New Delhi, December 29
The year 2007 has been hectic as ever and has seen the usual round of regular academic activity at Delhi University along with dharnas and protest movements by both students and academics. The university has also seen interesting academic conclaves, seminars and regular research-related activity.

The year 2007 began with a bit of turbulence at DU with a massive DUTA dharna that was held in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and was attended by over 300 academics from across DU. This dharna formed an essential part of the action programme then chalked out by the DUTA against the principal of the college, Dr Jitinder Kaur. The DUTA had called for a comprehensive and impartial enquiry into the functioning of the principal, Dr Kaur. The organization demanded the restoration of the rule of law and end of jungle raj at the college, reviving the staff council through the long-established tradition of election officer and the system of secret ballot among other demands.

The same month saw a major one-day bandh with both students and academics participating demanding that the university withdraw its letter of wage-cut to striking karamcharis. The DUTA threatened to intensify its struggle if this letter was not withdrawn.

A one-day strike was also held against the then deliberate victimization of three teachers of the Kirori Mal College by the DUTA. The executive had demanded a thorough enquiry into the functioning of the principal of Kirori Mal College, Dr Bhim Sen Singh pending which they had demanded that he be sent on leave.

More trouble followed in February with another academic grouping from DU. The Academics for Action and Development (AAD) expressed concern at what they felt as the “gross violation of the DU act, statues and ordinances by Delhi University officials in creating and advertising new teaching positions termed as ‘university teaching assistants’ in the department of history, political science, economics, commerce, maths, physics and chemistry.”

These misgivings were then expressed openly by the chairman of the AAD, Dr S.S. Rathi. He further informs that, “university officials have committed irregularities and illegalities in deciding emoluments, qualifications and duties for the teaching assistants who are to share the workload of teachers.” If the DUTA and AAD protests and misgivings were not enough, complaints of sexual harassment followed in March when sections concerned from Delhi University held the administration guilty of encouraging sexual harassment.

In a charged note made available to the press signed by Asha Lata, secretary, Janvadi Mahila Samiti, Albina Shakeel, secretary, Students Federation of India and Surajit Majumdar, secretary, Democratic Teachers Front, the signatories accused the Delhi University administration of repeatedly displaying an “extremely callous attitude” in dealing with cases of sexual harassment.  

New Delhi, December 29
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Friday approved the revised budget estimates for the year 2007-2008 and the budget estimates for the year 2008-2009.

The budget estimates for the year 2008-2009, passed at a meeting of the DDA chaired by Delhi Lt-Governor Tejender Khanna, envisages increased expenditure on new development works/schemes proposed to be undertaken in Rohini, Dwarka, Narela, Dheerpur, Jasola, Bakkarwala and payment to DMRC.

Emphasis has been laid on village redevelopment, EWS housing and to ensure speedy development of basic amenities in a time-bound manner and completion of houses/commercial properties within the stipulated time. At the same time, compliance of codal provisions has also been ensured.

After approval of the budget, Khanna, who is also DDA chairman, directed that as part of the new initiatives underground and multi-level parking should also be taken up, public conveniences of very good quality and standard should be put up at many places in the city and also in recreational areas.

Water harvesting and use of recycled water for various purposes including ‘’greening of parks’’ should be focussed upon.

He also emphasised that the budget should be performance oriented and the date of completion of any new initiative should be indicated.

He directed that every quarter, the progress of development projects will be monitored by the authority not only in terms of financial expenditure but also in terms of physical progress made in the actual work done.

Apart from the DDA budget, an important decision taken in the authority was regarding setting up of traffic and transportation infrastructure planning cell. It was decided that this cell will ensure implementation of traffic and transport policy of the centre passed by parliament and also transport policy contained in MPD 2021.

This cell will function under a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Lt Governor and will have representatives of Delhi government, PWD, transport department and all other allied organisations involved in traffic and transportation planning and engineering.

Various sub-groups will be made under the high-powered committee which will work on various subjects ensuring smooth circulation system and safety of the passengers in terms of transport engineering etc.

The authority had earlier resolved that the private architects can sanction building plans on plot area of 500 sq mtrs subject to compliance of building bylaws and codal formalities. However, it was also resolved that for government projects and local bodies the officers of the rank of senior architect and above of the concerned department may sanction building plans subject to compliance of building bylaws.

The receipts for the year 2008-2009 have been projected at Rs 4915.78 crore as compared to anticipated receipts of Rs 5400.97 crore in the revised budget estimate for 2007-2008.

Actual receipts for the year 2006-07 were Rs 5383.66 crore. Efforts will be made to achieve the target through planned disposal of land, houses and shops.

Expenditure for the year 2008-2009 has been projected as Rs 3622.60 crore as compared to Rs 2309.08 crore in the revised estimates for the year 2007-2008. The actual payments during the year 2006-07 were Rs 2052.12 crore.

The budget estimates for the year 2008-2009 include a provision of Rs 358.19 crore for the Commonwealth Games 2010. — UNI 

New Delhi, December 29
The year 2007 will be remembered as a year when the judiciary sent out a powerful message in the Indian Capital that the rich and mighty are not above the law.

Jagdish Tytler: Former central minister Jagdish Tytler’s role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots came under the scanner with a court directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to re-investigate charges against him. The CBI had earlier given him a clean chit but a Sikh man living in the US said that he was ready to testify against the Congress leader if he was provided security.

Babubhai Katara: Babubhai Katara, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gujarat, was caught, when he was about to board a Toronto-bound flight here with a woman and a boy.

He tried to pass off his wife and son. Six attempts by the 48-year-old to get bail were turned down by a court that took a stringent view of his human trafficking offence saying, “If law framers resort to such offences and become law breakers, they will be dealt with sternly.”

Connaught Place shooting: Sending a strong message to law enforcers, a court sentenced 10 policemen to life on charges of killing two traders in a fake gun battle at Connaught Place a decade ago. The guilty included assistant commissioner of police S.S. Rathi.

Uma Khurana sting :A news channel reporter, Prakash Singh, was held guilty of conducting a fake sting operation that portrayed Uma Khurana, a schoolteacher, to be engaged in a prostitution racket. A city court eventually discharged Khurana of all charges but by then she had lost her job.

Uphaar tragedy: Real estate tycoons and Uphaar cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal and 10 others were convicted for rash and negligent acts for the deaths of 59 persons in a blaze that engulfed the theatre during the screening of the Hindi blockbuster — ‘Border’ on June 13, 1997. While the Ansals and three others got away with two years in jail, a sentence they have challenged, seven others whose culpability was greater were awarded seven years rigorous imprisonment.

Hannah Foster: A court ordered the extradition to Britain of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, accused of raping and killing British teenager Hannah Claire Foster. Kohli, who fled to Britain after the 2003 crime, was arrested in July 2004 at Kalimpong in West Bengal.

Abu Salem: A court booked gangster Abu Salem, brought to the Capital from Mumbai in connection with extortion cases against him, under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. He was extradited from Portugal in 2005 because he was wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. In New Delhi, Salem is wanted in three cases.

Ashok Malhotra: A court continues to hear the case against Ashok Malhotra, a former Delhi assembly canteen vendor and alleged mastermind of a booming land scam. Arrested by the CBI, he is accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with the Delhi Development Authority officials and fraudulently acquiring plots in Dhirpur area that were meant for slum dwellers. The CBI seized a large number of luxury cars as well as cash and gold from his possession. — IANS 

New Delhi, December 29
Exactly a year ago, the chopped remains of some children of daily wage earners and migrants were recovered from a drain in Nithari, a village on the outskirts of the Indian capital.

For a country with a child population of over 445 million, of whom 126 million are less than five years old, the unearthing of 20 dismembered bodies of missing kids at the fag end of 2006 was a shocking revelation of how India neglects its children. Most of children had been sexually abused and mutilated.

One year later, India continues to be among the worst performers in the world in terms of ensuring that children have the basic right to survive, even though policies and processes for their protection and development are in place.

As per Unicef’s Progress for Children report released in December 2007, an estimated 2.1 million children in India died before their fifth birthday in one year. Of these, one million deaths were of neonates, or less than 29-day-old infants, from preventable causes. Globally, this means a quarter of all neo-natal deaths in the world occurred in India.

Among the surviving infants, 8.3 million infants were low weight babies (less than 2,500 grams), who got a disadvantaged start in life. Nearly 50 percent of these low weight babies died before their fifth birthday. In fact, about one-third of less-than-five-year-old underweight children in the world are in India.

The country has made significant advances towards eradication of polio but the programme suffered setbacks in 2007 with the virus continuing to circulate and resurface in some states like Bihar.

Quoting from the report, a Unicef advocacy and partnership official, said: “India has the largest number of children in the world who have not been vaccinated.”

The country, however, is doing well with respect to providing safe drinking water, the key factor in ensuring child survival. It is estimated that 84.5 per cent rural and 95 per cent urban populations have sustainable access to safe drinking water.

But poor hygiene leading to diarrhoea and other diseases continues to take its toll on India’s children. In 2004, an estimated 700 million people in India were not using improved sanitation facilities.

According to the National Family Health Survey data (2005-06), only 45 per cent of households in the country had access to improved sanitation.

On the education front, the news is mixed. Globally, the number of dropouts has declined significantly—from 115 million in 2002 to 93 million in 2005-06. Considering that six to 10 is the primary school age in India, 84 per cent of children are attending school.

Gender parity in education is a challenge for India. For 100 boys in primary school, there are 96 girls and for 100 boys in secondary school, there are only 80 girls. Nearly all children out of school are engaged in different forms of labour.

It is estimated that while globally 158 million children aged between 5 and 14 work as labourers, India accounts for 18 per cent of the world’s burden—approximately 29 million.

Said a Unicef spokesperson: “Much like the public outcry that ensued following the discovery of children’s remains in Nithari, a similar alacrity is needed to ensure that India’s children get their due. To make India fit for children, a social movement is the need of the hour.”

The Nithari case is still in court while the accused—Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli—are in police custody. — IANS 

New Delhi, December 29 
Haryana may have wanted metro link to Faridabad before 2010 Commonwealth Games but the fact is that it is not going to get one before 2012.

DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said that the DMRC board of directors had given a nod to the 13.87-km elevated route with nine stations between Badarpur and YMCA chowk in Faridabad, but it would take more than a couple of years, before the metro chugs into Faridabad.

The project is estimated at around Rs 1,706 crore. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced the state government’s approval to the Badarpur-Faridabad extension link.

The detailed project report approved by the Haryana government would be sent to the Delhi government and the group of ministers for final approval, Dayal said.

The Haryana government is keen on the metro link to Faridabad. The Haryana Chief Minister recently wrote to his Delhi counterpart, asking her to expedite the approval so that the work can begin at the earliest.

The Haryana government had also written to the union urban development ministry in May to fast-track the connectivity of important cities — Gurgaon and Faridabad — via the Delhi Metro.

However, Haryana had proposed that Metro service be extended to Faridabad from this year itself and not after the Commonwealth Games as it had originally been planned. It had also asked for a feasibility study for extending the Metro service to Manesar. 

“I’m shattered! I cannot accept her going away. As I talk to you, I haven’t come to terms with her not being alive. She was strong and vivacious... This is something so ghastly that could happen...,” said actress and television host Simi Garewal reacting to the assassination of the Pakistan Peoples Party chief Benazir Bhutto.

Expressing her agony, Garewal said, “It is just so horrible. To say anything about what has happened would be belittling the enormity of the tragedy. Just five days ago, I found the most affectionate email messages from her. After the tragedy last night, crew of ‘Rendezvous’, the celebrity interview show that I host, messaged me to say they remembered how I interviewed her in Dubai.”

“The Benazir I knew was not just a superb stateswoman and a politician, she was also a personal friend. The minute we met for ‘Rendezvous’, we bonded as though we had known each other all our lives. We spoke about girlie things over so many sessions that began with her appearance on ‘Rendezvous’,” the actress recalled.

Garewal is full of personal anecdotes. Benazir apparently walked into the room where the ‘Rendezvous’ crew was setting up equipment at her home in Dubai. “She came in without a dot of make-up, her hair tied in a knot. She came in, saw how we had moved everything in her home.”

Benazir exclaimed, “Oh my God! What have you done to my room!” Garewal recalls that her crew was instantly smitten by the “slain” politician’s warmth and spontaneity. “They found her so beautiful. Then she came down for the interview. We just bonded and it lasted far beyond the ‘Rendezvous’. I felt she was a friend I knew from school.”

The actress has vivid memories of the tea Benazir served after the interview. “She not only cut the cake and poured the tea herself, she personally served it to every member of my team. That was Benazir! I did not feel that I was sitting with a former and future Prime Minister. I felt I was bonding with a female friend. Yes, I felt the same with Jayalalitha. But, not to this extent! Benazir and I giggled and giggled.”

Benazir told mutual Pakistani friends later how much she enjoyed meeting Simi Garewal. “After the ‘Rendezvous’ interview, she said that we must meet again in London. We used to spend a lot of time in London over dinners and lunches. Benazir, her sister Sanam, my sister Amrita and I had a sisters’ lunch in London. I don’t know whether Benazir and her sister were as close as I am with my sister, but Benazir kept us entertained throughout that afternoon,” the actress recalled.

“She had seen my documentary on Rajiv Gandhi. She was very curious about him. She wanted to know details about him. And, we talked about make-up. Benazir thought her make-up was terrible and she wanted tips from me...We spoke about everything from politics to astrology and the media. We spoke so much so fast! We met many times. She could never stop laughing about how I tried to make her pose for the opening titles of the ‘Rendezvous’,” the television host said. — IANS 

New Delhi, December 29
The Red Ribbon Express, flagged off on December 1 from Delhi by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, has chugged through 16 stations criss-crossing Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

“This exhibition has been an eye-opener for me, as I knew very little about HIV. Now, that I have learnt about it, I realise that each one of us must protect ourselves. I will tell my village people more about HIV,” Ram Hari, a coolie from Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan, commented. Similar views were expressed by many, who visited the exhibition coaches of the Red Ribbon Express.

The project, mooted by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, is being implemented by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), in partnership with the NYKS, the Railway Ministry and the UNICEF.

The eight-coach train is a mobile exhibition on HIV/AIDS with a sleek multi-media presentation on all its aspects and counselling and training facilities on board. The number of visitors to the exhibition has crossed 75,000 and more than 9,000 people, including 2,000 women, have benefited from the professional counselling provided on the train.

With 102 training sessions having been conducted for a cross-section of citizens keen to get information on the issue, the training programme has succeeded in reaching out to over 5,400 participants.

Government officials, elected representatives from panchayats, community leaders, educationists, health workers, NGOs and youth groups have attended the training sessions.

The cycle troupes travelling on board have performed in over 600 villages, disseminating information on HIV/AIDS and adopting a healthy life style by mobilising about 1.75 lakh people.

In addition, an educational bus, which is part of the project, has covered over 75 block headquarters and villages on route, reaching out to 35,000 people.

The train entered Chhattisgarh today and would stop at Durg and Bilaspur in the state before reaching Katni in Madhya Pradesh in the new year. — UNI 

New Delhi, December 28
Nawab Khan, the contractor of the Blueline bus, which mowed down seven pedestrians nearly two months ago was granted bail by a city court on Friday.

Metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Bansal while granting bail to Khan and the bus owner Manish Kakkar said, “Both the accused were not driving the offending bus. Therefore, a case for their release on bail was made out.”

The court asked both the accused to furnish a personal and a surety bond of Rs 20,000 each.

The court rapped the police for wrongly invoking Section 120B (of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused.

“The police could not point out any material showing prior meeting of minds (before the accident) among the applicants (owner and the contractor) and the driver which can attract invocation of section 120B on them,” it said.

Khan, who allegedly extorts protection money from Blueline buses to shield them from police excesses in the Badarpur area in the capital, was also the contractor of the bus that killed seven people on October 7 on Delhi-Agra Road at Aligaon in south Delhi.

The police allege that Khan had tampered with the bus’ speed governor that led to the accident. But the defence counsel contended that the electronic governors installed couldn’t be tampered with.

According to the police, the accident took place when the driver lost control while overtaking another bus. Soon after the incident a mob blocked traffic, threw stones at vehicles and tried to torch the bus.

An inspection of the bus revealed that its speed governor had been tampered with, the police said. — IANS