New Delhi, July 12
The commuters got some respite today with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) plying 2,800 buses on various routes of the national Capital. The buses, plying in the National Capital Region, have also been brought to Delhi.

Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that the government was trying its level best to deal with the transport crisis in Delhi. "The DTC is playing a major role in providing transport facility to the citizens after the Blueline bus operators decided to stay their buses off the road in protest," he said.

Today, as many as 2,800 DTC buses were on the roads. Tomorrow, 600 other buses that are providing services in schools will also be operated to carry the commuters.

As the Metro service is not available in various localities, the government has appealed to the DMRC to operate its feeder bus services so that a maximum number of people can travel by the Metro. The DMRC has agreed to launch its 120 feeder buses very soon.

Yusuf said that the government would continue its drive against the Blueline buses, which had been indulging in maximum number of accident cases.

Meanwhile, Blueline bus operators claimed that they plied 2,000 buses today.

The enforcement section of the DTC is still on duty to prevent the drivers of Blueline buses from overspeeding their vehicles.

The minister also said that strict action would be taken against auto-drivers if caught fleecing the passengers. He appealed to the citizens to co-operate with the government by informing about the erring auto-drivers and Blueline bus operators.

New Delhi, July 12
Both private and public-owned bus operators in the NCT of Delhi flout the provisions of the Central Motor Vehicles Act and related permit conditions, thereby seriously compromising the safety and performance norms.

This has been found after a weeklong survey by the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT).

Among other things, the material used in fabricating the extra-long chasis has been found to be substandard and does not have fire-retardant qualities.

The operators thus saved 30 to 40 per cent on the cost of bus fabrication. Consequently, these buses started rattling and caused inconvenience to commuters.

The Delhi Transport Department seems to have compromised on safety norms at the time of registration of new vehicles and again at the time of its annual fitness inspection carried out at Burari Inspection Pits, the survey claimed.

Recently, the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) has mandated for retrofitment of safety kit in the CNG-operated buses.

Only half of the private CNG bus fleet has so far adopted the new safety kit as mandated by the EPCA.

Most blatant has been the defiance on the part of Blueline/chartered/school/tourist bus operators as they have jeopardised the safety of commuting public.

Eighty to 90 per cent of bus operators have changed the prescribed 9x20 tyres to 10x20 (old/retreaded truck tyres) because the old and bigger truck tyres cost just 25 per cent in comparison to standard bus tyres as stated in the vehicle's registration certificate issued by the transport department.

The old tyre costs Rs 2,500 only as against the new bus-tyre costing Rs 9,800.

Similarly, almost 50 per cent of these private operators of Blueline/chartered/school/
tourist buses have fitted truck leaf-springs on the 2-axles of these buses.

This has led to the footboard of these buses getting additionally higher by about 3 inches from the ground level from the prescribed standard.

This causes serious dislocation/inconvenience in boarding and deboarding of these 50 to 62-seater buses.

This has been the frequent and single largest cause for fatality or injuries to a bus passenger.

It is strange that the Transport Department, Delhi Traffic Police and other enforcement agencies have overlooked this aspect of private buses and school buses.

The IFTRT team found out that of all these buses, almost 40 to 50 per cent of them have defective speed governors, which leads to overspeeding. In this respect, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses, almost 25 to 30 per cent, were operating on non-functional or defective speed control devices.

The NCT of Delhi has on its road 11,200 CNG buses ---(45-62 seater capacity), 5375 mini buses, including RTVs (14-37seater capacity), 4000 diesel-run interstage permit buses and 2500 diesel-run all India tourist permit buses.

New Delhi, July 12
After months of agitation over the disciplinary action against the 11 students, the JNUSU today called off its hunger strike with the university vice-chancellor softening his stand and agreeing to accept some major demands of students.

"The dialogue between rectors, DSW, chief proctor and the students union office-bearers that began on Monday continued throughout Tuesday and Wednesday. This morning, the vice-chancellor met the students who were on hunger strike and expressed his concern about their health and spent about 45 minutes with them to ease the situation," declared Poonam Qudeshia, the public relations officer at JNU.

Following this, a key agreement was reached between the university administration and JNUSU office-bearers.

The major development has been the vice-chancellor giving the nod to reconsider the punishment based on the proctorial decision with regard to the February 19 incident on receiving individual letter of regrets with an appeal from the concerned students and this will effectively terminate the rustication order making it possible for students to register by August 14.

This is not the only piece of good news, the agitation was largely waged for workers' rights and on this, too, the students have come out with flying colours.

On workers' rights, the university has agreed to constitute a permanent committee with the representation of all the sections of the university community within a month.

Students are feeling jubilant and victorious. "We are feeling very satisfied and victorious and have completely lifted the hunger strike," says Sandeep, the secretary of JNUSU.

Faridabad, July 12
Hundreds of students of some private colleges offering Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree in the National Capital Region are faced with bleak future with the affiliating university denying roll numbers to them.

The annual examination starts tomorrow. There are 100 such students enrolled in a private college on the Surajkund road here, who have not received their roll numbers so far. The affected students assembled at Sector-12 and staged a protest.

A total of about 700 students of seven such colleges in the NCR are reported to be facing this crisis. It is claimed that due to certain irregularities on part of the colleges concerned, the roll numbers were not issued so far.

The majority of the students paid heavy fee for the admission to the course of the 2006-07 session, though admissions were held early this year.

The state government had sanctioned B.Ed. course in a large number of private institutions last year to provide regular course in education.

It is reported that an institute located in the Aravali International School campus on the Surajkund road here had also admitted about 100 students hailing from various parts of the NCR in January and February this year, with many of them paying donations to get admission.

It is learnt that the admissions were made despite the disapproval of authorities of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, the affiliating university.

But according to Dhan Singh Bhadana, director of the Aravalli institute here, there had been nothing wrong on the part of his college to admit the students.

He said that admissions had been made after an order was passed by the High Court in their favour. All the formalities had been completed with the university and its affiliating department.

He added that the university officials, however, declined to issue roll numbers at the last moment and the colleges concerned approached the High Court, but their plea was not accepted. He said the aggrieved colleges would now move the Supreme Court tomorrow in this regard.

New Delhi, July 12
The hope for revival of once most sought after consumer destination in the Capital, the Super Bazar was dashed today with the two private joint bidders opting out of the race.

They informed the Supreme Court that an irresolvable financial dispute was the cause for their opting out from the bid.

Over a thousand employees of the Super Bazar, a cooperative society at the verge of liquidation and closed due to the financial mismanagement and corruption by its top management, were fighting a legal battle for its revival.

The Indian Potash Limited (IPL) which had deposited Rs 65 crore as advance for the bid with the government, sought to withdraw from the tender process as it developed a sharp difference with joint bidder the Indian Labour Cooperative Society (ILCS) on share holdings.

Since the entire advance amount was deposited by the IPL and the ILCS failed to contribute any amount, the former wanted the latter to be out of the bid.

As the ILCS did not agree to opt out in favour of the IPL, the latter's counsel told a Bench of Justices S H Kapadia and B Sudershan Reddy that his client wanted to withdraw from the race.

Allowing the IPL plea, the court directed the government to call for a fresh bid within four weeks as per the terms and conditions laid down by it earlier.

It also directed that the money deposited by the IPL be refunded to it within three weeks. Earlier, the Reliance Industries had also withdrawn from the race after the government refused to change the rules for running of the Super Bazar.

Reliance, which also wanted a monopoly control over the Super Bazar, wanted amendment in the law and had promised to invest nearly Rs 180 crore for its revival if it was given independent control of it.

The Super Bazar Karamchari Sangh has been fighting a legal battle for almost a decade right from the Delhi High Court to the apex court in a bid to get the cooperative revived to ensure that they get back their jobs.

New Delhi, July 12
The police has refused to take notice of Geeta and Babli, who claimed to be married to each other.

"How are we supposed to know whether they are married or not. These are two girlfriends staying together and this is not an offence," said SI Ram Kishan. "No case has been registered against anyone."

The couple is in news since yesterday, when Geeta and Babli took asylum in the Prasad Nagar police station fearing any aggressive act from their respective families.

"They came down to the police station and left in a while," said the police sources.

Going to the police station seems to be a symbolic act now, as no complaint was registered against anyone.

Geeta and Babli started developing intense feelings for each other two years back, when they met at the India Gate lawns for the first time.

Their relationship kept on getting stronger till the time it came to the knowledge of the families.

Geeta was already engaged when she found out that she can not spend the rest of her life with anyone else.

Homosexuality is not just a social taboo, but is also a crime according to the Indian law under the 'unnatural offences 377'.

Though, there have been several reports of same sex marriages witnessed in the last few years, the society would rather be oblivious to the issue.

Youngsters have been asserting their choices in respect to the matrimonial alliances.

The police has to play important roles many a times to safe guard their rights, whether it is the honour killings in Haryana or the same sex marriages.

New Delhi, July 12
A local court has acquitted two youths of the charge of raping a woman five years ago, after holding the alleged victim and investigating officer (IO) as unworthy of credence.

The perusal of records shows that neither the prosecutrix nor the investigating officer is worth lending credence and no reliance can be placed on their testimonies, additional sessions judge Sanjay Sharma said.

The girl's father had lodged an FIR in April 2002 with New Ashok Nagar police station accusing Matru Lal Gupta and Anil of abducting his daughter. Subsequently, the two were arrested on charges of rape.

The girl, in her statement before a metropolitan magistrate, had alleged that the accused had committed rape after confining her in a secluded place.

The court, however, noted vast contradictions in her statements during the trial and observed that she kept on changing her stance frequently.

The entire story appears to be imaginary and devoid of truth, it said, discarding her testimony as evidence against the accused. The court also noted faulty investigation by the IO and a flip-flop by him on material facts of the case.

On the one hand, the IO tried to evade the questions stating that he had no knowledge of the facts but on the other, he contradicted the testimonies of several witnesses, it said.

Taking exception to the fact that the IO had even denied having recorded the statements of a few witnesses which were written in his own handwriting, the court refused to rely on his version and further pulled him up for not probing the various material aspects of the case.

Holding that the prosecution had failed to prove its case, it exonerated the two youths of all the charges.

The gang used to supply counterfeit notes and was active in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and other parts of UP as well as in Delhi.