New Delhi, January 19
In an encounter between police and suspected gangsters of Satte gang of western Uttar Pradesh, four gangsters and three police personnel sustained injuries. The injured gangsters have been arrested and admitted to AIIMS trauma centre.

There were total nine robbers in two cars–black Honda Accord and white Santro. They came to rob a bank in Green Park area. The injured robbers, including leader of the gang, Satya Prakash, alias Satte, were in the Honda City (DL-7CE-0909). Five of their accomplices who were in Santro managed to escape, deputy commissioner of police, South district, H. G. S. Dhaliwal said.

The police has taken Honda Accord in its possession. Besides, four pistols have been recovered.

According to the DCP, Auto Theft Squad of South district police and SHO Lodhi Road had information that Satte gang members were going to Green Park to rob a bank.

The police erected barricades in the area to slow the movement of the traffic and nab the robbers. They identified the cars near a gurdwara in Green Park and asked the drive to stop them. The robbers reached near RWA gate of the area, where they were trapped by the police.To escape, they fired indiscriminately at the police team. To defend themselves, police personnel also fired. Consequently, the occupants of Honda Accord and three personnel sustained injuries.

The Honda Accord occupants could not drive ahead and stopped. They were then overpowered by the police. Taking advantage of the residential area, Santro (DL 2CAD 1144) occupants managed to escape, the DCP said.

Commissioner of police Y. S. Dadwal has announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for those who will inform about the car.

The police said that one of the injured robbers is of foreign origin.

Besides Satya Prakash, others were identified as Shakeel, Sonu and Nadeem. One of them is suspected either of Afghan or Uzbeck orgin.

The DCP refused to name the bank which they were going to loot as this might create fear psychosis among the bank officials, employees as well as customers.

The police had information that the gangsters were armed with sophisticated weapons that was why the personnel had worn bulletproof jackets.

The police was already in search of Satya Prakash as he was suspected to be involved in many cases of loot, robbery and auto theft. He was also suspected to be involved in a recent robbery case in R. K. Puram in South west district, said a senior police officer.

The officer said that just after the incident, a message was flashed about Santro car in which five gangsters escaped.

Having seen the gun battle suddenly, people thought it was a terrorist attack as it all happened in the residential area. Some police officials claimed that the gangsters also tried to take refuge in the nearby houses.

New Delhi, January 19
One month after taking over as the chief minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time, Sheila Dikshit today made a major reshuffle in the administration. A senior IAS officer has been transferred to Arunachal Pradesh, while a number of IAS officers of the Delhi Andaman Nicobar civil services (DANICS) have been given new assignments.

Senior IAS officer Vijay Kumar Dev, who was holding the post of secretary-cum-commissioner, Food and Supplies and additional charge of chairman of the Delhi State Civil Supply Corporation (DSCSC) Limited has been relieved to join his new assignment in Arunachal Pradesh. While Nita Bali has been posted as chairman-cum-managing director of the DSCSC Limited on deputation. She was serving as the chairman-cum-managing director of the Delhi Financial Corporation and was also holding additional charge as the chairperson of the Delhi State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) Limited.

V.V. Bhat, principal secretary, Finance and Planning, has been given additional charge of the post of chairman of DSIIDC Limited, whereas Sanjay Pratap Singh, secretary of the Delhi Minorities Commission has been given additional charge of the post of chairman-cum-managing director of the Delhi Financial Corporation. Jayashree Raghuraman, managing director, DSCSC Limited with additional charge of director, Agricultural Marketing, has been posted as secretary-cum-commissioner, Food Supplies. Ashutosh Kumar, DANICS, additional secretary (vigilance) and directorate of vigilance, has been given the additional charge of the post of chief vigilance officer of the DSIIDC.Sumati Mehta, chairman-cum-managing director of the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) with the additional charge of the post of principal secretary of tourism, would now function as principal secretary, Planning and Economic Affairs.

P.K. Tripathi, principal secretary to Chief Minister has been given the additional charge of the posts of principal secretary, tourism and chairman-cum-managing director of DTTDC.

New Delhi, January 19
While the winter season is fast on its way out, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is yet to disburse money to the students of more than 1,500 municipal schools to buy winter uniform.

Ironically, the move to give money to students for buying winter wear in place of distributing jerseys and other uniform material was taken after the failure of the civic body’s initiative to ensure the timely procurement of dress material.

Though the proposal has been passed by the standing committee, the students are still waiting for the money to buy their jerseys. The prolonged delay in disbursing money shows the civic body has yet to find ways to cut the red-tapism in order to work efficiently.

“This not only highlights gross violation of prescribed norms by the MCD officials but also exposes the lackadaisical attitude of the civic body in providing proper facilities to students enrolled in the municipal schools,” said a councillor in the Opposition.

Earlier, the L-G’s office had expressed concern over the distribution of cash again this year to MCD primary schoolchildren instead of providing them with woollen dress materials. It has also asked the civic body to review its purchase policy as the fact that MCD has not been able to get suppliers implies that the limit fixed per child is not feasible

“Every year, the officials and leaders assure to begin the process well before time so that the money can be disbursed to students before the starting of winter season. But it has been seen that the same mistake is repeated every time and actions are taken at the eleventh hour,” said one of the MCD officials.

“Distribution of money to students has always been opposed as students belonging to the lower strata of society might not get the benefit of it,” he said.

New Delhi, January 19
Intensifying its work against human trafficking in the Capital, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) wrote letters to several state-level agencies to take steps against illegal placement agencies.

In a recent raid conducted at west Delhi locality of Shakurpur J-Block, DCW rescued 23 minor girls and four minor boys.

The commission said there were a large number of illegal placement agencies in Delhi, which had become a source of exploitation of minor girls.

“These agencies severely exploit girls coming to Delhi for jobs from far-off areas of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bihar and remote areas of Uttar Pradesh. This kind of placement agencies are sprouting up in less developed areas of the city at unbelievable speed,” said Sunil Negi, spokesperson, DCW.

Sources indicated that more than 10,000 girls were reported missing in the city.

DCW conducted its recent raid following a missing complaint registered by one Hem Bahadur whose relative Sunita (name changed) had come to Delhi from Nepal in September 2007 in search of work.

The commission alleged that Sunita went to an illegal placement agency run by one Ajay Thapa in Shakurpur. Ajay Thapa allegedly got her work as a domestic help from where she was shifted to several other places and eventually went missing.

“We followed the case and decided to conduct raids in Shakurpur where many such illegal agencies are located. They also own apartments in the area and keep all the girls there,” said Negi.

Just before the raid was conducted, the alleged accused locked their houses and flew. Groups of minor girls were rescued after the commission officials broke open the doors. Total 23 minor girls, four minor boys and eight adult women were rescued. The owner of the placement agency, Ajay Thapa, was arrested two days later.

DCW alleged that the harassment took place at multiple levels. The minor girls were exploited both sexually and financially.

“These girls are also forced to take up prostitution. They are never given the money they earn, so the victims can’t even run away. The girls are kept in these dingy houses. The construction business is also flourishing in all these areas because of such illegal activities,” said Negi.

Following the incident, the DCW wrote to the Lt-Governor of Delhi, commissioner of Delhi police and state chief minister asking them to take steps to counter human trafficking that takes place in the name of placement.

“The Delhi police is also asked to give a detailed report on such agencies that are functional across the Capital within 30 days,” said Negi.

Meanwhile, the rescued girls were sent to government home for the juvenile, Nirmal Chaya.

Gurgaon, January 19
“It is the two-wheelers and pedestrians who are responsible for frequent accidents on the national highway, as they don’t take proper care while driving,” said Sachin Sharma, VP, Toll Operations here today.

Sharma added, “The highway is meant for fast moving four-wheelers and not for two-wheelers, three-wheelers or pedestrians, who take turns any moment causing mishaps.”

“If you analyse the accidents that have taken place on the highway, you will find that the victims were either two-wheeler riders or pedestrians. And it is only these people who cause accidents,” Sharma reiterated and added that there was a service lane on the highway and pedestrians should use it.

“We cannot do much, as when our men try to stop these vehicles, people start fighting. But thankfully now the traffic police has been appointed here for 24 hours,” he added.

Manhad Narula, director of DSC Limited, an infrastructure development company, said, “We are planning to increase the number of lanes before the Commowealth Games so that the traffic can be controlled easily. Currently we have 32 lanes, 16 on each side, but soon we will be adding 18 more to make the total number of lanes 50. With this, the toll plaza will become the country’s biggest toll tax barrier.”

The company recently completed one year of handling the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway operation.

In the last one year the average daily traffic during peak hours has increased from 1,20,000 to 1,70,000.

Sharma said, “We have also planned to put up fences on the road which will be done within four months and also four overbridges will come up soon.”

Sharma further said that insurance companies have decided that any two-wheeler rider or pedestrian killed on the highway will not be paid claim and so it is better for them to be on the safer side.

Noida, January 19
The state government has ordered that effective steps should be taken to curb the menace of child labour. The attention of captains of industry, especially export sector units, has been drawn towards the need to take strong steps against employment of children in industrial units and commercial establishments.

Garment export units, under the aegis of Bhartiya Vastr Niryat Parishad, have particularly been asked not to employ children in their units and for this the Noida-based Apparel Export cluster is keeping a constant vigil on garment export companies.

The Apparel Product Council has constituted teams to check the violation of child labour laws in garment manufacturing units. An awareness campaign is also being carried out against employing child labour.

Some international teams had recently inspected garment exports companies to examine the employment of child labour.

Last year some cases of use of child labour by manufacturers of international brands of garments had come to notice. An export unit in Shahpur Jat in Delhi was found using child labour after which the company was blacklisted.

Following the discoveries, permanent teams were set up to carry out inspection of export units throughout the country for the use of child labour.

Besides, the labour department has also launched a campaign to curb child labour in hotels, restaurants along with industrial units.

And to create awareness, the Indian Council of Apparel Export has conducted a number of seminars for garment exporters.

New Delhi, January 19
In a major move targeted at encouraging research in digital technology, a BT-backed team of the UK and Indian scientists and engineers will head a £9.2m research project to develop ‘next generation networks’, to help further push forward the digital economy.

This collaboration between the UK and Indian governments, universities and ICT specialists in both countries will work to develop next generation telecom networks, ICT services and applications in the two countries, along with work on wireless sensor networks, which could aid healthcare and early warning weather systems in rural areas.

Funding will be used by the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) to drive collaborative research and the sharing of new communications technology between India and the UK.  The IU-ATC consortium currently comprises nine UK universities, six Indian research Institutes, seven industry partners in both countries including BT, Infosys, Wipro, Sasken, Tejas and Midas and a number of small business partners.

The grant money includes £5m jointly from the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Digital Economy Programme, led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Indian Government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST). This is matched by a further contribution of over £4m from a consortium of the IU-ATC academic and industrial partners.  

The funding bid was led by Professor Gerard Parr at the University of Ulster in Coleraine and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, together with Professor Nader Azarmi of BT. Prof Parr said, “this funding will support an exciting research and innovation programme for the IU-ATC in Next Generation Networks, Systems and Services which will give a massive boost to the digital economy of both countries.”  

Funding will be specifically used to conduct research into Next Generation network enabled applications and services, converged network protocols and systems and wireless communications and mobility.  The research is designed to underpin the development of policies and initiatives for both rural and urban Digital Economy programmes in India and the UK.

The Research Councils UK (RCUK) Office in India and the Department of Science and Technology have worked closely together to create a joint UK-India funding mechanism to review this proposal. Dr Alicia Greated, director of the RCUK Office in India, stated, “we are extremely pleased that this initiative has been funded as it is an excellent example of India-UK research collaborations being developed across both the private and public sectors.”

New Delhi, January 19
The extant changing economic scenario is taking a heavy toll not only on the equity-rich nations, but also on India, where financial sunshine has dimmed with investors especially old retired persons losing a big chunk of their hard-earned money. And then inflation worsens the case.

“The government has to create a financial system, which should not be prone to any political cause and

influences to have a control in the time of economic crisis,” said Dr Sashank Saxena, director of banking and finance of the finance ministry at a symposium on “Impact of Recession on Older Persons” today in the Capital.

The event, organised by Agewell Foundation, an NGO, was the 13th under the series of “Needs & Rights of Older Persons”.

Emphasising the need to empower the old generation by creating a novel system, Gautam Bhardwaj, managing director of Invest India Economic Foundation, said, “In India, we do not have a tight-proof system of social security for older persons as many foreign nations have. There is a need of a major scheme for establishing such security for them. In India, there are two types of old people, i.e. one having enough savings and the other kind who are completely dependent on their children.”

In this context, the chairman of the Agewell Foundation (AF), Himanshu Rath, informed that AF had conducted a national direct contact survey on representative sample of 1,500 old citizens in India last month. The study was based on three criteria, namely economy conditions, responses to the changing economy and stands on measures adapted to address the financial crisis of the three sample groups viz. 55-60 years, 61-65 years and 65-70 years, drawing from old retired persons, industrialists, non-pensioners, men and women, educated and illiterate from rural as well as urban areas.

Study brings to light that a majority of respondents are finding it really difficult to meet their requirements with day-to-day decreasing income. An estimated 85 per cent says that recession has actually worsened the domestic economy and over 30 per cent of all respondents say that they are finding it tough to address their everyday needs. In fact, more than 50 per cent of all employees (in the age-group of 55-60 years) have postponed their retirement plans till economic scenario betters. Again, the survey also points out that persons in the age group of 65-70 years have already been adjusting their spending habits due to their status, fixed income and rising costs.

As the economy slows and prices rise, most respondents from all age-groups, report that they are having difficulty paying for food, fuel, utilities and medicine, and are responding to the situation by cutting luxuries and postponing major purchases and travel.

The whole discussion was aimed at reaching out to as much target audience as possible along with suggesting viable solutions to the trauma and vulnerability of the old population of society.