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SC vents ire over inaction in Yamuna cleansing plan
UGC seeks inputs on autonomy in higher education
Vivek Prakash in police custody in the Capital on Monday.
— Tribune photo |
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High Court orders maintenance for HIV-infected wife
Violence in JNU hostel to be probed
Haryana Roadways to induct CNG buses
‘Safeguarding environment only option before mankind’
14 corridors identified for high capacity bus system
Faridabad roads in disrepair
Jessica Lal murder case: Defence arguments begin
Man gets 10-yr RI for raping minor
Colourful campaign in full swing at Jamia
Zee show has Gurgaon winner
Goods worth Rs 1 cr seized for tax evasion
Drive against illegal power connections
Capital experiences coldest day in 6 years
MCD engineer charged with corruption
Dar and Rafiq produced in court
Woman poisoned to death for dowry
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SC vents ire over inaction in Yamuna cleansing plan
New Delhi, December 12 “It is a matter of anguish that after the lapse of three months of last order, passed on September 7, no affidavit has been filed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the DJB,” a Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Mr Justice C K Thakker said. The MCD Chairman A K Nigam and DJP CEO Rakesh Mohan were directed to appear before the Court in January. The date for the next hearing would be fixed by the Court Registry. It also directed the two bodies to submit their affidavits regarding steps taken by them to implement the Yamuna action plan within 10 days. The Court, meanwhile, gave a green signal for the appointment of a three-member monitoring committee to be headed by Urban Development Secretary Anil Baijal with noted environmentalist Sunita Narain and advocate Ranjit Kumar, amicus curiea in the case as its members. The Court said the panel would function under its direct supervision as a “Court Committee” to monitor the progress as Mr Baijal had shown keen interest in functioning as its head in his personal capacity not as the Secretary of the Ministry. In its September 7 order, the Court had directed MCD and DJP to submit monthly, quarterly and half-yearly progress reports on the work being carried by them, but the two bodies had simply slept over the matter. “How with great difficulty we are dealing with these (PIL) matters keeping in view the time constraints of the court, but MCD and DJB, which were supposed to file affidavit by October, had not done so,” the Bench told their counsel, pointing out that PILs were consuming a lot of judicial time of the court. The amicus curiea said that the MCD was today supposed to come up with definite scheme on removal of encroachments of river banks and bed to pave the way for implementation of the river cleaning scheme. As per the affidavit filed by Urban Development Ministry, the Union Government had suggested setting up of Sewage Treatment Plants on either banks of the Yamuna on the lines of Thames river in London, to ensure that only treated clean water was fed in it. Pointing out that most of the treatment plants were far away from the river banks, the Centre had said that the main drains to Yamuna still continued to carry almost 50 per cent of untreated sewage dirt, virtually converting the entire river as a living sewage line.
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UGC seeks inputs on autonomy in higher education
New Delhi, December 12 The Commission has approved in principle the recommendations given by the sub-committee of the CABE on autonomy of higher educational institutions. While the decision to approve the recommendation was taken at a meeting held on November 18, the UGC has now called for inputs and suggestions from stakeholders in higher education by December 20, based on which the final guidelines for implementing the CABE report will be chalked out. A CABE committee report on autonomy in higher education had described autonomy as a “pre-requisite” to achieving the goals and objectives of a higher educational institution. “An honest exercise of autonomy – academic, administrative and financial – will lead to making these institutions as centres of innovation, excellence and development. With this in view, the universities need to be insulated from internal and external pressures of all kinds, may be bureaucratic, political and other groups,” the committee had mentioned. Further, “since autonomy of higher education institution goes hand-in-hand with its accountability, the delegation and devolution of power and authority concomitant with responsibility should flow not only from the external environment to the higher education institution but should be given at different levels within the higher education institution itself”. There should be a charter of responsibility and devolution and delegation of authority defined for different levels within the university system and both should be monitored together, the committee proposed. The Committee also recommended that one-third of the entire investment in education be set aside for higher education. As of now, a major part of the allocation is given to elementary education. Apart from this, the Committee had also suggested the introduction of a National Testing Service (NTS) along the lines of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of the United States. The report also recommended granting of autonomy to individual institutions for designing curriculum.
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Two arrested for fraud worth Rs 19 crore
New Delhi, December 12 CEO of Kobian’s Indian operations Vivek Prakash and his accomplice R S Sahu, employee of the same company’s office in Dubai have been arrested for defrauding Samsung, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) K K Vyas told reporters here.
Prakash and Sahu were with Samsung as Vice President (IT) and Account Manager respectively and during their tenures had allegedly issued fake credit notes to the tune of Rs 16 crore to various distributor to collect the amount from the company, he said. While Prakash was arrested here yesterday, Sahu has been in judicial custody since May 20.
Prakash had also bought a house in Noida in 2002, for which payment of Rs 56 lakh was made using money siphoned off from Samsung accounts. An investigation into the matter by ACP (Anti-Fraud and Cheating) M K Sharma revealed that the accused had submitted fake bills of several posh hotels from across the country totalling Rs 51 lakh. Prakash, who was with Samsung since 1996, with help from Sahu had developed a parallel accounting system within the company. When senior company officials got a whiff of some wrongdoing, Prakash, an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, and Sahu quit the company and joined Kobian, Ravinder Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung (India) said.
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High Court orders maintenance for HIV-infected wife
New Delhi, December 12 “In my view there is no finding as yet as to how the HIV positive status was acquired by the wife and minor daughter. Coupled with the fact that the respondent/wife has asserted the cause of HIV status to be blood transfusion, the denial of interim maintenance to the two will be wholly unconscionable,” Justice Mukul Mudgal said rejecting the husband’s plea. The trial court had ordered the petitioner husband to pay a monthly interim maintenance of Rs 6,000 after taking into consideration the expenses required for the treatment of their HIV disease, monthly household expenditure besides the school going daughter’s educational expenses. Apart from citing the grounds of his being not affected with HIV, the husband challenged the trial court order on the ground that his monthly income was only Rs 2,200. He filed an income tax return on behalf of his wife but refrained from producing his own. His contention was that since his wife had other sources of income, she was not eligible to any maintenance as stipulated in Section 24 of the Hindu Maintenance Act. The husband, who reportedly owns eight flats here, maintained that he earned only Rs 2,200 per month as five of the flats were vacant; a contention denied by his divorced wife. He had also declined the offer made in the lower court by his wife to allow her rent out of the “five vacant flats” and treat the accruing rent as her maintenance amount.
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Violence in JNU hostel to be probed
New Delhi, December 12 “First there was a fight between the boy and his roommate. Later in the day a group of girl from the Democratic Student’s Union came to his room and beat him up,” alleged another resident of the Jhelum hostel. “These girls first went and filed a complaint against the boy in GSCASH, then they filed a complaint in the Vasant Vihar Police Station, alleging that he had been harassing them. Later in the day they came to his room and beat him up,” he added. “We are a progressive students community…we talk of the virtues of democracy and equality and then go and beat up someone just because he is a Dalit. It is this hypocrisy that we are protesting against and are hopeful that the University authority will take appropriate action against the guilty,” said Maruf Hussain, president of the Tapti Hostel and a NSUI activist. “The fact that these girls first went and filed a harassment compliant and then beat him up is evidence that their intent was malafide. If he was actually harassing them, then they should have brought it to the attention of the authorities and waited for the officials to take action. They cannot enter his room and beat him,” another Jhelum resident said. “We are probing the first incident, which is an altercation between the two hostel residents and action will be taken following the completion of inquiry. As for the incident where the girls are involved, it is being probed by the University authorities and is beyond the jurisdiction of the hostel. The girls, involved in the incident have been barred from entering the hostel,” Senior Warden Dr S. Bahaduri said.
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Haryana Roadways to induct CNG buses
Gurgaon, December 12 According to the local General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Mr J. Arya, one CNG bus to be obtained from Ashok Leyland – a private firm in the business – will be first started in Haryana from Gurgaon to Delhi on a trial basis for about three months. Depending on its success, the state Transport Department will purchase more buses from the firm. The decision on the number of buses will depend on the success of the trial. The 125-seater bus to be put on trial will be double the size of an ordinary Haryana Roadways bus and the Department of Transport plans to sort out the terms of agreement with the firm and set the bus rolling from January 1. A high-level meeting of the functionaries of the department and the firm is to take place shortly to seal the issue. Ever since the court’s injunction in favour of allowing only CNG-operated buses in the national Capital, routes of a large number of buses of Haryana Roadways which used to pass through Delhi had to be diverted. Those most affected on account of Haryana Roadways avoiding the interiors of Delhi were thousands of school and college students as well as well as office-goers employed there. At present, the local buses of Haryana Roadways from Gurgaon to Delhi go to Karol Bagh after Dhaula Kuan junction. With limited operations in Delhi, Haryana Roadways is understood to be losing substantial revenue to the DTC which pumped in a large number of its buses on those routes. According to officials of Haryana Roadways, faced with a limited competition in the field, the DTC conductors and drivers resort to arbitrary methods and generally ill-treat the commuters. With the DTC being one-up on Haryana Roadways in Gurgaon – considered to be the economic seat of Haryana – the department and the state government as a whole get bad publicity. Although the move to induct the CNG-driven bus in Haryana Roadways is bound to be greeted with cheers, people are baffled at this delayed response on the part of the authorities in Haryana. They wonder why the authorities delayed the matter for so long when the state was getting maximum revenues on various heads from Gurgaon.
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‘Safeguarding environment
Noida, December 12 He said environment is being damaged throughout the world and it is time people and governments understood the importance of the pollution-free world and sustaining healthy and unpolluted environment for man’s good. Planning Commission member and Dy. Chairman of Chhatisgarh Planning Board, Dr Dina Nath Tiwari said according to Vedas, a small imbalance in environment can have catastrophic effect on the whole world. Emphasizing the importance of plants and herbs, he said even today these are used in the manufacture of 35 per cent medicines and drugs. There is a roaring trade worth US$75 billion pertaining to these herbs and medicinal plant which increases by 17 per cent annually. A small state like Kerala earns Rs 6,000 crore from the industries based on these herbs and plants, Dr Tiwari said. Even a bamboo is used in 100 different medicines which have 1,500 applications. He cited a number of other medicinal plants and herbs which are of immense value and used in the manufacture of medicines. He said the country exports crude oil worth Rs 1,50,000 crore annually despite the fact that there is abundant production of highly beneficial Ratan Jyot oil in the country. Earlier, Prakriti Bharti Vice-Chairman Vijay Agarwal, organizing committee Chairman, Krishen Lal Gupta, MLA Nawab Singh Nagar and Dr Naresh Sharma had also addressed the seminar.
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14 corridors identified for high capacity bus system
New Delhi, December 12 Announcing the details here today, Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf said the Committee on Sustainable Transport recommended taking up 14 road corridors for implementation of bus priority schemes. Addressing a workshop on Bus Rapid Transit Systems organized at Indian Institute of Technology here today, the Minister said five corridors have been identified to be considered in the first phase. The prioritisation of corridors has been carried out with a view to have a uniform distribution of these facilities throughout the Delhi Urban Area and to avoid duplication of such facilities on roads, which are parallel to MRTS/IRBT corridors. The Indian Institute of Technology’s Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme and RITES have been entrusted the task for planning and designing of these special buses. The Minister said evaluation of various traffic and institutional parameters was carried out to identify one corridor for each of bus and electric trolley bus for implementation as pilot project. The first Bus Rapid Transit corridor identified for implementation was the Ambedkar Nagar- Delhi Gate corridor. The BRT concept includes segregated bus lanes for uninterrupted traffic movement, safe pedestrian and commuter movement and segregation of slow traffic. It is aimed at reducing congestion, maintain air-quality and ensuring safer and easier system of access and mobility for people.
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Faridabad roads in disrepair
Faridabad, December 12 A PIL had also been filed in the High Court which was likely to be taken up early next month. While the district authorities claim that the work of road repair has been going on, there is no one who could say when the roads would be repaired. Mr K.L.Gera, a social activist who had filed a petition in the High Court regarding the poor civic conditions and encroachments, said that the authorities concerned, including the senior government officials, may face the music if there is no proper response to the issues raised in the PIL, within the stipulated time. He said a sum of several crores was being collected from the residents here in form of taxes and Local Area Development Tax (LADT), but was not being spent on the city’s development. Alleging that the encroachments have been common and the Municipal Corporation here has failed to remove them, Ajay Kumar, a resident of sector- 21B said ‘though the real estate prices in the area and across the city have skyrocketed in the past two years, the residents do not have proper roads. He said while the Chief Minister and other officials of the government had promised after coming into power that priority would be given to the roads and the development of infrastructure, there had been hardly any change so far. Though the authorities here had claimed a few months ago that the repair work of roads had been launched on a war-footing with a budget of around Rs 50 crore in both the urban and rural areas, there is no improvement worth the name. As the industry and the residential sectors intermingle at several places in the town, the state of roads in many parts has been worse, said a property agent here. He said though the revenue generated through the registration of land, plots and houses had gone up due to steep hike in land prices, there had been no improvement on the civic front and the development was hardly a match for the hike in real estate. Lack of coordination and communication among the various wings of the district administration, including the Municipal Corporation and Haryana Urban Development Authority, seems to be a major cause of the tardy pace of work, claimed sources in the official circles.
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Jessica Lal murder case: Defence arguments begin
New Delhi, December 12 The case of the defence, as argued today, primarily rested on the statement given by complainant Shayan Munshi in court earlier. The court has already declared Munshi a hostile witness after he retracted on his statements in the original complaint. State counsel S K Saxena had earlier argued that according to four other witnesses, the four accused, Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav, Amardeep Singh (Tony) Gill and Alok Khanna, were present at the party when the murder took place. This was contradictory to the statement of the accused who claimed that they did not attend the party at all.
Four witnesses, Deepak Bhojwani, Bina Ramani, her husband George Mailhot, and her daughter Malini, stated that they had seen Manu Sharma with three other co-accused at the party. Jessica Lal, a model, was shot dead at point-blank range on the night of April 29-30, 1999, at a south Delhi restaurant owned by designer Malini Ramani. Prosecution alleges that Sharma, the son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma, was enraged when Lal refused to serve him alcohol, and shot her in a frenzied fit. Of the accused, Sharma is presently on bail, while Yadav, son of former MP D P Yadav, is in judicial custody and is facing trial in another case, for the murder of Nitish Katara. Arguments are scheduled to continue tomorrow.
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Man gets 10-yr RI for raping minor
New Delhi, December 12 “The accused is a man of voluptuous taste. He led an innocent girl up a garden path, molested and ravished her,” Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik observed after finding the convict guilty under Sections 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abducting a woman to compel her to marry) of the IPC. The court also fined the convict Rs 10,000, the default of which would invite a further imprisonment of two years. The convict, Rakesh, a resident of Seemapuri, had on the night of February 17 last year, abducted the girl, a student of class six and his next-door neighbour, on the pretext of taking her to her paternal aunt’s house. He took her to the neighbouring fields, raped, beat her brutally and confined her in a hutment adjacent to the fields. A massive manhunt began on February 21 for both the girl and the convict after the girl’s father filed a report at the local police station naming the convict as the main suspect. The police caught up with the accused at a tea shop on 70 Feet Road at Seemapuri. The victim was with him at the time. A case was registered against the convict after the girl stated before the Magistrate that she had been kidnapped and raped by him. The Judge dismissed the defence version that the girl had accompanied the convict on her own accord and said: “Consent of a minor is immaterial in law in this case”. “The accused wants to make bricks without straw, he has no defence to advance,” he added.
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Colourful campaign in full swing at Jamia
New Delhi, December 12 An aspirant for the post of president, Ashraf Kamal, came to file his nomination papers astride an elephant. Another aspirant reportedly came astride a horse. Apart from door to door campaigning, the contestants are laying out free lunches, tea and refreshments for students to influence the voters. There are 33 candidates for the four posts of president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary and 34 candidates are in the fray for the 18 posts in the JMISU cabinet. Srikanth, a presidential aspirant wants to “make the Jamia students union a much needed platform for students.” “I personally will work towards getting 2 students admitted into the faculty dominated Academic Council,” he said. Another aspirant, Shams Pervez, lists the placement problem to professional courses, the lack of hostels at Jamia and the poor quality of the library as major issues for his campaign. Sajid Ali, an aspirant for the post of vice-president, wants better placements for students of professional courses, counselling and personality development programme for students, better library facilities and more buses to Jamia.
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Zee show has Gurgaon winner
New Delhi, December 12 Neeraj Nagpal, a resident of Gurgaon, ended up winning Rs 4.46 lakh on the interactive game show being hosted by actor Manoj Bajpai, the first episode of which went on air tonight. The Zee Group had a mega launch for it with 10 channels of its network airing the episode simultaneously for the first seven minutes. Zee group, which has been trying to evolve itself over the past few months, has been launching new shows in a bid to attract greater viewership. As part of its effort, the group recently launched a first-of-kind soap opera, Bombay Talking, and then also launched a string of new video jockeys on its Zee Music channel. At a time when a large number of channels are hosting interactive game shows like Kaun Benga
Crorepati, Deal Ya No Deal and Super Sale, Zee claims that this show of theirs is very different from the other shows and hopes to wean away viewers from other channels. It also offers the biggest prize money of Rs 3 crore among all the game shows. Puneet
Goenka, Business Head of Zee TV, said the show revolved around a simple format where Hutch subscribers could type KYZ and send SMS to 123 or participate through Hutch
IVRS. The participants are required to answer a set of questions that are intriguing and involving. Every response to the question is in the form of Kam Ya Zyaada (less or more). Accurate and speedy responses yield an opportunity to participate in the grand show and win a huge prize of Rs 3 crore. In addition, every response generates participant loyalty points that can be redeemed for gratification. The on-air game consists of three rounds. Each day a set of five participants will play the game. On the basis of the scores, in the first round two participants will be eliminated.
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Goods worth Rs 1 cr seized for tax evasion
Noida, December 12 Deputy Commissioner V. K. Rai said the goods included an air-conditioner worth Rs 56 lakh which had been brought from a foreign country. It was being taken to Greater Noida loaded on a truck and was impounded in Bulandshahr. The second vehicle was carrying readymade garments worth Rs 44 lakh. It was found that the drivers were carrying a blank G-form 31. According to the trade tax authorities, this company must have been using this form time and again. A sum of Rs 13.92 lakh towards security was deposited for the air-conditioner. The second vehicle which was taking readymade garments worth Rs 40 lakh out of Noida had to deposit Rs 16 lakh as trade tax.
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Drive against illegal power connections
Greater Noida, December 12 These steps are part of a campaign launched by UPCL in its five divisions on the UP Chief Secretary’s orders to put a stop to illegal power connections. The power connections in rural areas are also under a scanner. The UPCL teams had conducted raids throughout the district on Sunday. Out of 354 connections, 141 were found to be illegal. Cases were filed against 27 out of the 141 by the UPCL and Rs 3.49 lakh recovered as penalty and arrears from them. Action was taken against 30 people for tampering with electric metres. Raids were conducted in almost all residential sectors of Noida, Additional DM (Finance and Revenue) Rajesh Kumar Yadav said. This campaign will continue in the district till December 25. Among the rural areas, the raids created commotion among Khora colony residents. In Javer, an FIR was filed against 39 persons in Ranpur Bangar village for stealing power through hooks on power cables.
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Capital experiences coldest day in 6 years
New Delhi, December 12 Today’s fall in temperature has broken the record of 1999 when on December 31 that year, the mercury had dipped to 3.4 degrees, the weather office said. The 3.3 recorded today was five degrees below normal. However, a clear sunny day mitigated the cold for Delhiites with the maximum temperature staying at the normal of 23 degrees. The city had recorded a low of 4.7 degree, which was four degrees below normal, yesterday. The weather office said the cold wave-like conditions were likely to continue for another two
days. — TNS
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MCD engineer charged with corruption
New Delhi, December 12 “I am fully satisfied that a prima facie case under Sections 13 (2) and 13 (1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been made out against the accused,” observed Special Judge Pratibha Rani while accepting the chargesheet. The accused, C L Bhola, who was an assistant engineer with Subhash Nagar division of the MCD, is currently under suspension. A CBI probe revealed that Bhola owns a furnished luxury house in Janak Puri, two cars, a bank balance of Rs 26 lakh, a fixed deposit of Rs 12 lakh and Indira Vikas Patra of the same amount, the chargesheet revealed. Besides, CBI also dug up his personal accounts which showed Rs 85 lakh disproportionate to his normal
income. — TNS
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Dar and Rafiq produced in court
New Delhi, December 12 Details about the proceedings was not known as the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Reena Singh Naag recorded the statements inside her chamber and Special Cell officials refused to divulge anything. The move has raised surprise as Rafiq and Dar are in police custody for their interrogation till December 19 and 21 respectively. Police had on December 8 secured 13 more days time for the interrogation of Dar, who allegedly financed and coordinated the blasts, after claiming before the court that “many new facts” had come on record after the arrest of his accomplices recently.
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Woman poisoned to death for dowry
Noida, December 12 Rajpal Singh, a resident of Sadarpur Colony, had married his daughter Archana to Gajender Singh of Palla village under Alipur police station in Delhi five years ago.
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