New Delhi, August 28
The parents and local guardians of Pushpanjali Raj (16), the class XI student of DPS RK Puram, who allegedly jumped to her death from the fifth floor school hostel yesterday, have expressed apprehensions at the school authorities’ version that the girl took her own life. They believe that there is more to the girl’s death than what meets the eye.

Shiv Narayan Ram, Pushpanjali’s father has demanded a CBI probe in the accident as he believes that his daughter could not have cut the iron mesh in the bathroom as she was of short height and could not have reached the window to jump. “It is difficult for us to believe that she has committed suicide. Everything was perfectly normal with her and there was no reason that she could take such a step. Thorough investigation, probably by the CBI could bring out the truth,” said Shiv Narayan Ram, who reached the Capital from Jharkhand in the morning today along with Pushpanjali’s mother. He met senior police officers of the district including Shalini Singh, DCP (South-West) and expressed his apprehensions.

Shiv Narayan Ram is the managing director of a cooperative society in Jharkhand and the family is from Hazaribagh.

The girl’s local guardian Durgesh Pandey, a friend of her father, who was first to be called by the school authorities after the incident, too cried foul and stated that a proper and thorough investigation should be done.

“The girl had joined the school only a couple of months ago and was happy to be in the school. She was not someone who would commit suicide. It needs to be investigated whether she was killed and the case cannot be just shut as a simple case of suicide,” said Pandey, a scientist. 
The parents and well-wishers of the family also question delay of reporting the incident to the police. Pushpanjali Raj, student in the science stream at the school was taken to the Holy Angel Hospital in Vasant Vihar before 4 pm yesterday while the police said they were informed of the death only after 4.39 pm. “Why did the school authorities not call the police at the time of accident? Surely, the school had something to hide,” said a family friend.

However, the school authorities maintain that after the accident, their priority was to provide the best possible medical aid to the student and they did exactly that.

The hostel warden Rajbala has also denied any change in the behaviour of Pushpanjali or any sign of depression or sadness which could have led her to take the extreme step. The friends and teachers of the dead student too hold the similar feelings.

Meanwhile, the police is busy with investigating the case without divulging any details of their findings. “We will let you know if we come up with something sinister in the case,” told a police official from RK Puram police station. 

New Delhi, August 28
With the arrest of a notorious cheat Sandeep Sethi, 35, of Jangpura Extension, the Darya Ganj police has claimed to solve five cases of cheating. The victims in the cases were jewellers of Chandni Chowk and Karol Bagh.

The accused allegedly impersonated himself as a doctor and used to order jewellery shops to deliver ornaments at some nearby clinics or nursing homes. After receiving the delivery, he used to disappear with the booty without making any payment.

Yesterday at about 2.30 p.m., Sunil Kumar Jaiswal, owner of Siddh Ornament, Kucha Mahajani in Chandni Chowk received a call. The caller introduced himself as Dr Jain from 108, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj. He ordered a golden set weighing about 65 gms and wanted the delivery at his clinic. Kumar himself went to the given address, where a person posing as Dr Jain took the delivery. He asked him to collect the payment from counter No.23. However, Kumar discovered that no such counter existed in the clinic. On his hue and cry, patrolling staff of the Darya Ganj police station—sub-inspector Pankaj Kumar and head constable Mahender Kumar—apprehended the accused Sandeep Sethi and recovered one gold set worth Rs 80, 000 from him.

On interrogation Sethi confessed cheating two other jewellers in the Darya Ganj area and two in the Rajender Nagar area in a similar manner. He said that he had undergone a kidney transplant operation a year ago and was in need of money to repay his borrowed amount. He saidhe got the idea from the Hindi film ‘Apradh’ in which Feroz Khan cheated jewellers in a similar manner.

During investigation, the police recovered ornaments worth more than Rs 6 lakh from him.

New Delhi, August 28
Expressing the growing popularity of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), Justice R. C Lahoti, former Chief Justice of India, has said mediation and conciliation are gaining a strong foothold in India because of it being less time-consuming and simple as compared to arbitration.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar on “Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Era of Globalisation” by the Amity Law School on its Noida campus, Lahoti said in India there were over one million lawyers in the Bar Council and more than 1500 former judges, who can act as mediators and conciliators. As such, India has a lot of scope for ADR.

Discussing some bottleneck issues, he said the system of arbitration is ad hoc, it needs to be contemporary and state-of-art. On the other hand, the mindset of people has to change. More experts are needed to facilitate conciliation in matrimonial cases and labour law cases.

Welcoming the guests, Prof M. K Balachandran, director, Amity Law School, gave a bird’s eyeview of the seminar, which is structured in various interesting and stimulating sessions, including compulsory mediation in matrimonial disputes; Limitation on judicial review of arbitration awards; Application of ADR in the field of professional negligence; Efficacy of arbitral proceedings; Domain name disputes and cyber squatting; international conventions and their application of ADR in India

Justice V. A Mohta, former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, expressed his views on the gory picture of arbitration in India as a result of which the international community was running away from arbitration as well as India.

Dr Subhash C. Kashyap, former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha said, “Although there is no mention of ADRs in our Constitution that does not negate the need and importance of the mechanism of alternate dispute resolution by mediation and conciliation. Legal frame needs to be changed and the procedures which are in the interest of general public incorporated.”

New Delhi, August 28
The Delhi government has decided to organise cultural programmes during the Commonwealth Games 2010. This decision was taken after Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit met union minister for sports M. S. Gill.

Sources said Gill asked the Chief Minister to make a final plan of cultural programmes during the games so that it could be a remarkable event. Delhi is a hub of citizens of all the states of the country so the cultural programmes should also be of different cultures.

The programmes will be held in the evening at different venues in the capital city between October 4 and 13, 2010. Delhi would be hosting Commonwealth Games from October 3 to 14. There would be main cultural events on opening and closing days.

The programmes will comprise dance, music, folk and modern music, screening of famous films, puppet show etc for visitors and players, the sources said.

The Chief Minister held a meeting in this connection which was attended by special adviser Commonwealth Games R. Narainswami, principal secretary to CM P.K. Tripathi, education secretary Reena Ray and eminent personalities in the fields of dance, culture, music, theatre etc.

She requested the cultural personalities to prepare a list of venues and detail of programmes to be organised.

The city government would bring out a calendar of events for the convenience of visitors. The various venues, which were also mentioned, include Nehru Park, Connaught Place Central Park, Red Fort, Old Fort, Firoz Shah Kotla, Ravindra Bhawan, Humayun Tomb, Safdarjang Tomb, India Gate and the games village.

It was also considered that food courts could be organised to present cuisines of Delhi.

The government would also consider illumination over historical buildings and other monuments. The government would like to show case cultural diversity of the country and composite culture of Delhi. 

New Delhi, August 28
South Asia Documentary Festival was inaugurated in the Capital today. This is the sixth documentary festival organised by Centre for Civil Society (CCS).

The festival that primarily focuses on documentary films made on issues surrounding livelihood, would screen short and long documentary films on the premises of India Habitat Centre till August 31.

“Documentaries that would be screened here would address a range of challenges faced by the rural and urban poor,” said Parth Shah, president, CCS.

The organisers chose some of the top international documentaries out of the hundreds of entries sent by the film makers. “Films are the best medium of conveying social messages to the viewers. Around the world the poor sectional hardly have any platforms to express themselves,” he said.

The opening ceremony was dedicated to the cause of Tibetan refugees in the country.

“The Tibetans are facing political deprivation and we want to express our solidarity. The inaugural session is dedicated to their struggle,” said Parth.

Apart from the cultural presentation by Tibetan students, ‘Tribute to Life’, a film by Neal Kartik, was also screened today.

The official representative of the Dalai Lama, Tempa Tsering, opened the film festival.

“We are thankful to the organisers of the festival for dedicating it to Tibetan people. We could not have had better hosts than Indians,” he said.

While going back to the history of Tibet and its conflict with China, Tempa said, “We did not leave that country for nothing. Chinese systematically destroyed whatever we liked.”

Twelve documentary films would be screened tomorrow in India Habitat Centre. 

Noida, August 28
Three persons, including the husband of a woman, who was killed for dowry in 1998, were sentenced to life by a fast track court in Noida.

The additional district and session judge, Narinder Kumar also slapped a fine of Rs 27,000 each on the three convicts. However, two others were let off due to lack of sufficient evidence. In all 11 witnesses were examined.

According to the prosecution, Rekha, a resident of Khora Makanpur village was married to Aditya Tyagi of Gojha village in February 1998. Rekha’s parents had reportedly given Rs 3 lakh in cash to Tyagi as dowry, besides they had also spent another Rs 5 lakh on the marriage.

But immediately after the marriage, Aditya’s family demanded another Rs 2 lakh in cash and a Ceilo car. When Rekha’s family failed to meet the demand she was harassed and tortured.

On October 5, 1998, Rekha’s parents had called a Panchayat in Makanpur village to sort out the problem. After a compromise, Rekha had gone to her in-laws house the same day.

But, on October 8 1998, three days after the departure, Rekha’s parents were informed over phone that their daughter had died.

However, the postmortem report showed that Rekha died due to poisoning.

Rekha’s brother Krishna lodged a case of dowry death naming Rekha’s husband Aditya Tyagi, elder brother-in-law Vijender Tyagi, younger brother-in-law Devinder, Divender’s wife Anita, mother-in-law Bala Tyagi and Vijender’s wife, Kusum Tyagi.

Vijender Tyagi died during the course of the case.

The court sentenced Aditya, Devinder and Anita to life imprisonment under sections 304 b and 498 of IPC and 314 section of the Dowry Act.

However, Kusum and Bala Tyagi were given benefit of doubt by the court.

Greater Noida, August 28
Farmers of Ghori Bachhera village in Greater Noida have alleged that the Greater Noida Authority and District Administration have not yet honoured the agreement reached with them.

The farmers, again putting a spoke in Greater Noida’s development works, have called upon the authorities to “fulfill your promises if you want to start the project works”.

The farmers of Saini village who have demanded quick payment of the land compensation have again resumed their agitation. As part of the agitation, farmers have stopped the work on projects. “We will not allow the work on projects of the Greater Noida Authority to continue till the Authority makes payments of the land compensation at hiked rates,” they warned.

The farmers are insisting that increased rates of land compensation should be made applicable with effect from April 2005.

According to chairman of Greater Noida, Lalit Srivastava, it will take the authorities four days to make payments to farmers as per the agreement between Ghori Bachhera farmers and the state authorities. Farmers will also be compensated for the losses and damage caused by police action, the chairman said.

Besides, farmers will be given additional compensation in the form of ‘bonus’, Lalit Srivastava said. The works on all ongoing projects has been suspended for four days.

Meanwhile district magistrate of Bulandshahr, Shashi Bushan, met the Dadri farmers who were reluctant to give their land to Bulandshahr Development Authority. But it appears farmers stuck to their stand and the district magistrate’s efforts could not cut much ice.

Farmers want to have the option to sell their land direct to the builders of their choice at market rates, it is learnt.

New Delhi, August 28
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is facing a financial crunch and bearing the brunt are people who cannot afford treatment at private hospitals.

This came to light when the relatives of Durgawati, a resident of Pratapgarh, Allahabad, were constantly turned away by the officials of the billing department of AIIMS, when they came to inquire about the sanctioned money required for the spinal chord operation of Durgawati.

Durgawati underwent 24 stitches on head at Rooprani Medical College of Allahabad after an accident, and was referred to AIIMS.

Thereafter, on August 10, senior neuro-surgeon Dr Sumit Sinha sent the patient to AIIMS Trauma Centre, handing an estimate of Rs 1 lakh for Durgawati’s operation. On August 16, Durgawati got a bed in TC-5 of the AIIMS Trauma Centre and was being treated by Dr Deepak Agarwal, assistant professor and neuro-surgeon.

Inder Dubey, husband of Durgawati, having an annual income of just 18,000, applied for the required financial assistance from the government under the National Illness Assistance Fund Scheme (NIAFS). Now, though the AIIMS sub-committee has already sanctioned the money on August 18, the patient is yet to undergo the operation, as the money has not been yet sent to the neuro department of AIIMS Trauma Centre.

When asked, the chief medical social service officer of AIIMS, Mrs Kukreja said, “Under the NIAFS, Rs 1 lakh was sanctioned by the AIIMS sub-committee and the necessary documents were forwarded on August 18 itself to the billing section, and now it is their lookout as to when and how the patient gets the money.”

The billing section officials of AIIMS said that a letter has been sent in this regard to the union health and family welfare ministry on July 22 along with a comprehensive list containing all the details for necessary adjustment and replenishment to the amount of Rs 40 lakh, and now it is the ministry’s prerogative to release the amount.

Meanwhile, sources from the health ministry department said that it would take another ten days to send the money to the hospital.

To make matters worse, the doctors at AIIMS Trauma Centre have told the patient’s family to vacate the bed, and come back only after the required money for the purpose is arranged.

Dr Deepak Agarwal said, “Durgawati is a paraplegia patient, having a fracture with damaged d4, d5, d6 nerves. Being a case of elective surgery, the operation can be delayed, and we can start the treatment only when the required money is sent to us so that the needed plates can be procured.”

Now, the delay from the health ministry doesn’t seem to bother the hospital authorities, but it is coming down heavily upon those miserable people who have either already vacated the beds at AIIMS and Trauma Centre, waiting inside the hospital campus or are shown the way out like Durgawati, without complete treatment. 

New Delhi, August 28
Desperate and rather upset teachers are going all out to protest against the “unwarranted” delay in the submission of the UGC pay review committee report. Many under the banner of FEDCUTA will sit on a hunger strike outside UGC office on Friday. Teachers have been demanding an early submission of this report since June this year especially since the education sector is in for a major expansion with many new central universities as well as IITs and IIMs coming up.

The general view among educationists and teachers is that teaching is a rather neglected sector, very low on the priority list of students due to low pay scales and few perks.

“Our idea is that the teaching profession attracts talent. Teaching is very low on the priority list and since the educational sector is going in for a massive expansion, quality and talented teachers are needed and for this, we need better service conditions. However, this recurring delay in the pay review committee report is disappointing for us all,” says Aditya Narayan Misra, FEDCUTA and DUTA president.

Currently, FEDCUTA in a communication to the UGC chairman has demanded an immediate submission of its report by the UGC’s Pay Review Committee (PRC). Teachers have got agitated after press reports that the PRC may take another 3 to 6 months to submit its report and have demanded an immediate submission of the report.

FEDCUTA apprehends that if the submission of the report and decision of the UGC, MHRD and the Union cabinet on it is delayed by another 3 to 6 months, the pay revision of teachers may have to wait for formation of the new government at the Centre and this could well lead to further delay.

FEDCUTA has stressed that if the higher education system has to deliver and accelerate the socio-economic development, the system must attract and retain talent in teaching profession. Education is ‘mother’ of all the professions and provides a reservoir of engineers, doctors, teachers, journalists, administrators and social activists. There is strong need to make teaching as one of the priority professions and for this parity in working and service conditions with competing professions is a prerequisite.

Teachers have urged the UGC chairperson for an early decision on attractive initial higher pay at the entry level for lecturers and fast and sound career advancement scheme including professorship / professor’s grade in colleges, better facilities to faculty for academic advancement and good working conditions.

New Delhi, August 28
A city woman has alleged molestation by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable at Welcome Metro station yesterday night.

According to Payal Singh, 32 (name changed), she was molested by the security person on the pretext of frisking. However, CISF officials maintained that Sher Singh, the accused CISF constable mistook the woman to be a man and asked her to come out of the ladies queue at the ticket counter.

“CISF head constable Sher Singh mistook the woman for a man due to her clothes and tried to drag her out from the ladies queue. The woman slapped Sher Singh and while he was trying to save himself his hand accidentally broke a button of her clothes,” the CISF officials maintained. The incident took place around 10 p.m. last night.

According to Sher Singh, as soon as he realised that he was dealing with a woman, he withdrew his hands and apologised. But Payal, feeling humiliated, shouted for help and called the police.

The CISF has set an inquiry committee on the incident and the officials have assured of appropriate action against Sher Singh if found guilty. 

New Delhi, August 28
While there may be some truth in these ancient words of wisdom that men turn naughty at forty, there is no parallel homily describing the state of women of that age.

However, recent scientific forays into this area of research have strongly indicated that women at this age generally tend to become complacent about their appearance largely because of their preoccupation with matters of hearth and home.

But thanks to the immense publicity given to the recent global trend among women for rejuvenation and maintaining a youthful look, many middle-aged women in India are also shedding their inhibitions and taking recourse to rejuvenation regimens and restorative surgery.

“Women here were a bit slow to react initially but know they have actually realised the importance of maintaining their looks,” says Dr Devansh, plastic and cosmetic surgeon at Max Healthcare, here.

He asserts that more and more women are taking the route of surgical procedures like liposuction, which is the process that reduces the excess fat from different body parts. Liposuction makes the de-shaped body shapely and also works on the chin, neck, cheek, hips, breasts, abdomen, buttocks, hips, thighs, calves, knees and ankles. Breast surgery and botox treatments are a few other modes of enhancing the looks that women tend to adopt.

“Each one of us knows where we are out of shape; we live with a wish list, but are reluctant to take action. Now it’s time to go out and get that wish fulfilled. Tummy tucks and liposuction improve the shape of women, the sag is gone and the abdomen regains shape and you acquire a figure you can boast off in any dress,” says Dr Devansh.

“Anything which is nice and attractive attracts — whether it is a nice house, nice dress or a nice girl. Women should take care of their health not only for stopping their husbands from straying but also for their own sake. It is not only a matter of physical fitness to them but it also gives psychological fitness. Their confidence also goes up,” says Dr Vinita Malhotra Jha, psychiatrist, Umkal Healthcare.