New Delhi, June 10
Unexpected rains in the national capital on Wednesday afternoon brought some relief for Delhiites from the sweltering heat.

Delhi received 2.0 mm of rainfall on Wednesday afternoon, the weatherman said.

“The cyclonic circulation over west Rajasthan brought rain to the Capital. We can expect some more light showers on Thursday,” said India Meteorological Department (IMD) director S.C. Bhan.

“The rain will bring much needed respite as the maximum and minimum temperature will record a drop of two to three degrees Celsius,” Bhan added.

“However, the pleasant weather won’t stay long as the day temperature will soar once the cyclonic circulation is gone,” Bhan said, adding that the humidity is likely to increase.

The maximum temperature recorded on Wednesday was 41.6 degrees Celsius that was two notches above average for this time of the season while the minimum was 25.6 degrees Celsius.

The humidity level was recorded at 66 percent, an increase of nine percent from Tuesday’s 57 percent.

Distraught with days of hot and humid weather residents of Delhi welcomed the rains.

“It was so hot and humid that I was scared to step out. Thank god for the rain. I went out shopping with my friends,” said Tanya Bhasin, a homemaker. — IANS

New Delhi, June 10
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today allotted the much-awaited land to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for building the entry and exit of the under-construction Lajpat Nagar Metro station.

The civic body today passed a proposal for the transfer of the land measuring 542.14 sq m to the DMRC in the standing committee meeting.

Chairman of the standing committee Ramkrishan Singhal said that the DMRC officials had assured them that the land would not be used for any commercial use.

“The matter has been resolved with the DMRC officials. They have said that the land would be used for building the gates of metro stations and not for malls or shopping complexes,” said Singhal.

According to the proposal, a land piece measuring 542.01 sq mt would be transferred to the DMRC at Rs 1,450 per sq m, which amounts to nearly Rs 7 lakh.

The civic body had earlier refused to transfer the land to the DMRC, saying that the rates at which the land was to be transferred was below the market price and thus was not acceptable under the DMC Act.

The MCD had also alleged that the DMRC do not get their building plans sanctioned for their commercial buildings and also do not apply for a trade licence.

They had said that the issue of sharing advertisement revenue was also to be settled.

New Delhi, June 10
A 48-year-old retired armyman has been held by the Delhi police for allegedly raping his minor daughter several times over a period of last few months in the Sultanpuri area of outer Delhi.

According to the police, the accused Achhe Lal stays with his wife and daughter in the I Block area of Kishan Vihar and was arrested last night.

According to information, 16-year-old Seema (name changed) told her mother that Lal was raping her for the past few months, including yesterday, but she did not take the matter seriously.

However, disgusted with her father’s act, Seema decided to go to the police.

When the mother did not pay attention to her complaints, she called up the women cell of the Delhi police around 11 last night.

The officials of the women cell and the sleuths from the Sultanpuri police station reached the residence of the girl and took her statement.

The girl was immediately taken to Sanjay Gandhi Medical Hospital for medical examination, where doctors confirmed rape.

“Achhe Lal was arrested on charges of rape later in the night when medical examination confirmed girl’s statement,” said the police.

New Delhi, June 10
Two cases of suicides were reported from the city in the last 24 hours.

In the first incident, apparently disappointed and depressed about scoring low marks in the recently announced CBSE Class XII results, an 18-year-old boy residing in Mayur Vihar Phase-III of east Delhi allegedly committed suicide last evening. Deceased Akshay Rana was a student of Modern Public School in Noida.

According to information, Akshay, whose father works with a contractor, was alone with his sister Akanksha at his home at the time of the incident in afternoon. Akshay hanged himself when Akanksha went to take a bath.

“Rana’s parents’ were not at home when the incident took place. When he did not come out of the room for some time, Akanksha banged his door. However, he did not answer the door, she got suspicious and called the neighbours, who broke open the door and found him hanging,” the officer said.

The police has recovered a suicide note from the spot.

“The boy wrote that he is committing suicide for he was not able to fulfil his parents’ dreams. It seems the boy was depressed after he scored low marks in the board exams,” the officer added.

A case has been lodged in this regard.

In the second incident, a 22-year-old nursing student at a government medical college in the Capital allegedly committed suicide in her hostel room today afternoon.

Kaushika, who was studying at Lady Hardinge Medical College, was found hanging in her hostel room, a police officer said.

“We received a call from the college that one of the rooms in the hostel is closed from inside. We broke open the door and found the girl hanging,” the officer said. The reasons for the extreme step were not immediately known and her parents residing in Panipat, Haryana has been informed about the incident.

Although, no suicide note has been recovered from the deceased, investigators have ruled out foul play in her death and are awaiting the arrival of her family members.

“Prime-facie it looks like a case of suicide as the only entrance to the room was locked from inside. We are investigating the matter to find the probable cause of her taking the extreme step. As of now, we have no clue,” said an officer close to the investigation.

According to Kaushika’s hostel mates, she did not look depressed and were shocked by her death.

New Delhi, June 10
Bird Education Society for Travel and Tourism, a part of the diversified Bird Group, on Wednesday announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Delhi University to introduce three specialised travel and tourism courses.

As part of the MoU, world-recognised courses in travel and tourism will be offered to all the affiliated colleges of Delhi University as well as to students of School of Open Learning (SOL) and Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board.

The classes will be held at Centre for Professional and Technical Training of the Campus of Open Learning at Keshavpuram in northwest Delhi.

The certifications available are travel and tourism, computer reservation system (CRS) and airfares and ticketing. The seats available for each course will be a minimum of 15 students per batch and the total duration of the courses vary from 15 hours to 90 hours. The classes are scheduled to start from July.

According to Bird Group chairman Radha Bhatia, all the three courses will allow students to tap employment opportunities not only within the country but also anywhere in the world.

"Through this partnership with Delhi University, we are enabling students to opt for these specialised professional courses while pursuing their regular academic courses," Bhatia added.

Delhi University vice-chancellor Deepak Pental said: "We believe that in order to compete in the current world scenario, it is crucial to constantly enhance skill-sets in line with the industry's requirements. Through this partnership, our students can gain access to best-in-class professional education to gain a foothold in the travel and tourism industry.

The courses have been conceptualized to provide an in-depth understanding and technical skills in the field of aviation, travel and tourism, IT and hospitality management involving soft skill training, IATA consultant and foundation course, airport handling and IATA cargo courses, among others. The latest in this field is aviation law and dangerous goods regulation courses. — IANS

New Delhi, June 10
Newly-appointed union minister of new and renewable energy and National Conference MP from Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah has advised Muslims to stress on girls’ education as they played a major role in bringing up children in the family.

Speaking at a function held to felicitate Muslim members of the council of ministers of the government of India and the Muslim members of parliament, Abdullah said education was the only way to progress.

He advised all Muslim MPs to work for Muslim reservation in the central police organisation, in which matriculation is needed for recruitment as constables. Once the poor Muslims get jobs, it would be easy for them to educate their children and improve their family’s condition, he said.

The function was organised by the Confederation of Muslim Educational Institutions of India (CMEII).

Union minister of minority affairs Salman Khursheed said that being the minister of minority affairs he could not do everything that Muslims demanded because there were set norms for running the ministry.

He said that he had been told by the party high command to coordinate with all ministries for development in all 90 districts identified by the Sachar Committee where Muslims were in majority.

Sultan Ahmed, MP of the Trinamool Congress from West Bengal said that the condition of the Muslim community in the state was pitiable, adding that he had been voted to power by the secular minded Hindus.

Gurgaon, June 10
Various business and trader associations as well as resident welfare associations will assure the Haryana government that they will not employ child labour in their establishments. They will meet Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in this regard on June 12, World Day Against Child Labour.

They had vowed not to employ child labour in their establishments in the presence of labour commissioner Surina Rajan in a meeting with her at GIA House, Gurgaon on Tuesday.

In the meeting, the representatives of trade organisations, industrial associations and colonel Ratan Singh, president of JAFRA, told Surina Rajan

that they would give a resolution to the Chief Minister assuring that no member of their association would employ child labourer and if any member was found violating this rule, he would be punished by the association. Subsequently, information would be given to the district administration about this violation and action would be taken.

However, the representatives said that the administration would have to help in opening rehabilitation centres for these rescued children.

The labour commissioner told them that every child below 14 years of age is given a fundamental right to education by the Constitution. So, it becomes our social responsibility to motivate all children below 14 years to go to school.

She said that the city has migrant population in large number and their children instead of going to school accompany their parents to work.

Rajan said that employing children below 14 years of age is prohibited under law and there is provision of penalty of minimum Rs 10,000 or imprisonment for three years or both for the violators.

She avowed that children below 14 years can help their parents in their occupation provided it is not hazardous in nature.

Rajan stated that 26 centres were being run in Gurgaon district for the rehabilitation of rescued child labourers under National Child Labour Programme and funds for opening 14 more such centres were also available in the city.

She appealed to the business community and resident welfare associations to discourage child labour directly or indirectly. Rajan exhorted the business community not to place orders with the establishment who has employed child labour.

The additional deputy commissioner Parveen Kumar said that 63 places were identified by the district administration in the city where the children went with their parents at work.

He affirmed that the NGOs as well as associations can run rehabilitations centres for such children and funds for them were not a problem.

Besides sending to school, these children can be imparted vocational training for which they should be paid some remuneration.

The SDM Gurgaon, North, Shakti Singh made an emotional appeal and said that if we want that after 10 years, today's children are not involved in nefarious activities, we should show the path of school to every child. This would be a valuable contribution to society.

Greater Noida, June 10
A senior manager with the Greater Noida Authority has been suspended by the chief executive officer of the Authority for allegedly ignoring development work in Chief Minister Mayawati's parental village Badalpur.

As the suspended official, senior manager Ramesh Chand, also happens to be the president of the GNIDA Employees Association, the suspension has created panic and trepidations among the GNIDA officers.The responsibility for the development work in Mayawati's village was given to Chand.

During a visit by senior officers of the Greater Noida Authority on Monday to assess the status of the development works being done in the village, it was found that the work was being done in a slipshod manner. The GNIDA CEO Pankaj Aggrawal, took a grim view of the report and suspended Chand.

According to official sources, there are strict instructions from the Chief Minister that the villages in Gauam Budh Nagar be developed on the pattern of the cities.

Earlier on June 5, principal secretary, home, UP government, Kanwar Fateh Bahadur had visited GB Naagar to review the law and order situation of the area and the progress of the development works, including the work being done in villages.

Bahadur is understood to have given instructions for eccelerating the pace of development work in villages.

Since then senior officers have been touring villages to check the progress of the works. In fact, a roster has been prepared for senior officers' visit to rural areas.

Noida/ Gt Noida, June 10
A two-and-a-half year old girl and two others were killed and half-a-dozen people were seriously injured in the past 24 hours in different road accidents in Noida and Greater Noida.

According to the police, most of the accidents happened due to the negligence of the drivers.

In the first accident that took place in Surajpur town, a small girl playing behind a truck was killed when the truck driver tried to reverse his vehicle. In the second incident, one Bajrangi from Sahibabad, a helmet seller, was knocked down by an unidentified vehicle while crossing the Kasna-Dankore road falling under Kasna police station.Bahjrangi died on the spot.

The third accident took place on Noida-Kasna road, near LG Company. A bus that was on its way to Noida from Kasna got out of control and hit a road divider. The bus reportedly got out of control because it was being driven at a very high speed. Half-a-dozen passnegers were injured in this accident. The driver fled the spot, but the police managed to detain the helper of the bus.

Further, in Sector 30, the police has found a body on Salarpur- Bhanghel road on Tuesday night. According to the police, the man had been knocked down by a vehicle.

Ghaziabad, June 10
An unemployed truck driver who allegedly killed his five children and attempted to commit suicide after critically injuring his wife has been arrested, the police said on Tuesday.

A case under Sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 309 (attempt to commit suicide) have been registered against Ravindra Verma, who while heavily drunk, brutally killed his five children, critically injured his wife and attempted to commit suicide. The maximum term of imprisonment under Section 308 is seven years.

Meanwhile, Verma's wife Durgawati is out of danger and is recovering fast. In her first statement, she said Verma attacked her when she was trying to protect the children from her husband. She said he had first attacked her with a knife, and then hit her on her head with a heavy iron object.

Verma, 38, and Durgawati, 35, were found with stab wounds in their house in Rosy Colony by his mother around 7 am on Monday. The five children were lying dead, the police said.

The children were identified as Anjani, 14, Preeti, 10, Mona, 8, Devraj, 5, and nine-month-old Lucky. They appear to have been killed with a blunt instrument. Their bodies have been sent for autopsy.

Originally a resident of Bihar's Siwan district, Verma moved to Ghaziabad about 15 years ago and started working as a truck driver but was sacked about two months ago.

His younger brother Avdhesh said Verma's family life was severely disrupted since he used to sit idle at home. Whenever his wife insisted he find a job, they used to have a fight. He said a fight on Monday might have led to the tragedy.

About three years ago, Verma killed his two-month-old daughter by throwing her on the floor of the house in a fit of rage.

Inspector general of police (IGP) Gurbachan Lal said that economic stress might have led Verma to take such extreme step, while divisional commissioner Radha Chauhan claimed economic deprivation could have not been the only reason and some psychological factors might have also been there. — IANS