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We are being made scapegoat, say engineers
Power tariff may go up
in Delhi
Lawyers strike work
9th cutoff: DU doubtful
of filling OBC seats
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DTU goes all out to ensure ragging-free campus
NHRC notice to MCD, DJB on death in sewer
BJP clamours for CM’s resignation
SAD (Badal) protests delay in DSGMC poll
Ethnic folk music finds echoes in Delhi
Anna ready to hold fast at proposed venue
Karbi students hold rally
Mother, daughter rob employer
Pak drug peddler with fake Afghani passport held
Accused escapes from custody; caught
Laptop, camera stolen from scribe’s parked car
One more held for murder bid on BSP leader
Petrol pump cashier robbed of
Rs
5 lakh
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We are being made scapegoat, say engineers
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 11 The Engineering Council of India (ECI) today said that the engineers were not involved in the decision-making process of the projects, which had been pointed out in the report for various lapses. "Many projects taken up during the CWG came into controversy and the probing committees and panels blamed engineers for the delay of the projects, whereas we had no role to play at the stage of taking crucial decisions," said PN Shali, director of the ECI. He said the engineers only executed whatever was finalised by the deliberative wings of the government. "In fact, we were given very short time to complete the projects. Despite that we toiled hard day and night to finish them on time," he said. The ECI members said they were being unnecessarily blamed as the projects were delayed due to wrong decision-making. "We are being held responsible in the areas which have no concern with us. The government did not include people from technical background while taking important decisions which led to various problems like bad material, technical faults, etc., as only an engineer understands the technical aspect of a construction project," said ECI chairman Uddesh Kohli. The engineers said the investigating agencies also did not approach them to track the exact reason of delay. "While finalising their reports, the committees should have asked the team of engineers to establish the accurate position of the project and find causes of delay. They have only come up with failures and causes," he said. The ECI, an organisation of professional organisations and institutions of engineers, was set up in 2002 to work for the advancement of engineering profession in various disciplines.
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Power tariff may go up
in Delhi
New Delhi, August 11 The new tariff is likely to be announced next week. According to the sources, the tariff has been processed after the representation of the discoms on the pretext of financial loss. The discoms like BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna and NDPL have already sought 60 per hike in tariff. Though there would not be 60 per cent hike in the power tariff, the hike would be hefty, the sources added. This would have been announced a few months back but it was opposed by the opposition parties who held protests at Secretariat and Jantar Mantar. Since the privatisation of power distribution the tariff has been increased twice - first in 2005 and then in 2008. |
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New Delhi, August 11 The strike impacted hearing of cases, including the high-profile 2G case where the lawyers, appearing for Reliance Telecom, were forced to stop advancing arguments. "There was a complete strike in district courts. This is a strike in public interest. If the jurisdiction is transferred to trial courts, the lawyers assure citizens that civil cases would be decided in two years," Rajiv Khosla, spokesperson of the Co-ordination Committee of the Bar Association of Delhi, said. The lawyers did not appear even in urgent matters, the committee, in its release, said. The litigants and witnesses, who came to attend or depose in their matters, had a tough time at Patiala House, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Saket district courts as striking lawyers drove them out. The lawyers stayed away from the proceedings of Special CBI Judge O P Saini who has been asked by the Supreme Court to hear the 2G case on a day-to-day basis. "I don't want any scene in my courtroom," the CBI Judge reacted when lawyers barged inside and asked advocates of Hari Nair, senior vice-president of Reliance ADAG, to stop arguing and join their strike. The judge, hearing arguments on charges against Nair, told the defence counsel to take a break for sometime. As the lawyers were forced to come out, the accused, including former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and other corporate honchos, themselves put forward their case before the judge.-- PTI
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9th cutoff: DU doubtful
of filling OBC seats
New Delhi, August 11 Two days after the eighth cutoff list was declared by the university, the colleges saw very less number of students seeking admission and hence a ninth list was announced. Almost all the colleges, which came out with the eighth list, have now come out with the ninth list as the seats continue to be vacant. Colleges, including Hindu, Dayal Singh,
Indraprastha, Zakir Hussain, Satyawati, Venkateswara, Hansraj and Maiteryi still have seats left in the OBC category. Percentage in sought after courses like BCom
(Hons) have dipped up to 50 per cent at Bharti College, 59 per cent at Deenm Dayal Upadhayaya College and 77 per cent at Gargi College. In political science at ARSD College the percentage has dipped from 65 to 57 per cent, while DCAC has given a smaller margin after the eighth list dipping the percentage from 79.25 to 78.75 per cent. Admissions for BA have closed after the eighth list at Hansraj and now only a handful of courses are left for OBC candidates. Officials say that the delay in the announcement of the eighth and ninth lists may be one of the reasons in the poor turnout of the OBC candidates. "Session has begun in other universities and colleges. Many students, who have been waiting for percentages to lower beyond the 10 per cent relaxation, gave up hope after the seventh list in end of July and sought admission at other colleges," said one of the university officials. Very few students turned up at Hindu College for admission, while at Gargi and
Indraprastha, which have more than 50 seats vacant each, many students who did not meet the eligibility criteriaturned up. "Even after so much relaxation, we are unable to find candidates. We hope that in the ninth list now, we have more candidates ," said one of the admission committee members at Gargi College, pointing out the drastic reduction in the cutoff
levels. Indraprastha College that came out with the eighth cutoff for 12 subjects has now 11 courses to offer in the ninth list, including BCom
(Hons), economics (Hons) and computer science (Hons). |
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DTU goes all out to ensure ragging-free campus
New Delhi, August 11 The university today held a one-day workshop, 'Anti-ragging drive: awareness and action plan'. The workshop was held to create awareness among students on the problem of ragging. Vice-chancellor Prof PB Sharma said, "We will not tolerate ragging on campus. DTU is firmly committed to upholding its zero-tolerance ragging policy. I have asked senior students to be helpful to the freshers and at the same time I have asked freshers to be committed to their studies and help the authorities in maintaining a ragging-free campus." DTU has put into place a number of measures to ensure that there is no ragging on campus. The varsity has installed CCTV cameras at the main entrance as well as at the hostels. The administration has also formed an anti-ragging committee chaired by Prof SK Garg. Besides, anti-ragging committees for the hostels have been set up under the chairmanship of the chief warden, AK Gupta. Prof Garg said, "We will be monitoring students through the CCTV cameras. The university has put into place an effective plan of action to deal with ragging. Today an anti-ragging workshop was held to help create awareness on the menace. On the whole, students have been responsive and DTU has not had a single ragging incident for the past few years." Mohit Sharma, a fresher who was present at the workshop, said, "We feel safe here. There has been no ragging incident since the varsity opened and the seniors have been most helpful. It is common knowledge that the varsity has a tough policy on ragging."
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NHRC notice to MCD, DJB on death in sewer
New Delhi, August 11 In a recent incident, one MCD sanitation worker lost his life on August 8 while cleaning a sewer. The deceased Rampal was working in Rohini. Taking note of the incident, the NHRC sent notices to the agencies for not following the guidelines mandatory for the safety of workers. "The media reports suggested that Rampal and another worker Dharamvir entered a sewer to clean it, without any safety equipment," said a spokesperson of NHRC. The notice has also raised the question of giving compensation to the deceased's relatives. "We have asked the two civic bodies to inform us if any compensation has been announced to the deceased's relatives apart from the benefits admissible under the service rules," the NHRC spokesperson said. The notices have been sent to the MCD commissioner and the DJB chairman, demanding a detailed report within a month. It has also sought information whether the civic agency has taken action against the person found guilty of not taking the necessary safety measures, leading to the incident. "The incident raises a serious issue of violation of the deceased's human rights because of non-observance of the safety guidelines framed by the commission and circulated to the MCD long ago," the NHRC observed.
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BJP clamours for CM’s resignation
New Delhi, August 11 The demonstrators said that not only the CAG report but the Shunglu Committee report had also indicted the Chief Minister for financial irregularities in the Games projects. Addressing the demonstrators, Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Vijender Gupta said that the BJP would not sit like spectators. The party activists will unfurl black flag at many places in Delhi and take out rallies on August 14. Addressing a conference later, Gupta said the saffron party workers would organize rallies to show black flags to the Chief Minister wherever she went till she resigned. "If the government does not listen to us, we will conduct more rallies of women, which will lead to the downfall of the government," said Vani Tripathy, co-incharge of the Delhi BJP. Navjot Sidhu, who also took part in the demonstration, said that the Shunglu Committee report had indicted Dikshit by pointing out delays and irregularities in the work by agencies such as the Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Council. The CAG report was tabled in Parliament on August 5. It indicted her for "ill-conceived" planning and wasteful expenditure for the CWG. The CAG report will go to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, chaired by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. A source said that the Congress will wait for Sonia's return to India and then give its response to the CAG report.
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SAD (Badal) protests delay in DSGMC poll
New Delhi, August 11 The protestors also demanded that the government should stop interfering in the functioning of the committee. The activists, who gathered opposite the CM's house around 10 am, shouted slogans like "election karao, Guru ki golak bachao", "Sheilaji hosh mei aao, corruption khatam karao". Delhi unit president of the SAD (Badal) Manjit Singh (GK) said the Chief Minister and the minister who is in charge of the gurdwara committee elections, Arvinder Singh Lovely, favoured DSGMC president Paramjit Singh by not getting the election done that was due in February this year. He was misusing the guru ki golak (money contributed by the people for the religious work). He alleged that if an inquiry was made, corruption bigger than the CWG scam would come to light in the gurdwara committee. He said if the government did not accept the demand of the opposition parties for holding the gurdwara committee election soon, the activists would not allow the committee to function.
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Ethnic folk music finds echoes in Delhi
New Delhi, August 11 "I love the old classic rock music of the 70s, ballads, blues, country, reggae and Sufi. For me, the sounds of Indian folk are an extension of this love. It is the sound of the soil, salt of people's lives, sufferings, joys and the everyday things we live with," said Maryann Lalthangwala, a student of Delhi University and native of Mizoram in northeastern India. She was one of the hundreds of university students who had thronged the third Lok Sangeet Sanmelan in the Capital last week. Imphal-based king of Naga blues, Guru Rewben Mashangva, and his 10-year-old son Saka cater to this segment of neo-urban audience with their fusion of traditional Hao Naga ballads and Western blues. The songs are accompanied by ancient Naga instruments, some of which are extinct now. The clan inhabits the hill slopes of the Nagaland-Manipur border. "I am trying to revive the dying music of our tribe by creating new sounds from the villages for Naga youngsters so that they know their folk instruments and the stories," said Mashwanga. The musician has improvised the tingletia, a single-string Naga instrument and the yankahui, a long bamboo flute, to sound Western. "God keeps us alive in the hills of Uttarakhand," says Basanti Devi Bisht, the high priestess of jagar, a ritual poem sung to music in the Garhwal-Kumaon region of the Himalayas. "I sing of the pahadi life; sangharsh (struggle) of the pahadi (hill) people, women's struggle and the 16 sanskar-bidhiyas (rituals) of the temples. The plight of the women has not changed much in the hills in centuries. They still have to toil despite the fact that they composed the early folk songs," Bisht said. The Uttaranchal folk is the simplest form of folk, says novelist Namita Gokhale, a native of the Uttarakhand hills. "The songs are elemental - of joys and sorrows but they are being interpreted in modern ways. One can often hear shades of Uttaranchal folk in Prasoon Joshi's music," said Gokhale. The traditional "Bon Bibir Pala" from the Gangetic delta of the Sundarbans stirs young listeners with its combination of performance, drama, storytelling and music. It tells the tale of tiger king Dakhin Roy, Maa Bon Bibi - the presiding deity of the forest - and Dukhe, a poor boy who was rescued by the goddess from Dakhin Roy. -- IANS
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Anna ready to hold fast at proposed venue
New Delhi, August
11 Speaking to mediapersons during a press conference in
Noida, Kejriwal said the police had even offered to help them get the permission. "The Delhi police has given us the permission at the JPN National Park, but the only problem now is that the park belongs to the Central Public Works Department
(CPWD). We have to get permission from them also. The police has assured us that it will help us by putting in a word with the urban development ministry for us to get that venue," said
Kejriwal, adding that if all goes well, the JPN National Park will be
finalised. He also said there was no rift in team Anna regarding the Swami Agnivesh's remark wherein he said inclusion of the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill was flexible. "There will be no compromise on the issue of the Prime Minister and whatever he (Swami
Agnivesh) said was his personal opinion and not that of the group," said
Kejriwal. Anna has announced an indefinite fast on August 16 demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill which should have the Prime Minister and judiciary in its ambit. |
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Karbi students hold rally
New Delhi, August 11 They demanded Karbi Anglong to be made an autonomous state, a CBI enquiry into corruption in the rural welfare schemes in that region and the scrapping of the clause 8 of the Bodo Liberation Tiger accord. |
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Rain hits city
New Delhi, August 11 While the minimum temperature today was recorded at 26.9° C, one degree above the normal, the maximum temperature settled at 32° C. For tomorrow, the weather department has forecast overcast skies which may be accompanied by a few spells of rain or thundershowers. |
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New Delhi, August 11 The arrests were made on a complaint by Poonam Ahuja, a resident of Prashant Vihar in which she said that two boys entered her house on Tuesday and smothered her mouth and tied her hands and legs with clothes at knife-point and robbed her of Rs 4 lakh and confined her in the bathroom by closing its door. Ahuja said when the robbers entered her room, her maids Pushpa and Pooja were present in the house but when they decamped with the booty, the two women were also found missing. The police arrested Raju, Pushpa, her daughter Pooja, her husband Vinay and Poonam yesterday in connection with the robbery. During investigation, the police found that Pooja has shifted her house from Haiderpur to Pooth Kalan village, Delhi, and she was later traced to a village in Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh. "In the meantime, Vinay was traced by the police in Mangol Puri and he was interrogated and arrested. During the interrogation, he said the booty was with Raju and Pushpa who went to their village at Ujjaini and would come back in the evening by bus yesterday," BS Jaiswal, DCP (outer district), said. Based on the information, the police arrested Raju, Pushpa and Pooja. "All the accused were nabbed and during search of their luggage all the robbed booty was recovered from their possession. They were arrested," he said. Jaiswal said Rs 3 lakh, a gold pendent with gold chain and other articles were recovered from their possession. - PTI
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Pak drug peddler with fake Afghani passport held
New Delhi, August 11 The police said the accused, Niyamatullaha, is a drug peddler. According to a senior police official, Niyamatullaha's father Syed Ahmed was also a drug peddler and was arrested in 2010 with 52 kg of heroin. He is at present lodged in the Tihar jail. "Niyamatullaha is a Pakistani national, but was staying here on a fake Afghanistani passport for the past two years. He was arrested from his rented accommodation at Mahaveer Nagar in Tilak Nagar. A case under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act has been registered against him in the Tilak Nagar police station," said the official. Niyamatullaha has been sent to two days of police custody for interrogation. Niyamatullaha first came to Delhi along with his father in December 2009. "The father-son duo came here on the pretext of doing garment business and had Afghanistan passports with Kandhar domicile. Before his arrest, Syed Ahmed stayed at Lajpat Nagar," said the official. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Niyamattullah was also involved in drug peddling. According to him, drugs were smuggled from Pakistan and were brought to India through Afghanistan. "We are questioning Niyamattullah to find out the channel used by him for drug peddling. It is suspected that he is a member of a big drug syndicate," the official said. Nigerian held with `11-lakh cocaine The crime branch of the Delhi police has arrested a 38-year-old Nigerian exporter with 15g of cocaine worth around Rs 11 lakh. According to Sanjay Bhatia, additional DCP (crime), Obioha Samuel Odimegwu was arrested yesterday from N-block, Saket. "Odimegwu came to India two years ago and started an export business from Mumbai. During this period, he came into the contact of a fellow Nigerian, Peter. Peter advised him to start dealing in cocaine and also supplied him the drug. Odimegwu then took a house in Delhi's Saket and started selling cocaine. He has access to various pubs and clubs of the city," he said.
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Accused escapes from custody; caught
Ghaziabad, August 11 According to the police, four criminals, arrested yesterday in the Sahibabad area for involvement in dacoity and theft cases, were today presented in court but one of them named Shahnawaz managed to escape from police custody from the court premises. The police cordoned off the court compound and intensively searched the area, during which Shahnawaz was caught. He was sent to jail after being produced before the court along with other accomplices. A case has also been registered against him for escaping from custody, the police said. --PTI
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Laptop, camera stolen from scribe’s parked car
New Delhi, August 11 The incident happened a mere 50 metres from the Narela police station. The victim, Rajesh
Khatri, is a reporter with a private news channel here. According to the police, the incident was reported around 12 pm from near Railway Road.
"Khatri had parked his wagonR car by the road and had gone to withdraw money from a nearby ATM across the road. When he returned after 10 minutes, he found that the glasses of the rear windows of the car were broken. His laptop and video camera kept on the rear seat were missing," said the police. A case in this regard has been registered by the police. Rajesh is a resident of Bakanair village in the Narela area. |
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One more held for murder bid on BSP leader
Ghaziabad, August 11 Akhtar, who had allegedly conspired with jailed convict Bhagmal Tyagi to murder Pal, was arrested recently from Sabali village Driver Akhtar revealed that a contract of Rs 2 lakh had been awarded to sharpshooters Rahul and Amit to kill Braham Pal, out of which he received Rs 10,000. He also confessed that he had made living arrangements for the sharpshooters in Pal's village. Ex-councillor Vinod Tyagi, and his acquaintance Manish were arrested on July 30 in connection with the case, while Rahul and Amit are said to be absconding. Pal was shot at his house in Morta village on May 31 earlier this year. Bhagmal had disclosed that election rivalry was the reason behind the attack.
--PTI |
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Petrol pump cashier robbed of
Rs
5 lakh Greater
Noida, August 11 The incident took place near Vikas
Bhawan. The victim, Sansar Singh, was going to bank on a bike to deposit cash, when the robbers in a car, attacked him. The robbers hit Singh's bike from behind and he fell down. He suffered injuries and was admitted to hospital where his condition was stable by late evening. The police was unable to trace the robbers till the writing of the report. |
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Hundreds of activists of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) today demonstrated opposite the residence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in protest against the delay in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) election that was due to be held in February this year.
