New Delhi, February 1
There could be a disaster just waiting to happen in seismically-sensitive Delhi, with the Capital’s more than 1.5 lakh residential buildings being highly vulnerable to earthquake.

Delhi falls under seismic zone IV. It has more than 1.5 lakh residential buildings that are vulnerable to earthquake. Tremors of magnitude six to eight on the Richter scale would leave them in a shambles, national seismic adviser to Government of India, Prof A S Arya said at a workshop on making buildings quake-resistant here today.

In all, there are 34 lakh residential buildings in the Capital, of which 1.23 lakh are ‘kutccha’ or not made of concrete and over 23,000 are made of stone, both of which are highly vulnerable to earthquake, Prof Arya said.

The important thing is the know-how of earthquake safety measures. People should know how they can check their houses for earthquake safety and how they can get it done very economically, he said.

The figures released by the Central Power Works Department show that retrofitting costs between five and ten per cent of the actual building cost. Prof Arya said retrofitting is the process to upgrade the seismic resistance of an existing building. Delhi government has already taken the earthquake safety initiative for five lifeline buildings with financial support from USAID and technical help from Geohazards International, said Dhar Chakorbarty, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management.

The workshop on policies and issues of retrofitting of lifeline structures’ was organised by the National Institute of Disaster Management.

Experts from Geohazards International (GHI), a global organisation working towards earthquake safety, who are in town to take stock of the project to make five lifeline buildings in the Capital quake-resistant, also took part in the workshop.

The five buildings—Divisional Commissionerr’s office, Police Headquarters, Delhi Secretariat, GTB Hospital and Ludlow School—are being retrofitted or made earthquake-resistant on a pilot basis.

The four-member team of GHI comprising internationally famous seismic engineers and retrofitting experts will start the Delhi earthquake safety initiative for lifeline buildings, which is a pilot project undertaken together by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi government with financial support from the USAID. 

New Delhi, February 1
As many as 500 dispensaries would be developed in the Capital with well-equipped modern facilities to provide better health care services at the doorsteps of people, assured Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, while laying the foundation stone of 500-bedded earthquake-resistant new block at GTB Hospital in East Delhi.

The 8-floor building will be constructed with RCC frame structure using base isolation technology and will be fully centrally air-conditioned. It would be connected to the existing ward block by providing ramp on all floors.

The total cost of the project is Rs 61 crore. It would be completed by June 2009. This building will also have solar geyser system, nine lifts, automatic fire alarm system, three central air-conditioning units of 550 TR each, 100 per cent power backup and latest communication and CCTV system.

Ms Dikshit expressed hope that after the commissioning of the new block, not only the residents of East Delhi, but people from across the Capital, would be benefited.

The Chief Minister claimed that Delhi Government was taking all major steps to provide better health facilities before the Commonwealth Games 2010.

She further said that 365 dispensaries had already become functional in the Capital and another 185 dispensaries would be set up soon to enable common man to get health care facilities at their doorsteps.

She also said that Delhi Government was keen to transform Commonwealth Games 2010 into Green Games, which would ensure pollution-free Delhi and better atmosphere for the event.

While appreciating the efforts of Trans-Yamuna Development Board, the Chief Minister claimed that various developmental works had been completed in the East Delhi areas, which had got a face-lift.

The Finance Minister of Delhi, Dr A.K. Walia, who was present on the occasion, said that East Delhi had especially earned a recognition in all fields of development. He also said that Delhi was under seismic zone-IV, hence the government was planning to construct more quake-resistant buildings in the Capital.

The Health Minister of Delhi, Dr Yoganand Shastri, said that two newly-constructed hospitals – Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and Malviya Nagar Hospital – would become functional from this month after being inaugurated by the Chief Minister. 

New Delhi, February 1
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has instructed senior officers of Health Department to ensure construction of hospital buildings and procurement of medical equipment within stipulated time as delay in any form leads to denial of health services to the people.

She expressed these views while chairing a review meeting of Health and Family Welfare Department today. The meeting was attended by Delhi Health Minister Dr Yoganand Shastri, Chief Secretary Ramesh Narayanswami, Pr. Secretary (Health), Pr. Secretary (PWD) and other senior officers of Health and Family Welfare Department.

Mrs Dikshit instructed the Health Department to take immediate action for recruitment of 650 vacant posts of GDMOs, non-teaching and teaching medical personnel and recruit retired staff on contractual basis to keep the functioning of hospitals and dispensaries alive. Another 1,000 recruitments to the post of paramedical and posts of nurses would be completed by this year. She stressed the need of maintenance of hospital buildings.

She was informed that around 430 ambulances would be procured by 2008. Thirty ambulances would be made available every month. Presently there are only 135 ambulances in Delhi. With adequate number of ambulances in Delhi, the Health Department would be able to streamline emergency services.

It has been decided to make functional three trauma centres well before the start of Commonwealth Games.

New Delhi, February 1
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched a massive hunt to nab an Assistant Commissioner of Delhi police who was allegedly named by an arrested sub-inspector as one of his co-conspirators in falsely implicating a businessman.

The CBI, which registered a case against ACP R K Bansal, posted in the anti-extortion cell of the Crime Branch of the Delhi police, and sub- inspector Jagdish Kumar, raided Banal’s residence last evening and claimed to have seized Rs 2.25 lakh in cash, jewellery worth Rs five lakh and documents pertaining to three flats, two shops and four bank lockers.

Besides, 40 bottles of imported and expensive domestic whiskey were seized, CBI sources said.

The case against Bansal was registered after Kumar was caught yesterday while allegedly accepting Rs 1.5 lakh from a diamond merchant for not falsely implicating him in a case.

The CBI alleged Bansal and his team raided the diamond merchant’s house here on January 20 and took away cash and jewellery worth over Rs 30 lakh.

The raid was carried out at the behest of a Jaipur-based diamond merchant who complained to the Delhi police that the city-based businessman had violated rules in selling the gems. The police allegedly demanded Rs 15 lakh as bribe from him for releasing the seized items and not implicating him in the case. The amount was later reduced to Rs five lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh was paid as the first installment, the CBI alleged.

While Kumar was produced before a court here, a hunt was on to secure Banal’s presence for the investigation. The CBI has also sought the help of senior Delhi police officials to pressurise the absconding ACP to appear before the agency. 

Noida, February 1
Nobody seems to know where is Rima Haldar. The 14-year-old girl who was reportedly the first to go missing from Nithari. She had reportedly gone to work in a ‘kothi’ in Nithari with her mother, Dolly Haldar on February 8, 2005. She was said to have gone missing in the afternoon while returning home.

Her parents had alleged that she was done to death in Khooni Kothi, D-5 Nithari. But the police insist she is in Nepal. On the basis of some garments recovered by the police from D-5 Nithari, her mother says she has been done to death. But on the basis of a letter, police say Rima Haldar is in Nepal. Efforts are being made to recover her. Even Surinder Koli, the main accused of Nithari killings, had not accepted the possibility of her death while he was being shown garments of slain children.

Rima’s parents were tenants in Kehar Prasad Sharma’s house in Nithari during those days. Rima’s father had reported her disappearance in Sector-20 police station on February 20, 2005. The police claimed they had tried to locate Rima. After five months, Rima’s father went to Sector-20 police station and handed over a letter to SO police station saying he had found it from his rickshaw. The letter contained some details about Rima. The letter had been written on her behalf in all probability, the police say.

The letter said Rima was in Nepal and was pregnant. She would return after giving birth to the child. The letter had mentioned a young man

Dhanu Haldar.

After the Nithari crime coming to light, Dolly Haldar again came to Sector-20 police station on January 3, 2007, along with an army colonel. They also saw some blood-stained clothes recovered from the Khooni Kothi and identified a red colour ‘chunnri’ and some undergarments as her daughter Rima’s. At this police also registered an FIR saying Rima was murdered in the D-5 Sector-31, Noida.

When the main accused Surinder Koli was shown the photographs of some children allegedly killed in D-5 Nithari, he did not identify Rima as among those killed in D-5 on the basis of pictures shown.

The police SI dismissed in Nithari case and SIT have never accepted that Rima was murdered in Nithari as there was no reliable proof. Now the police are trying to locate the letter given to them.

Police had not recorded the letter in the GD nor preserved it as a document.

SSP RKS Rathore said he had no knowledge about the letter, nor had any SI mentioned about it. The letter could be searched out or at least the CBI could have been informed about this.

According to another theory, the house owner and other tenants had felt harassed by frequent visits of cops to their house. So to get them evicted from the house, they had perhaps placed a fake letter in Haldar’s rickshaw.

New Delhi, February 1
Even as the Government of India is planning to launch the National Child Protection scheme, child rights activists feel safety of children should become everyone’s concern with civil society including community groups and NGOs working alongside the government to ensure a secure environment for every child. This will ensure that even the most marginalised and poor children also benefit from a social security net preventing Nithari type gruesome incidents.

The Nithari killings show how easy it is to do whatever with the children and dump them as garbage without anyone taking a note of it.

“Nithari and other cases of child abuse are a grim reminder to the fact that there is a need to put preventive measures in place. Government alone cannot ensure child protection, we have to have a community which is more conscious and alert. Preventive mechanisms should be studied and developed, wherever possible-schools, panchayats, Integrated Child Development Schemes, etc,” says Razia Ismail Abbasi, Co-convenor, India Alliance for Child Rights.

With the Nithari killings rocking the conscience of society, talks of launching the National Child Protection scheme has gained momentum. But the social child protection and care structures cannot and should not be ignored. And all the existing child care centres should be geared to offer protection to each and every child.

For example, a child spending the formative years in a daycare centre may be getting lifelong security and a support system without even realising it. As parents are busy making their livings, these children invariably get exploited by so many in their homes and outside in the society.

In such a scenario, the time spent with good dais and caretakers in creches and day care centres makes an immense contribution towards healthy mind and body.

A worker with Mobile Creches, a Delhi-based organisation running creches on construction sites in and around the Capital, says, “Some of our children who have become adults now are associated with our work even today. They are like a family to us and we help them when they need us and they help us when we need them.”

Some activists are also pressing the need for the parents becoming more responsible, especially in the underprivileged section of society.

There is a need to look at safety from a perspective that children are to be seen and not heard. Sensitising adults to listen to children and encouraging and empowering children to express can prove to be an important step towards security of children, feels Plan International (India), an organisation working to secure child rights.

“While parents are primarily responsible for the safety of their children, the state mechanisms like police, creche, anganwadi centres, schools, etc. should be in place. In the absence of these facilities programmes, the state should be held accountable,” says Bullu Sarin, National coordinator of Forum for Creche and Childcare Services.

While recognising the early years as the critical building blocks in a child’s overall development, child rights organisation are advocating the need for implementing Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programme. It is a set of comprehensive interventions that holistically addresses the issues of children aged between 0-6 years and ensures that their basic rights are safe-guarded laying the foundation for their meaningful participation in later years. ECCD comprises all the essential supports a young child needs to survive and thrive in life, as well as the supports a family and community need to promote children’s healthy and holistic development.

The series of crimes committed against the children and women belonging to the temporary spread across big cities and their adjoining areas point towards the vulnerability of this group and the need for ensuring a proper support system to them. In the absence of it, these children and women are being exploited by the worst of criminals with the maximum ease. The Nithari killings show how easy it is to do whatever with them and dump them as garbage without anyone taking a note of it. A member of the Bal Panchayat, a child advocacy group, feels that it is tough to be poor and demand your rights in big cities. In case of any emergency, the police largely remain unresponsive towards addressing the concerns of the poor, he adds. “The police speaks to us with a mindset that we all are criminals. However, my association with the Bal Panchayat has given me more confidence, today I know how to get things done in this system,” says Raj.

The Bal Panchayat has also listed out certain reasons for the increasing number of crime against children from the underprivileged section. These include: increase in working parents and their children staying at home all by themselves, the increase in the population of young migrant male workers and the increase in schoolchildren with improper public transport and Cable TV polluting young minds. 

New Delhi, February 1
The Delhi High Court, grappling with ways to make roads of the national Capital less accident-prone, today took a dig at overweight traffic policemen of the city.

One of the suggestions made by a bench of the High Court comprising Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice H R Malhotra was to have physically fit traffic policemen to book violations of traffic rules.

“How can Delhi Police personnel having weight of around 120 kg run and catch the culprit? You need be in shape to deal with these cases,” the bench said. 

New Delhi, February 1
The national Capital woke up to a mist-filled morning today but temperatures remained above the normal.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 12.7 degrees Celsius, four degrees above the normal. However, easterly winds ensured a nip in the air for Delhiites.

There was shallow fog in the morning, reducing visibility levels to as low as 400 metres in the early hours, the Met department said.

The runway visibility range at the Indira Gandhi International Airport hovered around 2,000 metres ensuring that there was no disruption in flight operations.

The maximum temperature yesterday was 26.2 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal.

Light showers in parts of north India had yesterday brought the mercury down to 11.6 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the weather office has forecast a clear day tomorrow and the minimum temperature will remain around 12 degrees Celsius. — PTI

New Delhi, February 1
‘Anugoonj 2007’, the 8th annual cultural extravaganza of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), began today amid celebrations. The university has prepared an array of cultural programmes on this occasion.

While inaugurating the festival, Prof K. K. Aggarwal, Vice-Chancellor, GGSIPU, said that, “Anugoonj is a breather for the students of GGSIPU from their rigorous academic schedule. Participation in extra-curricular activities like Anugoonj teaches one the purpose of life, outside classroom.”

Renowned Kuchipudi dancer and choreographer, Arindam Dasgupta, began the program with a performance on the occasion. Another popular program was ‘Nach Baliye’, a free-style dance competition amongst students, which proved to be a major crowd-puller. It was judged by renowned Kathak dancer, Ms Isabella Anna.

The high-point of the day was the ‘Kavi Sammelan’ where famous poets like Mr Ashok Chakardhar, Mr Surender Sharma, Mr Ved Vrat Vajpayee and Mr Pratap Fauzdar (of Laughter Challenge Fame), among others, enthralled everyone with their wittiness. Decibel, Amity Rock Band and Deceptive Perceptions, the rock band of GGSIPU students brought an energetic conclusion to the day and had over 10,000 students dancing to their tunes.

This four-day festival that began today will have a right mix of literary and cultural events ranging from musical activities (classical vocal solo, group song, western song) to literary events. 

New Delhi, February 1
Outgoing batch of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) students has achieved record placements this year. All the 115 students of the batch have got placements in top Indian and international companies with tremendous salary packages.

Placements 2007, which concluded sometime back on the university’s campus, has witnessed a record high domestic salary, that is an international salary of Rs 16 lakh and US$ 100,000 respectively. This is an increase by 20 per cent from last year’s salary placement figures. The placement process has also witnessed students preferring domestic profiles, while banking and financial services have been major recruiters and the new emerging sectors are retail and real estate.

At least, 20 per cent of the batch had already received pre-placement offers well before the placement week stated. Different companies that showed interest were like Lehman Brothers, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, SAB Miller, UTI, Bharti, DTZ, Olam International Backers and Strauss, Colgate-Palmolive etc. Some 60 per cent of the companies participating were new to the IIFT placement process.

New Delhi, February 1
Three people, including two Nigerian nationals, were arrested today and heroin worth Rs 20 million in the international market was seized from them.

Two Nigerians Vector Junior and Mazid Dusi, and one Indian Jung Bahadur, a resident of Patiala in Punjab, were arrested from Dwarka in South-West Delhi.

“The three were part of an international drug cartel. Our officials have recovered over two kg of heroin worth Rs 20 million in the international market,” said Alok Kumar, DCP, Special Cell.

An information was received that some people of Punjab were members of international cartel of drug traffickers and were involved in drug trafficking in India through some Nigerians in Delhi.

Following a tip-off, the trio was arrested from Dwarka Metro station red-handed, the police claimed.

During interrogation, the accused allegedly confessed that the heroine was procured from Pakistan-based drug traffickers who used to smuggle it into India through their paid conduits.

“The heroin recovered from them were found packed and wrapped in a cloth parcel duly stamped ‘Pak Afgan Factory’ on it. Jung Bahadur had established his links in Delhi through drug traffickers based in Pakistan,” a police officer claimed. 

New Delhi, February 1
The Leader of Opposition in the MCD, Mr Subhash Arya, today alleged that the five years’ reign of the Congress party in the corporation was full of scandals and corruption.

“A number of councillors were arrested by the CBI on charges of bribery and other cases and a senior councillor was murdered. Besides, a number of engineers and a few other officials were arrested on various charges. Sealing and demolition drives ruined trade in the Capital. Besides, inflation has broken the back bone of the citizens,” Mr Arya alleged.

Giving his budget speech for the year 2007, Mr Arya claimed that the biscuit scandal came to light just a few months after the Congress came to power in April 2002 in the corporation when the education department ordered for biscuits worth Rs 300 crore to be distributed among school students as mid-day meal.

“Order was placed but biscuits were not distributed,” he claimed. Crores of rupees were pilferage in the purchase of sugar coated wheat, cloth material for students’ uniform and in purchase of trucks for transporting garbage, he alleged.

Gurgaon, February 1
A person today opened fire on five persons injuring two of them seriously in Maruti Kunj Colony, about 10 km from here. He was simply asked not to tease some girls.

The culprit, Swadesh, a resident of village Tikli, runs a photo studio outside the Maruti Kunj Colony complex. Those who have been injured are shopkeepers who do business in the same area.

The police have registered a case in the matter, but the culprit is absconding. He had entered into altercation with two of the injured last Tuesday over teasing girls.

According to the police complaint, he went to them today and asked them as to why they were quarelling with him. Soon the matter came to a boil and he entered his studio, picked up his pistol and fired at them from close range.

The five injured have been admitted to Hospital here. 

New Delhi, February 1
Manoj Kumar Parida, special secretary in the Delhi Government, today assumed charge as Managing Director of the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC).

Parida, an IAS officer of the 1986 batch of the Union Territory cadre, has held several key assignments like Commission-cum-Secretary for home, power and PWD in Arunachal Pradesh, secretary to the governments of Andaman and Goa and director of the Delhi Jal Board.