New Delhi, August 20
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today decided to launch a signature campaign in protest against the sealing of commercial establishments in Delhi.

CAIT will submit a memorandum to local MPs, MLAs and municipal corporators, demanding them to perform their role as elected representatives in exerting pressure on their political parties to save traders and their employees from the sealing drive. They can also contact celebrities from different fields, including films, art, sports and literature. The body is planning to take out a celebrity march in their support.

The traders will also have meetings with market associations. They opined that the problems of parking and encroachment were the real issues. The traders had just been made scapegoats. The traders passed a resolution demanding the government to focus attention on these two issues and evolve remedial measures.

More than 20 types of trade laws and other related ones are governing trade. Many laws have lost their significance. The blow dealt by sealing will virtually finish off the trade and traders of Delhi.

New Delhi, August 20
Tension prevailed at the historic Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine here today when a mob allegedly manhandled the Delhi High Court appointed receiver and the Wakf Board Survey Commissioner who had gone there to take charge of the religious place as per court orders.

A group of at least 150 persons broke the windscreen of Survey Commissioner Azimul Haq’s car, who was escorted out of the place along with Wakf Board legal counsel Najimi Waziri by the police.

On August 17, the high court had appointed Mr Haq the receiver for the historic shrine following complaints that crores of rupees of public donations were being pocketed by some self-styled descendants of the late saint.

However, at around 3 pm when Mr Haq, Mr Waziri and other board officials were trying to take possession of the premises a mob first tried to attack Mr Waziri who managed to escape from the place with the help of the police.

They then tried to attack Mr Haq, who also managed to get into his car.

The angry people continued pelting stones at them, smashing the windscreen of the car before the police intervened.

Mr H. Verma, SHO of the Hazrat Nizamuddin police station, said the situation was under control.

He added no arrests were made and an inquiry into the incident was on.

New Delhi, August 20
Taking note of reports that certain city doctors were linked to an organised begging racket that chopped off the limbs of healthy persons, the High Court here has asked the Delhi Police to probe the issue.

A Division Bench of Mr Justices R. S. Sodhi and P. K. Bhasin asked the Delhi Police to file a status report on the matter within four weeks.

The Bench passed the direction after Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau referred the issue to the court following a complaint by the Delhi Bar Association.

The association had earlier moved an application before the ACMM’s court, seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to register cases against a gang of beggars and lepers operating in the South Delhi areas of New Friends Colony, Srinivaspuri, Ashram Crossing and Maharani Bagh.

According to the association, the beggars who belonged to an organised racket were creating nuisance at these places by intimidating passersby.

The association alleged certain beggars had got their limbs amputated with the help of doctors who were part of the begging racket.

New Delhi, August 20
With the arrest of a notorious cheat, Dhani Ram Mittal (67), also known as Super Natwar Lal, the Special Staff of the North-West district police claimed to have solved more than 100 cases of cheating, forgery, auto theft, burglary and crime under the TADA and NDPS Acts.

Delhi Police sources said, “A Maruti Esteem car was reportedly stolen from the gate of the Rohini courts complex on July 26. On August 13, the said car was found parked in the parking lot of Sunder Lal Jain Hospital. On inquiry from the parking staff, it was revealed that the said car had been parked by an old man. It was also revealed that the person would come here with another car. On this information, a team was set up under Inspector Mr K. R. Malik,” said a senior officer.

“The team kept continuous watch on the parking lot. On August 16 in the evening, the person came and asked about the car.

He was then apprehended by the police party. Initially, he tried to influence the police party by posing as a senior advocate. But on sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed that he had stolen the car and parked there with his accomplice, namely Prem Danda,” said the officer.

“The accused started his criminal life in 1964 by preparing forged documents of a stolen vehicle.

After that, he never looked back. On the basis of self-prepared documents, he had taken charge and worked as Station Master at Bikaner and Ganga Nagar in Rajasthan, as Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Jhajjar, Haryana, for 28 days as a supervisor of Haryana Roadways and as an advocate in different courts of Haryana and Delhi.

In 1990, he shot into limelight in the crime world when during his stay in Rohtak Jail he got released about 30 hardcore criminals by preparing forged release orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Courts,” he added.

Ghaziabad, August 20
In spite of incurring an expenditure of crores of rupees on polio campaigns, 160 new cases of polio have come to light in UP. Viewing these developments as very serious in nature, the state government has removed the Director-General of Family Welfare, Mr. B.L. Prasad.

A total of 19 districts of western and central UP are found to have been affected by the scourge of polio. The vaccine sent by World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly failed in the state.

UP Health Minister Ahmed Hassan admitted that all the polio cases had been detected in the children who were administered the polio drops.

The government has ordered the health department specialists to investigate the effectiveness of the polio drops and the vaccine both.

That the scourges of polio and Japanese encephalitis in Western UP have not been effectively controlled is a matter of grave concern.

The state governor T.V. Rajeswar has also written a letter to Union Health Minister A. Ramadoss to get the vaccine investigated by a team of expert.

In 2005, there were only 29 new polio cases but during 2006, 160 new polio cases have come to light. The three districts in Moradabad with 52, JP Nagar with 17, and Badayun with 13 cases are the most adversely affected by this disease.

Mr. Ahmed Hassan said during 2002, the number of polio patients were 1,242 and 80 per cent of these were from Muslim community. During 2004, this number had come down to 82, while in 2005, it was a mere 29 in the whole state. But in 2006, it has again gone up to 160.

In the western and central UP, 19 districts of Mainipuri, Ferozabad, Muradabad, JP Nagar, Pampur, Bijnore, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Badaun, Muzzafarnagar, Barielly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, and Barabanki are the most infested with polio and encephalitis.

The failure of the state government in this regard has cost D-G Family Welfare B.L. Prasad his job, who has now been made D-G training.

Noida, August 20
Social status and prestige is a must for making Indian woman strong. It is equally important that she should not be economically dependent on others.

These views were expressed by Ms Girija Vyas, Chairman of National Women Commission (NWC), while addressing a seminar on ‘woman power’ in Noida yesterday.

Ms. Vyas expressed concern at the state of women in the country, especially over the increasing crime against women.

“During independence struggle, Gandhiji had inspired women to come forward and take part in the freedom struggle. But there was none to inspire and lead the country’s women today. Unless women became economically strong, there was no chance of their conditions improving”, emphasised Ms Vyas.

Ms Murdla Sinha, Chairman of the organisation, said woman should come into the forefront to defend their self-respect. Thanks to the cooperation of men, the condition of young women had considerably improved in the country, she said.

Woman entrepreneur Mrs Bimal Bathan said though the women were unbeatable in management, even today the fairer sex was considered a second grade citizen and there was little respect for women in most of the house-holds.

Hodal (Faridabad), August 20
Career guidance and job training for the youth was the need of the hour to meet the challenges of growing unemployment and make the people self-sustaining in view of the shrinking government jobs in the country.

All efforts should be focused on creating an awareness about the ever-changing job scenario.

This was stated by the Governor of Nagaland, Mr Shyamal Dutta, while speaking as Chief Guest at a function organized to give training certificates to the youths by ‘Shram Shakti’, an NGO founded by Mr O.P.Sharma, a former Governor and a resident of Banchari village in the district here today.

Mr Dutta who gave away six months’ training course certificates to about 80 youths from 27 villages on the occasion, called upon the people to avail themselves of the opportunities that were thrown up by the organisations like ‘Shram Shakti’.

He said the quality of human resources was an important issue as the new sectors like the agro sector, infrastructure development, vocational and professional training and the service sectors had been expanding fast and the youth would have to be prepared for such opportunities rather than waiting for the employment to knock at their door.

He said there was an urgent need for more agencies which could come up for the help of rural people and unearth the large human resources for fast development.

Mr D.S Teotia, a retired Chief Justice of the Kolkata High Court, who presided over the function, expressed concern over the falling standards of education in the

government schools and poor training facilities for the rural youth.

He said though 70 per cent of the population was still living in rural areas, there was lack of educational facilities and infrastructure in villages and the performance of rural schools had been going down each year.

Speaking at the function earlier, the founder of the Trust, Mr O.P.Sharma, himself a former Governor of Nagaland, claimed that the dropout rate of the students had been a cause of concern as he said at least 62 per cent of students leave the school before the completion of matric.

Gurgaon, August 20
Stung by criticism from some quarters regarding the efficiency of its personnel, the Public Relation Department of the state has now opted for a rearguard action to make the personnel more effective in selling the government’s development works and its policies to the masses.

A two-day workshop of Folk media units (Bhajan teams) of Gurgaon Division was started recently to inform them of new techniques and communication skills to make the masses aware of the works and policies of the government.

In all, 26 teams from Gurgaon Division covering Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Mewat and Mahendragarh districts are attending the workshop. All the District PROs are attending the programme.

This apart, the department has decided to organise a state-level workshop of its drama units in Kurukshetra, commencing from September 29.

The Bhajan teams of the department in the districts visit the villages and make parodies of modern songs besides singing ‘raginees’ (folk songs) to highlight the government’s policies.

Gurgaon, August 20
A large number of slums have come up around the posh DLF City and other parts of the city and the authorities do not seem to have any solution to curb this development.

One of the biggest cluster of ‘jhugee jhopadees’ (slums) is in Nathupur village which skirts Phase-111 of DLF and anther posh colony, Garden Estate. About 5000 illegal structures have sprung up on about 40 acres of land. The sad part of the story is that these have come up on Panchayat land of the village.

According to many, it is a standing testimony of the failure of the administration in successive governments, including the present one, in redeeming their continuous statements of backlash against those encroaching on public land.

The general perception is that the unholy nexus between some quarters in the government, land mafia and politicians and their stooges have allowed these structures to come up and be perpetuated.

The President of the Gurgaon Citizens’ Council, Mr R.S. Rathee, demanded that the government must intervene at the earliest with a decisive mind before the issue forever went beyond redemption.

Another such cluster is in Chakarpur village skirting DLF Phase I and 1V kissing the posh Galleria apartments. Around 1,000 slum households exist here.

Similar is the case in Sikanderpur village and the Wazirabad joint, which acts as periphery to Phase-V.

New Delhi, August 20
Congress MLA Jai Kishan distributed fruit among poor patients in Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, Maharishi Balmiki Hospital, Pooth-Khurd and Bhim Rao Ambedkar Hospital, Babu Jagjivan Ram and Rajan Babu TB Hospitals.

He also distributed saris to poor and helpless women. Notebooks with photographs of late Rajiv Gandhi were also distributed among students belonging to poor families. Representatives of social organisations of Dalit communities and backward classes like the Sangharsh Samiti, the Prajapati Mahasabha, the Balmiki Veer Sena, the SC/ST Teachers Association, the Maharshi Balmiki Mazdoor Sangh, the Delhi Pradesh Bairwa Mahasabha and the All India SC/ST Federation were present.

New Delhi, August 20
A free eye camp was organised today by Tarun Mitra Parishad in association with Mitthan Lal Jain Charitable Trust at St Suji Joseph Public School, Kondli. Mr Amreesh Gautam, local MLA, inaugurated the camp by lighting the lamp.

He expressed gratitude for organising this camp in his constituency for aged eye patients. He also appreciated the contribution of Bir Sain Jain Kagji and the medical team.

The function was presided by Mr Ram Das Chauhan, manager of the school. Bir Sain Jain Kagji welcomed the guests.

'On the move' by Reema Bansal at her solo art exhibtion, "Strokes III", at AIFACS Gallery.

Another heartening aspect of this exhibition is that 15 per cent of the proceeds will be donated to an NGO, the Indian Vision Foundation, to help finance the education of destitute children and prisoners.

‘Journeys Across Foreign Land’

From August 22 to August 28, Art India is holding an unusual exhibition of more than 100 paintings, graphics, sculptures and drawings of the famous artist Jatin Das, “Another Day Another Time, Journeys Across Foreign Land” at the Lalit Kala Akademi here.

The exhibition consists of works completed by the artist during his foreign sojourns which began in 1962.

Solo show by Veer Munshi

A solo show of paintings and installations by artist Veer Munshi will be on at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre from August 25 to August 30. Called “Encounter”, the exhibition is being organized jointly by Art Alive and the India Habitat Centre.

Works of students at Palm Court Gallery

The School of Performing Arts and Creative Education (SPACE) is holding an exhibition of works of some of the students at the Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre from August 25 to August 27.

Also from August 28 to August 31, the India Arts Forum will be holding an exhibition entitled “Bengal Watercolours”.

The works of some of the prominent, contemporary artists from Bengal will
be displayed in the exhibition.

‘Triumph of Labour’

The Anant Art Gallery here is holding an exhibition entitled “Triumph of Labour Part II” from August 19 to September 6. The exhibition will have on view mixed media works and installations by artist Shukla Sawant.

Interpretations of red

The Polkas Art Gallery here presented a unique exhibition called, “Gimme Red” comprising works of 38 eminent artists at the Arpana Fine Arts Gallery here from August 18 to August 21. The works depict the myriad usages and interpretations of the colour red.