New Delhi, August 7
With the arrest of three persons— Surjit, Biresh Sharma and Bhure — the West district police has claimed to have solved a kidnapping case of a 14-year-old boy involving a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. However, the mastermind behind the kidnapping, Chandershekhar and his other accomplices namely Papu, Pintu, Dinesh, Virender and Vasanta are still at large. Raids are being conducted to nab them.

According to the report filed by the boy’s father Ombir Singh, a resident of Sadh Nagar in Palam, Hemant went missing from his house on June 29.

Later, Ombir received a call on his mobile demanding Rs 30 lakhs for release of his son. On investigation it was found that Chandershekhar of Sadh Nagar had hatched the kidnapping conspiracy along with his brothers Biresh Sharma, Surjit Sharma and his brother-in-law Pintu. While, Shekhar of village Bada Gaon Etah in Uttar Pradesh along with his accomplices Papu had arranged a place for hiding the boy.

A second hand Maruti car was bought from Delhi to take Hemant to Kakrala village in Etah. There the boy was kept in the house of Virender Singh and his associates Bhure, Dinesh and Vasanta. However, when the police raided the place, Chandershekhar managed to run away with the boy.

Finally, on the instructions of the police, a deal was struck with the boy’s family and Chandershekhar to pay the ransom amount on August 3.

Expecting that Chandershekhar would come from Etah by bus at Anand Vihar bus stand a police team was deployed there on the night of August 2-3.

But on his arrival, Chandershekhar forced Hemant to get down from the front gate of the bus while he himself got down from the rear gate. By the time, Hemant could inform the police Chandershekher managed to flee from there.

New Delhi, August 7
Various delegations under the auspices of the Amarnath Yatra Samiti today submitted memorandums demanding restoration of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board to the seven Members of Parliament (MPs) from Delhi.

The delegations have demanded restoration of autonomy to the Amarnath Shrine Board, restoring the land to the Shrine Board, removing J&K Governor N.N. Vohra who allegedly is the root cause of unrest in the area, punishing those raising pro-Pakistan slogans and burning Indian flags.

A delegation led by Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Harsh Vardhan met East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit. Vardhan apprised the MP that the case was not just confined to Jammu and Kashmir, but had spread to the entire country. Crores of countrymen have been offended due to this. He demanded that Dikshit should apprise Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh about the impact of the case. If the case was not solved immediately, there would be unrest in the entire country.

Anil Gupta and V.K. Jaggi from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Gurdeen Prasad from the Vishwa hindu Parishad (VHP), Lal Behari Tiwari, Alok Kumar, Sahab Singh Chauhan, Neera Shastri and Ram Nivas Goel were a part of this delegation.

Ram Bhaj, Subhash Arya, Satpal Sharma, S.N. Dang, Shailender Jain and Deepak from the VHP were among those who submitted memorandum to South Delhi MP and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Malhotra assured that he would raise the demands of the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti in the Parliament and would contribute in the restoration of the land to the Shrine Board. He also demanded punishment to Pakistan supporters in J&K.

Jagdish Mukhi, Mewa Ram Arya, Harbans Dankal, Shailender Jayaswal and Vimal from the VHP were a part of the delegation that submitted the memorandum to New Delhi MP and Central urban development state minister Ajay Maken.

The delegation that submitted the memorandum to Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar included Pawan Sharma, Pravesh Verma, Rajpal and Mahavir.

The delegation that submitted memorandum to Chandni Chowk MP and Union minister Kapil Sibbal included Suman Gupta, Virender Sachdeva and Shravan Kumar.

The delegation that submitted memorandum to Sadar MP Jagdish Tytler included Bhola Nath Vij, Kuldeep Singh, Ved Prakash Gupta, VHP’s Ravi Bansal, Ravinder Gupta and Manoj Tyagi and legislator Subhash Sachdeva.

A delegation led by Asha Tai submitted the memorandum to Karol Bagh MP Krishna Tirath. This delegation included Yogender Chandoliya, Mahender Kumar, Suresh Gupta, Ravinder Gupta and Chiranjeev Malhotra.

Ghaziabad, August 7
Five children were gravely injured as a 63-KW Nagar Nigam transformer exploded in Sector-12 of the Vijay Nagar area yesterday. Reportedly, three of the charred children are in critical condition.

Reportedly, the Nagar Nigam had got the transformer repaired only a day earlier. It was noticed that oil was leaking out of the transformer and soon the explosion took place. The boiling oil splattered on the five kids who were playing nearby. Shortly, a blast took place. The whole area was covered with smoke and five children were found crying in pain.

Local people allege that the incident took place due to the carelessness of Nagar Nigam authorities. The Nigam authorities were informed about the oil that was coming out of the transformer. But the authority did not pay any heed to the complaints of the people.

The charred children were immediately rushed to a district hospital in Ghaziabad and their parents were informed. Due to serious burn injuries, doctors at the district hospital referred Sagar, 10, Gungun, 5, and Sachin, 8, to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in New Delhi. The rest were discharged after preliminary treatment.

Sagar, 10, S/o Anil; Gungun, 5, d/o Anil and Neha, 4, d/o Sunil are children of the same family. The other injured children are Sachin, 8, S/o Anil Kumar and Shefali, 10, D/o Sunil Saxena.

Chief engineer of the Nagar Nigam said that a complaint had been lodged in Vijay Nagar police station against the manufacturers of the transformer. An inquiry has also been ordered into the blast, said additional nagar ayukt Nirupma Mishra.

New Delhi, August 7
Taking their shirts off, about 100 men went on a protest march in the Capital on Thursday to voice their concerns on the price rise of commodities in India.

Organised by the Delhi unit of the Indian Justice Party, the march saw the demonstrators gather at the Ramlila Grounds in Central Delhi before taking their march on to the roads and congregating again at Jantar Mantar near Connaught Place.

Udit Raj, national president of the Indian Justice Party, said that inflation has made life very difficult for a common person who is struggling to make both ends meet.

“The price rise of commodities, like vegetables and cereals, which we all sustain on, has made them almost untouchable. Reports say that 79 per cent of the Indian population lives on less than Rs 20 per day. How does one expect that a bulk of the population will lead a healthy life with this kind of inflation?” Raj said.

“This half nude demonstration is to protest the price rise and tell the government that it can’t go on ignoring these vital issues and divert the attention to the nuclear deal,” he added.

Raising slogans expressing similar sentiments, one of the protesters said, “The price rise has almost made us nude (as in, they can’t afford to buy anything). Vegetable prices have become Rs.40-50 a kilo....” “But because of the cultural ethos of the society, we decided to have a half-nude demonstration.” — IANS

New Delhi, August 7
While genuine consumers in the National Capital Region, including Delhi, continue to face shortages of LPG cylinders, these are readily available to small factories and dhabas at a premium.

This revelation was made by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) today which carried out a survey last month after persistent complaints of supply of underweight LPG cylinders.

As a result, consumers are forced to accept LPG cylinders that are half empty in the absence of any other suitable option as their complaints go unheeded not only by owners in gas distributing agencies but also oil marketing companies, says the survey.

The ASSOCHAM survey on ‘LPG Gas Supply & Demand in NCR’, found out that gas agency owners have been making a financial killing by forcibly selling off these cylinders to domestic consumers by first sourcing their supplies for commercial gains to dhabas and smaller factories before their deliveries to intended consumers, said D S Rawat, secretary-general, ASSOCHAM.

Neither the oil companies nor gas agency owners take note of the complaints of partially filled cylinders as most of these are owned by influential and well-connected people, particularly in Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, outskirts of Delhi, Gurgaon and even Faridabad.

The chamber has estimated that in Ghaziabad district alone, there are 70 gas agencies, 42 of which belong to IOC, while 28 of them jointly belong to the HPCL and BPCL. In case of Noida, the number of such gas agencies is eight which are IOC managed and 12 are managed by HPCL and BPCL.

These 90 LPG agencies cater to the LPG demand for approximately 70 lakh domestic consumers who are forced to accept cylinders which are only three-fourth full.

“One can imagine the amount of money that could be accruing to gas agency owners, their delivery boys and other involved in gas supply delivery management chain,” said Rawat.

The secretary-general of ASSOCHAM said in Delhi most of the gas agency owners are quite fair and supply genuine gas cylinders to the consumers. However, the level of fairness varies when it comes to the outskirts of Delhi where delivery boys are often seen selling gas cylinders on the black market.

New Delhi, August 7
Notwithstanding the angry reactions that St. Stephen’s college acting head, M.S. Frank, evoked with his remark in an interview to the college magazine that a maternity ward would be needed if a co-educational hostel is set up, the journal’s student editor said no changes in the text or recall of the printed copies was planned.

“The magazine is already out and I have not been told by anyone to make any editorial changes in a fresh stock. The magazine continues as usual,” Rijul Kochhar, the student editor of the magazine, said.

Teachers, students and members of the supreme council of the college reacted angrily at Frank’s comments in the magazine. Sunil J. Mathews, advocate, speaking on behalf of the supreme council - the custodian of the religious character of the college - dismissed Frank’s comments as “stray”.
“Frank’s comments need not be taken seriously. It was a stray comment,” Mathews said, the irritation clearly evident in his voice.“The possibility of increasing of Christian quota in the institute, which Frank reportedly said, is also not true,” he added.

St. Stephen’s, one of the country’s premier educational institutes, has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Last month, the college caused a huge furore after two vacancies of the ad- hoc teachers in the history department were filled up with Christian candidates, and a non-Christian candidate, who was a gold medallist and an alumni, was rejected for one of the posts. The development, not taken lightly by the faculty members, resulted in a battle of sorts between the teaching staff and Frank, who made the ad-hoc teachers’ appointments. After a lot of media attention and intervention by the supreme council, an additional post was created in the department and the non-Christian candidate given his appointment letter.

Hardly a month later, Frank’s remark in the college magazine interview that he would have to open a maternity ward if a co-ed hostel was set up has kicked up another storm.

“How can someone ever think like this? To even think that a senior faculty member’s thinking process and his opinion about us, his students, is like this, is disgusting,” lashed out an angry Tanvi Aggarwal, a second-year student of the college.

Frank, while answering the student interviewer’s question for the college magazine on whether there is a possibility of a co-educational hostel in the future, said such a system would then mean setting up a maternity ward alongside.

He, however, defended his remark later, saying that it was made in a light manner and ought to be taken in the same spirit.

“I have said this before and I again say this - It was a tongue-in-cheek interview and should be taken in the same manner,” Frank said.

But students and teachers are not amused.

“Being a faculty member and the acting head of the college demands certain responsible behaviour. Such statements are very demeaning,” said a teacher on the condition of anonymity. — IANS

New Delhi, August 7
Leading vascular surgeons of the country yesterday came together under the umbrella of the Vascular Society of India, the 14-year-old medical body which has been spreading awareness about vascular diseases and their prevention and cure.

Lending them support was Dr Yoganand Shastri, health minister, Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. He emphasised on the need for spreading awareness about vascular diseases, their prevention and treatment. The decision to observe August 6 as Vascular Awareness Day comes in the light of a major lack of awareness both among the lay public, and members of the medical fraternity.  

Vascular and endovascular surgery has existed as an entity in the western world for 30 years, and is, therefore, fairly well developed and understood. The VSI is holding a number of public seminars, conferences and free detection camps to further the cause.

Leg attack, aortic aneurysms, deep vein thrombosis and venous diseases are some of the many vascular diseases known to afflict people. These diseases require specialised treatment, and if unattended can have grave consequences.

Dr KR Suresh, president of the society said, “Amputations, secondary to arterial diseases, particularly in diabetic patients, are on the rise. There exists a need to prevent disability and consider foot salvage in appropriate cases.”

Dr Bedi, secretary of the VSI, added, “Conditions such as brain attacks or strokes can be prevented in a number of cases. Aortic aneurisms due to ballooning of the walls of the artery can be lethal if they burst. Therefore, proper assessment by a vascular specialist is critical for which there is need for creating a structured training programme.”

Dr Ashok Gupta, treasurer of the society, said, “It is the mandate of the Vascular Society of India to create dedicated departments of vascular and endovascular surgery in the country. A nationwide online deep vein thrombosis registry will also be commissioned. This will be the first of its kind in the country. We believe that these efforts by the Vascular Society of India will go a long way in providing positive health to the senior population of the country.”

New Delhi, August 7
A court on Wednesday awarded Rs 2.2 million as compensation to the family of a man killed in road accident here.

Surender Singh, who worked as a driver with a travel agency, was knocked down by a speeding car while crossing a road in Mahipalpur in South Delhi in 2002. “The petitioner will be entitled for a total compensation of Rs 16.52 lakh (Rs 1.65 million) along with an annual interest of 7.5 percent from 2003,” Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) judge Deepa Sharma ordered.

“There is no evidence on record to contribute negligence on the part of the deceased. Since the vehicle was insured with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd, it is liable to pay the compensation,” the court said.

The family of the deceased had approached the court seeking compensation and alleged that the car was driven in a rash and negligent manner.

But the driver of the car, Narender Singh, said in the court, “Accident took place because he (Surinder) tried to cross the road without seeing that there was green signal at Mahipalpur Chowk.” — IANS

Greater Noida, August 7
Officers of Surajpur police station, on Wednesday morning seized a truck full of cows in the Greater Noida area. The cows were being transported to Sambhal in Moradabad for slaughter.

According to the police, the truck had 25 cows. Four of them had already died due to choking.

The police had received a tip-off about the truck. When the cops asked the driver to stop, the driver, instead of stopping, tried to flee. The cops chased the truck and caught it. There were four persons in the truck. The truck was then driven to Surajpur police station where all the four, who belong to Sambhal Tehsil in Moradabad district, were formally arrested.

They have been identified as Furkan, Irshad, Nissar and Mumtaz.

They told the police that the cows were being brought from Rohtak district in Haryana and were to be slaughtered at Sambhal. 

New Delhi, August 7
A major fire broke out in a cardboard factory at Balbir Nagar in North East Delhi around 4:55 a.m. today. However, no injury has been reported.

Reportedly, the entire factory was engulfed in flames soon.