New Delhi, January 8
The Andhra Pradesh Police has arrested at least 24 traffickers and rescued 51 women and nine minors from the national Capital’s red light area, officials said today.

The Delhi Police crime branch officials, who assisted in the rescue operation, said that the Andhra Pradesh Police conducted raids at five buildings located on G.B. Road late on Monday with the help of a city-based voluntary organisation, Stop Trafficking and Oppression of Children and Women (STOP).

“We have arrested 24 human traffickers and rescued 51 women and nine minors, six from Delhi and three from Andhra, after raiding the premises on G.B. Road,” assistant commissioner of police (Andhra Pradesh) Sumiti told IANS.

“We had registered a case in July last year in Andhra and the place was raided after we received some secret information. All women belong to Andhra’s Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittoor districts,” she added.

Sumiti said that the accused and victims would be produced before a city magistrate here.

“We will request the court to send the accused on transition remand and allow us to take victims to Andhra for immediate trial and rehabilitation. We are not taking the six minors who hail from Delhi. They will be handed over to the local police here,” she said.

According to the UN estimates, approximately 1,50,000 people are trafficked in South Asia annually, children and young women being lured from their homes on the pretext of a good job, marriage or stardom in the entertainment industry.

In India, 20,000-25,000 women and children are brought illegally from Bangladesh annually, while 5,000-15,000 are trafficked from Nepal for prostitution and slavery.

Human trafficking is a booming illegal international trade with traffickers making an estimated $32 billion annually at the expense of millions of victims. — IANS

Noida, January 8
During her first official visit to Noida in more than a decade today, UP Chief Minister Mayawati assured the small shopkeepers of Kalicharan Market in Sector 18 that they would not be displaced.

The shopkeepers said the Noida Authority had decided to raze their market in a day or two. The Chief Minister announced that farmers’ abadi land would not be disturbed.

She instructed the Noida and Greater Noida authority officers and district administration that the pending cases pertaining to the allotment of 5 per cent residential land to the farmers whose land had been acquired for development, should be disposed of by March 31, 2008.

Besides, the reservation for farmers in the residential schemes of Noida and Greater Noida would be increased to 17 and half per cent in future from 12 per cent at present.

Chief Minister Mayawati also advised the district administration that no farm land should be acquired for development without obtaining the consent of the farmers concerned.

Earlier, at the district hospital in Sector 30, the Chief Minister’s suspended chief medical superintendent for keeping the premises untidy. Even the District Magistrate was reprimand for not having visited the government hospital.

Earlier, during her address at the Kalicharan market in Sector 18, Ms Mayawati accused the BJP of having divided the country on communal lines while Congress had been shielding the absconding Phulpur MP Atiq Ahmed who was wanted in the murder of former BSP MLA, Raju Pal.

The Congress party government at Centre was also not providing her the SPG security cover which she needed as she was trying to bring a change in the country through social engineering.

“In my state, UP police can take care of my security but who will ensure my safety when I have to visit different states as, apart from being the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, I am also the chief of an all- India political party”, she said.

“Why can’t the Central government change the Act to provide me with the Z- category security. Who will be responsible if something happens to me”, Mayawati asked.

New Delhi, January 8
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today assured that the National Capital would overcome its power problems within three years as steps were being taken to generate additional 7,000 MWs.

“I can assure you that in the next three years, with more 7, 000 MWs, Delhi will be more than self -sufficient”, the Chief Minister said inaugurating sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

She also said that Delhi would also be able to redistribute water in the next four years. Describing Delhi as India’s most liveable and greenest city, she called upon overseas Indians to help in its development.

“Health, infrastructure, development of weaker sections of the society are challenges we face, which we should take as opportunities”, she said.

She also called for the diaspora’s skills and experience to develop the National Capital’s traffic management.

“Delhi faces traffic congestion just like any other developed city in the world. We need your help in the management of traffic in the city.”

The Chief Minister said that her government was aiming at making Delhi an education hub. “ We plan to have SAARC university based in Delhi”, she said.

She also said, “we welcome any organisation, country to help us set up, in addition to metro and high -capacity buses, other systems of transport like monorail to help decongest Delhi. There is great amount of congestion. We need help to manage our traffic better. We need guidance, help and managerial skills in the spheres of transport, health and education.”

New Delhi, January 8
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today directed Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta to closely monitor the development works every fortnight.

Presiding over the 4th meeting of the Unauthorized Colonies Development Board today , the Chief Minister directed all civic agencies concerned to work in tandem to speed up the work on water, electricity, sewerage, roads and sanitation so that people living in unapproved colonies live a normal life.

Senior officials of the NDPL informed that the company had given a proposal to the department concerned for streetlight in 88 unauthorized colonies. The BSES had also asked by the MCD to provide streetlights in 100 unauthorized colonies.

Principal Secretary Urban Development K. S. Mehra informed that Rs.50 crore had been released to the MCD for cleanliness and sanitation work in the unauthorized colonies. Roads would be constructed by MCD, DSIIDC and Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

He further informed that out of 1539 unauthorized colonies, 1350 RWAs had submitted their maps for regularization which would be sent to various agencies for drawing out layout plans.

The Chief minister asked the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to immediately start laying of sewers lines in these colonies.

Once the lay-out plan was submitted by the UD department, the DJB would start the work of sewerage facilities in all unauthorized colonies, the CEO said.

Noida, January 8
A woman executive of IBM call centre in Gurgaon, while returning from Noida in wee hours yesterday, was killed in the car she was travelling .

Her friend who was driving the car escaped with minor injures. He was unable to see a road divider due to a thick blanket of fog and the car hit the road divider near the Morna crossing in Sector 51.

The car turned turtle on the left side of the road, the side where Neetu was sitting. Neetu Ganwani, 23, was returning with her colleague, Abhey Taneja, 24, from a party in Noida at 4 am.

Neetu, from Kanpur, was staying as a paying guest in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar. With the help of some truckers, seriously injured Neetu was rushed to hospital where the doctors declared her brought dead.

New Delhi, January 8
“In our lives what takes us so long to make or do, can break or disintegrate in a minute. Regarding the shadows, we carry our shadow with us. Our things move with us. Our shadow becomes our other self.....our alter ego, which is always there.”

This is what Puneet Kaushik, presently living in Delhi, shows in his work. His journey into the self has resulted in the show ‘Alter Ego’.

On view are 15 works in mixed media ,including terracotta, papier-mâché, rubber, glass, rope and wire mesh, at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise de Delhi, from tomorrow. The show will go on till January 13.

To source his materials, he travels all over India and works with different craftspeople. In his work titled Bodies in Space, he exposes the body in situations that are daring and at the edge.

Compressed into box glass closets are minute replicas of the human torso. While the body is represented with tactile qualities, it is the psychic self that is revealed.

Here, he takes two vertical grids and embellishes them with images and sculptures of a split head.

The boxes are constructed so that reflections become essential – as though these were closets of memory and introspection into the self.

It is like looking in through a little door swinging inwards into a private space, the self ,that is being invaded and torn apart. While in Bodies in Space, Puneet works with terracotta, papier-mâché, rubber and painted glass, for the series titled Pink, he works with acrylic and water colour on photo prints to project himself. Pink, a series of nine of works showcases him in yogic tantric poses.

Seen from the rear view, the posture is like Shiva and Hanuman, however,
stained pink.

The colour pink for Puneet is, “beyond boundaries. It alludes not only to the gay pink, but also, alludes to the Nazi soldiers. The pink color is symbolic of AIDS. Pink embodies the free spirit – to have pink in my veins!” Says Puneet, “as a child, I was fascinated by the story of Hanuman, his playfulness, his loyalty, his kindness and his helpfulness.”

His body is repeated five times aligned against each other, reflecting on not one but multiple identities. As the bodies stretch backward in Chakrasana, the background is fissured with a rope cord breaking.

These works are about emotional, mental and social space. If the series of Pink -I and Pink -II are among the most sensational, autobiographical and a poignant note on the self as this is where he takes his own body as a model, then Énsnare is a delicate and dramatic installation made of a thin wire like mesh cascades from the ceiling.

Bathed in light, they cast intriguing shadows against the wall, super imposing on one another. Their shadows are thrown against the walls and on the floor, suspending the figures in space.

Cobwebs are traced within the figures, spinning out narratives of fantasy like the wheel of life, enveloping the bodies and trapping them.

This form with so much texturing is so very sensual and delicate looking, that it appears fragile and can break in a minute. Unlike Ensnare,

Tying up in Knots is an installation made of ropes. It is as though the image leaps back into a self transforming animation.

The skeleton hanging inside creates a spatial enclave of its own. Developed into a twelve feet independent structure for visual representation, it is free of mediumistic considerations.

The frayed edges of the ropes sweeping the floor are symbolic of roots. Finally, in another series titled In Conversation, Puneet constructs it with iron mesh.

Five works, life size but without heads, stand together to hold a commanding presence as though this scene were being enacted on stage.

The wire mesh simulates the line on paper like a drawing or an etching, but it is three dimensional.

To complete the spectacle are the heads in pink velvet, placed on the ground, animated with open mouths and an orgy of sentences tripping out like ribbons!

New Delhi, January 8
In a tersely-worded statement, the UGC has tried to set at rest the fears of a nationalised curriculum for universities across India.

The UGC announced that it believed in the freedom of universities in designing the curriculum. It announced that it would sustain this policy which is “fundamental” to its policies.

The statement further read, “An impression is floating around in some quarters that the UGC has undertaken an exercise to design a nationally uniform curriculum. It is not correct. The UGC is committed to ensuring and enhancing the quality of higher education.”

The Commission has, however, requested Prof Yashpal, an eminent educationist and former chairperson of the UGC to suggest a framework that would help in ensuring and enhancing the quality and relevance of curriculums.

The framework might also indicate as to how the curriculum of different subjects could incorporate interdisciplinary approaches.

The committee, in consultation with national experts, would deliberate on various aspects of the framework.

The Commission informed that the framework, as and when given by the Yashpal Committee would be shared with universities, who would be free to adopt or adapt the curriculum framework.

The statement further stated, “The UGC’s attempt is only to play the role of a facilitator. In no way does the UGC proposes to introduce any uniform curriculum in respective subjects or disciplines.”

However, educational experts inform that the UGC in consonance with an HRD ministry directive has decided to “upgrade and revise” the curriculum at the university level on the pattern of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for school education.

The syllabus upgrade is expected to be carried out both for undergraduate, post-graduate levels and professional courses.

The decision was taken following a meeting that took place between the HRD ministry and the UGC on November 30, 2007.

This could either lead to the nationalization of university curriculums or standardisation in university curriculums.

New Delhi, January 8
Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh released the book ‘Cosmic Symphony: Early and Later Poems of Bhai Vir Singh’ by Nikky Guninder Kaur Singh at a function organised by Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan at the India International Centre, here.

Tarlochan Singh emphasised on the need to transcend linguistic, political and religious boundaries and propagate the message of Bhai Vir Singh.

He said that Bhai Vir Singh had talked of universal values and it was unfortunate that his message was confined to the Sikhs in Punjab alone.

Mohinder Singh, director of Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, said that the translated version could never replace the original one.

However, he complimented Nikky Guninder Kaur for understanding and representing Bhai Vir Singh’s work.

He also thanked the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, for publishing the work. A. Krishnamurthy, secretary, Sahitya Akademi presided over the function.

He highlighted the difficulties encountered by a translator and appreciated the endeavour of Nikky Guninder Kaur in this direction.