New Delhi, September 6
The body of a retired IFS officer and former ambassador to Tunisia, Mr Ramesh Shukla, was found lying beneath his third floor Mayur Vihar apartment, in mysterious circumstances this morning. His legs were reportedly broken and the throat bore injury marks.

The local residents and the guards first noticed the body. While the district police is treating it as a case of suicide, the senior officials in police headquarters said that the final picture would emerge after the post- mortem examination.

The 65-year-old ambassador is survived by his wife Kusum Shukla; they were residing at B-35, IFS Apartments, Mayur Vihar, Phase-3. Their two daughters are based in Canada. According to the police, Ramesh Shukla was reportedly missing since last night.

The wife of the deceased, Ms Kusum Shukla, reportedly told the police that he was suffering from depression. Yesterday, at around 7.30 pm, Kusum Shukla reportedly went to the nearby market to purchase vegetables. She locked the gate from outside before leaving.

When she returned she found the gate unlocked and her husband missing. When he did not return till 11.30 pm, she approached the local police and made a mission complaint. She said that he had also left a suicide note on the table before leaving the house.

The police sources said that the guard of the colony had stated that the deceased did not return home all night. He (the guard) took several rounds near the house but found nothing amiss.

The East district DCP, Mr Nuzhrat Hussain, and the additional DCP, who was unavailable for comments, reportedly visited the spot after they were ordered to do so by the Joint Commissioner of Police Deep Chand in front of mediapersons.

Even if one subscribes to the theory that the deceased had jumped from the third floor, where his flat is situated, surprisingly no one in the colony, including the guard heard even a thud. The cops are also not able to explain the injury marks on the throat of the deceased. The police also have no inkling who opened the gate from outside while Kusum was away.

The Joint Commission of Police, Mr Deep Chand, said that the only the post-mortem examination could shed light on the injury marks. The police were investigating the matter and questioning the other residents of the colony. 

New Delhi, September 6
The Delhi Cabinet today approved the promulgation of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2004, incorporating the various recommendations of the Anomalies and Hardship Committee created under the Unit Area Method of property tax assessment by the MCD.

The age of senior citizens for being eligible for rebate up to 30 per cent in the tax, due under Section 1148 of the Act, has been lowered from 65 to 60 years as per the recommendations.

The covered area eligible for rebate up to 30 per cent in case of self-occupied residential properties of senior citizens, women, ex-servicemen and physically handicapped persons has been increased from up to 100 to 200 sq metres.

The covered area eligible for exemption from tax of a building included in a village area, which is self-occupied for residential purposes by original owner or his legal heirs, has also been increased from the maximum 100 to 200 square metres.

The Delhi Cabinet also cleared a proposal to set up a 1000-MW gas-based power plant at Bawana in the Capital. The plant is expected to help the city in achieving self-sufficiency in power.

New Delhi, September 6
Referred to as the only one of its kind, the Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education (MACESE) library, which proved to be a treasure trove for students and professionals, is fighting hard to retain its position.

Owing to the Delhi University’s dictat reducing the working hours of the library, which is part of the Department of Education, students and professionals find themselves stranded for want of resources.

What’s more the librarian of the much sought after library that allows research scholars access to a plethora of learning material was reportedly dismissed from service without even being paid his dues.

“The university sent us a letter stating that for want of funds from the Ministry, we would have to reduce all expenses in the centre and that the librarian could not be paid his salary. When we found out from the Ministry, we were told that the university has not sent a proposal seeking grants for research work”, pointed out Prof. Poonam Batra, who resigned from the post of coordinator last year after the university proposed to combine the MACESE with the Central library.

The MACESE library, which catered to the B.El.Ed (Bachelor of elementary education) students and B.Ed students among others, does not lend out books, but allows researchers to study and take photocopies of relevant subjects after requisition for the same. Apart from reading material the library had also begun collecting audio tapes for the visually challenged to aid them get access to important lectures.

“Despite a meeting with the faculty and then Dean, Prof. S B Menon, where it was decided that the centre should be allowed to function and proposals were made to raise funds for it from other than the Ministry, Prof. Menon sent a note saying that it could not be allowed to continue for financial reasons”, explained Prof. Batra.

With the working hours of the library having been reduced, the students petitioned the authorities, including the Vice Chancellor, but despite assurances, are yet to see the results. “We want the timings reverted to the old pattern, we are research scholars with longer working hours, this new system has upset our schedule and the library now functions only between two and five p.m. as against nine am to five pm”, complained a student.

“The library provided a very important and valuable service to the students. It is a rare resource centre, which is very helpful to those who are interested in elementary education and want to research the problems in elementary education”, said Prof. Krishna Kumar, Director NCERT.

“It is strange that a library, for which the TATA’s and the UNICEF were ready to provide grants, is being neglected by the university. The centre had become a model, which the Ministry wanted to replicate in the rest of the states”, pointed our Batra. When questioned why the timings of the library were reduced, Prof. Shyam Menon, during whose tenure the letter to the effect was sent, refused to comment.

Sohna (Gurgaon), September 6
The high-profile ‘Padyatra’ launched by a local leader of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP), Mr Ram Chander Yadav, in Sohna assembly constituency, entered the sixth day today.

The Padyatra, which entered the town today, has already covered 52 out of 142 villages of the constituency.

The programme, according to the organisers of the Yatra, is to protest against the ‘rampant corruption’ among public servants, erratic and insufficient supply of water and electricity and to press for jobs for the local youths in the industrial units set up in this constituency and Gurgaon district. Lack of developmental activities in Sohna is also the focus of the agitation.

This constituency is represented by Rao Dharam Pal of Congress in the Haryana Assembly. Mr Ram Chander Yadav is an aspirant for his party ticket from this constituency for the coming Assembly election.

Addressing HVP supporters before the start of the yatra in this town, Mr Yadav alleged that there was a political conspiracy by the vested interests in depriving the local youths from getting jobs in the industrial units here.

Dwelling on the point, he said that in case the local people of the area are empowered economically, especially the youths, they would act as a threat to the political health of those who rule the state.

He said that the former Chief Minister of the state and president of HVP, Mr Bansi Lal, was the most able and effective administrator and political leader. It is he who has given all the canals for drawing water in this constituency, he added.

A larger number of HVP activists took part in the Yatra in the town, which began from the PWD Rest House. The Yatra received encouraging response from the residents.

This was testified by the fact that Mr Yadav, at the head of the procession, was stopped umpteen times by the locals to be garlanded.

The Yatra, which started on September 1 in the smallest village of the constituency, Dumpaspur, will end on September 19 in one of the biggest villages, Badshahpur. The entire journey has been divided into three phases. The first phase was completed today and the second will commence tomorrow from village Saanp Ke Nangli.

Some of the bigger villages covered under this programme include Rithos, Khedla, Damdama, Abheypur, Seermanthla, Lohsinghani, Hazipur, Seelani, Lokhuwas, Ghengola and Lakhuwas.

According to reports, the Yatra also received good response in the villages. Most of the complaints were related to the erratic supply of water and power, unemployment and lack of civic amenities.

In some of the villages, the complaint was of inadequate teachers reporting for duties in the government schools. Some also complained of lack of infrastructure in the schools. In Behalpur, the complaint that dominated the chart was accumulation of a large pool of stormwater in the village.

Modinagar (Ghaziabad), September 6
A drunken man hammered his sister’s husband to death with the help of two friends. The brother of the deceased has filed a murder report with the police, naming three persons.

According to police, Moti Gujjar, 34, son of Raghu Dayal of Sikri Road, was a driver in a bread company. At 4 pm, his wife’s brother Vinod came to Moti’s house with two friends and all started having drinks. After getting drunk, the three attacked Moti Gujjar, lying on a double bed with hammers and before anybody could stop them, they fled towards Sikri Road petrol pump.

Soon Moti’s brother Sanjay and his nephew Deepak came to the house and were stunned to see Moti lying on the bed in a pool of blood. They rushed Moti to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead by the doctors. Sanjay stated in his report that Anita, wife of the deceased was in her parent’s house at the time of the crime.

He said that Vinod had been harbouring a grudge against Moti. Vinod did not like the fact that Moti’s friend Lalit of Model Town, Ghaziabad, was having an amour with his wife.

New Delhi, September 6
A four-week follow up training programme for teacher-educators on ‘Action Research’ related to gender issues was inaugurated by Prof. Krishna Kumar, who took over as Director, NCERT, here today.

The main objective of this follow up training is capacity building of teacher- educators and thereby of teachers as action researchers within the school system. 
The programme is being organised by the Department of Women’s Studies, NCERT, and is being attended by over 40 participants from different states. The programme aims at sensitising the teacher educators on the concept, methodology and application of action research to develop skills to formulate, collect, collate and analyse data on action research projects in the area of girls education and women’s empowerment.

It also aims to prepare an action plan for addressing gender concerns and developing suitable strategies. The participants would be exposed to concepts and application of action research through lecturer-cum-discussion method, interaction and other participatory methods.

The four-week programme will also give them practice in analysis, interpretation and presentation of the findings of the research work. The preparation of need based action plan specific to their areas will also be taken up by the participants.

In his presidential address, Prof. Krishna Kumar said no civilisation could claim to have done complete justice to the women and that we are looking at an issue, which nobody can get away with just superficial commitment. 

New Delhi, September 6
The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has called for a two-day bandh on September 9 and 10 to register their protest over the “misgovernance” by the Vice- Chancellor, Prof Deepak Nayar.

The DUTA is also protesting against the “highly autocratic conduct of the Principals of Shivaji College and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College”, who they claim are “harassing teachers on the basis of fabricated charges and memos”.

The University Karamchari Union (DUCKU) has also decided to join in the two-day strike unless the Vice- Chancellor cedes to some of their demands.

New Delhi, September 6
Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today called upon Sanskrit scholars to apprise the public of the significance of the Vedas.

Presenting the Saraswati Samman for the year 2003 to renowned historian and philosopher, Professor Govind Chandra Pande during a function at National Museum auditorium here on Monday evening, the Vice-President said that the country has much to learn from the Vedas.

He said that the key to the nation’s progress lies in the proper interpretation of
the Vedas.

The thirteenth Saraswati Samman, instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation, has been given to Professor Pande for his collection of Sanskrit poems titled `Bhagirathi’. The award carries Rs 5 lakh and a citation. This is the first time that the Foundation has selected a literary work in Sanskrit for the award.

The Saraswati Samman is given every year to an outstanding literary work published by an Indian citizen in any of the languages included in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution.

Mr Shekhawat bemoaned the fact that people are forgetting the Vedas and asked the scholars to clarify whether Vedas are a myth or a reality.

He warned the nation that if we forget the Vedas, we will forget Indian civilisation and culture.

Talking of the strength of Sanskrit, the Vice-President said that the country has got Sanskrit as part of its heritage and it can help give direction to the entire world.

The Vice-President recalled how people would keep their mornings free to watch Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana on television.

Praising Sagar’s initiative, Mr Shekhawat said that those who worked in the serial based on Mahabharat also contributed towards presenting Indian tradition and civilisation.

President-Chairman of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Professor Pande said that Sanskrit and Arabic are classical languages that do not change with time.

New Delhi, September 6
Unsung Heroes...No longer, the ultimate accolade in Indian Education. India’s 15 best teachers contested in the finals of the event representing Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

The top three winners: Anuradha Benegal (Bangalore), Vidya Mandir Education Society, 1st runner-up: Shobha Raman (Chennai), Vidya Mandir Iyer Secondary School and 2nd runner-up: Nita Ganguly (Delhi), Sanskriti School, were presented with a specially designed trophy, the ‘Light of Liberty’.

The Outstanding Educator Gold winner won the trophy along with Rs 20,000 each for self and the school.

The Outstanding Educator Bronze won Rs 10,000 for self and the school.

The winners were selected through gruelling rounds that included an extempore round, a judge’s question round and a common question round.

The 15 finalists were put to test by the jury comprising experts from various fields: Mr Nana Chudasama, ex-sheriff of Mumbai and social worker, Ms Diana Hayden, former Miss World and actress, Ms Shobhaa De, author and columnist, Ms Indira Parekh, professor, IIM, Ahmedabad, Mr Nawaz Modi, professor of Political Science and Civics in Mumbai University and Mr Sam Balsara, Communications Professional.

Mr Boman Irani, Managing Trustee, Rustom Irani Foundation, felicitated the national winners.

New Delhi, September 6
Proceedings in the Delhi High Court were today paralysed as lawyers abstained from work in protest against the alleged police assault on the advocates in Lucknow last week.

The members of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) did not attend the proceedings and arrangements were made to obtain dates for the next hearing through proxy counsel, DHCBA president Amarjit Singh Chandioke said.

Condemning the police “brutality” in Lucknow, the DHCBA demanded immediate penal action against the erring police officials and the District Magistrate.

In a resolution, the Executive Committee of the DHCBA asked Chief Justice of India R. C. Lahoti to take a suo motu action and issue notices to all concerned and lay down guidelines in this regard, including that no police official shall ever touch a lawyer in robes, unless he, in the guise of that robe had committed a heinous crime.

“Police personnel showed extreme high-handedness and attacked several lawyers in robes without any provocation,” DHCBA secretary Kirti Uppal said.

All canteens, eating places, including kiosks on the High Court premises, remained closed. 

Noida, September 6
In the schemes brought by the Noida Authority for about a dozen sectors for the residential plots and flats during the last five years, the allottees have felt cheated almost at every step.

Right from the year 1999 to 2004, in about 5,000 residential plots, most of the allottees found deep craters in their plots. Many of them also had to shell out more money than what had been originally asked for by the authority.

To cap it, the allottees did not find satisfactory power, water and sewer facilities. As a result, people have lost faith in the Noida Authority schemes.

This is the main reason that the schemes brought out during the last six months for residential and commercial plots have failed miserably.

A case in point is Sector-92, developed a little beyond Gajode village. It is more than four-and-a-half year that the plots were allotted in this residential sector. Most of the allottees have paid up to 8 installments out of 10, but the road to this sector has caved in at many places so that the allottees cannot even reach their plots.

The authority, however, claim that a sum of Rs 10 crore has been incurred on development of infrastructure—roads, power, sewer etc. Now after Omex has announced a project, Forest, adjacent to Sector-92, people have started visiting their plots.. To cap it all, the ground level of most of the plots in this sector is 8 to 10 ft below the normal level.

Land mafia had been active in this area till recently who dug up the earth and removed it to elsewhere. But the authority officials, oblivious of the ground reality, are persistent on one point–they are regularly asking the allottees through letters, to get their plots registered.

Almost identical is the situation in Sectors 43, 46, 47, 48, 71 and 72. In Sector-43, the allotments had been made a decade ago in 1994, but not a single house could be constructed as the matter had gone to court.

In 1999, plots were allotted in this sector afresh, but even after five years, the sector could be developed for the same reasons–there are deep craters on the big plots here.

Perhaps unknown to the Noida Authority brass, there are up to 20 ft deep pitches in about 40 per cent plots in Sectors 46, 47, 43, and 72 developed near villages Baraula, Hajipur and Sadarpur.

Most of the drains in these sectors have also caved in. The independent power feeder is yet to be set up in Sector 47. When the allottees of Sector 72 went to have a look at their plots, they learnt that the allotments had been made on the land which had not been acquired by the authority yet.

The allottees of residential flats have their own tales of woe. The much-hyped Shramik Kunj (labour colony), LIG and MIG flats in Sector-92 have yet to get regular water supply and sewerage connection. The keys of Shramik Kunj flats were handed over to labourers by the then Power Minister Hukam Singh during 2001. Knee-deep water is a common sight here in the pot-holes and craters in the area.

While senior officers like Addl CEO Radha Chauhan acknowledge that they have received many complaints about the potholes in the allotted sectors in this connection.

She also agrees that the plots had been allotted in Sector 72 with the land having been acquired by the authority. Now the authority is in the process of giving plots to such allottees in alternative sites. The plots seem to have been allotted on the pattern of sale of second-hand machinery and equipment “as is where is” basis.

The authority is thinking of getting the whole gamut of allotment of plots and acquisition of land probed from the departments concerned, it is learnt.

New Delhi, September 6
Empowerment and Social Justice and Minister Meira Kumar today pledged ‘’all possible support’’ to the NGOs engaged in the field of helping the disabled.

She was speaking at the inauguration of a programme organised here today, ‘A Glimpse of Courage’, showcasing the achievements of some of the achievers who are also disabled.

Ms Kumar said the workshop had reinforced her belief that the disabled needed opportunity and not mercy to prove that they are second to none. She said the convergence of efforts by the Government and the NGOs would go a long way in providing equality and dignity to the people with disabilities. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagdeesan said the workshop had demonstrated that an attitude change could play an important role in bringing the disabled into the mainstream.