New Delhi, April 19
The sleek new domestic departure terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport became operational on Sunday, replacing a decades-old cramped terminal that was synonymous with disorder and lacked basic facilities for a modern traveller.

A spokesperson of airport developer Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), a GMR-led consortium, said, “The first Indigo flight for Guwahati took off at 5.30 am. This was followed by another Indigo flight and then a Kingfisher flight.

“Everything is functioning smoothly at the new terminal,” the spokesperson added.

With the inauguration, Kingfisher Airlines, its low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red and Indigo Airlines have begun to operate from the new glass-fronted, multi-level domestic terminal (1D) from Sunday.

Jet Airways and its low-cost carrier JetLite, as well as SpiceJet will begin operating from the new terminal later this month.

Earlier, Kingfisher used to operate from the more spacious terminal 1A along with Air India, while the others operated from crowded terminal 1B.

The new terminal was officially inaugurated on February 26 by civil aviation minister Praful Patel.

By early next year, Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways will shift to the upcoming T3 integrated terminal, while terminal 1D will be for low-cost carriers.

Built at a cost of Rs 500 crore, terminal 1D will be able to handle 10 million passengers annually and is equipped with 72 check-in counters, its developers said. — IANS

New Delhi, April 19
A journalist has been arrested for allegedly raping two girls, one of whom is a minor, after filming a video showing them as victims of immoral trafficking. But social activists say it might be a plot by the police and traffickers against the scribe.

Vijay Diwaker, a freelance journalist who publishes a local newspaper ‘Sansani of India’, had filmed a sting video against immoral trafficking in the Badarpur area in South East Delhi. He had then filed a complaint in the Badarpur police station on April 6.

Following this, Samar Mandal, his wife Kanad and their two associates Mukesh and Manu were arrested for running a trafficking racket. However, during investigations the victims testified against Diwaker, alleging that after filming the ‘sting video’, he took them to his office and raped them, police said. Diwaker was arrested on Saturday.

But child rights activists feel it could be ploy to frame the journalist.

“Something is amiss. The journalist has probably not done this. It cannot be that he makes a sting and after that goes and rapes the victims for whose welfare he took the risk of making the video in the first place,” said Kailash Satyarthi, founding member of the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

“It is common in immoral trafficking cases that the local police is in connivance with the traffickers,” added Satyarhi, who has championed the cause of child rights and has lobbied against immoral trafficking.

In the sting, Diwaker is seen as the decoy customer and the Mandals are seen demanding Rs 30,000 for the sale of a 12-year-old girl.

Another video showed Diwaker paying the sum, while the husband-wife (Mandals) duo are seen with two girls, aged 12 and 18 years, police officials said.— IANS

New Delhi, April 19
Hot and dusty winds swept across the Capital on Sunday, making it unpleasant for Delhiites as the city saw temperatures soaring four to five degrees above normal.

The met office forecast a maximum temperature for Sunday at 41 degrees Celsius and the minimum at 25 degrees Celsius. The weather office also reported that strong hot surface winds prevailed in the region.

Since daytime temperatures have steadily stayed above normal, the weatherman warned that a “loo-like” condition could soon be declared.

“A loo-like situation is declared when temperatures are four or five degrees above normal in a heat wave scenario. The normal for this time is 36 degrees Celsius, so it is likely that we will declare the loo soon,” said an official from the Indian Meteorological Department.

People in the city had a tough time coping with the heat and the strong dust-laden winds.

“The summer has just started and it’s already like a heat wave has hit us!” said Shreyas Sahu, a software engineer.

Rohit Sharma, who commutes on motorcycle, said, “I felt like I was in a furnace. My arms were burning.” — IANS 

New Delhi, April 19
In yet another incident of victimising minority students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a minority Kashmiri student was allegedly beaten up by two university students on Friday.

Victim Idrees Kant, a resident of Lohit hostel, has alleged that two students both belonging to the BJP-backed student outfit Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stopped him on the way to his centre and slapped him several times.

Both the accused were also held responsible for beating up another Muslim student Messyh-ulla-khan almost a week ago. “The administration had provided relief to the habitual offenders of the ABVP on humanitarian grounds and right after that they beat up another student. The shameless backing that the university provides to such communal elements gives them a green signal to carry out their selective violence,” said Anand, president, Students Federation of India (SFI), JNU.

Following Friday’s incident, a huge number of students surrounded the university administrative block till the time the administration passed out-of-bounds orders of both the accused — Ashutosh Singh and Manish Kumar.

Left wing student organisations also took out protest march across the university on Saturday protesting against the violence and “administration’s inaction” against the culprits.

“Even though the offenders were found guilty in one case of violence, they were not asked to leave the hostel immediately. This gave them courage to victimise yet another student,” said Lenin, a resident of Lohit hostel.

In the previous case of violence, both the students were banned from taking any entrance exam for JNU for two years after they complete their present academic session.

“I do not consider even the second punishment strict enough for such habitual offenders. The JNU has always been known as a secular institute and these incidents can have serious implications on the image of the university,” said Messyh.

He added, “The accused should have at least been rusticated.” 

New Delhi, April 19
Feeling suffocated in the Congress, two Scheduled Caste leaders joined the BJP today. A former councillor of Vasant Vihar, Kunwar Sen, and vice-president of the Delhi Jhuggi Jhopri Nowas Federation, Ishwar Sing,h joined the saffron party in the presence of the Delhi BJP chief Professor O. P. Kohli and contestant from New Delhi, Vijay Goel.

Addressing the media, Kunwar Sen said the Congress claimed to be a party of poor people and backwards. But there is no chance of political growth in the party for Scheduled Castes. “I had worked with the Congress for the past 23 years. During such a long period I have seen how activist of the scheduled caste are harassed. They are not given chance for the coveted posts even if they are competent”, he said.

He said, “For instance, Chaudhary Prem Singh, MLA from Abedkar Nagar constitunecy, is the seniormost member in the Delhi legislative assembly. In Delhi, he is the only Congress MLA who has always won the elections. He has not been given any coveted post. Having seen his experience and political understanding, he should have been given the post of chief minister.”

He is former chairman of the SC, ST Commission.

Ishwar Singh said the Congress had claimed that jhuggi dwellers would be given flats in high-rise buildings. But no a single such building had been constructed so far. Instead of giving flats, the government was demolishing clusters without making alternative arrangement for dwellers, he claimed.

They said they had joined the BJP fold as they felt suffocated in the Congress party.

Ghaziabad, April 19
A 13-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by two young men and an adolescent in the Pratap Vihar area of Ghaziabad, adjoining the national capital. According to the police, the three men forcibly took the girl a resident of Pratap Vihar to a secluded place and raped her. They threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the crime to anyone.

The accused are residents of the same locality.

When the victim returned home she narrated her ordeal to her parents who lodged a complaint with the Vijay Nagar police station.

The police has arrested the three — Sandesh Jatav, 15, Yogesh Jatav, 17, and Sumit Jatav, 20.

The police said that the victim’s medical examination confirmed rape. – IANS

Noida, April 19
The wife of a Wing Commander was crushed to death by a bus in Sector-25 (A) here while her son was seriously injured.

Forty-four-year-old Anjana Prabhakar, a resident of Sector-21, was taking an after dinner stroll on a footpath with her husband Wing Commander Sanjeev Prabhakar and son Gautam Prabhakar in Sector-25 (A) yesterday evening.

An out of control bus climbed the footpath and crushed Anjana and her son Gautam.

Wing Commander Prabhakar took his injured wife and son to the Prakash Hospital where Anjana Prabhakar succumbed to her injuries during treatment.

Meanwhile, a complaint has been registered at the Sector-24 police.

The investigating officials are trying to nab the driver who is on the run.

The driver allegedly abandoned the bus after the accident.

Noida, April 19
The additional district judge of a fast-track court in Noida has sentenced seven persons to life imprisonment in a case of murder. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 12,000 on each of the accused.

The other three accused in the case are juveniles, and are facing a separate trial in a juvenile court in Meerut. The trial is currently underway.

According to the prosecution, on October 28, 2005, the victim Mohinder, a welder, was returning home after closing his shop. He was accompanied by his sons-- Jagdish and Vijender. Ten persons from Gautampuri colony in Dadri attacked them with batons, knives, and iron rods. Mohinder died on the spot.

A report in this regard was registered at the Dadri police station. The report named ten persons and charged them under Sections 302, 147 and 148 of the IPC. The persons named in the report are: Lala, Amit, Vijender, Suresh, Montu, Chander Bhan, Pammi, Chhotey, Sumeet and Jaichand.

Case pertaining to Amit, Sumeet and Suresh, who are juveniles, was transferred to a juvenile court in Meerut.

Rest of the seven accused were facing trial in the fast-track court of additional district judge Narinder Kumar in Noida. 

New Delhi, April 19
Parents and students of state-run as well as private schools on Sunday evening protested outside the official residence of Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna the poor quality education of state-run schools and arbitrary fee hike by private schools.

A gathering of nearly 800 people started their protest outside Khanna’s house around 5 pm today.

The protesters carried placards and banners and continued their demonstration for nearly two hours before Delhi’s Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely gave them assurance of a “patient hearing” on Tuesday.

Students of the MCD schools, many of them in their school uniforms, carried placards reading messages like: “We do have fans in schools, but there is no electricity,” “Our teachers don’t teach us, but ask us to mop the class.”

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, who is also the national president of the All-India Parents Association, said they had three demands.

“We want the Delhi government to take over all the MCD-run schools. All existing state-run school should be upgraded to the level of Kendriya Vidyalaya,” Agarwal said. — IANS

Noida, April 19
No posters, banners, rallies or speeches. None of the usual poll humdrum is visible in Nithari, near here. Its residents say they are a forgotten lot but for the macabre killings of 19 children and women that keeps the place in the news.

An urban slum on the outskirts of Delhi, Nithari is part of the GB Nagar Lok Sabha seat, which is among the largest constituencies in UP and will go to poll on May 7. But most politicians are not coming here.

Ram Kishan, who lost his son in the Nithari deaths, said no candidate had visited them to seek votes. “They only rushed here after the serial killings of our children and women were exposed,” said Ram Kishan.

“Every party and politician — Sonia Gandhi, L.K. Advani, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh — has cheated us. Sonia Gandhi promised us money, Mulayam promised us jobs, but till date, nothing has happened,” he said.

“We have collectively decided to boycott the poll,” he added.

“Even during the assembly elections two years ago, we did not see any politician reaching out to us. They confined themselves to urban areas in Noida, probably they did not want to face the anger of villagers over the Nithari killings,” said Ashok Kumar, a villager.

Nithari shot to notoriety when the remains of 19 women and children hailing from the village were found in a drain behind the Noida bungalow of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in December 2006. They were found to have been sexually abused and murdered. Pandher and his domestic help are the key accused in the case.

The families of victims say politicians do not bother about them as most of them are migrants from West Bengal, Bihar and other parts of UP and therefore do not have voter cards.

“No one approaches us as we do not have voter cards. So we do not matter to them?” asked Pappu Lal, the father of one of the deceased.

The political fight in GB Nagar is between Ramesh Chand Tomar of the Congress, Mahesh Sharma of the BJP, Surendra Singh Nagar of the BSP and K.K. Sharma of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

But for the nearly 2,500 voters in Nithari, the main contest is between the BJP and BSP.

“The village is mostly made up of Gujjars and Brahmins. Gujjars, some Brahmins and other castes are supporting BSP’s Nagar while the rest of the Brahmins are in favour of BJP’s Sharma,” said Satish Chander Mishra, a social activist living in Nithari.

“People here give votes to those candidates who promise to protect their illegally encroached land. Law and order or better roads are not the issues here unlike in cities,” Mishra added.

According to the villagers, so far no one has bothered to come and seek their votes, except Nagar.

“Nagar along with some party activists came only at the invitation of our village head. He was here for a brief time, met some people and left,” said Ashok Kumar. — IANS

New Delhi, April 19
Harvinder Singh Phoolka’s odyssey for justice to 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims started when he himself faced the riots in which nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the capital in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

“I was with my pregnant wife on a bike when my friend informed me about the attacks on Sikhs. I avoided the main roads of Delhi and somehow managed to reach my rented accommodation in South Delhi,” said Phoolka, a Sikh.

Recently, the lawyer was in the news when he objected to riot accused politician Jagdish Tytler being given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation. As the issue snowballed, Phoolka said he had been heckled by Tytler’s supporters in the court premises.

Speaking a few days after the ordeal that has failed to dampen his zeal, Phoolka recalled how in 1984 his landlord drove a mob away and he and his wife had to live in a storeroom for two days and then fly to the safer environs of Chandigarh.

But when he returned to the capital after a few days he learnt that lawyers had to draft affidavits on behalf of the victims, and went to the Farsh Vihar relief camp in East Delhi to help.

“The sight of orphans, bereaved mothers and wives in the relief camp was heart-rending. It forced me to stay here and fight for them,” Phoolka said.

Since then Phoolka has spearheaded a long-drawn-out campaign for justice to the victims of the 1984 carnage. He mobilised their testimonies and represented them before successive inquiries.

Despite the various hurdles and the setting up of nine commissions by various governments, his attention remains focused.

“If we get justice now, it will just be a symbolic one, but the message will be clear that no one can walk scot free and one day the law will catch the guilty and they will be punished sooner or later,” Phoolka said.

On the loopholes in most cases resulting in easy acquittal of the accused, Phoolka said, “The basic problem is the faulty registration of FIRs. All FIRs were registered clearly to shield the guilty in the best possible manner. After that investigation was conducted in such a poor manner that lead to many acquittals.”

More than 150 FIRs were registered across the capital. In six FIRs, 16 persons have been convicted while some appeals are still pending.

“The basic reason for acquittals is the defective investigation, which cannot be improved when the police works hand in glove with the accused — that makes the case weak in the court,” Phoolka said.

He said all these years they had got the support of different governments but not in the way survivors of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots would want.

Phoolka is co-author of the book ‘When a Tree Shook Delhi’ that presents an unsparing account of the 1984 carnage and its aftermath, abounding with insights and revelations.

The 1984 anti-Sikh violence took place in the capital following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31 and resulted in the killing of around 3,000 Sikhs within two days. – IANS

New Delhi, April 19
Given the rich pluralism embedded in the Indian fabric, our ancient heritage stands apart from the rest of the world. However, the glorious heritage that lends India its uniqueness is in need of protection.

Expressing concern over this, the Vice-President M Hamid Ansari said, “We need to address the acute need of protecting and preserving our heritage. Article 51 (A) of our constitution underlines that every citizen should value and preserve our rich heritage, but the efforts made towards this have not been satisfactory, and primarily this is due to the miniscule involvement of people.”

The Vice-President was addressing the members of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) on World Heritage Day, in the Capital.

Calling for local community participation, he said the media had a big role to play in propelling the heritage movement through advocacy and awareness campaigns. Emphasising upon a collective effort from the government and the civil society, Ansari said the government and the public have to take the mantle together and actively promote tourist visits to historical sites so that people can be better reached and made aware about our remarkable treasure of cultural and historical heritage. For a country which loses its heritage loses its identity.

Terming the Indian heritage as truly global, professor John H Stubbs, the vice-president of Field Projects of World Monument Fund, remarked “India is special due to the culture and civilisation that it holds, and in order to retain this, it needs to engage the private sector and also the civil society so that they can readily participate in the rebuilding of their culture. India is considered to be an inspiration for rest of the world. For example in Cambodia, India is there in everyway in the designing of monuments. Indeed, its reach is remarkable.”

Professor Stubbs was here to deliver the First Pupul Jayakar Memorial Lecture, which INTACH would be taking forward as an annual event, paying tribute to Pupul Jayakar, who was one of the founding members and the moving spirit behind INTACH. Later in the day, commemorating its Silver Jubilee year, the heritage body released a detailed report entitled as “Good Practices in Heritage Education in Asia”.

The chairman of INTACH, S K Mishra said that it’s important to make the younger generation aware of our ancient heritage, and for this we have issued guidelines to teachers for training students. The heritage body is carrying on youth clubs, where we are educating the young mass, said Yoganand Shastri, member secretary of INTACH.

According to Stubbs, INTACH is believed to be a wonderful concept that has inspired many to come forward in heritage conservation. “INTACH is known around the world for its contribution to heritage,” he told during his lecture.