New Delhi, November 30
Even as free treatment and medicines for the weaker sections is a right of every poor person, 52-year-old Abhinandan Mishra suffering from traumatic ulcer, and his wife Kamani Mishra, had to run from pillar to post to reach out to the medical social welfare department of the Safdarjung Hospital, which is yet to extend the help.

It has been over one week that Kamani, resident of Govindpuri, has been pleading with every doctor and hospital staff at the out patient department (OPD) of the hospital’s burns and plastic department (BPD) to examine her husband’s wound, which had developed maggots due to lack of treatment.

She said, “On November 23 when I brought my husband to the burns OPD, I asked the doctor present to see my husband’s wound as he had been bearing pain for long. But, none of the hospital staff heeded to my request. One of the doctors wrote a few medicines without even examining the wound.”

Also, she said the doctors at the BPD had been shooing them away saying that the patient was not a case of their department and should go to the skin department.

However, Abhinandan has been a patient of psoriasis, which is a genetic skin ailment. Currently, the disease is in mild stage as per Dr Shikha Arora of the skin department.

After looking at the patient’s wound at the OPD today, she said as psoriasis is chronic it calls for an ongoing treatment, but the ulcer being traumatic needs surgery after the wound heals.

Life for Abhinandan became tough after he met with an accident involving a DTC bus on January 17 this year and suffered an injury in the left foot. Soon he lost his job as a security guard with the Security Development Service, and he and his wife have been surviving on the earning of his wife, who works as a domestic help.

Kamani said all the medicines that the doctor prescribed weren’t available at the medical store in the hospital. “I have to buy them from outside, after which I’m barely left with any money. It is difficult for us to come daily from Govindpuri for dressing. The doctor refused to admit my husband saying there is no vacant bed,” she added.

The head of the BPD, Dr R P Narayanan, said, “We have just 102 beds, out of which 61 are for burns patients and 41 are for cases of plastic surgery. We receive 10 to 12 new patients daily. Only patients, who are critical and require immediate surgery, are admitted.”

On November 26, the patient and his wife were subjected to inconsiderate treatment by the hospital attendants.

Senior plastic surgeon Dr S Indu Sharma finally examined the patient. Considering that the patient was a Below Poverty Line card holder, she gave a referral slip for free medicines, but they were not available in the hospital.

Subsequently, the patient and his wife were sent to the social welfare department, where again the officer concerned, Suneeta asked them to come tomorrow.

New Delhi, November 30
The committee constituted to look into last week’s violence on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus today sent its report to the university administration.

Though tight-lipped about the details of the report, university rector R.Kumar told The Tribune that a letter would be sent by the university administration to the Deputy Commissiner of Police (south) about the report.

“We have examined the report and decided to send some observations to the DCP in form of the sequence of events that took place on Jawahar Lal Nehru University campus last Sunday,” said Kumar.

He said a proctorial committee has also been set up to fix responsibilities of the material damages that took place during the violence.

“The report does not mention names of students, but depositions may be collected from students seen around the site of violence, he said.

Refraining from giving any concrete recommendations to the Jawahar Lal Nehru University administration regarding ensuring security at the university, the rector said advice was given to increase security around “certain areas”.

Almost a week ago, four outsiders entered Jawahar Lal Nehru University in the wee hours, consumed alcohol and allegedly molested girl students on the campus.

Thestudents of Jawahar Lal Nehru University students had held the outsiders and called the police.

Unhappy with police’s way of handling the matter, the students got into aggressive argument with the cops who lathicharged them. 

New Delhi, November 30
After having raised the bar on water tariff, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is mulling to smash the nexus of private water tankers in the Capital.

The board has decided to hire water tankers from private companies to strengthen water tanker distribution system. The water will be distributed in areas with no proper connections.

Notably, tenders will be invited from companies operating outside Delhi. The company would provide DJB with tankers as per the requirement on a daily basis. This would be done in order to end the monopoly of erring tanker operators.

“The tender will only be called from the companies established outside the Capital as the tanker mafia here is indulged in fraudulent exercises in water supply system,” a senior DJB official said.

He said the paper work involved in issuing the tender had been completed.

The DJB owns between 150 and 275 water tankers whereas the demand in Delhi amounts to nearly 950 tankers.

The demand gap is fulfilled by hiring tankers from private contractors, who play hoodwinks with the board by showing more trips than they actually make.

“The private owners, instead of showing the original trips, show higher rounds. This is being done even after we have increased the flying squads and officials, including superintending engineers, in the process of distribution and supply of tankers,” the officer added.

Sources in DJB said the officials worked in connivance with the tanker mafia. “We have over 1,100 tankers supplying water to various parts of the city, and nexus between local politicians or officials cannot be ruled out,” another officer said.

The board has earlier acted on the complaints from consumers and will intensify vigil on the tankers and strengthen the delivery system.

The board has also appointed assistant engineers at 10 crucial water emergencies to ensure a smooth running of the water tanker supply system.

New Delhi, November 30
A low-floor Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus caught fire today but no one was hurt, fire service officials said.However, spokesman of the transport department said there was no fire and it was just gas leakage. The driver had called the fire services only as a precautionary measure, the department said.

The incident took place at 10.45 am on Talkatora Road near the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the heart of Delhi.

“No one was injured in the incident as people managed to get off well in time. Two firefighting engines were sent to douse the flames,” said a fire official.

The local police is investigating the cause of the fire. This is the second incident of this kind after November 26 when a DTC school bus had caught fire in the Mayur Vihar area of east Delhi.

Sources say the bus belong to the latest lot of the low-floor buses introduced by the government. 

New Delhi, November 30
Nearly 100 students in Delhi University’s (DU) School of Open Studies are in a fix due to the university’s reluctance to extend the date of migration to regular colleges.

The last date fixed by the university administration for students to apply for migration into regular colleges was October 16. The students complained that their results were, however, taken out by October 20.

The students of the school alleged that the administration had intentionally delayed the results to keep them from migrating to the regular colleges.

“There are hundreds of students who were interested in shifting from open school to regular colleges and the university administration is reluctant in letting them do it, even though there are proper provisions for the same in DU prospectus,” said Manoj Chaudhary, president, Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU).

The students’ representative said he took the students’ demand to vice-chancellor Deepak Pental, who instead of listening to Chaudhary, misbehaved with him.

While the university administration alleged that Chaudhary started throwing things at the vice-chancellor’s office, DUSU president said the vice-chancellor told him that the university was not interested in transferring these students to regular colleges.

“The vice-chancellor said he would make sure that this provision is taken off the prospectus next year on the pretext that students from open school were not academically sound,” Chaudhary said.

According to university regulations, “A student who secures less than 40 per cent marks class XII and joins School of Open Learning and secures over 40 per cent in BA/B.Com-I/II examination of the university and is eligible for promotion to the next higher class may be allowed to migrate to a Regular College/Non-collegiate Women’s education board.”

Generally, students have to get the permission of the department they want to migrate to before applying for migration with the administration.

Rahul (name changed), a B.Com-I student at the open school wanted to migrate to the same course in Dayal Singh College.

“I spoke to the department’s head at Dayal Singh and he signed a no-objection application. But, the administration had closed the migration even before my result came out,” he said.

Another student wanted to migrate into a regular college in third year B.Com, but could get a go-ahead from the DU administration.

“The university is deliberately not extending the date because the vice-chancellor does not want the open school students to migrate into regular colleges,” he said.

The students have decided to take on the administration legally. A notice has been filed in the high court by seven students against it.k

New Delhi, November 30
A man, who is suspected to have made the hoax call at the IndiGo call centre late on Sunday claiming that there was ammunition in the plane, was arrested in the wee hours this morning.

The Hyderabad-bound IndiGo flight, which was carrying 164 passengers, was grounded and security drill employed delaying it by more than three hours.

According to police, the accused Mubarak Ali made the hoax call last night so as to delay the flight. The call was made to enable his relative Rizwan Ali, board it. “We have arrested Mubark and Rizwan while the booth owner from where the call was made has been detained,” said a police official.

According to police, Mubarak, resident of Bhagirathi Vihar in East Delhi, posed as one Harish and called up IndiGo call centre claiming that he had explicit information regarding placing of bomb in the Hyderabad-bound flight 6E 307.

“The call had been made from a Yamuna Vihar-located public booth around 8.40 pm,” informed the official.

The plane was immediately taken to a secluded area and given a thorough check.

“The airline staff did not tell us the cause of delay which irritated the passengers. They kept telling us that the ATC is having problem in receiving signals and that they would shortly take off. However, we could only leave by 12.30 am,” revealed a passenger.

According to him, the hand baggage of all the passengers was checked. The plane finally took off after three hours of its scheduled departure time at 8.55 pm.

Noida, November 30
UP Information Commissioner Gyanendera Sharma has directed the Noida and Greater Noida authorities to put information of Noida board meetings and routine decisions on their websites before January 15.

Sharma said: “The authorities have been asked to prepare work plan in order to make it more effective. Secondly, to put all routine decisions concerning general public and minutes of the Noida board meetings on the website considering the 17 points of RTI Act. Also, to put list of all allotments done at subsidised rates either to schools, colleges, hospitals etc mentioning the cause of subsidy and benefit it will accrue to the public.”

These should also mention whether the allottees concerned will benefit poor sections as per terms and conditions of the allotments, he added.

He said list of defaulters should be put on website mentioning the violation of the clause.

The education department has been informed that all aided schools come under the RTI Act. It has also been asked to put their details, including working of these schools, on the website. He clarified that unaided schools do not come under the RTI.

The first appellate authority was found inactive in the districts of Uttar Pradesh. If this was made active, 75 per cent cases will be sorted at this level. As there is no provision of penalising the first appellate authority, they are adopting lackadaisical approach, Sharma said.

He added that the State Commision had heard 7,40,00 cases from May, 2006, to September, 2009, and gave decisions in 56,000 cases. He, however, admitted that the Commission lacks performance parameters.

Greater Noida, November 30
A Dadri contractor was held captive by a gang of four criminals who robbed him of his car, cash and valuables worth lakhs on Saturday evening.

The criminals overpowered the contractor, tied his hands and feet and drove him in the area for about an hour.

The victim, who is a leading contractor with the Greater Noida Authority, was later dumped near Ajaibpur railway station. The contractor is reportedly a brother of a local BSP worker.

Though the police is trying to trace the criminals, it was clueless even after 36 hours of the incident.

The victim, Tej Veer, is a resident of Swaran Nagri. At the time of the incident, he was carrying Rs 40,000.

Tej Veer was returning home late in the evening when the four criminals in a Maruti car overtook his car near Omikaran crossing. They got into his car at gunpoint and overpowered him. The men then snatched from Tej Veer Rs 40,000, his watch, mobile phone, gold rings and chains and later dumped him near Ajaibpur railway station.

After the bandits had left, Tej raised the alarm. Hearing his cries, some farmers came to his help. He went to the Dadri police station and lodged a report.

The police has fanned out in search of the accused, but could not trace them till the filling of the report. The police feels one of Tej Veer’s workers could have alerted the criminals about his movement. Now the police is trying to locate the bandits through mobile surveillance.

This is the second such incident in one month after the personal assistant of a Greater Noida’s CEO was similarly abducted and robbed. His abductors were, however, killed by the Gautam Budh Nagar police in an encounter. 

New Delhi, November 30
The Delhi cabinet has given a green signal for signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and Delhi Knowledge Development Foundation (DKDF). The MoU will facilitate making Delhi a knowledge city.

The cabinet has also given its nod for creation of nine posts of superintendents in the office of district and sessions judge and creation of five posts in different scales in the home department.  

Talking to the media after the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit stated that in view of the need of collaboration in science and engineering research, it has been decided to sign MoU between the New York Academy of Sciences and the DKDF. 

The cabinet today approved a draft MoU which would soon be signed between both the parties.

The Knowledge Development Foundation is a society founded by the Department of Training and Technical Education, Delhi government, in 2008 for advancement of technical knowledge and reorientation of the technical studies whereas the NYAS has a history of advancing science by building bridges between the academia, industry and the financial sector.

The academy has three-pronged mission: to advance scientific knowledge, to help resolve the major global challenges facing society with science-based solutions and increase the number of scientifically informed individuals. 

Dikshit added that the MoU between these two parties is likely to help and define the vision of Delhi as a knowledge city.

The identified areas of collaboration include conceptualizing science and technology university, pharmaceutical university, promoting science and technology park, holding seminars on scientific subjects and exchange of professionals.     

She further stated that the cabinet has given its nod for creation of nine posts of superintendents in the pay scale of Rs 10,000-Rs 15,200 in the office of the district and sessions judge, Delhi. 

The cabinet has also approved a proposal for creation of five posts in different scales in the home department for the implementation of the Private Security Agencies Act, 2005.

New Delhi, November 30
There is a growing trend towards criminalising for transmission of HIV/AIDS, including transmission from mother to child, which puts women at risk and undermines their progress in fighting the disease, warns international development agency Action Aid on the eve of World AIDS Day.

Action Aid spokesperson said while the number of people across India receiving treatment had raised manifold in the last five years, this success could be undermined by repressive laws. Criminalising HIV transmission may increase discrimination against all HIV-positive patients, but Action Aid fears that new laws will intensify the epidemic of violence against women.

Women are more likely to be blamed for passing on the disease and know their status as testing mostly happens at ante-natal clinics. 
The Action Aid spokesperson said to avoid prosecution under these laws, HIV positive women would have to refuse to have sex, insist on a condom or tell partners about their status. However, few are able to do these things without risking physical abuse, abandonment, eviction, or other forms of violence.

Action Aid warns that in order to avoid facing such choices, many stay away from treatment and essential health services.

“Some laws are drafted so broadly that HIV positive women could be jailed for becoming pregnant or breastfeeding their infants,” said John Samuel, Action Aid’s international director-Asia.

“Criminalisation has not been proven effective in slowing the spread of AIDS. Whereas, if governments provided treatment, counselling and testing to expectant mothers, the risk of mother to child transmission would be below two per cent,” said Samuel.

“Putting mothers in jail undermines women’s rights and efforts to decrease the number of orphans while children may die from AIDS-related illness due to increased vulnerability and lack of access to care,” he added.