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Centre for Bill if SC declines plea on sealings: Reddy
SC cancels 1,754 plots in Noida sectors
Mall death: Rajput denies confessing to murder
Workshop on chemical disaster management held
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Govt asked to fill up MCD teachers’ vacancies
Noida cop killed over loan dispute
Haryana may have yoga in schools
Father, son crushed to death by truck
Design institutes mull common entrance test
Inter-school debate competition held
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) recently organised an inter-school debate competition ‘Cicero’s Challenge 2006: Great Indian Debate Competition’ at its campus last week.
Edusat hub may be moved to Capital
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Centre for Bill if SC declines plea on sealings: Reddy
New Delhi, April 25 “We think that we will get ample time (from the Supreme Court) when the matter comes up for hearing on April 28...But I will not rule out the possibility of introducing a Bill (in case the plea is refused),” he told reporters when asked whether there were any plans underway for such a move when Parliament reconvenes next month as suggested in news reports. But the Union Minister did not elaborate on the time-frame for such a Bill to become a law when pointed out of it being not listed so far on the agenda for the coming reconvened session. He also refused further comments on the types of buildings that may win relief in the event of a new building law coming into force, saying the matter was sub judice. “It won’t be appropriate to comment since the matter is pending before the honourable Supreme Court,” he said. However, he said the High Court Order on demolition will be carried out. “The High Court’s order on demolition will be respected,” he added. About illegal encroachments, he said those would have to be removed. He has also announced that one lakh dwelling units would be constructed in the next two years for the slum dwellers of Delhi. The multi-storied housing units would be constructed through public-private partnership on the land occupied by the slum dwellers. “Delhi is a wealthy city in terms of culture, history and heritage. It has to evolve its own model instead of aping any city. We have to plan for proper dwelling units for 16 million population and we have to be liberal and fair in allowing the growth without sacrificing the character of the city,” he said. The Union Minister dodged a question regarding the stinging court observations on the MCD’s handling of alleged building law violations by some of Delhi’s top politicians, including Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Urban Development Minister Dr A K Walia and DPCC chief Rambabu Sharma. “It’s a party issue,” he quipped. In her comments, Ms Dikshit denied allegations of building law violations at her Nizamuddin home here, but blamed municipal authorities for proliferation of illegal structures in the Capital. Both leaders were speaking after the inauguration of an exhibition held by Delhi Urban Art Commission. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court today ordered the CBI to inquire the role of a Deputy Commissioner of MCD, besides SHOs working in Krishnanagar police station between 1999-2005, for illegally permitting construction of three huge shopping complexes in the area. A Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain, while ordering forthwith demolitions of the said illegal structures, also asked the Deputy Commissioner, MCD, Shadara to file a reply on the charge that he committed pejury by filing a false affidavit in the court that there were no illegal constructions at the place. The directions were passed following a report submitted by a ‘advocate commissioner’ that three massive shopping complexes sprouted in the area between 1999 to 2005 with active official connivance. He alleged that the Deputy Commissioner deliberately misled the court by stating in an affidavit that there were no illegal constructions in the said area. He furnished in the court photographs and other evidence to claim that illegal shopping complexes owned by influential people came up in the area. “There was a complete nexus between the builders, officials of MCD and the local police personnel,” the Bench observed while ordering the CBI to investigate their role and submit a report to the court within four weeks.
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SC cancels 1,754 plots in Noida sectors
Noida, April 25 There are 1,754 plots involved in the case which have been cancelled by the apex court. As per the apex court’s decision, 7.38 lakh sq mt land in Sectors-42 and 43 will not be allotted as per the revised rates. The court observed that the plots could not be allotted to the members of the Society who had invalid membership. Consequently, the Noida Authority will get back 7.38 lakh sq mt land worth Rs 7.50 crore. This was a disputed matter between the Noida Authority and the Central Government Employee Society since 2003 and the crux of the problem was the legal status of 1,754 members. The Noida Authority had taken a stand that it was not prepared to recognize the membership of those who had become members after 1976. The Society was contesting this plea saying that all its members had a valid membership and all of them should be allotted plots from 112 sq mt to 450 sq mt sizes in Sectors-42 and 43 at the rate of Rs 1200 per sq mt. The members of the Central Government Employees Association had been allotted plots in Sectors-42, 43 in 2003. But the Noida Authority had questioned the validity of the membership of 1,754 members. Later, the members had filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court. The High Court had ruled in favour of the Society. Subsequently, the Noida Authority had filed a special leave permission writ in the apex court. On March 22, 2006, the Supreme Court bench had asked both the parties to file their rejoinders within a week. The Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on Monday.
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Mall death: Rajput denies confessing to murder
Gurgaon, April 25 In another development, Mr Rajput denied that he had confessed to the police about committing the murder. The police had claimed that he had admitted to the murder during interrogation. Rajput, however, denied it before newsmen outside the court premises. He is alleged to have pushed his employee, Sonish Javed, from the third floor of the MGF Mall a few days back after some dispute with her. She succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital. Her mother had lodged a complaint that Rajput owed her about Rs 1.5 lakh. The complaint was the basis of the FIR. There are many who agree with the allegation of the father of the deceased that the police’s role in the investigation was suspect as another manager of Rajput’s firm who had brought his daughter from Palam airport to Gurgaon has not yet been made the co-accused in the case. According to the father of the deceased, this manager had telephonically informed his household about the tragic death of his daughter. It was after Ms Javed arrived in Gurgaon that she met Mr Rajput in a party in a restaurant in the MGF Mall.
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Workshop on chemical disaster management held
New Delhi, April 25 Inaugurating a national workshop on chemical and industrial disaster management organised by FICCI, the Chief Minister said, “Chemicals being used by the terrorists as a weapon are a very near reality and we have to find ways to tackle the imminent menace. We should be prepared about what to do if a chemical attack takes place.” She also laid stress on creating a monitoring mechanism to mitigate disasters in small industrial and chemical units. She told management experts to look at smaller industrial disasters that keep happening daily in small-scale units across he country. This could only be done through sharing of knowledge and information and close partnership amongst industry bodies, specialised academic institutions and organisations such as the National Disaster Management Authority. She advised business and manufacturing units to make preventive management of disasters an integral part of the overall management practices, adding that companies also need to build awareness in the community on how to deal with the after-effect of industrial and chemical disaster. Lt-Gen J. R. Bhardwaj, Member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said the authority that started functioning three months back had found that medical facilities were “substandard” across the country and hence incapable of properly dealing with any disaster situation. “Not even two per cent of the budgetary allocation of the state governments is going towards medical preparedness. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are spending even less than 0.2 per cent of their budget on medical preparedness,” he said. The NDMA, meanwhile, is working on evolving a strategy for management of all types of disasters including possible chemical attack by terrorists. He said the Centre had contingency plans to deal with terrorist attacks of this nature. He also lamented the fact that there was no mock drill for disaster management and the inadequacy of specialised transport vehicles for transportation of hazardous chemicals. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University inked a memorandum of understanding with the National Institute of Disaster Management on the occasion for conducting research on disaster management. The Executive Director of te National Institute of Disaster Management, Prof P. G. Dhar, said, “There are 1723 hazardous chemical factories in 273 districts of 22 states. As the manufacturing sector is growing, the number of hazardous units will increase. The enforcement of safety norms needs to be strengthened in all these units,” he said. He cited the instance of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 and said chemical and industrial disasters were capable of causing massive loss to human life apart from damaging the environment and ecology. “The Bhopal tragedy, apart from killing thousands of people, affected more than five lakh people. It contaminated the ground water also,” he said.
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Govt asked to fill up MCD teachers’ vacancies
New Delhi, April 25 It directed the DSSSB to issue the necessary advertisements within 10 days while prescribing May 31 as the last date for receipt of the applications. The court also asked the DSSSB to initiate necessary measures for selection of 3,500 teachers in schools run by the Delhi Government as and when requested by the directorate of education. The orders were passed on a petition filed by Social Jurist through its counsel Ashok Agarwal complaining of large-scale vacancies of teachers’ posts in schools run by the MCD and Delhi Government in the Capital. The petition complained that the teachers’ vacancies had affected the academic results in the schools run by the MCD and NCT Government. It was also alleged that many of the teachers were on long leave in the schools which affected the performance of the students. Counsel for various agencies, while admitting that there were large-scale vacancies, submitted that the recruitment could not be undertaken due to administrative problems and procedural delays. However, it was ruled that that the DSSSB should adopt the qualifications prescribed under the NCTE Act 1993 and complete the schedule within the stipulated time. The court also granted permission to the MCD to recruit contract teachers on an ad hoc basis since the recruitment schedule was expected to be completed only by September 2006.
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Noida cop killed over loan dispute
Greater Noida, April 25 Sompal, posted in Noida Phase-II police station, had gone to recover the money when the contractor, the recipient of the loan, allegedly killed him with the help of his wife and brother. To try destroy the evidence, the trio dumped the body into a gutter. Manphul, a security guard, had asked for the loan and after receiving it, he started working as a contractor. Sompal had been demanding his money for sometime. When he went to Manphul’s house in Greater Noida on April 21, an argument had ensued between the two. In the heat of the moment, Sompal is said to have slapped Manphul for going back on his word. Manphul then hit Sompal with an iron rod on the head. Sompal lost consciousness and fell down. Manphul, his brother Sunil and wife Sushila then allegedly strangled him. They then allegedly threw Sompal’s body in a gutter, locked their house and immediately left for their native village Achhepur in Rabupura. When the cop’s family came to the contractor’s house to look for Sompal, they found the house locked. The next morning, Sompal’s brother Jayveer informed the Kasna police that his brother had not returned from the contractor’s house. Police started investigation and in a raid on Achhepur village, arrested the three accused. Manphul, Sunil and Sushila have allegedly confessed to the crime and told the police that the cop’s body had been dumped into a gutter. Police have now lodged a murder case and arrested the three after fishing out the body from the gutter.
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Haryana may have yoga in schools
Gurgaon, April 25 The state’s education minister has accepted the proposal and a framework for it, he added. Swami disclosed this during the weeklong yoga camp which commenced here today. He made this disclosure in the presence of the Haryana chief minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was the chief guest at the camp. The Swami continued with his diatribe against cold drinks calling them ‘toilet cleaners’ and urged the masses to keep off them as they were a health hazard. According to him, tension and other related ailments were on account of faulty lifestyle and said yoga was the only permanent solution to them. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Hooda extolled the virtues of yoga, which he said was the cultural heritage of the country. Half a dozen MLAs and MPs from the state accompanied Mr Hooda on the occasion and took part in the camp. In fact, all roads in Gurgaon in the morning led to Leisure Valley, the venue of the camp. There were serpentine queues at the entry gates for holders of tickets of value Rs 2,100 and Rs 1,100. In fact, the sitting arrangement in the Leisure Valley complex, which can accommodate more than 50,000 people, was full to its capacity.
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Father, son crushed to death by truck
Ghaziabad, April 25 A number of people were also seriously injured. They were rushed to various hospitals. The accident took place at about 1 pm in the afternoon. The truck which was overloaded with 20 to 25 passengers turned turtle while overtaking another vehicle and then skidded and dragged on the road for a considerable distance and hit a number of people in the process. Data Ram, 45, of Badalpur, who was returning along with his two children – Pankaj Bharti, 13, and Ashish Bharti, 11, from their school, was hit by the truck. All three were seriously injured. They were rushed to Yashoda Hospital, Ghaziabad by some local people where Data Ram and his son Pankaj were declared brought dead. Ashish is also serious as his head had serious injuries. He has been kept in ICU. Data Ram, his relatives, said worked in an electric company in Sahibabad. A woman and her daughter Jyoti were also injured. They were among the passengers in the truck. With lax traffic control and blatant violation of traffic laws like speed limits on the highways, it’s not the first or last time that such accidents take place.
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Design institutes mull common entrance test
New Delhi, April 25 More than 12 institutes offering courses in design, including the premier National Institute of Design (NID), the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, have proposed to form an alliance called Indian Design Institutions Alliance (IDIA). While the idea is still being thrashed out, people involved in the process are hopeful that the IDIA will not only materialise, but will be a “positive step”. “We have just had a meeting where we discussed the concept that it would be a good idea if all design institutes were to come together and share their resources,” said Dr Mandeep Singh, Head of Industrial Design at the SPA. Apart from sharing of resources and expertise, the IDIA could also pave way for a common curriculum and collaboration in research programmes. The scores attained by students in the proposed ‘Design Aptitude Test’, which will be the common entrance examination that students would be required to take, could be used by institutions for selection of prospective students. As of now, students take different tests to enrol in design institutes; the IITs follow CEED (Common Entrance Exam for Design) while NID, SPA and the others institutes have their own examination procedures. A brainchild of Dr Darlie Koshy, executive director, NID, the IDIA hopes to forge a link between the design institutes spread across the country. While institutes have expressed their approval to the idea of having an alliance, they are yet to finalise the modalities, including who will be responsible for conducting the common entrance examination and about the costs of sharing resources.
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Inter-school debate competition held
New Delhi, April 25 The first time ever an initiative has been taken by a B—School to create a platform for a school-level debate competition in the city. The debate for the topic was ‘The Great Indian Dream: It is a Question of Evolution, Not Revolution’. The finalists for the competition were Sanskriti School, Doon School, Mayo College, DPS-RKP and Modern School-Barakhamba. Varun Vaish of Sanskriti School was adjudged the best in the pool of knowledge and won a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh. The second prize went to the combined winner Chinmaya Kulkarni from Ferguson College, Pune and Rishab Animesh from Bishop Cotton College. The third prize went to Sankalp from National Public School, Bangalore. The judges of the debate competition included Prof Arindam Chaudhuri, Dean, IIPM, Malvika Tewari, actress and stained glass designer, and Gautam Bimani of ESPN.—TNS
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Edusat hub may be moved to Capital
New Delhi, April 25 Professor Dikshit complimented the faculty for maintaining annual growth of 20 per cent in student enrolment for the past five years. Prof S. C. Garg, Pro-Vice Chancellor, on this occasion, highlighted the importance of regional services network and coordination with SC functionaries, who are the focal points for the students of IGNOU. The recommendations in this brainstorming session were on reducing response time and creating greater emphasis on student grievance redressal system
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