New Delhi, December 22
Portfolios of ministers of Sheila Dikshit cabinet were announced today with minor changes five days after the swearing-in ceremony.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit herself is heading the home department, services and vigilance, power, general administration, higher education, tourism, art and culture and environment department.

Seniormost minister A.K. Walia has lost power department. He has been given two new departments.

In the current government, he has been given finance, planning, urban development, land and building department

Haroon Yusuf has lost transport and given food and supplies and industries department. When he was heading the transport department, various new policies were announced in view of the Commonwealth Games.

Mangat Ram Singhal has lost two major departments–industries and land and building. Now he has been given law, justice and legislative affairs department, social welfare, labour, elections and employment department.

There is hardly any change in the portfolio of Raj Kumar Chauhan who has been development, revenue, irrigation and flood control, public works and SC/ST welfare department.

Arvinder Singh has lost tourism department. He has been given education, transport, gurudwara elections and gurudwara administration.

Kiran Walia, a new entrant in the Delhi cabinet, has been given health and family welfare, women and child development and languages.

New Delhi, December 22
The government’s topmost priority is to make necessary arrangement for the Commonwealth Games that is scheduled for October 2010.

The city needs to complete all ongoing Games’ projects in time, said Lieutenant Governor Tejender Khanna while addressing the newly elected House at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha.

Addressing the House, he said public transport was critical for mobility and the national policy was to promote public transport. The government is taking measures to phase out Blueline buses and bring in corporate entities to provide modern low-floor air-conditioned buses. Claiming Delhi to be the greenest city, he said the green cover in the city was 300 sq metres. Earlier it was 26 sq kilometres. With public transports like – buses, taxis and autos taking to CNG, large plantation drives and environment-friendly policies, air pollution has been controlled in the city.

Khanna said Delhi remains a major tourist destination in the country as about 40 per cent of international tourists visit the city every year.

Delhi is a centre of India’s heritage. It has the distinction of having three world heritage sites, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb and Red Fort.

Appreciating the government’s achievement, he said in order to attend the grievances of citizens, a grievances management system ‘Aap Ki Sunwai’ had also been set up.

The government has won awards during he last 10 years for its IT initiatives. The Data Quest Magazine has declared Delhi as the best e-governed state in North India in 2008.

He said the government had emphasised promotion of high-tech, low-energy intensive and non-polluting industries in Delhi that could achieve optimum level of production using less space and power. The government will implement policies in industrial and services areas that address the issue of climate change.

He said, “We are committed to make Delhi the best city in India and set an example of good governance in the years to come. I seek cooperation of the members of the House to realise the dreams of the residents of Delhi,” the Lieutenant Governor said.

New Delhi, December 22
Claiming the life of two boys, a Blueline bus rammed into a motorcycle in the morning today.

Deepak Joshi and Rajeev Yadav, both in their early twenties, were riding on a motorcycle at around 10 am on Bhairon Marg near Pragati Maidan, when a Blueline bus hit their motorcycle. While one of the victims died on the spot, another struggled with serious injuries before breathing his last.

New Delhi, December 22
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has claimed to sanction building plan for the individual residential plots within a week’s time.

The procedure has been simplified as per which the plan would be sanctioned within a week if the architect registered with the Council of Architecture submits the requisite form duly supported by his own affidavit-cum-undertaking. The new procedure will exempt any spot inspections or verifications, except the 20% monthly random checking.

The Delhi Mayor, Arti Mehra, said that this has been made possible by bringing changes in the existing Building Bylaws, 1983. The laws have been simplified for the immediate sanction of the building plan.

The Mayor said that the new procedure will ensure that the applicants do not have to run from pillar to post for getting their building plans sanctioned. It eliminates the role of middlemen from the system and brings in greater transparency.

“The building plan application will be prepared by the architect registered with the Council of Architecture only and the same will be dealt with on

merits for approval immediately within the following week on submission of the proposal,” said Mehra

She said that this procedure is applicable for the plots which form part of the approved layout plan with respect to its size, shape and area of plot and where position of garage block road width and land use have been clearly shown in the approved layout plan.

However, she added that the plots falling in urban villages, bungalow area of Civil Lines and Shajahanabad (Walled City) and its extension will not be covered under the procedure.

Greater Noida, December 22
The Greater Noida police on Monday filed its charges against 71 people in the case of attack on an Italian multinational corporation office, in which the company’s managing director was beaten to death.

One of the accused against whom the chargesheet was submitted, Sube Ram, is yet to be traced and arrested.

“We planned to submit the chargesheet without him since we did not want to delay the legal proceedings. We would request the court to initiate legal proceedings against the remaining 70 accused,” a police official said.

Earlier this year, the managing director of an Italian multinational giant — Gerlikon Graziano Transmissioni India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned Indian arm of a Turin based automobile spares group — was beaten to death by a mob of striking workers.

An Italian delegation comprising six senior managers in the production wing was also manhandled by the mob. An assistant manager with Graziano’s HR department said, “They banged on my door. But I locked myself inside the room.”

“The men armed with iron rods and hockey sticks entered the premises and first attacked our security guards and then the workers,” said Rakesh Kumar Singh, an employee of the company.

Amid all this, when L.K. Choudhary, the managing director of the company, came out to accord a compromise with the vandalising mob, he was attacked and beaten to death by the mob. — IANS

New Delhi, December 22
With the arrest of three Nigerian citizens, the Delhi police has claimed to have busted an international drug nexus. The police team recovered 2.5 kilograms of high quality heroin worth more than Rs 2.5 crore in the international market from the three Nigerians— Collin, Pascal and Stanley.

The racket came to light when a private courier service in Narayana detected 1.2 kilograms of heroin in the cover of four books inside a parcel. The traffickers had also put black carbon paper on the books to avoid X-ray detection at airport.

The address of the sender on the parcel destined for Burmingham, was found to be fictitious. After technical and manual surveillances, the sender of the parcel was identified as one Stanley, who had booked the parcel from Faridabad. He was arrested and he allegedly admitted to the crime.

Stanley disclosed that the parcels were handed over to him by one Pascal and Collin. He further disclosed that Collin and one Mandoga prepare the consignments of parcels and that one such consignment of heroin was to be delivered to him by Collin near Janakpuri District Centre.

A trap was laid near the District Centre and Collin was spotted waiting. He was apprehended with 550 grams of heroin.

On the basis of their interrogation, the third supplier, Pascal, was also apprehended with 700 grams of heroin.

According to police sources, the accused disclosed that the kingpin of the cartel is Mandoga.

They used courier services to send drug consignments to Canada, South Africa and England and would give fake addresses of senders. The police also said, recently, the accused sent three consignments of heroin to Capetown.

Efforts are on to nab other associates of the accused, the police said.

New Delhi, December 22
Only six of the nearly 40 hospitals in the Indian Capital provide free treatment to poor patients, a Delhi government affidavit to the city high court has revealed.

Filing the affidavit, the government said between July and September this year, out of 37 hospitals, only six abided by the court’s direction of giving free treatment to poor patients - a pre-condition for getting land at subsidised rates.

These are Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, Bhagwati Hospital, Bimal Devi, Jeevan Anmol, National Chest Institute and Venu Eye Institute and Research Centre.

The affidavit also states that 16 hospitals in the Capital did not provide free treatment to any poor patient at all. These include Vimhans, Sir Ganga Ram, Primus Ortho and Spine, National Heart Institute, Max Balaji and Escorts Heart and Research Institute.

Three hospitals, namely Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Moolchand and St.Stephens, denied free treatment to the poor stating they didn’t fall under the ambit of the court’s direction.

However, 11 hospitals in the capital provided treatment to poor patients partially.

The court will hear the matter again on January 7.

The court’s direction in 2006 came after a public interest petition was filed by Social Jurist, an NGO seeking action against hospitals for charging poor patients. The court had then made it clear that all private hospitals that were granted public land at cheaper rates here will have to provide free treatment to poor patients.

“Ten per cent of the treatment capacity in the indoor patient department (IPD) and 25 per cent in the OPD would be reserved for poor patients,” the court had ruled.

“Any private hospital not complying with the High Court directions will face serious consequences,” the bench had warned.

“Every person who has no income or has income below Rs 5,000 per month shall be treated under this category until a committee constituted by the court takes a final view on the fixation of the criterion of the minimum income for receiving benefits,” the ruling had said. — IANS

Noida, December 22
The foggy Friday night proved fatal for three persons, two of whom lost their lives while the third one lies critical in a hospital.

Jaspal, a software engineer at HCL in Sector-60, was returning with his friend Hemant around 1 am on Saturday. Due to the dense fog that had covered the sky, they failed to see a truck laden with iron rods near Model Town in Sector-60.

The rods pierced through Jaspal’s chest after breaking the windscreen of the Alto car they were riding in. His friend Hemant immediately took him to the Fortis Hospital in Sector-60 Noida where he succumbed to his injuries.

While in another accident, Chandan, employed in a company on Expressway in Sector-125, was walking to his room in Agahpur village on Friday night when an unidentified vehicle knocked him down as he was unable to see it due to the fog. He was rushed to Kailash Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries late in the night.

In the third incident, Nand Lal Saini of Morna, who was going towards Model Town police post was knocked down by an unidentified vehicle. The injured Nand was rushed to the Fortis Hospital. He is stated to be in a critical condition.

All three accidents were due to the thick fog in the area, the police said.

Faridabad, December 22
The Haryana government has come in for praise from the local industry with regard to development works in Faridabad. The industry feels that the completion of thedevelopment works would help revive social sectors as well as give boost to industrialisation in Faridabad.

Speaking at an annual meeting of the Manufacturers’ Association ofFaridabad (MAF), the captains of the industry said the government had undertaken a series of development workswhich had the potential to take Faridabad to the road of development and modernisation.

The president of the Faridabad Industry Association, S.K.Jain, said that work on the much-awaited Badarpur flyover had begun and was likely to be completed early next year.The Badarpur flyover had been a major demand of the residents and various political and trade organisations here.

The wide-ranging feeling is that once theflyover is commissioned, commuting time between Delhi and Faridabad will reduce. The flyover would also give boost to tourism in Faridabad.

The industrialists also praised the government for conceding to their demand of setting up an Industrial Model Township in Faridabad on the pattern of Industrial Model Township in Manesar (Gurgaon). The project is being done by the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation, an agency of the government.

New Delhi, December 22
The National Commission of Women (NCW) on Monday took up the case of the two northeastern girls, who were allegedly sexually harassed by their landlord’s son, and has issued notice to the director general of police (DGP) and the chief secretary of Haryana in this regard.

Mary and Daisy, two Manipuri girls who had rented a room at DLF Phase-1 in Gurgaon, were allegedly sexually assaulted and beaten up by their landlord’s son along with two other men on the night of December 12.

While the girls said the police was initially hesitant to register a case of sexual assault, later the men were booked under the relevant sections of IPC for offences of molestation, sexual assault and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.— IANS

New Delhi, December 22
The Braille revolution in education is a potential breakthrough that paved the road to literacy for millions of blind people across the world. But, today the literacy movement that was heralded by Louis Braille, the pioneer of Braille script, has been infected with certain black spots that have foiled the goal of the mission.

It’s really sad that only 10 to 20 per cent of school-going children in India between the age group of 5 and 19 years have access to the light of knowledge and culture through touch—through raised Braille dots that ensure a life of dignity and independence to the visually impaired. Despite the fact that inclusive education is a primary policy under the District Primary Education Programme , 80-90 per cent of children with visual impairment still do not have access to Braille textbooks.

While deliberating upon the “Status of Braille in India” today, S. R. Mittal, professor of Special Education, Department of Teacher Training and non-Formal Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, said, “As per the 2006 report of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMPR) which functions under the Planning Commission of India and All India Confederation of Blind (AICB), the total number of visually impaired children within 5-19 years of age is 9.5 lakh. Out of these 9.5 lakh children, 2.82 lakh are enrolled either in regular or special schools, and out of this number, only 30,000 children have access to Braille texts which means 80-90 per cent are still deprived from Braille literacy.”

Inadequate number of texts in Braille is also a major hurdle to achieve a desirable level of Braille literacy. “The NCERT for the first time introduced Braille as a medium of education in 2005. The Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan and the national curriculum have also brought into practice the imparting of education to the blind children, but still many libraries and schools do not have books and material in Braille,” said Anita Julkha, professor of department of education of groups with special needs, NCERT.”

Many Braille experts opine that Braille writings are losing their significance amidst all-technological advance, however, S.R. Mittal feels that Braille literacy has always made a front-foot contribution to the progress of the visually impaired and if print has been able to maintain its existence among other modern mediums why Braille can’t survive.

“The Braille script is a tool, a boon for the blind without which he or she is illiterate, and it is through this system that the knowledge of spelling, grammar and semantics is strengthened. Moreover, there are many blind youths today who are very proficient in handling modern technologies,” said Mittal.

In today’s fast pacing knowledge-based society, it is essential to find out solutions to the extant problems so that the visually challenged people can progress unhindered by any internal or external force. Seeing the diversity, heterogeneity and multiplicity of the population in India, the production of Braille texts ought to be increased and customised to ensure fuller curriculum access.

“Children-centered pedagogy ought to be designed to cater to the needs of the visually challenged children. All the organisations working for the blind should endeavour to ensure that at least school level education is imparted to these children only through Braille textbooks and usage of audio material should be discouraged,” said Ved Prakash Varma, retd. professor and former HOD of philosophy at Delhi University.