New Delhi, September 30
The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested 27 people from four states for allegedly being involved in leaking an exam paper for the recruitment of constables in the Delhi Police in May this year.

The 27 persons who have been arrested belong to Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Two laptops and 28 mobile phones and other incriminating documents have been recovered from them.

On May 24, Sawarmal Yadav who is posted at the 1st Battalion of the Delhi Armed Police reported to the police that while he was going in a Gramin Sewa, he noticed that a boy, later identified as Monu, was dictating answers to someone from a paper slip. When Sawarmal asked him what he was doing, he did not answer and started chewing the paper slip. Sawarmal caught the boy.

Subsequently, the police arrested one, Amar, on Monday from Ointo Road. He is alleged to be the kingpin of the racket. He further led the police to the main source, identified as Gorakh Nath, an employee of a printing press. Later, the police learnt that Nath was allegedly one of the "procurers" at the printing press who provided the racketeers question papers to various examinations.

"The linking of the question paper to the examination depends on the number of questions, time provided for the examination, type of questions, break-up of marks and the proximity of the examination. Once the question paper is linked to the examination, the candidates called as "clients" are arranged," said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch).

Before leaking the question paper, the solved answer sheet was prepared. The vulnerable candidates allegedly paid Rs 5-6 lakh to the touts who were providing the answers to all the questions appeared in an examination paper. They further used technology like Multi Media Messaging for sharing the answers in the question paper.

"Investigation further revealed that the Delhi-NCR module was further divided into three sub-modules, one based at Najafgarh, second at Sonepat/Rohtak and third at Rewari, Haryana. Eighteen persons were arrested in the Sonepat/Rohtak module and Najafgarh sub-module," said another police officer.

New Delhi, September 30
A large number of airport employees today staged demonstration here to protest the "anti-worker attitude" of the management of the ground handling services at the IGI Airport here.

The ground handling services, which include loading and unloading of baggage, are done by the private joint venture company, AISATS Airport Services.

The protests came against the backdrop of AISATS terminating the services of around 200 workers, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) said in a release.

The employees, belonging to various organisations like AISATS, Jet Airways, Cambatta and Thai Airways, staged protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding among other things, wage hike, ending the system of fixed term appointment, stopping sexual harassment at workplace and reinstating the sacked workers and union leaders, the release said.

The AITUC said it had brought to the notice of ministries of Labour and Civil Aviation, the Air India management and Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) about AISATS management's "efforts to crush the union." — PTI

New Delhi, September 30
Students of Lady Irwin College, Delhi University, today held a protest outside their director's office over a hike in hostel fees.

Around 250 students staged the protest on the campus, claiming that the hostel fee has been doubled from the earlier Rs 40,000 to Rs 80,000 for this session.

"The annual hostel fee was around Rs 40,000, but it has been increased to Rs 80,000 from this session without any relevant reason or prior information having been given to the students," alleged Priya Khandelwal, a student.

The protesting students were joined by Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) leaders for their stir.

"The issue requires intervention by the Delhi University authorities and a regulation needs to be formulated about the process as well as the permissible margin of fee hike," said DUSU president Mohit Nagar.

Phone calls and text messages to college director Dr Anoopa Sidhu for her comments on the issue went unanswered.

Students have charged that the hostel fee has been almost doubled even though there has been no upgrade of facilities.

Lady Irwin College hostel has two wings, one for undergraduate students and the other for the post-graduate and doctorate students.

The hostel, which offers accommodation to 200 students, is managed by a hostel committee constituted by the staff council of the college.

The students had also staged a protest last month on the same issue.

"We had prepared a memorandum of demands for the last protest, which the college administration, however, refused to accept. We will seek the VC's intervention now," said one of the protesting students. — PTI

New Delhi, September 30
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) is diverting attention of the community from alleged corruption in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) administration and "increasing incidents of sexual harassment of women employees" in the committee and educational institutions by raising the issue of Bangla Sahib parking, said Paramjit Singh Sarna, president of the SAD (Delhi).

He said DSGMC president Manjit Singh (GK), who was in charge of the SAD (Badal) in Delhi and general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa had misguided the Sikh community by alleging that "we have sold the parking to the NDMC, though in the papers it is clearly mentioned that after 25 years, issues related to run and control the parking shall be decided by the DSGMC and the NDMC mutually and the use of land and ownership will be decided on the basis of mutual understanding", Saran said.

He said, "It is clear that the land on which this parking has been constructed was never the property of Gurdwara Sahib. In that case how we can sell it? Rather by constructing parking for the devotees, we have made it a legacy for the sangat."

He also said the documentary evidence of the NDMC established that the government has no control on the parking. "We challenge Manjit Singh (GK), Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal to use their good offices with their alliance partner BJP at the Centre to extend this agreement with the NDMC for 50 years and give Diwali present to the devotees," Sarna said.

While interpreting the documents related to the parking, GK and Sirsa did not explain that under which circumstances DSGMC former president Avtar Singh Hit had initiated the construction of the parking and why the construction was stopped by the NDMC, he added.