New Delhi, May 12
Some Class-IV government employees who were called by the Election Commission for poll duty on May 7 have alleged discrimination and harassment on the issue of payment.

These employees, working with the ministry of defence (MoD), hold grievances against the Election Commission for not paying them the promised Rs 500.

According to information, about 150 Class-IV government employees were given poll duties. While most of them had been given Rs 500, about 20-30 were given only Rs 300. Not satisfied with the payment, this disgruntled lot is now running from election commission’s office to the presiding officer of their duty booths for the remaining Rs 200.

Narender Kumar, a Class-IV government employee with the MoD who was given Rs 300 alleged that this discrimination between the employees from the same department for performing the same duty was totally unwarranted and unseen. “We were initially promised Rs 500, but we accepted Rs 300 thinking it would be same for all. 

But when we came to know from our colleagues that they were paid Rs 500, we complained to the election officials, who had called us today to pay the remaining amount.

However, when we went to their office in Gole Market in the morning, they said the amount had been reduced after orders from the top,” alleged Kumar, who was on election duty at polling booth number 105 at Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Sarojini Nagar.

Mithan Lal Meena, another under-paid employee said the officials had no explanation about the discrimination in payment. Puran Chand, who was on duty at a polling booth in the Gole Market area, voiced similar complaint and said that Rs 200 may seem a pity amount to many but it meant a lot for them.

“Rs 200 is a week’s Dal (pulses) and chawal (rice) for our family. Crores of rupees are spent on elections, but when it comes to poor employees like us there is so much of hue and cry over a few hundreds,” said Puran Chand, employed with the MoD.

According to the Delhi election commission officials, the amount to be paid for election duty is fixed and there is no scope of any discrimination. While a presiding officer is given Rs 250 per day, a polling officer gets Rs 190 and a Group D (Class IV duties like fetching water and papers) employee is given Rs 100. Each of the three categories also gets additional Rs 100 per day for food.

“The presiding officers and polling officers are called for three to four days training and are paid for these days. But the Group D employees do not require any training and we call them to issue their I-cards only before the polling duty.

We pay them Rs 100 for that day and Rs 100 for the election duty and additional Rs 100 for food. So, by this rule, Rs 300 is alright,” said an election official from the New Delhi area.

But when questioned how others got Rs 500, he could not come up with a convincing answer.

New Delhi, May 12
Some Sikh organisations and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech in Punjab where he had said that Sikhs should forget the 1984 riots.

Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (Badal) protested near the Rakab Ganj Gurdwara and burnt an effigy of Manmohan Singh. While another group protested opposite the Prime Minister’s residence.

Delhi SAD (Badal) president Manjit Singh GK said if the Prime Minister said, “We should forget the 1984 riots, we should also forget the Jalianwala Bagh and other massacres. On one hand he criticised the BJP for the Gujrat riots against Muslims, while on the other he asked Sikhs to forget the 1984 riots. It is hypocrisy!”

All India Sikh Conference (Babbar) president Gurcharan Singh Babbar said it seems Singh had made the statement on the direction of Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

He questioned if people could not forget the Gujrat riots, Mumbai blasts, Babri Masjid demolition and killers of late Rajiv Gandhi, how could Sikhs forget the 1984 riots. He added Sikhs would fight till justice was not given to the riot victims. He appealed to Sikhs in Punjab to teach a lesson to the Prime Minister by voting against the Congress.

While Delhi BJP general secretary R.P. Singh alleged that Manmohan Singh gave such a statement at rallies in Amritsar and Ludhiana on Monday just to please Sonia Gandhi. He added by saying so he had not only tarnished the Prime Minister’s post but had also sent wrong signals to the country’s judiciary.

R.P. Singh said Manmohan Singh had forgotten he was a Sikh. Every Sikh remembers the atrocities of the Mughals, the British and the 1984 riots. Sikhs would not take a breather till the suspects of 1984 riots are punished, he said. 

Greater Noida, May 12
Workers of a political party in Kasna village on Monday allegedly beat up a Dalit youth for voting for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Rajinder, a resident of Kasna village, was going home when some supporters of a political party allegedly stopped him near a chemist shop and asked him the party for which he had voted. When he said he had voted for the BSP, the men pounced on him and thrashed him.

He was taken to the police station by a group of women, led by the Samte Sainik Dal state president Karuna Gautam. At the police station, the women had an argument with the police over the incident.

The women sat on dharna outside the police station and protested against the police. The protesters blocked the police station gate by parking tractors in front of it. The dharna lasted for nearly three hours.

The women alleged that the police had beaten them up and had used abusive language against them. The women also complained that the police lathicharged them.

However, inspector Ajay Sharma denied that the women were beaten up.

A report against the youths— Bablu and Vinay— accused of attacking Rajinder has been registered under the Dalit Act.

New Delhi, May 12
For the first time in the history of democratic India, 38 voters have been identified and booked for casting votes at more than one booth in the national capital last week.

“This is the first time when someone has been identified for duplicate voting. After receiving such complaints, we sat down and scrutinised voluminous records and identified the duplicate voters through entries in register 17-A,” said Satbir Sails Bedi, Delhi’s chief electoral officer.

“We have given their names and addresses to the police and a case was registered against them. Their arrest orders have also been made,” she added.

After complaints of irregularities, re-polling was carried out at polling station 64 and 64-A in Fatehpur Beri in South Delhi parliamentary constituency where 38 voters had voted in both the booths.

Bedi said the officials involved in the incident have been recommended for suspension. — IANS

New Delhi, May 12
A 26-year-old youth employed as a conductor with a Blueline bus was killed by some unidentified assailants today morning in the Najafgarh area of west Delhi.

The deceased, Pawan, was walking towards a parked Blueline bus on the outskirts of village Khera More when the car-borne assailants opened fire on him. According to the police, Pawan was chased and shot several times. He died on the spot. 

“He received a bullet in his back, two in the chest and one in the head. He was first shot from the back and when he tried to flee, was chased and shot several times,” said a police official from the district, adding that the killers managed to flee.

The incident took place around 6 in the morning. Pawan was a resident of Gopal Nagar village and was employed with Blueline bus plying on route number 578 between Safdarjung and Najafgarh.

Family rivalry is being seen as the reason behind the killing.

According to the police, last month Pawan’s brother Anil allegedly killed one Ashok after a dispute over the purchase of a car. Anil is under arrest since then. It is being believed that Ashok’s family got Pawan killed to avenge his death.

A case of murder has been registered against five persons and efforts are on to trace them. 

Ghaziabad, May 12
Four unidentified assailants allegedly intruded into a factory owner’s house at Satish Park in Modi Nagar here on Monday afternoon and killed his wife. They also decamped with cash and valuables worth over Rs 25 lakh.

The accused had come to meet the carpenters working in factory owner Sarvesh Dadu’s house and attacked his wife Urmila, with a sharp-edged weapon.

Dadu’s mother Kalawati, 82, who witnessed the incident, said that the assailants had come around 3:30 p.m. Kalawati said she then called her grandson’s wife from the first floor. The assailants had allegedly strangled Kalawati, pasted a tape on her mouth and threw her on a cot.

They then broke the almirah and decamped with cash and jewellery.

Urmila had died on the spot while Kalawati was seriously injured. She was rushed to a hospital.

The housemaid, Ritu, said that she had left for her home after the carpenters had gone for lunch.

However, she said that the victims had gold and diamond jewellery worth lakhs. She also affirmed that there was huge cash in the house.

The incident took place when Sarvesh Dadu and his son Rakesh were in their Noida factory.

Meanwhile, the carpenters and the contractor who were working in the house have been arrested from Meerut.

Faridabad, May 12
A man was today allegedly murdered and his nephew injured by members of a family in Old Faridabad. Rao Karan Singh, resident of the Ahirwada area in Old Faridabad, was attacked allegedly by members of a family in the neighbourhood as he had objected to them playing music in the early morning.

One of the three brothers from the side of aggressor party, Kale, attacked Rao Karan Singh with a knife. He stabbed him thrice in the chest and abdomen portion.

A nephew of Rao Karan Singh who tried to intervene was also attacked by the brothers and father of Kale.

Rao Karan Singh was rushed to hospital but he died on the way. His nephew is admitted in Sarvodaya Hospital.

The police has registered a case against Kale and of his two brothers and father. Kale has been arrested.

Kale is said to be having a criminal background. He was earlier booked in a murder case.

According to people of the area, the two families were often in dispute on account of Kale’s family playing music loudly at odd hours which impinged on the education of the children of Rao Karan’s household.

Kale’s family ran a shop next to the house of the deceased. The DJ was played in the shop.

Noida, May 12
An engineer was found dead in the bathroom of his house on Monday. Interestingly, even before receiving the post-mortem report, the police has concluded that he died of heart failure.

As per information, the victim, Deepak Mukhi, was a resident of Shanti Kunj Apartments in Noida’s Sector-61.

Mukhi worked for a software company Set Life in Sector-64. On Monday morning, one of his female colleagues came to meet him. But, when Mukhi did not answer the call bell for a long time, she informed the neighbours, who somehow opened the door and found Deepak lying on the bathroom floor. There was a deep injury on his head.

He was rushed to Fortis Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. The Sector-58 police was informed about the incident. The police later sent the body for post-mortem.

According to the in-charge of the Sector 58 police station, Deepak died of heart attack due to mental tension. He had recently left HCL and had joined a new company. However, it is still not clear as to how he got the head injury.

Deepak is the fourth case of death of software professionals due to heart failure in Noida in the past two-and-a-half months. 

Ghaziabad, May 12
About half a dozen persons allegedly barged into the house of a tailor and hanged his younger daughter to death with her dupatta in Ghaziabad district on Monday night.

Ghaziabad police chief Akhil Kumar, who visited tailor Surendra Jatav’s house in the Fafrana area in Modinagar town of the district, said that according to Jatav’s elder daughter Babli, about half a dozen persons allegedly barged into their house on Monday night while their parents were away. They locked her in a room before dragging her younger sister, Guddan (15), to a corner. They later hanged her with the victim’s dupatta, thrown over a beam.

They fled after killing Guddan. Neighbours freed Babli on hearing her cries and informed the police.

Jatav has accused Purshottam, a customer, behind the murder of his daughter, Guddan. Purushottam, reportedly, owed her money for the work she had done but was refusing to pay it to her despite several requests.

A threatening message was also sent to her mobile. — IANS

New Delhi, May 12
Delhi University is gearing up to meet the huge admission rush that will begin from June. The date for the sale of admission forms has been tentatively fixed between June 1 and June 15.

The university has also tentatively decided on June 25 as the date for the announcement of the first cut-off list.

Gurpreet Tuteja, deputy dean, student welfare department, says, “We are fully geared up for this year’s admission season. We have four helplines, two in north campus and two in south campus. We are already receiving a vast number of admission enquiries.

Volunteers manning the helplines informed that the maximum queries were coming for courses like English (hons), mass communication, BBE and BBS. These were likely to be the most popular courses for this season, said the volunteers.

Tuteja informed that the BA Maths (hons) and BSC Maths (hons) courses had been combined into one course which will be known as restructured BSC (hons) Maths.

The university this year would have eight open days.

The first open day will be held on May 24 and 25 at SGTB Khalsa College, second on May 26 at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, third on May 27 at Keshav Mahavidyalaya in Pitampura, fourth on May 28 and 29 at S.P. Jain Centre in south campus, fifth on May 30 at Shyamlal College in Shahdara, sixth on May 31 at Vivekananda College, seventh and eight on June 3 at Vivek Vihar and Acharya Narendra Dev College in Kalkaji.

“All open days will have a 40-minute presentation on the admission procedure, location of colleges, courses available and important dates,” said Tuteja. The open days will be run by a team of 20 volunteers.

Tuteja further informed that the university was also running an e-mail service at dsw@du.ac.in for admission-related queries. He added that the DU community radio would also air special programmes on admission.

Meanwhile, special arrangements have been made for disabled students. There is a special registration facility for them and 20 volunteers and five teachers will be helping them in admission.

New Delhi, May 12
A year after teenager Aarushi Talwar was found murdered mysteriously at her home here — a crime that had a stunned nation riveted for months — her parents have turned to spirituality and wish the murderer could have killed them too.

The doctor couple that battled innuendo, hostility and suspicion for the still unsolved crime, for which father Rajesh Talwar was jailed for 50 days, says they live only for justice.

“She is giving us the strength. I meet her in dreams and she tells me ‘Mom you have to be strong.’ She wants us to fight for justice. That is our only reason to live today,” said Nupur Talwar, mother of Aarushi.

Sitting at her Hauz Khas clinic, she said, “We wish the killer could have done us a favour if he had killed us too. That way we could have been with her.”

They have not had a full night’s sleep since May 16, when their daughter was found with her throat slit.

“Since then, we hardy had a sound sleep any night. We get up during odd hours and talk to each other,” the grieving mother said.

She said, “After the incident, I did not work for months. I only used to read. I read the Gita, books on Sai Baba and spiritual books .”

She said Aarushi believed in Sai Baba. “Before her exams, she used to go to the Sai Baba temple here. I used to accompany her. I feel he is with us. After coming out of jail, Rajesh wanted to go the temple and so we went there.”

The couple has moved to South Delhi, away from their home in Noida that holds such painful memories. “We could not live there,” they said.

Rajesh, who has stopped socialising and meets only close friends and relatives, said he sometimes starts crying while talking to Aarushi’s friends.

“We are in touch with her friends. Talking to them I sometimes start crying. They want to meet the president to seek justice but I have not decided about it yet,” he said.

“The past one year has been very difficult. We have been dying every day — no matter what I am doing,” said Rajesh.

On Aarushi’s birthday on May 24, the couple is planning to go to Shirdi, the pilgrimage town in Maharashtra where Sai Baba lived. On May 16, her first death anniversary, they are organising a prayer meeting at the Chinmaya Mission on Lodhi Road. — IANS