New Delhi, March 8
Good intentions and eggs are easily broken. In the fourth year of its five-year
term, the Congress-led UPA government still intends to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill.

None other than Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has made the promise. Responding favourably to a charter of demands by women leaders on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Dr Singh said that the government would introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill in the ongoing session of Parliament. This would be preceded by an all-party meeting for a consensus on the issue.

The charter of demands was presented by a delegation of women leaders, who marched today morning to Vice-President Dr Hamid Ansari’s house and then to Dr Manmohan Singh’s residence.

The delegation comprised women from almost a dozen national women organisations including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, Guild of Service, War Widows Association, Joint Women’s Programme, Young Women’s Christian Association and Women’s Political Watch.

The Prime Minister reportedly gave women activists a patient hearing and said that he would like to see the National Rural Health Mission succeed at the end of his government’s five-year term.

“If this mission succeeds in reaching out to women with health care services, then the present government can take the credit for doing something substantial for the women of the country,’’ he said.

Dr Singh said that the civil society could do its bit to ensure that the money meant for beneficiaries at the grassroot level actually reaches them.

The charter described by women leaders as “An uncompromising plea to the nation’s political class” reads, “Redeem your pledges, keep your promise to the countless millions of women and deliver what is due to them.’’

The Vice-President exhorted women to “make the spirit of International Women’s day an everyday phenomenon.’’

Prominent among those who represented the women leadership in presenting the charter of demands to the Vice-President and the PM were Krishna Tirath, chairperson, Women’s Empowerment Committee; chairperson of the Guild of service Mohini Giri, actress Sushma Seth and social activist Nafisa Ali.

While presenting the Charter, Tirath said that 33 per cent representation in the Centre and State Legislature was a prerequsite for the empowerment of women across all sections.

The women leaders assembled at War Memorial Amar Jyoti Jawan, India Gate to pray for world peace and social justice.

New Delhi, March 8
Mughal period Qurans written in golden letters valued at around Rs 50 million ($1.32 million) at the global market were recovered here with the arrests of three persons, the police said.

The books are said to be the rarest of the rare available in the country.

Sleuths of Delhi Police’s Special Operation Squad (SOS) recovered the books by arresting three persons identified as Gurdeep Singh, 48, a resident of Green Park in south Delhi, Sanjay Nathani, 41, of Palam in southwest Delhi and Prasanjit Biswas, 33, of Sagarpur near Palam on Saturday.

Police said the three were arrested following a tip-off that they would be meeting at a restaurant near Hazrat Nizammudin railway station in an effort to sell the antique books in the illegal market.

Additional commissioner of police (Crime Branch) Satyendra Garg said a policeman acting as a decoy customer was sent on Friday to strike a deal with the suspects.

The suspects agreed to deliver the antique books on Saturday for Rs 35 million, following which a trap was laid and they were arrested, police claimed.

One laminated leather hardbound brown book entitled “Quran Mazid” in Arabic, another hard bound brown book entitled “Quran Mazid”, also in Arabic and embedded with golden metallic leaves on each face were seized from them.

The police have also seized two cars, a laptop, a magnifying glass and coloured photographs of the books from them. — IANS

Bulandshahr, March 8
Five miscreants kidnapped a girl student, returning after taking an examination, by throwing chilli powder in her eyes and forcing her into a Scorpio vehicle.

Her brother walking along her fell down as he was pushed by the abductors. The police had cordoned off the area to trace the girl.

The student of village Kharkwari in Dubai area of Bulandshahar was coming back after taking Inter examination along with her brother who was also taking the exam.

As the brother and sister reached near Shakarpur Kothi at 6.30 p.m. via Dubai–Dharampur Road, some criminals in a Scorpio car accosted them.

According to the boy, one resident of the village came out of the Scorpio along four other unidentified youths.

They threw chilli power in his sister’s eyes and forcibly pushed her into the vehicle. When her brother tried to rescue her, he was pushed hard as a result he fell down.

As the kidnappers sped away, girl’s brother raised the alarm but by then the Scorpio vehicle had covered considerable distance.

The police were immediately informed. The police have put up barricades on main routes. A large number of villagers collected on the spot.

New Delhi, March 8
Through outer knowledge we can know only about this world but when we gain spiritual knowledge we can achieve the very purpose of life which is self-knowledge and God-realization.

This was stated Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, president of World Council of Religions was speaking during the ‘Sadhana Gyan-Ganga Festival’ being organized from March 3 to 9, 2008 at Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi. On this occasion the Mayor of Delhi, Aarti Mehra and Kamla Advani welcomed Maharaj ji.

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj further said that spiritual knowledge is the basis of all religions which teaches us that by inculcating the ethical virtue in our life and withdrawing our attention from outside world and by concentrating at “Shiv Netra” or “Third Eye”, our soul can take the holy dip in the inner spiritual regions.

Through meditation on the inner light and sound, our mind gets still and can realize God within.

Then we realize that God resides in the heart of every human being and we start having love and compassion for others.

Human body is the roof and crown of all creations and this is a golden opportunity to find eternal happiness, bliss and peace.

He taught the art of meditation to the large gathering. He also answered several questions raised by the audience relating to the necessity of vegetarian diet, benefits of meditation, need for a spiritual master, karmas and the relationship between science and spirituality.

At the end, the Mayor of Delhi delivered Vote of Thanks to Sant Rajinder Singh ji Maharaj for delivering the spiritual talk.

New Delhi, March 8
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi yesterday presented the Stree Shakti Puraskar to Penguin’s best-selling author — Pinki Virani.

She is the first author from Maharashtra to receive the award. Pinki Virani’s work has been cited as “women’s empowerment in the face of extreme challenges”.

She is the first in the country to write and talk about being sexually abused as a child. With the conviction that her step would encourage parents to protect their children from the horrific crime, her book — ‘Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India’ acknowledges the awareness and prevention of child sexual abuse. It also entails the author’s activism in protecting children.

‘Bitter Chocolate’ leaves a mark on the society. The book deals with ways to prevent child sexual abuse and how to address it if the incident occurs at home or school.

It depicts the honesty, with which the author admits to her incest and how she overcame the trauma as an adult.

Parents, teachers, colleges, lawyers and doctors are going through the book to deal with the silence that surrounds child sexual abuse in India, especially in middle and upper-class homes.

Moving beyond her trauma, Pinki Virani has been working in this area through media, public addresses in colleges and schools and interactive sessions with parents and teachers.

She says that intervention can save a child’s innocence, but prevention guards childhood the best.

Gurgaon, March 8
The district administration, Gurgaon, has registered two cases of illegal mining
in the Aravalis.

The inspection squad of the administration caught a dumper loaded with stones and a truck illegally carrying crushed stones during late hours on Friday.

Driver of the dumper Shamsher has been arrested for carrying unauthorized stones and an FIR was registered against him in Manesar police station. The raid was conducted jointly by forest and police department officials.

They found a dumper no. HR 55F 1114 near Naurangpur Mor illegally loaded with stones which were being taken to Naurangpur Crusher Zone.

During the interrogation, the driver Shamsher told that he brought the stones from the mountains of Nuh.

In another case, the mining department succeeded in nabbing a truck no. HR 55F 2622 carrying crushed stones near toll barrier on NH-8 during late hours on Friday.

When the driver was asked to produce documents, he failed to do so. Consequently, the truck has been confiscated and put in police station of Sector 29 in Gurgaon.

A challan under various provisions of Mining Act and for violation of taxes has been issued against the truck owner.

Earlier also, the district administration got a case registered against Aman stone crusher company of Naurangpur where a tractor-trolley unloaded the stones illegally brought from mountain range of Bargurjar.

Deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta had directed the sector supervisors to ensure compliance of the orders of Supreme Court regarding closure of illegal mining activities in Aravali region by conducting special checking in the areas given to them.

Ghaziabad/Noida, March 8
The shortfall of 2000 MW in NCR adversely affected the train services in Ghaziabad, Noida, as also in Faridabad and Gurgaon.

The northern grid which supplies power to NCR had tripped due to fog in West UP, plunging Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad etc into darkness on Friday.

According to experts, it was the result of poor maintenance as pollutants got deposited on insulators which were not cleaned properly. The tripping had continued for 12 hours.

Thousands of passengers were stranded in Ghaziabad and Dadri also. Some of them were passengers of long distance trains.

All long distance passengers had to return their ticket while short distance passengers had to take a recourse to road transport.

Railways reportedly suffered a loss of Rs 1 lakh at least. Even after power supply was restored, frequent tripping continued.

The whole Ghaziabad town was plunged into darkness. Besides residential areas, the industrial areas were also without power supply for hours. This resulted in production loss worth crores, it is said.

The 400 KV power house in Greater Noida was restarted at 8.30 pm. At 9.30 pm/100 MVA power supply to Ghaziabad city was restored as against 500 MVA requirement of power in Mohan Nagar.

Even Moradabad and Sahibabad had to go without power and water supply which too was affected by lack of power supply.

In Noida, Greater Noida, Dadri–practically whole of GB Nagar—remained without power for over 5 hours due to tripping of 400 KV Murad Nagar line. Soon after 400 KV Pali power house also ground to a halt.

New Delhi, March 8
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) organised a march on the University campus to celebrate International Women’s Day.

The students acknowledged the struggle of women and identified the challenges faced by them.

“We have been demanding that domestic violence should be included in the purview of GSCASH,” said Shefalika, office bearer, JNUSU.”

“We support 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament,” she added. Being a gender-sensitive campus, JNU has been celebrating Women’s Day for the last one-week.

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) had organised a state-level gender workshop on JNU campus.

“Women’s labour still remains unrecognised,” said Albeena Shakeel, former president, JNUSU. “96 per cent women in our country work in the unorganised sector,” she added.

“Their struggle and contributions must be identified. It is a challenge for us to ensure that they are provided equal opportunities to work and are paid equal wages.” Two films – ‘Hari Bhari’ and ‘Khamosh Pani’ were screened on the University campus.

New Delhi, March 8
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Health Fitness Trust has started a month-long health campaign on ‘Protecting health from climate change’ in the Capital.

The campaign started with a debate competition in Deshbandhu College. “The WHO is celebrating its 60th anniversary with climate change as one of the central issues,” said Sunita Godara, campaign co-ordinator and international marathon champion. “We aim at generating awareness about the ill affects of climate change.”

The campaign would address three different sections of people. “We stress on individual motivation. It is important to address school and college students, as they spend resources without paying a heed to where they come from,” said Sunita.

The judges of the debate competition arrived at Deshbandhu College on bicycles. Saving fuel is one of the issues taken up by the campaign.

A free health check-up camp would be organised on March 15. “Due to limited accessibility to resources, poor people are mostly affected by climate change,” she said. “The rich spend the resources and contribute in destroying climatic balance.”

Bujurg Seva Kendra, an old age help and recreational centre would be inaugurated on April 7. It would provide free library, legal counseling, weekly health check-ups, yoga and mediation services to senior citizens.

“Working Journalist Act should be amended to cover all media including audio-visual and electronic media,” said the press statement.

It demanded that a media commission should be appointed on the lines of the First Press Commission with equal representation to women and other disempowered groups.