principal Secretary (PWD), Engineer-in-Chief (PWD), Chief Engineer (MCD), Chief Engineer, CSE (MCD) and other Chief Engineers of the PWD. Dr Walia visited waterlogged areas in the vicinity of the School of Planning and Architecture, the IMA Building, Azad Bhavan, the UGC and the IP power station, where manholes were opened to understand the actual cause of waterlogging during rains. He said certain junior engineers and assistant engineers were not concentrating on their assigned responsibility amounting to dereliction of duties. Two junior engineers of the PWD have been suspended whereas a stern warning has been issued to two assistant engineers. Dr Walia further instructed the deployment of super suction machines on three points, review of the entire drainage plan, widening and remodelling of the culvert near the IMA and enhancing the pumping capacity commensurate with the increasing quantum of discharge. Dr Walia has told all agencies concerned in plain words to either perform or face consequences. The Standing Committee of the MCD today passed a resolution demanding desilting work of all drains and sewer lines be handed over to the civic body to eliminate the waterlogging problem during monsoon in Delhi. A copy of the resolution has been sent to the Lt-Governor of Delhi. Standing Committee Chairman Jaikishan Sharma said that sewer lines were being maintained by the Delhi Government. Thousands of drains are there in Delhi. Some drains are desilted by the MCD and others by agencies like the PWD, the NDMC, the DDA and the Cantonment Board. To eliminate this problem, all drains and sewer lines should be handed over to the MCD, he demanded. |
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DJB official rules
out privatisation
New Delhi, July 19 “There is no need
for privatisation of the Jal Board. The ownership of its assets has to
rest with the government but the private sector with its expertise can
play an important role in water management,” DJB Additional CEO Ashish
Kundra said at a panel discussion on ‘Water Reforms: State, Community’
here yesterday. He said public-private partnership was needed in the
management of water to solve the Capital’s water woes. Mr Kundra also justified levying taxes on water to recover the amount spent in its transportation and treatment. “Moreover,
the taxes are also a penalty on those who waste water,” he said. Centre
for Science and Environment Deputy Coordinator Suresh Babu endorsed Mr
Kundra’s views on taxes but advised the authorities to do “good
research to utilise local water bodies in a better way”. The founder
of the community initiative URJA, Mr Pramod Chawla, demanded a revival
of Delhi’s water bodies, transparency in the functioning of the DJB
and better water distribution before the commencement of the
Commonwealth Games in 2010. |
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Crime graph records decline in Faridabad
Faridabad, July 19 The district police chief, Mr Mahender Singh Sheoran, made these disclosures while talking with mediapersons about the achievements of the department here today. He said a move was on to strengthen the police infrastructure and make the crime control system more effective. A post of DSP (Crime) had been created here for the first time. Also, special wing had been set up to tackle incidents of loot, murder dacoity, robbery and vehicle thefts. The police chief said 100 new vehicles, including jeeps, multi-utility vehicles and motor cycles had been added to the fleet of the department in the past few months. Besides, another 510 policemen had been deployed in the district. The district had around 19 PCR vans and several riders for round-the-cock patrolling and vigil in the city and the district. Mr Sheoran said the SP (Rural) had already been functioning at Palwal town to look after law and order in the rural areas. The posting of DSP-level officials for handling crime and traffic had been necessary in view of the growing population and the fact that over three lakh of it was floating in nature. He said the police had already busted several gangs of dacoits, robbers and other elements involved in snatching, housebreaking and vehicle thefts. A majority of them had been put behind bars. Mr Sheoran said these included 17 gangs involved in house burglary, 10 gangs for vehicle theft and four gangs responsible for theft. As many as 14 out of the total 20 cases of looting were solved with recovery of cash and valuables worth over Rs 15.78 lakhs during the period. About 139 cases of stolen vehicles were also traced with the recovery of valuables worth Rs 8.92 lakh. Besides that, stolen property worth Rs 15.49 lakh was recovered in 31 other cases. At least 42 proclaimed offenders and 227 bail jumpers had also been arrested in this period, he added. According to the SSP, crime control in the city and the district would improve with the setting up of a special wing headed by a DSP and a number of new police posts to handle such cases exclusively. They had been spared from VIP duty and other jobs. A total of 222 cops and officials were posted in the crime cell, he said. The DSP (City), the DSP (Headquarters), the DSP (Traffic), the DSP (Crime) and the DSP of Ballabhgarh were also present at the press conference. |
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Only POTA can end terrorism: Joshi
Noida, July 19 He said only POTA could tackle the problem of terrorism in the country and the central government should again impose POTA without losing much time. Dr Joshi was speaking after opening a call centre in Sector 63 here yesterday. He said it had been amply proved that Pakistan was behind all terrorist activities in this country. It was high time the Government of India adopted a stern attitude. Dr Joshi said India should also mount pressure for bringing Pakistan’s nuclear programmes to an end. “We should also take a strong stand on Foreign Secretary-level talks and call them off. India should not be taken in by our neighbouring country’s tactics which are meant to hoodwink international opinion”, he reiterated. Dr Joshi said changes in electoral seats and constituencies for Lok Sabha and state legislature elections should be affected every 10 years. Earlier, inaugurating a BPO, Dr Joshi said Indians had proved their mental and intellectual mettle in the world and as long as there were employment opportunities abroad there would be enough scope for Indians to work in the IT sector. India should be wary of China which could offer strong competition in this field to Indians. He said BPOs offered excellent employment opportunities and were also contributing significantly in the development of the nation. The only disadvantage was that while we had proved ourselves proficient in English we had ignored our own native languages. |
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Oriflame to sponsor education of 1000 girls
New Delhi, July 19 Students of the Deepalaya school, these girls have come closer to their dreams, owing to a social responsibility initiative taken by cosmetics major,
Oriflame. The company has announced an ‘Oriflame Girl Child’ project that will sponsor the education of 1000 girls for a period of three years from
Deepalaya, an NGO. Referring to the project, Mr Tomas Eriksson, Managing Director, Oriflame India, said, “Quality education is a fundamental part of a healthy childhood. More than just knowledge, education is a school for life, where children can learn skills such as discipline, confidence and leadership”. Pointing out that there was a need for the corporates to join forces with the social sector, Mr T. K. Mathew, Chief Executive,
Deepalaya, said, “The Oriflame Girl Child initiative has strong synergies with out mission of promoting and providing quality education at affordable cost to children and communities, which are socially and economically deprived”. He said, “This association is an excellent example of how corporates and NGOs can work together to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged
children”. Oriflame’s brand ambassador, Malaika Arora Khan, presented a cheque of Rs 2.7 crore to Deepalaya as contribution to facilitate the education of the selected girls in the age group of four to 17 for a period of three years. With the cosmetic giant pledging support, hundreds of young girls can look forward to nurturing their dreams of becoming self-reliant and empowered. |
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Games 2010 could see tickets made of recycled paper
New Delhi, July 19 Inaugurating an exhibition on recycling of paper, Ms Dikshit asked schoolchildren to prepare items using recycled paper which could be utilised during the Commonwealth Games. She said recycled paper would prove to be appropriate for printing tickets and pamphlets for the Games. The Chief Minister also asked trade organisations and the PHDCCI, which organised the exhibition, to make use of recycled paper products like bags and folders. Asking people to make use of paper and jute bags instead of plastic ones, Ms Dikshit said her government was making daily use of paper prepared by recycling waste paper in the Delhi Secretariat. Everyday, 60 kg of waste paper is recycled in the Delhi Secretariat. The production of one tonne of recycled paper amounts to saving 17 trees. |
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Three cops held for taking bribe from truck drivers
Ghaziabad, July 19 One of the cops was, however, able to give the anti-corruption team at Hapur the slip. Two cops were nabbed in Kavi Nagar and one in Hafizpur police station area. Five teams of anti-corruption department under SP Western Region, Anil Dass, had raided different places simultaneously. Teams from Lucknow, Barielly, Kanpur, Meerut and Moradabad had participated in the raids. Kanpur team had raided Hapur octroi post early on Monday morning. Head constable Dharam Pal and constable Satish were nabbed red-handed while collecting Rs 800 from truck drivers. But constable Satish was able to give the slip to the team. The anti-corruption team had recovered the money from these cops. All of them are posted in Kavi Nagar police station. The Barielly team had nabbed Vishnu while extracting money from a truck driver. |
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Switching off overhead lines a ‘precautionary measure’
New Delhi, July 19 He said that in order to minimise inconvenience to all its customers the BSES had directed its Operations and Maintenance personnel to attend to every such problem on a war footing so that power was restored at the earliest. While the BSES strove to keep its system up and running, it had little control over issues like the current shortage of power and incidence of low frequency in the Northern Grid, which necessitated rotational load-shedding. The BSES resorted to load-shedding of the Delhi State Load Dispatch Centre which in turn got instructions from the Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre, the spokesman said. Although the BSES would endeavour to strictly adhere to the revised load-shedding schedule, load-shedding may increase or decrease, depending upon the availability of power for distribution and prevailing weather conditions. The BSES urged its customers to take safety precautions and inform their local offices in case of any breakdown, he said. |
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Land in Bulandshahr likely to be allotted to Tatas
Noida, July 19 Now, the UP Government was likely to allot land to the Tata group in Bulandshahr to bring self-sufficiency in output of power. The state government wanted to bring about development but anti-development people were putting hurdles in its way”, Mr Bhatti alleged. He was addressing journalists in Sector 11 Noida last night. He said the Reliance project was being set up so that sufficient power could be made available in the state for all-round development. Another 1000 acres was still required for the project. |
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Priyadarshani’s father seeks retrial
New Delhi, July 19 Seeking a retrial, Mr Mattoo said, “Justice, though delayed, will be done”. He went on to say, “This is not only the case of my daughter but a hope for common citizens of this country who are being oppressed by the high and mighty.” At a conference organised by volunteers of “Justice for Priyadarshani”, a group formed by friends of the victim and youth activists, Mr Mattoo said petitions had been sent to President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Chief Justice of India Y. K. Sabarwal, Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and CBI Director Vijaya Shankar. |
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10-year RI for rapist
New Delhi, July 19 The victim had come to Delhi in search of a job. On arrival at the Old Delhi Railway Station Ramesh and his friend Rakesh told the girl that they would help her find a job. They then asked her to accompany them. After raping the girl they dumped her outside Gurdwara Sisganj in Old Delhi.—TNS |
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Order reserved in Katara case
New Delhi, July 19 After hearing the arguments of both the sides on the plea of proclamation, Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur reserved the order for July 22. Public prosecutor B. S. Joon, citing a Delhi High Court judgment, argued that the court had powers to resort to all legal means to secure the attendance of a witness but he could not come up with a judgement on the specific point of whether proclamation can be issued against a witness as demanded by the court on July 17.—TNS |
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New Delhi, July 19
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