New Delhi, August 22
Foundation courses of Delhi University today emerged as the major contention even among the students of the first batch of the newly introduced course.

A referendum on the new Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) conducted by the All India Students' Association (AISA) in as many as 20 colleges both on the North and South Campuses clearly showed that 1,0519 students (91.02 pc) among a total of 11,556 students, who cast their ballots this morning, have rejected the FYUP. And 101 votes were found to be invalid.

Among those who do not want it apart from an extra year they feel foundation courses are not only too "rudimentary", but also "exhaustive and time-consuming" even as 936 votes polled were in favour viewing that these newly introduced courses are more relatable with practical-based lessons and one that will strengthen the childhood concepts.

Also the fact that there is a long gap between the main disciplinary courses and foundation courses classes which are held late in the afternoon disappoints them, pointed out Gautami Dua, Soumya Singhal, Radhika Singhal and Akanksha, first-year students of English at Kirori Mal College.

"For us, as students of humanities studying prime numbers, physics or Hindi all over again is a waste of time. Our honours classes get over by 11.30 am or noon and we have to wait till 2 pm to 2.30 pm daily. In any case, these courses are too basic for students of graduation," they said.

Similar sentiment was voiced by several B.Com and humanities students at Hindu College and Daulat Ram College where there were others such as Akhileshwari Kanwar and Pallavi Singhal, first-year students of political science, who voted for the courses. "Having elementary subjects will help to revive what we had studied earlier in school. It is interactive with exposure to society and thus will aid in all round development and also in competitive exams. We are from arts stream and the entrepreneurship will help us build our skills," they stressed.

However, it is almost a month now that the new course has taken off but students largely, especially those in the first-year, continue to be sceptical about the merits of the new curriculum and the referendum has reaffirmed this.

Polling started in the morning, however, the process was later disrupted as policemen and administration officials told them to remove the booths and ballot boxes from in front of colleges. At some places there was resistance as at Satyawati College where following arguments the ballot box was seized by the college Principal, said Sunny Kumar of AISA.

"Despite administrative and police crackdown, there was an overwhelming participation in the first hour of the referendum itself. Nearly 20 colleges polled in which over 90 per cent students have said no to the FYUP and this not including the evening colleges. So, we demand that the Vice Chancellor should rollback the FYUP, not scuttle students' voices, or else the administration would face the ire of the students of Delhi University in the coming days," said Sunny.

New Delhi, August 22
Man's body with his face disfigured, head smashed and having several external injuries was found by the police in an abandoned Ford Icon car at Panchkuian Road this morning.

The deceased has been identified as Ashu (25).

About 5.50 am, a passerby informed the police that a body was lying in the car, parked at an inside lane connected to Panchkuian Road.

"We reached there and saw the body at the backseat of the car. We thought he was murdered, because of the external injuries on his body. His head was smashed and his face was disfigured. There was blood in the car. We accordingly registered a murder case at the Mandir Marg police station," said a police officer.

He said there was a huge dent on the rear side of the car. The windowpanes were broken.

According to the investigations, there were four persons in the car. They are Ashu and his friends Shiv Shankar (26), Firoz (26) and Brijesh Pandey (26).

Ashu was living at an orphanage home when he was a minor and was presently staying with the other three men at Paharganj.

Shankar works at a hotel and has completed a bartending course. Pandey works at a private airlines company in Gurgaon and Firoz is a freelance photographer.

The police have detained Firoz and Pandey for questioning in the case. Shankar, who was driving the car, is absconding.

"Firoz and Pandey told us that they were on a joyride. Their medical examination has confirmed they were intoxicated.

They said Shankar was driving the car very rashly and it either hit a boulder or a road divider. Ashu, who was sitting at the back seat, was pushed out of the window slightly. His head hit a tree. They parked the car at the inside road and fled, leaving Ashu behind," the officer added.

Investigators are waiting to question Shankar to further confirm the incident. "A murder case has been registered. We will investigate further and see if we have to add any other sections of the law in the case," said the officer. The body has been kept at Lady Hardinge Medical College for the postmortem.

New Delhi, August 22
A seven-month-old boy was kidnapped allegedly by a woman from Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in west Delhi yesterday.

According to the police, a woman named as Parul (22) had arrived at the hospital with her baby Naksh, and brother-in-law Akshay (15).

"A woman, who is in her mid-twenties, befriended her there. She helped Parul in the medical matters. Parul gave her baby to the woman and joined the queue for the dispensary to get medicines for her baby and herself. Akshay also joined her. Meanwhile, the woman walked away with the child," said a police officer.

The incident took place about 4 pm. A case of kidnapping has been registered at the Hari Nagar police station. The police are examining the CCTV camera footage of the hospital. So far, there has been no trace of the woman who kidnapped the boy.

New Delhi, August 22
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Badal, that has alliance with the BJP in Punjab as well as in Delhi has decided to contest assembly election from Rajouri Garden, Tilak Nagar and Hari Nagar in west Delhi.

Sources in the party said that following suggestion of Sukhbir Singh Badal, the SAD (Badal) has demanded from the BJP to give tickets to three Sikhs from Rajouri Garden, Tilak Nagar and Hari Nagar as in these constituencies, Sikhs are in a sizable number. In the last election Avtar Singh had contested assembly election from Rajouri Garden but he had lost the seat with a margin of 16 seats.

As far as Tilak Nagar and Hari Nagar are concerned, these are the BJP seats and its senior leaders O.P. Babbar and Harsharan Singh Balli represent the assemblies. It is not possible for the BJP to spare theses seats for the SAD (Badal), the sources said.

In this election, the SAD (Badal) is also planning to contest a few seats from south Delhi and the Trans-Yamuna area where Sikh electorates are in good number. But, so far, they could not decide the name of constituencies. In the last assembly election, the SAD (Badal) had contested five seats but it could not win even a single one.

In this election the SAD is very aggressive as it had won the SGPC election in Punjab, assembly election in Punjab, corporation elections and the DSGMC election in Delhi. In Delhi now the SAD (Badal) wants to show its presence in assembly also. Keeping this in view it had decided to contest the assembly election on its own symbol.

Delhi unit chief of the SAD Badal and DSGMC president Manjit Singh (GK) said, "We will concentrate in the assemblies where Sikh voters are in good number. We also try to contest on the symbol of the SAD (Badal)."

New Delhi, August 22
The Delhi Jal Board in a meeting held today approved the construction of a 6-million litres capacity underground reservoir (UGR) and a booster pumping station (BPS) with peripheral water mains at Mahipalpur Village and a few other projects.

The board also approved a 12.4-million litres capacity UGR and BPS at Mayapuri along with feeder water mains at an approximate cost of Rs 32.46 crore. Both the projects are likely to be completed within a period of 24 months. After commissioning of the UGRs and the BPS with allied works, the residents under the command area will be able to receive improved water supply.

It considered and approved the estimate of Rs 12.96 crore for maintenance of Murad Nagar Regulator, 200 cusec and 270 cusec capacity raw water conduits of Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plants.

It gave its approval for replacement of 900 mm dia pipeline at Zakhira-Patel Road Rising Main from RPF Camp, Shastri Nagar to Patel Nagar Booster Pumping Station at a total approximate cost of 16.56 crore. The work for construction of underground reservoir at Mangolpuri Kalan Village was also approved at a cost of Rs 5.03 crore.

The board has taken up the replacement of old transmission mains emanating from Bhagirathi Water Treatment Plant at a cost of Rs 214 crore.

After surveying, planning and creating the sewerage master plan, the DJB has taken up the work of providing sewerage services to the unsewered areas in right earnest.

New Delhi, August 22
Followers of the Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission today served food to innumerable people at 70 locations all over Delhi and at numerous places all over India on the occasion of 39th Barsi Bhandara of the founder of the mission, Kirpal Singh Maharaj.

They also distributed literature of the mission free of cost and videos were shown about the life and teachings of the founder. Medicines, fruits and eatables were also distributed to cancer patients at Shanti Avedana Sadan in Raj Nagar, New Delhi.

The spiritual work initiated by Kirpal Singh was taken forward by Sant Darshan Singh Maharaj, a well-renowned Urdu poet and mystic. Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission is a non-profit spiritual organization with teachings focusing on love, unity and peace. The mission is spread across the globe with over 1,700 centres and with literary depository in more than 55 languages.