New Delhi, December 18
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has emphasised on the importance of modern education in today’s world. Without modern education, one cannot face today’s challenges.

 She was speaking at a function of the UN Minority Day organised by the Delhi Minorities Commission.

The Chief Minister said that modern education was the key to progress. People should dedicate themselves for getting education. They should encourage youngsters to imbibe knowledge.

“Minorities should not feel weak as they have been given equal rights,” she said.

The government will support the Delhi Minorities Commission in its work. for the betterment for the communities. The 15-point programme launched by Prime Minister Manmohan singh will be implemented in its true spirit. A list of programmes will be displayed at all important places, she assured.

The Chief Minister also released a report of the minority commission, which was in Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi. She also awarded plaques to some NGOs that are working with the minority commission. 

New Delhi, December 18
The Delhi Cabinet today raised compensation for acquisition of agricultural land, benefiting a large number of farmers who will be receiving three-time compensation henceforth.

Apart from this, the Cabinet also cleared a draft for the Delhi Registration of Marriages Bill, 2007 and gave its assent to the modified project of Wazirabad Bridge for which tenders would be split in two parts and the city government would be saving Rs 106 crore against the cost of the project.

The Cabinet also granted relief to those small-scale industrial owners who could not repay their loan granted under the special component plan.

While briefing media after the meeting, the Chief Minister stated that her government had taken a landmark decision to provide much-wanted relief to those farmers whose agricultural land is being acquired by the government.

Farmers would be receiving enhanced compensation.

The decision has been taken keeping in view the present trend of land prices and inflation during the last few years.

The rates have been revised from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 75 lakh per acre for normal agriculture land whereas from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per acre for riverbed land.

The Chief Minister further said that the Delhi Registration of Marriages Bill, 2007 would be introduced in the Legislative Assembly as the Cabinet has cleared its draft.

The Bill provides for compulsory registration of all marriages solemnized in Delhi.

The Bill after becoming Act would be able to overcome the cases of child marriage, bigamy or polygamy and help women exercise their right of maintenance from the husband and custody of children and enable widows to claim inheritance.

A Registrar General of Marriages for Delhi would be appointed by the government, who will act as the Chief Executive Authority for carrying into execution of the provisions of this Act.

Failure to apply for registration of a marriage will invite penalty of imprisonment for a term, which may extend to one year and will also be liable to fine.

Dikshit added that Wazirabad Bridge would be constructed as per the modified preliminary estimate amounting to Rs 887.29 crore for which tenders in two packages would be invited.

The splitting of tender into two packages — one for approaches and other for main cable-stayed bridge has helped in reduction of the cost.

Earlier its construction was estimated as Rs 993.11 crore.

Now it has been reduced to Rs 887.29 crore.

The Cabinet has decided to waive off recovery amount of Rs 17,15,877 outstanding as unrecovered loan and accrued interest thereon from 519 defaulter loanees under the special component plan scheme of the Department of Industries.

The Department of Industries had granted loans up to Rs 10,000 per unit to existing registered cottage and small scale industrial units and up to Rs 5,000 for establish- ing new units under the scheme of block loan. 

Noida, December 18
The kingpin of a notorious gang of auto thieves was nabbed by Noida police on Sunday night in Sadarpur. A stolen Indica car and a revolver of .315 calibre were seized by the Sector-39 police from the master thief, Nasir. 

On his information, a stolen Santro car, without a numberplate, was also recovered near 37 Sector Community Centre.

During interrogation, he told the police that he had masterminded the hijacking of over 100 cars. He had been sent to jail by Delhi police and was currently on wanted list.

The master thief was arrested on a tip-off by an informer. He hails from Nagalya, Moradabad. Over two months ago, Nasir had lifted one Indica car from Sector-12 Noida along with his accomplices–Nusral, Anees, Nayeem, Abid and Jaffar, but it had to be abandoned on way to Meerut as it had developed some snag. This gang sells stolen cars to Nepal and Assam with the help of Abid, Kishore and Jaffar, SP city said.

Their modus operandi was to identify the car to be stolen, procure the impression of its key, get duplicate key made, then hijack it. The gang used to strike between 6 and 8 a.m. because there are no red lights on the crossings nor traffic cops are checking vehicles on the roads. After some time, the car would be parked in a sector with a changed numberplate. After a day or so, the car would be driven to Meerut.

Nasir had come to Delhi from Moradabad in 1998 and worked as a flower decorator up to 2003 when he came in touch with Delhi’s master carjacker Anil Chauhan. Both of them were arrested by Hauz Khas police and sent to jail for stealing cars. In all 18 vehicles had been recovered from the duo. Once out of the jail, he formed his own gang but was again jailed by Ambedkar Nagar police in 2005.

During 2007, the police had encircled the whole gang trying to hijack an Accent car from Nizamuddin area. Nayeem was arrested with the car while others including Nasir continued to be on the wanted list. Nasir told the police that with Anil Chauhan he had stolen some 50 cars. He had confessed to having sold another 50 cars to different people in Moradabad area.

S.P. City Paresh Pandey said the police are hunting for Nasir’s gang members. 

New Delhi, December 18
With the wintry chill having set in with vengeance in the Capital, many people are coming down with sniffles – cold and fever, which is often referred to as influenza or flu.

It is mostly found that people are confused between flu and common cold. Flu is a respiratory virus. Usually, it is severe than the common cold. The early diagnosis of flu involves distinguishing flu from common cold.

Flu can be prevented with the help of a flu vaccine. Flu vaccine saves elderly lives, as it is believed to cut death rate in half, as per a study carried out in the United States.

As per the study, 36,000 people die of flu each year in the United States. The corresponding data for India is not available because of the lack of surveillance. Most of such cases occur in India because doctors fail to recommend flu vaccines to the public.

Specialists like — Randeep Guleria, senior consultant, department of medicine, AIIMS, A.K. Prasad, chairman, Influenza Foundation of India, Renu B Lal, co-ordinator Avian Influenza Program India and Chitkara, senior consultant, Max Health Care say that Influenza virus types A and B mostly cause acute respiratory illnesses. Influenza A virus causes epidemics and pandemics.

Children are the efficient transmitters of the virus and those between 5 and 9 years of age manifest the highest rates of infection and illness. Severe morbidity and mortality is common among the elderly.

In many developing countries including, India the adversaries of influenza are largely unknown.

People suffering from chronic ailments represent the highest risk group. They must be aware of the dangers of the virus. The disease can be dangerous for people suffering from chronic lung or heart disease, diabetes, pregnant women in their trimester and patients with weak immune systems.

Influenza virus undergoes frequent changes in their surface antigens. Immunity resulting from the infection does not protect against the antigenic or genetic variants of the same subtype (influenza A or B virus). As a consequence, influenza outbreaks occur every year. New influenza vaccines must be designed annually to match the circulating viruses, which can be epidemic.

Influenza pandemics can result in a demand for vaccines and other medical interventions. Countries with local manufacturing capacity are likely to meet domestic demand for vaccines and other critical resources fully before freeing supplies for the export market.

H5N1 is the most likely virus to ignite the next pandemic. The increasing spread of H5N1 virus in Asia has brought the world closer to another pandemic.  

New Delhi, December 18
Just because some parts of the material on sex education for schoolchildren are objectionable to certain people, sex education cannot be banned in totality. The material can always be reviewed and altered, said experts here on Tuesday.

A gathering of over 40 representatives of NGOs, women’s groups, child rights groups, researchers and academics from across the country participated in the two-day National Consultation on Sexuality Education for Young People on December 17-18 in the Capital.

“Banning sex education is not the solution. If there is a problem with the material, that can always be reviewed and modified,” Uma Chakravarti, feminist historian, told IANS.

“In fact, the National Centre for Education, Research and Training (NCERT) should take the lead and set up a broad-based committee with regard to this and draw the civil society, specialists and other stakeholders together to address the issue,” she said.Paromita Chakravarti, professor of Jadavpur University in Kolkata, said the material, be it the content or the pictorial description, can be altered.

“In the consultation, it was discussed that some things in the material, such as the constant gender demarcation, in the sense that the girl is always shown as the victim and the boy as the aggressive adolescent, are not right.

“In a study among school-going children in Chennai, more boys reported abuse than girls! Although that is not the case always, yet it’s wrong to think that adolescent boys are not abused,” Chakravarti said.

“Also, the way of imparting sex information in the books is too negative. Everything is in the context of HIV, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) or unwanted pregnancy. The idea is to make the young aware of their sexuality, not to put it in their heads as a burden,” she added.

The experts also said that teachers and parents should be counselled as to how to teach and answer children’s queries on the subject. 

Ghaziabad, December 18
The Pollution Board has ordered closure of 27 industrial units known to pollute environment in Ghaziabad industrial areas. All these units fall in the categories of dying and plating industries.

Recently the board had issued show-cause notices to 49 industrial units.

The units which failed to send their replies to the pollution board have now been ordered to close down, it is learnt. The replies of some of the industries, which were rejected by the board, have also been covered under this order to close down.

The pollution board authorities had been monitoring units in various industrial areas in Ghaziabad with a view to determining whether they were polluting the environment.

During this monitoring campaign, it was found that most of the units in dying and plating business were grossly violating the board’s rules and regulation.

The board had then issued show- cause notice to 49 industrial units under rules of water and air pollution, after identifying such units.

The regional officer of pollution control board said all these units fall in the category of small industries.

Replies of quite a few units were not received by the board, but it was found that many defaulting units were being run without even obtaining permission to set them up. 

Noida, December 18
A ballet ‘Timir se Prakash’ choreographed by the eminent Kathak exponent, Pandit Rajendra Gangani was the highlight of the 18th Annual Cultural Fiesta of the Vishwa Bharati Public School Noida on December 15 on the school premises.

Around 800 students from all age-groups showcased their talents through a variety of cultural items while about 50 meritorious students were felicitated and awarded scholarships by the chief guest.

The programme began with the “invocation”. Around 100 students sang the ‘Ganesh Stuti’ and ‘Saraswati Vandana’ accompanied by young instrumentalists to invoke the blessings of God.

Nagma-e-Firdaus, was a Kashmiri group folk- dance that picturised the harvest and festive celebrations from the land of paradise. A soulful song of enchanting maidens was rendered with rhythmic footwork of the young damsels.  

New Delhi, December 18
She is a name to be reckoned with when it comes to herbal beauty care. But, when Shahnaz Hussain is not immersed in her world of Ayurveda, she does a whole lot of other things, for instance, snipping her Louis Vuitton bags to make pockets on her coat or designing six-foot-tall wooden dolls!

As you walk into Hussain’s luxurious South Delhi home, a big Christmas tree complete with all decorations welcomes you at the door. But instead of the usual green, this Christmas tree is in white - she had it specially ordered from London.

There’s just one term to explain Hussain’s home, “interesting”. The drawing room, for example, is done up in pristine white and is filled with crystals, various sized flower vases, decorative items, soft toys, clocks, photographs and artefacts.

“The drawing room should be in subtle colour so that it is soothing to the visitors. Bright colours add too much weight on the mood of the guests. And, these decorative pieces have been picked up on various trips to different countries at different times,” Hussain, donning a flaming red overcoat, thick gold anklets and red high-heeled shoes, told IANS.

Initially, done up by an interior decorator, Hussain said that she later changed the entire set-up in accordance with her taste.

“A house becomes a home when you set it up with love, yourself. My daughter Nilofer insisted that the interior decorator set up the house but later, I decided to change the set-up.

“The decorator came later to take a few photographs of the house and was surprised to see that the place was nothing like what he had done to it!” she laughed.

Sitting cosily in her favourite part of the drawing room, where the telephone and the calling bell are within her reach, Hussain said that when not neck deep in work, she does all kinds of things that keep her creative juices flowing.

“I love Louis Vuitton (LV) stuff. The dark brown and gold colour combination is very subtle and classy. One fine day, I cut one of my LV bags in the shape of pockets and put them on my overcoat.

“People kept asking me where I got this LV overcoat from, but I simply cut the long story short and said that you don’t get this in India!” Hussain said, showing two of her coats, one black and the other brown, with the LV pockets.

Designing is another passion of Hussain. “I designed a wooden doll, that of a man carrying a briefcase and wearing a hat, and got a carpenter to carve it out. Some people liked it so much that they actually asked me to get some more made.

“So I made various shaped wooden dolls, from a small one-foot tall one to a six-foot one!” she said.

Sparkling up plain cushions by pasting mirrors on them, using wrapping paper to make coffee table tops and barely one-metre-long cloth to make stool cushions...in her own words, Hussain has to keep doing something that is both “creative as well as effective”.

Talking about her range of beauty products, Hussain said that she is soon launching a range of products “for the masses”.

“The general perception is that Shahnaz Hussain’s products are very expensive and can’t be afforded by everyone. That’s why, now, I will be launching “Shahnaz Naturally Beautiful Products”, a range of products that can be easily afforded by the masses.

“After all it’s time I gave back India something for all that I have received,” she smiled.

Her dark kohl-lined eyes complementing her glowing skin and henna-dyed hair, Hussain follows a strict diet regime.

“I have a glass of papaya juice, a bowl of almonds and raisins and two spoons of cornflakes for breakfast. Along with it I take immunity and Vitamin C capsules as well. At around mid-day, I have a glass of lukewarm water with lemon and honey.

“For lunch I have a roti made sans ghee and vegetables cooked in olive oil. Dinner is usually, cornflakes again. I have my tea without sugar,” she said charting out her diet. “I am very uninterested in food,” she added.

Although her shop in London’s Harley Street is a big success, Hussain feels that promoting Ayurveda is no mean task.

“People abroad think that Ayurveda is linked to some kind of Indian mysticism or folklore and doctors eye it with suspicion. Like in London when I ask my clients to sleep for eight hours to remove dark circles or say that spinach and curd will cure a skin ailment, they look at me doubtfully.

“But after they try it out and realise that it actually works, and that too without spending anything because I don’t charge anything, they come back,” she said.

She, however, feels that it’s time more Indians came forth to spread the goodness and awareness of Ayurveda across the globe.

“I have been holding the flag high for the last 35 years and, now, I think more Indians should come forward to take up the cause. I don’t believe in destiny. I believe that you make your own destiny,” Hussain said. — IANS