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Oust Thampu dharna by DUTA
DUTA members protest in front of VC office in the Capital on Friday.
— Tribune photo
3-D films at science centre
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LG courts controversy
198 schools to get facelift: Walia
Regularise illegal schools, HC asks govt
Cess on diesel
‘Stung’ Uma moves court to get back job
Colder days ahead
Wife held for teacher’s murder
PNB’s fast cheque clearance
Bid to extort Rs 10 lakh from Co, 5 held
Cultural exchange held
Bal Mela opens
Day 2 at Anugoonj
Truck mows down cop
Sheila visits abattoir
2 police officers transferred
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Oust Thampu dharna by DUTA
New Delhi, February 8 They demanded that Valson Thampu be removed from the post of OSD, for which he is not eligible. They have demanded that a regular principal should be appointed soon. Further, the show-cause notice issued to two lady teachers of St Stephen’s College be withdrawn immediately. The members pointed out how the VC’s “inaction is vitiating” the atmosphere of the college, where the ‘illegal’ OSD was violating all norms. They submitted a memorandum to the VC regarding the blatant assault on the academic freedom and freedom of expression of teachers by Rev Valson Thampu. Thampu had recently issued show-cause notice to two senior lady teachers — Sangeeta Luthra Sharma and Tasneem Suhrawardy of the Department of History. He had threatened them with disciplinary action for having “abused the teaching space,” by indulging in irrelevant and incendiary statements on issues that do not pertain to the course of study. DUTA sources inform, “The appointment of Valson Thampu as OSD and extension of his appointment is patently illegal and violate university ordinances. This position of the University has been upheld by the NCMEI, which has asked the University to ensure appointment of a regular Principal.” |
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3-D films at science centre
New Delhi, February 8 The first such facility in Delhi, it will give the visitors a peep into the world of science through thematic 3-D films. The science centre plans to hold four shows a day and the tickets are priced very moderately. The 3-D experience will add to the richness of the visit to the science centre, which houses the largest science museum in north India. The museum has galleries on emerging technologies and human life besides several real-life attractions in various areas of science. The 3-D facility, which has cost Rs 33 lakh, consists of a high-end server feeding two ultra high intensity projectors with polaroid filters. The visitors to the 3-D screening hall, which can seat 50 visitors at a time, will be given special glasses to view the films. Unlike computer-animated movies which rely on models of their characters, known as maquettes to give a 3-D character to two dimensional film, the 3-D movies rely on quirks of human vision to create deep, panoramic scenes or objects that seem to fly from the screen. Humans have binocular vision—each eye sees a different image, and the brain combines them into a single, unified picture. The brain uses the slight differences in angle between the two images, known as parallax, to help it perceive depth. This is the reason why people who lose their sight in one eye have trouble judging distances. While IMAX 3D films are occasionally shown in some cinema halls, they cost quite a sum. The tickets at the science centre have been priced Rs 20 and there will be concession for students. The science centre possesses two 3-D science movies at present and plans to acquire several more. Director of Centre, Shivaprasad M Khened, said the new facility will help bring more visitors whose annual number touched three lakh for the first time since the centre was set up. Answering queries, Khened said that the science centre was refurbishing its heritage section to reflect the contribution of the country to the world of science. He said the science centre will make efforts to improve its reach among rural students.
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LG courts controversy
New Delhi, February 8 Addressing a function to launch traffic patrol scheme of the Delhi Police yesterday Khanna said generally in the region it was a matter of pride for people to violate the law. He, however, complimented the people of South India for ‘’naturally staying within the ambit of
law’’.
“Mostly people of North and West India exude a sense of honour and pride in breaking the law and then boasting about it,’’ said the LG while commenting about traffic violations in the Capital. Assuring the policemen of his ‘’complete support’’ in taking action against violators of law, the LG said he was taking steps to ensure that law abidance among Delhi denizens remained a priority. “It is important that people of Delhi treat law with respect and have a sense of fear while breaking the law.’’ However, he clarified that fear did not mean high-handedness by enforcement agencies, but hastened to add that “if people overstep the law, then the law enforcement agencies should not remain mute spectators and must take suitable action’’. Khanna also said as Delhi’s Lt Governor he had decided that effective steps would be taken to make sure that people here followed law in every way. The LG last month was forced to issue a clarification denying that he had proposed that carrying photo Id cards be made mandatory for Delhi denizens. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said “if Khanna had made the statement it was highly objectionable and those occupying high constitutional posts should be careful in making observations”. Taking a stern view of the LG’s comment, parliamentary affairs minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, ‘’if anyone, including the LG, has given any irresponsible statement, action will be taken.’’ BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy, doling out party’s position on the issue said, “Khanna was a representative of the government of India and demanded that the government should make him apologise for his statement or else take action against him for this indiscretion.’’ — UNI
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198 schools to get facelift: Walia
New Delhi, February 8 Talking to the media after the meeting, finance minister A. K. Walia stated that Rs 285 crore would be spent on upgradation and improvement of 198 existing schools in three education districts. Apart from this, fire safety provisions would also be ensured in these schools. The amount would be utilized to overcome prevailing deficiencies like installation of suitable fire safety appliances. The school entry and outdoor area would be given better look and suitable improvements would be ensured in laboratories and libraries. Walia expressed confidence that this would help in providing suitable atmosphere conducive to learning. The minister said that citizen service centres would be constructed in the city to provide a single-window service under the ‘Jeevan’ project which would enhance the speed, convenience, transparency and responsiveness by facilitating citizen interactions with the government. This would serve as comprehensive set up for citizen services. Initially 20 such centres would be constructed within four months with an estimated amount of Rs 9.04 crore. The centres would have Internet facility and ATM facility for the public. He expressed confidence that functioning of ‘Jeevan’ Citizen Centres would provide relief to the citizens who are otherwise supposed to run here and there to contact various offices for making payment of their bills and obtaining routine information.
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Regularise illegal schools, HC asks govt
New Delhi, February 8 A division bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Aruna Suresh asked the directorate of education (DoE) to conduct a survey and identify unauthorised schools and follow a proper procedure to regularise them, provided they fulfil the basic requirements for running a school. The ruling came on a 2006 petition filed by a voluntary organisation, Social Jurist, asking for directions to regulate unauthorised schools in Delhi. “There are more than 10,000 schools which are running without any approval or permission from the government and about 600,000 students study in these schools. These schools have no right to play with the future of these children,” said Ashok Aggarwal of Social Jurist. These unauthorised schools lack basic structures, fee structure or even a proper teaching staff, These schools need to be regularised under proper guidelines, he added. — UNI
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Cess on diesel
New Delhi, February 8 The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has directed that the department of trade and taxes to collect the environment cess. The air ambience fund will be utilised for the development of clean air technologies, waste management and such other activities that promote clean air policies to reduce air pollution, specially vehicular pollution in the NCT of Delhi. This includes incentives to old vehicles and vehicles running on not so clean fuel, to convert to CNG. The secretary of department of environment and chairman of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee will administer the fund. The accounts will be maintained as per the government procedure. The procedure for filling the challan to deposit the requisite fee has been drafted in consultation with the department of trade and taxes.
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‘Stung’ Uma moves court to get back job
New Delhi, February 8 Citing lack of evidence, a trial court had on November 1 last year cleared Khurana of all charges. She had then filed a petition in the High Court alleging that the Department of Education (DoE) had failed to consider her plea for returning to work despite being cleared of wrongdoing. In her petition, she has relied upon the case chargesheet and the trial court’s verdict that said she was innocent and was wrongly framed as an accused in the case. The fake TV sting operation aired Aug 30 last year said that Khurana is involved in a sex racket involving schoolgirls. Prakash Singh, a reporter of Live India channel that carried the fake sting operation, was arrested Sept 8 last year after it transpired that the girl who made the allegations against Khurana was not a student but an aspiring journalist. The petition, filed through counsel Amit Kumar, is likely to come up for hearing February 11.
— IANS |
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New Delhi, February 8 “The winter is very much in Delhi and will remain so at least till the third week of February,” said S.C. Bhan, director India Meteorological Department (IMD). “The snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh is really making life difficult here. It’s not Delhi alone, the entire north India is shivering in cold due to it,” Bhan told IANS. He, however, said that the snowfall in these hilly states is likely to stop Friday night. “But don’t expect warm days tomorrow onwards.” “After the snowfall, the north-western wind will bring chill to the Capital and the night temperature in the Capital is expected to hover around four to five degrees Celsius in the coming days,” Bhan said. The minimum temperature on Friday was 9 ° Celsius, much above 6.4°Celsius recorded on Thursday. IMD officials said the minimum temperature on Saturday would be around six degrees and Sunday is expected to see a fall to four degrees Celsius. Saturday will be cloudy as well, weatherman added. The Capital city has been in the grip of severe cold weather right from the New Year’s day. While January 1 recorded 2.6 ° Celsius, the next day it was just 1.9 ° Celsius. Residents in the Capital said that the cold wave is really affecting their normal life. “The other day news reports said that cold wave condition is over in Delhi but it is not so,” said Rajesh Chaturvedi, a student. “Who is saying that the winter is over? You can see me and many people like me, who are still covered under at least two layers of woollens,” said Manashwini Mitra, a call centre employee in the Capital. — IANS
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Wife held for teacher’s murder
Faridabad, February 8 Besides,
Nardev, brother of the wife, Manju, and his friend, Ansool, have been arrested in the case. According to the police, all the three are accused in the case and will be produced in court tomorrow. The teacher, Ramvir Singh Shastri, was found dead and his body was lying in a pool of blood on Tuesday morning. According to the police, Manju, nurse with Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), had confided in his brother that she suspected illicit relations of her husband with someone. She did not know the identity of the alleged paramour of her husband. She had also told Nardev about the alleged misbehaviour and high-handedness of her husband towards her. Consequently, the brother and sister conspired to kill the teacher.
Nardev, who was doing Hotel Management course at Shriram Institute in Dehradun, was a trainee at Le Meridien hotel in Delhi. He took his friend,
Ansoo, who is a resident of Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) into confidence and roped him as an
accomplice. Nardev and his friend came from Delhi to Ballabgarh by EMU train in the night and as per the plan, Manju opened the main door of the house. Ramvir Shastri was sleeping alone in one room. The two attacked him with a knife and killed him. As per the plan, Nardev bolted from outside the room in which Manju and her three children were sleeping. He did this to mislead the police. The morning after the incident, Manju called up a relative to say that her room was bolted from outside. Later, it was found that Ramvir Shastri was lying dead in his room. |
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PNB’s fast cheque clearance
New Delhi, February 8 The system has gone live in 10 branches of PNB.—Gurdwara Road, Rajendra Place, Parliament Street, N-46 Connaught Place, N-86 Connaught Place, Fire Station Rajinder Nagar, ECE House,
Janpath, Minto Road and Tropical Building. By March 31, 2008, the system is likely to be made live in all the branches in NCR (Delhi) area, a PNB statement said here today. Under the Cheque Truncation System, image/s of the instrument and the corresponding data contained in MICR line will be captured and used for settlement amongst banks and payment of cheques. Reserve Bank of India initiated steps for implementing Cheque Truncation System in NCR, New Delhi and 10 pilot banks including PNB joined the project. With Punjab National Bank deciding to truncate the cheques at branch level, the customer depositing a cheque for local collection in the late hours, i.e. up to 5.00 p.m. also will be able to use the proceeds of the cheque in the afternoon of next day after return session is over at 2.00 p.m. Later, with multiple clearing sessions taking place in a day, the funds may be available to customers on the day of deposit of cheque also. In the present MICR based clearing, while credit gets afforded to the account of the presenting customer on the second working day, proceeds are generally available to the depositor of a cheque payable locally (intra-city) on the third working day for use / disposal. Other banks will be joining shortly and the system will be replicated at other cities also. Inter-city collection / clearance of cheques is also expected to be brought under the Cheque Truncation System which will enable reduce collection time significantly, it
said. |
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Bid to extort Rs 10 lakh from Co, 5 held
Noida, February 8 The Noida Authority had allotted a 1000 sq mt plot I-D in Sector-126, Noida, to a well-known Delhi-based company on December 13, 2006. The company had got the plot registered in its name on December 21, the same year. But there was some delay in handing over the physical possession of the land as some illegal construction had been done on the plot. But the Noida Authority had handed over the physical possession to the company after demolishing the illegal structure on November 1, 2007. When the allottees started digging, the same was got filled up by the illegal occupants. Yesterday, they raised a boundary wall around the plot. The police arrested Prem and Satish from the plot . The police team was attacked by illegal occupants. Head constable Jagat was wounded. The police has arrested Gopal, Rajveer, Jagan, Arun Yadav and Prem. The company care-taker Iqbal Singh said these musclemen had been demanding Rs. 10 lakh extortion from them for starting construction work on the D-1 plot. They had shooed the staff and labour which had gone there for starting the construction on February 7, he said. The company manager had lodged a written complaint on February 4 about the extortion demand at Sector 39 police station. But cops did not register an FIR. SO Sunil Somanya said this gang of toughs had been sent to jail in the past also. |
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Cultural exchange held
New Delhi, February 8 A cultural evening was organized for the visitors. The chief guest, Chairman, DPS Society, Ashok Chandra opened the programme. Principal Shayama Chona said the Korean Exchange Programme has been going on in the school for the last three years and now for the first time students from Italy had also come to the school. Chairman Ashok Chandra addressed the gathering. A small token of friendship was given to every overseas visitor. The school band presented a medley of songs. Tamana Chona and DPS Shiksha Kendra students presented dance numbers. The Korean and Italian delegates then gave dance and music performances. |
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Bal Mela opens
New Delhi, February
8 Speaking on the occasion, Vimala Sharma said that Sandiksha has helped entwine the families of SSB personnel spread out in far away places and also helped the needy personnel. It has also brought out the inherent creative abilities of the wives of SSB personnel and helped them become self-reliant by indulging in production of craftworks and
uniforms. Sandiksha has also helped enrich the social interaction of families on Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders. On this occasion she promised to intensify the work and increase the reach of Sandiksha too. Earlier, Soni Srivastava, secretary of
SWWA, welcomed the audience and appreciated the enthusiasm of the members in organizing the mela.
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Day 2 at Anugoonj
New Delhi, February 8 Over 10,000 students from different affiliated institutes of GGSIPU had gathered on the University campus. The second day of the festival saw a plethora of cultural activities such as — classical vocal solo, western vocal solo, group song, classical dance and folk dance. The programme included Bhangra, Haryanvi folk dance, Dandiya and Ghoomar. Students of Madhubala Institute of Communication and Electronic Media and Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology participated in the programme.
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Truck mows down cop
New Delhi, February 8 The accident occurred early Friday when the driver of the speeding truck lost control of the vehicle near the Bhajanpura CNG filling centre. Dherender Vats, 39, who was riding the motorbike, died while his pillion Javeer suffered critical injuries as they were dragged under the truck. The police said the truck driver managed to escape from the scene. Vats, who joined the police in 1998, is survived by his wife and three children.
— IANS |
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Sheila visits abattoir
New Delhi, February 8 The contract for construction of modern slaughterhouse was awarded to Food Processing Equipment Company Pvt Ltd. |
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2 police officers transferred
New Delhi, February 8 Joint commissioner Qamer Ahmed, who was heading the traffic police for the past four years, has been transferred to the headquarters in the same rank. Joint commissioner of police (planning and implementation) S N Srivastava will replace Ahmed.
— TNS |
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The DUTA members today staged a dharna outside vice- chancellor’s office in the Capital, taking up the issue of two lady teachers at St Stephens, who have been subjected to harassment by the OSD and acting principal, Rev Valson Thampu.
New Delhi, February 8
