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No-trust move defeated
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HIV: Communities gather to discuss diversities
2 more H1N1 deaths
Married man shoots at
lover, kills self
Checking Corruption
Experts mull school options for poor
Student helps cops nab burglars
Woman killed husband, paramour
Ministry staff held for raping maid
Nirmal Verma’s Padma Bhushan memento stolen
9 held for making spurious ghee
3 days’ police custody for hawala kingpin
Astrologer accused of extortion refused bail
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Rs 1.55 crore snatched from jeweller at gunpoint
68 robberies by
bikers this year The national Capital has witnessed 831 incidents of crimes committed by motorcycle-borne men, till November 15 this year. According to police data, snatching tops the list with 760 cases followed by 68 robberies. Three incidents of murders by bike-borne assailants have also been reported. According to the police, this year’s figures are comparatively less than the last years. Last year, 850 snatchings, 81 robberies and four murders were committed by bike-borne criminals. Though the police claims that there is no spurt in crimes committed by motorcycle-borne men this year, a comparison with 2006 and 2007 show that this year’s figures are a little higher. In 2006, a total of 807 cases were reported while the figure for 2007 was 791.
New Delhi, December 16 According to information, Puran Chand Goel (62), along with his daughter-in-law, was waiting for his car outside his C-2/31, Phase-II, Ashok Vihar, residence when the incident took place around 9.45 am. “Puran Chand was going to HDFC Bank in Patel Nagar to deposit Rs 1.55 crore when the incident took place. A case has been registered and efforts are on to nab the goons,” said a police official from the district. Goel owns two jewellery shops in Ashok Vihar’s Central Market and Sadar Bazar and the robbed money was yesterday’s collection. “Two robbers came near Goel and suddenly snatched the cash bags at gunpoint. Two other accomplices of the snatchers were waiting for them on two motorcycles near a tea shop close by. After snatching the money, the men sat pillion on the waiting motorcycles and fled off,” the official said. The robbers had not masked their faces, he added. After learning about the crime, the police swung into action, putting barricades and establishing checking points. However, the efforts did not bore any fruits till late evening. Police officials close to investigations say they suspect the involvement of someone close to Goel who was aware of the money lying in the house. “It could be someone in the shops or house servants or drivers. We are questioning everybody and are working on some leads,” said the officer. |
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No-trust move defeated
New Delhi, December 16 They were marshalled out when the BJP MLAs did not follow the direction of the Speaker, Dr Yoganand Shastri, who asked them to listen to the reply being given by the Chief Minister against the allegation laid by the Professor Vijay Kumar Malhotra in the no-confidence motion resolution. Only the Congress, Smajwadi Janta Dal and BSP MLAs were present in the House and they expressed their confidence in the leadership of the Chief Minister. In her reply, the Chief Minister accused the BJP of the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992. This allegation caused a ruckus in the House when the leader of opposition, Professor Vijay Kumar Malhotra objected to the Chief Minister’s statement, saying that this was not an issue. All BJP MLAs stood up and came in Well of the House, chanting slogans “Sheila Dikshit hai hai, Jai Bharat Mata Ki, Jai Sri Ram, Sheila Dikshit Maafi Mango”. They claimed, “The structure demolished in Ayodhya was not of a mosque. It was a temple, it is a temple and it will be a temple”. Shoaib Iqbal, MLA of Lok Janshakti Party, alleged that this issue would create communal tension in Delhi. Later Shoaib was also marshalled out. Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Asif Mohammad Khan also supported him. Seeing the tense situation in the House, Speaker adjourned the House for 10 minutes. Continuing her speech after the adjournment, Sheila Dikshit said that she respected all the religious places – mosque, temple, gurdwara church etc. Her aim was not to harm the sentiments of any House member. The BJP created such a situation that its MLAs had to be marshalled out. She claimed that Delhi had the biggest CNG bus service in the world and for that credit went to the Congress government. Delhi is the only city whose environment issue was discussed in Copenhagen. Introduction of CNG, Metro rail and planting saplings had improved the environment of the city. She also claimed that Delhi’s power distribution system was the best in the world. When the BJP was in power, people used to get electricity hardly for nine hours only. She admitted that water distribution system was not well in the city. Once it improved, there would be no shortage of water. Delhi state is the best for use of information technology by the government. All offices had been computerised all details in connection with the government were available on the net, she claimed. In the field of education, the Delhi government has opened three new universities - GGS University, Delhi Technical University and Ambedkar University, Law college and technical institutes. The government opens two schools in each month. Education standard of the government schools has also improved. On the price rise issue, the Chief Minister said the prices had risen due to financial crisis in the world over. She also claimed that when Congress government came to power in Delhi in 1998 it had Rs 4500 crore planned expenditure now it has Rs 45000 crore planned expenditure.
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Arts Fest: Pak kids bring message of love
New Delhi, December 16 Two children’s theatre groups are here from the neighbouring country to participate in the 10th International Children’s Festival of Performing Arts that was inaugurated in the Bal Bhawan today. From their experience, these kids knew that the relations between the two countries were anything but cordial. “We were planning this trip for long, but our visas were not approved. Gradually we lost hope that this trip would materialize,” said Muzzamil Jabbar, member of the theatre group, Mandwa Theatre. The delegates said they were excited when they finally got their visas a day before they were to fly to India. “If India and Pakistan are together, no one could ever harm us. The politicians on both the sides are always looking for issues to create tension between the two countries,” said Jabbar, adding that people on both the sides were innocent. The young cultural artists said these times in Pakistan were bad as the country faced attacks from many sides. “We have improvised a mime on Indo-Pak peace and hope that many Indian people turn up to watch it tomorrow,” said Aisha Khalid, actor from the theatre group. The Pakistani kids said they wanted to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra if they got the permission. Colour and laughter echoed in the Bal Bhawan on the opening ceremony of the festival of performing arts as children from 30 countries danced their way to the arena. The little delegates brought soil from their countries which were collected in a pot. As a mark of global togetherness, minister of human resource development Kapil Sibal planted a sapling in the pot. “While the plant would provide shade after growing up, these children would also become source of knowledge once they become young,” said Sibal. He said as culture, history, empathy unite people from across borders, at the same time religion and politics divide them into groups. “Let us all collect human knowledge to come together to achieve peace and harmony,” he added. Famous film maker Madhur Bhandarkar and tennis player Mahesh Bhupati were also present at the opening ceremony to greet almost 5,000 children from all over the world. Kids from four different countries performed a choreography composition on Vande Matram as Latvian delegates became popular with their first colourful performance itself. Pakistani delegates would perform a drama, Power vs Intelligence. The dance troupe from Singapore would perform folk dances and Romanian choir would sing Indian songs at Pearey Lal Bhawan tomorrow.
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HIV: Communities gather to discuss diversities
New Delhi, December 16 Given the existing social disparities, the one-day forum, anchored by Centre for Human Progress (CHP) in association with the State Training and Resource Centre, Delhi and the Delhi State AIDS Control Society, rendered a dais to discuss the issues that have always been segregated from the mainstream. On the occasion, sex workers, transgenders, homosexuals, drug users, came forward to share their experiences and lend solidarity to the cause of their healthy and “dignified survival”. A resident of Lajpat Nagar III, Sanjeev Sharma (31), who is a member of men who have sex with men (MSM) and currently associated with NGO Pahal Foundation, which works towards spreading awareness on HIV/AIDS among men, is lucky to have the acceptance of his family. Yet he has been standing up for the cause of his pals (MSM) for 15 years before he graduated from Delhi University. “After knowing about my outlook and state, everybody in my family has accepted me as I am. My parents have never let me feel inferior or different from others,” shared Sanjeev. Adding that MSM are very much like other individuals of society and they should not be discriminated, he stressed, “Society should accept us as we are rather than trying to change our orientation. We are the rightful members of society and do have the potential to succeed in every walk of life.” Chairperson of Kinnar Bharti, an NGO in Patel Nagar that works for the rights of transgenders, Seeta said, “People of the kinnar section still live a stigmatised life due to the attitude that society holds for it. There are many people who are HIV positive and are compelled to live with hidden identities.” According to director of CHP, Dr Ash Pachauri, among the people from at-risk sections, nine out of ten still lead a disadvantaged life due to stigma associated to their status, and consequently they are pushed to the fringes of society. “They survive with double and even triple stigma, due to many reasons. A person is thrown out of home after the family gets to know about his/her status of being a transgender, and then the person, after being refused a job several times, is forced to go into sex trade, opening the doors for HIV/AIDs,” remarked Dr Ash.
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2 more H1N1 deaths
New Delhi, December 16 “With the latest two cases, the tally of deaths due to H1N1 has reached 48. “A 39-year-old woman at Safdarjung Hospital and a 50-year-old man at Lok Nayak Hospital died of the disease today,” said Dr Anjana
Prakash, additional nodal officer for H1N1 in Delhi. The city recorded 169 new cases of the viral flu, of which 98 are children.
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Married man shoots at
lover, kills self
Noida, December 16 The wounded beloved, who was shot at, has been admitted to a hospital, while the family of the man, instead of filing a case with the police, hastily buried his body. However, on getting information, the police exhumed the body from the grave and sent it for post mortem. Interestingly, the man got married only six months ago. Anis (22), a resident of Kherli Bhav village in the Rabupura area, was in love with an 18- year old girl in his neighbourhood for the past five years. However, the families of the couple were against their marriage. Therefore, Anis’s parents six months ago got him married to another girl. But Anis did not bring his wife from her parent’s house to consummate the marriage. So despite of Anis’s marriage, his love affair continued. According to the police, Anis had planned to elope with the girl. On Monday evening, Anis called his beloved to a field a few hundred meters away from his house and told her about his plan. But the girl refused to elope with him. There was an argument between the two, and Anis pulled out his country-made revolver and shot her in the waist. After this, he put the revolver on his ear pit and shot himself. Hearing gunshots, some villagers reached the site and found the lovers lying in a pool of blood. The two were rushed to a hospital, but Anis died on the way.
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Checking Corruption
New Delhi, December 16 Under the new system, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), the amount due to the contractors will be credited in their accounts within 30 minutes of work being completed. Based on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, the RTGS system will be extended mainly to all suppliers and contractors working on various MCD projects to do away with the tender mafia. According to the contractors, this new system will eliminate the complex process wherein the middlemen used to delay the process of payment. The civic body has witnessed constant agitation by contractors and suppliers over its failure to clear their outstanding dues. Earlier for any payments that were made to the contractors, there was a system where the amount to be released was sent from the MCD headquarters at Town Hall to the zonal department. The zonal department would then send the amount for clearance to the divisions, who would then issue cheques to the contractors. Now, once a project is completed, the due payment will be directly cleared from MCD’s appointed official bank to the eligible person’s account. “It is the quality of work that suffers most in the MCD in the presence of the tender mafia and the accompanying nexus of suppliers and contractors. There are many examples in which works are executed only in file and the payment is made to the contractor. This system will end that,” said a senior MCD official. |
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Experts mull school options for poor
New Delhi, December 16 Talking about ‘Private Schools and the Poor’, the educationists focused on Section 12 of Right to Education that guarantees 25 per cent of seats in government aided, private unaided and special schools for children from the weaker sections. “The role of private fee-charging schools has not been appreciated as much by academics and policy makers. However, these schools increasingly cater to a substantial fraction of the primary school going population in this country,” said Karthik Muralidharan, assistant professor of economics in the University of California. Providing unique figures related to private schools in India, Muralidharan said 28 per cent of the population of rural India has access to fee-charging private primary schools in the same village and 16.4 per cent of children aged six to 14 in rural India attend these private schools. “Private school salaries in rural India are less than one-fifth the salary of regular public school teachers,” he said, adding that this was the reason for the private schools in being able to hire more teachers and have better teacher to student ratio. On an average, private schools had inferior infrastructure and their teachers hadn’t gone through proper trainings. But in spite of this, the speakers believed, the performance of the private school teachers was superior. “These are the factors that explain why people from poor backgrounds are willing to pay fees for their children in private schools,” he said. The speakers talked about additional responsibilities the state and central governments had to take up while the act was implemented. “The Act clearly states that the obligation of guaranteeing free and compulsory education lies on the government and not on the child,” said Amit Kaushik, who has been closely associated with the formulation of Right to Education Bill. He said every child of the age of six to 14 has to ensure free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school. They concluded that the Right to Education Act has shown promise for the poor by ensuring their representation in the private schools. |
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Student helps cops nab burglars
New Delhi, December 16 With the arrest of Akhil (21), Sunil (22) and Ajay (22), the police has managed to solve 27 cases of burglary and theft. Stolen jewellery worth Rs 4 lakh, house breaking equipment, three knives and some stolen electronic goods have been seized. DCP (south) HGS Dhaliwal said that the accused persons targeted government colonies during the day. Posing as devotees of goddess Durga, they identified the houses and conducted a recce there on the pretext of issuing mata jagran slip. An alert student staying at Lodhi Road Complex government colony took a video of the men on his mobile phone when they were trying to break open the lock of the house opposite to his. He managed to take the video through the key hole of his house. The men were trying to burgle the house owned by Raj Kumar on October 20, 2009. But they could not burgle the house as they were forced to leave the place by the public. Later the police used the clip to identify the criminals and laid traps in and around the complex. The three were held after the police learnt that they roamed around the Lodhi Road Complex area on a motorcycle on the pretext of distributing jagran slip. They resembled the men on the video clip. They were arrested at the gate of complex on Sunday. The accused have admitted that they had beem committing burglaries and thefts in government colonies since 2002. Earlier, they were arrested in Defence Colony, C.R.Park, Sangam Vihar and Trans Yamuna area. Dhaliwal said the identity of the student was a secret and he would be rewarded. |
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Woman killed husband, paramour
New Delhi, December 16 According to police, a married woman who had two paramours and an ex-husband is responsible for the killing. While the main accused Momina, alias Meena, and her paramour Attar Singh are absconding, her son Ayub and his wife Sonia along with their aunt Zubaida have been arrested. The deceased Baijnath was beaten to death by Momina and her lover Attar Singh in conspiracy with the three arrested. According to police, Baijnath was former lover of Momina and had lent her money, but when he came to know that she was having an affair with Attar Singh as well, he demanded his money back. As Momina did not want to return the money, she and Attar hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Baijnath. According to police, Momina was also responsible for the death of her second husband Sikander who died in October this year after he was brutally beaten by Momina and her son Ayub. |
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Ministry staff held for raping maid
New Delhi, December 16 According to information, the matter came to the police yesterday night when the complainant Geeta (name changed) filed a complaint against Rajinder, a resident of house no. GI/966 of Sarojini Nagar’s GI-Block. According to the police, yesterday evening when Rajinder’s wife was not at home, he called Geeta for cleaning utensils. “While she was doing the utensils, Rajinder, under the threat of implicating her in theft case, raped her,” said the police. Geeta was allowed to go home around 8.30 pm, after which they went to the police. After medical examination of the victim, a case was registered and Rajinder was arrested. Rajinder Yadav is a native of Mou (UP) and works as a translator with the ministry of the culture. |
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Nirmal Verma’s Padma Bhushan memento stolen
New Delhi, December 16 A senior police officer said that Nirmal’s wife Gagan Dil got an FIR registered in this regard two days ago. Nirmal was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2002 for his excellence and dedicated work. Verma had been living in a flat in Sahniwas Apartment in Patparganj in the Madhu Vihar area from where some burglars allegedly stole his memento. Mrs Gagan had been living in the Greater Noida area and the Madhu Vihar house had been closed when the burglar struck there and decamped with valuables and his Padma Bhushan.
— TNS |
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9 held for making spurious ghee
Ghaziabad, December 16 A police team led by circle officer Kapil Dev Singh conducted separate raids at three factories in the jungles of Tedi Saat Biswa village under the Bhojpur kotwali area today. The nine persons were arrested from the factories. The police also seized some raw material used in the manufacture of ghee. Thirteen large kilns were also found on the premises of the factories. The arrested persons told the police that the ghee manufactured in the factories was sold in Aligarh, Meerut, Muradnagar and Delhi. Senior officers of veterinary departments have sent the ghee samples for laboratory test. The police, food and veterinary team had conducted raids on ghee factories on a tip off. But the proprietors of the three factories had fled before the police team reached there.
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3 days’ police custody for hawala kingpin
New Delhi, December 16 District and sessions judge P.S. Teji allowed the plea of ED and sent Jain to police custody till December 18. The agency required to interrogate Jain for three more days. The prosecutor submitted, “The accused is involved in a serious crime of laundering proceeds of narcotics drugs to various parts of the world, including India.” The ED had lodged a case against Jain under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following his arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on December 6 for allegedly financing and transporting narcotics drugs. Earlier, another court had sent the accused to judicial custody till December 23 after the NCB said that it did not require interrogating him. Besides Jain, his other family members are under the scanner of the ED for allegedly laundering the money from the drug trade.
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Astrologer accused of extortion refused bail
New Delhi, December 16 Chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja rejected the bail plea of the astrologer Hargovind Sharma on the ground that he had once threatened to eliminate the entire family of the complainant if he was not paid
Rs 10 lakh. Besides, the court also considered the fact that the matter was still in the initial stage of probe. “Keeping in view the fact that the case is still at a preliminary stage of investigation, I find that this is not a fit case to grant bail to the accused,” said the magistrate. Astrologer Hargovind Sharma was arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police on December 10 following a probe into a complaint of a businessman in a west Delhi area that he had been receiving threat calls from an unidentified person who was demanding
Rs 10 lakh. Investigators zeroed in on Hargovind Sharma on the basis of technical surveillance. According to the police, the businessman and his family used to visit Sharma earlier. The accused got interested in the daughter of the family, and when her marriage was fixed somewhere else, he started making extortion calls to the businessman. The prosecution referred to the call records of the mobile number allegedly being used by the accused Hargoving Sharma to oppose his bail application.
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