New Delhi, July 16
With the reports from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases confirming two more people to be positive for influenza A (H1N1) this evening, the total number of positive cases in the national Capital reaches seventy-nine. But the Delhi health minister Kiran Walia has declared that the government has adequate stock of tamiflu tablets along with an integrated system to tackle the disease.

This assurance came from the health minister when a city public school Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in south Delhi decided to shut the section A of its class ninth after a 15-year-old girl student’s parents intimated the school authorities that the girl has been diagnosed with H1N1.

The school authorities said that the step has been taken as a precautionary measure, and other students of the same section have been asked to report at any of the designated health facilities if they show flu-like symptoms.

Further, to avoid any lapse the school has gone forward to gather the names and addresses of students who have come in contact with her while travelling in the school bus, along with apprising the students about dos and don’ts of the disease through leaflets.

Parents of the students maintain that the decision of the school would help in identifying and tracking further infections, if any, within the class along with containing the outbreak of the flu.

According to researchers, the chances of contracting H1N1 infection become higher in clusters, and so quarantining of the infected along with screening of all possible suspects is imperative.

It is believed say that the delayed monsoon in the national Capital and parts of northern India has worked as a blessing in disguise, with the global pandemic influenza A (H1N1) being quite under control. But with the current humidity levels the risk of sudden spurt cannot be denied.

“For the H1N1 virus can better survive in moderate and humid climatic conditions. But, the best resort to prevent the outbreak is to maintain proper hygiene and avoid social gatherings,” suggested Sunil .K. Lal, senior research scientist at International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

The two cases declared to be positive for H1N1 flu, include self-reported case of 6-year-old-boy from Delhi, who came on July 12 from Chicago by a flight of American Airlines and the other is 12-year-old-boy who came from the USA to Delhi via 9W 229 flight of Jet Airways on July 14.

New Delhi, July 16
As site clearing operations at the Metro accident site in Zamrudpur reach their third day, people living around the construction site have started returning home today.

Before the second accident at the Metro construction site in which six persons were injured, Metro officials had asked the residents to evacuate their houses and shops.

In fact, the roof of a shop was completely damaged after a heavy duty crane toppled over during the second incident.

Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal said the residents who had been evacuated earlier have returned to their houses.

Though the residents of Zamrudpur are still apprehensive, they said they could not have stayed elsewhere for long. “We returned home today. The place looks better than what it was two days ago, but you can’t tell just as yet. So, we are not really scared, but we would be more prepared this time,” said Beerpal, a resident of Zamrudpur.

For another resident Harvinder Singh, it was the second scary experience with the Metro. A month ago, his Innova car suffered damage when an iron angle fell on it while he was crossing the Zamrudpur construction site.

“I was crossing the stretch and an iron angle slipped from a crane and came down on my car. Anything could have happened,” said Harvinder.

He further said he was paid Rs 5,000 as damages by the contractor though he had to spend Rs 40,000 for repairing his car.

Meanwhile, Metro officials said more than one-third of the 72-metre-long metallic launching girder has been removed from the site. It has been cut into several pieces, each 15 metre long. A part of the launching girder resting on the concrete span was cut into a 7-m piece and removed.

“A 350 tonne crane and two 100 tonne cranes are being used to remove pieces of the damaged launching girder. The entire launching girder is expected to be removed from the site by tomorrow,” said Anuj Dayal.

New Delhi, July 16
The various upcoming parking projects in Delhi have seen a progress of mere 20 per cent in last two years, thanks to the laidback attitude of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Municipal leaders and officers, despite spending crores of money on foreign tours to study parking projects, are unable to complete even a single parking in Delhi.

The MCD’s mega projects for building 14 multi-level parking lots and 24 general parking lots in the Capital are running at a snail’s pace. The construction of 24 parking lots was announced almost one year ago by the former mayor, Arti Mehra, but not even a single parking has yet been completed.

The projects are scheduled to be completed before the Commonwealth Games, but it seems they will not finish on time. The parking projects at Hauz Khas, Munirka, Model Town-II and Gandhi Nagar were supposed to be completed in July this year, but the work has not even started at these sites.

“The residents have objected to the construction of three parking lots in south Delhi, as they say the greenery around the area might get affected,” said a municipal officer.

The fate of most of the parking projects is more or less the same. The designs of Shalimar Bagh, Karol Bagh and Kailash Colony car parks are still waiting for an approval from INTAC, whereas the parking at Aurobindo Market has been held up because of an objection put up by the ASI. Similarly, the car park started at Kamla Nagar one and a half years ago is far from complete.

To cap it, the civic body had collected Rs 305.80 crore from around one lakh traders in Delhi in the form of conversion charges and as fee to develop parking.

The reason for delay in completion of these projects ranges from recession to lack of funds.

“We are not getting enough private partners because of recession. There is also lack of coordination with the government departments like ASI, Indian Railways, INTAC, which has led to delay,” said the officer.

Noida, July 16
The sudents of Mehrbhoj College, Dadri, have been agitating for the last three days demanding increase in number of seats and restarting the evening classes.

As a result admission process in the college, affiliated to Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, has remained suspended. This has distressed students who have come from far-off places to seek admission.

Since the UP Board results were good this year, there was a huge influx of students seeking admission from all over NCR.

Thousands of students apply for admission to 240 seats for BA and BSc courses in this college. In the first cut-off list, the names of 233 students were listed. Second cut-off list is still awaited. Many students from Noida, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr come to seek admission here.

Students have been picketing at college gate and raising slogans against the college management and vice-chancellor of CCS varsity.

According to student union president, Sunit Bosiya, students from many UP colleges in Meerut, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr are with them in this agitation.

New Delhi, July 16
In an innovative development, the ministry of human resource development has introduced a scholarship scheme, “Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students”, to provide financial assistance to meritorious students of low-income families.

Sources within the CBSE inform that the scholarship will be awarded on the basis of the results of All India Senior School Certificate Examination (AISSCE), (Class XII) 2009. The number of scholarships will be divided among the state boards after segregating the share of CBSE and ICSE on the basis of number of students passing out from various boards in the country.

The number of scholarships allotted to a board would be distributed amongst pass-outs of the science, commerce and humanities streams of the board in the ratio of 3:2:1.

The scholarships will be given at the rate of Rs 1,000 per month at graduation level for the first three years of college and university courses and Rs 2,000 per month at postgraduation level. Students pursuing professional courses would get Rs 2,000 per month in the fourth and fifth year. The scholarships would be paid for 10 months in an academic year.

Eligibility conditions for award of scholarship include that the student should have scored a minimum of 80% of marks in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination (AISSCE), 2009, conducted by the CBSE. The undergraduate/professional/degree courses are pursued as regular courses (not correspondence or distance mode) in recognised educational institutions in India. The scheme is applicable to all categories of students, both the ‘general’ and ‘reserved’.

The student should belong to the non-creamy layer. The detailed guidelines along with the application form regarding “Scheme of Scholarship” and “Instructions for CBSE Candidates” of this scheme may be seen in the board’s website www.cbse.nic.in or MHRD’s website www.education.nic.in.

Noida, July 16
The trial run of Delhi Metro rail extension to Noida is likely to be made in the last week of July. The power industry's state-level meeting in Lucknow is understood to have taken a decision that Metro will be supplied power at Rs 3.25 per unit till the decision on a separate tarriff for DMRC is taken.

DMRC was not committing on trial run without an agreement on rates of power supply, it is learnt.

After an agreement with UP Power Corporation is signed, power supply to Metro will be immediately started. The DMRC officials have indicated that after a power tarriff is decided, Metro rail's trial run to Noida would begin in the last week of July.

Earlier, the trial run was slated between June 15 and July 15.

Till a special power tarriff is decided for Metro rail, UP Power Distribution Corporation will continue supply at 132 KV rates. DMRC will require 20 MW power in Noida. It has demanded 7 MW power in Noida for the time being.

A proposal for a separate tarriff for DMRC was being considered by Power Regulatory Commission.

Noida Authority's Additional CEO P.N. Batham says DMRC and UPPCL will soon hammer out an agreement on this issue.

New Delhi, July 16
Delhi transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely today said 15 new bus depots would constructed in the Capital before the commencement of Games 2010. The depots will have parking lots for 6,000 buses.

Presently, the city has 35 bus depots.

Lovely informed work on seven depots had already started and they would be functional from November. CCTV cameras are also being installed at all depots.

The minister said the DTC would add 2,500 low-floor CNG buses to its fleet by March 2010. Of these, 1,000 would be low-floor AC buses while 1,500 would be low-floor CNG buses.

Besides, there would be 574 low-floor buses for the Commonwealth Games Village.

All buses would be equipped with automatic vehicle ticketing system and the new logo of Commonwealth Games. Efforts would be made to give new look to old DTC buses, Lovely said.

The DTC would have a state-of-art passenger information system and global positioning system to facilitate commuters.

The delivery of new buses would start in August with 150 buses joining the DTC bandwagon. The buses would be supplied by TATA Motors and Ashok Leyland.

Internal Training Module for drivers has already been formulated with the cooperation of Confederation of Indian Industries and Ministry of Tourism.

New Delhi, July 16
The Delhi High Court today asked the Delhi police to give out of turn promotion to a policeman who helped nab Sher Singh Rana, prime accused in the 2001 murder of dacoit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi.

A division bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and A.K. Pathak pulled up the police for not promoting assistant sub inspector (ASI) Ravinder Kumar to sub inspector for his bravery in nabbing Rana, the husband of the “bandit queen”, from Kolkata in 2006.

After Rana escaped from the Tihar Jail in February 2006, a police team consisting of five policemen, including Ravinder Kumar, was sent to Kolkata to nab Rana following a tip off received by the police. They succeeded in arresting him in May.

The team members were recommended to the designated committee for promotion. However, the Incentive Committee refused to consider Ravinder Kumar’s case, contending he had been given two out of turn promotions and there was no provision to give such promotion to any policeman for the third time.

Following the decision, Ravinder Kumar approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which also turned down his plea. He then moved the Delhi High Court.

In his plea, he submitted all the other team members, except he, were given promotions.

Rana, along with 11 others, had allegedly conspired and killed the Samajwadi Party MP to avenge the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which she had killed 17 people of the Thakur caste.

The assailants had dropped their weapons at the murder spot after killing the MP outside her 44, Ashoka Road official residence on July 25, 2001. — IANS

New Delhi, July 16
The Delhi High Court today upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of a man who killed his wife 20 years ago, and ruled that the dying declaration of the victim is “sufficient” for the conviction.

A division bench of Justices B.D. Ahmed and P.K. Bhasin while upholding Rajinder Kumar’s conviction said: “Dying declaration by victim is authentic and its truthfulness cannot be doubted, and the statement alone is sufficient for the purposes of basing a conviction.”

Kumar and his father Sat Pal, who was a co-accused in the case but died during the pendency of the appeal, allegedly poured kerosene on Sunita and set her on fire in their west Delhi home June 11, 1989.

Though there was no allegation of demand for dowry or torture, there was evidence that Sunita had been harassed by Kumar and his father, the court said.

A sub-division magistrate (SDM) had recorded Sunita’s statement at Delhi’s Safdarjang Hospital before she succumbed to her injuries.

The SDM, a prosecution witness, told the court that he recorded the statement without any addition or subtraction and that at the time of recording of the statement, nobody else was present except Sunita and him.

The court declined Kumar’s plea that Sunita was not in a fit state of mind for giving statement and said, “The doctor on examination had found Sunita to be fit for a statement and it is at that point of time that Sunita gave her history of how she got burnt.”

A trial court in 1994 had sentenced Kumar to imprisonment for life.— IANS

New Delhi, July 16
Thursday was another dehydrating and troublesome day for Delhiites, and since morning the sun appeared to be in its full bloom gradually taking the scorching way by noon. Most of the afternoon pedestrians were seen with umbrellas.

The uneasiness of the city dwellers was due to the synergising impact of the high mercury level and the moisture content in the atmosphere.

The Safdarjung meteorological department noted the humidity at a maximum of a 94 per cent and a minimum of 50 per cent.

The temperatures for the day were recorded at a maximum of 38.4 degree Celsius, an increase of three notches from the normal, and the minimum settled at 25.2 degree Celsius, which was two degree low than the average.

The Met department’s forecast for tomorrow is a partly cloudy sky with possibility of thunder development in certain areas.

The high and the low temperatures are expected to hover around 39 and 28 degree Celsius respectively.