New Delhi, August 23
The Bar Council of India today distanced itself from the agitation of Delhi advocates over the verdict of the Delhi High Court debarring senior advocates R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan from practicing for four months.

“High Court can award a punishment but it can not encroach upon the rights of
the Bar Council. However, we are not part of the agitation of the Delhi advocates, who went on a strike yesterday,” said Suraj Narain Prasad Sinha, chairman, Bar Council of India.

Stating that the Bar Council does not take position with or against the culprits in this case, Sinha said, “It is about the Advocates’ Act. Disciplinary actions can be taken against any practicing advocate under Section 35, clause 3. We have the exclusive right to suspend or cancel an advocate’s license to practice.”

When asked about the reason behind the delay in disposing off the cases against R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan pending in the Council since long, the office bearers said that there were procedural hitches.

“These things take time. We have to work according to the guidelines set in the Act. There are maximum two meetings in a month. The channel took all the time in delivering us the tapes,” said Jagdev, member, Bar Council of India.

The office bearers also said that they were waiting for the copy of the judgment to decide about their next step.

“We still have not received the copy of the judgment. A decision regarding the next step could only be taken in a collective meeting of the Bar Council,” said Jagdev.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 14. Meanwhile, the Delhi Bar Association said that they never launched a long-term agitation.

“We only went on a token strike yesterday. There was no long term agitation. The Bar Council of India is a statutory body, they have their own decisions independent of us,” said Narender Kumar Sharma, vice-president (criminal), Delhi Bar Association.

New Delhi, August 23
A number of muftis, experts for giving judgement on Islamic issues, have said that slaughtering an animal after giving electric shock to it was religiously incorrect.

The fatwa issued by Mufti Nisar Ahmed Shamsi of Dar-ul-Ifta stated that slaughtering an animal after given an electric shock amounted to torture and this was against the rule of sharia, Islamic law.

Islam prohibits eating meat of such animals. According to the sharia, eating meat of such animals was unlawful, the fatwa said.

The fatwa was issued after the Delhi Meat Merchant Association (DMMA) sought it. Apart from the Dar-ul-Ifta, the DMMA got the fatwa from Mufti Mukarram, Imam of Shahi Masjid Fatehpuri; Imam of Idgah and Madrassa Ameeniya, said president of DMMA Mohammad Aquil Qureshi.

The Delhi Meat Merchant Association’s application said that during the trial in Ghazipur slaughter house water is poured on animals before being given electric shock. After the shock, the animals become unconscious and fall.

Thereafter, they are hanged with a rope and taken to a slaughter machine in a chain. While on their way to the machine, they bleed.

The application also stated that after the shock it was difficult to find out whether the animal was alive or dead. The meat of such animals is of yellow or red colour.

New Delhi, August 23
The industrial revolution has enhanced the dangers of global warming which has assumed alarming proportions, and this issue is being addressed by the builders’ fraternity through an innovative concept termed Green Building.

With reference to this, a two-day national seminar on Green Building and Architecture ended today here, wherein many speakers displayed presentations on carbon credits for energy and water-efficient buildings, green architectural design and greenery development.

The session aimed at identifying ways via which our industries and institutes of education and government can respond to the global environmental changes.

Dr K. L. Dhingra, chairman and managing director of HUDCO, ministry of urban development, while inaugurating the seminar said India is in a growth trajectory, with a high rate of GDP and the building industry is doing excellent with more incorporations of green.

He further said by adopting the green building strategy we can have a return of 30-40 per cent of the investment in one to three years through carbon credit route.

He said builders should come up with climate-friendly houses, with affordable prices. They should not only emit least greenhouse gases (GHG) at the time of construction, but also take care to reduce gas emission during its existence.

Speaking on this line, Dr Arvind Chel of the IIT, Delhi, apprised the audience about the entire orientation of building by a presentation on solar passive architecture.

Gourav Shorey from TERI presented a few case studies from Teri retreat and Griha experience. He stressed on the fact that conventional building system is less energy-efficient than the green-building system.

Throwing light on the challenges of planning of sustainable cities, which are not only green, but also energy and water efficient, Dr A. K. Jain, commissioner of planning of Delhi Development Authority, said, “Striking a balance between environmental integrity and sustainability is essential and organacity is the key word. The Master Plan Delhi 2021 has a dedicated water conservation system and there have been committees, which have been constituted by the government of India who are working upon the basic mandate to meet all the requirements towards developing a sustainable society.”

He added, “Rain water harvesting that finds a place in MPD 2021, which is mandatory, may not be very effective. Today emphasis should be laid upon reducing carbon emissions and our architects lay stress upon the panchtantra or the basic five elements.”

The conference was organised by Carbon Minus India (CMI) along with the Indian Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and ministry of urban development and the ministry of power.

Greater Noida, August 23
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today inaugurated Gautam Budh University here. She said that the university had been named after Gautam Budha who had spread the message of peace, love and knowledge in the world.

She said that it was her dream to set up a world-class university in GB Nagar dedicated to higher technical education. Expressing happiness over the project, she said that she had thought of it six years ago.

“Dalit and poor students will get an opportunity to pursue higher education from the university. The Gautam Budh University Act was passed in 2002 in the state assembly. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) wanted higher education to be above politics but the previous Samajwadi Party government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav unnecessarily delayed the project. But after the BSP came to power, the work of GB University was speeded up and its vice-chancellor was appointment in 2007.”

“Education is one of the five priorities of my government which is shortly appointing 88,000 teachers in the state. Besides, an education board is also being set up,” the Chief Minister said. Last year 42 engineering colleges and Kanshi Ram IIT were set up. Kanshi Ram IIT is based on the pattern of IIT Bangalore.

Mayawati said that Gautam Budh University would collaborate with some leading American universities. The students would complete a part of their education in USA at the UP government’s expense.

The MBA course started today. Post-graduate courses in philosophy, geography, economics as also on different civilisations and cultures will start soon.

The Chief Minister said that 30% of 511-hectare of the university area was being developed as a green belt.

Some 5,000 rooms for students would be provided and a library with 100,000 books would be available where 2,000 students and research scholars would be able to sit at a time.

The latest and the best equipment including that of computer technology would be imported from foreign countries, added Mayawati.

Greater Noida, August 23
Chief Minister Mayawati has said that her government was committed to safeguarding the interests of the farming community of the state.

She said that the government has increased land compensation from Rs 402 to Rs 850 per sq mt with effect from April 2007, which is more than double.

Expressing grief over the recent clash between the farmers and the police in the Ghori Bachhera village, Mayawati said, “I deeply regret the unfortunate incident in Ghori Bachhera on August 13. As a matter of fact, 1,434 hectares of land was acquired during 2006-07 under the Samajwadi government with the support of the Congress Party. But actually they had misguided the farmers by making false promises. However, my government has been able to solve all the problems created by the previous government,” she said.

“Now the divisional commissioner and the Greater Noida Authority have settled all the issues and farmers have called off their agitations,” she added.

Mayawati also said that the government was aware of the farmers needs, but at the same time it was also conscious of its duty towards industrial development.

The Greater Noida Authority will now give to the farmers 6 per cent of the land developed by the GNIDA.

The state government has also promised to develop villages on the pattern of cities with roads, civic amenities, clean drinking water and sewerage.

Mayawati said that Rs 1700 crore had been paid as land compensation to 5,537 farmers in Noida and 679 farmers in Greater Noida and employment avenues are also being created for villagers.

Mayawati further informed that three flyovers have been built in Noida while others are under construction.

The government hospital is being modernised. The hospital will also give concessions to the poor.

A new college for boys and girls are being set up in Noida at a cost Rs 200 crore, which will start its academic session next year with 5000 students.

Chief Minister also mentioned the setting up of a sports city in Noida at a cost of Rs 250 crore with modern and world class facilities and stadiums for all sports, games and athletics.

She added that the Railways has agreed to set up a railway station at Modaki. This will help industrialists to transport their products to distance markets.

New Delhi, August 23
After an anonymous letter was received at Delhi secretariat this week threatening terror strikes on temples ahead of Janmashtami celebrations on Sunday, security around over a dozen temples in the Capital has been beefed up.

Special security arrangements have been made around the Lakshmi Narayan temple and the Hanuman temple in Central Delhi, the Iskcon temple and Chhatarpur temple in South Delhi and the Gauri Shankar temple in Chandni Chowk.

Rajan Bhagat, Delhi police spokesperson said, “Security has been increased in consultation with the temple authorities. Security personnel have been deployed. Door frame metal detectors and CCTVs have been installed at various temples.”

“Besides the Delhi police, several volunteers have been roped in to keep a strict vigil in the temple premises during the festival,” he said.

Janmashtami is celebrated every year as the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna. On Tuesday, the Delhi government secretariat received a letter threatening terror strikes on temples by Kashmiri militants on Janmashtami.

“Though the letter bears a postage stamp, it is not clear from where it was sent. It has been forwarded to the home department,” an official said.

Some of the temples in the Capital have even written to the Delhi police for more security personnel during the festival.

“We have increased the demand for security personnel this year and asked for 3,000 police staff, including women cops, for keeping round the clock vigil on Janmashtami,” said V.K. Mishra, administrator in charge of the Lakshmi Narayan temple, popularly called Birla Mandir.

The temple has already put up 16 CCTV cameras and two metal detectors to keep a close watch on visitors.

At Iskcon temple in South Delhi, attracting throngs of devotees on Janmashtami, several watch towers have been erected to monitor the movement of devotees.

“Since there is a large influx of devotees in the temple on the festival, five separate entry points have been made to manage the rush. For security reasons, no one will be allowed to carry any bag, camera, mobile phone inside the temple premises,” said Bhajan Niranjan Das, communication in-charge of Iskcon.

Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna has sent a letter to temples, mosques and gurdwaras urging them to beef up security, especially during the festive season, keeping in mind the recent terror attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. — IANS

New Delhi, August 23
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) recently held two conferences on India’s unsung heroes and heroines of the freedom struggle like Lala Brindaban, who might have hit the documents of history of freedom struggles but are virtually unknown to the masses except for a few scholars.

There are many names like Maniram Dewan, Piyali Barua, Mayaram Borbora, Morongikhuwa Gohain from Assam’s hilly terrains who had played a catalyst role in the initial rebellion against British rule in India.

Why were these men and women with substantial contribution to the freedom struggle forgotten? Experts at the conference felt that probably the answer lies in tendencies of more ‘ahistoricity’ than historicity of events which determined the benchmark to be in history text books. 

Indeed, despite thousands of books written on India’s freedom struggle and subsequent Independence, the historians and political scientists left a huge void between the well-sung heroes and unsung ones. 

The theme of the two-day seminar was ‘One Goal, Many Streams: Leadership and Mass Participation.’

The seminar was largely the product of a lot of thinking on these unsung heroes and research by the IGNOU think tank.

The event was divided into seven sub-themes such as: ‘Untold stories of unacknowledged heroes and heroines’; ‘Press, freedom and penalties: Journalism during the freedom struggle’; ‘Role of art and culture in the freedom struggle: Theatre, literature and music’; ‘Gender issues in the freedom struggle’; ‘Leadership and mass participation in the freedom struggle’; ‘Leadership and mass participation in the regions’ and ‘Beyond the national boundaries: International perspectives of national leaders.’

Of these sub-themes, the first one was the most dominant as a perspective, because other six ones are well-documented in the lexicon of Indian History from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century.

It was perhaps for the first time any university in the country took up the issue so seriously and spread the idea across to the teaching community to identify the nuances of contribution to the overall struggle. The seminar included some power-point presentations.

IGNOU professors, scholars and academics from other universities broadly felt that new generation students, particularly of history and political science, should study the grassroots to find out the real unsung heroes and heroines who had contributed to the freedom struggle.

Former journalist and diplomat Kuldeep Nayyar, who opened the seminar, lauded the roles of past Indian leaders and lamented for not having enough of them today.

New Delhi, August 23
The Outer district police has claimed to have worked out several cases of cheating with the arrest of three persons, Nishant Goyal, Dev Aggarwal and Ashish Katyan from ICICI Bank, Rohini.

The police said that the accused procured credit cards of persons and used them for personal shopping.

The investigation was carried out on the complaint of H.L. Atri, who wanted to surrender his credit card. He had written to ICICI Bank in this regard.

On April 10 he received a phone call from the bank and was told that some persons would collect the card from his residence.

After submitting the card, the victim received a phone call from Maha Maya Jewellers asking him if he had authorised someone to shop from his card.

The caller also mentioned that there was a purchase of a gold chain worth Rs 15,615 on his card.

It was further developed that the accused were shopping on his credit card. It was found that the accused worked in a private outsourcing company that provided services to ICICI Bank.

The police said that the accused used to collect credit cards from residences of customers after receiving complaints.

Later, they used to shop in the name of the customer using his cards instead of blocking them. Five credit cards and five debit cards were recovered from them.

New Delhi, August 23
A 20-year-old youth died after he was allegedly thrown from the second floor of a house by his friends following a quarrel, the police said today.

Amit Kumar Mishra was found dead by his family members on Friday night near their house in Panchkuian in Central Delhi.

Mishra, who was preparing for his class X exam, was said to have gone out around 9.30 p.m with his friends next door for a walk.

“They quarrelled over some issue and Mishra was beaten up. His family called the police realising the situation was going out of control,” a police officer said.

The police talked with both the sides and the matter was sorted.

“Around 11.30 p.m., the boys made a call on Mishra’s mobile phone and asked him to come out. He left the house without informing anyone,” the police officer said.

“Finding him missing, the parents searched for him, only to find him lying in a pool of blood near the house,” the police said.

“The family members rushed him to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where he was declared brought dead,” Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.

Four persons were detained while a search was on for one more person.

According to primary investigation, Mishra was allegedly thrown from the second floor of a nearby house by his friends, with whom he had quarrelled. — IANS

New Delhi, August 23
Country’s first Art Summit, which is seeing participation from art galleries from both within the country and abroad, has blurred the line between niche and the mass, as hundreds trooped into Pragati Maidan today to see what was on offer at the three-day extravaganza.

The country’s first official art fair, India Art Summit 2008, which opened yesterday, has brought the high and mighty of the Indian art and some western promoters together to take contemporary art to the masses.

The first collaborative platform for the art is aimed at encouraging both international and regional involvement with Indian art and providing a place for various stakeholders of the industry to interact with each other.

It provided a platform to discuss issues like development of modern and contemporary Indian art in the presence of experts from Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

The summit, which will continue till Sunday, will be an annual affair and will be held next year from August 19 to 21.

Some of the country’s most prominent art galleries like Delhi Art Gallery, Emami Chisel Art, Gallery Espace, Akriti Art Gallery from Kolkata, Pallete Art Gallery, Nature Morte and Art Motif are participating in the three-day event.

Big names like Phillip Hoffman, founder of the world’s oldest and largest art hedge fund - The Fine Art Fund - and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale College of Art, rubbed shoulders with galleries, art dealers, artists and buyers from across the world.

Incidentally, Emami Chisel Art (ECA), which made its debut auction in February this year, where Husain’s ‘Tribute to Hashmi’ fetched a record-breaking Rs 10 crore and Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Kali III’ fetched 4.4 crore, is participating specially to give the prospective bidders a chance to register for their forthcoming auction by coming to the summit.

Emami Chisel Art Auction House is a joint venture between the Rs 1,500-crore turnover personal health care major Emami Group and Chisel Crafts, the parent company of the Kolkata-based Aakriti Art Gallery.

Says Vikram Bachhawat, director, Emami Chisel Art: “I am participating in the Art Summit to give exposure to new artists to the international visitors while also hoping to widen my own knowledge base about various artists from other locations.”

What is interesting is that while art galleries are viewing the Summit as a means to spread awareness, auction house Emami Chisel Art is hoping to use this platform to attract bidders who would like to participate in their upcoming November auction.

The online bidding commences from November 3 and will continue till the hammer finally comes down on November 8. Interested bidders can collect registration forms from the ECA stall during the Art Summit.

Occupying one of the largest spaces in the fair, one can visit Delhi Art Gallery’s space for getting a glimpse into one of the rarest collection of masters.

Delhi Art Gallery is presenting works of artists like FN Souza, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Jamini Roy, G.R. Santosh, Ambadas, Sohan Qadri, V. Vishwanadhan, Gogi Saroj Pal, Shanti Dave, Jyoti Bhatt, Jaya Ganguly and Sovan Kumar.

According to Ashish Anand, director, Delhi Art Gallery, “The summit is unique in itself as it is for the very first time in India that art galleries will come under one common platform. We will be showcasing the works of artists we represent from our gallery. The advantage is that the summit is not about business alone and the primary focus is to attract attention of those who are entering the art fray. Since the summit is expected to generate a good footfall, it is an opportunity for us to put forward the best quality. It is a significant move towards creating awareness among masses.”

The thought was echoed by Renu Modi, director, Gallery Espace, another veteran on the arts horizon.

“I believe art is for everyone and with so much talk about Indian art in the global market, the timing is right for India to offer an art fair to the world,” she says.

Alongside the fair, there is an Art Forum under way where key issues pertaining to the development and business of art are being discussed.

These sessions have been designed to give foremost importance to the development of art support systems.