New Delhi, August 14
The rising graph of influenza A (H1N1) fatalities across the country has been giving mask-blues to Delhiites. Many of them were spotted with masks at public places—MGF mall, Ansal Plaza and Select City Walk over the last few days.

Similar panic syndrome was also underlined by the fact that a number of people rushing for screening at the several H1N1 OPDs of the designated city hospitals were found to be suffering from either seasonal flu or asymptomatic of H1N1 infection.

Students and office-goers travelling by buses, metros and local trains from Ghaziabad and Faridabad were seen wearing mostly three-layered masks ignorant of the guidelines issued by the health agencies.

Akriti Shah from Dayal Singh College said many of her friends were strictly instructed by their parents to wear masks even though they weren’t having any symptoms. In fact, their parents had asked them to carry an extra one. However, a student of National Institute of Fashion Designing, Suhani Kapoor, said, “I found most of my friends quite chilled out. Though in markets like Central Market of Lajpat Nagar and Connaught Place, I noticed every fifth person putting on mask.”

The department of microbiology of AIIMS, which is diagnostic centre for H1N1, has been receiving samples more than its capacity, and till late in the evening, the department received eight samples from the hospital and 30 samples from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Senior professor of the Dr Shobha Broor, department of microbiology, said “Out of the total samples sent to us for testing, about 20 per cent are cases of seasonal flu, while the samples testing positive for H1N1 flu is less than 10 per cent. We have four-six postgraduate students involved in testing work who have been overstretching themselves.”

Medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital, Dr Amit Banerjee said even though over 60 people had come for screening today, only 15 were sampled, and yesterday out of the total 120 visitors, sample swabs of only five people were sent to the NICD.

Dr Amit stated, “As large chunk of the visitors are the cases of apprehension, we send them back after proper counselling.”

According to Dr Shobha, with relatively a low proportion of samples confirming the presence of the H1N1 isolate vis-a-vis people visiting the health centres, the key strategy at present to combat the H1N1 transmission is to step up awareness efforts.

People should remember that every case with cough or fever might not be a case of H1N1 flu. Moreover, explained Dr Randeep Guleria from AIIMS that as H1N1 virus is not deadly in itself, people should avoid panicking and adhere to basic hygiene etiquette, though caution must be taken for the high-risk groups like children, pregnant women and elderly along with those suffering from cardiac, respiratory, kidney ailments, etc.

Meanwhile, with 13 fresh infections of H1N1 in the national Capital today, the cumulative figure for the positive cases of H1N1 in the city goes up to 341. With children being identified as one of the most susceptible groups, a senior Delhi health department official informed that among today’s confirmed cases, eight are children currently quarantined at home. Besides, 11 have resulted from local transmissions and the remaining two are—14-year-old boy who had visited Dubai and 19-year-old boy with a history of travel to Israel. 

New Delhi, August 14
Poor people are “the growth engines of the city,” said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil while inaugurating Mission Convergence (Samajik Suvidha Sangam) here today.

Mission Convergence is a scheme of the Delhi government. It aims at helping the needy who are not able to get benefits of government policies. The government helps them through NGOs.

Presiding over the function, the President said 45 per cent of the city population lives in slums and over four million people work in unorganised sector. Mission Convergence is a step to redefine public service by keeping the poor and the vulnerable at the centre of governance, Patil said.

Patil also awarded gender resource centers, district resource centers and community mobilisers who helped the Mission achieve milestones over the last one year.

The President lauded Mission Convergence for bringing together all stakeholders. She said Mission Convergence had succeeded in bringing the administration, civil society and political leaders together “through its dedicated and tireless efforts.”

“It will ensure that welfare schemes and entitlements reach the vulnerable in an inclusive and transparent manner,” she added.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said Mission Convergence had grown from the Bhagidari programme. She added, “The process has enabled citizens understand the intricacies of governance and civil servants and help them understand the expectations of people, resulting in a meaningful partnership.” 

New Delhi, August 14
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil awarded President’s Police Medal for Distinguish Service and Meritorious Service to 19 officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the occasion of Independence Day.

The President’s Police Medals for Distinguished Service was awarded to four officials – O. P. Galhotra, joint director (STF zone); Arun Kumar, joint director (SC zone); Rishi Raj Singh, joint director (Mumbai-1 zone) and D. N. Biswas, additional superintendent of police, Kolkata.

The President’s Police Medals for Meritorious Service were awarded to 15 officers – Hemant Priyadarshi, Zaki Ahmed, N.M. Singh, Hari Singh Gurawaria, Ghanshyam Rai, S. K. Sareen, Kalaimani Gopalan, Kumaresan Krishnaswamy, Manak Chand, Ravinder Kumar, Bansi Dhar Tiwari, Dilbagh Khatri, Rawel Singh, Harpal Singh and K. Abdul Rashid, a press release said. 

Noida, August 14
FIRs against 15 officers, including three senior IAS officers, have been lodged in Sector-20 Kotwali, Noida, for fraud and tampering with documents. The case has been registered by manager, Industry, Mukesh Srivastav in Noida Authority.

The fraud on hotel plot had taken place between June 5, 2006 and November 10, 2006 when commercial plots had been allotted to 14 hoteliers at the Noida Phase-I industrial rates, i.e. Rs 7,400 per sq mt. The land carried a circle rate of Rs 70,000 per sq mt at that time.

As per the case lodged with the police, Noida authority officers had tampered with the documents and misled the Noida Board officers. Important details of notesheets of the case were never furnished to them. Some of the correspondence was found missing from record and even in the notesheets, there was no mention of important administrative letters of the case.

In the whole process, Noida Authority or the state exchequer suffered a loss of Rs 4,721.14 crore.

According to SSP Noida, cases have been registered against 15 officers which included the then Noida Authority chairman, Rakesh Bahadur, the then commissioner of Meerut Division, Dev Dutt Sharma, Noida Authority CEO Sanjeev Saran, Additional CEO K Ravinder Naik, Dy CEO CP Singh, accounts officer V.K. Jain and regional tourism officer V. Kumar.

New Delhi, August 14
A large number of devotees thronged the ISKCON temple located behind Lajpat Nagar on the occasion of Janmashtami, the festival that marks the birth of Lord Krishna.

They worshipped the idol of Krishna and offered flowers, sweets and fruit in the temple.

Having seen the rush, it seemed that devotees of Lord Krishna were not deterred by the panic of swine flu. The people were not seen wearing mask.

They simply visited the temple and prayed. They sang hymns in the festive atmosphere. Rush was also seen in other temples.

Since Thursday morning, people fasted, prepared various special sweets and sang hymns, blew conch shells and rocked the cradle of Lord Krishna.

Shri Sadguru Sangat Samtawad also organised a function on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami in its ashram at Punjab Khor, a village located in outer Delhi.

Devotees were given the yoga lesson to maintain their health on this auspicious occasion. 

New Delhi, August 14
The human resource development ministry is set to bring a fresh student loan subsidy scheme. Reliable sources within the HRD ministry say that the ministry has decided that the parental income criterion for students wishing to get the subsidy for professional courses will now be fixed at Rs 4.5 lakh per annum.

Earlier, a senior official had said that “initially we were planning on the Rs 2.5-lakh income criterion for the student loan subsidy scheme. Both the Planning Commission and the committee of secretaries to whom the scheme had been referred then recommended that the income criterion be fixed in such a way that the scope of the scheme is broadened.”

The official added, “Subsequently, a reasonable income criterion was arrived at and fixed. The revised scheme will be brought before the cabinet soon.”

As of now, some Rs 14,000 crore is being provided as loans to students annually under the existing higher education loan scheme. However, many poor and meritorious students do not apply for the loan considering the interest and collateral security provisions. The new scheme brings with it the burden of the education loan during the moratorium period.

By definition, the moratorium period is the duration of academic courses during which the student usually does not pay monthly instalments for the loan, but the total interest for this moratorium period gets added to the principal amount once the repayment begins after the student gets employed.

The new scheme has been planned in such a way that it caters to the non-creamy layer of society. Sources inform that the loan facility will be available to those students who will take admission in professional courses offered by recognized institutes, government or private.

Further, the scheme benefits over five lakh students and the interest burden on the government is likely to be Rs 4,000 crore over the entire 11th year plan period. 

Greater Noida, August 14
Eight teachers, who had secured their jobs in GB Nagar district by tampering with documents in 2004, have since been dismissed.

Now the salaries received by these teachers during the past five years will be recovered from them. After terminating their services, the education department is busy in preparing the ground for this action. The clerks concerned will also be questioned.

It may be recalled that eight candidates had, by conniving with the education mafia, got their names included in the list of successful candidates during 2004 and thus procured their appointment letters as government teachers.

When the fraud was detected in a probe, all the eight teachers were dismissed. According to district basic education officer, Dharam Veer Singh, salaries received for five years by the terminated teachers will be recovered now. A notice is being issued to them for this purpose.

Each of the teachers has received nearly Rs 6.25 lakh as salaries in five years. The case will be filed in the district itself so that action could be taken against them, Dharam Veer Singh added.

New Delhi, August 14
A man was killed while a family of three was critically injured when a speeding truck lost control and hit them in the Nangloi area of west Delhi today morning.

According to information, the accident took place around 9 am near Lokesh Cinema close to an under-construction flyover in Nangloi. The deceased has been identified as Dharampal. He reportedly died on the spot.

“Dharampal is a vendor who puts up his cart near the bus stand where the accident took place. A family of three was also waiting at the bus stand to board a bus to Bahadurgarh when a Tata 407 carrying hens lost control and hit them. Dharampal died on the spot while the critically injured family— man, his wife and their boy—was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, where there condition is serious,” said the police.

The driver of the truck managed to flee leaving behind the vehicle. A case of rash and negligent driving has been lodged against him.

Based on the registration number of the truck, the police is trying to locate its owner and the driver.

Minor raped by father’s friend

A minor girl was reportedly raped by her father’s friend on Wednesday evening at Nangloi in west Delhi.

The accused, Azad (23), has been arrested today by the police after the medical examination of the girl confirmed the allegation.

The incident took place in the house of the victim in the JJ colony area of Nangloi. According to information, the accused came to the girl’s house when her family was away. Later, the girl told her mother about the incident and a complaint was lodged against Azad.