New Delhi, August 6
Traffic came to a halt as water collected in many areas due to the heavy rains that lashed the Capital today evening. Waterlogging led to major traffic snarls on almost all major roads.

Those commuting on the ITO crossing, Vikas Marg, Nizammudin, Karol Bagh, Ring Road in South Delhi, Laxmi Nagar, Janakpuri, Kalindi Kunj and Daryaganj areas were the worst sufferers.

While it took more than an hour for one to go from ITO crossing to Akshardham or Laxmi Nagar, things were equally bad on the other crossings of East Delhi.

The heavy jam from Ring Road near Lajpat Nagar to DND Flyover held commuters for hours. While the traffic police had their task cut out, their planning for smooth passage of traffic seemed to have failed due to waterlogging.

Long traffic queues spilled to the arterial routes leading to chaos and further jams in the bylanes.

“This depicts the failure of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials. Whenever it rains, the roads get flooded causing traffic jams. We have brought the trouble spots to the MCD’s knowledge but it is not doing anything about it,” grumbled a traffic policeman at the ITO crossing.

“Today was a bad day. I have never seen such huge jam ever.

It took me more than two hours to reach Noida from Connaught Place, while it normally takes me 40 to 50 minutes,” said Sekhar, a government employee.

It was only after the rain stopped around 7 p.m. that the roads got some respite as the water slowly seeped out. 

Faridabad, August 6
Buffeted by growing public complaints of choked sewers in the city, the commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) R.Khullar took the officers to task on the issue.

In a full house meeting of the officers of the MCF, the commissioner gave a piece of his mind to his subordinates expressing anguish over the accumulation of rain water in various areas of the city.

He clearly told the MCF personnel to pull up their socks and come good with regard to clearing up the choked sewerage lines.

The MCF has purchased a super sucker machine at a cost of Rs one crore which is considered to be an effective instrument for cleaning up the sewerage lines. The machine has already been pressed into service in the NIT area.

Finding the machine adequate in view of the large expanse of the city, the MCF has already placed order for three more such machines to be hired on rent. They are expected to be harnessed by the end of this week. The machines will be pressed into service in NIT, Ballabgarh and Old Faridabad.

Khullar directed the officers to report to him on a daily basis from the areas where the machine was being used.

The MCF boss’s activism comes in the wake of wide-ranging reports of choking of sewerage lines leading to pond like situation in various parts of the city.

A resident alleged that although Faridabad and Gurgaon are the premier cities of the state, the government appears hardly bothered to take preventive measures to facilitate passage of rain water into the main drains. The drains are choked and there are reports of rain water entering houses. At a number of places the main sewage connections have got choked and the filth is flowing in the houses.

The Commissioner also directed the officers to improve the collection of taxes under the heads of property, house and license.

He reviewed the quarterly collection of the annual income and said that taxes should be collected in a better way in view of the expanding expenditure of the civic body.

Ghaziabad, August 6
Taking advantage of lax police vigil, two murder accused escaped from Ghaziabad court lock-up after cutting the iron grill of their prison cell and scaling the boundary wall.

The two have been identified as Inderpal and Manoj. They are accused of murdering four women in Nurpur namely Chandra, Bijendri, Shiksha and Sharda in indiscriminate firing on November 24, 2005 in Nurpur.

Non-bailable warrants have been issued against the two and the SSP and other senior police officers are camping in Nurpur to get them back.

There was a furore in the court premises at 10 a.m. on Tuesday when cops noticed that the grill of the lock-up cells had been cut.

When prisoners’ head-count was carried out it was discovered that instead of 100 prisoners there were only 98.

The SSP immediately deployed two truckloads of the Rapid Action Force in the court premises.

A report against seven persons has been registered in Kavi Nagar police station in this connection.

Besides, Inderpal and Manoj, five other murder accused— Surinder, Jitender, Kiran Pal, Bunty, Kale, Promod and Pappu— have also been named in the FIR.

However, no action has been taken against the careless cops, responsible for the security.

All these accused are to attend a hearing in the court of additional district judge-I Z.U. Khan on Tuesday.

New Delhi, August 6
The North West district police has arrested a man for killing his wife in the Wazirpur area of the Capital. The arrest has been made within 12 hours of the crime.

Mohammad Ashik accused of killing his wife Asmeen on the night of August 4 has confessed to the crime.

The victim lived separately at JJ Colony in Wazirpur.

Asmeen was married to Ashik in 1990. But after he married Shakeela and starting living in Amarpuri, the deceased registered a dowry harassment case against him.

However, the matter got solved and Ashik restarted meeting Asmeen.

On the fateful night, Ashik came at her JJ Colony house in Wazirpur and both had some argument. Early morning Ashik left the jhuggi and bolted the door from outside after killing his wife. 

Noida, August 6
The corrugated industry of UP yesterday called a five-day strike against the abnormal rise in the prices of corrugated sheets. The strike will continue till Saturday.

If the prices were not lowered soon, the strike might continue for a longer period, said UPCBMA president Sanjeev Dingra.

Apart from UP and NCR, units in Haryana have also joined the strike.

Rallies were taken out under the banner of the UP Corrugated Box Manufacturers’ Association (UPCBMA) on Tuesday in GB Nagar. Rallies were also taken out in Noida Phase — II and Greater Noida. A rally was taken out from Sector – 10 in Noida today afternoon.

The striking workers today detained some trucks transporting corrugated boxes.

Sanjeev Dhingra said that during the last 45 days the prices of paper had risen by 50%.

As a result, corrugated box manufacturers have incurred heavy losses.

This adversely affected small manufacturers.

The government should urgently take steps to provide some relief to corrugated box manufacturers.

There are 450 units of corrugated manufacturers in Noida alone.

New Delhi, August 6
The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee seems confident of winning the ensuing assembly elections in Delhi. Senior Congress leaders have started meeting people in their strongholds and reminding them of their government’s achievements. They specially mention the benefits of the nuclear deal to the country.

So far, three meetings have been held.

The first meeting was held by the Adarsh Nagar District Congress Committee (DCC) at Ashok Vihar, the second at Dakshinpuri and the third meeting has been by the City DCC at the National Club, Fatehpuri.

Addressing the meeting, Jai Prakash Agarwal, MP said the nuclear deal was for the good of the country, and its implementation would make available cheap electricity to the people. He said the demand for power in the future would increase manifold and unless the deal was implemented, it would be difficult to meet the mounting energy needs of the country.

He said the BJP adopted double standards on the nuclear deal as it supported the deal when in power, but opposed when out of power for political expediency, without taking into account the larger interest of the county. The communist party, just for the sake of opposing America, was objecting to the nuclear deal for which it would be taught a bitter lesson by the people of the country.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said those who were opposing the deal were enemies of the nation. The Congress government in Delhi had initiated several projects for the benefit of the poor and to give houses to the homeless. Four lakh flats will be built under Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojna for the dwellers of JJ clusters.

The Chief Minister said 1639 unauthorised colonies were being regularised which would benefit over 50 lakh people. These colonies were also being provided all civic amenity facilities.

Union minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal said the nuclear agreement with the US was in the interest of the common people, which would help India meet cent per cent of the country’s power needs, and help realise the dream of taking the country on the path of development and progress.

Besides, meetings were addressed by MPs Sajjan Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit, area MLAs and municipal councillors. The meetings were organised by the respective DCC presidents Bhushan Tyagi, Pandit Tekchand Sharma and Jagjivan Sharma. The meetings were also addressed by district observers and DPCC office-bearers. 

New Delhi, August 6
Dr Harshavardhan Hegde, consultant and head, Department of Orthopaedics and Spine Surgery at Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon, has claimed to have performed a rare four-level disc replacement surgery on a 54-year American patient, the first in Asia, last week.

Dr Hegde in an eight-hour surgery, replaced two lumbar discs (lower back) and two cervical discs (neck).

According to the hospital, the patient was suffering from disc degeneration for 10 years and he came to know about Dr Hegde from a patient who had been treated by him earlier.

One option was to have a fusion surgery and the other was to have disc replacement surgery which is more complicated but has faster recovery. He chose the latter. The patient was walking on the first post-operative day and was discharged from the hospital in five days, the hospital claimed.

The cost for the surgery in India too was a big relief for him. It cost him $25,000 for the four-level disc replacement while in the States, he was given a budget of around $2,50,000.

Dr Hegde explained that cervical disc replacement is a procedure in which an artificial cervical disc is inserted between two cervical vertebrae after an inter-vertebral disc has been surgically removed in the process of decompressing the spinal cord or/and a nerve root. The intent of the device is to preserve motion at the disc space. It is an alternative to the use of bone grafts, plates and screws in pursuit of a fusion following such a disc removal, which necessarily eliminates motion at the operated disc space in the neck.

Similarly, lumbar disc replacement is a procedure where an artificial disc is inserted between two lumbar vertebrae after an inter-vertebral disc has been surgically removed, Dr Hegde said.

The advantages of the artificial cervical and lumbar disc over a fusion include maintaining normal neck motion (no restriction of movements of the neck after surgery), reducing degeneration of adjacent segments of the cervical spine (no extra stress/load on the nearby normal disc), eliminating the need for a bone graft (no need to take bone from any other part of the body) and early postoperative neck motion (no need for a cervical collar/neck brace).

Lumbar disc replacement helps in maintaining normal lower back motion (no restriction of movements in the lower back after surgery) and also helps in faster recovery (no prolonged rest required).

Dr Hegde says, “A two-level disc replacement surgery is a rarely done procedure in India due to the complications involved as it requires a lot of precision. A four-level disc replacement surgery is a big milestone for the Indian spinal and orthopaedics society as it is the first surgery of its kind to be performed in Asia”.

Degenerative disc disease is fairly common, and it is estimated that at least 30 per cent of people aged between 30 and 50 years old have some degree of disc space degeneration, although not all have pain or ever receive a formal diagnosis. In fact, after a person reaches 60, some level of disc degeneration is deemed to be a normal finding, rather than an exception.

Dr. Hegde further said this disease has become a very common problem in India and what is more worrying is the alarming increase in neck, leg and arm pain among the computer professionals in the country, due to extended working hours in wrong posture.

Disc degeneration can affect anyone above the age of 20 years. Usually, younger people have these problems related to ergonomics and prolonged working hours. In older population, it can be a degenerative process wherein multifactors causes like repetitive injury, genetic, wear and tear in the body and above that, smoking and sedentary lifestyle contributes to it.

What is disc degeneration? The process of degeneration of the inter-vertebral discs causes many problems in the spine. Everything you do during the day while being upright tests the spine’s ability to support your body weight. Minor injuries to the disc may occur and not cause pain at the time of the injury. These repeated daily stresses and minor injuries could add up over time and begin to affect the discs in your spine. The disc eventually begins to suffer from the wear and tear and it begins to degenerate. This means the disc becomes compressed into the adjacent spinal canal where it can press on nerves or the spinal cord, explained doctors. 

New Delhi, August 6
The agitated teachers and academics from all central universities will observe a marathon strike on Thursday due to the delay in the finalisation of the UGC’s Pay Review Committee (PRC) report.

The Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Association (FEDCUTA) has called the strike.

FEDCUTA had demanded that the PRC report should be submitted latest by July 31.

“The pace of the PRC headed by G.K. Chadha has been tardy,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, president DUTA and FEDCUTA. He added, “If the submission of the report and the decision of the UGC, the MHRD and the Union cabinet is delayed by another three to four months, the pay revision of university teachers might have to wait till a new government is formed at the Centre.”

The FEDCUTA delegation that met UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat yesterday, again stressed on the early submission of the PRC report as well as sought FEDCUTA’s view of on it before a decision is taken. FEDCUTA conveyed to Thorat that in case of further delay, it would be forced to intensify its protests.

President of JNU Teachers’ Association Kamal Mitra added, “JNU teachers have not gone on strike for the past 10 years, but if pay revision is not carried out swiftly, we will go on strike.”

The delegation said that if higher education system had to deliver and accelerate socio-economic development, the system must attract and retain talent in teaching profession.

“Education is the mother of all professions and provides reservoir of engineers, doctors, teachers, journalists, administrators, entrepreneurs, managers, political leaders, lawyers and social activists. Yet, teaching has lately become one of the lowest priority professions. There is a need to make teaching as one of the most coveted professions,” said Misra.

The delegation has urged the UGC chairperson to take an early decision on attractive higher pay at the entry level for lecturers and fast and sound career advancement scheme including professorship/professor’s grade in colleges, better facilities to the faculty for academic advancement and research, adequate service and working conditions.

The FEDCUTA has urged the UGC to consider the fact that teaching is the only service where for every promotion there is selection/interview committee. Therefore, the pay scales for teachers should be higher than those government services where promotions are automatic.

The delegation comprised Aditya Narayan Misra, Tabrez Alam Khan (secretary, FEDCUTA and Jamia Teachers’ Association), DUTA vice-president Vinay Kumar Singh, Dinesh Adlakha, secretary; Sanjay Kumar, joint secretary; Sanjay Kumar Sharma, treasurer; Mazhar Husain and D.K. Lobiyal of JNUTA; M.S.S. Raju and Subodh Kesharwani secretary and treasurer respectively from IGNOUTA and Badshah Alam, treasurer, FEDCUTA.

New Delhi, August 6
A two-day programme on “Expanding the Role of Trade Unions in Present Scenario – Workers Education” concluded here today.

The Central Board for Workers’ Education (CBWE) had organised the programme as part of its golden jubilee celebrations. Union minister of state for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes had inaugurated the programme yesterday.

CBWE director V. Parameswaran briefed the gathering about the Board’s progress in the past 50 years.

Labour secretary Sudha Pillai appreciated CBWE’s growth. She said that the Board had also been working for underprivileged people. She suggested that the CBWE should work more on issues concerning women. She said that it should focus more on activities concerning the North East region of the country.

Fernandes in his inaugural address emphasised on the need to create wealth for the nation, as it would enable workers to enrich their social security and benefit their family. He said that the workers should develop a sense of ownership towards their organisations.

He expressed his concern over the plight of unorganised workers and said that the government was working on the unorganised sector bill.

The NRGA was not only providing livelihood to parents but was helping to prevent child labour in a big way.

Shiv Gopal Mishra in his presidential address laid stress on worker empowerment through workers’ education.

New Delhi, August 6
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will shortly deploy 100 female civil defence volunteers in its girl schools.

These volunteers will also give self defence training to girl students, said Mayor Arti Mehra.

The Mayor has given anticipatory approval to the proposal.

Hundred schools have already been identified for the purpose. Provision of such civil defence volunteers in the remaining schools will be taken up in subsequent phases.

Mehra said that the step has been taken in the wake of the recent incident of sexual assault in the MCD primary school in Ashok Vihar Phase-III on July 17. A boy had jumped over the boundary wall and entered the lavatory block of the school. She said that to avoid reoccurrence of such an incident, it has become imperative to provide civil defence volunteers in all the girl schools in addition to the existing school attendant and watchman.

Municipal commissioner K. S. Mehra had spoken to N. S. Upadhayay, chief of civil defence, who assured of providing 100 female civil defence volunteers. The MCD would spend Rs 32.55 lakh per year on the civil defence volunteers.