New Delhi, December 15
The Editor’s Guild of India today said it was “surprised and shocked” by the Delhi High Court’s suggestion, asking the government to form a three-member committee to pre-censor sting operations carried out by TV channels.

“If implemented, this suggestion of the court would introduce a draconian, judicially backed emergency by the backdoor and would trample the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution,” the Guild said in a statement here.

While the Guild is totally in agreement that sting operations should have stringent pre-telecast self-regulatory demands, the remedy suggested by the court is “a deadly one”, it said.

“It would sound the death knell for the freedom of press enjoyed by the citizens of our democracy and exercised through the newspapers,” secretary general K S Sachidananda Murthy said.

The court has suggested that the committee should be headed by a retired judge and should have two government employees, including a police officer, to view the tapes and decide whether they should be aired or not.

“Obviously such committee would be controlled by the government of the day,” Guild president Alok Mehta said.

The Guild is in favour of the news organisations having their own internal mechanism to decide on the public utility of a sting operation.

New Delhi, December 15
Is it fair on the part of the police and media to bandy about the names of the two 14-year-olds, who allegedly shot their classmate? No, feel student counsellors and parents who say that undue publicity is not good for the future of the two boys.

Apart from going against a law meant to protect juvenile offenders, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, the media blitz could have long-lasting repercussions, as people know not just the names of the two boys, but have also seen their parents, their homes and their backgrounds.

“The media has gone overboard in publishing details about the boys and tarnished their future forever,” said Madhuri, mother of a 16-year-old.

Abhishek Tyagi, a Class VIII student of an elite school in Gurgaon, was allegedly shot dead by two of his classmates on Tuesday in apparent retaliation for his bullying. The two boys have been sent to a remand home.

Recounting how far the publicity had filtered down, she said that while going for a walk in the park in the evening in her upscale South Delhi colony a group of 12-14 year olds were playing basketbal,l when one said to the other, “Hey, look I know — (taking the name of one of the offenders), I’ll just borrow his gun and shoot you.”

There was a round of loud laughter, when another said, “Oh, I knew Abhishek Tyagi (the boy who was killed) and (taking the names of the two boys who shot him) maybe I’ll get to borrow the gun.”

There was another round of disbelieving laughter, as of course the boys playing in the park were just dropping names and having a good laugh.

“The names of the two boys have become public property. It is a shame; now the whole world knows about them. When they come out of the remand home, people will point out to them and their parents and say, ‘Isn’t he the one who shot so-and-so many years ago’?” said Madhuri.

According to Ruchi Kapoor, a counsellor with Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, under the Juvenile Justice Act, which was amended in 2006, it is against the law to reveal the identity of a juvenile offender, a child below 18 years.

“It is not only against the law to reveal the identity of a juvenile offender, which in this case the police and media have done so flagrantly, it is also against the law to give any hint of his home or background. It is a punishable offence and aimed at protecting the child from future harm and securing his future,” Kapoor told IANS.

According to the act, she said, a juvenile offender has to be accompanied by a social worker, a doctor and a member of the Child Welfare Committee only and not the police. “The police cannot look into such cases, everything needs to be child-centred,” she said. — IANS

New Delhi, December 15
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said that a housing project for the poor would soon be started. She said these today on the occasion of the completing nine years in power.

The CM said that two categories of flats – one-room set and two-room set would be constructed under the Rajiv Ratan Award Scheme. The one-room and two-room set flats would cost Rs one and two lakhs, respectively. The locality would have facilities like — park, school, shopping centre and community centre.

She added that the Bheem Rao Ambedkar University would start from the new session.

Dikshit described the low-floor green colour buses, running on the Capital’s roads, as one of the best public vehicles in the world. She informed that of the total low-floor buses, 15 per cent would be air-conditioned would be red colour.

She said that the Capital’s environment was better than many cities, irrespective of the fact that 10,000 new vehicles are added daily to the Capital’s fleet. “Still we have better environment. We have protected our city’s environment by planting tress and saplings. Delhi is one of the greenest cities in the world”, Dikshit claimed.

When questioned about demolition and sealing drive, she maintained that the Delhi government had not carried it out. The drive was carried out by the MCD, after the court’s directions.

“We try to make it a better city but we have limited powers. Here we have the High Court, the Supreme Court, the central government and we have to be very conscious while working”, she said.

During the past nine years, the government has introduced CNG, Metro Rail, value added tax, privatisation of power distribution, brought water from Uttar Pradesh for East Delhi, new school and colleges. Besides, 28 flyovers have been constructed. Twenty to 30 flyovers are in the pipeline. 

New Delhi, December 15
Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha started dancing and acting at the age of six. Borne in 1968 in Bangalore Guruji Pasha is a trained actor, classical dancer (Bharatnatyam and Kathak) choreographer, dance therapist and activist. Guruji Pasha is a pioneer in the Indian therapeutic theatre and is responsible for the evolution of disabled people’s dance-theatre productions, both traditional and contemporary. His pioneering efforts have own national and international recognition. For the past 20 years, through his innovative direction and choreography, he has efficiently executed 90 mega therapeutic theatre productions bringing hope, confidence and zest to the people with disabilities around the world.

The Ability Unlimited is the first and only professional dance theatre of the country to utilise the arts as a vehicle to broaden thinking and resolve issues of inclusion that people with disabilities are facing. The group is committed to changing the attitude of apathy, negativity and fear that surrounds the education and employment in an inclusive society.

His group has presented performances like; “Ramayana on Wheels”, “Krishna, Durga”, “Bhagwad Gita”, “Bhagwan Mahavir” and “Buddha”, “Martial Art”, “The Kind Tiger”, and “The Truthful Cow” in the country and abroad. “Celebrating Abilities”, four – part choreographic works has received wide acclaim wherever it has been staged.

Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha received the national award for his contribution for overcoming disabilities through dance – theatre on world disability Day from President Pratibha Patil. On receiving the award he said, “people with disabilities are denied opportunities, they are more likely to fall into poverty and people living in conditions of poverty are more likely to develop disabilities, they will not reach their full potential and the poor in particular will be denied opportunities that they deserve. I am proud of creating world’s first and historically first dance theatre productions performed by the persons with 
disabilities.”

New Delhi, December 15
The Supreme Court yesterday directed all state governments to a file status report regarding the compliance of its direction on police reform.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan posted the matter for further hearing on March 11 next year.

During the brief hearing, the bench was informed that barring some small states in north-east, others have totally failed to comply with its September 24, 2006 directions.

“Big states have not complied at all with the directions,” advocate Prashant Bhushan said. He was appearing for former IPS officer Prakash Singh, on whose petition the directions were delivered.

The court was informed that the contempt petition was filed against states like Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu for grossly not complying with the directions.

The bench did not agree with the counsel for appointing a committee headed by the retired Chief Justice of the High Court for monitoring the compliance of the direction.

Some of the states informed the court that they had filed affidavit on partial compliance of the orders.

It was also informed that some of the states had sought suspension of few of the directions.

Some state government expressed their difficulty in constituting a state security commission, fixing the minimum tenure for DGP and IGP, separation of investigation of crimes from police personnel doing law and order duties, setting up of the police establishment board and police complaint authority. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 15
The South district police arrested Muntiyaz and Raj Kumar and seized fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 80,500 having a denomination value of Rs 100.

A complaint was registered against a man, who had given the complainant a fake currency note of Rs 100.

Ghaziabad, December 15
The circulation of fake currency notes in west UP markets is on the increase. The Hapur branch of State Bank of India has deposited 1000 currency notes of Rs. 100 denomination in the Reserve Bank of India. Out of 1000 notes, 477 were found to be fake. Experts view it as part of sinister activities of foreign terrorist outfits which are quite active in the area.

A report has been lodged with the police against the officers and employees of the SBI, Hapur ,by the RBI.

The SBI main branch at Bulandshahr road had sent for deposit cash accumulated in the main chest of the SBI Hapur to the RBI , Kanpur branch. Here 55 fake notes were detected out of the lot sent on July 4; 48 notes from the July 6 lot, 25 from the July 9, 14 from the July11lot, 44 from the July12 lot, 70 from the July13 lot, 48 from the July16 lot, 21 from the July17 lot , 41 from the July 19lot, 62 from the July 20 lot, 40 from the July 23lot, and 11 from the July 24 lot.

RBI’s cash department manager V.P. Singh, through a letter to SSP, Ghaziabad ,has apprised him of the case. The letter had also requested the SSP to file a case against the SBI employees and officers of the Hapur branch of SBI in Hapur Kotwali.

Ashok Sharma, manager in Hapur branch of the SBI, however, says that he was not posted in this branch when these fake currency notes were detected.

The circulation of fake currency notes is on the increase in this district. Only last week four persons were arrested with packets of fake currency notes in Modi Nagar and Hapur .They had told the police that these consignments of fake currency notes had been smuggled from Pakistan via Bangladesh and Nepal.

Agra, December 15
About 800 neurosurgeons from India and abroad who met here for a conference expressed concern over the rising incidence of neurological diseases in India and called for developing suitable medical infrastructure in small towns for prompt treatment of patients.

Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was scheduled to inaugurate Neurocon-2007 on Friday evening, but failed to turn up due to “some other pressing engagements.” V.S. Mehta, president of the Neurological Society of India, opened the specialists’ meet.

Mehta said, “There could be close to 25 million cases of neurological diseases worldwide by 2020. In India, the number is rising at an alarming rate and we do not have enough doctors and facilities to manage the disease.”

Organising secretary R.C. Mishra told IANS that the common man is the focus of the conference, which will continue till December 17.

“Stroke is the second most common cause of death, after the disease and 5.5 million people per year die world wide due to stroke, and despite the best medical management 50 to 70 per cent of the patients remain handicapped,” he said.

Mishra said that excess weight, hypertension, diabetes and addiction to intoxicants were the chief causes of neurological disorders and, hence, “there is a need for spreading awareness and information.” — IANS

New Delhi, December 15
A rare celestial event, the Geminid meteor shower, was visible across most of the India on Friday night, but sadly, the grand annual celestial spectacle could not be seen in the national Capital due to a cloudy and foggy sky.

“Not only Delhi, but places like Mumbai and some North Indian cities could not view this development properly. Sky watchers in the Capital missed the event mainly due to fog, clouds and light pollution (excessive city lights),” Nehru Planetarium director R. Rathnasree told IANS.

“But, people in South and East India viewed the celestial development better. The celestial movement started at 10.15 pm, as per the Indian time, and reached its peak during daybreak on Saturday,” she said.

“People in rural Australia and the USA viewed 100 meteors per hour during the peak time.”

A meteor shower occurs when the earth passes through debris left behind by a passing comet or asteroid. In the present case, it is an asteroid named 3200 Phaethon.

As the earth moves around the sun, the debris gets pulled by the earth’s gravitational force and falls with its long bright tails visible to the naked eye.

Friday night’s celestial movement is called Geminid showers, as they seemed to emanate from the constellation Gemini. Geminids are colourful meteors, Rathnasree explained. — IANS

New Delhi, December 15
Six women burglars were nabbed from the Vivekanand Puram area of North Delhi. Several lock breaking tools and iron rods have been recovered from them.

The alleged burglars — Manhori, Ruby, Vimla, Puja, Geeta and Kamini, had gone to rob a chemist shop. Manhori got locked in the shop. The shop owner raised an alarm, when he opened the shutter of his shop and found Manohari. She ran out and joined five women, who were waiting for her outside the shop. The public nabbed them.