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RTE: Admission test for schools opposed
Girl challenges expulsion from school in court
Delhi continues to sizzle as mercury soars
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Lovers jump in front of train at Shadipur, girl dead
Talk to Pak, advises Aiyar
500 get notices for flouting building rules
Kidnappers’ gang active in NCR
500 DTU students, parents protest at Jantar Mantar
IGNOU has signed over 100 MoUs in one year, claims VC
Policy makers, doctors ignore rare diseases, rue sufferers
VAT has increased revenue: Walia
Court for adulteration cases
Games: Fire safety top priority
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RTE: Admission test for schools opposed
New Delhi, April 4 The advocate has written to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit raising the matter related to the test scheduled to be held for admitting students to Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas in the next academic year. “The procedure of entrance test for admission to Class VI in these schools is prohibited by section 13 of the RTE Act 2009,” said advocate Ashok Agarwal, in his letter dated April 2. In an advertisement issued on March 28 by the directorate of education, applications have been invited from students for admission to Class VI through an entrance test, he said. According to the RTE Act, such screening is an offence punishable with a fine which may extend to Rs 25,000 for the first contravention and Rs 50,000 for each subsequent contravention, he said. “This rule is applicable to all schools till Class VIII,” Agarwal added. Demanding that the admission notice be withdrawn, Agarwal said: “It is requested that the admission notice be withdrawn and another admission notice in conformity with the provisions of the RTE Act be published.”
— IANS |
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Girl challenges expulsion from school in court
New Delhi, April 4 “The school’s action is illegal, specially at a time when the Right to Education Act (RTE) has been enforced in the country.” said Ashok Agarwal, counsel of Suman Bhati. “It is unethical and violates provisions of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Agarwal said. Suman’s father Naresh Bhati said that the school, on Raj Niwas Marg, informed him about the decision March 27 when he went to collect the report card. Demanding action against the school and the Directorate of Education, the petition stated: “It is unfortunate that at a time when the government is coming up with laws, schemes and policies to encourage the girl child to study more, St. Xavier’s school is trying to jeopardise a class 6 girl’s future by expelling her.” On the other hand, the school said that since Suman had failed in her final term exams for class 4 as well as class 6, she has to leave the school according to the rules. However, Agarwal said: “The school has no authority in law to remove Suman as she has yet not completed her elementary education and is not yet 14. In any case, a student cannot be removed from the school on the ground that she has failed in a class.”
— IANS |
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Delhi continues to sizzle as mercury soars
New Delhi, April 4 “The minimum temperature recorded this morning was five degrees above the average, at 22 degrees Celsius. Similarly, the maximum temperature was five notches above the average at 39 degrees Celsius,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. Monday is predicted to be a similar sizzler. “It will be clear skies and high temperatures on Monday as well. The minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to hover around 22 and 38 degrees Celsius,” the official added. Anjali Kumar, a home maker who went out shopping at Sarojini Nagar market on Sunday morning, said: “I went out around 11 am for some shopping but because of the intense heat, had to cut short the trip. If it’s so hot in April, I dread to even think how hot it will get in May and June!”
— IANS |
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Lovers jump in front of train at Shadipur, girl dead
New Delhi, April 4 According to the police, the reason behind the couple taking the extreme step is that their families are not approving of their relationship. The deceased has been has been identified as Ashu, a resident of Ranjit Nagar, and the man as Rishu of Baljit Nagar. No suicide note was found from either of them, the police said. Rishu is admitted at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where his condition is stated to be serious, a senior police official said. His statement is yet to be recorded as the doctors said he was not in a position to do so. A case has been registered and investigations are on. Man comes in car to steal car
An interesting case of theft of car accessories has come to notice in the Dev Nagar area of the Capital on Saturday. On Saturday, around 3 am, a man dressed up in an impeccable white shirt and black trousers stepped out of his Hyundai Accent car, which he had parked very close to a Scorpio car. He then opened a window of the Scorpio car and took out the studio and the video screen. However, soon, the security alarm rang and the ‘smart’ thief rushed to his car with the stolen items. Though the thief managed to escape, his modus operandi was recorded by the CCTV camera that was installed by the owner of the Scorpio car, Ajay Vinayak, who runs a travel agency. As Vinayak faces the problem of car thefts very often due to the large number cars parked outside his house, he had installed a CCTV camera to secure his cars. Though the camera could not record the number of the theif’s car, Vinayak has handed over the footage to the Prasad Nagar police and has registered a case. The police is investigating the matter. However, no arrest has been made so far, said a senior police official. Speeding car
kills one
One person died while two others were injured when a speeding car hit them at the Hirakunda traffic light. The incident took place around 11 pm on Saturday. The victim, 32-year-old sunny, was going to Ghewda colony with his friends, the other victims. They was crossing road when a speeding i20 car hit them. There were two persons inside the car. They ran way after the accident. However, the car was later seized by the police. “We have identified the two drivers, but are yet to arrest them,” said a policeman. |
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Talk to Pak, advises Aiyar
New Delhi, April 4 Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Altered Histories: The Legacy of Political Assassination in South Asia’, here today, the senior Congress leader said India should not wait for a “mea culpa” from Pakistan. He said Indians had a very stereotyped view of Pakistan, and that Pakistanis in general knew more about India than vice-versa. The other panelists included Fatima Bhutto, whose book ‘Songs of Blood and Sword’ was released in India yesterday, journalist Vir Sanghvi and political critic Ashis Nandy. Though panelists differed on whether assassination of political figures is indeed an effective tool to alter the course of future events, they agreed that south Asian countries –largely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanaka – seem to suffer from “assassination fatigue” as their peoples tended to get on with lives while ignoring the killings. Sanghvi said many question regarding the killings of former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and former Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq remained unanswered, but people hardly seemed bothered. In the West, he said, an industry grew around political killings, like those of USA presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, with many books and endless debates around the theories. Aiyar said assassination as a tool to achieve political end had been proved useless time and again. The secular values were reinforced after the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the belief that the country would disintegrate after the killing of Indira Gandhi was also proved wrong. Fatima Bhutto said Indians tended to preserve the legacy of their killed leaders while Pakistan was erasing them. |
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500 get notices for flouting building rules
Noida, April 4 However, some of the allottees who have received the notices say the document does not clearly specify which by-law have they actually violated. According to sources, the notices have been sent to those allottees in Sectors 62, 63, 64, 65 and 16A who have constructed buildings on industrial or institutional plots, violating some by-laws of the Noida Authority. According to reports, the deputy CEO of the Noida Authority, Anil Raj Kumar, had reviewed many buildings in the Film City area of Sector 16A. Besides 16A, an authority team had also inspected some buildings in sectors 62, 63, 64 and 65. Violation of construction by-laws were noticed in buildings in all these areas. Some of the recipients of the notices are planning to move the court over the issue. Since the notices do not mention violation of any specific by-law, recipients think that all the buildings in question have violated the same by-law. The building cell officials of the Noida Authority, however, say that they do not intend to harass anybody, but would like everyone to follow the building by-laws, as the buildings constructed as per the laws would be stronger, safer and defect-free. Earlier, the Noida Authority had issued notices to 250 entrepreneurs for having mobile towers on the roofs of their factories. Subsequently, the entrepreneurs had filed a petition in the high court against the notice. |
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Kidnappers’ gang active in NCR
Noida, April 4 According to him, a man pushed him into a vehicle, forced him to smell a piece of cloth which made him unconscious. When he regained sense, he found himself in a locality in Delhi. He saw that about 30 children were kept captive in a large room. All these kids were made to work at carts or on pavement eateries at half the normal wages. The child narrated his experience to the station house officer of the Sector 24 police station on Friday. Similarly, one Mohit Dixit, a Class V student of Chaura village in Sector 22 also returned home on Friday after he went missing on March 31. Mohit is the son of one Shushil Dixit, a gas agency worker. Dixit had lodged a report about his missing son at the Sector 24 police station on Thursday. However, Mohit returned home at 4 a.m. on Friday in dramatic circumstances. The boy said that on March 31, he had gone to a footpath eatery in Sector 22. There a youth approached him. While talking, the man made him smell a piece of cloth, after which Mohit became unconscious. The youth then kept him in a vehicle and dropped him at a roadside eatery in Delhi. On Thursday, while talking to a woman who came to the eatery, Mohit told her that he was from Noida. The woman, Mohit said, gave him Rs 50 and told him to slip away quietly. A 9 pm, when the eatery owner was away for a while, Mohit escaped from there and reached Noida. |
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500 DTU students, parents protest at Jantar Mantar
New Delhi, April 4 Akhil Sharma, the father of a second year student of the college, said, “The parents have decided to support the students in their protest. The students have been trying so hard, but none of their demands has been accepted. In fact, they have been treated unfairly.” Another parent, Pooja Jain, said, “Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) should not have been converted to DTU. The conversion was badly handled. The university has lost its reputation of being a central university college associated with Delhi University (DU) and has become a mere state university. We had sent our children to a central university college and not a state university. The conversion came as a rude shock to most of us. Further, the state of academics at DTU is very poor. The university needs to give attention to its academics and infrastructure.” The parents joined the protest after their Saturday’s meeting with the university administration failed to satisfy them. The students, meanwhile, are planning to intensify the agitation. A third year student said that the students were planning to hold a hunger strike in the next few days. The student said, “We have held meetings with the Delhi government, Chief Minister, university administration and board, but all these meetings have proved to be inconclusive. We have requested the government to appoint a commission to look into the conducts of the vice-chancellor P.B. Sharma, but we are yet to get a definite answer. Till our demands are not accepted and the VC is not removed, we will continue to agitate.” |
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IGNOU has signed over 100 MoUs in one year, claims VC
New Delhi, April 4 Some of the international institutions that have joined hands with IGNOU include Goethe Institute and University of Vienna, Queensland University of Technology, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Payame Noor University, Iran, Gulf Centre for University Education and Centre for Environment Law, WWF India. Within the country, Maya Academy of Advance Cinematics, WLC College, HCL Infosystems, Apollo Hospitals Educational Research Foundation, SREI Sahaj-e-Village Ltd., IBM India, Institute of Rail Transport, National Human Rights Commission and the Indian Army, among others, have signed MoUs with IGNOU. Future initiatives include collaborations with government and private agencies to increase the gross enrollment ratio. There are 2,50,000 public educational and training institutions in the country. IGNOU is looking at converting these into skill development centres. |
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Policy makers, doctors ignore rare diseases, rue sufferers
New Delhi, April 4 Hence, representatives of the section, from several states, under the banner of Lysosomal Storage Disorders Support Society (LSDSS), would meet the secretary and officials of the Union Health Ministry on April 26. President of the society Prasanna Kumar Shirol said, “There hasn’t been much support in terms of care and eresearch.” Prasanna, who has a 10-year-old daughter (Nidhi) suffering from Pompie’s disease, reflected that most of these disorders call for a life-long medical support, which incurs an exorbitant cost that not many families can afford. There are around 6000-8000 such rare diseases, 80 per cent of which are congenital. In India, the most prevalent are lysosomal storage disorders, like Gaucher’s, mucopolysaccharide, Fabry’s, Pompie’s etc. “These rare disorders are caused due to a gene defect that leads to the deficiency of one particular enzyme in the baby. Most of the diseases do not have a cure and the patients require life-long enzyme replacement therapy,” explained Dr Ratna D Puri, consultant at centre of genetic medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Prasanna’s daughter (Nidhi) was born a normal kid, but when she didn’t show much mobility even after 12-13 months, her parents took her to the doctor and she was detected with glyocogen storage disorder type II when she was two years old. After five years, she was diagnosed with Pompie’s disease for which the drug therapy then (September 2007) was not available in India and the cost was Rs 5-6 lakh. However, after being on 24-hour ventilator support at home, Nidhi was put on drug therapy in April 2008 under the “International Charity Access Programme”. “Besides, the support from Genzyme India, the entire treatment set-up cost us nearly Rs 8.5 lakh. “We have gone through immense trauma and have gradually become stable. Imagine the years that we spent in diagnosing the disease,” said Prasanna. “Pompie, if left without early treatment, results with the death of the patient within 2-5 years of age due to severe heart disability, respiratory failure and weakness of muscles,” said Dr Puri. Many countries in America and Europe have been taking up the cause for the past three-four years, but India is yet to recognise it as a health problem. The inadequate diagnostics and uncertainty associated with such rare genetic ailments, led Prasanna to form Lysosomal Storage Disorders Support Society (LSDSS) after meeting several parents, whose kids have rare diseases, in September 2009. In January, the group applied for registration under the Societies Registration Act. Prassana said “The umbrella body of LSDSS would be working on four objectives—networking among parents of such children to have an official data, discussing it at the state and central government levels for framing of proper guidelines and fundraising for treatment and generating awareness among doctors, NGOs and corporate groups.” They would seek pre-natal diagnosis mandatory as it would ensure in checking the increase in the number of cases of rare diseases. |
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Another term for VC of
JNU?
JNU rules say that a VC cannot continue beyond five years. Many JNU teachers, who are not really enamoured of their boss, say that the VC is behind the move. The whispers over the executive committee agenda will continue till they meet on April 6. Beefing up, the BJP way
The Delhi government might have asserted that it has no intention of serving beef in the menu for Commonwealth Games, but the BJP thinks that the emotive issue still holds some political potential for it. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which is controlled by the saffron party, has been rather active in raiding markets, looking for any sign of beef being sold on the sly. As sale of beef is banned in the Capital, its discovery always gives the party and its Hindutva affiliates some ammunition against the government. Not one to take any chances, the MCD has asked the Lieutenant-Governor to invoke stringent National Security Act against the offenders, equating beef-eaters with terrorists. Foster father, father-in-law
MLAs were in a light mood on the last day of the budget session of the Delhi Assembly. But there was nothing funny about their demand that the Commonwealth Games flats be allotted to them once the big event is over. Knowing well that they have earned nothing but public ridicule, many MLAs in the forefront of raising this self-serving issue would like you to believe that they were just teasing ministers. But to the credit of the government, its ministers did not give in to their demands. Finance Minister AK Walia said housing provision should be only for MLAs who were bachelors. And it invited a jab from an MLA who asked Walia to adopt him so that he would have a rich father and not need any house. Then there was this ever-provocative Shoaib Iqbal who said he needed a house badly and, for whatever reasons, said Walia was his father-in-law, giving the minister a jerk or two. Iqbal quickly added that his wife called him uncle so he could call him his father-in-law. Walia was indeed relieved! Topping the
popularity charts
At 70 years of age, the duo remains as funny and charming as ever. When Cartoon Network invited select denizens to Le Meridian to celebrate the birth anniversary of iconic cartoon characters Tom and Jerry, it was expected to be a regaling affair. But the popularity of the two took even the participants by surprise that both were head and shoulders above any other figure in popularity. The number of web pages dedicated to them is 7.75 million which is more than the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. The three megastars have 0.37, 1.81 and 2.63 million web pages, respectively. Baba’s shadow over cops
The Police team from Saket police station behind the arrest of Shiv Murat Dwivedi, alias Ichhadhari Baba, who attired in his saffron robes sat at the helm of a vast prostitution ring, had come in for kudos from their superiors. Right from the DCP to the Commissioner of Police, they had their back patted from everybody who mattered. However, a key official who had been tailing the sleazy baba was the butt of all jokes and his colleagues often asked him with a wink if his association with the baba and his harem ran beyond what they knew. One evening, though, he announced after interrogating Dwivedi that he had found names of some cops in his diary. He said he would be discussing it with his seniors and making some arrests soon. If he would ever nab any cop or not is not clear yet, but his teasing colleagues have surely mended their ways. (Contributed by Akhila Singh, Himani Chandel, Syed Ali Ahmed, Ananya Panda and Sandeep Yadav) |
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VAT has increased revenue: Walia
New Delhi, April 4 Revenue collection has been increasing since the introduction of the tax in 2005. The next year, there was a 25 per cent hike in the revenue collection of the government. In 2009-2010, the government saw a hike of 18.94 per cent. He said with the implementation of the system, more traders came in the tax network. At present, there are 2.23 lakh registered traders in Delhi. Walia said the amendment in the Indian (Stamp) Delhi Amendment Bill might also help in getting more revenue. |
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Court for adulteration cases
New Delhi, April 4 The government has special provision for the examination of food samples. They are examined at Sri Ram Institute of Laboratories. If the samples are found adulterated, the cases are referred to the court. When asked how many factories in Delhi have been sealed so far for adulteration, she said the government did not have any provision to seal factories. When BJP MLAs alleged in the Assembly that adulterated milk was being supplied in the Capital, she said that the department was aware of this and that milk samples were being examined. However, she said that in some of the cases, it was found that only water was mixed in the milk. |
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Games: Fire safety top priority
New Delhi, April 4 Sharma told IANS: “Special fire safety training will be provided to all the agencies involved in various activities of the Games.” The mega sporting event will take place from October 3-14. The training will entail minute details of fire safety like people management through announcement systems in the event of a fire, training on the usage of fire exits and primary fire extinguishing. In all, 600 fire department personnel would be deployed for the Games. They would be stationed at the venues with fire tenders. “A minimum of one fire tender would be stationed at every venue and two or three at bigger venues,” said Sharma.
— IANS |
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Protests against obscenity in IPL
New Delhi, April 4 Chopra, who had raised the issue in the Assembly a few days back, along with his supporters raised slogans against what they called vulgar and corrupt practices even as hundreds of spectators made their way to the stadium for an encounter between the Delhi and Bangalore teams. He alleged that IPL is a sum of liquor, cheer girls and only a bit of cricket, and these girls are projected in a vulgar way to bring the crowd to the stadium.
— TNS |
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Mock security drills held
New Delhi, April 4 Bomb disposal squad, dog squad, quick reaction teams and policemen from nearby police stations were immediately pressed into action when an “unidentified bag” was found on the lawns of the India Gate, a police officer said. At the Supreme Court, security personnel simulated a scenario of a cross-firing at the outer gate of the building, the officer said.
— IANS |
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The executive committee of Jawaharlal Nehru University is meeting on April 6 and if grapevine is to be believed, one important item on the agenda might have something to do with another term for its vice-chancellor BB Bhattacharya.