New Delhi, September 4
The Delhi High Court today constituted a five-member panel to suggest an alternative to the present system of interviews for admission to nursery and pre-nursery classes in the Capital.

Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education, Mr Ashok Ganguly will head the panel, which has been instructed to submit its report to the court by October 17.

Dr Shyama Chona, Director, Delhi Public School Society, will be the convener of the committee which also includes Mr Ved Vyas, Mr P V Kunikal and Dr Anil Wilson, principal of St Stephen’s College.

Justices Vijender Jain and Kailash Ghambir issued the direction to set up an expert panel when the Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools failed to reach a consensus on an alternative admission method.

The bench directed the panel to invite the views of parents and school managements before reaching a decision on the alternative method. The bench said people were free to give their opinion to the body.

Earlier, the court had on August 23 directed the school committees to devise an alternative method within a week and inform the court, failing which it said it would pass an appropriate order.

A Division Bench headed by Justice Vijender Jain has already barred the private unaided schools to conduct interviews of children and their parents for admissions to nursery and pre-nursery classes.

The Bench directed school managements to start the admission process for the next academic year in November in line with the new mechanism. The admissions normally begin in September/October.

The Supreme Court on August 12 had refused to entertain an appeal against interim orders of the Delhi High Court restraining unaided recognised private schools from calling children or their parents for interview for kindergarten and nursery admissions.

Meanwhile, schools said they were relieved that the panel consisted of eminent educationists. “We are happy that panel that has been set up has educationists on it. We have also been seeking a transparent admission process, which will have interaction instead of interviews. Let the panel now tell us what this interaction will be,” said Ms Usha Ram, Principal, Laxman Public School.

On withholding the admission process till November, she said, “We have always wanted the admission process to begin in November and wind up by December; why should the admission process begin in October when the child starts school only in April?”

New Delhi, September 4
The Municipal Commissioner, Mr Ashok Kumar Nigam, today reiterated the intention to follow the court direction and notification issued by the Union government in connection with the ceiling in the national Capital. “Everything is being done under the guidance of the Monitoring Committee constituted by the court. There is no confusion in notification of the Union government. Confusion has been created by certain sections of society who may have vested interests,” the Municipal Commissioner said.

It is clear in the notification that pre-primary schools in residential areas will be sealed. There is no mention in notification for sealing of other schools in residential areas. As far as liquor shops are concerned, they will be sealed.

Notification of the Central government gave exemption to the shops of vegetable, fruit juice, flower, bakery products, tailoring, grocery, chemist, barber, hair dressing saloon and beauty parlour , dairy products, small sweet shops, tea shops without sitting arrangement, pan bidi cigarette, photo copier and spiral binding, cyber café, STD booth, laundry dry cleaning, ironing shops and flour grinding units.

Replying to the questions of Standing Committee members in MCD, the Municipal Commissioner said, “I will discuss with the Monitoring Committee to include some other shops and laboratories to include in the exemption list.”

Resident Welfare Associations of A and B category can recommend for mixed land use status to their colonies. Their recommendation will be considered but this is not obligatory, the commissioner clarified.

At present, no mixed land use is allowed in A and B category colonies. As far as colonies in the categories of C and D are concerned, certain roads will be notified for mixed land use. Mixed land use is allowed for remaining colonies. Residential localities having 50 per cent commercial or industrial units will be given status of mixed land use and localities having 70m per cent business establishments will be declared commercial areas.

However, councillors across the party lines demanded that more shops selling daily use be included in the list of establishments exempted from sealing. This issue is attached with employment of lakhs of citizens of the Capital.

The Congress councillors who discussed the issue are: Varyam Kaur, Memwati Barwala, Anjali Sood, Brijmohan Sharma, Hemchand Goel, Satbir Sharma, Mukesh Goel, Jitender Kochar, Jaikishan Sharma. BJP councillor Vijender Gupta was also present.

Having seen seriousness of the issue, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit held a meeting with the AICC president Sonia Gandhi which lasted 30 minutes. She has discussed ways to address the situation arising out of the court-ordered drives against illegal constructions. She has also written a letter to the Urban Development Ministry to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, the MCD today sealed the premises of the well-known Bistro Restaurant in Hauz Khas village near Deer Park following inspection and subsequent instructions of the Monitoring Committee. During inspection, the committee found that restaurant was unauthorisedly located in the urban village of South Delhi. It had also encroached upon the historical tomb of Tughlaq. Blatant violation of building bylaws was noticed in the restaurant, an MCD spokesman said.

Besides, a large gym, Power House, was sealed in the Hauz Khas village. The other properties sealed in South Delhi are C-53, E-7/12, F-5/2, F-9/1 in Malviya Nagar, A-31 and J-14 in Kailash Colony.

Carvan Guest House in Nizamuddin East was also sealed. The Monitoring Committee ordered to seal the restaurant after it found 12 rooms without any sanctioned building plan. Seven other properties were sealed in the area.

Besides, the MCD sealed 50 properties in other zones of the corporation, the spokesman said.

Faridabad, September 4
The post-mortem report has confirmed that all the four members of the family who were found dead in a Santro car yesterday morning in Sector-16 here had died of asphyxia probably caused by leakage of carbon monoxide gas from the air conditioner of the car. The police have also ruled out any foul play in the incident.

The bodies of the victims were handed over to the relatives last evening after the examination at the civil hospital. The victims Dhanesh Jindal (32), his wife Ruchi, five-year-old son and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter were on their way to a hotel when their car got struck in a jam caused by flooding of rain water on the road near Sunflag hospital here.

The local SSP said that a team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Karnal, had taken samples from the spot and was likely to submit a report within a week. Ruling out any foul play in the incident, he said it appeared to be a freak accident and the family was suffocated to death.

New Delhi, September 4
The Delhi Cabinet today decided to increase the age of retirement of teachers in schools from 60 to 62 years, as a ‘gift’ to them on the eve of Teachers’ Day.

Announcing the decision, Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the move would help meet the shortage of teachers in government schools since there are about 40,000 teachers on the verge of retirement at present. He said that the Directorate of Education has also created 3,800 posts of Assistant Teachers. In the meantime, guest teachers are being appointed against vacant posts so that studies do not suffer. To improve the standard of teaching in government schools, surprise inspection by the Director of Education will be conducted. Online assessment of teachers performance by the head of schools will also be done.

The Education Minster also announced Computer Aided Learning Programme (CALP) to be introduced in the government schools. The programme will be called CAL toonz 2006. This programme will be introduced to ensure learning in a meaningful and interesting way. Computers will be installed in all the schools and the teachers will teach syllabus through computer.

He said that online admission would be done in government schools from the next session.

New Delhi, September 4
With the posters gone, campaigning for elections in a university as vast as Delhi University has not been easy. Candidates in the fray for DUSU polls say students are finding it difficult to put a face to their names.

“Earlier the posters used to be splashed all over the city, now they are limited in number. Students in various colleges that are away from the main campuses find it difficult to identify contenders,” said an activist of the NSUI.

Though the candidates have by no means limited their election expenditure to the prescribed Rs 10,000, as is evident by the number of cars that are part of their entourage, the campaigning this year, they say, is ‘lackluster’.

“The campaigning is slowly picking up. Unlike the previous years, the excitement this year is low,” confessed a party worker of the ABVP. In the absence of “simmering issues and striking faces”, the outfits are engaging the students through text-messages and emails.

Parties like the ABVP are trying to weave in issues related to the city in their campaign. “We had a demonstration near Jantar Mantar today to protest against the sealing drive in the city. The future of hundreds of school students is at stake owing to the threat to seal schools. We are against the government’s move to seal indiscriminately,” said Rajeev, an ABVP activist.

Having taken a cue from the Left parties that use street plays for communicating with students, the NSUI too is organising such plays. The theme of these varies from the death of a professor in Ujjain to issues like fee hike.

Not affiliated to any political group, the United Students has based their campaigning on the issue of reservation and have been steadily garnering support from the anti-reservationists on campus.

And while parties gear up to counter each other’s claims and promises, there is the usual paraphernalia, elephants, tall men, muscle men distributing pamphlets of parties to catch attention of the students.

Gurgaon, September 4
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVNL) has set up a customer care centre (CCC) to resolve consumers’ problems relating to new connections and billing on telephone.

According to the Superintending Engineer, Gurgaon Circle, all types of commercial complaints relating to billing, metering, overcharging, new connection, change of name, disconnection, extension or reduction of load, enforcement etc could be taken up on telephone with the executives manning the CCC. It will be open seven days a week round the clock, although requests for new connections would be taken up only from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm.

The consumers now did not need to go to the complaint centres or offices of Sub-Divisional Officers for getting their complaints addressed, the SE told The Tribune.

He claimed that the move would eliminate the need to approach touts infesting every government office, offering ‘smooth’ interactions with clerks and officials.

He said the CCC would offer time-bound redressal of every complaint. Consumers would also be able to enquire about the status of their complaints at any time.

The SE claimed that the department’s technical staff has been provided with a fault-attending vehicle equipped with latest equipment to promptly attend to the faults in supply any time of day or night. The van will also work at night.

The Bijli Suvidha Kendra (BSK) and the Billing Centre that were already functioning in the premises of DHBVNL Circle office here would now become a part of the Customer Care Centre.

New Delhi, September 4
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today released report on Social Audit of Public Services in Delhi making public the quality of services rendered by major departments dealing with citizens and then identify gaps in the service delivery process. The report was prepared after a study by certain agencies.

The study was carried out in seven major public dealing departments—Delhi Jal Board, Food and Supplies, Education, Deputy Commissioner Offices, Transport, DTC, Medical and Health.

The social audit primarily aims at gauging citizens’ perception about some of the frequently used services provided by the government agencies, identifying problems faced by the citizens and reforming the delivery of these public services.

The report points to the need for improving tanker-based water services in J.J. clusters. This improvement is on due to the commissioning of the Sonia Vihar plant which has led to the release of tankers, now being deployed in greater numbers in the JJ clusters. Further improvements in health care services need strengthening of referral linkages between the primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities.

Ms Dikshit said that this report serves as a diagnostic pointer to prioritize government’s reforms in various areas.

New Delhi, September 4
The General Secretary of All India Congress Committee and Union State Minister, Mr Oscar Fernandes today said that India has got a shot in arm and its popularity is increasing day by day under the Congress party’s rule and Indian youth regarded as honest, laborious and intelligent throughout the world.

He was speaking while campaigning in favour of NSUI candidates in DUSU election on September 8. The meeting was organised by Member of Parliament from Rohtak Mr Deepender Singh Hooda for gearing up the support of the students hailing from the nearby districts of Haryana adjacent to Delhi. — TNS

New Delhi, September 4
Mr P. S. Bawa, member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, today welcomed the decision of the Delhi Police to hand over the case of forced hair cutting of a Sikh

youth case to the Crime Branch and appealed to the people to remain calm and not to fall into the trap of “communalist elements” who were trying to create tension among communities

Mr Bawa, who toured the various Sikh-dominated areas, particularly Tilak Nagar where the incident is alleged to have taken place last Friday night, met the local leaders and assured them that the matter would be thoroughly probed. Mr Bawa also met senior police officers of the area.

Harpreet Singh, a Sikh youth had alleged that some persons intruded into his Tilak Nagar house on Friday night and forcibly cut his hair. The police, however, claimed that it was only a case of robbery and there were no communal overtones to it. One person has already been arrested in this connection and efforts were being made to trace the other two suspects alleged to have been involved in the incident.

New Delhi, September 4
With the arrest of Rajiv (24), Rakesh (23), Nitin (25), Rahul (27) and Anil (29), the Anti-Fraud and Cheating Section of the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police today claimed to have unearthed a gang of cheats intercepting DDs/cheques during transit and subsequently encashing them by opening fake accounts. The misappropriated amount worked out so far is more than Rs 8 lakh.

According to the police, “One Mr Ritu Gupta had lodged a complaint with the EOW, alleging that his client had sent him cheques through a courier company Blazeflash. However, the cheques were intercepted and encashed after opening bogus accounts in banks. A separate team was then set up and during the course of investigation, original documents were collected from the banks involved and the courier company.

Scrutiny revealed that three saving accounts in the name of Ajay, Manoj and Ashok were opened in Rohini branch of the HDFC Bank on the introduction of Nitin, a contract executive of the bank.

“Another contract employee of the bank, Rahul, also helped them in the scandal,” said a senior officer.

“Efforts were made to locate the persons but none was found residing on the given addresses. After sometime, information was received that Rajiv and Rakesh had been arrested by the Rohtak Police.

After sustained interrogation, they revealed that they had hatched a criminal conspiracy with Nitin, Rahul and Anil (employee of the courier company) to encash DDs/cheques delivered by the courier company. The booty was shared by them. Three others Nitin, Rahul and Anil were also arrested,” said the officer.

New Delhi, September 4
In a shocking incident, a man strangled his new-born child to death in a south-west Delhi locality suspecting his wife of infidelity. Rakesh Gupta, a resident of Indira Park in Dabri, was arrested by the police after he confessed to having killed his ten-day-old boy on Saturday and dumped his body in a garbage bin.

According to police, Gupta had lodged a complaint on Saturday, claiming that his new-born child was missing. An investigation was launched and it was found out that Gupta’s friends and neighbours used to taunt him about the child’s parentage. The frustrated Gupta then decide to kill his son.

New Delhi, September 4
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police today claimed to have solved a sensational kidnapping-cum-murder case of a person Shailender Singh, resident of Aligarh, by apprehending two persons Jatin Kumar and Deepak Singh.

The duo with their other accomplices had killed Shailender Singh as he was having an affair with their sister Deepshikha and wanted to marry her.

Ghaziabad, September 4
Even after two days of his mysterious disappearance, the whereabouts of Parvesh Kumar Tyagi, an iron merchant, are still unknown. His car was found locked and abandoned near Vivekanand Temple here, with his mobile phone switched off.

According to his family members, Tyagi (27), who is a resident of Lohiya Nagar, was carrying Rs. 5 lakh with him on Saturday night when he called his wife around 8.30 pm to say that he would be coming home late because of a birthday party in Vijay Nagar.

When he failed to show up till the morning, his wife called him on his cell phone, but it was found switched off. She then contacted relatives and friends, and eventually informed the police. 

Noida, September 4
A young man allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his residence in Sector-5 yesterday.

According to information, Kuldip Sharma lived in a joint family in Harola village and had a small shop in his house. In the morning yesterday, an argument broke out between him and his family members. Upset over it, he reportedly went to his room, made a noose from a bed sheet and hanged himself from the ceiling fan. He was later taken to a hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”.

The family did not contact the police about the incident. Some neighbours, however, informed the police, who subsequently took away the body and sent it for a postmortem. 

New Delhi, September 4
A 57-year-old cancer patient, who was undergoing treatment at a hospital here allegedly shot himself to death today with a country-made pistol.

Praveen, hailing from Ludhiana, was reportedly suffering from a prolonged bout of depression because of his illness.

A case of suicide has been registered by the police, which are trying to find out from where he had procured the illegal weapon.