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Meerut inferno: Many people still missing
Posts galore, but no plans to recruit teachers
DCW helps mother harassed by school
Sealings: SC turns down lawyers’ plea
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A problem of plenty for Noida Authority
Developers in trouble for pre-launch eyewash
Cool weather continues to hold good
Bijli Nigam worker dead, attacker held
Katara murder case: Charges framed against another accused
Metro through with work at CP outer circle
Scramble to register property in women’s name
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Meerut inferno: Many people still missing
Ghaziabad, April 13 That is why there was a strong protest by the public when the authorities started clearing and levelling the Victoria Park with bulldozers on April 12. The people said they had seen the skulls of many children being crushed under the wheels of the bulldozers. This was an attempt to destroy evidence, the public alleged. The relatives of all such persons are running from pillar to post without any clue to their missing kith and kin. Amar Agarwal of Sainik Vihar is one such person who is among those missing after the fire. He had put up a stall in the fair. Raj Kumar Singh and his uncle Anil Gupta say that they have not got any information about him so far. These people are passing through a traumatic time. They rush to the door every time the telephone rings or somebody knocks at the door. Once a body resembling Amar’s was received at AIIMS, but a close scrutiny revealed it was someone else. The tragedy is that bodies of some missing persons have not been traced yet, which has complicated the matter and prolonged the agony of the families or relatives. They should have been found in hospitals or reached home by now. Another name is Amanjit Singh of Delhi who had also put up a stall in the fair. His friend Sarbjit has failed to find any clue to
Amanjit. Malti Tayal of Manoranjan Park is yet another missing person who has not been traced so far. She had gone to the consumer fair along with her husband Ramesh Chander Tayal, son Naresh and daughter-in-law Jaya. When the fire engulfed the enclosure, Naresh and his wife made a dash for the exit, but their parents got left behind. When Naresh tried to go back to rescue his parents, he was not permitted by policemen. Then they reached hospital, but could not find their parents anywhere. At 2 am, Naresh got confirmation of his father’s body, but he has still not got any clue to his mother’s whereabouts. Naresh is going from one hospital to another with the photograph of his mother. Whenever he meets the district authorities or hospital staff, he is told that “no fresh dead body has been received yet”. Mrs Savita Dhingra and her daughter Tarunshi are two other missing persons for whom Rajesh Dhingra is searching for like a man possessed. Meanwhile, two of the four victims of the blaze undergoing treatment in Kailash Hospital in Noida succumbed to their injuries in the morning today. They were Mrs Alka Pruthi and her son Parshiv
Pruthim, 11. Alka Pruthi, 35, had 99 per cent burns and her survival had almost been ruled out. Her son had 55 per cent burns. Eight burn patients out of hundreds charred in the blaze are admitted to Kailash Hospital. Four were brought on April 10 while another four were brought to Noida on April 11. Four serious patients with more than 50 per cent burns were admitted to ICU. They are all on ventilators. The condition of the other two who are in ICU is not good either. They are Manish
Bhadraj, with 65 per cent burns, and Dr N.K. Bhatia, himself a doctor. According to Dr Dinath Nath, attending on them, all four were quite serious and had little chance of recovery. Dr Nath said the other four patients will have to be treated for more than a week as recovery in burn cases is rather slow. Ashok
Sahini, with 53 per cent burn injuries, had gone to see the fair with his wife Savita (47) and daughter Divya (12). They were all brought to Noida yesterday after their conditions deteriorated.
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Posts galore, but no plans to recruit teachers
New Delhi, April 13 The Education Minister, Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely, said that at present new appointments of teachers were not possible. Most of Delhi Government schools were being merged and from the next session all government schools would be in morning shifts. Vacant seats would be filled by transfer of teachers left in the surplus by merging the schools. About 2,687 post of teachers are vacant in schools of Delhi Government, he said. The Secretary of the Government School Teachers Association, Mr D. K. Tiwari, said 3000 posts of teachers, 300 principals and 150 seats of vice principals were lying vacant. For example, a staff of 15 teachers is there in government school, Sonia Vihar, to control 1600 students. Now the authorities concerned can imagine the kind of result of the school. He said a few months back the government had created 3, 800 posts of different categories in the education department. If the vacant post of teachers were being filled up by transferring the teachers in surplus what was the need to create new posts, he questioned. For the past one year, no fresh appointments had been made. Promotions were also not being made. On August 17, 2005, the Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, issued direction to the education secretary to do ad hoc promotion to fill up the senior teachers posts but nothing had been done so far, he claimed. The job seekers were forced to work with the private schools where they were not given full salary. A TGT was given hardly Rs 5000 and a PGT Rs 6000 salary in a month but he had to sign a voucher of Rs 10, 000 to Rs 12,000. Sunil, who did his bachelor course of education two years back, said he had been waiting for government job desperately. He was being harassed by the management of the school where he was at present employed. He was not given full pay scale. He had been appointed a teacher but had to look after office work also. Alka, who is MA, B. Ed, works with a private school on a salary of Rs 300. She said, “I did B Ed thinking my life will be better. But now it is worse. Had I done another course, I would have been earning more. Now I will not advise anyone to do this course”.
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DCW helps mother harassed by school
New Delhi, April 13 Ms Damyanti, a resident of Burari in North Delhi, approached the DCW for help after the school where her children were enrolled were first not allowed to attend school and later had their Transfer Certificates withheld because she could not afford to pay the fees. Her two daughters and a son — Nikhila, Sonalika and Mrigesh —were studying in GTB Nagar-based Navjivan Model School in Kingsway Camp area, in classes 9, 7 and 6, respectively. Two years ago, because of sudden financial problems, Ms Damyanti could not deposit the school fees in time. The school then dropped the three students from its rolls. Despite the assurance that she would make the payments in due course, the school refused to take her children back. DCW Chairperson Prof Kiran Walia said she was shocked that not only did the school drop the children from the rolls, but also withheld their Transfer Certificates for two years, which were necessary while seeking admission in any other school. Referring to her plight, Ms Damyanti said, “For the last two years, I met the school principal and others on many occasions to request them to at least issue the TCs of my three children, to no avail. In the meantime, none of my children has gone to school. It was when the school authorities started demanding Rs 20,000 as the full fees of two years as a pre-condition for issuing the certificates that I filed a complaint with the DCW and pleaded intervention”. DCW member Ms Geeta Saini, who had been handling the case, said that, “For any mother, nothing is more important than ensuring a bright future for her children. Withholding Transfer Certificates for such a long period not only constituted an illegal activity but also moral misappropriation of authority by the school. Keeping these facts of the matter in mind, it was decided that this rare case be registered with the Commission. Summons were issued to the school principal, and further investigation carried out”. On April 11, Mrs Damyanti notified the DCW that she had finally received the Transfer Certificates of her three
children.
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Sealings: SC turns down lawyers’ plea
New Delhi, April 13 A Division Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice D K Jain took objection to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) approaching it in the matter. “How can the Bar Association approach us on behalf of all the lawyers?” the Bench asked. The court made it clear that the cases of lawyers, chartered accountants and doctors running offices in residential areas would be decided on a “case-to-case” basis. The court said it could be understood if a lawyer was running his/her office in the basement or ground floor of his/her residence, but there were cases where the whole of the building was being used as an office. On behalf of SCBA, senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi submitted that lawyers’ offices qualified as “professional activities”, and were not covered under “commercial activities”, which has been specifically banned by the apex court order. Rohtagi said even the Delhi Master Plan permitted professional activities to run in residential areas to a certain extent. He also said that in the year 2002, the government allowed guest-houses, nursing homes and some other services to be run from residential areas. “Things change with change of times. We cannot shut our eyes from the ground realities. We have given extension of 60 days to those who file affidavits to shift their establishments,” the court observed. Pointing out that even the High Court was seized of the matters relating to lawyers, Rohtagi sought to know if the lawyers could approach the High Court or whether they ought to go to the Monitoring Committee appointed by the apex court. When the court said “it was upto lawyers to decide”, Rohtagi submitted that he would be prepared with a reply on April 17. On February 16, the Supreme Court had directed sealing of commercial set-ups operating on 189 residential roads of 80 feet width in the first phase of the sealing drive.
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A problem of plenty for Noida Authority
Noida, April 13 The financial experts of Noida Authority are keen to invest this money in a venture where it could continue to get a steady and regular income. According to sources, Noida Authority now has enough surplus cash to invest. It has, under an agreement, lent Rs 450 crore to Greater Noida Authority out of which Rs 250 crore has already been handed over to GNIDA authorities. Besides, another sum of Rs 30 crore has been lent to UP Highway Transport Corporation. GNIDA has also requested Noida Authority to contribute Rs 30 crore on its behalf, it is learnt. Noida Authority has also sent a cheque for Rs 150 crore to DMRC, beating a number of other towns which were keen to get the Metro rail network extended there. Besides, the Noida Authority is also committed to spend Rs 500 crore for bringing Metro rail line up to Noida city centre in Sector-32. Even after pledging such a high amount, Noida Authority is still left with Rs 3,000 crore, insiders said.
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Developers in trouble for pre-launch eyewash
Gurgaon, April 13 A number of developers in the city are selling the plots and the flats in various locations without a licence from the authorities concerned. They put big advertisements in national The District Town Planning (DTP) department has written to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Hanif Qureshi, to lodge an FIR against M/s N R Buildcom which is “carving out a colony in the controlled areas of Manesar and booking the plots through some dealers illegally”. The seven property dealers who are booking the plots on behalf of the developers are: Ashirwad Properties, N S & Associates, Siti Properties, Prime Properties, Goldmine Incorporation, Yadav Estate and Dimpi Properties. The builder, N R
Buildcom, has put up a big advertisement in the national dailies to misguide the public, said Mr S P Gupta, Administrator, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The builder has violated the provisions of Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Act 1963 and Urban Areas Act 1975, added the officer. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr R P Bhardwaj informed ‘The Tribune’ that the state government had already declared the area around Gurgaon and Manesar controlled and urban areas under the The HUDA administrator further said that another builder Silverglads Holdings Pvt. Ltd, claiming to be developing Tarudhan Velly Golf Homes (Home Project) near ITC Golf Course on Naurangpur Taoru Road, around 20 km away from the city, was collecting money from the public. Mr Gupta has directed the DTP (Enforcement), Mr
B.B.L.Kaushik, to inspect the site and take legal action against the miscreants. The DC appealed to the public to beware of such colonizers and property dealers who are booking the residential plots illegally in the controlled areas, especially in Manesar, Sohna and Gurgaon. Mr Gutpa added that on the direction of the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, HUDA had also taken various steps to ensure that the residential areas are not being converted into commercial use as it had happened in Delhi. HUDA had already launched a drive in DLF City and Sector 14 to check the commercial use of residential properties, added the officer. The department would even resume the properties if the owner does not stop the commercial use of residential properties, warned Mr
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Cool weather continues to hold good
New Delhi, April 13 The minimum temperature too was recorded at 17.8 degree C, just a slight rise from 17.6 degree C yesterday. This is the fourth day in succession that cool winds have provided relief to Delhiites from the scorching heat of the last week of March and the first week of April. In fact, the maximum was recorded at 35 degree C yesterday, the lowest level since the beginning of April. The minimum dropped to 19.5 degree C on Tuesday, from a high of 23 degrees C on Monday, which was four degrees above normal yesterday and dropped further to 17.6 degree C. The relief from scorching heat today was largely because of high velocity Westerlies. The relief in the weather could continue in the coming days too with the Meteorological Department forecasting the Westerlies to prevail for a day or two.
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Bijli Nigam worker dead, attacker held
Faridabad, April 13 Dhyandass, a UDC in the Nigam posted in Ballabgarh circle, had gone into coma following a scuffle in his office on April 2 in which a resident had allegedly hit him on the head over a minor issue. Hundreds of Nigam employees attended the funeral today. The police have meanwhile arrested the accused. The All Haryana Power Employee Workers’ Union has alleged that there had been a gross irregularity on the part of the police in handling the case. It is learnt that the accused was arrested three days after the incident despite the fact that the victim had gone into comma and fell unconscious on April 10 itself, before being shifted to hospital. The union threatened to stall work from today as the police had failed to arrest the accused till last evening. According to the reports, the incident took place when the accused had come to the Nigam’s office at Unchagaon in Ballabgarh in connection with getting a ‘meter change order’ (MCO) from the office on Monday. Dhayandass had, it seems, objected to a certain discrepancy in the application and was later hit on his head by a metallic object. He fell unconscious immediately. When he was taken to civil hospital at Ballabgarh, it referred him to Escorts, where it was revealed that he had suffered a brain injury. Interestingly, while the employees’ union had been demanding booking of a murder case against the accused, the police have not booked even the section of attempt to murder. It is reported that some more sections, including Section 304 was added later to avoid embarrassment.
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Katara murder case: Charges framed against another accused
New Delhi, April 13 Sukhdev, who was arrested in February last year, had been absconding after the sensational murder in 2002. His questionable conduct following the crime was a factor the prosecution relied upon while arguing for framing of charges against him. The evidence of prosecution witness Bharati Yadav, who has to appear before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur on April 27 in response to an NBW issued against her, is now awaited. According to the prosecution, Sukhdev along with accused Vikas and Vishal Yadav kidnapped Katara from a wedding hall in Ghaziabad on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002 with the intention to murder him. The court charged him under section 302 IPC for Katara’s murder, and section 201 IPC for having caused evidence of the murder to disappear by removing all signs of identification and later dousing the body with inflammable material and burning it.
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Metro through with work at CP outer circle
New Delhi, April 13 DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal told ‘The Tribune’ that in about 10 days, the DMRC would finish all the work on the outer ring of the Connaught Place and these areas would be vacated. With the DMRC vacating the outer ring, the only area remaining with it would be the Central Park. Mr Dayal said by the end of June work in Central Park would also be completed. He said the Metro would soon begin work on the landscaping of Central Park. Under the landscaping work the DMRC is constructing an amphitheatre and a water body at Central Park.
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Scramble to register property in women’s name
Noida, April 13 So women are thronging the Sector-16 property registry office here. In the villages falling in the Noida Authority’s notified areas, property used to be registered traditionally in the name of men, but no longer. For registry of 50 sq yd to 200 yd plots in villages — Sarfabad, Hoshiarpur, Parthla, Khanjarpur, Sorkha, Raipur, etc — it is women everywhere. It may be mentioned that the administration has offered 2 per cent concession to women in stamp duty for registering the property up to the value of Rs 10 lakh. By making women joint owners, stamp duty is reduced from 8 per cent to 6 per cent. Women are entitled to this benefit in properties in the rural areas
only and that too on properties allotted by the Noida Authority. Asstt. Director General, Stamps, O.P. Awasthi has written to the government requesting it to extend this concession to women in cases of transfer deeds also.
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Procession to mark Ambedkar’s anniversary
New Delhi, April 13 The procession, starting from Parade Ground, would go towards Chandni Chowk, Pahari Dhiraj, Bara Hindu Rao, Filmistan, Nanak Pura, East Park Road, Desh Bandhu Gupta Road, Faiz Road, Jhandewalan Road Chowk, Rani Jhansi Road and terminate at Dr Ambedkar Bhavan.
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