New Delhi, August 5
A Delhi court today extended the CBI custody of Pankaj Dahiya, the alleged mastermind behind the sensational Delhi College of Engineering Entrance Exam scandal, and his accomplice till August 8 for their further interrogation.

The court also granted interim bail to another accused Himanshu Sharma till August 16 on health grounds.

Special Judge Pratibha Rani granted 3 more days for the CBI to interrogate Pankaj and Lalit Hooda, who had surrendered before the court on July 29, as the agency said they are yet to give details about their accomplices and made contradictory statements with respect to securing question booklets and the number of students who received their SMS.

The agency claimed that some candidates whom they questioned revealed names of three persons — Pankaj’s brother Praveen Dahiya, Surinder Gehlot, Sanjeev — and sustained interrogation of Pankaj and Hooda was needed to arrest them.

CBI also said they have to make some crucial recoveries including mobile phones and SIM cards.

Meanwhile, the court refused to accept the bail application filed by Himanshu Sharma, arrested on July 27, on grounds of ill health and instead granted him interim bail till August 16.

The CBI says the accused, booked under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act helped 21 students to indulge in malpractices during the Common Entrance Examinations for admission to the Delhi College of Engineering in May this year by sending them answers through SMS in lieu of Rs 4 lakh per candidate.

The CBI claimed that several incriminating documents, including a diary containing the names of some of the examinees, were seized during searches conducted at Pankaj’s residence “which clearly established the pivotal role played by him and his accomplice in the whole episode”.

CBI, on a complaint from the Registrar of Delhi University, conducted probe and had on July 19 registered cases against the 21 students and some unknown officials of the university in connection with the case.

The agency claimed the accused had given to each candidate a SIM card through which they got the answer keys of the question booklet in the form of SMS.

The matter came to light when it was found that 11 candidates, all ranked 56, scored the same marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) in the entrance exam.

Three other students ranked 25 with similar scores in the three subjects. Again, five students, all ranked 13, scored the same marks in PCM. Several parents and students had lodged complaints with the university in this regard.

Following the CBI report, the Delhi High Court had on July 25 directed the Delhi University to cancel the offer of admission of the students who were found to have indulged in malpractices.

Gurgaon, August 5
A large number of house owners in several unauthorised and partly-authorised colonies here have been served with notices by Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to remove encroachments from their properties.

The colonies include Dayana Colony, Narharpur, Dayan Nand Colony, Kirti Nagar, Khandsa, Surya Vihar, Devi Lal Nagar, Wazirabad and Mohal Colony.

Some of the houses constructed in these areas date back to about a decade. Many of them are two or more storied pucca constructions.

Some of the house owners allege that notices have been served on them even though they have obtained “No Objection Certificate” and were paying taxes and others dues to the concerned departments. They also said that they have been provided with electricity, water and other civic amenities.

HUDA officials, however, say that the colonies have been set up on land belonging to HUDA. The Land Acquisition Department had acquired the land in several pockets to set up residential and other sectors and gave the same to HUDA.

However, HUDA does not have physical possession of some pockets of the land. In the meanwhile, the unauthorised constructions came up apparently in connivance with officials of various departmental authorities and the political leaders.

During the preceding INLD government the authorities had demolished a good number of structures in some of the colonies, but the demolition drive was abandoned due to assembly elections.

The house-owners facing the axe have decided to meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during his proposed visit to Gurgaon on August 7 to plead their cause.

New Delhi, August 5
The Regional Plan 2021 for the National Capital Region has suggested the need for proper planning at various levels for disaster preparedness, mitigation and disaster response.

The plan by NCR Planning Board has also suggested making the Post Disaster Management Plan an integral part of the sub-regional plans to be prepared by the state governments concerned, Board sources said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had been advising the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi from time to time to take up various measures to deal with disasters, including earthquake.

The mitigation measures included preparation of disaster management plans at the state, district and block levels, and amending building bye-laws to incorporate Bureau of Indian Standards codes for construction activities in seismic zones III, IV and V.

The model building bye-laws had been finalised by an expert group and shared with the all state governments for implementation. The unified building bye-laws for Delhi had already been amended by notification dated March 21, 2001 for incorporating earthquake-proof features in buildings of prescribed specifications.

A Disaster Management Authority had been set up in the Capital that had prepared and circulated a Draft Disaster Management Policy. A State Emergency Operation Centre had also been set up and mock drills were being conducted, apart from several ‘sensitisation meetings’ for generating awareness about disaster preparedness.

Action had also been initiated for preparation of state and district level response plans, database for disaster response network and capacity building at various levels.

New Delhi, August 5
Claiming that the new textbooks for school students will be ready by October 2005, the NCERT has put forth that these books will be interesting, attractive and constitute no burden on the children.

The council has also constituted a committee of experts to promote languages in school education, which will be headed by Prof. Namwar Singh. Eminent members from English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu disciplines will be part of the committee.

Explaining the task of the committee Prof. Namwar Singh said textbooks in the new scenario will be a challenge for, so that the students are curious about the language and keeping these points in minds, there is a need to prepare questions for them. He further said that the committee would prepare such textbooks, which will be interesting, attractive and have no burden on the children.

The committee comprises Dr Mukul Priyadarshini, of the Delhi University for primary classes, for class 6-12, Dr Purushottam Aggarwal, of JNU, Prof Amrita Valli of CIEFL, for English language, Prof Radhavallabh Tripathi, Dr Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar, for Sanskrit language and Prof Shamim Hanfi for Urdu language.

In recent meetings of the National Focus Group, it was pointed out that language is not only used to communicate, but also plays a crucial role in establishing the social relations.

There are about 90 experts from different parts of the country in the committee, including language experts, educationists and teachers. The main objective of this committee is to develop language in a planned manner and prepare textbooks, which are easy and interesting from language point of view.

The committee will also emphasise on grammar teaching methods of language that makes it easy to learn for the students of primary classes.

New Delhi, August 5
The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) on Thursday launched its ‘Polio Bharat Chhodo’ campaign, a week before the country’s 59th Independence day, calling for a nation-wide effort in eradicating the crippling disease.

“We got freedom from the British in 1947 due to the continuous effort by people from every section of society and the political will of the leaders. The same is needed today to rid us from diseases,” DMA President Dr K K Aggarwal told newspersons here today.

He said polio eradication was now a global campaign and for this “every type of the virus has to be wiped out”.

“This year we have already detected 23 cases in India and even though one of the three types of polio has not been reported for the last six years, the other two-P3 and P1 continue to surface. We still have a lot to do despite the national level Polio Eradication programme to rid the nation of this disease,’’ Dr Aggarwal added.

The DMA also released a list of five other diseases which it said should be targeted next as they have been classified as potentially eradicable. These include dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease), mumps, rubella, lymphatic filariasis and pork tapeworm.

According to DMA Hon Secretary Dr Girish Tyagi, for any disease to be eradicated there must be no animal reservoir, which means the disease should not infect animals and there should be effective means for preventing and treating the disease. “We need to focus on disease eradication, not just disease control programmes. We have to act not react to the diseases,” Dr Tyagi said.

The DMA plans to hold several polio awareness programmes as part of this campaign.

New Delhi, August 5
The Delhi University’s Anthropology Department is striving to make Anthropology more popular amongst students by getting colleges to make provisions for the teaching of the subject.

The department, which offers a B.Sc Hons programme apart from Masters and research programmes, has seen a spurt in the interest shown by students, but claims that there is scope for more.

The Department is now targeting colleges in the university to offer Under Graduate courses in Anthropology. Literally meaning the ‘study of humans’, Anthropology is yet to find its way into the list of most popular courses, despite the fact that it is a subject that guarantees a job and also offers a chance to break away from the mundane, claim experts.

“Public awareness about the subject is limited and not many students are aware of the prospects of studying anthropology. We are now trying to get colleges to offer B.Sc programmes in the subject,” said Dr Surinder Nath, Head of Department and Dean, Faculty of Science.

The Department, which is working with Ramjas College to offer a certificate course in the subject, is willing to extend support to other colleges as well. “We are already working with Ramjas and negotiations are on with two more colleges in the South Campus. Colleges have been hesitant to start the course, but we want to assure them of full co-operation. We will help them with infrastructure as well as with the teaching part. The tools and equipment needed for the study can also be provided by the department on a temporary basis,” said Dr Nath.

Listing some details about the programme, he said, “we are currently working on two DNA profiling projects apart from several other equally interesting ones. Forensic Anthropology has also helped us aid the police in solving cases. The process of finding out the details of a person’s stature through small pieces of bones has been very helpful for the police”.

“Employment avenues after finishing the course are plenty and if more colleges were to offer the course the popularity of the subject is bound to increase,” Dr Nath added.

Colleges on the other hand are looking p to the UGC to provide grants for giving the course a go ahead. “We are very keen to start a programme, but the only problem is that we have no space. Anthropology means that apart from classrooms, we need labs. So it is up to the UGC to provide us the finances to start the programme, which has received a very good response from the students,” said Dr Rajendra Prasad, Principal, Ramjas College where a certificate course in the subject is being currently offered.

Noida, August 5
Seven girls between the age of 5 and 15 years have been missing from the areas under police stations Sector 20 and 39, Noida, for the last six months.

Whereas the parents of the girls fear they have been kidnapped, the police maintain that most of them have either eloped with their lovers or simply wandered off to distant places and lost their way home.

The parents of a 14-year-old girl missing since August 2 are in an agonising quandary as the cops are simply refusing to file their FIR.

The FIRs of the five girls gone missing earlier have been filed but no progress has been made by the police in recovering them so far.

Meena (15), daughter of Gopal of Nithari village in sector 31 is missing since February 4. Ria (15), daughter of Anil is missing from Nithari since July 2. Payal (4), daughter of Mukesh is missing since July 21 while Jyoti (10), daughter of Chhajoo Lal has not been seen since July 2. Puja (15), daughter of Rakesh also from sector 31 and a seven-year-old girl, again of Nithari village, is also reported to be missing.

Most of the girls are from sector 20 police station areas while two are from sector 39 police station areas.

One of the missing girls, Umawanti, (14) is said to be physically-challenged whose mother says she has been kidnapped while the police insist she has eloped. She says the girl’s brother Raj Kumar was with her when she was abducted.

Parents of all these missing girls are resentful towards the police for failing to take their concerns seriously and initiate some action to try locate them.

Noida, August 5
The Allahabad High Court today asked authorities in Noida to file a report on the number of applications received for the draw of land allotment and details of those rejected in the process.

Hearing a petition on the issue, a two-bench judge comprising B S Chauhan and Justice Dilip Gupta directed the authorities not to delete the details of the applications from its computer system and fixed August 24 as the next date of hearing.

The order was passed on writ petitions filed by one Deepak Sharma, challenging cancellation of allotment through lottery, and another by an NGO Manav Seva Samiti which demanded a CBI probe into the allotment of plots, saying there were large-scale irregularities in the process.

The NGO also demanded punitive action against all erring officials.

The court asked the authorities to furnish details regarding the allottees, whose spouse already possessed land in the township and also to specify in how many cases, both husband and wife emerged as successful allottees.

The court also sought to know the last date of submitting applications and why and by whose order the same was extended.

It has also asked authorities to submit the percentage of successful allottees who had applied after due date.

Faridabad, August 5
A labourer was killed at a stone crusher in the Pali zone here today in an accident while working on a machine. This is the second case of this type of accident in the crusher zone here in the past two days.

According to a report, the accident took place at plot no 105, in which the victim identified as Kuhanu (30) fell off the conveyor belt of the stone crushing machine while he was working on it, this morning. He reportedly died before he could be rushed to a hospital.

Yesterday, another labourer identified as Rajkumar had been killed in a similar accident at another crusher.

Though the police was still to take any action against owner of the crusher, the body was sent for post-mortem report.

It is stated that a senior official of the Industries department visited the site where the accident had taken place after a complaint was lodged with him.

There are about 164 crushers in the Pali zone here, where it is alleged that majority of the crushers had been doing the work of crushing stones for making stone dust used in the building activity.

Though according to rules, stone dust could be recovered during the process of preparing the ‘Rori’ or ‘Bajri’, not by the separate activity, it is reported that majority of the plants here had been involved in preparation of the stone dust whose demand had gone up after the decreased availability of Bajarpur sand due to a ban on mining in the region.

It is claimed that running crusher plants to prepare stone dust is not entirely illegal, but it does constitute violation of safety and pollution norms which the Pollution Control department ought to implement.

The ‘Bandhua Mukti Morcha’ has sought a high-level inquiry into these accidents and action against the owners of the crushers not following safety and environment guidelines.

New Delhi, August 5
A Delhi court has sentenced a woman and her two sons to life imprisonment for burning to death her brother following a money dispute in Nangloi area of West Delhi three years ago.

Additional Session Judge N P Kaushik convicted Dishno Devi, Gyaneshwar and Rajesh Kumar for murdering Laxman Singh for demanding Rs 2 lakh which she had borrowed from him.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1000 each on the convicts who were punished under section 302 (murder) of IPC.

Twenty four prosecution witnesses were examined during the trial.

Laxman Singh was brought to Safdarjung Hospital in a severely-burnt state on March 13, 2002 and died the next day.

In his dying declaration, the deceased said he had given Rs 2 lakhs, borrowed from one Kasturi Devi, to his sister Dishno Devi who lived in Mangolpuri for meeting the expenses of the marriage of Rajesh Kumar.

A day before the incident, Gyaneshwar had beaten up the deceased when he demanded back the money.

Next day when the deceased was alone in his house, the three convicts went there. After some heated exchanges over the amount, they gagged the deceased and doused him with kerosene before setting him ablaze.

The prosecution examined 24 witnesses to prove their case.

New Delhi, August 5
Delhi Commission for Women will hold a comprehensive workshop on handling rape crisis in the Capital on August 6 at Delhi Secretariat. Chief Minister of Delhi Mrs. Sheila Dikshit will inaugurate the workshop while Dr. Justice A. S. Anand, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission will preside over the proceedings.

Elaborating on the purpose of the workshop, Prof. Kiran Walia, Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women said, “Whereas on one hand the rape cases have touched an all-time high, on the other various prosecution agencies still work in isolated compartments.

With participation of Legislative Executives & Judiciary along with Medical Superintendents of government & MCD run hospitals, Educators, Resident Welfare Associations, NGOs, CICs etc, this workshop will perhaps be the single largest concerted & serious effort to address the problem of increasing rape crisis in recent times.”

The workshop will include successive brainstorming sessions on law enforcement, medical forensic and mental health, crisis intervention, support services and role of civil society. 

New Delhi, August 5
Two students of Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College have complained to the principal that they were stripped and made to perform some indecent act in the hostel late last night by senior students who recorded the same through camera mobile phones.

The principal of the college Mr B.N. Sinha said the complaint has been forwarded to the police and an inquiry committee has been constituted in the college to look into the matter. He said the two boys have named three seniors in their complaint. — TNS

New Delhi, August 5
A three-storied showroom of Nike Company located at Mohan Co-operative Estate was gutted by a fire this morning. The reason of the fire is still to be ascertained, said police sources. The fire was noticed by a watchman of the showroom who immediately informed the fire department and the police. As many as 27 fire tenders were sent to the spot that took almost six hours to douse the fire.

The fire department said that no one was hurt in the inferno as the show room was closed at the time of the incident. — TNS

Gurgaon, August 5
A lady IRS officer was found murdered in her flat in a posh colony here today, police said. Her husband was found severely injured near her body in the flat in DLF Apartments.

Shravani Biswas belonged to the 1993 batch of the Indian Revenue Service and was posted as Assistant Director in Directorate of Enforcement in Delhi.

Police broke into the flat this morning after her brother-in-law complained that they were not taking telephone calls since yesterday.

According to the police, robbery did not seem to be the motive of the attack. — TNS

New Delhi, August 5
In view of the forthcoming Independence Day, Delhi Police Commissioner Dr K K Paul along with senior officers of the Crime Branch today traveled in Delhi Metro from Central Secretariat to Rajiv Chowk to review the security arrangements.

Dr Paul along with Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Mr Ranjit Narayan and Staff Officer to Delhi Police Commissioner Mr V Renganathan, briefed the officials incharge of Delhi Metro security to be more vigilant for avoiding any untoward incidents.

The visit of Dr Paul assumes significance as some terrorist outfits have threatened to cause explosions before or during the Independence Day celebrations.