New Delhi, September 19
The Delhi unit of the BJP, traders and chartered accountant associations have given a call for a one-day bandh tomorrow in protest against the sealing and demolition drive in the Capital.

The Delhi BJP president, Dr Harsh Vardhan, appealed to the citizens to support the traders as the issue involved the livelihood of lakhs of them.

He urged the authorities concerned to regularise the unauthorised construction and trading in residential areas on humanitarian ground. Lakhs of people are employed in these establishments. Responsibility of government agencies should be fixed and a provision of penalty be made so that in future no illegal construction takes place. The BJP would openly fight for the traders if its demands were not met, he warned.

“Sealing and bulldozers are haunting the traders and other people for the last 11 months. The Congress government at the Centre as well as the Delhi government is playing political games,” he added.

“First, they encouraged illegal construction and recovered large amounts and when the court is taking action, the Congress leaders are looking the other way,” he said.

The Confederation of All India Traders Association claimed that all major markets in the Capital would be shut tomorrow. Besides, there would also be dharnas at 100 places in different markets of Delhi.

According to the traders, the continuance of sealing of shops by the MCD despite the September 15 notification by the Delhi government has reduced them to the status of beggars.

“Today the traders are dangling between the politicians and the government. Angered by the state of things, they are knocking the doors of the government, but of no avail,” the Confederation of All Indian Traders Association secretary general Parveen Khandelwal said.

The Chartered Accountants Association also expressed concern at the issue and has decided to support the bandh call. It will also hold a dharna.

Declaring its support to the bandh, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has also appealed to all party workers and the Sikh community to close their shops during the bandh.

New Delhi, September 19
Even their own engineering department’s assessment of buildings has failed to evoke action from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that continues to show indifference to the safety of young children enrolled in schools that have unsafe classrooms.

A case in point is the MCD school in Mukundpura where children are forced to occupy classrooms that the MCD’s engineering department has declared “dangerous” almost three years ago.

Of the 10 classrooms, one room is used as principal’s room, four have been declared dangerous and one is used for storing material, leaving hundreds of students roofless. These students are forced to study under the open sky even when temperature soars close to 40 degree Celsius.

A non-government organisation that works for the right to education of children, the Right to Education Task Force has written to the Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, seeking her intervention.

“I went to inspect the school with Mr B. P. Pandey, Nodal Officer, Universal Elementary Education Mission, Delhi Government and was shocked to find that students of class III were forced to sit in the classrooms that have been marked dangerous,” said Ashok Agarwal, Convenor, RETF.

The primary school in Mukundpura near Burari caters to a population of 2.5 lakh. Run in two shifts, the morning shift has 1,293 girls enrolled and there are 1,100 boys in the second shift.

The president of the Resident Welfare Association of the areas has informed that the school was allotted six bhigas of land, of which 3.25 bhigas is under encroachment. The authorities have just turned a blind eye to this lapse.

“During the inspection, we found 130 students of two sections of class III sitting in dangerous classrooms, 177 students of class II were sitting in the third unsafe classroom and 158 students of class 1 were sitting out in the open,” said Agarwal who has filed a petition against the MCD and the Government of Delhi for neglect in the management and functioning of primary schools, and the existence of school buildings that were declared dangerous by the Works Department of the MCD.

“Any untoward incident involving the lives of these tiny-tots can take place any time. The authorities continue to sleep over the matter, even though they were aware of these facts. They have made a mockery of the right to education. How can children acquire education if they are made to study in such horrible conditions,” he questions.

He alleged, “These children are being discriminated against because they are the children of the poor and voiceless people. The authorities are guilty of violating the fundamental and human rights of these children. Students being made to sit in dangerous, overcrowded classrooms, out in the open in hot and humid climate is criminal negligence, callousness, insensitiveness.” 

New Delhi, September 19
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has removed all encroachments and cleared public land worth Rs 2.5 crore in Seelampur area of Shahadra North Zone.

Sealing was carried out on Gurdwara Road and Welcome, a resettlement colony on the road leading from GT Road to Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar. Thousands of temporary structures were cleared from the area, claimed the area deputy commissioner visiting various localities.

He was accompanied by two members of monitoring committees–R. S. Gupta and B.L. Vohra besides Court Commissioner Sanjeev. The Monitoring Committee members and the Court Commissioner visited the area to scan the situation in the market.

The deputy commissioner said that after the anti-encroachment drive, the road had become wide and the MCD would try to maintain this status. When asked about the number of shops sealed on road leading to Yamuna Vihar, he did not answer.

However, sources in the MCD said no shop was sealed on the road. Today is a weekly holiday in the locality which was why all shops were closed. The deputy commissioner said that this road was maintained by the PWD. All the construction made by the shopkeepers would be removed by the PWD.

The court commissioner said that all the temporary structures had been removed from the area. When asked about the pucca structures, he replied that they would also be removed now.

Monitoring Committee members R. S. Gupta and B. L. Vohra said that the monitoring committee had been appointed to demolish ongoing unauthorised constructions and seal shops in residential areas. Besides, removing the encroachment from public land is also the monitoring committee’ job.

As far as Seelampur is concerned, it is a sensitive area. All encroachments and unauthorised constructions will be cleared gradually. The committee is satisfied with the action taken by the MCD, they said.

New Delhi, September 19
Keeping in mind some recent incidents of eve-teasing on Metro trains, DMRC today attempted to spread awareness regarding the presence of alarm-buttons in its coaches.

A DMRC spokesperson said that there are four such buttons, analogous to the conventional chain-pulling system in normal trains, in each Metro coach. A passenger may press them in the case of any emergency.

As soon as the passenger presses the button, she will be connected to the
train operator. The train operator in turn will inform the supervisor at the next station.

The train operator will open the doors only when security personnel take positions outside the coach.

However, the misuse of the alarm-button will cost a fine of Rs 5,000 or 4-year imprisonment, warned the DMRC spokesperson.

New Delhi, September 19
The disabled are demanding their “rightful share” in the next Five-Year Plan for 2007-2012. In support of their demand, more than 250 disabled persons from Delhi and neigbouring areas today demonstrated in front of the Planning Commission office in Yojna Bhavan in the Capital.

Seeking thematic reallocation of sub-groups of the Planning Commission’s Working Group, they demanded their expansion, the extension of deadline of sub-groups till October, appointment of a co-chair for the Working Group and an urgent meeting of the full Working Group and Steering Committee, all “ as promised”.

They said that “empowering the disabled should not just merely remain the title of the Planning Commission’s Working Group” and demanded for a good Five-Year Plan for the empowerment of 70 million disabled persons in the country.

The police had to forcibly remove the demonstrators, mostly in wheel chair, from the site after they succeeded in blocking the traffic on the busy Parliament Street during the busy morning hours.

But for the 70 million disabled in the country, the Tenth Plan agreed outlay was just Rs 1, 465 crore. The XI Plan is very crucial, said Disabled Rights Group Convenor Javed Abidi.

“The fact of the matter is that everything is linked to resource allocation. If we miss this chance, the next one would come only in 2012… The country’s planners owe it to disabled children and youth to see that this chance was not missed out,” he said.

“We as a group have never resorted to confrontation in the past. What we are looking for now is a paradigm shift and we hope that Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, whom we are meeting tomorrow, will understand our sentiments and put the planning process back on rails,” he said.

Even in Independent India, the disabled as a community were systematically neglected, Mr Abidi said.

“In the Tenth Five-Year plan, the Planning Commission said disability should be a cross-sectoral issue. That means that there should be adequate representation from the disability sector. If you see the mid-tern appraisal, the Ministry of Social Justice has been indicted for not doing so. Neither the Steering Committee nor the Working Group has adequate representation from the disability sector,” he added.

He said seven sub-groups, set up on some whooped subject-wise break-up too had poor representation from the disability sector. “To top it all, the sub-groups were supposed to submit their report by September 7, but the date has come and gone and not even one report is available. A few meetings of the sub-groups are now being held and that too in the most non-serious way,” he said.

New Delhi, September 19
High humidity and bright sunshine left Delhiites sweating for the second consecutive day today with the maximum temperature recorded at 36.5 degree Celsius, nearly two degrees above normal.

The sultry weather since Sunday comes close on the heels of a cool spell last week following heavy showers on Thursday, which had led to a drop in the maximum temperature to 30.7 degree Celsius, nearly four degrees below normal.

Some respite from the sultry weather is, however, expected in the coming days with the weatherman forecasting scattered rainfall in several parts of Northwest India, including Delhi, later this week. The weather office has forecast a partly cloudy sky with the possibility of rain and thundershowers in some areas of Delhi during the next 24 hours.

New Delhi, September 19
The Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia in collaboration with the Delhi Kalyan Samiti, Government of Delhi, has set up a Markaz-e-Niswan (Women’s Development Centre) to cater to the needs of women and adolescent girls in the Jamia neighbourhood.

The Markaz-e-Niswan aims at providing them with a forum in which they can critically analyse their situations and devise strategies to overcome their difficulties.

The Markaz acts as the hub for a number of satellite outreach centres located in various colonies.

Its activities are conducted at outreach centres as well as at the Markaz-a-Niswan. Some activities requiring a higher degree of infrastructure are located at the Markaz whereas the community-based activities are located at outreach centres.

Women in the adopted colonies have been encouraged to form small groups that meet regularly to critically analyse their situations and devise strategies to overcome their difficulties. Facilitators provide inputs in confidence building and communication skills.

Faridabad, September 19
While the residents here are divided over the issue of allowing commercial activities in residential colonies, there is near unanimity over the need for strict implementation of a development plan in urban areas to avoid the problems being faced in Delhi due to such activities.

Faridabad seems to be following the footsteps of the national Capital after a move by the state government allowing commercial activities on certain roads following the recent order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to seal all the shops and commercial establishments operating from the residential sectors within a week. Though hundreds of shops located on 30 and 60 feet wide roads, mainly located in the inside pockets of various Housing Board Colonies here, have been sealed or closed down in the past one week — as claimed by the authorities concerned — no action has so far been taken against the commercial establishments situated on 100 feet wide roads.

The owners of shops located on such roads claimed that most probably, they would not face the sealing drive, as the government was in the process of issuing a notification for allowing commercial activities on 100 feet wide roads. The government was expected to file its reply in the court in the next hearing, they said.

However, some residents alleged that inaction by the authorities concerned had led to commercial activities being operated from houses located on the 100 feet wide road. “The 100 feet wide road here have been reduced to just 30-40 feet due to encroachments by the shopkeepers from both sides,” a resident of sector 10 claimed.

A social activist here also demanded that the government should come out with a proper plan so that Faridabad did not become another Delhi.

Meanwhile, the leader of Indian National Lok Dal, Master Rishipal, said here today that the government should not act in a “biased” manner in matter of regularising such commercial activities. “If shops and showrooms on 100 feet wide roads could be allowed, then why not on 60 and 30 feet roads”, he said. 

Gurgaon, September 19
One person was shot dead and several others, including two policemen, injured in a clash between two groups in Kanhi village outside a private hospital here last night.

It all started with a minor dispute over the construction of a road in the village between two persons, one of whom apparently called up a relative in the city.

The relative, along with some armed persons, reached the village and opened fire on the other side, which also retaliated. About six persons received bullet injuries in the clash. All the injured were later admitted to a private hospital.

According to reports, after the incident, some 40-odd people, some of them armed with country-made weapons, reached the hospital and pulled out the leader from the hospital premises. He was then shot dead. At the time of the incident, a PCR van was reportedly standing nearby.

The police have registered a case in which 13 persons, all residents of Kanhi village, have been named. However, no arrests have been made so far in this connection.

Gurgaon, September 19
The State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) would recommend to the Haryana State Education Board to make the Prevention of Corruption Act a part of syllabus of Class X, said Mr R S Dalal, Director, SVB.

Mr Dalal, who was here today to supervise day-to-day activities of the range, said that the corruption in various departments had to be dealt with by formulating different strategies. The children should be educated about the ways to check corruption during school days, he added.

The Bureau would also suggest the education department to put anti-corruption awareness posters, banners, pamphlets and other publicity materials in schools and other academic institutions in the state.

Mr Dalal informed that the vigilance department’s officials from the Superintendent of Police (SP) to the constable levels had already started visiting various villages on a fixed day of Wednesday every week to exhort the villagers not to give bribe and help check the corruption.

He claimed that the response of the scheme was very encouraging, as many villagers were coming forward to lodge their complaints with the department against the corrupt officials.

The recently launched toll-free helpline number for registering complaints on telephone itself against corruption in various department had also been proving very helpful, he further claimed.

On an average, five to ten persons every day lodged their different types of corruption-related complaints through the helpline, the official said.

As a new policy decision, now lecturers posted in different government colleges would also be appointed as Duty Magistrate during the raids, Mr Dalal said.

“This would not only give a helping hand to the district administration which is already pressed hard in sparing officers to be appointed as duty magistrate, it would also add a new dimension of transparency and sharing responsibility on the part of people belonging to the academia,” Mr Dalal said.

Appreciating the proposal to appoint academicians as duty magistrate, Mr Rajbir Deswal, Superintendent of Police, SVB, Gurgaon Range, said “This would definitely go a long way in centralising the operational aspects of the SVB and the district administration.”

Mr Deswal further informed that Gurgaon range had already conducted 62 successful raids this year, the highest in the history of the vigilance departments by the range.

The SP appealed to the masses to take initiatives and come forward to lodge their protest against corruption by registering complaints against the corrupt officials of the state government. 

Gurgaon, September 19
Officials from the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) today visited the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner regarding a graft case involving a clerk last Saturday.

According to the bureau, Balkishan, a clerk in the office of the Zila Parishad was arrested red-handed taking Rs 10,000 from a person for getting a stall allotted to him in the SARAS mela underway here. The ADC heads the District Rural Development Agency, which is organising the fair.

According to officials, investigations revealed that Balkishan was operating from the office of the ADC since September 13, when he reported for duty after about two months leave. He had been posted in the office of the Deputy Commissioner and the ADC earlier.

The officials said the clerk was posted with the office of the ADC last year when the 2005 national level SARAS mela was organised. It says that since the complaint pertains to allotting a stall in the mela, it was trying to go into records to find any linkages.

The clerk had promised one Imran, son of Mazid, to get him a stamp vendor agency at the fair. About four months back, he had allegedly taken Rs 5,000 from Imran for this. When Balkishan came back from leave, he allegedly tried to change his stand in the deal with Imran, saying that he would ensure him a stall in the mela. This led to Imran taking the matter to the SVB.

Ghaziabad, September 19
Protesting against the government’s move to allot land for Reliance Power project, the farmers from Bijhore Khurd once again clashed with police.

Police had to resort to lathi-charge and firing in the air to disperse the crowd, which started pelting stones on the cops.

In the incident that lasted for around one hour on Sunday, 12 farmers and as many policemen were injured and 10 farmers, including two women, were arrested.

At 10 am, hundreds of farmers sitting on dharna in Bijhore Khurd left for Jadopur, Behrampur in tractor trolleys on learning that construction work for Reliance project had been started and the crop was being harvested. On reaching the site, the farmers shooed away the workers and the cops deployed there.

Soon after, senior officers with reinforcements of police force reached the site. When police tried to build up pressure on farmers, the latter started pelting stones on the policemen. The cops resorted to bursting tear-gas shells and firing in the air to disperse the crowd. The police lathi-charged the farmers and arrested 10 farmers, including two women. The Ghaziabad SSP claimed that the farmers had fired from revolvers, while Dehat Morch President Babu Singh Arya accused the police of firing on farmers.

Later, a police flag march was conducted in Bijhore Khurd under SSP Mordia. A police contingent has been deployed at the site of farmers’ dharna in the village. 

Noida, September 19
The labourers who come to Noida from far off areas do succeed in getting work, but the working conditions here do not seem to be safe for them.

In over half a dozen accidents, some 21 labourers have lost their lives in Noida in the past three months. A few had died in road accidents, but most of them had died while working in insecure conditions.

Two blasts in a food factory while making mid-day meals for school kids in Surajpur in Greater Noida, indicate that factory owners and employers do not follow proper safety norms for the workers.

A fresh case in point was the death of two workers who were digging a foundation in sector 10 on Sunday. The dead bodies were kept in the middle of the road by kith and kin demanding compensation for the dead. Such incidents have taken place earlier too when workers did not get any compensation after accident or death.

The regrettable part is that even the district administration, too, treats these cases in a casual way. The following are some of the recent cases:

On 27 July, a labour and a woman were killed when a dumper hit a crane which crashes on a number of labourers in Greater Noida. On 10 July, two workers were killed near Basantpur village when a truck crushed them. On 7 July, a factory worker was killed in Noida in a road accident. On 17 August, nine workers were charred to death in a blast in food factory in Greater Noida.

Gurgaon, September 19
A section of casual workers of Honda Scooters and Motorcycle Ltd today went on strike to press for regularisation of their jobs and acceptance of their “seniority”.

They sat outside the premises of the firm located at IMT, Manesar, about 20 kms from here, and raised slogans against the management.

Significantly, the management negotiated an agreement with the regular workers yesterday pertaining to their demands and salaries for the coming three years.

The district administration has made elaborate security arrangement around the area.

However, the management is reported to have clarified that the workers were provided by the contractors who dealt with their payment or salaries. —TNS

Noida, September 19
A 21-year-old resident of Ghanshyam Road in Dadri succumbed to dengue here yesterday. The condition of his younger brother, suffering from the same disease, is also reported to be serious.

Nitin had been gripped with fever for the last four days in Mohalla Khari Quana Masjid. He was taken to a private hospital on Railway Road, and later shifted to a Delhi hospital. His death has been confirmed by the hospital administration.

Nitin’s younger brother, Gaurav, is also down with dengue and his condition is stated to be serious. He has been admitted to a hospital in Delhi.

The two dengue cases have created a scare in the locality.

Despite the confirmation of the dengue death in the area, the administration and the health department here have failed to take measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Earlier also, dengue cases were reported in Greater Noida. There is absolutely no fogging in the area, for one.

The conditions are even worse in rural Dari, where mosquitoes are the source of many deadly diseases. Five members of a family are among around 25 people down with malaria in Adarsh Nagar colony alone.

New Delhi, September 19
A free ‘Eye Camp’ would be organised by Tarun Mitra Parishad at Tyagi Wali Chaupal, Hastsal village, Uttam Nagar on September 23.

General secretary Ashok Jain said that in this camp, the medical team of St. Stephen’s Hospital will examine the patients, give them medicines and select cataract patients for free operations at their hospital.

According to convenor Karan Yadav, all patients will be provided with free medical facilities, medicines, meals, board and lodging, and lens. —TNS

Noida, September 19
Addressing the seminar on Indian languages here on Sunday, prolific writer Padma Shri (Dr) Shyam Singh Shashi said spirituality and culture were reflected in the writings in all the languages of the country.

He said spirituality was actually meeting of ‘Atma’ (man) with ‘Parmatma’ (God). A common stream of spirituality also runs in all the writings across the country. All the writings in different languages, Dr Shashi said, be they in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali or Tamil, etc were essentially rooted in the Indian way of life and the common man.

Dr Shashi said Indian society was divided into 6000 castes and sub castes. But Indian literature had kept them alive and woven them in one chain of spirituality and culture, he said. Ram, Krishen, Kabir and all saints, sufis and bhagats were the pillars of Indian society, he said.

Earlier, Dr Maheeb Singh said that Punjabi writings started with a Sufi Saint Baba Shiekh Farid.

New Delhi, September 19
The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a gang of inter-state cheats, who used to procure false marksheets of technical and non-technical courses. This six-member gang has so far procured more than 10,000 fake marks sheets for price ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 for each marksheet.

Acting on a tip-off, the team apprehended two suspects Dheeraj Kakkar and Vishal Srivastavas outside the Rajpur Road Transport Authority office with several objectionable documents. During the course of investigation, many unchecked answer sheets, marksheets and certificates of various institutions were recovered at their instance.