Nuh (Mewat), June 11
Local residents today attacked a team of government officials who had gone to demolish certain buildings which had been constructed without getting the design/map passed from the authorities concerned or without having completed the necessary formalities.

The residents, who were opposing the drive, threw stones at the demolition party comprising administrative as well as police officials. Some government vehicles were damaged in the incident.

The agitated residents also blocked the Delhi-Alwar road passing through Nuh to register their protest and resentment against the demolition drive. While some residents alleged that they had completed the required formalities, others maintained that their houses were being demolished without giving them any prior notice.

The residents later lifted the blockade on being assured that the buildings for which the required formalities had been completed would not be demolished.

New Delhi, June 11
With a 41-year-old woman testing positive for influenza A (H1N1), the number of swine flu cases goes to five in the Capital today.

“The women, a resident of Delhi, landed here from Haiti via New York on June 5. She has been quarantined in the ward of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital,” said an official from the health department.

The medical superintendent of RML Hospital, Dr N K Chaturvedi said, “The woman came to us with flu-like symptoms and later she was tested positive and shifted to the isolation ward. With this now, there are four confirmed cases of influenza A here with us, including the woman, 17-year-old boy from Boston and 35-year-old man, who returned from New York to Delhi on June 2 and transmitted the virus to his 60-year-old mother. All of them have been quarantined here.”

The permission granted to the son and the mother to stay in their private farmhouse even after they were detected with the disease invited the wrath of the central government.

“The health ministry had sought an answer from the Delhi government in the case of the 35-year-old man who after being detected with the disease was allowed to stay in a private farmhouse, as a result of which he transmitted the virus to his mother who was nursing him. The Delhi health department responded quickly and forced them to come to RML hospital,” said an official of the health department.

He added, “The 17-year-old boy who had come here to attend a family wedding was tested positive yesterday. Besides, the boy’s father, 61, showing flu-like signs has been put under observation.”

Apart from the above four positive cases of swine flu, we are awaiting the results of two patients, including the father of the 17-year-old boy and a French national who has also been quarantined for the past two days after she developed flu-like symptoms, told Dr Chaturvedi.

“The French national had come to the Capital after visiting Hyderabad where he landed after visiting Japan, Malaysia and Singapore,” informed Dr Chaturvedi. Among the five confirmed cases of swine flu, is also 25-year-old woman, who came from New York carrying the virus and is presently quarantined at Lok Nanak Jai Prakash Hospital.

After the orders from the central government, the state health department has readied 10-multi-disciplinary teams to tackle the swine scare here in the Capital.

In addition to the existing centres directed towards probing and treatment of influenza A cases, the Delhi government has made arrangements at various other hospitals like Safdarjung, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial and Guru Tegh Bahadur, said Dr Chaturvedi. 

New Delhi, June 11
Delhi University barely announced its shift to the semester system and livid teachers are up in arms against the imposition of the system. Upset DUTA members held an executive council meeting today following which they have announced their decision to stage a dharna outside the academic council meeting on June 16.

Earlier in the week, the AAD held a meeting on Wednesday and voiced their protest to the VC’s decision of bringing about a shift to the semester system. However, DUTA is protesting against the, ‘undemocratic behaviour’ of the vice-chancellor in conducting academic council meetings wherein he passed the semester system for undergraduate level in Delhi University.

Aditya Narayana Misra, the DUTA president says, “We are protesting against the surly imposition of the semester system without holding consultations with the teachers. If the semester system is adopted, it will cause chaos in the university. The varsity is not yet ready for the semester system and it may take a year or two for it to get ready.”

Jasvinder Singh, the principal at Khalsa College, says, “So far the semester system has been largely opposed by teachers and I feel that it has many advantages as well as a few disadvantages. The semester system entails significant changes on many fronts. For one thing, students will have to be continuously monitored and evaluated. This will entail more work for teachers. However for students, the burden of the curriculum and subsequent examinations will be distributed in two parts.”

New Delhi, June 11
The process for the admission of SC-ST candidates to Delhi University (DU) is drawing a lot of protest this year.

Ever since the admission procedure started, students’ organisations have been demonstrating against the alleged discrimination against the reserved category candidates. Activists of the Youth for Social Justice (YSJ) today protested on north campus.

The organisation wants the university to stop stamping the marksheets of the reserved category students while issuing the registration forms.

“Under the present system of admission, marksheets of SC-ST students are stamped. This is a discriminatory practice. This will make SC students stand out,” said Surender Singh, president, YSJ.

The students complained that there was a danger of victimisation on the basis of their caste if they show the stamped documents in private institutes.

“There is huge discrimination in the admission process. The university has introduced OBC reservation this year, but documents of OBC students are not being marked. Why only SC-ST students are being put under scanner,” said Manmohan Singh of YSJ.

The university authorities, however, say that forms are being issued free of cost to the SC-ST candidates. “We have to stamp the forms because we need to keep an account of the number of forms issued. Students from reserved category can not use their quota more than once ,” said a source in the DU administration. 

New Delhi, June 11
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has reported more than 300 cases of misuse of its online system of factory licensing.

According to MCD officials, some applicants have obtained licences by providing false information on the corporation’s online system. The officials said that criminal cases would be lodged against such applicants .

“We have found that some unscrupulous applicants upload forged documents to deceive the online system in order to obtain the provisional factory licence. It is being ensured that such cases are intercepted at the scrutiny or examination level and these are either rejected outrightly or asked to submit requisite documents,” said P.S. Tomar, additional commissioner (Revenues).

As many as 1,668 applicants have been issued provisional municipal factory licences to date. Out of these, in 336 cases, deficiency letters have already been issued.

He said that since the online grant of license is an entirely new concept, the system is being updated regularly. 

New Delhi, June 11
A 62-year-old man critically injured his 59-year-old wife by stabbing her with a kitchen knife over a property dispute in the Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi last night.

According to the police, the incident was reported around 11:30 pm from a house in street number 3 of Sant Nagar.

“Baljeet Singh, who runs an automobile spare parts shop in the area, had bought a house in his wife Manjeet’s name. However, off late Baljeet was forcing Manjeet to transfer the house in his name, which she was denying. This had caused heated arguments between the two on several occasions earlier. Yesterday again an argument took place between the two, and in a fit of rage, Baljeet took a knife from kitchen and attacked Manjeet. Their neighbours saw them fighting and made a call to the PCR,” said a senior police official.

Manjeet Kaur, who received wounds in the neck and head, was taken to the Deen Dyal Updhyay Hospital, where her condition deteriorated and she was referred to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

She is undergoing treatment, but her condition is stated to be critical.

According to information provided by the couple’s daughter, Baljeet had taken to alcohol and used to come home drunk. The family also suspected him of having relationship with another woman.

“His wife feared that he would sell off the property and drink away the money. Since the couple has two daughters of marriageable age, Manjeet did not agree to her husband’s demand of transferring the house to his name,” said a source. The couple has four daughters and two sons, who live separately.

Baljeet was arrested and a case under Section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder) has been registered against him at the Tilak Nagar police station.

New Delhi, June 11
The crime branch of the Delhi police has claimed to have arrested a supplier of firearms and seized three countrymade pistols from him.

The accused, Ratan Kumar Singh (45), is a resident of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and an architect by profession. Among the recoveries are one sophisticated countrymade (9 mm) pistol and a countrymade revolver.

Ratan was arrested on Friday from near Narula Restaurant under Defence Colony flyover on the basis of a tip-off.

According to the police, Ratan was working as an architect-cum-builder in Allahabad, and had contracts for constructing three government buildings—a block office, a primary health centre and a mini-IIT in the Shankar Garh area of Allahabad. However, faced by stiff competition from local builder mafias, he had to leave the work unfinished. As a result, his contract was cancelled, his security was forfeited and he was also penalised. This caused him heavy losses.

Left jobless, Ratan came in contact with one Shravan Kumar Dubey, a resident of Pandariba in Allahabad, who used to supply firearms in Delhi. Shravan Kumar lured him to join the lucrative, but illegal racket.

At the instance of Shravan, Ratan had come to Delhi to supply firearms to a criminal gang in Defence Colony, where he was apprehended.

Efforts are being made to arrest Shravan and the people to whom Ratan was supposed to supply the firearms.