New Delhi, December 2
An old couple were injured and cash and jewellery robbed from their house by unidentified people last night in Burari area of North Delhi.

According to sources, Ram Milan Sharma (68) and his wife Omvati (65) were asleep when about six persons entered their house in C Block of West Kamal Vihar Colony around 1 am.

The couple were hit on their heads by the butt of the pistol leaving them unconscious. The neighbours who were woken up by the noise in their house called up the police.

However, the robbers escaped with some cash, jewellery and mobile before the police could arrive on the scene.

The couple were rushed to the trauma centre.

According to the hospital authorities, the condition of the couple was stable.

According to the neighbours, the robbers who attacked the couple had earlier entered the house of one Ramjeet Painter. They tied his hands and feet at gunpoint and started looking for valuables. While the two robbers stayed there, four of their accomplices entered the house of Ram Milan Sharma who lives next door to Ramjeet Painter. Omvati woke up by the sound made by the gate when the robbers were opening it. As she called for help, the angry robbers hit her with the pistol butt. Her husband too was hit when he came to her rescue.

Ram Milan Sharma lived with his wife alone. He deals in property. The couple has a daughter who is married.

Police has lodged a complaint and is investigating the matter. No arrest has been made till the evening today.

“We are checking out the movement of bad characters of the area and believe it to be the handiwork of someone who is well aware of the location of these houses. We will solve the case very soon,” assured a police official adding that the exact loss of the couple would only be known once they return home and check their belongings. 

London/N. Delhi, December 2
The terror attacks in Mumbai have raised serious doubts about New Delhi hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, an official said on Tuesday.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Michael Hooper told the British media that India’s security situation was being monitored and there was the possibility of the 2010 event being shifted to another country.

“Security is a major issue. What is disturbing is that this (trend) has been continuing for the last nine months. In that backdrop, we continue to assess the situation, although we have not taken a definitive position. We have our own security consultants who would continue to monitor the situation in the country,” Hooper said.

“Even before the Commonwealth Youth Games (held in Pune, 160km from Mumbai, in October), we held discussions at the highest level with the government and shared detailed information with them, as the serial bomb blasts in Delhi had taken place only a few weeks back.”

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), however, said there was no threat of the Games being shifted from India.

“There is no threat of India losing the Commonwealth Games. The government will provide top class security for the event,” IOA general secretary Randhir Singh told IANS.

“The security will be as good as the Beijing Olympics and other international events.”

India is the second Asian country to win the rights to host the Games after repeated failed bids.

Doubts have also been raised on the terror-prone subcontinent hosting the 2011 cricket World Cup and the issue will be raised by Cricket Australia in the International Cricket Council’s meeting in Cape Town this week. — IANS

Noida, December 2
Delhi Development Authority and Noida Authority have reached an agreement on 311 acres of UP land lying at various locations in Delhi. Noida has agreed to hand over 25 acres of land to DDA. On the other hand, DDA agreed in principal to Noida’s residential, commercial and institutional schemes to be brought on this land.

Noida is expected to earn Rs 20,000 crore from this UP land in Delhi, it is learnt.

Now there is complete clarity on the use of UP lands situated in Okhla, Jamia and on Mathura Road in Delhi.

Noida chief executive officer Mohinder Singh said Delhi and UP governments had been having a dispute on the 311 acres of land at these three locations for the past two decades.

DDA is likely to bring a proposal in the next meeting. DDA had demanded 25 acres of land that it needs for the expansion of Metro rail network.

The UP state government has given its consent to it and the land will be handed over to Delhi Development Authority.

On the remaining 70 per cent of land, Noida will bring its residential, commercial and institutional schemes. Noida will have the right to develop this land, the CEO said.

New Delhi, December 2
Indira Gandhi National Open University is offering a five-day training course for a group of select legal correspondents/journalists on its campus. The training course will begin on December 7.

The organiser’s committee has on its panel members from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the National Legal Service Authority, Press Council of India and Editors Guild of India. The committee is patronised by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and chaired by eminent Supreme Court judges, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice GN Ray.

The training has been organised with a view to expanding and deepening the relationship between the judiciary and the media. The training is expected to pave the way for an academic programme on this theme in IGNOU for educating the GenNext journalists.

Journalists in India, unlike in the USA, do not enjoy legal protection under any special rights. All their rights are sourced from Statute Article 19.1 (a), which is similar to all citizens of the country. For two years now, the statute provision has been boosted by the Right to Information Act, 2005.

However, journalists in India enjoy the judiciary’s interpretation of the freedom of expression in wider connotation. The Press, which acts as the channel of information to the people, keeps them hooked to the affairs of the state and ventilate their views on corrective actions when things go awry.

This was echoed in the statement of the Chief Justice of India, who in his National Law Day 2007 speech, said, “There is a lot of misinformation in the media about the state of the judiciary and the status of administration of justice. Propriety demands that the judiciary speaks through its judgments. Yet democracy demands that information remains at the root of effective judicial administration. In this spirit, I strive to put before people all dimensions of the administration of justice, and redeem their faith in the judicial system.”

The key aspects of the workshop will be to stress the importance of the public’s ‘right to know’, also the media’s responsibility to inform in liberal democracies, constitutional status of media freedom, its scope and limitations, independence of judiciary and the elements of fair trial, contempt of court, objective and scope of reporting judicial proceedings, matters of sub judice, impact of individual rights, administration of justice, and social expectation of rule of law and purity of justice.

A few legal luminaries and eminent members from the Editors Guild, Press Council of India, Indian Law Institute and National Legal Service Authority will take classes to train the journalists.

New Delhi, December 2
Re-polling at nine polling booths in three assembly constituencies today was peaceful and saw a turnout of 57%. With this voting at 69 assembly constituencies have completed.

Delhi chief electoral officer Satbir Silas Bedi said that 57.25% voters had turned out on Tuesday as compared to 56.3% on Saturday. She said that out of 9,583 voters, 5,583 turned up for voting on Tuesday.

She further informed that the counting of votes would take place as per the schedule. Votes for the constituencies, where re-polling was held, would be counted on December 8.

The polling station at Matiala saw 81% turnout, while Burari saw a turnout of 51%. The six polling stations at Malviya Nagar reported a turnout of 51%.

Bedi claimed re-polling took place in the surveillance of videographers, micro-observers and police personnel.

Re-polling at nine stations took place because of problems with the EVMs, concerns expressed by political parties of bogus voting and wrongly notifying polling booth to voters.

New Delhi, December 2
Delhi police dogs — Rozy (Labrador) and Anuradha (Doberman Pincher) — won the first and the third prize respectively in the 2nd Dog Show organised at Haryana Police Academy, Madhuban.

Seven teams of state police and central police organisations i.e., Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, BSF and CISF had participated in the event on November 22 and 23.

The show focused on testing the ability of dogs to sniff explosives, narcotics and tracking besides clearing hurdles, balancing on rope and demonstration walking on rear legs.

Rozy won the gold medal in sniffing explosives while Anuradha got bronze medal in tracking explosives.

Their trainers constable Anil Kumar and Vidhya Sagar also got a prize of Rs 3,000 and 1,000 respectively.

Rozy had won a gold medal last year too.

New Delhi, December 2
A major fire broke out today afternoon at Sena Bhavan close to the highly secured President’s house. However, no injury has been reported.

According to sources, not much damage has taken place.

The fire that broke out in room number 238 on the second floor of Sena Bhavan. The building houses the headquarters of army establishments.

According to the fire department, the cause of fire is yet to be ascertained.

“We had received a fire call around 2:40 pm. We managed to control the fire with the help of 13 fire tenders. No one was injured in the incident,” said a fire official.

The building was vacated and work was stalled for more than an hour.

This is the third incident of fire at Sena Bhawan this year.

New Delhi, December 2
It’s darkness yet an incandescent ray of hope; it’s stony silence yet more vocal; it’s difficult to tread yet

confident of reaching the goal; disabled yet not lacking and quite able in spirits—this attitude must be ingrained in the spirits of all those people who are challenged in some or the other way like is the case with the 12 people who were awarded with the 10th Shell Hellen Keller Award today at IIC in the Capital by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), a trust that identifies and addresses the needs of the PWD by empowering them.

Life wasn’t easy for Amutha Shanthy S. (31 years), recipient of the Hellen Keller Award under the disabled persons category. She was born without her left forearm. But with support from family and Avvai Ashrama, she overcame her impairment with robust confidence and went on to quit her bread-winning job in 2005 and materialised her dream project, Thiyagam Women Trust with the aim to provide self-employment opportunities to the disabled women and children in the rural areas.

She says, “In just three years, Thiyagam has empowered 57 physically challenged women by giving them computer training. It’s also running free evening tuition centres in eight villages, and presently, 265 students are receiving free training on life skills. Then, in April we are sending a proposal to the Tamil Nadu government along with a request of eight lakhs for it.”

Hari Raghvan from Mumbai, another awardee under the same section, is visually impaired and is working as a solution expert at IBM. He believes himself to be the only person with MBA in Sales and Marketing coupled with experience in sales and providing vocational training to students of National Association of Blind.

Atul Ranjan Sahay from Jharkhand, forced to live in

darkness after 23 years of his life due to cataract was the third to receive the honour under the disabled persons category. With an MBA in Marketing and HR, he is currently serving in the capacity of head-business excellence in JUSCO. Backed by excellent professional credentials, he holds the credit of being recognised by Ratan Tata himself, while working in Tata Steel.

Here is another person, Shivani Gupta, the last recipient of the above-mentioned category and the director of AccessAbility in New Delhi. She defines her endeavour as “Include, Empower and Enable— the three-pronged approach that outlines the mission of my organisation of empowering the PWD through various channels.”

Having authored many books on accessibility, she commands many honours in her kitty, including the Sulabh International Women of the Year Award (1996) and National Role Model Award (2004).

Besides, the awards were distributed under two other categories, namely Role Models (Non-disabled role model supporter of increased employment opportunities for disabled people)—Dr Radhika Khanna and Shilpi Kapoor (Mumbai) and Best Employers that went to ITC Welcome Group, Mphasis an EDS company, Noida Deaf Society, IBM India Pvt. Ltd., Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. and Pepsi Co. India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. 

Noida, December 2
Noida residents can get their names added to the voters’ list by Wednesday.

In case you are going to get your name added to the voters’ list, you must carry two passport size photographs, proof of residential address and age along with filled-up application form, the authorities have advised.

A large number of voters are being turned away from booths owing to incorrect or insufficient information.

In case some members of your family are already registered as voters, take his photo ID card number along with the serial number of his name in voters’ list.

Official teams are available in the booth of your locality till December 3 for including your name in voters’ list and making a new voters’ photo ID card.

For date of birth, school certificates are generally used.

Those not having an address proof can give an affidavit along with a copy of rent agreement with the landlord, it has been clarified.

New Delhi, December 2
The Delhi police today filed a chargesheet in a city court against gangster Fazal-ur-Rehman for allegedly making extortion calls to a real estate developer and two other businessmen.

Rehman and his accomplice were accused of making extortion calls to Parsvnath, head of Parsvnath Developers and Builders, and two other Delhi-based businessmen.

In a chargesheet filed before chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja, special cell of the Delhi police sought prosecution of Rehman and Naseem alias Tanveer for allegedly committing offences relating to extortion and criminal conspiracy.

The police claimed to have intercepted an international call on September 3 in which extortion demands were made to Parsvnath and two other businessmen, Nitin Seth and Ashok Gupta, for Rs 120 million as protection money. They claimed that calls were made on behalf of ‘bhai’.

According to the police, during the surveillance of the mobile numbers being used by Naseem, an alleged operative of Rehman, it was revealed that he was constantly in touch with Mauseem alias Mohsin, who was allegedly working for underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Naseem, a resident of Bihar’s Darbhanga district, had passed the mobile number of the businessmen to Mohsin, asking him to make calls to them on behalf of ‘bhai’, the police claimed.

The police, in its chargesheet, also claimed that Naseem, who had met Rehman in Tihar Jail on August 31, June 13, and September 16 this year had hatched the conspiracy to extort money from the businessmen through Mohsin in Dubai. — IANS