New Delhi, August 29
The dilapidated state of schools run by the administration cannot be attributed to just paucity of funds as the Delhi Government would have us believe, since the government has failed to utilise 27 percent of grant for the year 2004-05 meant for maintenance and repair of school buildings, as per a CAG report.

While there was underutilisation of grant earmarked for maintenance and repair work to the extent of eight percent for the year 2003-04, the amount rose to 27 percent in the subsequent financial year.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has indicated that in the absence of a proper monitoring system, the grants are lying underutilised.

The report further says that in the State where 90 percent of the disabled children are out of school there is no provision for drinking water in 161 schools and toilets in 272 schools. The report says 537 schools have no separate toilets for girls and 242 schools have no electricity and out of the 68039 classrooms, 14325 classrooms are in temporary structures.

The State has also failed to provide in service teacher training to 90 percent of the total teaching staff and there has been no performance evaluation of the teachers after the training.

To upgrade the skills of teachers the SSA provides for an in-service course of 20 days for all teachers each year, refresher course for untrained teachers already employed for 60 days and orientation for 30 days for freshly trained recruits.

The CAG’s report also points out that despite the outlay programme for training of community leaders being approved, no training was imparted in the State. The SSA has a provision for training at least three community leaders per school in a year.

While the SSA norms state that the total management cost should be less than six percent of the total cost, in Delhi it exceeded by 8.96 percent.

It is also pointed out that despite a provision of Rs 3.02 crore, for the construction of 224 cluster resource centres (CRC), Delhi has not managed to open even a single CRC.

The SSA envisaged the establishment of CRCs as resource centres catering to a group of schools subject to specific norms for professional upgradation of primary school teachers by conducting various in-service training programmes.

The enrolment of Scheduled Caste children in the primary schools in the national capital has decreased by 8.09 percent in 2004-05 while that for Scheduled Tribe girls children too there is a decreasing trend.

The CAG has mentioned that the state made no special efforts to improve the enrollment of children from the special focus groups. Despite having identified 5400 urban deprived children, no provision was made by the SSA in Delhi in the Annual Work Plan and Budget during 2003-04 and 2004-05.

New Delhi, August 29
Scores of traders staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar here today demanding urgent government measures to stop resumption of the drive to seal shops in the Capital’s residential areas from September 1.

All shops operating from residential areas as on December 31, 2005, should be regularised, the traders demanded. A group of traders from the Uttar Pradesh Vyapari Suraksha Forum joined the protest. The traders have launched a week-long agitation on the sealing issue.

Participating in a dharna, traders said the sealing of shops would result into major destruction in their lives and they would be forced to live on streets. “Uprooting of lakhs of settled families is not well on part of the government. Laws are not here to destroy citizens’ life. It is for making the citizens strong,” they said.

They also warned the political parties not to make any attempt to take political benefit from the problems of sealing. “Instead of shedding crocodile tears, the political parties must come openly forward to support, if they are sympathetic to the issue,” they said.

Ashok Goal, president of the Vyapari Suraksha Forum, said “The traders of Delhi in their crusade of livelihood are not alone. The UP traders will also fight for their causes. If their demand is not met, they will take out a rally against the ‘anti-traders’ policy of the Central government.” 

New Delhi, August 29
Taking serious view of non-appearance of a Delhi police official probing a murder case, a city court today issued bailable warrants against him.

Issuing the arrest order against the SHO of Kalyan Puri police station, Additional Sessions Judge Reena Singh said, “Inspector Rajeshwar Kumar is not present despite directions. Issue Bailable Warrants in the sum of Rs 500 against him for August seven, 2006.” The court also expressed its displeasure over non-supply of documents including the photographs of deceased by the police to accused Ashok Kumar Kohli who, in a fit of rage, had killed his wife by slitting her throat.

The order came in a case wherein the FIR was lodged by the 11-year-old son of the accused.

On the night of December 26, 2006, Kohli, an auto driver and resident of Vinod Nagar in east Delhi, came home and entered into a verbal duel with his wife without any provocation, the boy alleged in the FIR.

Later, Kohli drove all his four minor sons, including the complainant, out of house and slit the throat of his wife killing her on the spot, prosecution alleged.

Kohli, few days after the commission of the offence, was nabbed and booked under various sections of the IPC. 

New Delhi, August 29
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today gave away awards to 20 leading doctors working in various health institutions in the Capital for rendering honest, sincere and meritorious service.

Each award comprises a memento, a citation and Rs 50,000 in cash.

Among those who received the awards at a function were Dr Bhupendra Prakash Arneja, Chief Medical Officer of the Dr Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan, Dr. M. S. Chopra, Additional Medical Superintendent of the Lok Nayak Jayprakash Narayan Hospital, Dr Sunil Gumber and Dr M S Batra.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister appreciated the work being done by the medical community in the Capital for the success of various health programmes. 

New Delhi, August 29
A police officer accused in a nine-year-old custodial death case and now under CBI scanner was denied bail for the second time by a Special Court after the probe agency voiced apprehension that he might influence the victim’s kin “who are poor persons”.

Dharampal Singh Yadav was Station House Officer of Hauz Khas Police Station when 20-year-old Hari Shanker was in December 1997 illegally detained in custody on a criminal charge, CBI said.

A few days later, Shanker died in the police lock-up of hunger and exposure to cold, it added.

A case was registered against Yadav for offences under sections 304 (culpable homicide), 342 (wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully confine person), 323 (hurt), among other provisions of the IPC.

The case dragged on for the past nine years despite filing of the chargesheet. The CBI finally took over the matter and Yadav was arrested in July 2006 for the first time.

Subsequently, Yadav’s first bail plea was on July 15, 2006 rejected by a Delhi court on merits. It had observed that enlarging the accused on bail at this time would allow him to tamper with the evidence and overthrow the prosecution case.

This time in his bail application, Yadav argued that Shanker had died of heart ailment and had left the police station alive. The accused further contended that his retirement was due on August 31, 2006 and his service record had not suffered a single blemish.

An unimpressed court, however, denied bail saying that “a prima facie case is made out against the accused since chargesheet has already been filed and bail on merit has already been declined by this court earlier”. 

New Delhi, August 29
A Delhi court today sentenced a former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official to five months imprisonment in a cheque bouncing case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi also directed the convict Jagdish Prasad to pay a compensation of Rs 60,000 to the complainant Daleep Singh Arshi, also an RBI official.

According to the complaint, Prasad, a resident of Pitampura in North-West Delhi, had borrowed a sum of Rs 5 lakh from his colleague Arshi to tide over a financial crisis he was passing through as a Secretary of one Pratyakshkar Group Housing Society having 40-50 members.

During Novemebr 1999 to September 2001, Prasad was in dire financial straits having to refund the money to the members of the society. His friend Arshi gave him the money at an annual interest of 20 per cent.

Prasad gave several post-dated cheques to the complainant to ensure repayment. 

New Delhi, August 29
The new Master Plan of Delhi has specific bye-laws to wind up schools being run in unauthorised areas. These schools have no facilities of playground and other recreation activity. Majority of these schools are located on agriculture land, Gram Sabha land and in flood prone areas, an official of the Education Department of the Delhi government said.

He said that according to the figures available with the department there were 5,000 private schools. Out of these, 350 schools have been provided land by the DDA and recognised by the Delhi government and affiliated with the CBSE. These are according to the Plan specifications. They have proper facilities necessary for children. Another 2,000 schools are located on private land but they are recognised.

The remaining schools are not recognised. Action was likely to be taken against these schools after the recommendations of the new Master Plan were implemented, the official said.

Concerned over the new bye-laws, an association of private schools recently submitted a representation to the Delhi Education Minister, Mr. Arvinder Singh Lovely, informing him that six to eight lakh students were enrolled in these schools. If these schools were closed, such a large number of students would have no future. They also said the government schools were not located nearby unauthorised colonies and these schools cater to the students living there.

Later, Mr. Lovely had also wrote a letter to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry appealing not to close these schools, sources said. 

New Delhi, August 29
Taking serious view of the increasing number of deaths due to burn injuries in the Capital, the Delhi High Court today issued notices to government-run RML, LNJP and GTB and Safdarjung Hospitals to state their requirement for establishing a world class burn ward.

A division bench of Justices Mukundakam Sharma and Hima Kohli pulled up the Superintendent and Head of the Department of the Burn Ward of the Safdarjung Hospital for filing an affidavit giving a ‘rosy picture’ of the burn ward.

However, the Court-appointed committee comprising Advocates Meera Bhatia and Ashok Agrawal had submitted its report stating that the hospital did not have the modern and high-tech facilities to treat the burn patients.

“Why did you try to project a rosy picture contrary to the report submitted by the fact finding team. It is very unfortunate.

You are doctors and the responsibity lies with you to treat the patients in world class facilities,’’ the court observed while directly interacting with two top doctors during the hearing. The Court asked the Superintendent to file an affidavit in two weeks, mentioning the deficiencies and shortcomings in the burn ward of the hospital.

“If there is paucity of funds, the hospital should also mention it in the affidavit, so that, the court will issue directions to the government,’’ said the Judges while expressing their anguish.

New Delhi, August 29
The incidents of rape in the Capital have come down by 15% this year, the Delhi Police clarified today barely a week after the Delhi Government sponsored survey “Delhi Human Development Report 2006” claimed that the city was unsafe for women and public transport was not safe for women commuters.

“Rape cases have come down and we have got positive results,” said Dr. K. K. Paul, the Commissioner of Police, Delhi here today marking the successful completion of one year of ‘Parivartan’, a citizen awareness programme for safety of women launched by the Delhi Police last year. —OC

New Delhi, August 29
Four people received burn injuries after a cylinder caught fire at a house in Kalyanpuri area of East Delhi this morning.

The injured, with 40 to 44% burn injuries, have been admitted to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, Khicharipur, said the Fire Brigade.Those admitted include Balbir (with 40%burn injuries), Rajni (42%), Rajesh (41%) and Ranjit (41%). The incident took place at 9.30 am in the morning at a house in A – Block, Kalyanpuri. —OC

New Delhi, August 29
Attacking the Sheila Dikshit government for not doing enough to solve the power woes of Delhiites, Delhi units of the Jan Morcha, NCP and JD (S) held a dharna today demanding cancellation of licences granted to the private power discoms for “failing” to provide satisfactory service.

“The present situation of the people of Delhi is pathetic. They are suffering from eight to ten hours of power cuts everyday. And the electricity bill has also increased manifold,” Jan Morcha president Raj Babbar said addressing the dharna held at Raj Ghat.

He alleged that there was a big scam involved in the privatisation of power in the capital, he said.

JD (S) leader and Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal said the government and the discoms had failed to protect the interests of the consumers.

“The Delhi government should cancel the licences of the private discoms and impose penalty on them for failing to provide satisfactory services,” he said.

Babbar also said the government was not taking any concrete steps to tackle the situation arising out of the recent Supreme Court order on sealing of shops in residential areas of the city.

Meanwhile, in signs of a third front being formed in the capital, the Jan Morcha alliance would hold a rally here on September 10 on the issues of power, water, demolitions and sealing, he said.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary Tariq Anwar said the people of Delhi were keenly waiting for a third front and hoped that the present campaign would lead to the formation of one.

The leaders alleged, “The private companies lack proper maintenance staff and are fully loaded with senior officials. There is virtually no presence of these companies in providing maintenance to consumers and this has resulted in a serious crisis management situation. Consumers get inflated power bills”.

Noida, August 29
A few drunken men in a Scorpio, which had a political party’s flag fluttering on the bonnet, brandished a revolver and molested a young woman accompanied by her husband at the Sector 44 crossing last evening.

The vehicle sped away as a dumper approached. The police were informed by the dumper driver. The police were soon on the lookout for the vehicle.

A vehicle checkout on all exit points and main roads was ordered. Messages were flashed on the wireless to ascertain the location of the Scorpio. In the meantime, the victim had left quietly.

The vehicle, it is learnt, belongs to a local leader of Dankore. The incident took place in Sector 44 at about 10.30 pm when a newlywed couple, who were passing by in their Alto car, were overtaken by a Scorpio.

The miscreants blocked the car and started arguing with the young couple. One of the drunk men pulled out a revolver, put it against the husband’s head and started molesting the woman. This went on for half an hour when a dumper driver tipped off the police control room. The Scorpio was finally traced but the police said they could not proceed against the miscreants without a complaint by the couple.

New Delhi, August 29
The Municipal Commissioner, Mr. A. K. Nigam today said that massive sealing action was taken in various parts of Rohini Zone in which 46 properties were sealed. Unauthorised constructions were noticed in all these properties.

In Shahadra (South) Zone property numbers six, seven and nineteen in New Rajdhani Enclave on Vikas Marg and property numbers four and five in JK block at Laxmi Nagar underwent demolition action “for infringement on public land and wide scale deviations from sanctioned building plan”.

It appeared that the properties were being converted from residential to commercial ones. Monitoring Committee had visited the area on Aug 23 and directed the Deputy Commissioner of the district to take action against these buildings.

He department concerned of the MCD served notices to the building owners about the unauthorised constructions. When no reply was received, the buildings were demolished, spokesman of the MCD said.

Expressing serious concern over MCD’s announcement that dynamite will be used to demolish unauthorised constructions, Leader of Opposition in the MCD Subhash Arya today alleged that use of the explosive was illegal.

“There are new techniques to demolish buildings. If the MCD does not have the latest technique, it should make its arrangement. Use of dynamite was banned in Delhi,” he said.

He also said that it was wrong to allot work of demolition to private contractors since it would increase corruption.

In connection with increase of corruption by private contractors to be engaged in demolition work, spokesman of the civic body said that it was prime concern of the MCD.

He said that demolition of buildings would be done in most professional manner so that it causes no danger to human life or adjoining properties and no increase of corruption. It will be ensured that method is perfectly safe and well controlled.

Services of those firms or contractors will be engaged who are experts in this field, he said. 

New Delhi, August 29
New India Assurance Company has been ordered by a consumer court to reimburse over Rs 45,000 towards knee surgery charges of the 11-year-old daughter of a claimant, who was refused the money on the ground that he had suppressed her medical history.

“There is nothing to show as per medical records of the complainant’s daughter that she is suffering from any pre-existing disease,” the District Consumer Forum (North) headed by President K K Chopra observed.

The court also ordered compensation of Rs 10,000 in favour of the complainant, Rakesh Garg, a resident of Rohini area here.

Garg’s daughter was admitted to Sant Parmanand Hospital here on March 20 last year after she was diagnosed with some handicap in both knees.

She was duly operated on the next day and spent four days in post-operative care at the hospital with total medical expenses coming to Rs 45,780.

A holder of a comprehensive medical policy offered by New India Assurance, Garg had notified the company about his daughter’s medical treatment.

In response, the company declined insurance cover on the ground that she was suffering from a “pre-existing disease” about which Garg had not intimated them at the time of joining the policy, as is the norm. Meanwhile, the hospital refused to discharge the patient until Garg paid the entire medical bill, which he was eventually forced to do so.

“While issuing mediclaim policy, the companies do not care to ask the person to undergo all possible tests, but when the claim is preferred, they resort to all excuses to repudiate the same,” the forum observed.

It further asked the insurance company to pay Rs 2,000 in favour of the complainant as litigation costs.

Ghaziabad, August 29
In view of the continuing expansion in postal services in Noida, it will soon become the new divisional headquarters of the postal department. At present, Noida is part of the Ghaziabad postal division.

More than 36 postoffices of Bulandshahr district will become part of the new postal divisional in Noida.

Postmaster-General R. R. P. Singh said in view of the increasing commercial activity and population of Noida it had been decided to set up a new postal division in Noida. All post offices in Noida, Greater Noida, Secunderabad and Bulandshahar will be included in the new division, he said.

Ghaziabad, August 29
The Bureau of Indian Standards (ISI) has unearthed an illegal factory of mineral water in Sarswati Vihar area in Loni. In a raid on the factory some 18,000 pouches of water were also seized.

The ISI has taken action against the owner of the factory for misusing the ISI mark.

The ISI team found workers packing water in pouches through machines. Some 180 packets of 250 ml were seized; one packet can fill in 102 pouches. The team seized three machines, a packing roller. The packed water pouches are sold in markets and buses, trains etc.

A case against factory owner Sanjeev from Navin Shahdara has been lodged with the police for misusing the ISI mark without a licence. —OC

Ghaziabad, August 29
Senior IAS officer and Member Revenue Board, T George Joseph, has unearthed another land scam worth Rs 150 crore involving 10 bigha government land. Mr. Joseph said in Hasanpur Bhowapur village 10 bigha land had been fraudulently transferred to the name of those who had illegally occupied it in 1984 with the connivance of some revenue department officials. This area was under Dadri Tehsil at that time and DP Singh was the SDM.

According to Mr. Joseph, the 10 bigha land was transferred in the name of Babu and Ramchander on 14 March, 1984. The Revenue Board member said as per a 1979 notification, the land was transferred to the name of the person if it had remained under his possession for 12 years. But this rule was not applicable to the government land. The role of government officers and employees in this case is now being enquired. The fraud came to light when a claim for compensation was presented by Babu and Ramchander. A land compensation amount of Rs.1.50 lakh had been passed in the meantime. The price of the land adjacent to a high profile area like Kaushambi is stated to be Rs.150 crore. Mr. George Joseph made this disclosure when District Magistrate MKS Sundaram.