New Delhi, October 11
The Delhi government has decided to construct concrete roads instead of coal tar ones, as the former are more durable and have less maintenance expenditure.

This decision was taken in a meeting of senior officers of the public works department of the Delhi government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

Chief secretary of the Delhi government, Rakesh Mehta presided over the meeting.

The move follows severe criticism received by the authorities over the pathetic condition of city roads this monsoon season.

Some of the roads were constructed recently, but could not stand incessant rain.

It was decided that initially 400 km of road would be constructed. Of this, 200 km would be constructed by the public works department, 100 by the MCD and the remaining 100 km would be constructed by the NDMC.

According to sources, departments concerned have contacted experts of the Road Research Institute (CRRI) for help in the construction work.

There is a major difference between the technicalities of construction of a coal tar road and that of a concrete road.

Coal tar roads can be used immediately after their construction, but this is not the case with concrete roads.

They can be used only after 28 days of their construction. During this period they have to be watered to make them stronger.

They are constructed in square shaped pieces, so that they can be easily repaired whenever needed. The minimum life of a concrete road is 30-40 years.

An expert of the CRRI informed that the construction cost of one kilometer of concrete road ranges from Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1 crore, which is too costly in comparison to coal tar roads.

However, if the cost of the maintenance of a coal tar road is taken into account, the construction cost of cemented roads appears much cheaper.

The Mumbai Municipal Corporation has constructed 300 kilometers of concrete roads, and it has not required any repair in the last two years, the official added.

New Delhi, October 11
Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and chief ministerial candidate of Delhi BJP, Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Delhi has become a crime capital.

Recent murder of mediaperson Somaya Vishwanathan has highlighted the point that the working women in Delhi are not safe.

Addressing a symposium, Malhotra said that the criminal incidents are increasing and terrorism is spreading its tentacles in Delhi.

Delhi is a union territory and the responsibility of law and order lies with the union minister of home affairs Shiv Raj Patil.

He is responsible for the increase in terrorism, atrocities on women and the helplessness of the common man.

Demanding the resignation of the home minister, Malhotra said if the BJP came to power in Delhi, the common man would get complete security and effective steps would be taken for the safety of women.

Senior BJP leader and deputy leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said that during the last ten years of Congress rule in Delhi, the Capital has become unsafe for women.

Incidents of kidnapping, rape and loot take place in broad daylight.

As a woman Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit has become completely insensitive towards the safety of women.

The comment made by her about Somaya Vishwanathan is very regrettable, Sushma Swaraj said.

Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Harsh Vardhan paid tributes to Vishwanathan and said that during the Congress rule in Delhi, heinous crimes had been committed.

Referring to Jessica Lal and Mattu murder cases, he appreciated the role of media.

Spokesman of the BJP, Prakash Javdekar said that in Pune women freely go out anywhere in midnight wearing jewellery, but this is not possible in Delhi.

Editor of the Pioneer and member of the Rajya Sabha Chandan Mitra said that pubic movement should be started against the atrocities committed against women.

Political leaders and social institutions should take initiative in this direction, he said.

New Delhi, October 11
Floating plastic bags, decaying fruits, coconut shells, bamboo frames, silver and papier-mache decoration and crumpled flowers, all on frothing waters.

This was the river scene after hundreds of idols of Goddess Durga and her pantheon were immersed in the Yamuna river on Thursday to mark the end of the Durga Puja festival in the capital.

Over 300 idols were immersed at two places in the river - Gita Ghat in North Delhi and Kalindi Kunj in South Delhi.

In the process, tonnes of lead-based toxic paints and other chemicals, flowers, leaves, coconut husks, clothes and so on have been left behind in the water.

The dying river, once known as lifeline of the capital, remains a mute witness to the depredation in name of religion with no one taking responsibility to clean the mess.

S.D. Makhijani, of the Central Pollution Control Board (CBCB), bluntly told IANS, “I don’t think the CPCB is going to clean up the leftovers; maybe state authorities should do something.”

He also said “no study or initiative to assess the impact of the idols’ immersion has been constituted.”

Environmental campaigners have decried the inaction of the authorities concerned.

“The authorities and the pollution control boards claim that it’s a religious issue and that they did their job by sending notices to puja committees. No action has been taken to check the environmental impact of this yearly event,” said Vimlendu Jha of the NGO ‘We for Yamuna’.

To ensure minimal harm to the river, the Delhi High Court had earlier asked the puja committees to use a recycling pit away from the river for disposing of all the material that is usually immersed along with the idols, Jha pointed out.

The authorities had also been asked to build artificial ponds where the idols could be immersed rather than add to the pollution load on the river, he said.

“It’s not just a question of hurting the river biologically and chemically. How can anyone immerse a revered goddess in something that is effectively a drain,” Jha wondered, referring to the state of the river.

The CPCB said in a report: “The Delhi stretch is in extremely deteriorated condition and not suitable for designated use.”

Puja organisers usually choose to turn a blind eye to the problem, though many of those who throng the marquees during the puja days feel “the immersions are not healthy for the river”.

“All puja items are thrown into the river along with idols of Durga - ideally the puja materials were flowers and fruits in pots made of clay, which were biodegradable. But tradition has changed. As more idols compete for glamour and use toxic non-biodegradable plastics and paints for decorations, the river ends up looking like a drain,” said Aditya Mazumdar, 21, member of the Joint Puja Committee in Chittaranjan Park, South Delhi.

Jha blames the callous attitude of the puja organisers for the “toxic mess”.

“The puja committees’ callous attitude, the government’s inaction and ignorant civil society are all responsible for the toxic mess in the river.

“In consultation with religious leaders and puja committees, the CPCB must create a coordination committee and encourage the use of organic dyes to control pollution in the Yamuna - and also fulfil the court’s directives,” he said.

But nobody seems interested. And the river that Hindus call sacred chokes to
death. — IANS

New Delhi, October 11
As rights violations and anti-Christian attacks spread across the country, many turn to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for redressal.

But the statutory body to address the issues is hamstrung by rules that severely limit its role, admits its chairperson S. Rajendra Babu on the eve of the commission’s 15th birthday.

The NHRC, which has often been reduced to a spectator as rights violations take place, cannot, for instance, act till a matter is formally brought to its notice, or if another statutory body is already looking into an issue.

“The NHRC works under various challenges. For instance, if any statutory body in a state takes note of a human rights violation there, we can’t do anything. Therefore, we haven’t been able to do anything about the anti-Christian violence in Karnataka,” Babu told IANS in an interview.

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and the state human rights commission have already been looking into cases of violence in Karnataka.

However, the NHRC has issued a notice to the Karnataka chief secretary after an Ahmedabad-based NGO alleged that the local administration seemed to be colluding with the attackers.

In Orissa, where thousands of Christians were rendered homeless, churches attacked and at least 35 people killed after the murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader in August, the NHRC sent a team to probe the matter only after a petition by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.

“In Madhya Pradesh where there have been similar cases of violence, the NHRC has not intervened because no one has approached us, which is necessary for us to take action,” Babu said.

The NHRC, he said, doesn’t know quite how to deal with honour killing, in which families kill their members for bringing dishonour.

“It is very difficult to deal with cases of honour deaths, despite them being human rights violations. That’s because the NHRC Act prescribes inquiry only of public servants,” Babu said.

Despite the in-built limitations, the commission, which completes 15 years of its existence on Sunday, is gradually expanding its ambit and sensitising officials and the average citizen to the sanctity of human rights. — IANS

New Delhi, October 11
India needs to better understand the factors leading to terrorism in order to uproot it, says Baroness Vivien Stern, president of NGO Penal Reform International.

“Very good intelligence, very good police, better awareness of international operations and most important, better understanding of what drives terrorism is what India needs in order to counter terrorism,” Stern said on Saturday at a workshop on detention organised by the National Human Rights.

The workshop was to mark Commission’s (NHRC) 15th anniversary. Penal Reform International (PRI) is an international NGO working on penal and criminal justice reform worldwide.

Stern was the chief guest at the two-day workshop that concludes on Sunday.

According to her, terrorism can’t be defeated by “abandoning the rule of law”.

“A person is innocent until proved guilty. Once a person is detained, it is the state’s responsibility to take care of him, which includes healthcare and respecting rights such as access to his lawyer and contact with his family.

“In this regard therefore, inspection of prisons by rights bodies like the NHRC and state human rights commissions is necessary to uphold human rights,” she added.

Stern, who is in India for only two days, said that she could not stay in India longer because of an important debate scheduled in the House of Lords.

“On Monday there will be a debate on a proposal that under certain circumstances, the police should be able to detain people for 42 days, on the basis of suspicion, before charging them with any offence.

“So far, the maximum time period to hold a person is 28 days and that too is being done rarely, so why the need to increase the period to 42 days? In all possibility, the debate will tilt against the proposal,” she said. — IANS

New Delhi, October 11
Santosh, a victim of the Delhi serial blasts on September 13 lost the struggle for life at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLH) yesterday.

Santosh, 35, had been in coma since September 13. “In the first few days only we had realised that she was not responding to our treatment, but we still tried our best. She was put on ventilator after operation. She died yesterday morning due to brain heamorrhage,” said SK Sharma, chief medical officer, RMLH.

Her body was handed over to the family after a postmortem at the Lady Harding Medical College yesterday afternoon.

She was cremated at the Sant Nagar crematorium later. Separated from her husband, Santosh lived with her maternal family in Gaffar Market.

“She has suffered a lot in her life. Santosh started living with her parents after her in-laws harassed her and who knew that she had to suffer more in the hospital for nearly a month,” said Devi Das, victim’s relative.

Four members of Santosh’s family fell victims to the Gaffar Market blast. Her younger sister Pooja was declared brought dead at the same hospital.

“Their father Rama fractured his left upper arm in the same blast and was treated in RML,” said SK Sharma.

Mother Krishna lost her left eye in the blast and is still being treated for splinter injuries in the abdomen.

“She was operated upon in the first few days of her admission in the hospital and then shifted to the ICU. She started recovering later,” said Sharma.

The family used to sit outside their house in lane number 42 in the evenings.

“Like every other day they were sitting at the corner of the lane. The bomb was in the autorickshaw that was parked right next,” said Devi Das.

“When Pooja died, we decided not to tell their mother, who herself was being treated. However, after Santosh’s death we could not hide it from her anymore,” said Devi Das.

The doctors said that the mother was discharged temporarily. “She would be admitted again in a few days. Her injuries are quite serious and though she is out of danger, it would take sometime for them to heal,” said SK Sharma.

New Delhi, October 11
The Sweden-India Nobel memorial week was inaugurated in the capital on Saturday, coinciding with the announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The Nobel memorial week, inaugurated by the Swedish ambassador to India Lars-Olof Lindgren, will promote awareness about the awards, the culture of the host country - Sweden, and boost bilateral ties between India and Sweden that nurture a shared history of global peace initiatives.

Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland, won this year’s Nobel Prize for peace.

The Nobel Prize winners from India include Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, economist Amartya Sen, medical scientist Hargobind Khorana, missionary Mother Teresa, physicists C.V. Raman and Subramanian Chandrasekhar.

The week began with a Nobel quiz at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

The team from IIT-Mumbai won the sweepstakes between eight crack teams in the finals. The winners will be taken to Sweden to see the country’s landmarks, including the Nobel Museum.

The ambassador also inaugurated a weeklong Swedish food festival at the Taj Mansingh as part of the Nobel jamboree.

Ties between India and Sweden date back to the 1950s when former Swedish head of state Olof Palme, a long-time friend of India, visited the country as a leader of the Swedish student movement.

“This week is a tribute to Alfred Nobel, who stood for everything that was important to our country. He was an innovator, inventor and a businessman who brought his inventions to the real world; and put up a marketable base for his inventions as viable commercial products. He also set up 90 companies in 20 nations and laid the guidelines for the globalisation of the Swedish industry,” the ambassador told IANS.

The Swedish people hold the record for the highest number of per capita patents.

Lindgren said he hoped to see more Nobel Prize winners from India. The ambassador said there were 12 Swedish companies currently operating in India.

They include Volvo, Sandvik, Ericsson, Tetrapak, ABB, Astra Zeneca, SAAB. — IANS

New Delhi, October 11
Contemporary sculptor Prithpal Singh Ladi, who has created waves with his futuristic stone monuments, steel dragonflies and frog torsos, is coming to the capital with his first solo show in 10 years on October 15.

Born in Shillong in 1955, Ladi studied sculpture at the M.S. University in Baroda. He was conferred the National Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Award and the Gujarat LKA awards and won a scholarship to Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris.

He later taught at the School for Architecture, Ahmedabad, and the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi.

The show, presented by Gallery Threshold, will feature sculptures in gemstones, glass, metal and other materials.

The works of 53-year-old Ladi exhibit his penchant for the eccentric and the bizarre. They reflect his constant struggle to reflect his personal life - his lone sibling suffers from Alzeihmer’s disease and his family shuttles between Munich and Shillong.

“For nearly 10 years, everything that I loved was put on hold because I had to take care of the family,” he told IANS on phone from Shillong.

Almost all his works - which have a slight autobiographical tinge - is a tribute to the suffering of a family member. But his imaginative use of new materials redeems the works from being a personal indulgence.

Through intricately detailed dragonflies with thin delicate wings and frog torsos, mechanical devices like an antique typewriter, animals made of old battery cells crudely joined together and limp human figures in postures of obeisance, Ladi imbues his shapes with a morbid humour that connects to the viewer.

At times, his dragonflies look like giant fairies and at others they look like hideous creatures from outer space.

“When I started creating my recent body of works two-and-a- half years ago, I did not plan to show them. They were meant for my 10-year-old son who lives in Munich with my wife. She is a German Kathak dancer,” he said.

Ladi’s works have an element of affluence and glitter about them. Take his series ‘Jewel Insects’ for instance.

Large dragonflies made of glass, gemstones and metal make a reference to his childhood years spent in Shillong. “I have also used the butterflies of Cherrapunji as a reference,” he said.

The sculpture ‘Replotted’ in fibre glass, in which a bemused man tries to hold down a fossilised butterfly that had almost escaped him, is a throwback to his days of carefree childhood in Shillong.

In another sculpture titled ‘Muskan’ after his son, Ladi has used an antique typewriter to create what he calls a “jungle story” for the child.

“I was trying to revisit my childhood through my son. Just like a child, I learn every day to resurrect dead material that is no longer of any use,” he said.

Shards of whiskey bottles, broken tube-lights, fused bulbs, old chandeliers and scraps of old trophies find their way into his work.

“Sometimes I get carried away,” he says. He also uses his works to comment about the state of judiciary and courts in the country.

“Our property is mired in litigations. It creeps into my work,” he says. — IANS

New Delhi, October 11
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has said that her government had been giving top priority to promote information technology (IT).

The setting up of Indraprastha Institute of Information and Technology (IIIT) in Delhi would give fillip to acceptability of IT, which has ensured transparency and helped in developing a new work culture.

Laying foundation stone of IIIT at Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase-III, the Chief Minister said that the Delhi government is committed to helping IIIT become a world-class institute.

The uniqueness of the institute will be its focus on specific domain areas and on software products. IIIT will focus on areas like e-governance, defence applications, life sciences, technology-led education, finance, automobile engineering, and mobile computing, she added.

The IIIT started functioning from this academic year, temporarily using facilities provided by NSIT in Dwarka.

Its permanent campus in Okhla is still under construction. The institute will have B.Tech, M.Tech, and Ph.D programmes.