New Delhi, October 30
Chaman Lal Mattoo, father of Priyadarshini Mattoo, today hoped that the Delhi High Court judgment sentencing Santosh Kumar Singh to death for murdering his daughter would serve as a deterrent to those who indulge in such heinous crimes.

Having waited for justice for 11 years, Mr Mattoo said, “What could be the reaction of a father who has lost his daughter in such circumstances? She (Priyadarshini) was almost butchered by the guilty. So, any type of punishment that has been decided by the court, I accept it.”

“Whatever would be the outcome of the judgment here or in the Supreme Court, should act as a deterrent to those who indulge in such heinous crimes,” he said.

Describing the past 11 years as a period full of ‘anguish and pain’, Mr Mattoo said, “Let us try to join others who are in anguish and pain awaiting justice in the cases like Jessica Lall case and Nitish Katara case, which are unnoticed and unheard of.”

Another family member of Mattoo said the credit for the justice in the case went 110 per cent to the media, which, he said, was responsible for highlighting the injustice done by the lower court.

“I thank the millions of people in Delhi and outside and also abroad who stood by us through e-mails and other forms of support to our cause,” he said.

“The death sentence for Santosh Singh is a message for all criminals. Though it took a decade to get justice, it has brought satisfaction to the family,” said Sabrina Lall, who has been fighting for justice in the murder case of her model sister Jessica Lall since 1999.

“The decision is a warning to all the criminals that even if they get away from the lower courts, the higher courts can bring them to book,” she reacted.

Noted film maker Ashok Pandit, who was an activist in the ‘Movement for Justice for Priyadarshini’, said the high court verdict was a victory of the media.

“We all are grateful to the media for taking up the case and ensuring that the guilty got punished.”

Priyadarshini Mattoo, a 23-year-old law student at the Law faculty of Delhi University, was raped and strangulated to death on the evening of January 23, 1996 at her residence in Vasant Kunj.

Santosh Singh, her senior in the faculty, had been stalking her for two years.

New Delhi, October 30
The Delhi bandh called by the Confederation of All India Federation (CAIF) in protest against the sealing of commercial establishments in residential areas saw markets across the Capital wearing a deserted look as many traders downed their shutters.

All major markets, including Connaught Place, Lajpat Nagar, Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Greater Kailash, Chandni Chowk, South Extension, Mayur Vihar, Khan Market, Kamla Market, Gandhi Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Vikas Marg, Shahadra, Seelampur, Green Park, Yusuf Sarai, Kalkaji, Sadar Bazar, Bhagirath Palace, Khari Bawli, Naya Bazar etc remained closed.

However, there was no report of clash from anywhere in the Capital.

The traders and activists of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) also gheraoed the Delhi Assembly on the first day of its winter session today.

The CAIF claimed that 50,000 traders gheraoed the Assembly under the banner of the Federation and demanded from the Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, that the sealing drive be stopped immediately and that she should take up the issue with the Union government to work out the traders’ problems.

The traders and their employees reached the Assembly premises staging rallies from their respective markets.

The police had to use water cannons to disperse hundreds of demonstrating traders and BJP activists.

Police and paramilitary forces threw a security blanket around the Assembly and set up roadblocks at sensitive parts of the Capital. No vehicle was allowed on Civil Lines Road, where Assembly is located.

The protestors wore black strips to express their resentment against sealing. They shouted slogans against the Congress Government and burnt effigies of the party President, Ms Sonia Gandhi and the Chief Minister.

The BJP claimed that its leaders including Sahib Singh Verma, Vijay Goel, Anita Arya, Lal Bihari Tiwari, Subhash Arya, Ram Bhaj, S.S. Bajwa, Abdul Rasheed, Neera Shastri courted arrest near Chandagi Ram Akhara.

Traffic jams were also witnessed in several parts of the city as traders held demonstrations and staged rallies. The Ring Road from near ISBT to Wazirabad was jammed for several hours.

“In some areas, some of the protestors pelted stones at the policemen. However, there is no report of any hurt during the first day of the bandh and the over all law and order situation remained under control,” said a police official.

Besides the traders’ community, chemists, nursing homes, doctors, public schools, fashion, designers, computer learning centres, play schools etc also joined the three-day bandh and closed their shops and establishments.

Political parties like BJP and Congress also supported the traders’ agitation.

Protesting against the MCD’s sealing drive, the traders claimed that their contribution to the development of the national Capital and its economy had been overlooked.

Claiming that sealing was not an ultimate solution to the problem, the traders said that instead of taking action against traders, the government should work to develop new trade centres. “The DDA is responsible for the prevailing chaos in the city. Had the trade centres been developed by the DDA, the traders would have not opened shops and other commercial establishments in the residential areas,” the agitating traders said.

New Delhi, October 30
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) today unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the traders’ agitation against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)’s sealing drive, even as the ruling party in the Capital braced itself for a stormy winter session.

“We are sorting out the matter and will ensure that the traders get relief,” Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit told reporters after the CLP meeting.

Condemning the BJP for “playing politics” in the matter, the CLP resolution demanded that the Centre should file a review petition in the Supreme Court at the earliest seeking relief for over 44,000 traders who face sealing action from November 1.

The CLP that met before the 10-day winter session demanded that the Master Plan for Delhi 2021 be implemented by January 31 to give respite to the trading community from sealing.

New Delhi, October 30
Speaker of the Delhi Assembly Chaudhary Prem Singh had to adjourn the House for 30 minutes on first day of winter session of the Assembly following noisy scenes in wake of the tabling of a resolution of “no-confidence motion” against the government by the BJP.

Wearing yellow-coloured apparel, BJP MLAs demanded that sealing should be stopped immediately as this would affect the livelihood of lakhs of citizens.

Speaking on the issue, the Leader of Opposition, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi said that sealing was a very sensitive issue. If this is continued, lakhs of traders and their employees would be unemployed. To save the interest of traders, the government should implement Master Plan 2021, giving mixed land use facility to the citizens.

Blaming the Congress Government in Delhi, he said that only notifying the roads for mixed land use was not enough. The Chief Minister and other senior leaders of the Delhi Congress should discuss this issue with the Prime Minister and the All India Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, to bring an amnesty scheme.

Discussing on the no-confidence motion, Delhi Urban Development Minister, Dr A. K. Walia assured the House that the government would do its best to protect the interest of traders. Various roads have been notified for mixed land use and are being discussed. This is not a new problem. Criticising the BJP, he said that the Malhotra Committee was constituted by the BJP government to prepare an amnesty scheme. But recommendations of the committee were not accepted by the NDA government at the Centre. Had the then government implemented the recommendations of the committee, the current problem would not have arisen.

Implementation of Master Plan 2001 was delayed. Had it been amended and implemented timely, the traders and citizens in general would have got relief.

On the one hand, the BJP is opposing demolition of unauthorised constructions and on the other, Common Cause, an NGO, registered by its member filed a PIL in the court against the approval of unauthorised constructions.

He said that the BJP played double game.

The Education Minister, Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely, and NCP leader and MLA Mr Ram Veer Singh Bidhuri also criticised the BJP.

New Delhi, October 30
The Municipal Commissioner (MC) carried out an inspection on Sunday in different parts of the city to review the functioning of private agencies engaged in removing garbage from dhalaos and dustbins and also of the MCD’s Environment Management Services Department (EMSD).

The Municipal Commissioner, who was accompanied by additional commissioners, Director-in-chief of EMSD and deputy commissioners, also wanted to ensure that the additional solid waste generated during the recent festival season had been removed from dhalaos and dustbins and sent to sanitary landfill sites. He had earlier received complaints from different quarters that some dhalaos and dustbins were still overflowing with garbage generated during the festivals.

Against the normal generation of above 7,000 metric tonnes per day of solid waste, the festival season saw the generation of about 10,000 metric tonnes per day. It had resulted in accumulation of garbage dumps at some places.

The Municipal Commissioner had on Saturday ordered 24-hours Special Sanitation Drive in the city with special emphasis on cleansing of dhalaos and dustbins by removing additionally generated garbage to self-loading sites.

He had directed to deploy additional manpower, equipment and trucks to clear the accumulated garbage. The garbage was lifted day and night during the drive.

He emphasised that deputy commissioners and senior officials of the EMSD must regularly visit the field to ensure proper and regular sanitation and cleansing of dhalaos. 

New Delhi, October 30
Bal Panchayat, an independent body formed and promoted by Plan India along with its partner CASP, organised a day-long campaign against child labour issues and awareness at Sangam Vihar and Mehrauli Badarpur road.

“The winter is set to bring in a spring of freedom and safety for lakhs of children employed in difficult circumstances with the ban on child labour by the government and the event was another step towards taking the revolution further towards a better living for the young ones,” the organisers mentioned.

The event was marked by enthusiastic participation by children working in difficult circumstances along with their parents and the organisers working for the cause. The campaign was a series of events aimed at sparking discussion on the issue and celebrated the success achieved so far in ensuring a free and comfortable being for the future of the country.

The focus of the campaign was not just abolishing child labour, but ensuring improved working conditions, occupational safety and health. Moreover, it was an endorsement for a responsible action from government, industry, and corporations to provide education support to the children and economic opportunities to their families.

The campaign began with a session on sensitising the young children on hazards of child labour where the organisers and the spokespeople interacted with the children working in those conditions and invite participation in their campaign against child labour. 

New Delhi, October 30
On the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections, while other factions announced the names of candidates for the central panel, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) was left squabbling over the choice of its presidential contestant.

The party has officially declared Simmy Joseph as the candidate for President’s post, but another candidate Anand Kumar Pandey, staking his claim for the same post, has criticised the Unit President of the NSUI for “showing favouritism”.

“My name was proposed by the national president of the NSUI and the AICC. But the Unit President of NSUI in JNU has announced Simmy candidature, which is invalid and smacks of favouritism,” said Anand, who has refused to withdraw his name.

Embarrassed by the infighting, the NSUI, on a damage control spree, claims the issue will be sorted out. “This is a small misunderstanding, which we are confident of solving very soon…there is no infighting,” said a senior functionary of the NSUI.

Sources said another candidate from the party, Usuf, too, has refused to withdraw his nomination. The NSUI’s panel as of this evening has Simmy for the post of President, Padmapani Borah for Vice-President, Priyamvada Magi for General Secretary and Tauqir Alam for Joint Secretary.

Meanwhile, the NSUI cried foul over the disqualification of two of their candidates for the post of school councillors. The Election Committee has disqualified the two candidates on the ground that they did not submit their resignation from the post of councillors before filing fresh nominations for re-election to the same post.

“This is not a valid ground for disqualification as the rule says they can submit their resignation before the election, it does not say it has to be done before filing the nomination,” said Mathew, an NSUI activist and Ph.D. scholar.

While he admitted that the NSUI will “take up the issue”, he declined to comment on what the course of action will be. The AISF-SFI (All India Students’ Federation and Students’ Federation of India) combine has fielded Dhananjay Tripathi for President, Murtaza Ali for VP, Arun Prasad for GS and Jyotsna Singh for JS.

Facing them from the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) camp are Amit Singh for President, Manoj Kumar for VP, Rakesh Kumar for GS and Pushpranjan for JS.

The All India Students’ Association (AISA) has fielded Awadesh for President, Tyler Walker for VP, Sandeep Singh for GS and Shaphalika Shekar for JS.

New entrants into the electoral fray, the Youth for Equality (YFE) has announced the candidature of Sonika Tyagi for President, Vrindaban Mishra for VP, Upasana Dhankar for GS and Babita Sharma for JS.

The YFE has claimed that two of its candidates Anuj Kumar Sharma of the Centre for Bio-Technology (CBT) and Mohammad Rehan of the Bio-Informatics Centre (BIC) have been elected unopposed as councillors. The Forum for Peoples’ Rights and Bahujan Students’ Front are also in the fray for elections.

New Delhi, October 30
The Delhi Metro today suspended train services on Line 2 between Kashmere Gate and Vishwa Vidyalaya between 9 am and 3 pm on the advise of the police in the light of a call given by BJP and city traders to picket Delhi Assembly today.

The section was closed as a precautionary measure as it also had a station (Vidhan Sabha) leading to the Assembly. During the September 20 protest, the DMRC suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1.6 million when protestors stoned moving metro trains. 

Faridabad, October 30
The problem of power shortage in Haryana is likely to be over in the next three years as the state would be generating and receiving an additional power of more than 5000 MW by 2010.

The government has intensified its efforts to set up several coal-based power generating plants, besides planned to work on the gas-based proposals.

Stating this, the spokesperson of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, said here on Sunday that this was the first time in the history of the state when work had started on such a large number of projects to augment the power production and supply.

He claimed that the main reason of the power crisis in Haryana had been the zero development work in the state during the past six years and the ‘false’ promises made to the people by the previous government.

Regretting that there had been a problem in commitment of gas supply from various agencies, he said the work of some of the proposed gas-based projects, including the 1050 MW plant at Mothuka village in Faridabad, could not be started due to non-commitment of the gas supply. Claiming that while three big plants with a total capacity of 3900 MW will come up in Jhajjar and Hisar districts by 2010, he said another plant of 600 MW would come up in Yamunanagar, for which work has already begun.

The Congress leader said the memorandum of understanding would be signed soon with the states like Chhatisgarh, Uttranchal and Himachal for supply of additional power in this period.

It was announced that a supply of an additional 600 to 700 MW would be available by 2008 under this arrangement. It was stated that the government had not given up the gas-based projects but would go ahead as soon as the supply was assured from the source, as the power from gas had been clean and cheap.

It may be recalled that the foundation stone of the mega power plant had been laid in July last year, but the work got stalled due to this factor.

According to Mr Vidrohi, the monthly meeting of the District Congress Committees (DCC) had been made mandatory for which days had been fixed for each district to ensure better organization of the party at the grass-root level.

He said the government had started the recruitment process and made a move to give jobs to many employees retrenched by the previous government.

New Delhi, October 30
Dr B. K. Gairola has been appointed as the Director General of the National Informatics Center (NIC).

Dr Gairola has been associated with major departments like the Ministry of External Affairs, Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat, and Ministry of Home Affairs. He has also been associated with the NIC since its inception.

His assumption of the key post comes at a time when the IT revolution is beginning to engage the Government of India at a serious level. The technology governance interface is gaining momentum and the results are getting visible for the common man.

The NIC is the independent office under the Ministry of Communication and IT and provides information technology solutions to government ministries and departments. It is also one of the designated organisation for hosting government websites.

The NICNET is one of the largest networks in the country and NIC’s presence permeates at the district and block level. 

New Delhi, October 30
Chloroquine is highly helpful for patients with chickengunya and HIV, informed Dr K.K. Aggarwal, President of the Heart Care Foundation of India.

Dr Aggarwal also said, “Chloroquine, a 4 aminoquinoline drug long used in the treatment or prevention of malaria, also mildly suppresses the immune system. It has been widely used in some autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthiritis and lupus erythematosus.”

“The drug also has some interesting bio-chemical properties that might be applied against some viral infections,” he added.

It has recently been discovered that chloroquine is highly useful as an antiretroviral drug in humans with HIV-1/AIDS and as a potential anti-viral agent against chickengunya fever and the influenza-A virus. Further, certain properties of the drug are also beginning to get exploited in anti-cancer strategies in humans. Dr Aggarwal informs that chickengunya infection can easily co-exist with malaria and whenever in doubt whether it is chickengunya, malaria or dengue, one should take chloroquine. 

Ghaziabad, October 30
In a post-voting clash between the husbands of two candidates in municipal elections, two persons lost their lives on Sunday.

A minor clash in Ward Katra Fatchmuhamed on Saturday, between the husbands of candidates had taken a bloody turn on Sunday evening in which two persons were killed.

In Etawaha Jugnu and Balkrishen, husbands of Leelawati Rajput and Roop Rani had clashed during polling, but peace was brokered after a while. On Sunday, however, both the men with their supporters exchanged fire and hand grenades. Leelawati’s nephew Nitin, 18, and Roop Rani’s son Rajiv, 20, were killed in the clash while dozens of supporters from both the camps were wounded.

On getting the news of the clash, senior officers rushed to the site and in view of the brewing tension, CRP was deployed in the area. Eta city had witnessed serious and violent clashes after the municipal elections.

Many people, including two constables were wounded in firing. Angry crowd had torched a roadways bus too. Things took a turn for the worst when police arrested BJP leader Jaya Prakash Verma and sent him to police lock-up. Traders suddenly downed the shutters of their shops and people gheraoed the police station.

Greater Noida, October 30
One man was killed as his van collides with a stationary truck near Agahpur village on Sunday on Expressway. His daughter and wife are grievously injured. The collision was so powerful that the truck driver was killed on the spot.

The body of the driver has been sent for autopsy.

According to Kasna police, Tejpal Singh, a resident of Muhammadpur in Dankore, was in a dairy business in Faridabad. On getting the news of his father’s death, he was coming to his village early on Sunday morning along with family in his van.

At about 6 am, his van crashed into a dumper on the road which had punctured the previous night. The collision was so strong that the driver, Sunil, was killed on the spot while Tejpal’s daughter Babita and wife were badly injured.

It may be added that near the trade tax post, there is a dangerous curve on the road which has been the scene of quite a few accidents in which seven people have died so far.

Besides Expressway becomes all the more accident-prone at night during winters. Demands for speed controller on this highway have fallen on deaf ears so far.

Noida, October 30
A man, his son and daughter were seriously injured as a cooking gas cylinder exploded in a house in Barola village under Sector 39 police station area. The injured were rushed to Prayag Hospital.

According to doctors, father is in a serious condition. Police are making investigations.

Om Prakash, 40, lived in Barola with his family. His daughter Rita, 16, was in the kitchen. There was a leak in gas pipeline which caused a sudden explosion. A few second earlier Om Praksh and his 10-year-old son Vishal had also entered the kitchen to examine the leak. As they all tried to extinguish the fire, they were engulfed by the flames.—OC

Noida, October 30
Noida police arrested eight gamblers of Delhi, who had come to gamble in a safe place in posh Sector 56, Noida, on Sunday and recovered Rs 4 lakh from them. Besides, a luxury car and 13 mobile phones were also recovered from them.

The persons nabbed in a raid on an informer’s tip-off are traders and property dealers.

Those arrested included Ajit, Kamal, Gaurav, Arun, Akhil, Parvinder and the owner of the house F-89, Ashok.