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Khajoori Khas school stampede Protestors jam traffic, burn bus
School bus overturns, 9 kids hurt
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Illegal buildings come up with impunity
Delhi arts fest promises something for all
Survey of slum clusters in nine districts soon
Brace up for 20-day water shortage
Expect fall in duration of power cuts in NDPL areas
Ration shopkeeper fined for cheating cardholders 28 years ago
3 held for train robbery
2 held with Rs 1-crore stolen gold
Tea vendor beaten to death for asking bill
11 candidates withdraw papers
UNESCO team to explore Ballimaran
Metro’s six lines get rainbow
colour codes
3-day Gandhi Jayanti Mela
HC asks JNU to admit student
mid-session
Engineer robbed, murdered
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Khajoori Khas school stampede Protestors jam traffic, burn bus
New Delhi, September 29 Demanding a CBI inquiry into the stampede, the protestors said an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh be given to the parents of the girls who died in the incident. They also demanded that a memorial of girls be built in a nearby park. The government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh for parents of the victims. The police tried to control the mob, but it became violent and threw stones on police personnel and vehicles going from the main road. The police lathicharged the protestors who also pelted the personnel with stones. As many as 30 protestors were detained and 26 arrested. When information of violence reached the Delhi Secretariat, Delhi education minister Arvinder Singh announced that the services of the principal of Khajoori Khas Senior Secondary School had been terminated and the in charge of the school for girls suspended. Six teachers have already been transferred. He said the school resumed functioning today where approximately 400 students were present in each shift. A condolence meeting was organized to pay homage to those girl students who died in the stampede earlier this month. The minister also informed that the MCD had agreed to provide additional space in Sriram Colony MCD School for starting another shift for the girls interested in studying near their houses. The minister said the protestors had nothing to do with the school.They were miscreants. They tried to create panic and demonstrated near the main road, which was far from the school. A senior officer of the education department said violence was not the way to put up demands before the government. They should have first met the education minister and chief minister. |
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School bus overturns, 9 kids hurt
New Delhi, September 29 “There were two teachers and 22 students of Class IV in the bus at the time of the accident,” a schoolteacher, who did not wish to be named, said. “One student has a cut and the sports teacher complained that she was unable to walk due to pain in the leg. The others seemed fine,” the teacher added. When asked if the school would take action against the bus driver, the teacher said: “All the students who were in the bus told us that it was not the fault of our bus driver. So there is no question of any action against him.” A case of causing injury due to rash and negligent driving has been registered, police said. The police said that an inquiry was being made to know that who was at fault. |
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Illegal buildings come up with impunity
Gt Noida, September 29 Officers of Greater Noida authority do not tire of repeating that strong action would be taken against such people, while illegal constructions are going on at a fast pace in the areas earmarked for acquisition by Greater Noida Authority as also on Hindon banks. Deputy CEO of GNIDA Shailinder has said according to a satellite survey conducted three months ago, it was found that 3000 illegal buildings had been constructed in three months. At this rate, about 1000 illegal buildings are being constructed every month. The next satellite survey, due shortly, will indicate as to how many illegal buildings have been constructed in past three months. According to information, hectic construction activity is being witnessed in about two dozen villages in the Bisarakh, Kasna, Surajpur and Ghaziabad areas. In the Ghaziabad area, illegal colonies are being developed at a feverish pace. Even riverbed areas already acquired by GNIDA have not been spared from encroachment. The connections for water and power have also been managed by the encroachers, proving that officials of government departments are also hand in glove with the encroachers and illegal builders. Though Greater Noida Authority had declared that an anti-encroachment campaign to raze illegal structures would start on August 24, the campaign has been put on hold in view of strong opposition from lobby of illegal builders. On September 15, agitation on a large scale was witnessed in and around NH–24 against illegal colonies. Police Gypsies, buses and other vehicles were also torched by the violent mob. GNIDA and the administration appear to be having second thoughts on launching an anti-encroachment campaign. Greater Noida Authority issued notices to 17 villages on removing illegal encroachment on public land on May 3, 2009. The authorities have identified eight villages around Hindon river from Ghaziabad border to Greater Noida – namely Bijarsi, Chotepur, Bisarakh, Haldoni, Jalpura, Kulsera, Lukhnawly and Safipur where illegal construction is progressing apace. Besides illegal construction are also witnessed in Behlolpur, Garhi Chowkhandi, Sorakha, Zahirdabad, Parthla, Khanjarpur, Illahabas, Yakubpur, Shehdara, etc. Due to the large-scale encroachment and illegal construction activity, many of Greater Noida’s important projects have been impacted adversely. |
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Delhi arts fest promises something for all
New Delhi, September 29 Inspired by one of the most sought-after arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) is bound to stagger you with its sheer scope and range. With all the events being ticket-free, the festival would see the participation of people from all sections and break away from the “niche” tag attached to the arts festivals. This year the organisers have decided to spread the festival on a much bigger canvas. A range of events would take place at hundreds of different locations across the city between October 3 and October 14. The festival promises something for everyone. For the youngsters, the festival would feature more than 10 bands, including Goa-Shanti, Puna Goesa, Jazz Junction with high-profile fusion bands Mrigya and Sarangi Funk opening the show. The more serious sections would find National Archives joining the festival for the first time ever for an exhibition called “Personal Archives”. The highlights of the exhibition include the family tree of Rani Lakshmi Bai. Another important section that finds space under the DIAF umbrella this year is the ‘Artistic voices from India and other Commonwealth countries’. The main attraction under this category is ‘Handmade in Britain’, an exhibition by 10 British designers, artists and craftsmen committed to protecting the environment. The film buffs have interesting international cinema to look forward to. Films would be screened at Siri Fort Auditorium and include Akira Kurosawa classics like Rashomon, the Red Bread and High and Low. There is Bimal Roy Centenary Film Festival which sees Bandini as the opening film. Walt Disney has collaborated with the festival to screen children’s cinema, including Finding Nemo, Pirates of Caribbean 1, 2 and 3. In collaboration with the Archeological Survey of India, the Delhi festival would feature Sonu Nigam and Hariharan singing at the historical Red Fort and Purana Qila. A sufi and ghazal evening would be held at Town Hall in Chandni Chowk with Wadali Brothers and Talat Aziz. |
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Despite green calls, Durga idols choke Yamuna
New Delhi, September 29 Over 500 idols were on Monday immersed in the river, especially at two places - Gita Ghat in north Delhi and Kalindi Kunj in south Delhi. In the process, tonnes of lead-based toxic paints and other chemicals, flowers, leaves, coconut husks and clothes from religious rituals have been left behind in the water that is already highly polluted. Green activists and the Delhi government had for months mounted pressure on puja organisers to try keeping the ritual as eco-friendly as possible, but action and enforcement was still lax. The Delhi environment secretary and Delhi pollution control committee chairman Dharmesh said they had called on all organising committees and instructed them to abide by “certain environment norms”. He said: “They had agreed and had promised to abide by the notice.” “There will be no specific study to assess the pollution now. However, we are planning to compare the monthly monitoring evaluations conducted by the Jal Board,” he added. To cause minimum damage to the Yamuna, the Delhi High Court had earlier asked the puja committees to dig “recycling pits away from the river to dispose the material used at the time of immersion”. “This was hardly followed. There was very less enforcement or action taken to ensure the immersions didn’t clog the river,” said Vimlendu Jha who heads the NGO ‘Swecha - We for Change’. Green activists like Jha and Manoj Mishra who heads the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (Let Yamuna Live campaign) feel the river has become a “toxic drain” yet again. Mishra pointed out that the river had swelled and flooded as a result of the rains earlier this month and the flow had ensured self-cleaning. “The state till Ashtami (the eighth day of the Navarati festival observed Saturday) was fine but by yesterday and even today the river was restored to its former self - a sewage drain. Although the city’s major drains are also linked to the river, the immersions contributed a great deal to this,” said. Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan members and volunteers had held a vigil on the riverbanks since September 1 which will end on Wednesday. “We could hardly stand and watch immersions on Monday because the stench was unbearable,” Mishra said. Meanwhile, Jha conceded that steps taken by communities to go green could have had an impact. “But there is still no formal assessment conducted by government bodies and no concrete steps to ensure that this is maintained,” he said. Several puja committees tried keeping the river clean this time. For example, the 100-year-old Durga Puja Pandal at Kashmere Gate went green. “To make the idols we used chalk clay and vegetable dyes, both of which dissolve in water. Environment was foremost on our mind. The flowers collected over the five days of puja were donated to an NGO to make perfumes,” said Dipayan Mazumdar, vice-president of the Kashmere Gate Puja Samiti. The heavy clothes and decorations used for decorating the idols of the goddess were removed before immersion so that they could be recycled. Artisan Manik Pal from Krishnanagar in West Bengal, who had been camping in New Delhi for the past one month, said he had crafted 16 environment-friendly idols this season.“All the idols I made were eco-friendly with river clay all the way from Punjab and West Bengal and used natural dyes free of chemicals. Both dissolve in water,” Pal said.
— IANS |
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Survey of slum clusters in nine districts soon
New Delhi, September 29 The survey is aimed to prepare a comprehensive data base to ensure the basic services to the urban poor under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Dr Walia stated that during the survey, the different schedules of enquiry will be executed, which includes general information of slum area, slum profile of urban local body, detailed household survey and livelihood survey, including socio-economic descriptions. The information on each slum, found in the city, will be collected. The union government has developed a detailed questionnaire, which would be processed with the IT techniques once filled in by the surveyors. The city government will work for preparation of a work plan, design and development of survey and maintenance of data base on slum, poverty and livelihood profiles. The basic services include improved housing, water supply, sanitation, education, health and social security. The survey could make a great deal of sense to the state government to get an understanding of the size of the problem and its distribution across the city in order to define state’s strategies for keeping city slum-free in the future. Dr Walia expressed hope that this survey would help the city government make its slum development programmes more purposeful. |
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Brace up for 20-day water shortage
New Delhi, September 29 According to DJB officials, water from Ganga canal would still be available for the first four to five days and it will be supplied to the affected areas. The Yamuna river will act as the second back-up as it can dole-out water for a week. However, the remaining week might pose a challenge to the board as the officials are yet to make any alternate arrangement of water for this period. “Water from Ganga canal and Yamuna river should be sufficient for these days. However, alternate arrangements are being discussed in case of any shortage during the rest of the days,” said a senior DJB official. The officials said the cleaning of Ganga canal was an annual affair and it was important in view of the Kumbh Mela which would be held in Haridwar next year. The water from the Ganga canal comes to two major plants of DJB—Sonia Vihar, which is a 140-MGD plant and Bhagirathi, a 100-MGD water treatment plant. The Ganga canal supplies 300 cusecs of water every day to both these water treatments plants. Since the Sonia Vihar plant supplies water exclusively to south Delhi, this area will be affected the most. The Bhagirathi plant supplies water to parts of north and east Delhi. Other areas that stand to be affected by the shutdown are: Patparganj, Preet Vihar, Lakshmi Nagar, Shahdara, Dilshad Garden, Mayur Vihar, Greater Kailash, Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Panchshila Park and Panchshila Enclave. |
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Expect fall in duration of power cuts in NDPL areas
New Delhi, September 29 It will help the discom to reduce outage recovery time across its distribution network in north and northwest Delhi. Power outages will now be responded more quickly and accurately and updated restoration time estimates will also be provided. According to discom officials, with an upgraded system, they can dispatch crews more efficiently, speeding the repair process and reducing outage duration. “Today all our HT faults are detected online through SCADA signal except for the local faults which were till now dependent on consumers’ calls. With PowerOn coupled with automatic metre infrastructure, NDPL will be able to identify local faults more precisely and the repair crew will be instructed and dispatched even before the consumer calls to complain. This will eventually get supplemented by a crew management system that will track the position of the crew nearest to the fault location,” said Sunil Wadhwa, CEO and executive director, North Delhi Power Limited. The PowerOn system will be integrated with a previously installed GE Smallworld GIS system and NDPL’s existing distribution management system (DMS) to drive power reliability and quality. “We have become the first power distribution utility in India to realise the advantages of an advanced outage management system (OMS). While PowerOn maps out the exact repair location, the crews are prepared with the right tools and the correct geographic information, leading to faster restoration of power,” said another discom official. |
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Ration shopkeeper fined for cheating cardholders 28 years ago
New Delhi, September 29 While slapping the fine on shopkeeper Lachhi Ram (appellant), Justice M.C. Garg noted: “There has been some lapse of time since the offence was committed in 1981, but that alone cannot come to the aid of the appellant because having found him guilty of an offence this court is obliged to convict him.” Lachhi Ram’s appeal was pending in the court since 1985. Noting that he had obtained an order of bail, the judge said: “He, obviously, was not interested in an early disposal of the appeal and took no steps in that behalf.” Lachhi Ram operated a fair price shop in the Mangolpuri area. A raid in 1981 revealed that 11 cardholders had been denied wholly or partially the rice quota as indicated in their cash memos. He was also pulled up for selling adulterated food articles. The court said: “The type of adulterated articles sold by the appellant is the one generally consumed by children. It is not only illegal but even immoral to serve articles containing artificial sweeteners the use whereof has been prohibited by the statute.” The judge noted that Lachhi Ram cannot be let off unpunished “as a crime of this nature, being a crime against the society at large, cannot be ignored. Sympathy in such cases is totally misplaced,” the court said while dismissing his plea of acquittal. A lower court had sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment along with a fine.
— IANS |
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3 held for train robbery
New Delhi, September 29 Sandeep, Ashok and Parveen Malik— all residents of Sonepat in Haryana— along with their accomplices allegedly boarded the Kalka-Delhi Himalayan Queen Express at Sonepat and looted passengers in the general class bogie of cash, jewellery and valuables like mobile phones at gun and knife-point on late Sunday. The robbers then escaped by pulling the alarm chain of the train at a secluded place between Holambi Kalan and Narela railway stations in north Delhi. “The gang used to board selected trains at Sonepat railway station, choosing mostly general compartments which did not have any Railway Protection Force (RPF) presence, and commit robbery at knife-point,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (crime and railway) Bhairon Singh Gurjar. “The accused have also confessed of robbing passengers in Unchahar Express on Wednesday,” he added. He said seven mobile phones, two golden chains and other articles have been recovered from them. A razor and a toy pistol used in the crime have also been recovered.
— IANS |
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2 held with Rs 1-crore stolen gold
Ghaziabad, September 29 The accused, identified as Pappu Behra and Bappi Kumar, were arrested from the NH-24 area of Indirapuram during a routine check. The two had reportedly run away with a huge quantity of gold jewellery from the Karol Bagh area in New Delhi on September 25, the police said. |
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Tea vendor beaten to death for asking bill
Ghaziabad, September 29 According to reports, victim Kamal ran a tea shop at the Ramlila Grounds in
Ghaziabad. Close to his shop, one of the accused Pappu used to put up springs for children in a tent. Pappu used to have tea from Kamal’s shop. On Sunday afternoon, Kamal had a dispute with Pappu over payment for tea. After some time Pappu called Kamal to his tent on the pretext of giving his money. Three persons were already sitting there. Pappu and his friends then thrashed
Kamal. Kamal was rushed to district hospital in a serious condition where he died. SHO Ghaziabad
Kotwali, Yogesh Pathak, said a case of unintentional murder had been registered against Pappu and his friends. Pappu and one of his friends have been arrested. |
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11 candidates withdraw papers
Gurgaon, September 29 Today was the last day for withdrawal of nominations. All the candidates withdrawing from the contest were independents. After the withdrawal of nominations, the candidates in fray are: 17 in Patoudi, 14 in Badshahpur and 16 in Sohna Assembly. In Pataudi, two Independents Narain and Mohanlal have withdrawn their nominations while in Badshahpur, three independents Kumudh, Pinky and Ravinder Kumar have withdrawn from the contest. Similarly in Gurgaon Assembly, two independents Dinesh Kumar and Ritu while in Sohna Assembly, four independents Indu, Ashok Singh, Sintu Sebestian and Chandervir Yadav have withdrawn their nominations. |
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UNESCO team to explore Ballimaran
New Delhi, September 29 The visit will aim to address a wide range of issues, including political, social, cultural and economic related to sustainable urban revitalization. The delegation will start with a heritage walk from Anglo Arabic School, Ajmere Gate, which will pass through different areas of walled city and reach Town Hall. The workshop will be held at the School of Planning and Architecture at Indraprastha Estate. “The workshop aims at building capacity of local stakeholders and decision-makers so that the challenging tasks of urban revitalization in old historical areas can be better addressed and new forms of social cohesion in cities are better designed,” said a senior MCD officer. |
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Metro’s six lines get rainbow
colour codes
New Delhi, September 29 “The three new lines — Inderlok to Mundka connecting north and northwest Delhi, Central Secretariat to Badarpur connecting Delhi’s centre to its southern fringes, and the Airport Express Line — will be coded as the green line, violet line and orange line, respectively,” said a senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official. He said that metro systems worldwide must comply with colour codification norms. “These colours have to be chosen to be distinct and different from one another so that even illiterate commuters can relate to the colour instead of the names of the stations,” the official said. The Metro currently operates three popular lines connecting the northern, central, eastern and southwestern parts of Delhi in a 70-km span. Line 1 from Dilshad Garden to Rithala is known as the red line. Central Secretariat to Jehangirpuri or Line 2 is the yellow line while the Dwarka Sector 9 to Yamuna Bank or Line 3 is called the blue
line. — IANS |
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3-day Gandhi Jayanti Mela
New Delhi, September 29 The mela will be inaugurated by member of Parliament, Rajnath Singh. The civic agency will also use this occasion to showcase its projects, practices and progress. The highlights of the presentation will be Commonwealth Games projects, G2C Kiosk (MCD Aapke Dwar), door-to-door collection of garbage, mechanical sweeping, biometric system of attendance, waterless urinals, etc. The major attractions of the mela would be heavy discount on khadi clothes, on-the-spot painting competition of different age groups, non-stop charkha yagna, enthralling cultural and folk programmes, kathaputli and magic show, film shows on Gandhi. Besides, there will be free health check-up.
— TNS |
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HC asks JNU to admit student
mid-session
New Delhi, September 29 Nikhil Jain sat for the JNU entrance examination for MA in political science and qualified the exam. However, the university denied him admission on the grounds that his BA result for one of his subjects was not out by the last date of admission. Jain approached the Delhi High Court and submitted a document from his college, Sri Aurobindo College, signed by the principal stating that the student had appeared for all his examinations before the August 14 and the delay in results was not his fault. |
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Engineer robbed, murdered
Ghaziabad, September 29 The body of Tikam Chand Paladia (27) who hailed from Nainital in Uttarakhand, was recovered by the police on Sunday afternoon. Pahadia lived in Parshvnath Majestic Society of Indirapuram and worked at Mahindra British Telecom, Sector-64, Noida, the police said According to the police, the victim was robbed before his murder. While resisting the assailants, he had sustained at least five wounds in the abdomen and his hands were tied. The incident happened around 9.30 pm on Saturday,” said Ramesh Paladia, the victim’s brother. |
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