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Traders protest against sealing of units in DDA flats
Row over proposal to change name of Mahendergarh
UP releases all confiscated DTC buses
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Drive to remove hoardings in Gurgaon
India home to 5.2 million patients of HIV/AIDS
Sheila urges youth to help
protect environment
Court summons children under DV Act
Govt to provide books, uniforms to
poor students
One dead as moving car catches fire
HC demands report on GTB Hospital’s health
Gas agencies divert LPG to commercial units
Backache main cause of absenteeism from work: Study
Brahma Kumaris’ institution honoured
Experts dwell on parent-child bonding at contest
ESIC office to be set up in Gurgaon
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Traders protest against sealing of units in DDA flats
New Delhi, November 30 It said the move to include commercial establishments located in DDA flats had caused much anger and resentment among traders of Delhi. The CAIT has taken up the issue with Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken. The CAIT also raised issue of certain roads in A and B colonies where the RWA had given their consent for operation of commercial activities in their respective areas. The traders’ body demanded immediate cessation of sealing drive in DDA flats, arguing that the Supreme Court had allowed commercial activities in about 25 categories of shops dealing in items of daily need in shops measuring less than 20 square meter area. Meanwhile, DC, Shahdara (South), today said that the MCD had sealed Vanasthali Senior Secondary Public School on Madhu Vihar Road this evening since it was built on government land. The Supreme Court of India in its recent judgment had stipulated that schools built on encroached land could be sealed. The official said that the MCD team had gone to seal the school yesterday, but the management got a stay order from Delhi High Court. However, the SC-appointed Monitoring Committee today observed that the school was built on DDA land. Since this is a case of encroachment of public land, it came under the preview of the court order. The orders of the Court could not be superceded, it observed. 72 other properties were also sealed on Vikas Marg, Shakarpur Road and Pandav Nagar in Shahdara Zone today, while in Rohini Zone, 8 properties were sealed at Road Number 41 from MCD Zonal Office to Wazirpur Depot.
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Row over proposal to change name of Mahendergarh
Gurgaon, November 30 The full house of the commission met here today to listen to the objections to its proposals from the public. Five MLAs and five MPs are the associate members of the commission. The Mahendergarh parliamentary constituency covers parts of Gurgaon, Rewari and Mahendgarh districts. It is ‘Yadav and Ahir dominated’ constituency as it covers the Ahirwal belt of Southern Haryana. The political leaders and representatives of various social organisations of the three districts turned up with their votaries in full strength before the commission. Opposing the proposal to change the name of Mahendergarh constituency to ‘Bhiwani’ or some other name, Congress MP from Mahendergarh and the Union Minister of State for Defence, Mr Rao Inderjit Singh said that the proposal of the Commission was against the common sentiments of the people of the area. He was also critical of the Commission’s proposal to sever some parts of Jatusana and villages falling in Kosli bloc (all parts of Rewari district) to constitute a separate Kosli assembly segment and merging the same in Rohtak parliamentary seat. His submission was that Kosli area has cultural and social affinity with the Ahirwal belt represented by Mahendergarh parliamentary seat. Hence, the area should be merged with Mahendegarh parliamentary constituency, he demanded. Mr Singh, along with leaders of other political parties, including the former BJP MP, Ms Sudha Yadav, were also critical of the Commission’s proposal to sever parts of Mahendegarh parliamentary constituency to the adjoining Bhiwani, Faridabad and Rohtak parliamentary constituencies. The INLD leader, Mr Jagdish Yadav, also joined them. Responding to the leaders’ demand, the Commission head, Justice Kukdip Singh, said that it was the prerogative of the speakers of the Lok Sabha and the state to decide on the names of MPs and MLAs respectively. He urged political leaders to take up the issue with the right quarters.
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UP releases all confiscated DTC buses
New Delhi, November 30 About 100 confiscated buses were released following the first round of talks between the transport commissioners
of the two states held over the last two days, sources said. The contentious issue is expected to be sorted out within the next 24 hours. Bus services between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were suspended after Delhi Transport Department impounded some buses of UP Transport Department, saying that they were operating as city buses, which is not permissible as per an agreement in 2004 signed between the two state governments. In retaliation, UP also confiscated over 100 DTC buses operating in Noida, which led to the DTC suspending its services to Uttar Pradesh with UP following suit. Then, on a petition by the UP Government last week, Delhi High Court directed the two governments to hold a dialogue to resolve the matter in public interest. Following this, a six-member team of the Delhi Government headed by Transport Commissioner
of Delhi left for Lucknow on Monday night to hold talks with the UP authorities to resolve the transport row between the two states. Later, a team of officers of transport department of UP also came to Delhi to solve the present impasse. |
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Drive to remove hoardings in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, November 30 According to the HUDA Administrator here, the apex court had vacated the stay regarding five publicity agencies and others. After the change of government, the publicity agencies had approached the High Court which had directed maintenance of status quo against the district administration’s initiative for floating open tenders and allotting the publicity works to advertisement agencies last year. HUDA had cancelled five major advertisement agreements signed during the regime of the Om Prakesh Chautala government. After the change in government, it was alleged that the agreement was a ‘scam’ involving crores of rupees for floating advertisements in almost the entire city, including the prime areas of DLF, MG road, HUDA sectors, Sushant Lok and all important intersections. The HUDA administrator claimed that the five agreements with different publicity agencies were made “by putting all prescribed rules and regulations at bay”. The advertisement agencies had put up gantries on the main roads and had earned crores of rupees without giving any benefit to the state treasury, added the officer. Three agreements were signed by the Estate Officer (EO) and two by Executive Engineer (XEN) of HUDA without seeking approval from their seniors, the HUDA administrator alleged.
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India home to 5.2 million patients of HIV/AIDS
New Delhi, November 30 This was stated by Dr K.K. Aggarwal, president of Heart Care Foundation of India. Dr Aggarwal informed that India had an estimated 5.2 million cases of HIV and at any given time, only 10 per cent of the cases suffer from full blown AIDS requiring treatment. He stressed that in most cases, HIV positive did not require treatment, while people who suffer from AIDS with a CD4 count of less then 200 required drugs. Presently, only 2-5 per cent patients requiring drugs are on it, while deaths due to HIV positive have declined by 70 per cent because of the HIV/ARV therapy. Moreover, the ARV therapy offers hope for a longer and healthier life to children who suffer from HIV positive. For children, whose mothers are infected, the ARV therapy effectively extends the crucial mother-child relationship. Dr Aggarwal pointed out, “A dose of Nevirapine, given to an HIV positive mother at the onset of labour and a dose of it given to the infant within 72 hours after delivery, reduces HIV transmission by 42 per cent.” Currently, there are around 5.20 million Indians living with HIV positive. The percentage positivity of HIV in India is 0.9 per cent in antenatal cases and 5.7 per cent in patients suffering with sexually transmitted diseases. Reportedly, it is 8.4 per cent in female sex workers, 8.7 per cent in male sex workers and 10.2 per cent in people using intravenous drugs.
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Sheila urges youth to help
protect environment
New Delhi, November 30 She was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of an Eco-Fair and exhibition on eco-friendly products prepared by various eco-clubs functioning in schools and colleges of Delhi and a number of NGOs working in the environment sector. The Delhi Environment Minister, Mr Raj Kumar Chauhan, presided over the function. The Chief Minister called upon youth to come forward in protection of environment, which was facing a great challenge with rapid urbanisation. Ms Dikshit said, “We would be able to make a cleaner and greener Delhi only with constructive contribution of younger generation who would also become role model for the entire society in this field.” On the occasion, Mr Chauhan said that objective of this meet was to interact with the students and teachers of various participating schools and colleges on various environmental issues. He appreciated substantial contribution of all the 1600 eco-clubs for highlighting environmental concerns on the forefront and bringing down pollution levels in the Capital. A number of useful eco-friendly products are on display at this two-day event. Various products are made from recycled paper prepared by school students. Besides, attractive bags prepared from jute, cloth and paper are also being exhibited. The exhibition is also disseminating information on solid waste management, vermin-composting, zero garbage, rain water harvesting, water conservation, plantation drive, energy conservation and curbing air, noise and water pollution. Involvement of schoolchildren in environmental awareness programs has been ensured by establishing eco - Clubs in schools and colleges in Delhi. So far, about 1600 Eco- Clubs have been set up. Various campaigns such as ‘Greening Delhi’ ‘Anti fire Crackers’, ‘Say no to plastic Bags’, ‘Clean city’, ‘Khelo Holi naturally’ are being conducted by involving these clubs. Seventeen paper-recycling machines have already been provided in the lead Eco Club schools. Due to the efforts of various NGOs, schools and children, Delhi’s green cover has increased from 26 sq km in 1997 to 268 sq km in 2003, officials claim. The figure further went up today to more than 320 square kilometers, which is more than 19 per cent of the total geographical area of Delhi. The green cover of Delhi had increased 10 times within 6 years, sources said. This year, a total of 17.11 lakh saplings would be planted and of these about 15 lakh have already been planted till October 31. The Chief Minister also gave away prizes to the winners of painting competition organised during the function. First prize of Rs 25,000 was awarded to Kumari Sweta, student of Government Co-ed School, Vikas Nagar, second prize of Rs 15,000 awarded to Kumari Padmini from General Raj School, Hauz Khas, and third prize of Rs 10,000 awarded to Kumari Vaishali Agarwal, Salwan Public School (Morning), Rajinder Nagar. Consolation prizes of Rs 5,000 each were also awarded to nine students.
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Court summons children under DV Act
New Delhi, November 30 Metropolitan Magistrate Devendra Kumar Jangala asked the PO to produce the children on December 6 after the additional public prosecutor informed the court that a total of nine POs have been appointed in the Capital through a notification on November 25. Earlier, the court had issued a notice to the Delhi Home Secretary on November 21 asking him whether any PO has been appointed under the DV Act as the notices could be served through the POs only. The court had observed that “while entertaining the application under Section 12 (of the DV Act), it is provided that before passing an order on application, the magistrate shall take into consideration any domestic incident report from the Protection Officer (PO)”. “Section 13 of the Act, on the other hand, provided that service of the notices upon the respondent shall be through the PO,” it added. A 31-year-old resident of Rohini filed a complaint in the court on November 6 alleging that she had been cheated by her in-laws in marriage since they did not divulge the fact that her husband was suffering from cancer. She has sought the custody of her two minor children. Her counsel submitted before the court that the police did not take any action even though a complaint was lodged in this regard on September 9, 2005.
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Govt to provide books, uniforms to poor students
New Delhi, November 30 Appearing before a division bench, the Delhi Government submitted that the expenses on the books and uniforms were to be spent by the schools and later reimbursed by the government. The association of the public schools informed the court that they were waiting for the notification by the Delhi Lt Governor for implementation of the 20 per cent freeship quota in their respective schools.Counsel Ashok Agrawal, appearing for petitioner organisation Social Jurist, said the admission process for this academic session was due and the government was deliberately delaying the implementation of the court directives. The court had earlier directed the state government to constitute a committee comprising eminent educationists, sociologists and psychologists to look into the matter. In an affidavit, the state government had stated that public schools are bound to provide freeship to the poor students according to the agreement signed at the time of allotment of land. On September 13, 2005, the High Court had issued a stern warning to 106 private unaided public schools established on the government land allotted at a concessional rate, to provide 20 percent seats to the poor students. The DDA and L & D Department had allotted land at a concessional rate to 361 schools and according to the lease agreement, the institutions should reserve at least 20-25 percent seats for the poor students. Had the schools adhered to the norms set by the land allotting agencies, at least 1.5 lakh poor students would have been studying in these institutions under freeship quota, said Mr Agrawal. In an order in January 2004, the High Court had directed the Delhi Government to strictly implement the rule by setting aside at least 25 per cent of the total strength of the public schools for the poor students. Mr Agrawal told the court that despite its specific direction in the January 20 judgement on its public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue, many private schools had been turning away the poor students. - UNI
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One dead as moving car catches fire
New Delhi, November 30
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HC demands report on GTB Hospital’s health
New Delhi, November 30 The court sought the report after the official concerned failed to submit it at the hearing held this morning. This follows a PIL filed by lawyer Varun Goswami in August last year alleging gross mismanagement and neglect on the part of authorities at the major government-run GTB Hospital. In his petition, Goswami submitted that essential equipment at the hospital like X-ray machines, angiography and ventilators were either dysfunctional or obsolete. The petitioner had urged the court to form a committee of medical experts and other professionals from various fields to conduct a spot inspection and submit a detailed report on the hospital’s general condition and functioning. Subsequently, a seven-member committee, including the petitioner, was formed by the High Court, which inspected the hospital and filed their report. The Court had summoned the hospital’s Medical Superintendent on October 12 to explain the findings of the Committee and detail the various facets of functioning. It had directed the Secretary to file the TR after holding a comprehensive meeting of members of both the Committee and the hospital to discuss the shortcomings found during the inspection and invite suggestions to improve the present state of affairs. The case has been posted to December 6. - PTI
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Gas agencies divert LPG to commercial units
New Delhi, November 30 He admitted that the gas racket is thriving in nexus with gas agency owners and ‘defaulters’ who are unauthorisedly diverting the cooking gas to commercial establishments in violation of the Act. Last week, enforcement cell of DFSCA seized 28 cylinders in two cases registered in Okhla and Sangam Vihar police stations. Two people were arrested in this connection, the official said. Last year, the department registered 22 cases against various gas agencies and individuals for fraudulently diverting domestic gas for commercial use and recovered a large number of gas cylinders being used for commercial purpose. “Undoubtedly, the gas agencies supplying these cylinders are well aware of the pilferage and the revenue loss to the exchequer,” said the official on condition of anonymity, explaining that a huge difference in prices of commercial and domestic cylinders was the main reason behind the diversion.
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Backache main cause of absenteeism from work: Study
New Delhi, November 30 A survey commissioned by the makers of Iodex, a topical pain-reliever balm in association with Health India, an NGO, has found that public transport is the predominant cause for initiating backache among working individuals in major metros along with sitting long hours in front of the computer. The study revealed for every 100 persons, 51 and 56 developed backache in the past three months in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively. A majority 40 per cent of Delhiites and 77 per cent of Mumbaikars using public transport as the sole mode of communication reported back pain problems while at least 27 per cent and 52 per cent, in the respective cities, also complained of getting backache even if they did not sit in the front of the computer at all.
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Brahma Kumaris’ institution honoured
New Delhi, November 30 The Brahma Kumaris’ institution is recognised as a regional resource centre by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The honour was also in recognition of their efforts in organising a 45-day orientation programme for at least 37,000 schoolteachers and 500 education officers of the Delhi Government as part of the SCERT”s YUVA life skills education programme 2006.
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Experts dwell on parent-child bonding at contest
New Delhi, November 30 Intellichild, a unique holistic development programme for parent and child, brought together experts from various fields such as health and lifestyle and attempted to create the perfect blend of beauty and brains when supermodel Nayanika Chatterjee greeted parents and toddlers on the occasion. Nayanika, who is the ambassador for Intellichild, was present with her daughter Nayantara. She shared thoughts about homemaking, motherhood and professionalism. She confessed she was enjoying motherhood to the fullest despite the accompanying hardship and responsibility. The programme, which is a module designed by experts from Apollo and VLCC, ensures holistic development of young children by using various scientific techniques to stimulate the child’s physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual developments. It uses specific exercises, computer, audio-visual presentation, interactive counselling sessions, brain mapping techniques and scientifically designed activities for children and parents. It uses real world objects, music, art etc to introduce the world around in fun-filled and fascinating ways, which enhances the cognitive responses in them. “The need for parent-child bonding is of extreme importance today with the fast-paced and complex lifestyle of parents when even finding quality time is becoming difficult, thereby leading to psychological problems in children who are found deficient in self-esteem, self-control and the ability to learn and achieve optimum mental and physical health,” said Dr Bhawna Bharami, Senior Clinical and Child Psychologist, Escorts Heart Institute. Leading paediatricians, child psychologists, parenting experts, dieticians, nutritionists, body therapists and other lifestyle management professionals were present at Aadyant Global Preschool. They guided the participants (parents) and many more experts came together for a noble cause to bring awareness in the young parents of all those pressures and deadlines in the competitive age today. More than 1000 parents took part in this mega event with their children to benefit from this movement.
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ESIC office to be set up in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, November 30 Mr Manik Sonawale, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Department of Labour and Employment, Haryana, said this while responding to a suggestion by the president of Gurgaon Industrial Association (GIA) for setting up the regional office here. According to sources, the regional office of the ESIC is in Faridabad and a move is being made to shift it here. The GIA had organised a function to welcome the officer, following his assuming the charge of his new post. On the issue of setting up an ESIC hospital in Gurgaon for which the foundation stone was laid about seven years ago when the National Democratic Alliance was in power at the Centre, he said that the project was being expedited. He made a strong case for industrialists to be considerate towards the labour class as it was an economically weaker section. He pointed out that unrest, strike and other categories of disputes would impede the ongoing rapid pace of industrial progress of Gurgaon. A suggestion was also made to provide more power to the newly created post of Additional Labour Commissioner as part of decentralisation process so that many local problems, including renewals of licenses under the Factory Act, are not taken to the state headquarters. He also pointed out on the occasion that the Labour Courts here did not have adequate infrastructure and staff.
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Film on Baba Deep Singh
New Delhi, November 30
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Mercury registers rise
New Delhi, November 30 The minimum temperature of 8.7 degree C was one degree below normal. The maximum rose to 25 degree C from 23 degree C yesterday. This is the sixth consecutive day the night minimum temperature has stayed below the 9 degree C mark, indicating the winter chill has truly arrived in Delhi. Cold conditions are likely to prevail in the next week too with the Met Office forecasting the possibility of scattered rain or thundershowers in Delhi over the plains of Northwest India from December 3 onwards under the influence of an approaching western disturbance.
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New Delhi, November 30
