New Delhi, June 9
The Delhi government has formed ten multi-disciplinary teams of trained experts from different fields of medicine, one each in nine districts and one for the Maulana Azad Medical College, to investigate and confirm the outbreak of Swine Flu H1N1 infection.

Delhi minister of health Kiran Walia said that the government was fully prepared and committed to control the disease. “Doctors and para-medical staff are being trained to handle the situation. Hospitals have been put on alert and their heads have been sensitised to handle the disease,” said Walia.

The minister said that three hospitals— quarantine unit of the IGI Airport, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and LNJP Hospital— were fully functional for treating Swine Flu disease, while ten hospitals— GTB, Hindu Rao, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Safdarjang Hopital, ESI Hospital, Central Railways and Maharishi Valmiki Hospital—would get functional on short notice.

Ten million units of doses of Tami Flu drugs were already available and more drugs, if needed, could be ordered to the manufacturing firm on an immediate basis.

Besides, National Institute of Communicable Diseases has been alerted for outbreak investigations.

The minister said that so far the virus was mild in the southern hemisphere, including India, but the point of worry was that it was a new virus and it might become violent and we needed to be fully prepared to combat the situation.

A toll-free, round-the clock helpline has also been launched at 1075 for people to gather all information about the flu.

Walia has appealed people to be alert about the disease and not to panic since the government has done elaborate arrangements to deal with the disease.

New Delhi, June 9
The South Delhi police finally managed to crack the murder case of an MBA student of IIPM Anand Tewari (25), whose body was found with crushed face on May 26 in the Sanjay Van area of south Delhi.

According to the police, Anand was killed by an ex-student of IIPM and his friends because he resented deceased’s close relationship with one of the girls at the college.

The police has arrested prime accused Rahul Chadha (24), a resident of Patel Nagar II, Ghaziabad, while his partners-in-crime Arjun and Arun are absconding.

According to H.G.S. Dhaliwal, DCP (south), Rahul has disclosed that Anand Tewari had “very intimate” relationship with a female student of the same institution and the two were supposed to go to Switzerland on May 27. This did not go down well with Rahul, as he also claimed to be having intimacy with the same girl.

“Rahul had strong opposition to Anand’s closeness to the girl and had warned and threatened Anand to stay away from the girl. There had been several heated arguments between the deceased and the accused over the issue in the past,” said Dhaliwal.

One of Rahul’s friends Arjun, who worked in the factory owned by the girl’s father, also disliked the growing relationship between Anand and the girl. Rahul, along with Arjun and one more friend Arun, hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Anand, said Dhaliwal.

“As per their plan, on the night of May 25, Arjun invited Anand to have a drink at a pub in Saket. Rahul and Arun waited in a car outside the pub, while Arjun took Anand for a drink. After drinks, Arjun took Anand to the jungle of Qutub Institutional Area on the pretext of taking a walk. Rahul and Arun followed them in a car. In the jungle, Arjun hit Anand on his head with an iron rod. Later, the three also hit him with stones,” revealed Dhaliwal.

After removing Anand’s wallet, mobile phone and bag from his body, the accused threw the body in a nullah and escaped from the spot.

According to Dhaliwal, Anand’s body was identified on the basis of the IIPM T-shirt worn by him. Witness’ statements and inquiries revealed the presence of Rahul, Arjun and Arun at the scene of the crime just before the commission of the murder. 

Accordingly, sources were deployed in various areas to locate the possible hideouts of the accused and raids were conducted at several places to apprehend them. The efforts of the police teams bore results and Rahul was arrested yesterday from Satbari in Mehrauli.

Rahul, after completing MBA from IIPM in June 2008, had joined his father’s business, but kept visiting IIPM frequently to meet his old friends. Arjun works in the factory owned by the father of the girl and was close to Rahul, while Arun, who has studied up to class X, is jobless. All three are residents of Ghaziabad. 

New Delhi, June 9
A teenager was killed and his colleague suffered minor injuries when a Blueline bus hit their scooter in the Vasant Vihar area.

The victim Sagar (19), working as a waiter in a restaurant, was riding pillion when the bus plying on route number 623 from Shahdara to Vasant Vihar hit the motorcycle from behind last night.

"They were returning after delivering an order in Vasant Vihar when the incident happened," a police officer said.

The bus driver managed to flee the spot. A case of negligent and rash driving has been lodged.

New Delhi, June 9
Dismissing reports that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is attempting to shift students to tents, the civic body will hold a review meeting to monitor the working of education department.

“Various problems regarding municipal schools will be discussed and plans will be chalked out to solve major problems such as providing students with textbooks and uniforms,” said a municipal official.

He said there are reports from some schools that students have not received their textbooks in the current session.

According to MCD leaders, there is a lapse in the distribution of textbooks in certain areas.

“The books have been printed and are also available. It’s their distribution to schools, which seems to be the problem. It is the responsibility of education officers,” said one of the municipal leaders.

The other problem confronting the education department is the appointment of contract teachers. Though the department has recently appointed 3,000 new teachers, a massive shortage of teachers has been seen in various schools.

The MCD has also failed to provide minimum basic facilities like drinking water, proper toilets and parks. Though the corporation has announced many times to outsource the maintenance of these facilities to private bodies, it has never taken off. It has also failed to provide uniforms to students on time.

Besides, more than 10 lakh students in around 1,500 municipal schools continue to eat midday meal at their own risk as incidents of food poisoning are not uncommon in these schools.

New Delhi, June 9
The 52-year-old Indian Coffee House here, which was frequented by many political leaders, including the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, may not shut down with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit throwing her weight against its closure.

According to Coffee Consumers' Forum, Dikshit has told it that she has instructed the NDMC to "postpone" shutting down of the Coffee House at Mohan Singh Place in Connaught Place.

The Indian Coffee Workers' Cooperative Society had decided to close it down due to financial "losses" incurred over the last couple of years.

"We took up the issue with Dikshit, who herself is one of the distinguished regulars at the coffee house. She assured us that she has issued clear instructions to NDMC chairman Parimal Rai and the chief secretary of Delhi administration that at any cost the Coffee House should not be closed," Ram Shastri, convener of the Coffee Consumer Forum, told reporters here.

The 89-year-old Shiv Kumar, the brother of freedom fighter Sri Rup Narayan, said, "I am a regular visitor here. I have seen many national leaders like Jai Prakash Narayan frequenting the place.

"Government should help the Coffee House meet the Rs 7,500 per month lease rent," he said. --PTI 

New Delhi, June 9
Delhi is all set to revive the glorious tradition of naturopathy, courtesy a 100-bedded hospital-cum-Ayurvedic college, which is likely to become operational by the end of August.

The project with an estimated cost of Rs 102 crore would be an educational research-cum-medication centre and the building is all ready, standing on a 45 acre land at the Khera Dabar village in South-West part of the city, said Kiran Walia, Delhi health minister.

The institute, which would be called as Brahm Prakash Ayurvedic Sansthan, named after former Delhi chief minister and veteran freedom fighter, would have the state-of-the-art amenities to cater to the rural population residing nearby, stated Walia.

Besides, the set-up would also have centres for yoga and naturopathy and most importantly green lungs in the form of herbal garden.

To raise awareness about herbal and Ayurvedic treatment, the Delhi government is conceptualising another 40-acre herbal garden in north Delhi and for this, it has collaborated with Baba Ramdev who would be facilitating the Rs 5-crore project with the 120 species of medicinal herbs.

"The medicinal plants would be available for sale and people can grow them without much effort in their gardens," said an official from Delhi government.

This greening task is a part of the Garhi Mandu City forest, which is in its initial stages of creation on the Yamuna bed.

Environmentalists opine that the compensatory action of the Delhi government for the proposed Wazirabad Signature Bridge by setting up of city forest is not going to fill the gaps caused by the rampage of trees. 

Noida, June 9
To ease the problem of car parking in the town and prepare Noida for the Metro rail service, Noida authority has brought a scheme of constucting multi-level car parking lots beneath the public parks.

In the first phase, 10 locations have been identified where parks already exist except in sector 18 commercial hub.

According to sources, parking lots will be constructed underground on half of the area of the park. Three out of the 10 locations selected for the parking lots will be near Metro stations in Noida town.

A high-level team of Noida authority under addl CEO, R P Arora and chief architect planner Rajpal Kaushik had examined all the proposed sites where the construction of parking lots ccould be started any day now, the sources said.

The multi-level parking lots will be built at a cost Rs 84 crore and each parking is designed to have space for parking 950 big and 400 small vehicles.

Noida Authority Board has already given a green signal for developing green parks over the parking lots.