New Delhi, November 2
Former Delhi police commissioner Ved Marwah has said ‘’ the faultlines in our judicial system have been shown’’ by the fact that people who were hindering the process of justice, in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had still not been punished while those aiding the process of law were still facing harassment.

Talking to a private television channel last night, Marwah, who was asked to conduct an enquiry, immediately after the ‘84 riots, into the role of the Delhi Police in the chain of events but was then abruptly asked to terminate it, said,’’this shows the faultlines in our judicial system.

‘’I was an official aiding the judicial system in getting victims (of the riots) to justice. But what happened was that many of the officers went to the Delhi High Court.’’

Marwah was asked to stop the enquiry after some officers of the Delhi Police went to the Delhi High Court with a petition that the enquiry be stopped as Marwah was prejudiced against the police.

‘’After I received a written order from the then police commissioner to conduct an enquiry into the role of the Delhi Police in the 1984 riots, for which I was given three months, I worked day and night, getting all documents from the control room and commissioner’s control room and meeting a large number of witnesses and NGOs.’’

‘’However, just as I was about to complete the probe and fix responsibility on individual officers, I received another written order from the commissioner asking me to stop the enquiry,’’ Marwah told Karan Thapar in the ‘Tonight Show’ on CNBC.

Marwah revealed that from the documents he had collected in the course of the probe, it was clear that the Delhi Police was absent from large part of the areas affected by riots, specially in the south, east and New Delhi districts, which were the main affected districts in the riots.

‘’In these areas, there was no movement of officers. It was not there for days altogether. In fact, the stories given to me by a large number of witnesses was that when Sikhs were picked up and burnt, some of them took about an hour to die. This is happening in the Capital city of Delhi and there was no police to rescue them because the police had absented themselves,’’ Marwah said.

While stopping short of terming the police absence as deliberate, Marwah said, ‘’the negligence of the police was certainly there. However, whether it was malafide, I had still to find out.’’

Marwah said a number of officers who were incharge of areas where riots took place were transferred out of the Delhi Police for some time.

‘’Later on ,some of them got promoted and may soon get retire,’’ he said.

Asked whether any of these officers got punished, the former police commisioner said,’’I am not aware if any of these officers got punished.’’

However, he said he was still being targetted by sons of many of these officers.
— UNI

New Delhi, November 2
An ordinance to fix the term of director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is unlikely to be issued as the bill to this effect would be taken up for passage in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

Since the AIIMS and the Post-graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research bill is lying before Parliament, it will be the first item of the session to be taken up for passage, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters here.

Reports said that health minister A Ramadoss, who is at loggerheads with current AIIMS director P Venugopal, was planning to move a draft ordinance to fix the term. This could have affected the tenure of Venugopal.

The bill seeks to fix the term of the director for five years from the day he or she assumes office or till he/she attains the age of 65, whichever is earlier. — PTI

Greater Noida, November 2
Three students were wounded in a clash between two groups of students over a minor incident at dinner in the canteen of IES college in Knowledge Park-I.

Later, the students belonging to one group barged into the room of a companion of a student who had been wounded earlier.

They damaged the room and fired some gunshots. They attacked other students with clubs, daggers and sarya.

One student received a gunshot wound while the head of another was hit with a sarya. All the three injured students were admitted to Kailash hospital in Greater Noida. Three students were taken into custody by the police that reached the spot.

Later, students created uproarious scenes in the hospital demanding arrest of the accused. Heavy police force has been deployed in the area.

Aditya Nagar, a student of B. Tech III year in IEC college in Knowledge Park had an argument with some students in the college canteen on Thursday. He was hit with iron rods by another third year B.

Tech student who had brought some goons from outside into the college canteen. That student and outsiders just slipped away after wounding Aditya.

His friends had first taken the wounded Aditya along to police station for lodging a complaint, but cops did not register their complaint and sent him to hospital.

Some students from other groups had attacked Aditya’s friends with ironrods, daggers and clubs when the latter went to Aditya’s room in Rail Vihar Society to bring his clothes.

One of the assailants pulled out a revolver and fired a few shots, one of which hit his friend Hari Vansh in the back while his other friend Prabhakar was hit with club on his head.

Besides, a large number of gadgets, equipment and raw material were also seized.

Greater Noida, November 2
At Rs 2.5 lakh per sq mt, the land rates in Greater Noida seem to have shot through the roofs.

The rates had reportedly touched Rs 6 lakh per sq mt in Sector-18 Noida with a particular plot having been sold at Rs 6.11 lakh a sq. mt, recently.

The hi tech city Greater Noida has taken a big leap as the bid, in tender for shops, went as high as Rs 2.55 lakh per sq mt.

In the tenders opened on Wednesday night, 2300 traders had participated for 107 shops. GNIDA had fixed a rate between Rs 5600– 8300, but interestingly none of the participants had quoted less than Rs 45,000 per sq mt.

According to GNIDA Dy CEO, P.C. Gupta, tenders were opened for 107 shops recently—52 in Delta, 27 in Swaran Nagari, 8 in P-3 and 20 for shops in P-2.

All these tenders were opened on Wednesday. In Swaran Nagari shops were sold at Rs 2.55 lakh a sq mt, the highest bid of Rs 1.82 in Delta. Rs 2.26 lakh in P-2 and Rs 2.10 lakh in P-3 were opened.

The Greater Noida Authority was richer by Rs 21 crore for the land measuring 3200 sq mt for shops.

In recent times these were the rates of land at different locations.

On August 6, 2006, builders had bought 290 acre land at Rs 1640. This was auctioned at four times the reserve price while on June 9, 2006, a 129- acre piece of land for housing project in an IT Park in Chandigarh was acquired at Rs 821.2 crore.

On May 23, 2006, Uni-tech had bought 340 acre land for Rs 1583 crore in Noida under which township is being developed in Sectors-96, 97 and 98.

New Delhi, November 2
Delhi education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely has reiterated that the city government is fully committed to implementing a foolproof admission procedure in pre-primary class in Delhi.

Necessary instructions in this regard will be issued soon to implement it in true spirit to ensure a transparent admission process in all recognized schools.

Speaking to media persons after chairing a meeting of Delhi School Advisory Board, the minister stated that the government would ensure that all schools finalise their guidelines keeping in view the local needs and character of the localities which the schools were supposed to cater to.

The meeting was attended by education secretary Reena Ray, director of education Vijay Kumar and other senior officers of the Directorate of Education apart from members of the Board.

At the meeting, it was decided to initiate process of admission on November 30 of every year with release of all relevant information on the schools website, prospectus and notice boards.

The distribution of registration forms for admission to the pre-primary class would continue from November 30 to December 15.

New Delhi, November 2
A rather-disturbed election concluded today when students at Jawaharlal Nehru University cast their votes to elect a new student council. Brisk polling happened on campus when students came out in large numbers to vote.

Counting of votes will be undertaken from 9 tonight and the result will come out on November 4.

Prominent established student organizations at JNU like SFI, AISF, NSUI and ABVP have fielded their candidates for the elections to all council posts. The SFI and the AISF are contesting together.

The BSP’s Bahujan Student Front entered the poll fray for the first time. The ‘anti-reservationist’ Youth for Equality has also fielded their candidates.

Prominent candidates for the post of president are outgoing president Dhananjay Tripathi (SFI) and the outgoing general secretary Sandeep Singh (AISA). JNU student union elections took a violent turn on Wednesday night during the course of the presidential debate. Rival political groups clashed at the university’s Jhelum lawns over remarks about Lord Ram.

The situation was brought under control by six to seven private guards present at the scene. Three of them were injured in the process.

Other contesting candidates: from the ABVP, there is Amit Singh (president), Saurav Dubey (vice-president) and Ankita Bhatta (general secretary). From the NSUI: Tauqir Alam (president), Shabir Alam (vice-president) and Kavita Sharma (GS). The SFI/AISF candidates are: Dhananjay as president, Roshan Kishore as vice-president and Fauzan Abara (GS) and the Youth for Equality presidential candidate is Babita Sharma and Sujeet Kumar as vice-president.

The main issues this year range from better facilities on campus to more scholarship programmes. Other national issues like the nuclear deal, the existence of Lord Ram and India’s foreign policy are also mentioned in the manifestoes.

New Delhi, November 2
Identification of case studies and potential areas of consensus building, in wake of the rising terrorist activities in the country are likely to figure at the three-day international conference on federalism to be held in the Capital from Monday.

The conference is being organised for the first time in the country. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the conference.

Amitabha Pande of the inter-state council secretariat said that issues like fiscal federalism, managing conflict and diversity and dealing with internal conflict and tension will be discussed. A session has been devoted to policing, where federal crime will be discussed.

Pande said that several heads of states and governments including, the President of Switzerland, Vice-President of Nigeria and Prime Minister of Ethiopia, besides cabinet ministers, heads of local governments and political leaders would participate in the deliberations.

This is the fourth such conference. The earlier ones were held in Canada in 1999, Switzerland in 2002 and Belgium in 2005. — PTI

New Delhi, November 2
Criticising the statement of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that NCR was a dead concept, the BJP said that it was very difficult to imagine modern Delhi without the NCR.

By stating this, the Chief Minister has rejected the very concept of modern NCR which is irresponsible behaviour.

Delhi unit president of the BJP Dr Harsh Vardhan said that in the meeting of the NCR Planning Board on Wednesday, many projects were approved.

A financial assistance of Rs 674 crore was approved for the development of 27 infrastructure facilities.

These projects include facilities for water supply, sanitation, sewerage, construction of roads, residential accommodation, provision for power supply in the areas forming part of NCR in UP, Haryana and Rajasthan. One hundred seventy-eight projects were framed for the development of NCR.

The financial assistance has been sanctioned for the projects on priority basis.

It is regrettable that the existence of NCR which should have been developed so far, is being questioned by the Chief Minister, the Delhi BJP chief said.

New Delhi, November 2
Khalid Abdallah, a 29-year-old Sudanese student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), is contesting the prestigious student union election this year to learn politics in India and restore democracy in his north African nation.

“Like Pakistan, my country is suffering from dictatorship. People in Sudan need efficient people to restore democracy and my contest in JNU elections is a step in that direction,” Abdallah told IANS.

“I have been in India for the last 12 years pursuing various academic qualifications. From Pune University to Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala to JNU, I have seen the democratic views of people in India and this is worth emulating,” he said.

Abdallah, who is doing M. Phil in international relations, is contesting for the post of a counsellor under the banner of the All India Students Association (AISA).

“The post for which I am contesting is not high profile but this is certainly a positive step in the direction of learning the democratic electoral process. After I return to my country, I can use my experience,” he said adding that for the last 18 years “people in Sudan have not been enjoying real democracy”.

Abdallah said he has a “long way to go” but the JNU election will help him understand Indian politics closely.

“I am understanding Indian politics and the success of democracy in spite of its huge geography, multi-religious and multi-lingual society. My observations of the last 12 years will help me when I am back in Sudan,” said Abdallah, who was earlier the president of the Foreign Students’ Association of the varsity.

Last year, Tyler William Walker from the US was elected to the post of vice-president of the JNU student union, making him the first foreign student to occupy that post. Walker is doing his M. Phil in Hindi from JNU and was elected last year from the AISA—the same banner under which Abdallah is contesting. He is one of eight American students in JNU.

When asked why he is fighting under the AISA banner and not under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) or the Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI), Abdallah said. — IANS

New Delhi, November 2
Bypassing the art galleries and museums, an art trade fair in the Capital has brought together 40 artists from across the country to showcase their work as well as sell them to their clients directly.

Conceived by Adishwar Puri, the two-day All India Art Trade Fair, which started Friday, showcased works of emerging as well as veteran artists as well as give customers an opportunity to interact with the artists.

“Globally, art trade fair is an emerging trend. It offers a unique opportunity to buy art works from professional artists directly without the involvement of the art gallery or the museum.”

“Moreover, in exhibiting their works in the galleries, artists have to pay a hefty commission and have toconsult them before deciding on the price of their work.

Here, the artist decides the price of his work and to participate in the fair individually, has to gift me one of his paintings!” Puri told IANS.

Not only that. Puri added that with the festive season on, this is also an ideal opportunity to buy affordable art to give away as gifts.

For those artists participating in the fair through an art gallery, the fee is Rs.50,000.

Puri said that the idea of the art trade fair came when he was in San Francisco and saw the San Francisco Art Trade Society Fair. And he decided to organise a similar fair in India like the one he had seen in the US. — IANS