New Delhi, March 28
A DUTA dharna to press principal of Ambedkar College on the campus to go by rules in selecting lecturers in English stalled the selection process.

Senior DUTA members on the dharna were dragged and assaulted by the police today. The senior DUTA members had been sitting on dharna to persuade Arora to follow the norms on the composition of selection committee for teachers.

The committee for the selection of lecturers in English was to meet this Friday. However, DUTA members inform that the principal had not invited the college teacher-in-charge who under the DU ordinance is a member of the selection committee if he/she has 10 years’ teaching experience. In the earlier selections for lecturers in Hindi on March 11, Economics on March 19, Political Science on March 20 and Commerce on March 23, 2008, the teachers-in-charge were invited to be members of the selection committees.

DUTA members inform that after receiving representation from the English teacher-in-charge of the college Sanjiv Kumar, (having 14 years’ teaching experience) and request from the staff association office-bearers, DUTA office bearers went to the college for a dialogue with the principal. However, the principal refused the request for the dialogue on the issue. DUTA office bearers along with some college teachers then started a peaceful dharna on the college campus. At this stage, the principal asked the police to physically drag out DUTA activists from the college.

Following the police conduct, the selection process had to be called off. Thereafter, the DUTA office bearers along with other teachers staged a dharna against the police assault on teachers and conduct of the principal.

Further, Misra informs that, “DUTA also condemns the conduct of the university officials who despite having knowledge of the violation of university rules, did not intervene. It only smacks of their connivance with the erring college authorities. DUTA would shortly discuss and decide the future course of action.”

New Delhi, March 28
Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Jagdish Mukhi along with his colleagues today staged a dharna against price rise in the compound of Delhi Vidhan Sabha.

All the BJP MLAs –Jagdish Mukhi, Harsh Vardhan, Sahib Singh Chauhan, Karan Singh Tanwar, Mange Ram Garg, Dharam Dev Solanki, Puran Chand Yogi, Mohan Singh Bisht, Vijay Jolly, Jai Bhagwan Aggarwal, Kulwant Rana, Moti Lal Sodhi, Ravinder Nath Bansal, O.P. Babbar, Sushil Chaudhary, Ramesh Bidhuri and A. Dayanand Chandilla carried baskets full of vegetables and pulses bearing price tags of the same in the open market.

They formed a market in front of Chief Minister’s chamber in Delhi Vidhan Sabha. To draw the attention of the Chief Minister towards the sharp price rise of the essential commodities, the items were displayed with price tags.

Mukhi said that the state government has not announced any measures in its budget to curb the sharp price rise. The BJP had decided to raise this issue in the following three days to attract the attention of the House. Delhiites are worse affected by price hike and common man is striving hard for his livelihood. The expulsion of the BJP MLAs at this junction is putting oil on fire.

Delhiites have made up their minds and they will uproot the Sheila government from Delhi in the forthcoming assembly elections. The Chief Minister could not suppress the voice of elected representatives of public on the floor of House. BJP will raise all the problems of Delhiites with every possible way.

The BJP MLAs participated in the dharna were arrested and taken to Civil Lines police station from where they were later released. 

Ghaziabad, March 28
A local court has ordered the arrest of three Ghaziabad doctors for the kidnapping and murder of a compounder. The police had given a clean chit and absolved the doctors of any involvement in the murder.

The High Court which was approached by the doctors has, however, given a verdict holding the doctors guilty.

In view of the police stand, the family of the compounder approached the court in the matter.

According to family sources, the compounder Harish had seen the doctors removing the kidney of a patient. So he was killed after this. Even Harish’s kidney had been removed by the doctors. Soon after the court orders, Dr Vinode Bayala, Dr P.C. Chouhan and Dr V.B. Gupta went underground.

Additional civil judge Shikha Pathak has ordered the police that three doctors should be arrested and presented in her court on March 31.

Harish, 19, a resident of Jatwada who was working as a compounder in Dr Bayala’s clinic had suddenly gone missing on September 30, 2004. His body was found near Batta No. 11 on Meerut Road the next day. His relatives and local people had damaged Dr Bayala’s clinic in protest after the body was recovered. Harish’s family had lodged an abduction report in Kavi Nagar police station alleging that since Harish had seen doctors removing the kidney so he was kidnapped and murdered by them. It was alleged in the report that doctors had even removed Harish’s kidney.

The Kavi Nagar police had initially attached the final report in the matter, absolving the doctors of all allegations and giving a clean chit to them. Later, the relatives of Harish approached the court. The addl civil judge pronounced all the three doctors as accused in December 2007.

The doctors then went to the High Court. The High Court ordered the Ghaziabad court to get the case probed once again. The additional civil judge Ghaziabad on February 21, 2008, pronounced that the three doctors were guilty. Doctors again went to the High Court. The High Court rejected the doctors’ appeal and ordered that doctors should surrender in the court within one month, Harish’s advocate Khalid Khan said.

New Delhi, March 28
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested DK Thakur, its own investigating officer probing the multi-million-rupee land scam involving the alleged kingpin Ashok Malhotra and Delhi civic officials, for accepting a bribe of Rs 200,000 from an accused.

“Inspector Thakur was arrested late on Thursday from near his Vasant Kunj home while he was accepting a bribe of Rs.200,000 from an accused in the land scam case,” a senior CBI official said.

Thakur was produced before CBI special judge IK Kochhar, who remanded him to three days’ custody.

The senior CBI official said Thakur, inspector with the anti-corruption branch (ACB) of the CBI, was arrested following a complaint from the accused.

The accused, whose identity was withheld, complained that Thakur was demanding a bribe of Rs 3,50,000 for not arresting him in other connected cases and as well for not registering a case of disproportionate assets against his wife, who is a public servant.

The CBI officials later swooped down at the Thakur residence and recovered Rs 98,000, besides seizing documents pertaining to properties and investments.

Ashok Malhotra in connivance with five Delhi development authority (DDA) officials is alleged to have fraudulently sold plots allotted to the underprivileged people in the Dhirpur resettlement colony and Molarband area of the Capital.

The re-settlement scheme at Molarband Phase-II, South Delhi, involves around 600-700 plots, of which a large number are suspected to have been allotted this year in the names of fictitious people and thereafter illegally sold off.

According to CBI sources, Malhotra was also involved in selling plots under other resettlement schemes of DDA to people with fake identities. The scam reportedly took place between 2000 and 2002.

Malhotra was arrested in August last year outside a television news channel office in Noida but was granted bail by the Delhi High Court earlier this month. — IANS

New Delhi, March 28
By 2020 Delhi can become a smart, global city in more ways than one if public and private sectors work in tandem, experts from different fields said here yesterday.

“As the city’s population is growing very fast, the pressure on existing infrastructure will keep on mounting. Accordingly, a blueprint has to be prepared,” said Deep Kapuria, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-northern region at a seminar.

“The stakeholders have to look for far reaching solutions to problems like transport, health and education. It will be possible only when private and public sectors work together to make Delhi smart by 2020,” Kapuria added.

CII’s Delhi state council organised the seminar on “Delhi-Smart City 2020”.

The city government’s chief secretary Rakesh Mehta, while expressing optimism over Delhi’s future prospects, said that the city was marching ahead on the path of all-round growth and progress.

“With the partnership of stakeholders, the government is committed to make the city self-reliant by upgrading key infrastructures like health, education, and information technology. Transport is very much on the government’s priority agenda,” said Mehta.

Many speakers felt the need to use water bodies as tourist spots, and not just as dumping ground for wastes. Some speakers underlined the importance of waste management.

“As the process of urbanisation is getting faster, we need to adopt pro-active measures to respond to the emerging challenges. We need to use every available opportunity to make Delhi smart by 2020,” said TK Arun, editor, The Economic Times, Delhi. — IANS

Faridabad, March 28
A section of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad(MCF) employees and their retrenched colleagues staged a demonstration outside the office of the civic body today.

The main demand of the agitating workforce is re-absorption of the employees who had been retrenched by the INLD government in 2001.

The spokesperson of Nagar Palika Karamchaari Sangh,Haryana, Rohilla,who is also an employee of the MCF,stated that a meeting of the Nagar Palika Karamchaari Sangh,Haryana,has been convened at Gurgaon on April 5 to discuss the issue.If the demand for reabsorbtion was not met the Gurgaon meeting could make a call for direct action against the government, he added. The demonstration, which was staged for about two hours, was held under the banner of Nagar Palika Karamchaari Sangh.

While one of the demand was for taking back the retrenched employees,the other major demand was not to send the files of the MCF to the director of Local Bodies,Haryana.The reason cited was that the post of director was junior to the post of commissioner of the MCF.Hence,the practice of referring the files to the state headquarters to the office of the director,Local Bodies was neither justified morally nor technically. The government in 2001 had retrenched 1519 employees, mainly of Class 1V category,in two phases.

The order of retrenchment passed by the INLD government was challanged by the employees in the Punjab and Haryana High court.The court allowed joining of the employees back into service and put on hold the government’s stand of retrenching them till the pendency of the case under litigation.Consequently 417 employees joined. In the meantime the Haryana government went in appeal to theSupreme Court against the ruling of the High Court.The apex court stayed the operation of the ruling of the High Court,but also ruled that that it(the High Court would decide the case).Technically,the apex court order meant that the employees should not be allowed to join back till the final disposal of the case.The ones who had joined back to work before the ruling of the Supreme Court were lucky. The reason being that the stay order of the Supreme Court came after they had joined back for duties.

However,the initial dispute with regard the retrenchment orders of the government made in 2001 is pending in the High Court.Hence the future of also those who had joined back for duties on account of Supreme Court’s interlocutary order proving relief is also on line.

New Delhi, March 28
The Delhi assembly was conspicuous with the absence of opposition members today, as benches meant for BJP MLAs remained empty.

Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh suspended three more BJP MLAs – Ramesh Bidhuri, Dayanand Chandila and Sushil Chaudhary – today. The Speaker had suspended 17 BJP MLAs for disrupting the House proceedings yesterday. The MLAs were demanding from Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to delete an ‘objectionable’ portion from Delhi University’s BA II year History course.

The Chief Minister said in a statement, “The BJP is trying to derive political mileage by misusing Lord Rama’s name.”

However, some Congress MLAs led by Surender Kumar sought action against a BJP councillor who allegedly attacked Surender Kumar in his Bawana constituency. But the response that FIR had been registered against the councillor did not satisfy the MLAs.

The House was adjourned for half an hour. Later, the speaker informed that the Chief minister had talked to the police commissioner about the case. 

New Delhi, March 28
A special CBI judge today convicted four persons, including a senior manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB) for cheating PNB worth Rs 10 lakh.

HC Bangia, senior manager, PNB, Nizamuddin West; PK Sharma and Ravi Shankar, directors, M/s Soyuz Electronics Private Limited and Yogender Nath Vaid, proprietor, M/s Universal Trading Corporation Limited have been awarded two years rigorous imprisonment. A fine of Rs 1,80,000 has been imposed on each of them.

Bangia misused his position and allowed drawing power (DP) worth Rs 8.50 lakh to M/s Soyuz Electronics in May 1991, without any document or stock.

He issued a pay order of Rs 8,40,000 in the name of M/s Universal Computer Techniques. PK Sharma ran the proprietorship firm. Thereafter, Sharma enchased the said pay order by opening a current account with the Union bank of India in Okhla Industrial Area and siphoned off the funds.

Bangia also allowed opening of current account in the name of M/s Universal Trading Corporation with Yogender Nath Vaid (his brother-in-law), a proprietor in the same branch.

Bangia further discounted a bill of exchange (BE) drawn on M/s Centurion Plast Chem for Rs 99,800 presented by Yogender Nath Vaid, but the BE returned unpaid when presented to Bank of Rajasthan Ltd, South Extension. 

Noida, March 28
The Noida police allegedly tortured three innocent youths for 32 hours in connection with a murder case. Even guns were put on the earpits of the young men who were told to remember their God as they were threatened that they could be shot dead if they did not confess to the crime, say the victims of torture.

The allegation pertained to the murder of a transporter, R.K. Anand of Noida. The youths were admitted to different hospitals after their ordeal. Anand’s neighbours, however, said the police had picked up, tortured them in custody and finally released them after about two days, last week.

Three victims of police high-handedness— Shahji, 44, Sonam, 38, and Verghese, 40 were picked up at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, “made to sit on ground for six hours and at 9 p.m. some cops started beating us mercilessly till midnight. Heavily drunk cops were telling us there was no escape for us except to confess that we had murdered Anand”, the victims said.

Verghese, resident of Laxmi Nagar, was picked up randomly while on visit to Noida. He has now been admitted to SGTB Hospital in East Delhi.

“We were thrashed in police custody and for the first 10 hours, we were not given even water,” Sonam said.

“Before we were released at 12 noon yesterday, we were hit with batons on our hands and warned by a policeman in plain clothes who appeared to be a senior officer – not to show our injuries to any body,” Shahji said.

Shahji and Sonam reached government hospital, Noida, on their own. During the thrashing the three were shifted from one police station to another and sometimes to some police posts also. They were beaten up together and individually at different places.

New Delhi, March 28
The recent spate of suicides by poverty struck farmers and students afraid of academic failure can be prevented by awakening spirituality in people through collective prayers, music and meditation, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar believes.

“India has been through so much. The British ruled the country, history abounds in stories of how the country was plundered by aliens - no one committed suicides then. How come now? It is because we have become so selfish that we refuse to help our neighbours. We are short on spirituality,” the Art of Living Foundation guru said here on Thursday evening at the inauguration of a three-day mahasatsang.

The March 28-30 religious gathering is being organised as a tribute to his spiritual mentor Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who died in February.

“My guru Mahesh Yogi said collective prayers and meditation can awaken the dormant spirituality and virtues in man. Our duty is to make it happen through a three-fold path of music, spirituality and pranayama,” Sri Sri said.

The sprawling DDA Swarna Jayanti Park in Rohini is playing host to more than 5,000 devotees who will practise collective pranayama (breathing exercises), meditation, listen to discourses by the guru and relieve stress through devotional music. It is one of the biggest-ever Art of Living spiritual retreats in the Capital in recent times.

Thursday’s inauguration was a spectacular show attended by the several politicians, including LK Advani, VP Singh, Buta Singh and Delhi mayor Aarti Mehra. An entourage of carnatic musicians comprising more than 60 percussion and veena players and flautists entertained the packed house.

People sat scattered across the carpeted venue in a semi-circle while the seer and the guests shared dais on an impressive podium erected nearly 40 feet above the ground. Two giant screens beamed the proceedings for those at the rear.

The discourse began with meditation, followed by the mayor’s inaugural address. Mehta introduced the foundation to the participants of the camp - many of whom were first-timers - and listed its activity and objectives.

It was followed by a short speech by Advani, who kept his address “apolitical and succinct” as advised by his “guru”. — IANS.