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Man gets RI for minor’s rape
Land compensation
Rlys fined for evicting woman from coach
Railways to use GPS
Sushil Modi injured at Delhi airport
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Men come forth to end violence against women
Past to catch up with politicians even after decades: BJP
CM announces plans sans base: BJP
SC upholds life term for abetting murder
Child labour
Om Puri finds it hard to play Zia-ul Haq
Jassi chucks films for TV and radio
Lyric drive to spread AIDS awareness
Man kills father-in-law
3 held with fake notes
South District Delhi Police arrested three persons who were engaged in making currency notes, at DCP office in Sarita Vihar in the Capital on Sunday. — Tribune photo
7 killed, 27 injured in fog-related accidents
Six schoolkids injured
MCD unlikely to begin demolition
Ekta’s soaps move into Arab world
Hellen Keller awards presented
Artscape
‘Rock the Boat’
NGOs claim permission denied to hold function
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Man gets RI for minor’s rape
New Delhi, December 2 Additional sessions judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma held Santosh guilty under Sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on Santosh and ordered that in case the amount was not deposited, the convict will have to undergo an additional six months’ imprisonment. Sexual offences are altogether a different kind of crime which normally is a result of a perverse mind. A rapist degrades and defiles the soul of a helpless female and impact is much more when such an offence is committed in the presence of mother and other members of her family, the ASJ said. According to the prosecution, on September 24, 2004, Santosh, well-known to the victim, entered her Mukherjee Nagar residence in north Delhi and raped the 14-year-old girl in presence of her mother, younger brothers and sisters. When the family members of the victim tried to stop the brutal act, Santosh stabbed the mother with a knife. The accused also threatened her not to tell anyone about the incident, the prosecution alleged. The courts have been bestowed a duty to implement the application of law and the object of framing of law is to protect society and deter the criminals. The courts can achieve this object only by awarding the appropriate sentence, the judge said in his order. The prosecution submitted that the medical examination confirmed that Santosh had sexually assaulted the girl. “Keeping in view the facts and circumstances in mind, I am of the firm opinion that the prosecution has been able to prove its charges against Santosh beyond reasonable doubts,” the judge said. The prosecution examined 13 witnesses including the victim herself and her family members to prove its case. |
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Farmers stop construction of overbridge
Our Correspondent
Greater Noida, December 2 A 4-km long rail bridge is being constructed in Dadri, at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore. It is likely to be completed in 18 months. Shouting slogans like — “Compensation first, development later,” they threatened that work would not progress, till adequate compensation is paid to them. We demand that compensation be paid to us at the market rate. As the land started getting levelled for the rail over- bridge, farmers became furious. The much needed over-bridge would solve the problem of traffic snarls in Dadri. Sukhbir Singh and Balbir Arya led the farmers. They said that the GNIDA had acquired the land of farmers, three years ago, for the construction of over-bridge. At that time, farmers were promised that 6 per cent of their land would be given to them. But, the farmers were feeling cheated.
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Rlys fined for evicting woman from coach
New Delhi, December 2 Taking exception to the highhandedness of a ticket checker in forcing complainant Rani Sehgal to move out of the coach despite her having a confirmed ticket, the Commission’s president Justice J D Kapoor held Northern Railways guilty of “grossest kind of deficiency in service”. “Due to the error on the part of the Railways, two different tickets were allotted the same seat, which on the face of it is grossest kind of deficiency in service and negligence,” the Commission said in a recent order. Dismissing the appeal of the Railways against a district forum order, it observed that mental agony and harassment suffered by Sehgal, who had a confirmed ticket and might be going for some urgent purpose, was “immense” and entitled her for an adequate compensation. Sehgal, a resident of Rana Pratap Bagh here, was not only deprived of the seat but was also injured due to a fall in a scuffle with the ticket checker. She also suffered monetary loss after her purse was lost in the melee, the Commission noted while dismissing the Railway’s argument that the damages were on the higher side. According to the complaint, Sehgal was allotted a confirmed ticket for her journey from Jalandhar to New Delhi on October 10, 2002, but after boarding the train, she found somebody else was occupying the seat with a ticket for the same seat. An altercation ensued between her and the ticket-checker and the complainant fell from the coach hurting herself. She also lost her purse and a gold chain in the incident, she had alleged.
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Railways to use GPS
New Delhi, December 2 The device, developed by a Delhi-based ‘Torren microsystem’, provides information to drivers via satellite imaging, a northern railway official said.
Once operational, the railways will say goodbye to the use of crackers on tracks that burst, as the train passes over them and help drivers ascertain the approaching point.
Every year, around three lakh crackers are used for the purpose, which costs lakhs of rupees, the official said. In the new system, a monitor is installed in the driver’s cabin and antenna on its top.
The antenna receives audio and visual indication, which is displayed on the monitor to help the driver in ascertaining an approaching point and the distance to that point. The device gives indication at a distance of four kilometres before the approaching point.
In winter, trains are delayed due to poor visibility caused by fog with the speed sometimes reduced to 30
kph. But this new system, if installed, would solve this problem. — PTI |
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Sushil Modi injured at Delhi airport
New Delhi, December 2 Bihar government Protocol Officer P.N. Mishra told IANS that the minister was inside the Jetlite airline boarding bus around 9 a.m. to catch a flight to Ahmedabad for election campaigning in Gujarat when the incident occurred. According to Mishra, the driver of the boarding bus was talking on his mobile and was apparently oblivious to his surroundings. He suddenly applied the brakes to avoid collision with an aircraft heading for the parking bay from the runway. In the process, the minister who was standing in the bus lost his balance and fell down, leading to slight pain in his back for which he was taken to the Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Vasant Kunj in south Delhi. He was discharged after two hours. “The airport authority is responsible for this incident,” Mishra said. However, the official spokesperson for Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) contradicted Mishra’s version, saying the minister was not injured at all and did not need any medical help.—IANS
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Men come forth to end violence against women
New Delhi, December 2 “Exploring Masculinities” will start Monday. The eight-day-long programme will see gender activists coming up with ways to be equal partners with women so as to put an end to the gender-based violence. The event has been organised by the UNFPA, UNDP and UNIFEM in association with Aakar - an NGO. “Just like women, men are almost always stereotyped. They are considered to be aggressive, when many may actually not be so. It’s a big baggage on them,” Jaya Velankar, who is supervising the programme, told IANS. “Of course, we know that when it comes to violence against women, it’s the men who take centre-stage. Therefore it’s only logical to get them to be on the side of the women and wipe out all gender-based violence,” she said. The programme will coincide with the 16 days of activism being observed during November 25-December 10 to wipe out violence against women. These 16 days connect the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women with the International Human Rights Day. A range of events like a literary evening, music concert, exhibition, film festival, will unfold from Monday onwards as part of the seminar where the focus will be on men and masculinity. Musicians from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan will perform at the music concert. There will also be seminars and round table discussions in which gender activists from South Asia, Britain, the US and South Africa will take part. A joint UN regional programme is also being finalised for the period 2008-11 to support prevention of violence in India and help ensure that boys and men are part of the process.— IANS
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Past to catch up with politicians even after decades: BJP
New Delhi, December 2 The former union minister was addressing a debate on ‘Delhi 1984 to Gujarat 2002: political mileage from communal violence’ this weekend here. Senior congress leader Salman Khurshid said the Congress had moved ahead since 1984 but when ‘’we look back at the events that happened in those days, our head sinks in shame. The Prime Minister has already tendered a sincere apology in Parliament on behalf of the government and the party.’’ Khurshid, however, sought to dispel the general impression that the Sikh massacre was ‘organised’ saying that even those occupying top positions in the political party could be described as ultimate authority. ‘’Everything could not be in regimented control and some people always overact in the name of the party,” he said. He said the 1947 communal carnage to Gujarat in 2002, should be analysed in a national and democratic perspective while addressing the issue- how to do away with such aberrations (political) which cause much bloodshed of the innocent and non-combatant people. The violence in Gujarat and Nandigram are the latest examples in this context, he added. The debate was organised in the backdrop of the release of the book ‘When a tree shook Delhi’. The title of the book has been derived from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement - ‘’When a mighty tree falls, earth around it does shake a little’’- Which was interpreted by the Sikh community as ‘justification of killings of the Sikhs’ after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. The book has been authored by eminent lawyer H S Phoolka and Times of India editor Manoj Mitta. Also speaking on the occasion was Brinda Karat of the CPI (M) who was of the view that those guilty of communal riots had rarely been penalised by the Indian state which showed a lack of political will. — UNI
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CM announces plans sans base: BJP
New Delhi, December 2 State party president Harsh Vardhan, in a press release, stated that Dikshit had announced cheap power, cheap ration, 4 lakh houses for JJ dwellers, pukka chhat ghats and regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the Capital, in view of the assembly elections. The party complained about load shedding and inadequate drinking water facilities. “The Chief Minister is talking about cheap ration, but she has already announced that 40 per cent of the ration cards would not be valid,” said Harsh
Vardhan. |
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SC upholds life term for abetting murder
New Delhi, December 2 The trial court acquitted both the accused namely Saida and Shaik China Brahmam. The Andhra Pradesh High Court, however, reversed the trial court order and sentenced both the accused to life imprisonment for the murder of Masthan Vali. Accused no 2 Brahmam approached the Supreme Court against the High Court dated March 2, 2006. A bench comprising justices G P Mathur and D K Jain dismissed the appeal of Brahmam and observed ‘’the essential conditions for the application of section 34 IPC are common intention to commit an offence and participation by all the accused in doing act or acts in furtherance of that common intention.’’ ‘’if these two ingredients are established, all the accused shall be liable for the said offence. We have no doubt that in the present case both the ingredients are fully established and therefore accused no 2 is also liable for the commission of the offence. We are therefore we clearly of the opinion that a2 is guilty of the offence under section 302 read with section 34 IPC and the High Court rightly convicted and sentenced him for the said offence.’’ However, accused no 1, Saida has not yet filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.
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Child labour
New Delhi, December 2 This information was given by the deputy commissioner of the northwest Madhup Vyas while chairing the task force meeting of a ban on child labour. Informing that the project would be implemented in all the nine districts of Delhi, Vyas said, ‘’Our sole motive is to implement the Child Labour Regulation and Prohibition Act, 1986 in the whole of Delhi. Our main motive is to set a goal of making Delhi totally free from child labour.’’ The act imposes a total ban on employing children below 14 years of age in commercial shops, establishments, industrial ventures, hotels, ‘dhabas’, motels and homes. Vyas said the project has been given the shape of a pilot project in the north west district to sensitise people about the ill-effects of employing people below 14 years of age in Delhi. He said the Delhi government has taken up many programmes to create awareness in people against this social evil. Banners, placards, handbills, posters and hoardings have been placed and distributed in Delhi at various sites and prominent places and campaign material has been distributed among the people to make them aware of the ill-effects of child labour. The representatives of the resident welfare associations were appealed to participate in the rallies to further propagate the message against this social evil and its bad effects on society. — UNI
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Om Puri finds it hard to play Zia-ul Haq
Subhash K. Jha The diligent actor that he is, Puri was in a fix. “I didn’t know how to play former president of Pakistan Zia-ul Haq in Mike Nichols’ ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’,” Puri told IANS. “There’s practically no visual document on him, which I could consult. In any case I wouldn’t want to imitate the man’s physical mannerisms. I just want to get a grip on some of his personality traits to understand the working of a very clever mind,” he said. He finally consulted actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha who knew Zia. “He knew Zia-ul Haq very well, met him many times. Shatrughan told me something very interesting about the Pakistani leader. He used to laugh a lot. I incorporated that trait into my performance,” he said. “I didn’t want to play him as a caricature. There’s always the danger of going overboard. But Zia had to be portrayed as a bargainer...a brotherly though bullying bargainer,” he added. The actor went to Los Angeles to discuss costume and makeup and for a script reading with director Nichols before working on the film. “Interestingly we had the script reading on 9/11. I asked Mike if it was pre-planned, since a lot of today’s American politics has its antecedents in what happened during Zia’s times. Mike laughed and said it was just a coincidence,” he said. “This one was important because it was my first international project in two and a half years. I had to say no to two international assignments in between, one because of my bad back and the other because of work in India. “We couldn’t shoot in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So we shot in Morocco. I got to work with actors like Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman for the first time.” The prolific Nichols has made classics like “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf” and “The Graduate” early in his career. He also directed Meryl Streep in two of her best-known works, “Silkwood” and “Heartburn” (both based on real incidents). Apparently, Nichols’ last film “Closer” about a marital quartet featuring Julia Roberts was banned in India for its strong sexual verbal content.— IANS
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Jassi chucks films for TV and radio
Subhash K. Jha “‘Extreme Makeover’ is a very emotional challenge for me. I’m hosting this reality show (on TV), which does corrective surgery on disfigured persons,” Mona told
IANS. “From ‘Jassi’ to ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’ to ‘Extreme Makeover’ has been extreme change of genres for me. And the best part is ‘Dancing With Stars’ - on which ‘Jhalak...’ - is based and ‘Extreme Makeover’ are the most popular reality shows internationally. I’m proud to be in both,” Mona said. As for movies, she has terminated her contract with “Page 3” producer Bobby
Puskarna. “Nothing was happening for the past two years. I realised there was no point in waiting. At the end of the day it’s all about acting. As long as I keep getting to do exciting things like ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’, ‘Extreme Makeover’ and hosting a radio show (which I’ve just started doing), I’m happy.” Besides work, there has been no other exciting development in Mona’s life. “After ‘Jassi...’ got over I was at home for two months. I was thoroughly bored. While doing ‘Jassi...’ I was complaining about having no time. But now I realise being busy is way better than getting bored at home.”
— IANS |
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Lyric drive to spread AIDS awareness
New Delhi, December 2 Lend your voice for AIDS , launched by Saregama India Ltd. and Delhi Public School among others, will be a campaign for the youth, by the youth and of the youth, the organisers said. Launched here yesterday, the campaign is focused around a lyric writing contest among youths and spread awareness on the deadly disease among them. At the launch Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan said: The youths need to be educated about HIV. Parents should not hesitate in talking to their children freely about issues like AIDS. Khan will contribute some special compositions for the cause. Super model and TV celebrity Padma Lakshmi said there is an urgent need to recognise the problem to solve aids in a country like India. In this new generation of youth that we want to train and warn so that they continue to realise their dreams and aspirations rather than have their lives terminated at a young age.—PTI |
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Man kills father-in-law
Noida, December 2 Ram Gopal had come to Rawat’s house to know about the whereabouts of his estranged wife, Rekha. When Rawat did not reply, he shot at him. Raju tried to stop him, but Ram Gopal shot at his shoulder and, fled. Raju is admitted to Kailash Hospital here. Ram Gopal, 45, was married to Rekha, 22, around seven years ago. He was a married man and had three children from his first marriage. Theirs was a disturbed marriage. Fed up from her husband’s assaults and behaviour, Rekha went to her parents’ house, six months ago. He tried to bring his wife back, but failed. At last, he decided to kill her.
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3 held with fake notes
New Delhi, December 2 A toll tax post on Jaipur highway informed the police about a boy, who had given them a counterfeit note valued at Rs 100. The police recovered 12 more currency notes from the suspect. It was learnt that Ravi purchased counterfeit notes from Vinay. Vinay was apprehended from Shahdara. On Vinay’s instance, a house was raided in the Shahdara area and counterfeit notes worth Rs 2,77,350 were recovered.
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7 killed, 27 injured in fog-related accidents
Agra, December 2 In another incident yesterday, two persons lost their lives and three others were injured in a truck-car collision in Makkhanpur area of Ferozabad district in Agra division. Besides, four persons were killed and at least 24 others sustained injuries in separate accidents in Mathura, Etah, Aligarh, Mainpur and Hathras respectively. The injured had been admitted to hospitals, where the condition of seven was said to be critical. Meanwhile, the railway sources said that movement of trains had been adversely affected due to fog in the last two days. Several important trains on Agra-Delhi railway section were running one to five hrs behind schedule due to heavy fog.
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Six schoolkids injured
New Delhi, December 2 The rickshaw was taking students to their school in the morning when it was hit. Two children were seriously injured in the accident. They have been admitted to hospital. |
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MCD unlikely to begin demolition
New Delhi, December 2
Senior civic body officials said no decision has been taken regarding the razing of illegal constructions beyond the third floor.
The MCD had identified illegal constructions in 18,299 structures in 2005 and these would have been the first to face action from tomorrow.
Officials said they were not in a position to begin the drive as the logistics were not in place.
— PTI
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Ekta’s soaps move into Arab world
Ekta Kapoor’s soaps have now moved to Dubai.
“That’s because we have decided to make soaps for the Gulf countries. As it is, they watch pirated versions of our Indian soaps, so I decided, why not make serials separately for the Muslim world?” Making Ekta’s new brain wave relatively easy was the fact that her super-popular Gujarati culture-specific soaps like ‘Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ are easily translatable into a Muslim ambience. — IANS |
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Hellen Keller awards presented
New Delhi, December 2 Infosys BPO Ltd, Intel Technology India, ITC Hotel the Windsor, Pepsico India Holdings (West), Reuters India and Vindhya e-Infomedia were recipients of the awards in the corporate sector for developing sustained policies to promote employment of the disabled. Giving away the awards, union minister for panchayati raj and youth affairs Mani Shankar Aiyar called for a concerted effort at the grassroots to empower differently-abled people and said that institutions of local-self government can be instrumental in empowering and serving the disabled. If we want to work for the differently-abled at the national level, we will have to go out to them. Where these people live is where institutions of panchayati raj and local self government are, Aiyar said. Expressing regret over the fact that India had slipped down the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings despite achieving ten per cent growth rate, the minister said, we were ending up as a statistically great country with dismal ground reality. It is always easier to get resources from government coffers for those who are already well-off, than to get funds for the disadvantaged sections — be they economically or physically disadvantaged, he said. — PTI
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“Exempt”, a fusion of colours
RAVI BHATIA Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 2 Entitled “Exempt”, the exhibition reflects the moods of those exempt from obligations even if only for a while. A fusion of colours in acrylic on canvas, this is Rachna’s third exhibition. Rachna started painting at the tender age of 12 but started exhibiting her works only three years ago. Her earlier two exhibitions in the National Capital Territory of Delhi were highly acclaimed by both critics and art lovers. Musical concert
Aakar, a voluntary organization working with young boys and grown-up men to prevent gender-based violence, in collaboration with the India International Centre (IIC) here, is organising “ Rock the Boat”, a musical concert by artistes from the SAARC countries on December 7. The concert will include Qawwalis by artistes from Pakistan, Punjabi and Saraiki Sufi music, Bangla from Bangladesh, Nepathaya from Nepal and soulmate from India. On December 6, the IIC is presenting an evening of Carnatic classical music—a veena recital by Kalyani Lakshminarayana from Secundrabad, daughter and disciple of the late Dr Emani Shankara Sastry. Mistry’s works at Art Pilgrim
Dhruva Mistry, a renowned Indian artist, is holding an exhibition of his works at the Art Pilgrim from November 29 to December 12. He is the youngest Indian artist to be included in the Festival of India’s Contemporary Indian Art exhibition ever held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. He also got the opportunity of being first Indian artist to be selected by William Feaver, the observer art critic for the Peter Moore’s Project 7, biennial survey of contemporary British art at the Walker Art Gallery in 1983. In 1991, he was elected youngest Royal Academician since J.M.W. Turner (elected in1802); and first Asian/African/Indian as a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Dhruva has shown regularly in one-man shows and is included in significant group shows for national and international exhibitions and his works are held in major public and private collections in the UK, Japan and India. Has done significant public commissions and his work is in important public collections in the world. Triveda Fine Arts Private Limited is holding “Intersections”, an exhibition of works of three artists from Kerala on its premises in the Garden of Five Senses from November 30 to December 14. A pageant of fractured realities
Arushi Arts here is presenting “All Together in a World of Differences” by Rahul Mukherjee from December 3 to December 20 here. Rahul Mukherjee’s art is that of our times. It explores a pageant of fractured realities that can be put together in different ways depending on how you look at things in a world divided between those who are above the law, the celebrities, and those who constitute the majority of people but are out of sight and out of mind. Photo exhibition
Light and Life Academy, a photography institute here is holding an exhibition “Through the lens”, a photo exhibition by the Batch of 2007. The exhibition will be inaugurated by His Excellency, Bernd Mutzelburg, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to India at Max Mueller Bhavan, from December 5 to December 9. Remo, Rahul Bose
honoured
The two-day iCONGO conclave which was held in the Capital last week to discuss the important issue of climate change also honoured some top artistes like Remo Fernandes, actor Rahul Bose and Sushma Veer with the annual Artist For Change awards. At the same time, AdGuru Alyque Padamsee and world renowned authority on AIDS, Dr Leo Rebello were conferred with the Karamveer Puraskar for Lifelong Fight For Social Justice and Action. “Shabd-Nishabd”
Gallery Pioneer here is holding an exhibition “Shabd-Nishabd” comprising recent works of artist Jagmohan Bangani at the Lokayata, Mulk Raj Anand Centre from December 2 to December 20. Plan India holds photo expo
Plan India is holding a photo exhibition, “Shoot Nations” at the Max Mueller Bhavan here from December 1 to December 3. The exhibition showcases some of the most outstanding images captured by young people throughout the world. |
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NGOs claim permission denied to hold function
New delhi, December 2 Javed Abidi, the executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) today said, we are unable to understand as to why the permission has been denied this year ... The NGO has been holding disability day for past ten years at the lawns. He said the cancellation of the function at the last hour would inconvenience about 5,000 disabled people invited to it. — PTI
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New Delhi, December 2
