Noida, January 15
After Delhi hospitals, the Nurses Association has now targeted Noida hospitals. At the behest of the association, all nurses, except the senior ones, of the Metro Hospitals on Tuesday morning went on strike demanding hike in salaries.

“The strike was called suddenly without any notice. Fortunately, the senior nurses did not join the strike and the situation could be handled,” said Kanika Kanwar, medical superintendent.

“As soon as the management smelt preparations of strike, it approached the president of the Nurses Association and offered to accept all its demands,” said Kanwar.

“The management offered salaries which are higher than that offered by some of the big corporate hospitals like Apollo which treats a large number of medical tourists,” added Kanwar.

“The Metro Hospital, which caters mainly to the lower middle class, accepted the demand of such high salaries just for the safety of its patients. But, unfortunately, the management’s lenient view was taken in a wrong way and the association demanded much higher, unreasonable hike which was beyond the reach of the hospital,” added Kanwar.

When the talks headed nowhere, owners of other hospitals like Dr. Mahesh Sharma of Kailash Hospital, Dr V.S.Chauhan of Prakash Hospital, Dr V.K.Gupta of Sumitra Hospital, Dr Naveen Chaudhary of NMC, Dr V. Bhardwaj of Bhardwaj Hospital and Dr V.S. Chaudhary of Vinayak Hospital got together and supported the Metro Hospital by sending their nurses to Metro, thus restoring normalcy at the hospital.

Meanwhile, secretary of the Nursing Welfare Association, S. Mathai, said, “Rs 8,500 at the entry level was not acceptable. Though we had demanded Rs 18,000, but we are ready to settle at Rs 12,000, but not less than that.”

The association recently executed an agreement of Rs 9,000 with Delhi’s Maharaja Agarsen Hospital following a 10-day nurse strike there.

The association has been holding strikes in various hospitals like Batra Hospital, City Hospital and Maharaja Agarsen Hospital.

New Delhi, January 15
The Delhi government has decided to use the amount sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission scheme for Commonwealth Games (CWG) projects. If not done, the government will face difficulty in completing the construction of Games projects, sources said.

According to sources, the government had demanded Rs 3,065 crore for CWG, JNURM and Metro projects from the centre. Instead of sanctioning the amount, the union government sanctioned Rs 1,835 crore under the JNURM scheme, which has shocked the Delhi government.

Sources said that as of now the government had received Rs 459 crore from the centre. The remaining amount would be given in installments.

The Delhi government is yet to start 13 projects of public works department, 10 MCD projects and one of the Delhi Jal Board relating to the CWG. The government is planning to use the amount for these projects.

Sources said the government had spent Rs 5,400 crore in construction of infrastructure needed for the CWG. The centre has sanctioned only Rs 1,700 crore. The remaining amount was taken from the coffer of the Delhi government. 

New Delhi, January 15 
The north-west district police has rescued nine children who were allegedly employed as labourers at factories in JJ Colony of Wazirpur. Two persons identified as Md Chand and Md Javed have been arrested in this regard. Both are residents of JJ Colony in Wazirpur.

The rescued children have been sent to Mukti Aashram, Ibrahim Pur, Burari. 

A team from Bharat Nagar police station in collaboration with the Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (NGO) conducted raids in the factories on January 12.

“Raids were conducted at factories in Blocks E and F, JJ Colony, Wazirpur. The team rescued nine children below the age of 14 years who were found pasting and packing bindis,” said N.S. Bundela, DCP (north-west).

The police found that the children were engaged in the job by Javed and Chand in factories at F 305-306 and E-140-140, JJ Colony, Wazirpur. 

The children are from Samastipur, Madhubani and Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar. 

“The accused are known to the families of the children. They brought the children from Bihar for working in their factories. Javed and Chand have been arrested but their accomplices Maulana Akbar and Aashiq Ali are still at large.  Efforts are being made to arrest them,” said Bundela.

New Delhi, January 15
The Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare department of the Delhi government is short of funds for disbursement of tuition fee for the poor students enrolled with the government and government recognized schools.

The department had demanded a budget allocation of Rs 19 lakh in the year 2009-2010 for disbursement of tuition and other related fee of the poor students. However, it received thousands of applications from the students which required a budget allocation of Rs 2.8 crore, sources said.

As the number of applications of minorities community is more, 90 per cent of the amount would be distributed among the students of minorities community.

The sources said that in the year 2008-2009, the department had reimbursed Rs 9 lakh only among 7,000 poor students. By making base of the last year amount, the department demanded an allocation of Rs 19 lakh for the year 2009-2010. But this year, the department received 28,000 valid applications.

When asked the reason for enhancement of applications, deputy secretary of the department concerned, V.K. Behal said that this year, the government made a lot of publicity among the SC, ST, OBC and minorities.

A workshop was also organized at the YMCA in this regard that had resulted in thousands of applications.

He said that though this was a big amount, the government would manage to reimburse it.

One of the members of the Delhi Minorities Commission had also distributed a booklet giving information of reimbursement of tuition fee and scholarships. The scholarship is meant for college students only.

New Delhi, January 15
The undying cold spell in the Capital continued today, with dense fog in the early morning hours reducing visibility to 200 meters, forcing road traffic to take a snail’s pace.

Icy winds from the Himalayas added to the chill, said a metrological (MET) department official. 
The maximum temperature today jumped up marginally from yesterday’s 17.1 degree Celsius and settled at 17.5 degrees Celsius, making the day weather largely bearable.

The minimum temperature, however, was recorded a notch above average at 7.7 degrees Celsius, down from yesterday’s 8 degree Celsius.

Low visibility due to fog affected traffic movement in the early office hours. Especially, the Capital’s periphery, including the ITO stretch, faced heavy traffic.

“Traffic coming from Ghaziabad and Noida was stalled at ITO due to thick fog. On my way to Delhi from Preet Vihar, I saw at least two instances where cars lightly bumped into each other due to poor visibility,” said Kamlesh, a government employee.

“At 7 am, the visibility was just 200 metres. Although, due to high wind speed, the fog cover dispersed later in the day and the visibility improved considerably,” said a Met official.

The rail and air passengers were no better either. The fog delayed nearly 15 flights and affected rail services.

“Around 22 trains were delayed in the capital region owing to slow speed because of reduced visibility along rail tracks,” said a Northern Railway spokesperson.

Talking about tomorrow, the weatherman predicted a considerable dip in the minimum temperature tomorrow and a jump in the daytime temperature. The temperature is likely to oscillate between 6 and 19 degrees Celsius.

New Delhi, January 15
Discarding the news report on the biometric system not registering the fingerprints of diabetic patients, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today said that it will subject officials to medical examination.

“The officials who are taking the excuse of diabetes for their non-registration of attendance under biometric system, will be sent for medical examination, as the medical experts of different disciplines of MCD hospitals have confirmed that the fingerprints of the persons having diabetes do not wear off,” said an official spokesperson of the MCD.

The civic body reacted to the news report in some sections of media that the fingers of diabetic patients get cracked or wrinkled with the result they do not get registered on the biometric system.

The municipal officials said that there is no possibility of non-registration of their attendance through biometric system. “In case, any official comes out with this reason for non-registration, he will be referred to the medical board for verification of his claim,” said the officer.

He said that along with the biometric system of attendance, the MCD is also maintaining parallel system of recording attendance. The record will be referred to if the need arises.

“Once some official is covered under the biometric system, it is counted as part of the system. The occasional non-registration of fingerprint does not affect the overall head-count of MCD officials,” added the officer.

New Delhi, January 15
A young couple in love, facing objection from their families, committed suicide by eating some poisonous substance in the Kirti Nagar area of east Delhi last night.

According to police, Radha (17) (name changed) was a student of class XII. She was in love with a man called Deepak who stayed in the same area. The two consumed some poisonous substance yesterday evening and despite being treated in the hospital for hours, they succumbed in the wee hours this morning.

“The duo died within half an hour of each other around 2 am,” said a police official.

According to information, Radha and Deepak, who worked in a private company, had known each other for the last two years and wanted to get married.

“Deepak stayed with his uncle while Radha stayed with her parents and both told their families about their desire to get married. However, both the families opposed the marriage due to reasons of caste. Yesterday they consumed poison,” said a police official close to investigation.

He added that the sudden decision to commit suicide was perhaps taken after Radha’s brother saw Deepak in his house in the absence of their parents.

“Yesterday the girls’ parents had gone out of the house when Deepak visited. However, Radha’s younger brother saw them and said that he would inform his father and ran away. Getting scared probably, the girl and boy consumed poison,” said the official.

When Radha’s parents returned later in the evening, they found the house locked. They broke open the door and found the duo in an unconscious state. Despite efforts to save them,they died in the wee hours this morning.