New Delhi, December 20
A day after four bike-borne assailants shot dead a businessman and injured two in the Sadar Bazar area of north Delhi, the district police released the sketches of the criminals based on the information provided by the witnesses.

When asked about developments in the case, Sagar Preet Hooda, DCP (North), only said that police has prepared and released the sketches while the investigations are on.

“All I can assure is that we will crack the case soon. As for the investigations, I can only say that men are working round the clock to nail the criminals,” he said.

A brass products merchant, Nilesh Jain, was killed in the daylight firing yesterday morning in Sadar Bazar while two other businessmen who tried to stop the fleeing bikers received bullet injuries.

Hundreds of traders of the area sat on dharna after the incident demanding prompt arrest of the criminals. They only moved after assurances from the senior police officials.

Meanwhile, representatives from Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today sent a communication to Delhi police commissioner Y S Dadwal demanding a special security policy to protect commercial markets of the city from unsocial elements.

Earlier, during an emergency meeting of the leaders from the prominent markets of Delhi, it was decided that if the government did not take immediate steps to curb criminal activities, the traders would be forced to come out on streets.

New Delhi, December 20
The Organising Committee Commonwealth Games owes more than Rs 33 crore in licensing fee to New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), as per the recent list of defaulters taken out by the civic body.

The NDMC has displayed the list of licensing fee defaulters on its official website which has the name of Organising Committee along with several government and private offices and shops. The committee is among the first five organizations with the highest amount pending on their names.

Surprisingly, there are several such offenders whose outstanding dues over the years have surpassed crores of rupees. The hotel Le Meridian at Windsor Place, Janpath, has a whopping Rs 307 crore approximately pending as licensing fee with a hefty interest of more than Rs 162 crore.

Interestingly, the Commission of Income Tax, Mayur Bhawan, is also one of the main defaulters with a total of over Rs 41 crore pending against it.

The list of 939 defaulters shows the civic body’s failure in improving collection of fees and taxes and going soft on wealthy defaulters.

The Super Bazar in Connaught Place has the second highest amount of over Rs 88 crore pending with interest of Rs 34 crore.

The defaulters with the highest pending amounts mainly include four and five star hotels in the New Delhi areas like The Prominent, which has the third highest amount of Rs 60 crore pending as licensing fee, Taj Man Singh and Bharat Hotel and Hotel Asian.

The matter was brought into light after CIC ordered NDMC to put the names of the defaulters on its website, after an RTI application by Piyush Jain.

However, the NDMC officials deny calling them defaulters. “They are not defaulters as it shows only the amount pending against them. The amount shown in the list includes both principal money and the penalty, which generally has a very high rate of interest,” said Anand Tiwari, the official spokes person of NDMC.

Though, he also mentioned that the organizing committee paid some of the amount pending against it last week, which is nowhere mentioned in the list. On the heavy amount pending against hotel, Le Meridian, the matter is being pursued in the court. 

New Delhi, December 20
The followers of religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda took out a rally today to fight for the rights of women who had been trafficked and forced into prostitution. They said they were even ready to marry sex workers.

The rally began at Ramlila Grounds and culminated at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. “Trafficking is a serious issue and so is the high prevalence of HIV amongst sex workers. A number of these workers are in the trade because they are forced into it either due to poor economic conditions or they have simply been duped into it,” said Aditya Insaan, spokesperson of the group.

“In order to change people’s perception about the community, Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda has encouraged the men to come forward, marry and provide a home to these women,” he said.

“Once they have a sense of security and warmth of a family, they can then pursue a vocational course or a different livelihood option,” he added.

According to Insaan, almost 1,200 male followers of the sect have given their consent to marry sex workers. “By January next year, we hope to solemnise some marriages. However, there are certain conditions that have to be met. The women will have to go through a medical and psychological test before they tie the knot,” he said.

For those sex workers who are infected by HIV, Insaan said that the group will offer socio-economic rehabilitation with the help of 15 NGOs working for the community. Schools will also be set up for the children of sex workers.

New Delhi, December 20
“Having been told that you have a fatal illness, you don’t ever forget that. But over the years I have accepted this fact and the only important thing for me remains my family. Living happily with them is what I strive to achieve every day,” said 16-year-old Lata (name changed) who discovered that she had been infected with HIV/AIDS at the tender age of 13.

Today, more than 3 million people are living with HIV and AIDS in India, a number that keeps adding up with every passing day. Of the total prevalence, 39 per cent are females and 3.5 per cent are children.

Moving beyond the times when stigma, prejudice and discrimination were heaped on those living with HIV and AIDS, these people have gained direction and will to spend their life, of course with the help of various government and non-government programmes.

HIV infection is not the end of life. Access to prompt diagnosis and treatment ensures that PLHIV live longer and have a better quality of life.

Today almost 3 lakh PLHIV are alive and receiving ART (Anti retroviral therapy) that effectively suppresses the replication of the virus from 226 ART centres.

ART is now available free through public health facilities and is easily accessible; all that is required is courage and optimistim on the part of PLHIV.

“The key to beat the HIV beast is to fight the infection back with strong determination and will power. After knowing that death is inevitable, how we spend the remaining days is up to us. After I got to know I was HIV positive, I started living positive, thinking positive and working positive. It’s all about changing attitudes,” said Bimola, 40, as she spoke about her experience with the infection.

“Knowing that life will never be normal again, living with the stigma attached with the infection and knowing also that inevitably you will end up dying is not the best feeling to wake up with, every day,” said 29-year-old Lalit, an HIV positive patient who had been in the Capital some days ago.

“But today I am working as state treatment education officer for an ACT (Access to care and treatment) project. I can now support HIV positive people more effectively,” he said.

New Delhi, December 20
Thousands of autorickshaw drivers on Saturday held a protest meet here against the government’s proposal to phase out their vehicles from Delhi’s arterial roads and replace them with small taxis.

Around 5,000 drivers organised a rally at Ram Lila Grounds under the banner of NyayaBhoomi, an NGO, and said the government’s decision would only cause inconvenience to the general public.

Rakesh Agarwal, secretary of NyayaBhoomi, said, “In the past 20 years, the government has never given reasonable fare to three-wheeler drivers even after several protests. If the government engages with the responsible drivers, NGOs and eminent citizens on reforms, the entire autorickshaw sector can be reformed within a week.”

The meet, supported by several unions, also discussed issues like fare hike, auto finance mafia and complete absence of authorised stands.

“Auto drivers are forced to overcharge, for which the government is responsible,” Agarwal said.

A Delhi transport department official said: “We will not completely phase out autorickshaws. We will offer the permit holders to replace their old and worn-out vehicles with cars or restrict their vehicles to residential colonies.”

“They will not be allowed to come on arterial and radial roads,” he said.

The official said small cars or taxis would run on arterial roads and longer routes, while three-wheelers would be restricted to smaller routes, especially congested areas. — IANS

New Delhi, December 20
On an average, 18 hours of duty, official calls at unearthly hours, no weekly off, first in the line-of-fire, basic salary of Rs 5,200 and decades of wait for first promotion to head constable. Welcome to the job of Delhi police constable!

A constable who joins the force at the young age of 18 or 20 years usually aims to retire at least as an assistant sub-inspector, if not an SI.

There are about 40,000 constables in Delhi police. Although, no official data is available, there are thousands of constables who are yet to receive a promotion even after two or close to three decades of service. Rohtas Singh, a Delhi police head constable who shot himself with his service revolver inside the CP police station on October 12 this year, had only received one promotion in his 29 years of service.

“He often rued the fact that in spite of good work, he was always ignored for promotion. He did not flatter the officials, but believed in doing the good work. This was one frustration along with other troubles in life which I believe could have prompted him to kill himself,” said a colleague and constable close to Rohtas.

A 1982 batch constable Dhani Ram, currently posted at IP Estate police station in Central district, is still looking for his first promotion. According to information, there is a father-son duo in Reserve Police Force (Central). Both occupy the position of constables.

“While father has given about 24 years of service and is still a constable, his son joined the force four years back as constable. If you go around looking, there would be five to seven promotion-deprived constables in every police station,” said Harpal Singh (name changed), a police constable posted in South district.

According to Delhi police service manuals, after 12 years of duty, a police constable starts getting the salary of a head constable, but not the designation.

To get the designation, a constable has to clear a written exam (knowledge of DP Act, IPC, CrPC, and Evidence Act etc), physical exam (run 1600 meters in 7 minutes etc) and medical exam.

“It is not easy for a 40-year-old man to run in the prescribed time. Even a constable who has suffered fractures during the service and is not so agile has to run to get the rank and that is why if you can’t cross it in 40, it becomes difficult later on,” said an official from Police Headquarters.

However, an IPS officer, say of 1982 batch, has already got five promotions by now. 

New Delhi, December 20
A corporate employee spends minimum an hour daily glued to various social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Myspace, Linkdein and others on an average, reveals a survey by the Assocham’s Social Development Foundation (ASDF).

Romancing, updating profile status messages, making friends, uploading pictures, writing comments, watching videos and much more at these social networking sites eat up at least an hour everyday, reducing the ideal office hours of 8 hours to 7 hours, the survey reveals.

As per the survey, the most sought after site for the purpose are — Orkut and Facebook — especially for corporate personnel between 21 and 30 years of age followed by Mypscae and Linkdein. These two sites entertain and cater to corporate employees between 31 and 45 years.

Nearly, 4,000 corporate employees were interviewed in the age group ranging from  21 to 30, 31 to 45 and 46 to 60 years in metro citiies like — Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Indore, Ahemdabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Luckow and Kanpur.

Releasing findings of ASDF survey, ASSOCHAM secretary general D.S. Rawat said, “Majority of companies effectively lose close to 12.5 per cent of the total productivity each day as their employees keep accessing social networking sites. The growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for the overall productivity of a company. Several IT companies have already installed software to restrict their use,”

The survey showed that 77 per cent of the total workers having Orkut account use it during working hours.

Interestingly, 83 per cent see nothing wrong in surfing during the working hours in office. Four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut, Facebook profile during working hours.

Young professionals join social networking sites the most. The survey also reveals that 93 per cent of youngsters are aware of social networking sites. Orkut and Facebook are found to be the most popular online destinations among survey respondents.

Seventy-three per cent corporate personnel between 45 to 58 years spend over an hour online daily to access news.

New Delhi, December 20
Salaam India, a play directed by Lushin Dubey, marked the closing ceremony of this year's 10th CRY Cadence Corporate Citizenship Challenge held in New Delhi.

Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a long-time supporter of the right to education for all children, was the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, she said, "Education is seen as vital for a child's development and we must support this in whatever way we can."

The performance was in support of every child's right to free and equal education, the focus of a CRY (Child Rights and You) campaign on education.

Salaam India is inspired by diplomat writer Pavan K. Varma's book, Being Indian.

"The play is about how India is at a turning point, with its people stepping confidently out of the past into a modern, globalised world. With the cultural moorings in place and pride in their own identity, Indians have been able to adapt to changed times," said Lushin Dubey

"Performing arts are a very powerful tool as they attract large numbers. And when performing for a cause, it adds much more colour," She added.

Felicitating the sponsors, Pervin Varma, CRY's trustee, said, "At CRY, we mobilize citizens across the country through innovative platforms, to demand that free and quality education be provided to every child in India. Organizations like Cadence help make this endeavour possible."

Jaswinder S. Ahuja, corporate vice-president and managing director of Cadence Design Systems, reiterated the responsibility of the corporate sector as agents of change.

He said, "Education helps open the window of opportunity for growth and development and provides a level-playing field for all children. We thank each of the 5Cs supporters for helping us champion the cause of providing education for underprivileged children."

In the nine years since it started in 2000, 5Cs has raised over Rs 2.7 crore to support CRY's effort to ensure a just world for children.

New Delhi, December 20
Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) today announced that the company would soon recruit 700 students from top 10 colleges of Delhi as well as hospitality institutes across India.

The students will be designated as hospitality executives and placed in the Ashok, Janpath and Samrat hotels, which have been named as the Official Family Games Hotel.

ITDC will also be placing these students at the DDA flats in Vasant Kunj which are being constructed for accommodating Commonwealth delegates.

The students will be recruited by ITDC through on-campus interviews and group discussions, and will work with ITDC for five months starting from June 2010.

The selection criteria would consist of scrutinising students on the basis of communication skills, ability to work under pressure and aptitude for interacting with international visitors.

The spokesperson for ITDC said selected students would undergo rigorous training modules on hospitality industry and guest relations by ITDC officials for the first two months and then assume the responsibilities allocated to them at various locations, during the Commonwealth Games.

All 700 students will be getting a stipend from ITDC for the five-month period.

“India is a young country and we believe that our youths are the best ambassadors to showcase India’s strength, prowess and world famous hospitality to the world,” said the spokesperson.

The spokespeson added that the ITDC was already in talks with the heads of various colleges and hospitality institutes and would soon begin campus recruitment process.

Delhi University teachers are up in arms against the administration’s decision to install biometric attendance machines for them, who have described the move as unnecessary and humiliating.

After a recent meeting of the university’s executive committee called to discuss this issue was adjourned, the teachers have now come up with a unique reason to scuttle this project. They are now claiming that the biometric machines are a health hazard.

Noida, December 20
The gap in power generation and demand in Noida and adjoining areas has baffled the residents and made the industry angry. Industries are shutting down and residential areas have installed alternative power back-up systems to meet their requirement. A huge demand-supply gap is the root cause of Noida’s power woes.

While the city has a connected load of 1,483 MW, the existing power infrastructure can only take a load of 630 MW.

“If the entire load gets accumulated all at one time, the power infrastructure in Noida will collapse,” says A.P. Mishra, general manager, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, Noida’s power distribution company.

“More substations are being set up at sector levels to meet the requirement, but it will take time,” he informs.

Multinational companies and other big industries that shifted base to Noida have now set up their own generators to cope with the erratic supply.

“Without power how can an industry run? Once a big industrialist has invested hundreds or thousands of crore in the unit, he cannot think of shifting base immediately,” says Vipin Malhan, Noida Entrepreneur Association’s senior vice-president.

“In such a scenario, he has no option than to invest another few lakhs or crores in the setting up of generators. But I do not know how long can we sustain our business like this,” asks Malhan.

According to an ex-president of NEA and the owner of Ramtek Engineering Works, Rakesh Katyal, “I never thought that I would ever have to think about shifting my once-flourishing business from Noida.” Katyal manufactures track fittings for the Indian Railways. The erratic power situation has played havoc with Katyal’s business plans.

“I started my business in 1981. The situation was not very bad then. Noida was being developed into an integrated industrial township. Officials took a keen interest to ensure that the industry got uninterrupted powers. But power problems started since 2001,” adds Katyal.

N.P. Singh, president, Federation of Noida Resident Welfare Associations, said, “The residents have enhanced their loads and paid the necessary charges. But due to lack of upgradation of block level transformers, power breakdown is rampant. We just do not know who to approach. Tax paying citizens should not be bothered like this. We experience power cuts even during winter,” says Singh.

Noida, December 20
UP Roadways is planning to start night bus service between Noida and Greater Noida. The buses will be available to the commuters till 2 am, it is learnt.

The Noida Authority has sent a proposal to this effect to UP Roadways. The number of buses, their frequency and schedule are being worked out by the UP Roadways authorities.

According to sources, with the start of Metro feeder buses, quite a few UP Roadways buses, which were plying on the feeder buses’ route, have been withdrawn from service. These buses will now be used to provide night service between Noida and Greater Noida. Noida is likely to get 30 Metro feeder buses next month (January 2010). This will relieve 30 UP Roadways buses.

The night service buses would start from the Roadways Depot at Noida’s City Centre and ply up to Dadri, via Sector-37, Baraula, Bhangel, Phase-II and Surajpur.

According to sources, on a trial basis, first about 18 buses will be used for night service.

If the trial is successful, depending on the number of commuters in the night, the number of buses would be increased.

The proposed bus service would meet a long-felt need of the commuters in Noida and Greater Noida.