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Haryana poll: Ticket aspirants jump the gun
Cops’ sons get into bloody scuffle on New Year’s eve
Deshbandhu
College
4 firemen battling for their lives
Decision on Nathupur land will not affect Cyber City: Developer
Haryana sends 3rd installment of relief
Noida goes CNG way
Delhi to be made free of rabies: Commissioner
Spurious L & T goods seized
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Delhi govt plans to build low-cost dwelling units
Group to make study of maths more meaningful
IMT valedictory function held
Bangladeshi robbers held
AICB celebrates silver jubilee
Cloud cover keeps city warm
Reliance Hungama offer
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Haryana poll: Ticket aspirants jump the gun
Gurgaon, January 1 Although the political parties are yet to announce their nominees from Gurgaon Assembly, some of the ticket aspirants appear to have jumped the gun in launching their campaign in their own subtle ways. While there is a scramble for Congress ticket with more than half a dozen aspirants shuttling in the corridors of power in party circles at the Centre, the BJP is likely to nominate its stalwart, Mr Sitaram Singla. Aspirants for Congress ticket include former minister Dharamvir Gauba, Mr Vipin Khanna, Mr Khazan Singh and Mr Pradeep Zaildar. There is also a buzz in the Congress circles of Mrs Kiran Chaudhary, daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, being in the race for party ticket. Mrs Chaudhay, wife of Mr Surender Singh, has been active in Delhi state politics and lost as a Congress nominee in the last Assembly election. Another name doing the rounds is that of Dr Asha Sharma, educationist and a senior Congress leader. However, many feel that Vipin Khanna, who is a Punjabi, is a serious contender if the party wants a new face and a younger person to represent the Punjabi community. Mr Gauba, another leader in the local Punjabi community, is relatively older. In fact, he is the eldest among those who are in the race for the ticket. In case the party plumbs for someone from the Jat community, which does not seem probable, then the choice might veer between Mr Khazan Singh and Mr Pradeep Zaildar. A mystery, however, envelops the status of the Deputy Speaker of the Haryana Assembly and sitting MLA from Gurgaon, Mr Gopi Chand Ghelot. Although Mr Gehlot contested the last Assembly election as an Independent, he is a stalwart of the ruling INLD. In fact, to him goes the credit of building the INLD from the scratch, not only in Gurgaon but in entire South Haryana. Mr Chautala, who was here a few days ago, was questioned by mediapersons about the possibility of Mr Gehlot being the INLD nominee. The CM responded by saying that his party would consider Mr Gehlot’s case only when he applies for it. This, to many, was in bad taste, as no local leader in the INLD can match the stature of Mr Gehlot. Despite the fact that he contested as an Independent, for all practical purposes, he remains a staunch INLD activist. Notwithstanding these uncertainties, a number of aspirants have already waded into election campaigning as they are cocksure about wrangling a ticket from their respective political parties. They are already into corner and group meetings among the voters. They are also using the opportunity to drum support for themselves in public forums, in social functions etc to strengthen their claims for the ticket. In an unrelated development, it is learnt that the local election office has so far issued photo identity cards to about 90 per cent of the voters. However, the authorities have made stand-by arrangements to ensure voting rights to the voters who do not have the cards.
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Cops’ sons get into bloody scuffle
Faridabad, January 1 According to the complaint lodged with the police, the incident took place at 11.30 pm when the residents of Khateek colony were engaged in a New Year eve function. It is reported that three youths, identified as Pawan, Sonu and Aman (all sons of serving policemen of Haryana, including a chowki in-charge, came there and started dancing without permission. As these youths were allegedly in a drunken state, the organisers of the programme objected and asked them to leave. This, in turn, led to an altercation. Then, the outsiders reportedly left the place, but came back with seven other youths who were armed with sharp-edged weapons, including swords. Later, they attacked those present and fled after some time. The assault left Pawan, Anil, and Vicky seriously injured; four others, identified as Sonu, Surender, Rajiv and Pramod, also suffered injuries. The critically injured have been shifted to a leading private hospital. The youths have been booked under Section 307 of the IPC. No arrest has been made so far.
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Deshbandhu College
New Delhi, January 1 Having witnessed a conspicuous deterioration in the standards, the staff council of the morning shift has mooted an idea, which it claims will not just help the college regain some of its distinction, but will also prop it up as a competitor to some of the ‘elite colleges’. The proposal has, however, run into rough weather, what with the evening college staff vehemently opposed to the plan drawn up for the image makeover. “The staff council of the morning shift has proposed that there should be separate buildings for both the shifts and that the evening shift lot should have nothing to do with the infrastructure earmarked for the morning shift”, complained a faculty member of the evening shift. It was pointed out that the members of the staff council of the morning shift hold the “evening shift students responsible for bringing a bad name to the college and also for defacement of college property”. While the staff council of the morning shift has passed a resolution to the effect and the Chairperson of the Governing Body too has indicated his approval of the proposal, the evening shift staff is an unhappy lot. “Not just have we been relegated to the old block, which was earlier meant to be razed down owing to its run-down condition, the students will be prevented from using the library, the girls and the boys common rooms and the sports facilities, including the grounds, all of which will be retained by the morning shift”, said another faculty member. The piqued teachers claim the Governing body has brushed off of their concerns by assuring them of “replicating the infrastructure in the portion meant for the evening shift”. “Where is the money for replicating the infrastructure? Has the UGC assured them of assistance, does the college have a corpus it can withdraw from?” they questioned. Adding “It is easy to make plans and promises, but someone needs to do their homework first. Besides how can they blame the evening shift students for all the destruction? Are all the morning shift students well behaved and disciplined?” The proposal, say faculty members, is also in violation of the rules that specifies that evening shift colleges should be run from the same building as the morning shift. “The UGC has been stressing on the maximum utilisation of space and buildings, which in any case does not improve standards, students and the quality of teaching does”, said the faculty member.
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4 firemen battling for their lives
New Delhi, January 1 They have been identified as Wazirpur Fire officer Dhrampal, ADO Rani Jhansi Road, Azam Singh Bhatti, Station Officer Prem Singh Dahiya and Janakpuri leading fireman Ram Kishan. The remaining 11 firemen are reported to be out of danger and are taking treatment. The fire department had bad year-end news on December 31 with Deputy Chief Fire Officer Surendra Kumar and two firemen dying in the blaze. The firemen were injured as they battled 40-feet-high flames that reduced a four-storeyed wood godown to rubble. The blaze broke out at 0330 hrs, filling the building with smoke and setting off early morning panic in the market stocked with huge quantities of lumber, plywood, windows, doors and roofing material, witnesses said. Hundreds of bystanders stood outside the building as more than 40 fire tenders kept tackling the blaze even more than 12 hours after it had erupted. Fire sources said that there were 30 cases of fire incidents reported on the New Year’s eve across the city.
Two killed in New Year’s
eve mishap
Two persons were killed on New Year’s eve when their motorcycles were knocked down by a truck near the Andrews Ganj bus stand at around 11.30 pm last night. The victims were identified as Pankaj Kanthpal (27), a resident of Nanakpura, and Mahipal Singh Bhist (27), a resident of Uttranchal. The police said while Pankaj was riding a Pulsar, Mahipal was riding a Hero Honda when the accident took place. Pankaj died on the spot while Mahipal was declared brought dead in the hospital. The police said that the truck driver had fled, leaving behind the vehicle. The police have registered a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving and have launched a massive hunt. Meanwhile, the city police have challaned 150 persons for violating traffic rules in different parts of the city.
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Decision on Nathupur land will not affect
Gurgaon, January 1 An officer of the developer said on condition of anonymity said that the Cyber City project is spread over 125 acres of land. Out of this, only 19.5 acres, which falls in Nathupur village on National Highway No 8 had been embroiled in controversy as it had been allotted by the state government for a nominal amount of Rs four crore. The state government has decided to de-notify this piece of land. The officials of the private developer claimed that there would be no hiccups. A corporate office of a leading communication company, Ericssion, was already functioning from the land. Ericsson is occupying 1.5 lakh square feet in the Cyber City, the official added. The second building in the Cyber City project, DLF City Greens, comprising five blocks and with an area of 8.97 lakh square feet, is in the final stage of occupation. The leading IT giant, IBM, which is shifting its corporate office there, is one of the occupants of the buildings, added the official. Over the next five to 10 years, the Cyber City would acquire another 15 million square feet. A highly placed source in the government revealed that the Town and Country Planning Department had recommended the transfer of the National Highway land back to the Panchayat as the award for the land was not announced by the Gurgaon authorities. The land was acquired from the Panchayat at the collector’s rate of Rs 14 lakh per acre. The government had also admitted that the land acquisition proceedings for the 19.5 acres had not been initiated as per norms. The land was being acquired for public purpose and not for a private coloniser. The precious land which was strategically situated on the National Highway No 8, opposite Udyog Vihar, could not be handed over to a private coloniser at such a low price, explained the official.
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Haryana sends 3rd installment of relief
New Delhi, January 1 Resident Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who is coordinating the despatch of relief material from Haryana, stated this today. Mr Lavasa disclosed that the consignments contained medicines, cotton blankets, pillows, buckets, mugs and clothes received from Panipat, Gurgaon and Kaithal districts. He said that 240 boxes containing medicines worth Rs 56 lakh, for managing a variety of health problems, including fever, diarrhea and dysentery, had been sent so far. Most of the medicines have been sent as per the requirements of Tamil Nadu government. Mr Lavasa said that 5,050 cotton blankets, 2,000 cotton mattress, 10,000 bed sheets, 2,000 pillows and 1,470 pillow covers worth Rs 16 lakh had been received from Panipat district. In addition, 4400 baby suits, 3504 T-shirts, 2096 frocks, 1,000 dhotis and 800 sares were also sent. Two thousand liters of phenyl and 1,000 buckets and mugs costing Rs 40,000 were received from Gurgaon district.
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Noida goes CNG way
Noida, January 1 Speaking on the occasion, Mr A. K. De, Managing Director, Indraprastha Gas Limited, said: “IGL has demonstrated the experience and expertise of creating and maintaining the CNG and PNG infrastructure in the NCT of Delhi. We would like to be given an opportunity to create the natural gas infrastructure in the city of Noida. The IGL has already submitted the proposal to authorities and are hopeful that their proposal would be given a favorable consideration. According to some IGL officials, they would excel on the CNG experience of Delhi in Noida.
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Delhi to be made free of rabies: Commissioner
New Delhi, January 1 The national Capital will be made rabies-free within two years, the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta assured. Spelling out MCD’s New Year resolutions for improving civic life of Delhiites, the Municipal Commissioner said that so far, 12,000 dogs had been sterilised and many more will be caught for the purpose in the coming year. The target is to sterilise 20,000 dogs by March. He said statistics showed that if 70 per cent dogs in a locality were sterilised, rabies did not occur there. He appealed to the Residents Welfare Associations
(RWAs) to cooperate with the civic body in its campaign to catch stray dogs. Mr Mehta said making the Capital free of stray animals in the coming year was a continuation of the MCD’s campaign launched last year to make the Capital clean. The civic bodies caught 36,000 stray cattle last year.
NCC Republic Day camp
begins
The NCC Republic Day Camp 2005 began at the NCC Camp, Garrison Parade Ground, Delhi Cantonment today with the opening address by Lt-General
M.C. Bhandari, AVSM and Bar, Director-General, National Cadet Corps to the cadets. A total of 1,800 cadets, including boys and girls drawn from 16 NCC directorates covering all the states and union territories, are participating in the Republic Day Camp. The cadets will take part in a number of training competitions. The camp will culminate with the prestigious Prime Minister’s Rally on January 27. Addressing the cadets, Lt-General M. C. Bhandari, DG of the NCC, said that the aim of the camp is not only to give the cadets a glimpse of the national Capital and exposure to some of the important events that take place in national life in January each year, but also to project to the nation the value for which the NCC stands. The Republic Day Camp is a ‘Mini India’ and participants could learn a lot from each other, the Lt-General said.
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Spurious L & T goods seized
New Delhi, January 1 In another case, the New Delhi district police arrested one Parveen Kumar who came to Super Bazar area in Connaught Place to collect a consignment of pornographic books and other literature. Based on this information, the police seized 15 bundles of pornographic literature, including 6,000 books, from a hideout in Loni Bus stand.
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Delhi govt plans to build low-cost dwelling units
New Delhi, January 1 According to the tentative plan, the Master Plan 2021 will incorporate details of building 21 lakh dwellings by the year 2021. The moot question, however, remains how the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will get the land required for building that many dwellings. The meeting also discussed plans to build playgrounds for children in and around residential colonies, so that future generations are encouraged to take up sport on a bigger scale. The officials felt that adequate facilities should be provided in those playgrounds. Doing so, they felt, would also give an impetus to sporting activity, particularly in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in the city in the year 2010. Not only will it create a sporting culture among the youth, they observed, but would also boost the infrastructure in the city. Also discussed was the matter of parking given that Delhi has more number of vehicles than all the three other metropolitan cities put together. The government wants to augment the parking facility in the Capital to ease traffic congestion on the roads.
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Group to make study of maths more meaningful
New Delhi, January 1 This was decided at a two-day meeting of the group chaired by Prof. R Ramanujam that concluded here today. At the meeting Prof Ramanujam said that the group is considering working on various aspects to make the subject more meaningful and easy for the students. This includes interventions at all levels of teaching i.e. primary, secondary and higher secondary. The group is working in this direction since people use mathematics extensively in daily life. ‘‘That is all the more reason for making this subject more acceptable to children,’’ he added. He also believes that Mathematics will be an important subject that will facilitate progress in the modern world. Prof. Hukum Singh, Member Secretary, added that in the coming National Curriculum Framework Review exercise efforts will be made to remove the Maths phobia from the mind of the students and make it more interesting, so that they opt for the subject at the higher level. Prof. Hukum Singh in past had strongly advocated for a Mathematics lab in schools, which has been implemented by the CBSE for the year 2005 for classes upto VIII in all CBSE affiliated schools. It was pointed out that Mathematics is an important subject and today without its knowledge one would have severe limitations and unable to make progress. The purpose of teaching of Mathematics is not to make mathematicians of
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IMT valedictory function held
New Delhi, January 1 The Vice President of TCS, Mr Suryakant, chaired the function that was attended by representatives of major IT companies. The function is part of the annual placement process of the PGDCA fraternity in IMT. The respective companies would hand over to the outgoing batch of 2005 their joining letters. Established in 1986, the PGDCA program of IMT has seen about 500 students graduating. It was pointed out that the recent Dataquest release has ranked it amongst the top 10 tech schools in India. Prominent campus recruiters this year were TCS, IBM, ST Micro-electronics, ACCENTURE, Perot Systems, HP Digital Global Soft, FIDELITY, CSC, BARCO, InfoGain, NETCUSTOMER and NIIT. Mr Suryakant, while addressing the gathering, stressed upon the virtues of modern business ethics, hard work and commitment. He lauded the performance of the students. Mr Sharat Kumar, the Chairman of the IMT Management Committee, in his address listed the virtues a successful manager must have to excel in a competitive scenario.
Zafar Award
goes to Alvi
The annual Urdu Academy’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Award for 2004 has gone to eminent litterateur and scholar Dr Tanveer Ahmed Alvi. The award, carrying a cash prize of Rs 1,11,111, a shawl, a plaque and a citation, has been given to Alvi for his lifetime service to the cause of Urdu language and culture, the Urdu Academy announced here today. It will be presented at a function here later this month, the Academy said in a statement.
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Bangladeshi robbers held
New Delhi, January 1 The police had received a call that a house in Bhajanpura was robbed at around 5.50 am and accordingly a special team visited the spot. Later in the day the police party found two persons coming from Karkari More side and moving around in a suspicious manner. On seeing the police personnel, the suspicious looking persons started running and entered the Laxmi Nagar district center for cover. When the unrelenting police party followed them, one of them tried to attack Head Constable Ishrat Ali with a knife while another pointed a country made weapon at Constable Mahavir Singh. But the alert police party soon managed to overpower them. The suspects were identified as Mohammad Almin and Khalik Khan alias Rajif Khan, both residents of Bangladesh. During interrogation the suspects disclosed that they were involved in the robbery in the Bhajanpura area and also revealed the names of their six associates. The police have launched a massive hunt to trace the accomplices. In another case, with the arrest of one Nazim Miyan, resident of Jyotiba Phoole Nagar, the East district police today claimed to have worked out a vehicle theft case. One country made weapon was recovered from his possession.
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AICB celebrates silver jubilee
New Delhi, January 1 Minister of State for Programme Implementation, Mr Oscar Fernandes, will be the chief guest on the occasion that will mark the inauguration of the Confederation’s Silver Jubilee celebrations with the release of an illustrated booklet in the AICB and its activities. A set of 50 books running into 149 volumes and 1568 master pages in Braille prepared by the AICB and sponsored by SKN - a Holland-based organisation will also be released on the occasion. These books will be made available to visually challenged people across the country at subsidised rates. A book for teachers training centres for the visually challenged and one on visual handicaps and personality dynamics will also be released. Awards will be presented to children from public schools and to the winners of National Braille Reading Competitions. An exhibition of modern aids for the visually challenged will also be put up.
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Cloud cover keeps city warm
New Delhi, January 1 A cover of clouds over the Capital’s skies caused the mercury to stay appreciably above normal levels. Minimum temperature stood at 13.7 Celsius, seven degrees above normal, the Weather Office said. The phenomenon did deprive Delhi residents of bright sunshine. Though the city saw winds blowing last evening, the temperature however remained stable.
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Reliance Hungama offer
New Delhi, January 1 The Chief Executive Officer of the Reliance Infocomm, Delhi Circle, Mr. Navneet Saluja, said “Customers stand to win from over one hundred gift vouchers, hundreds of gifts hampers and personalised T-shirts with their photographs at the daily lucky draws at each of the participating WebWorlds. Any one who buys a Broad Band Centre (BBC) pack worth Rs 300 during the Hungama period qualifies for the daily draw and the final draw on January 2. Daily draws are held between 7.30 pm and 8 pm at the respective WebWorlds, while the final draw will be held at one designed WebWorld.
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