New Delhi, November 20
Two persons were killed while two were injured when a drunk youth started firing in a party at a farmhouse in the Rama Vihar area of Rohini Sector-22 last night.

The incident took place yesterday around 12:30 am in the farmhouse adjacent to Chandra Property and Finance. Some property dealers had organised the party.

The deceased have been identified as Shiv Narayan, 50, and Vinod, 30. Both of them were property dealers. Shiv Narayan was a resident of Ladpur village whereas Vinod hailed from the nearby Majri village.

According to eyewitnesses, there were about 20 people in the party who had been drinking since early evening. They had called a Haryana dance troupe accompanied by a female dancer. Things turned murkier when some people asked the girl to dance on a Haryanvi folk song while others protested. This irked Sandeep who pulled out his revolver and started firing indiscriminately. He too was drunk.

Four persons, including the two deceased were injured in the firing. As they fell on the ground bleeding, the others fled from the party.

The friends of the injured rushed them to Brahamshakti Hospital in Braham Vihar where Shiv Narayan and Vinod were declared brought dead. While Vijay and Rajesh are receiving treatment in the hospital. Vijay was shot in the arm and Rajesh received a bullet in the thigh.

The doctors of the hospital informed the police about the incident.

Senior police officers of Outer district including DCP Atul Katiyar visited the spot where the incident had taken place. But by the time the police reached the spot the party revelers had already escaped.

The police is trying to nab Sandeep who is a property dealer of a nearby village. However, it could not shed much light on as to what would have provoked Sandeep to fire.

According to the police, the party was organised by property dealers and all the revelers knew each other directly or through common friends.

“It was a close get together with the intention of having a good time. But weapon and alcohol led to this tragedy,” said a police official from Aman Vihar police station. 

Gurgaon, November 20
The parents and colleagues of a 22-year-old MNC employee, who died here during a pastry-eating contest, are yet to come to terms with the accident.

While his father says that such contests should be avoided, his colleagues although shocked cannot say much as their company has barred them from speaking to the media.

Saurabh Sabharwal, employed with Nokia Siemens Networks, died during a pastry-eating contest at the office canteen on Wednesday. He had joined the company in June this year as a solutions engineer.

“Such contests should be avoided. If at all such a contest is to be held, it should be done under the strict supervision of medical experts so that our story is not repeated,” Saurabh’s father R.K. Sabharwal said.

Equally shocked but unable to speak out are Sabharwal’s colleagues at work.

Ankita Mehta (name changed), an employee of the same MNC, said, “All employees of Nokia Siemens Networks have been strictly instructed not to speak about the incident.”

“We are all shocked at the incident, but still can’t express our feelings until the investigations in the case are over,” she said.

Deepika Bansal, senior accounts manager of the company, added that they were providing all possible help to the police and to Saurabh’s family, but until the investigations were on, “The officials or its (the company’s) employees will not take any questions from the media.”

Saurabh’s samples sent to PGI for report Tribune News Service Gurgaon, November 20 The police today sent the samples of Saurabh’s body, who died yesterday after consuming pastries, for viscera reports to the PGI, Rohtak. It had registered a case under Section 174 (natural death) as it had not received any complaints by deceased’s family. Satinder Singh, SHO, Udyog Vihar, said the post-mortem had been done and they were waiting for the reports to come.

Underlining that they did all they could to save Saurabh’s life, the company said in a statement, “Yesterday, we lost our colleague Saurabh Sabharwal, a valued member of Nokia Siemens Networks Centralised Solution Support Center (CSSC) team.”

“Immediately after Saurabh had taken ill, senior managers from his team accompanied him to the Max Hospital, Gurgaon, where, despite the best efforts of medical staff, he was pronounced dead.

The company remains in constant contact with Saurabh’s family and is extending all possible support to them.”

The police said that any decision regarding action against the company would be taken only after it received the post-mortem examination report.

S.S. Dalal, chief medical officer of the Civil Hospital, said, “It seems to be a case of chocking of the windpipe. Saurabh probably ate a huge chunk of pastry during the contest. We have forwarded the viscera samples to the forensic lab in Madhuban to establish if he had consumed any toxic or poisonous substance.” — IANS

New Delhi, November 20
In a liberal step parting from past educational modes and practices, Indira Gandhi National Open University is going to give its students in India and abroad the option of choosing their examination date as per their convenience.

IGNOU spokesman Ravi Mohan said on Thursday, “We have introduced this new system, the walk-in examination pattern which is much more flexible and learner-friendly. Under this scheme, students, instead of waiting for the six-monthly term-end examination, can simply walk into any identified test centre of the university on the prescribed days and take the examination. The results would be processed on a monthly basis.”

Mohan adds, “Walk-in examination would give learners the liberty to decide the dates of exams as per their convenience, thus lowering the exam pressure on them and thereby bringing down the percentage of failures. Further, it will reduce the possibility of malpractices in examinations, as each student will get a different set of question paper.”

The registration of students, allotment of the dates and the issue of hall ticket to the examinees for the walk-in examination would be done online, say sources within IGNOU.

Initially the walk-in examination would be conducted by selected regional centres of the university once a week, i.e. on Sunday.

The frequency of conduct of walk-in exam may be increased in future depending on the need.

The varsity has presence in over 35 countries across the globe. 

New Delhi, November 20
Accelerating the process of integration of higher education, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and Agreement of Cooperation (AoC) with two institutions of higher learning from Germany and the UK.

An AoC was signed between JNU’s School of Language and the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies of University of Cologne, Germany. The AoC was signed by Axel Freimuth, rector, Cologne University and JNU vice-chancellor, B.B. Bhattacharya.

Fritz Schramma, Lord Mayor of Cologne was also present on the occasion. He spoke about the academic scenario in Cologne and the existence of a number of reputed academic institutions there.

“The collaboration is in the areas of language, literature and cultural studies with emphasis on Tamil and German. This will be expanded in other areas such as economics, geography, arts and aesthetics,” said Poonam Kudaisya, spokesperson, JNU.

Another MoU was signed by JNU vice-chancellor with the vice-chancellor of the Queen’s University Belfast United Kingdom.

“As a consequence of signing the MoU and AoC, the signatory institutions would be able to exchange their students, research scholars and faculty. We could organise joint seminars, conferences and invite faculty or research scholars from other signatory institutions,” said Poonam.

New Delhi, November 21
The Sixth Pay Commission bonanza to the central government employees will decide the fate of Congress in the RK Puram constituency where more than 25 per cent people are central government employees.

Though the people of the constituency are rejoicing over the pay commission benefits, the price rise seems to be the core issue for them.

“There is no use of pay hikes unless there is any control over the prices,” said Suman Sharma, a central government employee in sector-12, RK Puram.

Also, many of the government employees are dissapointed with the pay hikes as they have not received the retroactive portion of a salary hike that came into effect from January 2006 after the government implemented the pay commission’s recommendations.

“Though we have started getting new salary, not everyone has got their arrears so far which is quite disappointing,” said another emloyee in sector-8, RK Puram.

The area is also counted among the highly literate constituencies in the Capital. The price rise is expected to be the topmost poll issue here. However, if the municipal election’s results are taken as an indicator, the BJP is set to win this seat quite comfortably.

The Congress contender from the constituency, Barkha Singh, who is also the chairperson of Delhi Commission of Women and sitting MLA, is in tough electoral fight with the BJP’s candidate Radhey Shyam Sharma.

The constituency is unique as 27 per cent of the voters are from among the government employees out of a total voters of 1,41,898.

The constituency has a very mixed ratio of castes as there is no specific caste group who is in single majority in the area. Punjabis have 16 per cent vote share, while the south Indians are eight per cent of the total electorates. Brahmins constitute 14 per cent and scheduled castes are 15 per cent of the total electorates.

Gurgaon, November 20 
It seems that getting CCTV cameras installed in this town is a tall order even for the local administration. It has been more than 60 days since district magistrate Deepti Umashankar had asked banks to install CCTV cameras on their premises.

Joint commissioner of police Manjit Singh Ahlawat called a meeting of bankers today and asked them to install CCTV cameras on their bank premises within three days. He added if the order was not followed they would have to face action.

Referring to the orders passed by the DM, Ahlawat said that even after two months of passing the orders very few banks had adhered to it. Most banks had not installed CCTV cameras.

He added when any robbery took place in a bank bankers made a large hue and cry. But when they were asked to install CCTV cameras for their sake, they were not co-operating. He warned bankers that they would have to face the consequences for this laxity on their part. Besides, Ahlawat gave them three days time to install these cameras. After three days police officials of concerned police stations would check the bank premises.

He advised bankers to install CCTV cameras at crucial points in banks as well as in ATM booths so that the movement of anti-social elements could be tracked. Ahlawat said that cash in ATMs should be put in at different timings to avoid any mishap and asked bankers to request for a police guard while transferring heavy cash and also to report about any suspicious person wandering near the bank premises.

He said that if any police personnel did not perform his duty, the bank should complain against him and action would be taken against that erring official. 

New Delhi, November 20
Partially tarred roads, half-covered drains, foot over-bridges lacking roofs — these are common sights of unfinished infrastructure projects in the national Capital. However, things are set to change with the municipal authority planning to establish a fund to complete projects stalled by what are called “tender problems.”

“To ensure that work is not left incomplete, we are working out a framework for a fund to cater to the incomplete projects and details are being worked out,” said Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner K.S. Mehra.

“There are frequent fluctuations in the prices of steel and cement. Project estimates are prepared at certain rates. But subsequently, when the contractor quotes a higher figure because of price hike in raw materials, the project gets stalled till a new tender can be approved,” he said.

The period of delay is usually long drawn in a set-up like that of the MCD, which manages 80 per cent of the National Capital Territory’s local administration.

Much to the dismay of residents, Delhi’s infrastructure projects are in a shambles. Roads and link projects remain suspended in Gharoli Dairy (Shahdara Zone), Arjun Park, Nangli Vihar and Vikas Enclave. Reconstruction of drains in Shahdara and other parts of West Delhi are incomplete. The construction of flyovers in Sarai Rohilla has been stalled.

These are some of the issues raised time and again at MCD meetings and postponed. In the November 7 meeting of the MCD’s standing committee, chairman Vijender Gupta had asked Mehra to assess the feasibility of setting up a fund to cater to the tender gap of about Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per project.

However, it will have to await the November 29 assembly elections. — IANS

New Delhi, November 20
“Children are facing violence in the form of corporal punishment in schools and we must protect them from any kind of violence,” affirmed noted film actor and patron Anil Kapoor.

He was here to inaugurate the Voices of Children exhibition prepared by children from rural background and also to launch the nationwide ‘Learn Without Fear Campaign’ of the Plan India, a child-centred development organization.

He avowed, “The violence in school results in absenteeism, dropping out and lack of motivation for academic achievement and we must protect them from any kind of violation against them.

How he got interested in the project, Kapoor said, “I am lucky enough as I was never scolded by my teachers or parents, but it was totally different for my son who was facing trauma in school. He became very quiet. When I and my wife asked him about the reason, he said that he was being humiliated by his class-mates. We changed his school after which he changed completely and his results became terrific,” Kapoor said.

The exhibition is highlighting the issues of violence in schools in form of comics, cartoons, radio jingles, animation and short films.

Kapoor also affirmed his support to the campaign by putting pen to a signature campaign against violence in schools. The campaign will travel across the country to gather support for providing safer learning environment to children.

Shanta Sinha, chairperson, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), who released a report on the campaign in the country, said, “The use of violence on children is an expression over the unquestioning power the adult chooses to establish over the child. This abuse of power is often considered essential and natural. Such social acceptance to corporal punishment results in all other forms of violence against children. Plan India’s campaign to end violence in schools is indeed an important step to generate a public debate and discourse on violence against children, an attempt to promote learning without fear.”

Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director, Plan India, said, “The campaign will operate on many levels; from communities and individuals to change attitudes and behaviour. We truly believe that success will require a concentrated effort by all stake-holders.”

A group of 70 children who have participated in preparing the exhibition will be sharing their experiences on corporal punishment and bullying through a Bal Sunwahi before a panel of experts who will respond to children’s presentations.

Learn Without Fear Campaign is currently being launched in seven states–Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi.

Noida, November 20
Though police does not appear to be seriously investigating the explosion that took place in Noida on November 14, two similar explosions have since rocked the state capital, Lucknow, on two consequent days. After gaining consciousness, Sonu who was injured in Noida explosion, said, “Two uncles had alighted from a bus and dumped something in a nearby heap of waste. They again boarded the same moving bus.”

Sonu thought someone had thrown a bottle, but as he tried to pick it up, it exploded.

It is a very serious matter, but the local police has not even tried to record the statement of Sonu and his younger brother Gholu. Though Gholu was discharged from hospital after treatment, Sonu is still admitted in Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.

Lakhan, father of the two boys, sells paranthas in a cart outside government Inter College, Noida. Lakhan lives with his family in Khoda village.

As usual he was selling paranthas on his thehla (cart) on November 14. His sons Sonu, 8, and Gholu, 6 had gone to pick up empty bottles from a nearby beer shop at 1 pm. Selling these bottles would fetch them some money. But as they tried to pick up bottles from the bin, they were seriously injured in an explosion.

Sonu had lost his right hand palm in the explosion. They were both rushed to Noida district hospital from where they were referred to Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. Gholu was discharged on Wednesday while Sonu is still being treated there. After gaining consciousness on Tuesday, Sonu opened his mouth for the first time.

He said two uncles had thrown something wrapped in an envelope into the heap of litter. He thought it was a bottle, so when he tried to pick it, it exploded injuring the two brothers seriously. Gholu said both the men jumped on to the same moving bus. Their mother Geeta said that small pins and shrapnel had penetrated in Sonu’s body.

Sonu said both the young men appeared around 20 years of age. Geeta said Noida police had not talked to them even once. Neither have they received any financial help, which was purportedly announced by the district magistrate. Though Sonu is all right, he is without his right hand now, Geeta says, looking vacantly into the future of her young son.

New Delhi, November 20
Two labourers were found dead at a Metro construction site in the Nangloi area of west Delhi this morning.

The bodies were recovered from under the mud between the Metro pillars. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has denied the two being employed by it.

According to police, the two labourers, whose identity could not be ascertained, were probably sleeping last night when a dumper accidentally dumped the mud on them.

“The bodies bore no external injury and a case of negligence was registered. Investigations are on and we are waiting for the autopsy report,” said a police official.

The police is waiting for the postmortem examination report to ascertain the cause of death.

According to the DMRC, no construction work was going at the site where the incident took place.

“It was not an accident and the DMRC was not involved. The construction had been completed and there are no barricades or other work going on in the area,” said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal.

“In most probability, the two may have been dead prior to the incident. But that is subject to confirmation from the police which has taken over the case,” Dayal said. 

New Delhi, November 20
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) has announced admissions for certificate programme in video production being offered at Centre for Media Studies (CMS). The course will provide inputs on camera handling, light, sound and editing and will emphasise more on practical learning. The three-month programme will start in January.