The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Delhi and neighbourhood

	Freedom from bondage 93 child labourers rescued Our Correspondent New Delhi, May 19 As many as 93 child labourers were rescued from a seven-storeyed jewellery manufacturing unit, housed about 25 small units, in Ragpura, Karol Bagh, here today. The operation was carried out jointly by labour department of Delhi and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA). Out of the 90 children, 57 were below 14 and the rest were below 16 years of age. They have been sent to the rehabilitation home of BBA at Ebrahimpur in Burai. Seven contractors associated with the manufacturing unit had been arrested in this connection and cases were registered against them under various sections for violation of Bonded Labour Act and Child Labour Act, said a police officer. The BBA had got specific information that a large number of child labourers were working in jewellery manufacturing units around the area with the alleged connivance of officials of labour department and the local police. They wrote many times in this regard to the concerned officials but to no avail. "It is surprising that when the raids were being carried out, many influential people, mainly jewellery outlet owners of the area, came to the defense of the contractors. The children could be rescued only after the arrival of CRPF," said Kailash Satyarthi, president, BBA. Almost all rescued children had been trafficked to the Capital from West Bengal and Bihar by local touts and were working in the units in worst human conditions, he alleged.
	Jamia to host C'wealth Games Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 19 The Jamia Millia Islamia campus has been selected as a venue for hosting some events of the Commonwealth Games 2010. Jamia will serve as a training venue for lawn bowls, rugby 7s and table-tennis for the Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2010. Further, the Association of India Universities (AIU) has assigned the responsibility of organising inter-university hockey championship to Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2007. Also, admissions under the sports category to undergraduate and postgraduate non-professional courses are going to start from May 21. The schedule for trials is as following: July 10-11 is set as the date for cricket trials at 10 am, July 12 for basketball trials again at 10 am and volleyball trials at 4 pm, July 13 for boxing trials at 10 am and hockey trials at 4 pm. On July 14, there will be badminton trials at 10 am, table-tennis at 3.30 pm and swimming trials at 5 pm. On July 16, football trials are set for 10 am, tennis for 3.30 pm and shooting for 4.30 pm. On July 17, athletics trials will be held at 10 am. The application form for the sports category admission can be collected from and submitted back to the office of games and sports, Jamia Millia Islamia, latest by July 6. The final list of selected candidates will be displayed on July 30. Jamia has also started a coaching programme for the age group of 10-15 years for summer vacation (May 11 to June 15). This has been open to both Jamia students and wards, employees and others. Coaching is available in basketball, cricket, football, and hockey. Coaches have been hired from outside and a very nominal fee structure has been kept.
	Property dealer, wife, son killed Domestic help missing Ravi S. Singh Tribune News Service Gurgaon, May 19 A former employee of Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC), who was engaged in the real estate business, his wife and son were found brutally murdered at their residence in Sector 23 today. The police suspect involvement of the domestic help, said to be a resident of Bihar, who has been missing since the incident. According to the police, preliminary investigations suggest involvement of more than one person in the crime. The police have registered a case in this connection and one person, considered to be close to the domestic help, has been arrested. The body of the former employee of HSIDC, Vinod Chahal, a native of Bhiwani district, was found lying in a pool of blood in his bed room. His wife, Saroj Chahal, a lecturer with polytechnic college located at Manesar, was found brutally murdered in the kitchen. The body of their six-year-old son, a student of standard-II of Rotary Public School, was found in an almirah of the house. His mouth was tied up in a cloth, which suggests that he died due to asphyxiation. The heads of the couple were found to be brutally battered. A base-ball bat and a one-foot-long brick recovered from the house appeared to have been used by the criminals. The inspector general of police, Gurgaon range, Mohinder Lal, said that the murders were gruesome in nature. He said that the hunt had been launched to trace the domestic help who appeared to be the prime suspect. It is not clear whether robbery was the motive behind the murders. However, 'mangal sutra' and other jewelleries were found on the body of Saroj Chehal, and mobile phone was also not stolen. According to neighbours, Chahals were a happy couple. Chahal was earlier employed on ad hoc basis as junior engineer with the HSIDC. However, lately he was into whole-time real estate business.
	Happy journey Delhi, UP ministers flag off buses Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 19 Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf and his counterpart in Uttar Pradesh Ram Achal Rajbhar today jointly flagged off state buses from ISBT Anand Vihar. The ministers had green flags to signal their buses to operate in both the states. The state governments have lost revenue of crores of rupees during the six-month-long stir. The commuters used to travel by train or some other mode of transport. Delhi Transport commissioner-cum-principal secretary Chandramohan, Delhi Transport Corporation chief managing director Anshu Prakash, principal secretary, UP Transport, Pradeep Shukla and chief managing director of the UP State Road Transport Corporation Dev Dutt and a large number of people and commuters were also present on the occasion. Transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that the bus service resumed after six months and six days. He said that these services had been resumed keeping in view the broader interest of the commuters of UP and Delhi. Blaming the previous Mulayam Singh government for the impasse, the minister said that the issue had unnecessarily been politicised. He assured passengers that nothing of this sort would happen again. On DTC plight, Haroon Yusuf said that the entire structure of the organisation would be revamped within three-four years. "To begin with, 25 air-conditioned buses are being purchased for plying on the inter-state routes in Uttar Pradesh. If the experiment is successful, the number would be increased," he said. As per the new understanding, DTC services will continue as per earlier schedules, while UP city buses would ply from five places in Delhi — Kashmiri Gate, Anand Vihar, Sarai Kale Khan, Old Delhi railway station and New Delhi railway station. Haroon Yusuf said that DTC was going to purchase 300 new diesel buses very soon to improve interstate bus services. Seven hundred DTC buses were at a halt from November 13. Now the DTC buses along with 1000 UPSRTC buses would ply in each other state. The DTC operates interstate services in Meerut, Bulandshahr, Khurja, Hapur and many other cities. The DTC also operates city services in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. Around four 4 lakh commuters travel daily to each state. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her message from New York expressed happiness over the development and thanked her UP counterpart Ms Mayawati for it.
	Rs 400-cr scam in Tronica City plot allotment Parmindar Singh Ghaziabad, May 19 A scam worth Rs 400 crore has come to light in the allotment of plots in the Tronica City project of the UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC), for which four senior officers of the UPSIDC have been suspended on being found prima facie guilty for the scam. A probe has simultaneously been initiated into the allotment of industrial plots in Bagpat, Surajpur, Meerut and Sakandrabad. In keeping with the views of the state industrial development commissioner, the managing director of the UPSIDC has recommended the probe may be assigned to the CBI. Sanction for action against chief engineer Arun Mishra has also been accorded, it is learnt. Managing director Balwinder Kumar said the allotment of plots had been made to certain persons having links with an influential lobby at throwaway prices against all rules and norms while ignoring the prevalent market rate. The UPSIDC had suffered a loss of about Rs 100 crore, Kumar said. The UPSIDC managing director appeared to have handed over all authority to Arun Mishra between August 2006 and March this year. The latter had invited bids by getting advertisements published in two newspapers of Faridabad and Delhi with very limited circulation. A committee set up under a chief manager had fixed a reserve rate of Rs 2700 per sq m for group housing and Rs 4000 per sq m for commercial plots. The chief engineer, keeping this as the guideline, had allegedly allotted 96,600 sq mt for group housing and 76,640 for commercial sectors to certain favourite bidders in Tronica City. The MD said had this land been sold as per the rates of the Ghaziabad Development Authority the amount received would have been Rs 300 crore. Similarly, the difference would have been above Rs 400 crore had it been allotted as per the rates quoted by Tronica City Manufacturers Association. He said the members and the chairman of the committee which had fixed the reserve price had been placed under suspension. The managing director said the same land would have sold at Rs15,515 per sq m in Greater Noida and in Noida the rates would have varied between Rs 17,000 and Rs 30,000 per sq m. In Bagpat industrial area also, there was a lot of bungling in the allotment of plots. Here, too, the same caucus was involved. In Surajpur, Sakandrabad and Ghaziabad industrial areas, heavy bungling was reported. This was being probed. In Ghaziabad, even the park land was sold at commercial rates, though there was a ban by the Supreme Court on the sale of park lands, Kumar added.
	Custody death: Minorities’ panel chief meets DCP Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 19 Newly appointed chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) Kamal Faruqui along with its members Arnold James and Pushpinder Singh met the deputy commissioner of North police district to find out the details of the death of Kamaluddin, who allegedly died in police custody a few weeks back. They would also meet the investigating officer to find the latest status of the case. The DCP of the area told the DMC members the police never said Kamaluddin was a mad man. There was a call at the police control room, saying that a mad man was in rage in Sultanpuri and creating an unlawful situation. The statement of Kamaludin's wife could not be recorded because she was in 'iddat', a ritual in Islam. After the death of the husband, a woman could neither come out nor talk to strangers till four months and 10 days. Her statement would be recorded after she completed the ritual, the DCP said. He said the police were not harassing the people in the locality. When the incident had occurred, certain action was necessary to control the crowd. A case had been registered. The investigation was being done under the direction of the ADM. An IPS officer was conducting a departmental inquiry against the suspected policeman. The commission members appealed to the DCP to complete the inquiry and submit a report to the commission on time.
	NGOs for power to women Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 19 Reacting strongly to the controversy associated with night shift work for women and to the Central government's decision to restrict women under 30 from migrating to the Gulf, Malaysia, etc, for working as domestic helps, women's groups have demanded that the government should create enabling environment for women to thrive in any profession instead of suppressing them any further. Women have always been sidelined during any previous economic movement in the country and they should not remain left out of the new economy, feel women's groups. "Governments should concentrate on creating enabling environment for women to benefit from the economic growth in the country, instead of making them helpless and dependable once again," says Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research. According to the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), at least 40 per cent of these newly created jobs in the information technology sector are filled by women (Field Survey, 2002). Prospects for women workers look good in this sector. There are already more than 160,000 men and women on the payroll of Indian call centres; approximately 45 per cent of them are women. In some companies, the figure can be as high as 70 per cent. Companies are now scouring the towns and countryside away from the big cities to locate employees who can be trained for jobs in these centres. If the trend continues, women in India are likely to get benefits, at least in terms of quantity of work. According to the paper presented by the Centre for Social Research at a consultation in New Delhi recently, there is a need to develop a multilateral framework for a rights-based approach to labour migration such as 'Safe Migration Policy'.