New Delhi, March 17
A large number of the Congress workers, who were not given tickets to contest the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections, indulged in vandalism at Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) office. The elections will be held on April 5.

The list of candidates was released this morning after a marathon meeting of senior leaders who were members of the selection committee. The Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, and the DPCC president, Mr Ram Babu Sharma, were also members of the committee. Today is the last day for filing nominations.

The workers were angry and shouted slogans against the DPCC president, Mr Ram Babu Sharma, who played a key role in the distribution of tickets.

They said that nepotism was rampant in distribution of tickets.

Mrs Shakuntla Devi who claimed to have been active in the Congress politics since 1976 was not given ticket. “The party assured that while taking decision for the ticket, political experience and family background will be given preference but actually it was not done. I was rejected despite my rich political experience. The reason for rejection could be my poor family background. I am not rich,” she deplored.

Narender Singh who sought ticket from Major Bhupender Singh Nagar said that if the Congress is defeated, the reason would be its selection of candidates. Senior leaders who were assigned the job by the party high command to select the candidates failed to see the qualities and political involvement of the ticket seekers.

Thought the workers were not happy with the Congress, they had no intention to leave the party. They pledged to work for it to make it victorious.

The Congress is the only party which released one list of candidates focusing on youths. Forty-three sitting councillors, including Leader of the House, Mr Jitender Kochar were not given tickets.

The BJP, the NCP and the Bharatiya Janshakati Party released two lists. A large number of ticket seekers, rejected by the BJP, were contesting as Bharatiya Janshakati Party candidates.

Congress sources said Mr Kochar’s name was dropped as his ward had been reserved for women under the new delimitation.

At the same time, however, sitting councillors like standing committee Chairman Jai Kishen Sharma, Brijmohan Sharma and Satbir Sharma have been included in the list.

Mr Ram Babu Sharma said effort had been made to ensure that persons with criminal background were not given the ticket.

New Delhi, March 17
The filing of nominations for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi ended today with slogans of political parties and drumming at the offices of the Returning Officers (ROs) where contenders along with their supporters thronged in vehicles. Thousands of vehicles were parked outside the offices of the ROs resulting in traffic jams. Commuters faced inconvenience.

A total of 3,510 contenders filed nominations. Of them 1,147 contenders are of the national recognised parties and the rest are the independent candidates. Today alone 2,569 candidates filed their nominations. Of them, 915 are of the recognised parties, the Election Commissioner, Mr S. P. Marwah, said.

Every candidate filed more than one nominations. If one nomination is rejected, the other will be accepted. All national recognised parties raised a covering candidate in each municipal ward considering that if nominations of main contender is rejected, the covering candidate will contest the election. By adopting this tactic, the seat will not go vacant. “Law also allows this tactic,” the Election Commissioner said.

New Delhi, March 17
Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) of Mayur Vihar Phase II have condemned the BJP for giving ticket to Balbir Singh, who is reportedly a registered MCD contractor and whose construction works are still on in the area.

According to Capt. B.V.S. Dron, RWA candidate from Mayur Vihar Phase II, “The State Election Commission norms clearly say that a person having financial interest, employee or contractor with MCD cannot contest elections.”

Captain Dron alleged, “Some construction works of the BJP candidate are still on in the area.”—TNS

New Delhi, March 17
The Janata Dal (United) president, Mr Sharad Yadav, has nominated Virendra Singh Bidhuri as the central observer for Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections.

Mr Bidhuri will co-ordinate the candidates and the Delhi Pradesh Janata Dal (U) organisation and also supervise the election campaign programmes of the party central leaders, a press release said here today.—TNS

Noida, March 17
Even as the Election Commission has ordered the removal of top police and IAS officers of the state, including Commissioner, Meerut Division, in connection with the next assembly elections in the state, the district administration of GB Nagar has geared up for the polls.

Besides the UP police, 28 battalions of paramilitary force will be deployed in the district on polling day to ensure smooth and peaceful polling. The candidates will be able to file nomination from March 17 to 26 between 10 am and 3 pm in Dadri, Javer. There are 7,83,647 voters in Javer and Dadri. As many as 317 polling station and 730 polling booths have been set-up.

This year, hundred per cent videography will be done to prevent filing of any fictitious complaint.

Candidate will not be allowed to come with more than 4 persons in the returning officer’s room for filing of nomination papers. Returning officer will daily send the report to the election commission the same day along with video-graph recording.

But nobody would be allowed to cast his vote without a photo identity card, though I-cards had not yet been issued to all voters, ADM (Finance & Revenue) told the media today in the Collectorate.

“There is only one full assembly seat in G.B. Nagar, that of Dadri, while Javer and Secunderabad seats are partly in GB Nagar and partly in Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr respectively,” the ADM said.

“A voters’ list is at the final stage of printing,” the ADM said. Certain changes have been made in electronic voting machines this time. No staff, deployed for election duty, will be allowed to absent himself from the election duty. Even those seeking leave on medical grounds will be allowed leave on the recommendation of a medical board, which will include private doctors. 

Faridabad, March 17
Various political and social bodies have welcomed the announcement of bonus of Rs 100 on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) per quintal of wheat to be purchased by the government agencies this year. They have, however, demanded a check on the difference in rates of wheat when it is procured and what was being paid by the consumer in the market.

Expressing satisfaction over the decision of hiking the bonus on the MSP this year, the spokesperson of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, claimed that it was as per the expectations of the farmer community, which deserved more support in view of the increased cost of production and the impact of various factors on agriculture output each year. He also claimed that this had been a ‘bold’ decision, as such a hike had never been made in the past by any government and it would result in some kind of relief to the farmers.

Senior Congress leader and a former MLA, Mr Rajender Singh Bisla, said that the decision was a good move that would certainly provide some relief to farmers, though the cost of agricultural production in the region had gone up sharply over the years. He said the authorities should ensure easy and speedy procurement, without any harassment to the farmers and take adequate measures to maintain a proper balance between the rates of the MSP, and the rate borne by the consumer.

He demanded that no agency or company be allowed to take any kind of liberty regarding the purchase and control of supply of food grains in the market.

Mohan Singh, a farmer of the Hodal subdivision in the district, said that though the hike in the MSP was a favourable move, but in view of no facility of total insurance cover and the rising costs of various inputs, the occupation of agriculture was fast losing its place. He pointed out that if things went in this manner, agriculture in the region, especially in the NCR, where reality rates had shot up, the agriculture would become a thing of past in coming years, as it had emerged only as a source of loss and not stable income. 

Gurgaon, March 17
The district administration, in two different meetings, on Thursday organised a direct interface of the villagers, the representatives relating to Panchayati Raj institutions and officers of key departments like the police, electricity, etc. In both the places, the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, Mr Rakesh Gupta, presided over the meetings.

He also listened to the grievances of the public and the elected representatives with regard to various departments as well as their delivery system.

One meeting was held of sarpanches and panches of all the 52 villages falling in Farukhnagar Revenue Block of this district. It was held at Anaz Mandi of Faruknagar.

The other meeting was held of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj institutions of the 70 villages falling in Pataudi Revenue Block.

The Deputy Commissioner listened to the grievances of the villagers and heard explanations for the delay of the delivery system from the officers of the departments concerned.

He put the officers on notice saying that similar assembly would be held within one and a half months and all the pending issues relating to the problems of the people must be solved by then.

The villagers complained that there was corruption and the officials demanded money for mutation and other land-related works.

From the administration side, three areas were the focal points. It was stressed in both the meetings that emphasis should be laid on primary education of children in the age group of 6-14 years.

The Deputy Commissioner said that the administration would organise a special campaign from April 1 to 15 to spread awareness among the masses on the virtues of child education.

New Delhi, March 17
Amity University and the EMC have entered into an academic alliance and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing an academic link between the two leaders in their respective fields. The MoU was signed by Prof Raj Singh, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Amity University, and Mr Tom Clancy, Vice-President, Education Services and Productivity, EMC Corporation.

Welcoming the tie-up, Prof Raj Singh said the collaboration was going to be rewarding for both the organisations — Amity, which is always proactive in learning and implementing innovative technological trends, and the EMC Corporation, which is the world leader in products, services, and solutions for information management and storage.

With the colossal amount of data pouring in the corporate sector, data storage has become very crucial, making EMC Training Programme all the more relevant and contemporary in today’s context.

Talking about the uniqueness of the programme, he said the programme was not designed from the technology point of view but totally from the decision maker’s point of view, making this programme stand above all the software programmes flooding the IT market.

The EMC Academy programme is the first and only global education program in storage technology which has been designed by EMC to help students prepare for the demands and enormous opportunities of the information economy, while creating a qualified talent pool for building and managing information. It delivers industry relevant and latest educational content, student performance tracking, hands-on labs and instructor training as a means to empower students with the right mix of knowledge and experience to contribute to the industry and society.

The programme aims at creating thinkers and decision-makers who can lead the country rather than technicians doing mechanical work. It compliments the requirement of the industry and academia. Thousands of jobs are available in the USA, Europe, West Asia and Asia-Pacific for students who successfully complete the course.

New Delhi, March 17“Our constitution implies the right to access quality education in an equitable manner and this can be attained primarily through the open and distance learning system,” stated the Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, as he addressed the 18th convocation of IGNOU.

Prof. MS Swaminathan, the renowned agricultural scientist was conferred D.Sc (Honoris Causa) at this convocation.

The Chief Justice further said, “If the purpose of education is to bring about harmony in society, the structure and processes of education have to be carefully tailored lest education itself ends up as a cause for divisiveness and lack of harmony.”

Further, in his report, the Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, Prof V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai stated that a number of new initiatives have been conceived to provide effective learner support, initiate new steps and increase efficiency of the system. Some major steps include–enhanced and optimal utilization of the physical facilities, intellectual and knowledge resources in colleges, achieving the targets related to access and equity in higher education during the 12th plan, convergence between the conventional university system and the open and distance learning and the IGNOU website would now include links to regional centres etc.

The V-C informed in his speech that, “IGNOU’s overall priority is to ensure the right to education for all and provide new learning opportunities. It is also conscious of the growing need for continual skills upgradation, capacity building, re-training and the importance of lifelong learning. To meet these needs, new schools are being started in the areas of gender and development, tourism and hospitality management, extension development studies.” He also indicated that studies and training in inter-disciplinary courses will also be encouraged and new chairs in this sphere will be set up like Raman Chair for Science Education, Tagore Chair for Indian Literature, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Contemporary Studies etc.

Some 1,11,699 students received their degree/diploma/certificate in this convocation and for the first time, six foreign students from the UAE, Nepal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Doha Qatar received gold medals.

Gurgaon, March 17
The administration has now resorted to carrot and stick policy to curb power theft, which has been the bane of power utility in the state for the past many years.

In its latest rearguard action, the administration has announced to give rewards for informing about the incidence of power theft. The names of informers would be kept a closely guarded secret.

With large-scale industrialisation and modernisation, the malaise of power theft appears to have increased in various parts of the district, despite the apparent efforts by the official machinery to check it.

This action is seen in the context of growing disenchantment among the tax-payers due to alleged poor and erratic supply of power.

In an official statement, the administration claimed, “The power utility purchases three crore units every day to meet the demand. But about one crore units get lost due to power theft.”

The administration lamented that due to large-scale power theft, the department was not able to make accurate projection and forecast with regard real demand of the consumers. This was adversely affecting the supply system, it was added.

The electricity department has also intensified its campaign to increase public awareness on the use of Compact Fluroscent Light (CFL) which consumes less amount of electricity.

Ghaziabad, March 17
Barely after two weeks of marriage, a woman was allegedly killed by her in-laws for dowry on Thursday night in Partla village near Modinagar.

Mamta, daughter of Ompal, a resident of Patla, was married to Arvind, son of Jai Karan Pradhan of Raghunathpur on February 28.

The families of the deceased and her husband had been involved in a dispute over dowry. Following this, Om Pal, the father of the girl, had brought his daughter Mamta to his house.

The family of the deceased alleged that three days ago, some people had come to Om Pal’s house along with the in-laws of Mamta and requested him to send his daughter with her in-laws. They had assured Om Pal that there would not be any problem with regard to dowry in future.

But when the residents of Patla got the news of Mamta’s death by strangulation on Friday morning, they were all stunned.

A large number of Patla residents drove to Raghunathpur in tractor trolleys and other vehicles and created a pandemonium at Janni police station demanding immediate arrest and hanging of the culprits who had killed an innocent daughter of their village. Sensing the trouble, police also reached there in good strength.

On the assurances by senior police officials, the residents agreed to return on the condition that the police would bring the culprits to book. 

Ghaziabad, March 17
A woman in Aroda village in Menather area of Moradnagar is reported to have killed her husband with the help of her paramours. She was allegedly having illicit relations with at least three persons.

Madhu, wife of a farmer Rakesh, 40, had allegedly developed illicit relations with a relative Hardev. She had eloped with him last year but returned after about a month.

According to police, Rakesh used to object to her relations with Hardev but Madhu did not pay any heed to it. Later, she allegedly had developed illicit relations with another two young men, Atveer and Anuroodh.

Rakesh used to have argument with his wife, Madhu, mother of three kids, almost daily. Fed up with his criticism, Madhu had made up her mind to kill her husband.

Rakesh’ dead body was recovered in the field of one Medh Singh in the morning two days ago. According to police, Madhu had given her husband tea laced with some drug and when he became unconscious, her three lovers allegedly strangled him with a rope. Later, his body was dumped in the fields.

According to the police ASI, Sheraj Singh, Subash, brother of the deceased, had filed a report with the police accusing Madhu, Hardev, Anuroodh and Atveer Singh of killing Rakesh. All the three accomplices were absconding, while Madhu had been taken into custody and was being interrogated, the ASI said.

Gurgaon, March 17
The ‘infertility syndrome’ among young couples, a social malady prevalent in high-industrialised society, appears to creeped in Gurgaon, billed to be the fast growing urban and industrial centre of the country.

Dedicating to the public an In Vitro Fertility (IVF) Centre (Test Tube Baby Centre) set up in local Pushpanjali Hospital, the first of its kind in the city in terms of integrated medical utility regarding infertility malady, the head of the institute, Dr S. P. S Yadav, said that changes in lifestyle marked by stress coupled with other factors were known to have increased the problem in the country, especially in Gurgaon.

Dr Yadav, a senior Urologist, said that the number of couples visiting hospitals in the city for medical assistance to enable them to conceive and have a child of their own had increased over the past few years.

According to him, change of lifestyle, use of drugs and other intoxicating stuffs, wearing of tight clothes, irregular sleeping hours, stress-related problems emanating from high-suspense jobs and overarching consumerist ambitions, etc, play havoc with the hormone pattern in the body. Related to the modern life style is the growing trend of late marriages. In males, the sperm count decreases and in females the ovulation pattern get skewed with the cumulative effect that there is low infertility, he says.

New Delhi, March 17
Residents of Railway Colony at Nizamuddin were allegedly caught stealing electricity from BSES overhead system. They did not have power connections but were using all electric gadgets, a spokesman of the BSES said. The BSES has given a bill of Rs 62.73 lakh to the railways for stealing electricity by the residents of the colony. Interestingly, railways was billing to all individuals for power connection but the individuals did not get installed electricity metres. The BSES came to know about the stealing of power during a survey being conducted by the company officials.

When the company officials with the help of police raided the colony, the residents of the colony were caught stealing power, the spokesman said.—TNS