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Traders invoke RTI Act for renovation
Maid held for murder
Man acquitted of abduction, rape
Monitor progress on preserving water bodies: HC
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Police to protect woman and her dogs
Regularisation of colonies not to affect amenities
Rs 2.58-cr pension disbursed to destitute women
Workers’ wages up in UP
Boycott call for mahapanchayat
Woman commits suicide
Rotary blood bank not to ask for donors
135 killed in four months
Time and space ‘do not exist’
ARTSCAPE
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Traders invoke RTI Act for renovation
New Delhi, May 20 Though they have limited bargaining powers as they are not part of any big shop-owners’ unions, this has not deterred them from approaching everyone possible from the Chief Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office. Thanks to the RTI Act, they now know the exact status of their stalls located in the main market in Janpath. The response to the appeal they filed in December last year has made it clear the development of their stalls is to be undertaken by the chief engineer of the civic body. According to the NDMC’s response in November 2005, the redevelopment work of the entire market was to be undertaken by HUDCO and other repairs were to be done very shortly by the civil engineering department. The four stalls were not part of HUDCO’s plan and despite repeated requests from the owners their shops were not included in the plan as neighbouring areas of the market were redeveloped. Roop Jalutharia, one of the affected shop-owners, alleged officials of the departments concerned were now threatening to displace them from their stalls and demanding bribes to undertake the work. “The officials are threatening us now”, said Jalutharia.
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Maid held for murder
New Delhi, May 20 The mobile phone, club card and Rs 1500 in cash have been recovered from her. During interrogation, she allegedly confessed her crime. “My mistress used to scold me all the time even for making small mistakes. Apart from this, she did not like my affair with a boy, Raju, from the same locality. So I killed her by strangulating her when she was alone in the house and dumped her body in the bathroom.” After committing the crime, she decamped with all her belongings. The maid had been appointed by the father of the deceased without verifying her particulars and past records. Even her photograph was not available. The police had released her sketch on the basis of descriptions given by neighbours and separate teams were sent to raid her possible hideouts, said a police officer.
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Man acquitted of abduction, rape
New Delhi, May 20 “Since no incriminating evidence has come on record to establish the commission of the offence against the accused, Suraj Kumar, I am left with no option except to acquit him of all charges levelled against him by the prosecution”, Additional Sessions Judge Narinder Pal Kaushik said in a recent order. According to the prosecution, Kumar had on April 28, 2006, allegedly abducted the 17-year-old victim from his neighbourhood in Timarpur.
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Monitor progress on preserving water bodies: HC
New Delhi, May 20 Asking the chief secretary, who heads a court-appointed nodal committee, to inform it every six months about the progress, a division bench of Justices T S Thakur and S N Aggarwal disposed of a PIL seeking a direction to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to take appropriate steps for water management. The court disposed of the PIL after the city government and DJB filed a detailed affidavit mentioning various steps taken by authorities to preserve water bodies and discharge sewage and sullage in storm water drains.
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Police to protect woman and her dogs
New Delhi, May 20 “The SHO concerned shall take steps to ensure that the dogs of the complainant are adequately protected for which it would be desirable for the SHO to take all necessary assistance of the residents welfare association of the area to prevent any future incident”, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Kamini Lau said. Mita Dasgupta, resident of East of Kailash, had legally adopted two stray dogs during a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) campaign initiated to promote the adoption of street dogs. However, her love of the canines turned sour as her neighbours started raising a hue and cry on the alleged nuisance created by them.—TNS
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Vigil for AIDS victims
New Delhi, May 20 Several victims of the deadly disease addressed the memorial and stressed the need of providing right counselling, medicines and support to those who have been afflicted by this disease. Social activist Nafisa Ali and Delhi health minister Yoganand Shastri were the chief guests at the Memorial. International Candlelight Memorial Day is also an occasion to support those who are living with HIV/AIDS, a time for collective introspection and for a commitment to renew our efforts in fighting the challenges faced by people living with HIV/AIDS. A key challenge in this regard is the continued access to affordable treatment and medicines, especially new AIDS drugs. Public interest organisations including networks of people living with HIV/AIDS are requesting the government to increase access to newer AIDS drugs in government treatment centres. Experience from places where HIV/AIDS treatment has been widely available, such as Brazil, Thailand and South Africa, shows that after a few years, the first-line drug regimen no longer works for many patients, who must then switch to newer first/second-line drugs. As antiretroviral therapy currently used by the Indian government to treat the infection fails in case of some patients, substitution with new essential life-saving AIDS drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS is required.
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Regularisation of colonies not to affect amenities
New Delhi, May 20 On the water front, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) estimates there will not be an additional demand as most of these colonies are getting water through tankers and tubewells. However, the situation seems to be slightly different as far as power is concerned as the discoms expect an increase of five to 10 per cent in demand. According to sources, the civic body will be ready to supply water to any area which has a proper sewage and pipeline network, but will have to depend on tankers and other sources like groundwater where such infrastructure is non-existent.
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Rs 2.58-cr pension disbursed to destitute women
Faridabad, May 20 The state government has earmarked a budget of about Rs 31 crore for these schemes for the district in the current financial According to district authorities, about 51,636 persons have been covered so far under the old-age pension scheme, who received an amount of Rs 300 each and for this the department concerned released about Rs 1.55 crore for April. The government has earmarked a total fund of Rs 18.37 crore for this year. A survey was carried out after a certain period to detect fresh beneficiaries under the scheme and this leads to an enhanced budget each year, claimed an official. Though the prescribed age for being eligible for old-age pension has been 60 years, it is learnt that many of the applicants or even those selected for this benefit had sometimes been less than 60 years. However, those receiving such a kind of allowance from any other source are denied this facility. Another major scheme under the head has been pension for the widows and destitute women. For this the department has already identified over 29,000 women who have been receiving a pension of Rs 350 per month. The minimum age of such beneficiaries should be at least 18 years and be a resident of Haryana, with annual income of Rs 10,000. The department disbursed over Rs 1 crore during the last month. The department also received as many as 276 fresh applications for such a benefit in the district in April. A budget of over Rs 12 crore has been earmarked by the department for this head during the current financial period.
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Workers’ wages up in UP
Noida, May 20 This was disclosed by labour minister Ved Ram Bhatti here yesterday. The minister said the BSP government had accorded top priority to the problems of entrepreneurs, industrial and farm workers. District BSP president Kartar Singh Nagar said the chief minister had raised the prestige of the district by appointing Bhatti as a cabinet minister. Projects hanging In Dadri as well as in Laharsi village, Bhatti said the previous government had willfully neglected this area but now it would be ensured that many projects for all-round development of the area were taken into hand. The labour minister was accorded a rousing reception in Sectors 27, 19, 18 and 37 of Noida and villages like Salarpur, Bhangel, Surajpur and Dadri.
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Boycott call for mahapanchayat
Gurgaon, May 20 The call for Mahapanchayat has been given by the farmers of Manesar areas, with the alleged tacit support of the opponents of the Congress, against the alleged move to evict residents and demolish their dwellings in the land which have been notified for acquisition. The farmers had blocked the national highway last Sunday for two hours to press for acceptance of their demand. The farmers mellowed only when the Deputy Commissioner assured them that their dwellings would not be tampered with. It is learnt that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had already assured a delegation of farmers of the area that their dwellings would not be affected in the proposed acquisition.—TNS
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Woman commits suicide
Ghaziabad, May 20 She was identified as Anuttam. She was living with her maternal uncle in a first floor flat. This morning, around 5.30, she went to the roof, set herself ablaze and jumped to the ground. She died on the spot. She hails from Bihar and was married at the age of nine years. Her husband had left her and her son, too, died at the age of three years. Since then, she had been depressed. Her uncle had brought her to Sahibabad some years ago. The police said though no suicide was recovered investigations revealed it was a suicide.
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Rotary blood bank not to ask for donors
Noida, May 20 Rotary Club (Noida) president Satish Singhal said, “The blood bank will be built on a 6,000 square ft area. The building will be ready by June-end and we will be able to start the project. We will supply blood free of cost to poor patients and will not ask for a donor”. Mahesh Sharma, Chairman, Kailash Hospital, IMA president S. P. Jain, Rotary district governor Damanjit Singh, Rakesh Bhatla and S. S. Passi were present on the foundation stone laying ceremony which was held at Radisson Hotel.
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135 killed in four months
Noida, May 20 Even during the first fortnight of May, the number of those killed in accidents is over a dozen. The maximum number of accidents took place in March when as many as 40 persons lost their lives in 60-odd accidents. Another reason for accidents is the increasing number of vehicles in the district. Even in most sensitive areas, there is no trace of speed-breakers. The drivers of big and small vehicles are fond of overspeeding and the cases of drunken driving are also quite high. There is no police plan so far to stem the number of accidents. The number of serious accidents since January is 117 while the police consider another 119 as routine accidents. In all 135 persons, including 14 women, had died on the spot in these accidents. Those seriously injured included 56 persons including three women, while 175 persons, including 22 women, had been injured in ordinary accidents. These are figures available in the police record.
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Time and space ‘do not exist’
New Delhi, May 20 “The book shows that only distance is real. Time and space do not exist as they are a creation of human imagination,” says Nabha , terming his “discovery” as a “God-given gift”. In his presentation at the Gymkhana Club here recently, he talked of his “discovery” and how it all came to him. “My son, who lived in America, visited India after a stopover at London on his birthday. As is customary, I should have wished him many happy returns of the day. But as I was thinking of his long journey around the world, I wished him instead “many happy revolutions of the same” and then like a flash of lightning it dawned upon me that there was no such thing as time but only distance. This led to my further understanding that nor was there any such thing as space but only distance,” he explains. Why does he call his work a “discovery”? He says although it is not something new that he has discovered but discovery can also mean the proper understanding of something very old. “For instance, millions of apples had fallen before Newton was able to give a proper understanding of the Law of Gravitation. It does not mean that other physicists before Newton had not seen an apple fall and did not know that if they let go of an apple it would fall. It was a discovery because Newton got the proper understanding about the law that governed the falling of the apple”. Nabha says that as the author of the book he can claim his discovery as no other person has stated clearly earlier the non-existence of time and space. “There is no record of anybody having thought about this”. But because we have been “brainwashed in the fictitious and non-existent myths of time”, we find the concept difficult to believe. “The fact is hands on the watch are moving around distances on the dial in keeping with the various activities performed by us. Like having a cup of tea, writing a letter, reading a letter, going for a walk, going for a drive corresponding with distances moved by the hands on the watch dial which in turn correspond to the distance moved by the equator revolving in front of the sun. We read and report distances moved by the three hands as passage of time, which, in reality, are the passages of distances moved by the hands,” he says.
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Artscape
New Delhi, May 20 What is even more galling to the artists is the fact that the paintings in question were exhibited for assessment for the final year examination as part of the syllabus of the Faculty of Fine Arts and not meant for public viewing. Hundreds of artists, art enthusiasts and intellectuals got together at the Rabindra Bhawan, Capital’s mecca for art and artists, here last week to protest against what is now being increasingly referred to as a brazen assault on art and freedom of expression. Expressing solidarity with the victim, S. Chandramohan, whose paintings had incurred the wrath of the so-called moral brigade in Vadodra earlier this month, artists and their sympathisers appealed to the authorities to end this “intellectual fascism” in the land where art, in any form, has always been not only appreciated but also worshipped. If this was not the case then why were the paintings and sculptures in Khajuraho as well as hundreds of other temples spread all across the length and breadth of the country internationally acclaimed? Individually, artists were equally dismayed by the developments coming close on the heels of a case of obscenity registered against the internationally acclaimed artist, MF Husain. Such policing by self-proclaimed moralists will only harm art and creativity. It was time that the artists and people got together to stand up against such assaults if the rich culture of the nation was to be kept alive for posterity. Watercolours
The India Habitat Centre here is abuzz with activity as it prepares to host, “Brazilian Watercolours”, a unique cultural event to showcase art, music and culture of Brazil from June 4 to 12. (The event was written about in detail in this column last week). The highlight of the event will be the visit of the President of Brazil, Mr Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, who is scheduled to arrive here during this period. Street scenes The Art Alive Gallery here is holding a solo show of the recent works of artist Yusuf Arakkal entitled, “The Street” on May 23 and 24. According to the painter, the street reveals a strange but authentic reality. The street is littered with a million physical and metaphoric allusions. It is a place of many emotions, feelings, and meanings. It touches all the senses. It hides and creates tales: some concluded, many unfinished. It brings out the sham and hypocrisy of city life. For Yusuf, the street holds a special significance. Ever since he, as a young teenager, left home seeking an unknown destination in art, he has had a close association with it. His life and work have owed an absolute allegiance to it. For several weeks after leaving home, the street became his home and it also doubled up as a classroom teaching some very important lessons that stand etched for a lifetime. The street scenes painted by Yusuf present compassionate portraits of ordinary people integrated to a murky landscape. Sustained by subtle overtones of inner-city strains and tensions, they articulate a common if silent lingo. The people in these images might not be the only ones Yusuf encountered in the isolated bylanes of Bangalore several decades ago as an orphan and an emigrant. They include people he has seen in London, Lisbon, Singapore, and other places in recent times. The locale matters little, though. For, regardless of their residence, they are all inheritors of the same universal feelings, human affiliations and fundamental afflictions. In two fascinating triptychs, Yusuf presents a lonely kid looking at you with a sharp piercing stare. There is fear in his eye. There is also anger, a streak of protest, a silent defiance. As you look at the multiple images gnawing at you, you start wondering whether the murmur on the street could possibly be the murmur of his heart. Ancient dance The Gallery Espace here is hosting an exhibition of paintings and photographs of the well-known artist, Birendra Pani from May 19 to 22. Entitled, “Boy Dancer– Convergence and Continuum”, the exhibition was kicked off by a performance by the famous “Gotipua Dancers from Odisha” at the preview last week. Gotipua dance, a pre-modern dance tradition of Orissa, was an important vehicle of expression to reach people at festivals and temples in the late 15th century. The dance, performed by boys dressed up as girls, has its own language, rhetoric and symbols. Bhandanritya, comprising acrobatic movements, is an integral part of Gotipua dance. Birendra Pani’s exhibition is a part of his continuing engagement with the traditional dance which has become almost extinct in the state. His paintings are perhaps an attempt to revive this ancient dance form.
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