New Delhi, July 20
In a grim reminder of how unsafe Delhi is for women, a 23-year-old woman was abducted by four men from Mayapuri in south west district today and repeatedly gangraped in a moving car, just two months after a similar incident not far from this spot shook the city.

The woman, a resident of Mayapuri slum cluster, had gone to an open field at about 4.30 am this morning to answer nature’s call when she was forced into a white Maruti car.

Two other women, who were also with her, tried to pull her free from the clutches of the men but were beaten up. The woman was dumped off near Saraswati Vihar in north-west Delhi, almost 15 kilometres away from the place she was abducted about two hours later, police sources said.

She had been repeatedly gangraped and was in such a state of shock that she could not even tell her name to personnel of a Police Control Room (PCR) van which found her. She finally wrote her name and address on a piece of paper, the sources said.

The woman was then taken to a hospital where medical examination confirmed rape. In this case also, the rapists crossed two districts and gang raped her in a moving car.

Delhi Police, already facing flak for its tardy investigations into the gangrape of a 22-year-old Delhi University student in May, was tightlipped about the latest incident.

“We have registered a case and investigations are on,” was all Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-West district) R S Yadav was willing to comment.

While the police are busy now to tackle the new problem raised by another gang rape case in south west district, there are some speculations that the assailants might be same who were involved in the similar gang rape that took place in the month of May at Dhaula Kuan.

The modus operandi in both the cases was same. In both the cases a car was used by the assailants and the rape was committed in moving car. These two incidents also prove the very fact that there is no effective policing during night hours.

The latest incident indicates how easy it is for criminals to pick up any woman from the road and gang rape her in a moving car virtually without any risk.

In Dhaula Kuan rape case, the police could only nab only one person, residing in Noida’s Khoda colony. He was a driver. But the other three rapists are yet to be traced. Sources confirmed that he had not so far disclosed any name in the case so far.

New Delhi, July 20
The Supreme Court today directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to furnish details about the steps taken by them to protect various important monuments in the Capital from being damaged and encroached upon.

The monuments, regarding which the direction was issued, include mazars of famous Urdu poets Mirza Ghalib and Zauq, Dargah of Hazarat Nizamuddin Aulia, Mehrauli complex comprising Qutab minar and other heritage sites, Firoz Shah Kotla, Lal Gumbad, Tomb of Mubark Shah and the Badli ki Sarai battle ground of 1857 uprising.

The issue of protection of these monuments of great historical importance against encroachments and their proper maintenance was raised in a public interest litigation (PIL) by noted environmentalist lawyer M C Mehta.

Despite the Court issuing notices to the ASI, Union Government and MCD earlier, they have failed to submit their replies so far, Mehta said.

A Bench of Mr Justice S N Variava and Mr Justice A R Lakshmanan, taking note of Mehta’s submission, allowed the respondents three weeks further time to file the affidavits.

Mehta, in his PIL, had sought setting up an expert committee or a commission that would visit each of the monument and submit a report regarding the immediate steps required to be taken for their better management.

The MCD had earlier stated that it had demolished two floors of a house built illegally near Zauq’s mausoleum in Paharganj area. But the Court had asked the ASI and MCD to demolish even the ground floor of the structure. It had further directed that all the buildings around the mausoleum should be plastered.

The PIL stated that preservation of these monuments for future generations was necessary as they were symbols of the country’s rich culture and history.

New Delhi, July 20
Delhi Chief Minster Ms Sheila Dikshit today launched ‘Gyan Jyoti Scheme’ for the benefit of government employees. The scheme has been launched in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft to make available Personal Computers to government employees at attractive price points created specially for them.

The companies are also developing an Ecosystem to provide quality support in all parts of Delhi to such PC owners.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Dikshit said that acquisition of a PC at home will lead to creation of a knowledge-based society and enable them to avail of online services provided by the government and the private sector.

New Delhi, July 20
Perturbed by a large number of complaints received by Delhi Government regarding fast and inaccurate meters, excess billing and inadequate grievance redressal mechanism, the Special Secretary (Power), Arun Goyal has today written to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to rectify the problems on a priority basis.

Since these complaints come from the areas where electricity is being supplied by BRPL and BYPL, the government has asked the DERC to set up a Consumer Redressal Forums and Ombudsman for publicity, random testing of meters in large numbers, setting up of independent third party testing mechanism and also ensuring that the Discoms purchase high specification meters of reputed indigenous brands.

The government also directed the DERC to thoroughly check the billing software of the Discoms through IT Security Audit Firms, evolving norms with regard to billing errors, expediting the process of establishing separate corporate offices and CEOs for BYPL and BRPL and to look into instances of illegal gratification demanded by Discom employees.

Since the Discoms are of a view that they were only installing meters after the approval of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the government also requested the BIS to take pro-active steps to ensure that the meters supplied by the manufacturers conform to the relevant BIS standards through regular inspections. 

New Delhi, July 20
Environmental Science, Bio-Technology, Bio Informatics apart from Trade and Development and Folk Literature are some of the areas that will see India and Myanmar come together as research partners in the near future.

According to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Myanmar, universities in both countries can look forwards to sharing their resource materials as also team up for carrying out joint research. The University Grants Commission has asked Indian universities interested in participating in the exchange of resources to submit their proposals by the end of this month.

Joint Research Programmes between the two countries is being encouraged with a view to bolster a high level professional contact between Indian and Myanmar personnel working together in select areas.

Both countries have agreed to identify priority areas on which research teams will assist each other; both sides should have an infrastructure to support collaboration in the chosen area.

Prominent among these are Genetics and Human Genome, Herbal Science, Polymer Science, E-Learning, Human Resource Development, Remote Sensing, Education Technology and Archaeology.

To carry out this joint research programme, scholars of both the countries will be allowed to travel to each other’s country for the purpose of research and publication, curriculum and course development, and staff development.

Indian universities keen on developing exchange of information and research will be allowed to offer research materials, publications and information. These universities will have to provide the University Grants Commission a list of their publications, which will then be forwarded to Myanmar for further processing.

It was pointed out that the proposals would be scanned and if found suitable by Myanmar would be acquired from the universities and forwarded accordingly.

Apart from the universities, the UGC will also provide all its publications. Exchange of publication can be through print as well as electronic form.

New Delhi, July 20
The one-man committee set up to probe the escape of undertrials from Tihar Jail earlier this month has found lapses on part of both the jail administration as well as Delhi Police.

“The one-man committee of Divisional Commissioner D K Marwah has found lapses on the part of some police personnel and also found that the security requirements should have been met in the jail premises,” Delhi Chief Secretary S Reghunathan told reporters here today.

Marwah, who was appointed by the Lt Governor Mr. B L Joshi to investigate the jail break on July 6, submitted the report to the Chief Secretary earlier today.

Mr. Reghunathan said that the report was under examination and whatever action has to be taken will follow after a thorough scrutiny of the report. “All these things will be looked into and action will be taken against any person found lacking in duty in relation to the incident,” he said.

Thirteen prisoners escaped from Asia’s largest jail on July 6 while being taken to a court within the premises. The undertrials were being escorted by Delhi Armed Police personnel when they slipped away.

Later, the police arrested four of them while one surrendered.

New Delhi, July 20
Words on yellowed paper, pages that threaten to turn to dust at a mere touch, yet a priceless volume that was on offer for a mere rupee: it was certainly every book lover’s dream come true.

At the sale of books from Delhi University’s Central Library, there were more than just pleased countenances. Ecstatic and awed, treasure hunters were in for a windfall what with some rare books being put up for sale.

The university surprised many with its decision to sell books for a token amount of rupee one. A long queue gathered at the Central Library to try their luck.

The books which are up for grabs were part of the libraries run by the university in four zones of the city, which have since long become defunct.

“There were four libraries being run in the city, which were managed from the central library. Of these, the libraries in Raja Garden and South Extension were closed almost five years ago. The ones in Timarpur and Shahdara were being run from rented premises,” said a university official.

Unable to run these libraries from rented places, the university decided to sell the books stocked in these libraries to the staff and students of the university for a token amount, while those which were unfit for use on account of their condition have been donated to Khadi Gram Udyog for recycling.

“The idea was to not let the books go waste, gathering dust in some places. So while the books that are still in usable condition have been put on sale, the rest have been given for recycling,” the official said.

While some of the books are being retained for other libraries, of the 1,75,000 books, 50,000 have been given for recycling. “It was unbelievable that such rare books are being given away. Even if one buys five books, the cost is nothing. Some of these books are no longer available, so in the market their prices would be sky high,” said Siddharth Bannerjee, a student of Hansraj College who purchased the Collected works of William Shakespeare “for almost free”.

New Delhi, July 20
With the arrest of two persons, Delhi Police claim to have worked out a murder case in which a person working as a driver at a taxi stand in Shakarpur area in east district was murdered in April.

The accused have been identified as Neelam (22), a resident of Kathgaudam and Dharambir, a resident of Mandawali. The police are still to nab the third accused in the case, who has been identified as Surender.

According to the police, the accused had hired a taxi to Aligarh from the stand in question on April 29 and murdered Anjar Ahmed, the driver of the taxi on the way. —TNS

Faridabad, July 20
The tax advocates of the state and district have opposed the recent decision of the Haryana government asking the business community to file their VAT returns of Rs 1 crore or more through chartered accountants (CA). Till now, the traders filed returns after the audit and certification from the tax advocates.

The Tax Bar Association has demanded withdrawal of this order or proper amendment before its implementation. The association has threatened to launch an agitation in this connection. Mr K.K. Mishra, Zonal Secretary, Haryana Tax Bar Association, said here today that members of the association across the state were upset with the state government’s orders.

He said the association had already written to the Commissioner and Secretary of the department concerned to either withdraw this order or make proper amendment to include the tax advocates for filing the returns.

The District Tax Bar Association, which also held a meeting here today, condemned the decision and asked the government to retract the move.

According to Mr H.S. Bhati, Advocate and President of the Association, the CAs have no knowledge of the Tax Act or laws concerned. Their specialisation is in accounts which is not sufficient, Mr Bhati claimed.

Greater Noida, July 20
The district administration here has unearthed another land scam worth Rs 800 crore in Chak Basantpur village.

As a result, 19 titles without name (benamis) have been cancelled by the administration. The names of two PCS officers have come to light in the latest land scam and the administration has sought the government’s nod to take action against them, it is learnt.

Deputy District Magistrate, Sadar, Rajiv Gupta said many people now jointly acquire land which is then sub-divided. This process is called ‘kuren’.

Revenue Board Member T George Joseph, probing land shark Moti Goel’s scams, had ordered the District Magistrate to enquire into lands in the “enter-exit” process without adopting the “kuren” procedure.

In the inquiry, a scam was detected in which 150 bigha land worth Rs 800 crore was involved.

The Dy District Magistrate disclosed that among others, two PCS officers were also involved in this latest scam in the district.

Noida, July 20
The Special Operations Group and Phase-II police have busted a flourishing business of fake CDs in Nithari village, Noida, and seized 8,000 pirated CDs and 56 CD writers.

Five thousand wrappers of blue films were also recovered in the raid. The kingpin of this illegal enterprise is absconding.

The Special Operation Group’s SI Vinod Pandey and Mahesh Mishra got a tip-off that the head of the unit, Ashok Bhardwaj, was coming to Noida in his car No UP 16 H-1205 from Greater Noida.

The SOG officials told Phase-II SO Vivek Ranjan Rai to start checking vehicles. Noticing the vehicle check near NEPZ, Ashok abandoned the car and fled away. When the police searched the car, a number of CDs of latest films were recovered.

A raid on his house
presented a stunning scene – one entire room was filled with the latest
electronic gadgets and equipment.

Bhardwaj used to make pirated film CDs as well as CDs of blue films. He used to supply these CDs to Noida, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad and many other towns, police said.

Gurgaon, July 20
Labour unrest at Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India Pvt Ltd continues despite a compromise reached between the management and the workers in Chandigarh on July 18/19.

It had been decided that the salary would start from the date of signing of the undertaking and the management would call a batch of 400 workers. There were a total of 1,600 workers who signed the undertaking, informed Vivek Vishwanath, Manager HR & IR, of the plant.

He said the company called 100 workers today to start the work but the workers insisted that as agreed initially, a batch of 400 workers should join duty. Thus, no striking worker resumed duty today.

“We are committed to paying the salary from the date of signing the undertaking. We have to adjust the production planning as per the availability of workers. Their demand for a batch of 400 workers is irrational and illogical,” said the HR manager.

At present, the company is producing around 1,000 scooters per day against the capacity of 2,000 scooters. The company has suffered a financial loss of more than Rs 100 crore since the strike started on June 27, claimed Mr V Sridhar, General Manager, Manufacturing.

However, Suresh Gaur, president of Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India Employees Union, said it had been decided mutually in Chandigarh that all workers, except the 4 dismissed and 50 suspended workers, would sign the undertaking for maintaining discipline in the plant. The company must allow a batch of 400 workers at one go as agreed by the management, he demanded.

The management wants to break the unity of the workers on one pretext or another, alleged Mr Gaur.

Some workers, meanwhile, said they wanted to join duty, but leaders of a prominent labour organisation forced them not to do so. Certain people wanted the strike to continue, these workers said.

Meanwhile, the District administration has taken precautions to check any untoward incident. The company has also increased the number of its private security guards.

It may be recalled that Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, MP and General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), while addressing a massive gathering of workers on July 11, had warned the management to resolve the issue and take back all dismissed and suspended workers before July 28, otherwise they would be forced to sit on dharna at Parliament.

New Delhi, July 20
Slipped disc or Sciatica is a common problem, affecting approximately 1 per cent of the population at any given time. It usually affects people between the ages of 30 to 50 years. It is more common in males and frequently occurs in people whose occupation involves frequent bending and lifting.

The ‘disc’ in question is a cushion-like material between the numerous small bones of the spine column called vertebrae. This gelatinous material is enclosed in a fibrous capsule. Any tear in this capsule predisposes to prolapse of the disc, which causes compression of the nerve that lies very close to it. This problem is more common in lower portion of the spine, called lumbar spine.

The slipped disc typically causes low back pain, which travels to buttock and further down to back of thigh and calf muscles. This leg pain is also called as Sciatica because it radiates along distribution of the sciatic nerve. This pain increases on sneezing or straining, walking etc.

Pain may be accompanied by numbness or weakness in leg muscles and in severe situations, even bladder and bowel disturbances, according to Dr Satnam Chhabra, Consultant Neuro and Spine Surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here.

In recent years, MRI scanning is becoming available more easily and is the preferred diagnostic test for spinal problems. MRI scan can clearly show the site and amount of disc prolapse and the nerve compression.

A majority of patients respond to the non-surgical treatment. Approximately 80 per cent will not require any operation. Non-surgical treatment is given in the form of bed rest, medicines to reduce pain and swelling. Physiotherapy is gradually started.

Surgery is required in 10-20 per cent of patients whose pain persists after conservative treatment or who have paralysis or bladder and bowel dysfunction from beginning.

Now-a-days, surgery for slipped disc can be performed through a tiny incision (about 1.5 cms) in the back with the help of a telescope. Patients need not be hospitalized and they can go back home the same evening. Operation can also be performed without general anesthesia. Patients are usually very comfortable after operation and they can start walking or going to toilet the same day. They can go back to their work in a few days, says Dr Chhabra.

So, people don’t have to fear being paralysed, bed-ridden or dependent after operation.

Noida, July 20
For 243 panchayats in four blocks of the district Gautam Budh Nagar, 243 pradhans and 3185 panchayat members would be elected during the panchayat polls scheduled to be held from August 17 in four phases.

In Jevar block, the elections are scheduled for August 17, Dadri block on August 20, Dankore on August 23 and Bisrakh on August 25.

Counting of votes would be held on August 28. For the elections, 816 polling booths and 331 polling centres have been set up.Meanwhile, District Magistrate Santosh Yadav has put on hold the financial powers of village pradhans. The DM’s decision was meant to safeguard the misuse of development fund by the village pradhans, sources said.

New Delhi, July 20
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee today urged the Delhi government to set up Sikh Judicial Commission similar to the one functioning in Amritsar to act as a watch dog.

DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna said the committee has written to the Delhi government to set up such a judicial commission, which could scrutinize the functioning of the Sikh body.

He urged the state government to pass it in the assembly to refer it to the Union government to amend the Delhi Gurdwara Act, 1971, to enable the commission teeth to act.

Greater Noida, July 20
Three armed men snatched an Icon Ford car and valuables from a Ghaziabad-based trader in Bisarak police station area early Monday morning. According to police, Ghaziabad businessman Yogesh Goel of Nav Yug Market had gone to his in-laws’ place in Greater Noida on his Icon Ford Car No. UP-16 5318.

He was on his way back to Ghaziabad via Bisarakh on Monday morning when an Indica car No. UP14 -M -7767 overtook his car from behind and blocked it. Three armed criminals then overpowered the businessman at gun-point. One of the criminals snatched the car keys while another deprived him of his gold chain, cell phone and Rs 1,000. Later, they made Goel lie down on the road with his face down.

Two of the criminals then got into his car while the third one took the wheel of the Indica car. As the car did not start, all three fled in Goel’s Ford, leaving their car there.

Somehow Yogesh Goel reached Bisarakh police station and narrated his story.