New Delhi, August 13
Traffic in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the adjoining areas was once again thrown into a state of total disarray as activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad resorted to “chakka jam” demanding the restoration of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

Train movement along the Delhi-Jaipur route was also affected this morning because of the agitation.

Thousands of vehicles were stranded on the highways as well as on most of the roads in the city for several hours. The worst affected were the daily commuters who were caught in the agitation in the rush hour between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. While the agitation was officially called off at 11 a.m., the aftershocks continued to be felt till several hours later.

Hundreds of passengers, including women and children, who were left high and dry because of their buses being caught up in the traffic snarls were seen abandoning their vehicles and walking to their destinations. These included a large number of school children.

Three kilometre long traffic snarls were reported from the busy Vikas Marg, ITO, Akshardham crossing, Noida Road, Deepali Chowk, Wazirpur, Ashram, Moolchand, Delhi- Ghaziabad Road, Delhi-Jaipur highway, Delhi cantonment, Uttam Nagar and Dhaula Kuan.

At several places, the police had to use mild force to clear the protestors and prevent them from damaging public property. The police said that except for some minor incidents, the agitation passed off peacefully.

Such was the state of affairs during the peak morning traffic hours that it took an average of two to three hours for the commuters to negotiate a distance of only a few kilometers.

Majority of commuters wondered if this was the right way to protest, putting the general public to such frequent inconvenience.

Carrying BJP and VHP flags, slogan-shouting supporters, including women activists of the Sangh Parivar, descended on all the major intersections of the Capital at about 9 a.m. and blocked traffic as part of their two-hour agitation. Delhi BJP unit president Harsh Vardhan led the protesters at the busy Laxmi Nagar crossing on Vikas Marg in East Delhi here.

In Noida, the protestors blocked the busy Delhi–Noida Road resulting in huge traffic jams on the Nizamudin Highway and the Akshardham flyover.

In Gurgaon, protesters blocked traffic at the busy Hero Honda Chowk and the Iffco Chowk for a short while before being detained by police. The protesters also burnt tyres on the roads.

In Faridabad, the protesters blocked the National Highway No 2 at the YMCA chowk for about an hour.

New Delhi, August 13
The Delhi High Court today directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Election Commission of India not to insist on assigning election duties to women teachers and the disabled.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar passed the direction on a plea by a group of women and handicapped teachers, seeking exemption from the election duty.

The MCD Primary School Teachers’ Association moved a public interest petition highlighting the hardships faced by teachers as they are allegedly forced to do election duties after school hours.

The petitioner association submitted that the Delhi government, on a request from the Election Commission, directs the MCD to depute all its primary teachers for election duties.

Women and handicapped teachers, who have to visit various constituencies as part of these duties, do not get time for their family as they are expected to work on holidays. They also do not get time for physical rest, the petitioner added.

The court asked the Election Commission to consider cases of some teachers who have genuine problems and cannot undertake the work. It suggested that women and handicapped teachers should be given election-related work in their school itself. — IANS

New Delhi, August 13
Ten students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were served with showcause notices for allegedly disrupting the Standing Committee meeting on August 11. They allegedly misbehaved with the university officials.

The students were asked to submit their replies by 5 p.m. today.

“We had asked the administration to re-convene the meeting. They wanted to leave the meeting half way. There have been discrepancies in the admissions and they did not consider the issue serious enough to be discussed at length,” said Dhananjay, former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU).

The interesting fact about the move is that some of the students, who were served with the notice, were not even present in the city on the day of the incident.

“I returned from home yesterday and the hostel guard delivered me a showcause notice. I cannot be a part of the alleged violence at the administrative block when I was not in the city,” said Abhay Kumar, a PhD student.

Showing his return ticket from his hometown in Bihar, he said, “If I would have returned after a few days, the university might have an action against me for not submitting the reply in time,” he said.

Abhay was charged for intimidating and insulting university officials on duty on August 11. The university administration also alleged that he had blocked the entrance and exit gates of the administrative building at 8.30 p.m.

“It could be due to some political rivalry that someone gave my name without checking whether I was in the university at the time or not. I am not sure as who must have done this, but I have had arguments with the JNUSU office bearers several times,” he said.

Meanwhile, the councillors had submitted 1,229 signatures to JNUSU president Sandeep Singh last night for calling an urgent general body meeting on the university campus. The meeting has been scheduled for tonight. Several decisions regarding the course and issues of agitation against the alleged discrepancies in admissions would be taken.

New Delhi, August 13
Delhi government has been giving top priority to promote information technology, said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit while releasing the admission brochure of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) for the year 2008-09. The setting up of IIIT in Delhi would give a fillip to acceptability of IT, which has ensured transparency and helped in developing new work culture.

She added that Delhi government is committed to helping IIIT to become a world-class institute, one that the whole country can be proud of and one that will attract faculty and students from across the world. She said that IIIT will begin functioning from this academic year itself. It will temporarily use facilities provided by Netaji Subhash Institute of Training (NSIT) in Dwarka. Its permanent campus will come up soon in Okhla.

The uniqueness of IIIT Delhi will be its focus on specific domain areas and on software products. It will be a research-led institute with B. Tech, M. Tech, and Ph.D programmes.

Government of NCT Delhi has undertaken the initiative of setting up the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology.

To drive this path-breaking initiative, government of Delhi has, through an Act, created an institution that can function with full autonomy.

Accordingly, it has created an independent, empowered board that will guide and oversee the setting up and functioning of IIIT. The Board is chaired by Kiran Karnik, a well known and respected personality in IT sector in the country and as the founding director, the institute will have professor Pankaj Jalote, who is a globally respected computer science professor. The Board includes Pheroz Vandrevala, R. Chandrashekar, Professor S. Sadagopan, professor Ranjit Roy Choudhary and two principal secretaries from the Delhi Government. 

New Delhi, August 13
The state-of-art technological advancement by the Reliance Energy Ltd/BSES in the field of power distribution is being recognised the world over. The power company received the Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) GIS award on August 6 at the ESRI’s 28th annual user conference in San Diego, USA.

The award is given for the outstanding work of users in GIS field.

The Reliance Energy Limited/BSES was selected to receive this award from over 100,000 users.

The award was presented to Reliance Energy Ltd/BSES for undertaking GIS activities across India.

Reliance’s IT department has made its GIS a workspace for all field processes, from operations and maintenance to planning.

The interface of GIS with other key systems helps utility managers and executives find new ways to optimise operations, increase work efficiency and improve business processes.

The GIS combines computer hardware, software and data to create a tool for capturing, managing, analysing and displaying all forms of geographic information. Virtually, any information can be linked to a geographic location, allowing users to see that information as part of a complete picture to be analysed and applied to a problem or issue, the spokesman said.

The ESRI is a premier body and high-tech software development and services company that provides professional Geographical Information System (GIS) software and geo database management applications. 

New Delhi, August 13
A majority of the members of the manifesto committee for the Delhi assembly elections declared today belong to the Chief Minister’s camp and there will be little chance of differences during the finalisation of the manifesto, sources said.

The first meeting of the manifesto committee is likely to be held within a week in which discussions on election issues will be made, sources said.

Fifteen names for the committee members were announced by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Jai Prakash Agarwal. He said these names were approved by the All-India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi for the Delhi Assembly Election to be held in November.

The members are Krishna Tirath, MP, Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, Abhjit Singh Gulati, Aziz Ahmed Siddiqui, Balwan Khokhar, Chatar Singh, Dhirendra Tyagi, Dr Kiran Walia, MLA, Farhad Suri, Jai Kishan Sharma, Mukesh Sharma, MLA, Purushottam Goyal, Rakesh Rajora, Ramakant Goswami, MLA,Sulekh Chand Jain.

All Congress MPs from Delhi will be special invitees.

Sources said that while finalising the list for manifesto committee, the senior leaders of the congress tried to adjust the men of all groups. Krishna Tirath who is considered to be close to Ambika Soni, general secretary, AICC, has been appointed as convener of the manifesto committee. She is considered a member of opposite group of the Delhi Chief Minister. Mukesh Sharma who is MLA from Hastsal is also considered from the opposite camp.

According to sources, Dr Kiran Walia, Farhad Suri, Jai Kishan Sharma, Rakesh Rajora and Ramakant Goswam, belong to Chief Minister’s camp. They have always been seen talking in favour of the Chief minister in the assembly.

The others are neutral.

The All-India Congress Committee (AICC) on Monday appointed four observers for Delhi state to scrutinise the list of candidates submitted by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), management of elections and implementation of party guidelines, sources said.

The observers are Harish Rawat, Harikesh Bhardwaj, Dr Ram Prakash and Chandresh Kumari, the sources said.

The DPCC has given three names for each constituency. One of them will be finalised.

The observers will find out whether the names given by the pradesh committee can be winning candidates.

Emphasis will be given to the candidates who are attached with the grass-route level and have a say in their segment. Money and nepotism will play little role while giving ticket for the elections, the sources further said.

They said the party high command had given instructions to the observers and the state leadership that the assembly elections were different from the civic body elections. It had to be won.

The Congress was defeated in the corporation elections as it could not choose the right candidates for right segment, the sources said.

New Delhi, August 13
Over 50,000 executives, professionals, working couples, including young officials of Delhi/NCR, would be indulging in merry making on the eve of Independence Day at various tourist destinations in the northern region, taking advantage of the extended weekend- Independence Day followed by Raksha Bandhan and Sunday.

This revelation was made by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) after detailed discussions with its affiliates including tour agents and corporate members in the hospitality industry in Northern India, who claim that bookings for nearest tourist centres from NCR such as Corbett Park, Mussoorie, Nainital, Ranikhet, Sariska Tiger Reserve, Ranthambore National Park, Dalhousie, Manali and Shimla are already confirmed from August 14 onwards.

According to D. S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM, on account of this emerging trend, tourist arrivals in most of Northern Indian tourist hubs would jump up by nearly 40% since attractive tour packages have been reframed and re-launched with financial expenses ranging between Rs 5000 and Rs 11000 for 2 nights and 3 days.

Apart from these tourist sites, the religious tourist sites would also be buzzing with devotees during the long weekend. These sites include places like Yamnotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Hemkund. Pindari Glacier, Mathura, Prayag, Varanasi, Vrindavan, Golden Temple in Amritsar and Ajmer.

While majority of tour operators in Delhi and NCR are concentrating their tour packages on the nearby hill stations and tourist sites like Mussorie, Nainital, Shimla, Manali and sanctuary parks, some of them are focusing on the religious tourist sites like Mathura, Haridwar and Rishikesh.

To attract the next generation lot, especially working youth and college students, the tour operators have launched special packages for adventure tourism sites located in Uttarakhand.

For places like Bhagirathi, Chowkhamba, Nanda Devi Kamet, Pindari, Sahastrataal, Khatling and Gaumukh for mountaineering; Kedarnath, Gangotri for trekking; water rafting in river Ganga and Pithoragarh, Jolly Grant, Pauri for hand gliding, paragliding, these tour operators have received maximum bookings.

New Delhi, August 13
The Delhi police on Tuesday found themselves in a quandary when a pregnant girl alleged that she was raped by 10-12 people but her medical report ruled out any sexual assault.

The police said they received a call on Tuesday morning made from near the American embassy in the Chankyapuri area. A PCR van took the girl, who claims to be a minor, to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. A senior police official said that medical tests performed on the girl showed that there was no sexual assault.

“There are no injury mark on her body. The girl seems mentally retarded and is changing her statement every time,” the officer said. The girl, four-month pregnant, arrived in the national Capital from Meerut late on Monday and is alone. She could not explain how she reached Delhi and if she was accompanied by anyone else. The girl says she is married and her husband lives in Meerut. “We have not registered a case yet but are taking help of people from NGOs, legal aid and psychiatrics to solve the issue. We have sent a team to Meerut to contact her family,” the officer added. — IANS

Noida, August 13
An Aghan national pursuing his graduation in Delhi University and his three friends were thrashed by four youths here.

Qasim Ahmad, 22, the Afghani student of PGDAV College, on Tuesday had gone to meet his friends Sunny, Ankush and Sachin — all studying in Amity University at Noida.

They were on their way to watch a film in the evening when four persons stopped them and smashed the front and rear windscreens of the car they were riding in.

They pulled the boys out of the car and beat them up. While Sunny, Ankush and Sachin managed to escape soon after, the assailants caught Qasim and thrashed him with iron rods.

Qasim sustained injuries on his head, right arm and legs, said Anil Samania, an official at Sector — 39 police station.

After Sunny, Ankush and Sachin raised an alarm, the passers-by rushed them to hospital.

Qasim Ahmad later told the police that he knew one of the attackers, who was identified as V.A. Tyagi alias Srikanth, the official said.

“We have arrested Tyagi and are looking for the other three youths,” Samania added. — IANS