New Delhi, June 8
The Chief Commissioner for Railway Safety today granted safety clearance to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for operating passenger service in its underground stretch between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariate.

Chief Commissioner for Railway Safety G. P. Garg inspected the seven-km underground stretch with its six stations on June 6 and 7 in all aspects of commuter safety on this newly-constructed route. After this extensive line inspection, lasting for two days, he gave the green signal for running of trains on the section in his report to the Ministry today.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will inspect the progress in this soon-to-be-opened stretch tomorrow. While the official date for commissioning of this section of the Metro was advanced from September 30 to June 30, the DMRC had set June 13 as the date of completion for itself and its contractors.

The works on all major systems on the section are already over along with trial and testing. While civil, electrical, ventilation, air-conditioning, signal and telecom works have been completed, finishing touches are being given to the six stations on the stretch.

While no formal date has been announced, but in all possibility the seven-km section between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat is expected to become operational sometime in the third or the fourth week of June, thereby putting to an end to the traffic problems in one of the most congested areas of Delhi.

The Delhi Government is in the process of making arrangements for the inauguration ceremony. Considering President A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s admiration for the DMRC for it being a trend-setter in developing advanced rail technologies and executing cost effective time-bound mission projects successfully, and the fact that neither he nor Congress president Sonia Gandhi have yet had the first-hand experience of travelling in the Delhi Metro, the Delhi Government would try to invite Dr Kalam and Mrs Gandhi for the inaugural run.

The line is important as it runs through the congested walled city. The underground stretch will connect some important landmarks like Delhi University, Old Secretariat, Kashmere Gate, Old Delhi Railway Station, New Delhi Railway Station, Connought Place and Central Secretariat. At present, trial runs are being carried out on the stretch.

The four-km stretch between Delhi University and Kashmere Gate is already operational and the new section will be its extension. The section would reduce hours of journey to just 18-20 minutes. Though fares have not yet been decided, but they are expected to be the same as charged by the DMRC on its Line I from a minimum of Rs 6 to the maximum of Rs 14.

At present, about 20,000 persons use the Kashmere Gate-Delhi University section every day and with the full route becoming operational, about one-lakh persons could travel on the line. The opening of this leg was expected to also give a big boost to commuter traffic on the Shahdara-Rithala line that it meets at Kashmere Gate. Delhi Metro had to face many challenges in view of the difficult ground conditions below and above the surface and the necessity to ensure the complete safety of the building on top as the tunnelling activity was done in extremely difficult areas.

It had to plan for all utilities to be diverted in advance to ensure that there was no disruption of water, electricity, sewerage and telephone connections during the construction in the area.

New Delhi, June 8
Tihar Jail, Asia’s biggest prison, is introducing a new system of lodging inmates to improve overall security. The new system will come into effect from June 13.

Earlier, prisoners were lodged in four general jails of the complex in the alphabetical order of their names. Now they will be lodged in different jails depending on which courts of the Capital they were facing trial in, a Jail spokesperson said.

From June 13, prisoners facing trial in the Tis Hazari Court will be lodged in jail No 1 and 3. There are at present 3,500 such prisoners.

He said that those being tried in the Patiala House court would be put in jail

No 4 and those facing trial in Karkardoom in jail No 2. There are 1,900 and 1,400 prisoners in these two categories respectively. According to Jail authorities, these changes were being introduced for a number of reasons.

First, they would facilitate production of prisoners in courts. The new system will help the Delhi Armed Police (ADP), which is entrusted with this responsibility to locate the prisoner to be taken to court. Earlier, the DAP had to go to different jails to pick up prisoners to be produced in the same court.

Visitors to the jail will also now find it easy to locate the prisoner they want to meet.

New Delhi, June 8
Criticizing the Central government’s decision to impose service tax on flats and buildings, the Delhi BJP president, Dr Harsh Vardhan, has demanded that the Union Finance Minister should exempt the flats and buildings from the service tax for the convenience of the people.

Dr Vardhan in a statement today said that the Central government by its decision is throttling its own policies. “On the one side, the Central government is claiming that it wants to solve the housing problem of the country but on the other hand it is imposing service tax on the houses. The flats along with routes of Metro Rail are being sold at 40 per cent higher prices by the builders,” claimed Dr Vardhan.

He also said that the previous NDA government had drastically reduced the rates of housing loan to help people in building their houses at lower costs. On the contrary after the UPA government assumed power, the aforesaid rates of interests on the housing loan has been increased by half per cent to two per cent, added Dr Vardhan. —TNS

New Delhi, June 8
The Delhi Police have arrested three persons for allegedly kidnapping a child from Tilak Nagar area in West district.

The accused have been identified as Dinesh Mahto (19), Sonu Yadav (22) and Pankaj Mahto (23), all residents of Bihar.

According to the police, on June 5, one Rajkumar, a local resident in Tilak Nagar area, made a complaint to the local police that her three-year-old grandson, Sonu, alias Davesh, was missing. A case was registered in the Tilak Nagar police station.

Meanwhile, a ransom call of Rs 2 lakh was received by the family of the child. During investigation, the police short-listed some persons, including the three accused.

Of these Dinesh Mahto was showing keen interest in the investigations. He also said that he had to go for an urgent piece of work so he had to leave. The police followed him and found him going to Varanasi from where the ransom call had been received.

In Varanasi, the police spotted the kidnapped child with another accused, Sonu Yadav.

The police party swooped on them and rescued the child from their possession. At their instance, the third accused, Pankaj Mahto, was also arrested.

New Delhi, June 8
A man has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Delhi court today for harassing his wife for dowry, leading her to commit suicide. The in-laws of the victim, identified as Pratap Singh and Usha, were also found guilty of harassment. Both have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on each of the convicts.

The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Lal Singh, held the husband and in-laws guilty of beating and harassing Sita Devi, leading her to take the extreme step.

The deceased’s mother, Daya Devi, during her deposition, told the court that Anil Kumar, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar, had married her daughter, Sita, on January 29, 2003.

Anil, along with his mother Usha and father Pratap Singh, used to harass her daughter for dowry. They all used to beat her up even on trivial matters, she said.

Inderjeet, the father of the deceased, also said in his deposition that they used to taunt her about dowry and demanded a motorcycle and cash. He tried to pacify them but they continued to harass her.

She committed suicide on March 15, 2004 and the postmortem report revealed that she had died due to asphyxia.

All the three were convicted under section 498A (Cruelty against married woman), 304B (Dowry death) and 34 (Common intention to commit a crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

New Delhi, June 8
Students appearing for class X and XII examinations in March 2006 to be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) will not have to take more than one pre-board examination in their respective schools.

The practice of conducting multiple pre-board examination by schools has been perceived to cause stress to students taking the public examinations. This was also pointed at the expert group meeting on stress-free education chaired by the Union Minister for HRD, Mr Arjun Singh, in March this year.

The CBSE has now directed all affiliated schools to refrain from conducting more than one pre-board examination. “While the Board appreciates the need for providing the right mental ambience to the students to appear in a public examination through appropriate academic inputs, it is felt that conduct of pre-board examinations more than once is absolutely unwarranted and undesirable,” the CBSE has written to the schools.

Pointing out that this practice adds to the mental stress of the learners, infusing additional fear, the CBSE has mentioned that stress tends to cause students to develop self-pity, depression and a self-defeating attitude.

Schools have also been advised to conduct pre-board exams before the last week of January providing adequate time for remedial teaching. “It also gives some space to the learner for self- learning. The objective of this examination should be to identify those academic components in the performance of the students, which need to be strengthened through academic guidance, and counselling,” the letter reads.

Noting that a school’s profile is not built exclusively on the results produced by them in a public examination, but is reflected through the quality of transaction of the curriculum and the value based atmosphere provided to the learners to develop the qualities of the head and heart, the CBSE has also asked them to refrain from stopping students from taking the public exams for fear of poor performance.

The Board has also urged schools to adhere to ‘Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation’, and instead of focussing on the public examinations right from the class IX asked them to issue C.C.E. certificate to students who are qualifying the class X examination.

In the letter to the schools, Director, Academic, Mr G. Balasubramaina, noted, “some schools also conduct as many as three to four pre-boards before the commencement of the public examinations. The atmosphere of fear starts building up with the commencement of these examinations, very often affecting the mental and psychological health of the students. In certain cases the inadequate performance of the students in these pre-board examinations is treated as a deterrent and schools tend to hold the students from appearing in the public examinations, sometimes with a view that an adverse result might affect the image of the institution.” 

New Delhi, June 8
With the arrest of four persons, the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch claimed to have busted a gang of cheats, who procured income tax refund orders in the name of various individuals and encashed money to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore.

The accused persons were identified as Harvinder Singh Sahota, alias Lucky (33), Jujhar Singh (31), Amit Chawla (29) and Manoj, alias Bittoo (37).

Acting on a complaint that some unscrupulous elements in connivance with income tax officials has claimed income tax refunds on the basis of bogus ITRs and TDS certificates, the sleuths during investigation found cheques were enchased in 43 bank accounts at ABN Amro Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, ICICI and other banks.

During investigation, the sleuths also found that the accused persons gave fake addresses to conceal their identities. The sleuths also identified various moveable and immovable properties worth Rs 2.73 crores, acquired by the accused in Delhi and Gurgoan.

Faridabad, June 8
A large number of residents, including an NGO, the Faridabad Abhibhawak Ekta Manch, have sought action against schools involved in harassing students, particularly related to the admission process. It has been alleged that “a number of private schools in the city have been denying admission to their own students at the plus 2 level, who could not score above 70 per cent in the Matric examinations”. These schools were also accused of charging “excessive fees at the time of admissions and not exempting even the old students, thus violating the directions of the Supreme Court in this regard”.

The president of the Manch, Mr O. P. Sharma, said here today that the annual admission pangs of many students and their parents had begun due to the “illegal and improper practices” adopted by certain schools. These institutions, he said had been denying admission to their own students, who failed to score above 70 per cent marks.

In many cases, these schools were forcing the candidates to choose streams (Science, Arts and Commerce) strictly according to school instructions.

The Manch has alleged that some of the students, who have scored between 60 to 75 per cent marks were being refused Science subjects if they wanted to continue in the same school.

Describing this practice as unfair, he assured the students and their guardians that the Manch was ready to take legal action on their behalf if the parents take a firm stand against such schools.

According to the Manch, the other serious malpractice adopted by many schools was to charge “excessive fees and funds” at the time of admission, even from their old students, who wish to take admission at the plus 2 level.

Quoting the Supreme Court judgement in a case in ‘1995, he said no school could deny admission to its old students in the next class and schools could not charge any additional fee or funds from such students.

He said the apex court had also pronounced a similar judgement in 2000, in relations to a student’s admission in Gujarat. He said at least two such cases were reported in Haryana in the recent past, when the court gave judgement in favour of students.

He assured the parents and the students that the Manch would help those students, who report such harassment.

Faridabad, June 8
In a shocking incident, a policeman here has been accused of raping a girl. The Kotwali police have registered a case against the constable in this regard. The victim is a resident of A.C Nagar in the NIT area here.

Coming soon after a recent case in which a tutor was accused of raping his own student, the “shameful incident” has shocked the residents of the area.

The accused had been posted at the police station of the area earlier, but had been transferred to the policelines a few days ago.

According to the complaint lodged by the mother of the victim, the accused cop used to visit their house on some pretext or the other and raped her daughter recently when he found her alone in the house.

The case has been booked under sections 376 and 506 of the IPC, though no arrest has been made so far.

In another such case in the district, three persons, including a woman of Beda village of Palwal sub-division, have been arrested for alleged rape of a minor girl a few days ago.

New Delhi, June 8
The Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, today laid the foundation stone of a multi-speciality hospital run by Fortis Healthcare in Shalimar Bagh area.

To be built with an estimated investment of Rs 250 crore, the 500-bed hospital will have comprehensive tertiary level services. However, it would provide specialised treatment in cardiac, orthopaedics, neurosciences, gastro-intestinal diseases and renal and genito-urinary diseases.

In an effort to avoid disturbing patients at hospitals, the Chief Minister will write to the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, to issue directions that rail engines should avoid blowing horn while passing by healthcare centres.

“Blowing of horn disturb the patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and may lead to complications. To avoid such things I will write to the Railway Minister to issue a directive to the train drivers not to blow horn while passing by hospitals,” Mrs Dikshit said.

She said directions should be issued to train drivers not to blow horn in certain stretches where the hospitals are located close to the railway track. The Health Minister, Dr Yoganand Shastri and the Outer Delhi MP, Mr Sajjan Kumar, were also present on the occasion.

New Delhi, June 8
Sufi poet Fariduddin Attar was hailed as a philosopher and great poet of not only Iran but the whole world at a symposium on his poetry in the Capital today. The symposium was presided by Mr M. SH Shakib, Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of Iran.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jal Tamleh, Director, Iran Culture House, called Attar a great poet of not only Iran but the whole world. Fariduddin Attar was born in Nishapur in Iran. While there is a disagreement over the exact date of his birth and death, it is said he lived about 100 years. The name
Attar means herbalist, or druggist, which was his profession.

It is said that he saw as many as 500 patients a day in his shop and while prescribing herbal remedies, which he prepared himself, he also wrote poetry. About 30 works written by Attar survive, but his masterpiece is the mantic at-Tayr (the conference of the birds). In this collection, he describes a group of birds (individual human souls) under the leadership of a hoopoe (spiritual master) who determines to search for the legendary Simurgh bird (God). The birds must confront their own individual limitations and fears while journeying through seven valleys before they ultimately find the Simurgh and complete their quest.

Attar’s poetry inspired Rumi and many other Sufi poets. It is said that Rumi actually met Atttar when Attar was an old man and Rumi was a boy, though some scholars dispute this possibility.

A story is traditionally told about Attar’s death. He was taken prisoner by a Mongal during the invasion of Nishapur. Someone soon came and tried to ransom Attar with a 1,000 pieces of silver. Attar advised the Mongol not to sell him for that price. The Mongol, thinking to gain an even greater sum of money, refused the silver. Later, another person came, this time offering only a sack of straw to free Attar. Attar then told the Mongol to sell him for that was all he was worth. Outraged at being made a fool, the Mongol cut off Attar’s head.

New Delhi, June 8
The national award function of ‘International Poster Contest– 2004’ was held in the NCERT campus today. Dr Kiran Bedi, Magsasay awardee, gave away the awards to the winners in the different categories.

An exhibition of the selected posters was also organised on this occasion. A number of officials of the national and international agencies were present on the occasion.

The contest is organised annually since 1992 in India by NCERT and is sponsored by UNFPA. The contest focuses on specific themes. The themes chosen this year were ‘Imagine the Future’, ‘A Mother’s Promise’ and ‘Celebrating Equality and Empowerment’.

The project has galvanised its efforts towards promoting co-curricular activities and involving a large number of students, teachers and members of the community in activities focused on population and development issues.

Speaking on the occasion, the Dr Bedi, expressed her happiness at the opportunity to see the creative talents of the children on the various themes.

She said that it is a fantastic opportunity to learn through the posters even for the elders like us.

Speaking on the themes of the contest, she said why should we only empower and educate the girls, we need to work in the direction to sensitise the boys as well so as to balance the society.

She emphasised that if the boys are educated there will be a fall in the crime graph against the girls.

Highlighting the important role of the teachers, she said we are overlooking the contribution made by the teachers in our society.

She emphasised the need to balance the role of parents and teachers in the process of learning.

Pointing out the need for learning of life-skills, she highlighted the role of mind management. She said that to be intelligent, happy and successful in life we must learn to manage our mind.

Twelve winners were awarded this year after their selection in a two-tier evaluation process from 9548 entries from all over India.

There were four categories of participants and the entries were received in different age groups: 10-12 years; 13- 15 years and 16-19 years. As many as 1413 entries were received in the 20 years and above category.

The award winners in these categories in first, second and third position are: Category I- Ms Akhila (Delhi), Ms Yashvi Bhutani (Delhi), Mr Sadanand Sharma (Manipur), Category II-Mr Pritam Roy (West Bengal), Ms Barkha Talwar (Delhi), Ms Sakshi Garag (Delhi), Category III- Mr Dhirendra Sai (Chhattisgarh), Mr Omkar Manmath Kharolkar ( Maharashtra), Ms Anju Sharma (UP), Category IV-Mr Keshavbhai Chhanbhai Tandel (Gujrat), Ms Smruti Kirtibhai Maniar (Gujarat), Mr Manjunath Krshnarao Mane (Karnataka).

New Delhi, June 8
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has fixed a target to plant 15 lakh saplings in and around parks, gardens, institutions, roads, drains and sanitary landfill sites to improve the environment and green coverage of the city.

The chairman of the Garden Committee, Mr Nathu Ram Nagar, said that the MCD was making all out efforts to improve and provide pollution-free environment to the citizens of Delhi.

He said that the MCD had itself developed the saplings of the trees and shrubs in its various nurseries, which are more than five lakh in number and ready for plantation this monsoon.