New Delhi, September 5
It is after 18 long years that an independent candidate has made it to the post of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president. Manoj Chaudhary from the department of Buddhist studies was elected as the DUSU president.

Manoj polled 5,391 votes, 11 votes more than his nearest rival All India Students Federation’s (AISF) Bajinder Singh.

It was in 1991 during the days of Mandal agitation, that Rajiv Goswami, an independent candidate, was elected as DUSU president.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate Kriti Wadehra, a student of Miranda House, was elected as the vice-president. Kriti polled 6,543 votes against her nearest rival Anurag Sharma who polled 3,997 votes.

While National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) candidate Arshdeep Kaur from law college bagged the secretary’s post. Samajwadi Party-backed Ambedkar Students’ Organisation of India’s (ASOI) candidate Anupriya Tyagi, a student of Hansraj College, was elected as the joint secretary.

Twenty-nine candidates were in the fray for the four DUSU posts — president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary. Almost 35 per cent DU students voted this time.

This year’s election was different as the university administration strictly implemented the code of conduct. As a result, parties like the Congress-backed NSUI and BJP-backed ABVP suffered with the dismissal of their three candidates, each. The September 4 poll saw the presence of just one candidate from the NSUI and the ABVP. The low voter turnout on Friday could have been due to the virtual absence of heavy weight parties.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that an independent has won the coveted post of president and the ASOI that has had little presence at Delhi University has the joint secretary’s post in its kitty.

However, the results of some of the candidates who won like Manoj Chaudhary, Kriti Wadehra and Arshdeep Kaur are provisional, as there is an enquiry underway against them for the misuse of the code of conduct.

Thanks to the administration’s clean-up drive this election which saw effective action against printed posters, many candidates were dismissed for using printed posters as this violates the code of conduct and students had to be content with hand made posters. Besides, the usual money power and glamour element were missing, as there were no big car rallies or large DJ parties on campus. 

New Delhi, September 5
The controversy surrounding hefty power bills for the residents of south and central Delhi is invoking wrath of people as they refuse to pay the bills.

The residents who have received augmented power bills for July and August are in a fix. They are contradicting the claims of BSES officials that excessive use of ACs has led to the increase in the bills.

According to the residents, power cuts were rampant in July, hence the ACs were used to the minimum. In August, the monsoons had hit the Capital, which again discouraged the use of ACs. In no way, they said, the withdrawal of 10 per cent subsidy alone can spike the bills by 50 per cent or more.

In a statement, Arun Kanchan, BSES CEO, claimed that people had got increased bills as they were charged abnormally low bills in July due to a software glitch in the system. He said that these people were only three per cent of the total consumers.

Interestingly, Tata-owned NDPL consumers have not reported any such hike in their bills. A resident of Gulmohar Park in south Delhi complained that he received Rs 20,000 bill as compared to Rs 10,000 he usually paid, and that too during peak summer.

Residents of Malviya Nagar have complained that the company should have at least sent notifications to the consumers. Most residents with inflated bills have refused to pay up until the government takes some action against the company. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has asked BSES to explain the reasons behind the inflated bills.

“We want to know whether the discom officials are confirmed that there is not a software glitch this time as well. They might send inflated bills again next month and claim to have some other sort of glitch,” said a resident of Hauz Khas.

The Residents Welfare Associations have asked the government to intervene in the matter.

“The government should ensure that the billing procedure of power companies is transparent and the consumer should have the choice of what power company he prefers. This would certainly end the monopoly of private discoms in their respective areas,” said Inderjeet Singh, RWA member in Malviya Nagar.

“A more transparent system would ensure that the consumer is not harassed by these power giants,” he said. 

New Delhi, September 5
Sale of the most commonly used pulses at reasonable rates began today at 288 Mother Dairy booths across the city. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit opened the sale at a booth on Pandara Road. Dikshit assured that there would be no shortage of pulses at any of the booths as the city government had made foolproof arrangements for the supply.

“The pulses would be sold at a price less than between Rs 10 to 5 per kg than the prevalent market rate. Chana (whole) and chana dal would be sold at Rs 34 per kg, rajma (chitra) at Rs 40 per kg, moong (dhuli) at Rs 58 per kg and arhar dal at Rs 75 per kg,” she said.

Dikshit expressed confidence that this would provide relief to the housewives.

“Due to various reasons like less production of pulses in the country, continuation of drought-like situation in Northern India, there has been increase in the prices of pulses all over India including Delhi. The city government has taken all this into consideration and has endeavoured to ensure sale of pulses at most reasonable price with cooperation from the Mother Dairy,” she added.

Minister of food and supplies, Haroon Yusuf; commissioner, food and supply, Jayashree Raghuraman; CEO, Mother Dairy, were present at the occasion.

New Delhi, September 5
As the national Capital today reported 60 fresh positive cases of influenza A (H1N1), the highest registered by the city in a day, two patients—69-year-old man and 12-year-old girl continue to be critical at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

The medical superintendent, Dr Nitish Kumar Chaturvedi said for the third day both the patients are still critical, and the condition of the old man is very critical. “The old man was brought for a renal failure treatment and was diagnosed with H1N1 infection.

He is undergoing dialysis and has been on ventillator support. We are closely monitoring him, but it is difficult to say anything right now,” he said. The girl has a history of epilepsy, and is also under observation, he added.

Meanwhile, the cumulative tally of people testing positive for the flu reached 832 in the Capital with today’s positive samples, and among the 60 confirmed cases of H1N1, 28 are said to be children.

But, the Delhi health department maintained that the situation is under control, and the government is ensuring that people testing positive for the infection are given proper medication at the designated government hospitals, said a health official. 

New Delhi, September 5
A gang of car thieves headed by a woman has been busted. The woman would lure men travelling alone at night by asking for lift. Her accomplices would then rob him of his vehicle and valuables.

The police started investigations following a spurt in the number of cases where cars were stolen through a similar modus operandi.

“She used to take the driver to a pre-decided place where other members of gang would also come. When she was found in a compromising state with the victim, the gang members used to beat the woman and the driver and take away their valuables and vehicle,” a police official said.

Ravi Malik, Pankaj Arora, Sushank and gang leader Anjali, also a call girl, were arrested on Wednesday evening from south Delhi.

“We had put barricades and were checking vehicles. Malik who was with his three aides in a car tried to flee. But they were arrested,” he added.

“Anjali is the gang leader. Ravi Malik, a property dealer whose business suffered due to recession, had developed relations with several call girls. He met Anjali and hatched a plan to commit car thefts in this way,” the official said.

“Malik also roped in his friend Pankaj and nephew Shashank. Malik has studied till Class X but left studies early. Anjali, a native of Uttar Pradesh, has studied up to Class VIII only. She left her studies due to poor financial conditions and started working in an export factory,” he said.

“She got married to one Wazir but left him and started working as a call girl to earn quick and easy money,” the official added. — IANS

New Delhi, September 5
The Delhi police has arrested an loan agent of ICICI Bank for cheating an NRI of Rs 14 lakh. Devinder Singh Ratra, alias Dimpy, allegedly cheated Pritpal Singh Malhotra, an NRI living in the USA.

Malhotra wanted to purchase a flat and was looking for a good house loan scheme.

Dimpy approached Malhotra through M/s Regards Marketing Pvt Ltd posing as the company’s CEO. He arranged a loan of Rs 50 lakh from ICICI Bank’s Janakpuri branch. The bank gave him a repayment plan through schedule of EMIs. 

Thereafter, Dimpy produced a fictitious repayment scheme before Malhotra saying he would not have to pay interest on EMIs. Dimpy convinced him to pay Rs 14 lakh, saying it would be adjusted in the repayment of EMIs saving interest. He managed to get a cheque of Rs 14 lakh from Malhotra and deposited it in the joint account of his wife and mother. He withdrew the amount and absconded. 

Investigation revealed Dimpy had no affiliation from ICICI Bank and was not the CEO of M/s Regards Marketing Pvt Ltd. He is a self-styled bank agent and offers services on commission.

After cheating Malhotra, Dimpy vacated his house in Delhi and shifted in a rented house in Gurgaon from where the police nabbed him.

New Delhi, September 5
A unique session, which saw the presence of the DCP, south Delhi police, HGS Dhaliwal in a new avatar of storyteller at the pediatric ward of Escorts Hospital in the national Capital was a plunge in two-fold directions.

One the objectives was to provide some relief to the kids during their hospitalisation who otherwise most of the times experience anxiety, loneliness and develop fear.

The other purpose that the initiative taken up by Uday Foundation (UF), an NGO for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups, serves is to revive and sustain the ancient Indian art of storytelling, which stands thwarted by the modern invasions of audiovisual medium and the Internet.

Speaking on the therapeutic benefits of storytelling, Dr Krishna S Iyer stated, “Such exercises would lessen the trauma of hospitalisation, and would go on to have a positive effect by imparting a friendly environment.”

It was very difficult for 10-year-old Rajendra Guddesariha, who was suffering from ventricular septal defect with pulmonary stenosis and was operated on August 29.

According to his father, Shyam Sunder Guddesariha, Rajendra was very scared as for the first time traveled far from Rajasthan. Earlier, he was feeling lonely, but slowly he is mixing up with other children in the ward, said the boy’s father.

Similar was the case with Abhimanyu Singh from Baliya, Uttar Pradesh, who after being operated in August, for mending a hole in his heart. He is now recovering. Both the children along with a few others attended the session of Dhaliwal who read out lessons from a book called “Road Safety Measures”. Besides, he also donated books for the pediatric library.

Explaining his association with the cause of granting relief to stressed children through entertainment, Dhaliwal said most people, including children, are scared of the police, but here I am to render a human face with a simple effort of storytelling. “Children would take police more favourably,” he said.

It is be seen whether initiatives like this would be taken to those who are deprived and do not have access to modern amenities. “Such help is to be reached out to the actual needy children and who are undergoing pain at various government hospitals,” said a volunteer of UF, Ashima.

New Delhi, September 5
A photograph freezes a moment, but a good one touches the heart of the viewer, said Nitin Rai, the eminent photographer while showcasing some of his photographs in an exhibition titled ‘India: Continent of Circe’ in the Capital.

The young photographer Nitin, who is the son of iconic photographer Raghu Rai, goes by the notion that creation of art is not ruled by any rules. Only the creative energy is required to transform the vision into a masterpiece. In creative photography, one must know when to click, he said.

“There is a lot of similarity between all the art forms, be it music, painting or photography. The best is the one that is able to touch the heart directly leaving a viewer speechless,” said Nitin.

Senior Congress leader Karan Singh also visited the exhibition and appreciated Nitin’s work which, he said, has grown enormously over the years.

“I have been following Nitin’s work for 20 years and it is pleasure to see how he has grown as a creative photographer,” said Dr Singh.

His stunning photographs carefully capture India amid the contrast of its conventional and contemporary trends. The exhibition displayed photographs of Nitin taken between 1991 and 2009.

They capture places as different from one another as the beaches of Lakshadweep, the groves of Bali, the ravines of Chambal, the forests of Chattisgarh or the crowds of Holi in the temples of Vrindavan. They have a common thread that binds them all.

“These photographs are showcasing one of those special moments which could not have been possible even one second before or after. It is a fleeting moment of time that has been clicked,” said Nitin.

Nitin believes that an interesting photograph has various levels of varieties, which makes it stand out.

“Like music is experimented with different notes to make it sound better, a good photograph has variety of interesting elements with different characteristics that holds the viewers,” said the photographer.

The photographs in the exhibition cover a wide range of subject from black and white images of Kalari artists in Kerela, to sweeping landscapes of Goa with a monsoon-heavy sky.

He has clicked Naga sadhus at the Kumbh Mela to the quixotic mix of tradition and modernity reflected in the glass frontage of malls in Gurgaon.

A book on his photography called ‘India: Moods, Moments, Landscapes” will be published next year.

Ghaziabad, September 5
About two dozen people, including half a dozen policemen, were injured in clashes between residents of three colonies of Budh Vihar, Tegri and Chhijarsi and the officials of irrigation department and the police.

Traffic on National Highway No. 24 remained suspended for about six hours as residents of the area jammed the highway following clashes with police. Over a dozen vehicles, including 4 UP Roadways buses, two private buses, cars and other vehicles were gutted by the crowd. Scores of other vehicles were also damaged by rioting crowd.

The police which lathi-charged the crowd had to fire in the air later. In retaliation, some among the stone-pelting residents fired back on cops. About half a dozen cops, including SHO City Kotwali Ghaziabad, Yogesh Pathak, SI Simranjit Singh and Circle Officer (DSP) R.K. Gautam were injured.

The trouble started early in the morning when people saw teams of officials and contingents of police coming in the area. Yesterday officials of UP irrigation department had carried out a survey of 400 mt land in both sides of the Hindon river claiming that it was the irrigation department land and started demolishing some houses built there. This led to clashes between residents and the cops.

In the morning when people saw the officials coming along with contingent of police, they felt that today also their houses would be demolished, so they started pelting them with stones.

The cops then threw back the stones on the people. They had to fire in the air to scare away the violent people. But some among the agitators also fired back with their guns, the pellets from which hit some people.

At about 12 pm, SP City Rahul Yaduvender and city magistrate Umesh Mishra came, but they failed to persuade the people who again resorted to stone-pelting.

At about 2 pm, district magistrate R Ramesh and SSP Akhil Kumar came and were able to resolve the crisis. They assuring the people that no houses would be demolished.

National Highway was littered with stones and dozens of damaged vehicles could be seen on the road.

In the disputed area, hundreds of houses have been built where thousands of people are residing in three colonies.

Noida, September 5
Addressing an international conference on Inter-cultural Communication, organised by Institute of Management Studies, Noida, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said media was the modern guru which informs, guides, educates and gives new ideas like the gurus of olden times. But the media must be honest, truthful, fair and unbiased Only then it could provide the true leadership.

Dalai Lama said today it was of paramount importance that people of different countries trusted each other and worked jointly for the welfare of the entire humanity.

Unfortunately though the world had become a global village, people are still divided on race, colour, religion and caste basis.

“We must resolve our differences and learn to live together as human beings with basic human and cultural values”. Each country has a different culture and a cultural heritage which has not come through orders or reservations.

It has developed gradually over centuries. Culture, Dalai Lama said, was a way of thinking, a way of life of each community.

Gurgaon, September 5
Resident Welfare Association (RWA) today decided to field their own candidate in the Assembly elections from Gurgoan, a move likely to give a tough competition to the political parties.

Mission Gurgaon Development Foundation (MGDF) floated by 75 RWAs today announced Ranbir Singh Rathee as a candidate.

The voting to elect Haryana Assembly will take place on October 13.

Gurgaon residents are not satisfied with the performance of MLAs as they complain that the city lacks basic amenities like proper drainage, road and waste disposal system. Erratic and long power cuts are likely to be among the major issues.

FORWA (Federation of Residence Welfare Association) and GCC (Gurgaon Citizen Council) endeavor to develop a grand vision of a clean, modern and sustainable city for Gurgaon township and make earnest efforts for the fulfillment of this goal.

While talking to The Tribune, Rathee said that it was the decision of various social, religious and industrial organisations which wanted him to contest.

He claimed that 46% of the state’s revenue is generated from this town only and the total annual revenue of Haryana is Rs 18,000 crore and the contribution of Gurgaon town alone is Rs 8,300 crore, but still we are not getting what we deserved.

“There is no anti-incumbency factor in the state as per the Hooda government, but in Gurgaon, it is only anti-incumbency factor,” Rathee claimed.

He said that 70,000 new electors have been added this year which will be one of the deciding factors in the coming election.

Rathee affirmed that he would try to crystallize the burning problems which spoke of the future development of this town and look for their solutions.

They will build a people’s movement to assert its moral and social authority on the administration and the government for the implementation of these ideas/ solutions into practice.

Rathee has been working as the president of RWA for the last five years.

Gurgaon, September 5
Allegations of a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge putting undue pressure on the judicial officers of a district in Haryana in the name of speedy disposal of old cases have surfaced recently.

The allegations have been leveled in a complaint addressed to the President, Prime Minister, union law minister, Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and chairmen of the Bar Councils of India and Punjab and Haryana, among other authorities concerned.

The complaint has been lodged by one Lawyers Welfare Forum and copies of it have been forwarded to several national newspapers.

It has been alleged that the said high court judge had “forced” judges of a district in Haryana to dispose of all cases pertaining to 2002 by the end of this year.

The forum has pointed out due to the aforesaid directions, the cases filed after 2002 were being adjourned to 2010, which amounted to unfair discrimination as many cases filed after 2002 could require more attention as compared to those filed before that year.

“Such a decision could lead to injustice to the litigants as under the compulsion (of hurriedly disposing of pending cases), the judicial officers are unable to do justice to the cases, as a result, cases are murdered in haste,” the complaint maintains.

The complaint adds the said directions would affect the livelihood of those lawyers who had started practicing after 2002 or whose cases pertain to the subsequent years.

It asserts that the aforesaid impractical orders had put undue pressure on the judicial officers as well as lawyers, as well as their staff members, besides being detrimental to interests of the litigants whose cases pertain to the period after 2002.

The complainant(s) have urged the authorities concerned to direct the said judge to withdraw the “unwarranted” directions in the larger interest.

Gurgaon, September 5
A section of road at Suhant Lok caved in here yesterday. The incident took place when a truck loaded with stones was crossing the road. It got stuck in the hole created by the caving in of the road and overturned.

It took many hours to take the truck out. The police blamed the PWD for its negligence.

This is the third such case in the city. A similar incident had taken place at South City Expressway when a car and a truck went in a hole on road. While the other incident took place at Civil Lines.

Jagdish Prasad, SHO, Sector-29 police station, said it was the fault of the department as they did not use good quality materials while constructing roads. He added that they were investigating the matter.