New Delhi, December 22
First, it was thousands of fake employees of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) who enjoyed free salaries for years. Now the registered workers, mainly sanitation staff, have complained that they have not received salaries since last month.

The safai karamcharis of the civic body have alleged that they have not been paid their salaries as they are not enrolled under the biometric system.

The MCD, acting cautiously after the expose of ghost employees, discontinued the salaries of workers who are not registered with the new electronic system of marking attendance.

Some 26,000 sanitation workers have alleged that they have not received their salaries till date as their attendance is still based on manual system.

The sanitation workers, who are mainly daily wagers and substitutes, now threaten a strike if they are not paid salaries by month-end.

“The commissioner has directed that those not part of the biometric system will not be paid salary. This is unfair. We were never opposed to the biometric system. It is the MCD that did not register daily wagers and substitute workers,” said Malook Chand Beniwaal, the representative of safai karamcharis.

The civic body has some 1.19 lakh sanctioned posts out of which, 21,695 are lying vacant in various categories. The total number of working staff is over 1.27 lakh, out of which 98,013 are regular employees while 29,081 of employees are from miscellaneous categories like daily wagers, substitutes and safai karamcharies. As many as 79,559 employees have already been enrolled in the biometric system.

The civic agency has, however, rebutted the allegations. “We have made it clear earlier also that no salary would be paid to the employees who are not registered with the new biometric system for which we have sent several reminders from time to time. Many sanitation workers did not register themselves, that’s why their salary has not been released,” said one of the senior municipal officials.

He added that those not registered under the system could still do so as the registration process was on.

New Delhi, December 22
The expenditure and finance committee (EFC) of the Delhi government has cleared two proposals relating to the construction of new bungalows for ministers and strengthening of Dev Prakash Shastri Marg.

The projects will cost Rs 17.11 crore. These projects are related to the public works department (PWD).

Delhi finance minister A.K. Walia said decision had been taken to construct new bungalows for ministers of the Delhi government in a locality close to the legislative assembly and the Delhi Secretariat.

Walia said that the decision had been taken in view of the fact that the ministers had been finding it difficult to function from their existing offices which are either situated in their private houses or old-type accommodations provided by the government. They also face difficulties during public dealing hours in the morning when a large number of people come to them with their problems.

The EFC has sanctioned Rs 10.17 crore for construction of new bungalows within 15 months of the start of the work.

According to the plan, four bungalows will be constructed on a plot at 8, Raj Niwas Marg and another two on a plot at 3, Attaur Rehman Lane. The total plot area of the six bungalows is 23,942.23 square metre. The bungalows will have garages and servant quarters.

The EFC has also sanctioned Rs 6.94 crore for strengthening of road no. 25— Dev Prakash Shastri Marg— from T-junction, Loha Mandi to R-Block, New Rajinder Nagar.

The 4.5-km road was last resurfaced in September, 2005. 

New Delhi, December 22
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today alleged before a Delhi court that a man had demanded Rs 5 crore from him to settle a case of disproportionate assets pending against his party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Supreme Court. Singh, 53, appearing before metropolitan magistrate Ashu Garg, alleged that accused Barun Kumar Verma posed himself as a law officer in the union law ministry and demanded money to ensure a favourable order from an apex court judge.

“The accused used to say that he is a law officer in the law and justice ministry and claimed to know justice A.R. Lakshamanan (retired now) and the then union minister H.R. Bhardwaj,” Singh said before the court.

“The accused demanded Rs 5 crore to settle the matter pending in the Supreme Court and get a favourable judgement through son-in-law of justice Lakshamanan,” he added. Singh deposed that he doubted the credibility of accused Barun Kumar Verma and got him arrested after calling the Delhi police commissioner. While Singh was being examined by Verma’s counsel Anoop Kumar Sharma, during the two-hour-long proceedings, the MP lost his cool a number of times.

Anger writ large on his face when the defence counsel Anoop Kumar Sharma asked about his failure to appear before the court on the last date of hearing and his inability to submit records of his medical treatment at Singapore.

In his statement, Singh also related the turn of events leading to the arrest of Verma from his residence here on June 4, 2007.

When the defence counsel asked him as to what he felt after justice Lakshmanan ordered a preliminary enquiry by the CBI on the PIL against Yadav, Singh replied, “I was not hurt by the order passed by justice Lakshmanan. He must have done what he thought was expedient.”

He added, “I respect the judiciary. Dropping names of judiciary and saying nasty things about it and negotiating on behalf of judges is a matter of concern. I reported the matter to the police. I must be complimented for that.”

He also claimed that he lodged a complaint with the police against Verma as the public at large should be aware that somebody tried to ‘malign the image of judiciary and slur the image of politician’.

New Delhi, December 22
Aggrieved over their evaluation and merit-based promotion, thousands of teachers today marched to Parliament to oppose the new system. The promotion has been proposed by the University Grant Commission (UGC) committee on promotion of college teachers.

The teachers, under the banner of Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), demanded “rational criteria” of promotion of teachers that focused on the not just the academic work done by teachers.

“The UGC committee has a negative approach on devising the criteria of how to deny and not to provide opportunities for the teachers,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, president, DUTA. He said the proposed system of UGC would only force sycophancy and weaken the teaching-learning process.

Under the proposed system of promotion of university teachers the UGC’s committee on merit promotion has mentioned certain pre-requisites for promotion.

The committee wants the teacher who is applying for promotion to have accumulated certain points based on academic credibility and experience. Under the new system, three years have been added to the number of years of service required for the promotion to professorship.

Earlier, assistant professors were considered for professorship after eight years, but now they are eligible for promotion only after 12 years.

Under the Academic Progress Report (APR), the teachers would get points based on the number of articles published in journals. For international journals, the teachers would get more points.

The UGC committee asks the vice-chancellor of the university or his nominee to refer the proposal of teacher to at least two experts in the subject concerned. Further, the committee proposed that the report of the experts should be kept confidential and be made available at least three weeks in advance to the selection committee.

“We would ask the UGC not to adopt the system of earning points for promotion as such system lacks the feasibility,” said Sanjay Kumar, vice-president, DUTA.

DU teachers also raised voice against the proposed semester system in the university. “We oppose the dilution of honours courses in DU under the guise of semester system at the undergraduate level,” said Mishra.

The teachers demanded open discussion on feasibility and desirability of semester system in the university.

New Delhi, December 22
Just a week after the nursery admissions process began in the Capital with the promise of being “much smoother” than previous years, complaints have started pouring in from parents about irregularities in different schools. School bodies, however, deny the allegations.

The major complaints of parents are about schools not giving admission to students from economically weaker sections and charging more money for applying than the allowed amount of Rs 25.

Sakshi Sharma, a parent, said: “The education department may have tried to regularise the admissions process but these schools are very smart. The admissions form is supposed to cost Rs 25, but in a few schools some important details like date of submission and others are mentioned only in the prospectus - which you have to buy separately for Rs 250-300.”

“So if I am applying in five-six schools for my child’s admission, I have to pay much more than what the government thinks we ought to,” she said.

Arvind Verma, another parent, said: “Some schools have the online option for form submission, but then that does not give you important details of the process, so you are forced to buy the prospectus.”

The admission process for nursery classes started on December 15 across Delhi and since then the education department has received more than a hundred complaints against various schools.

But the Federation of Public Schools insists the process is smoother this year.

R.P. Mallik, chairman of the Federation, said: “There will always be some or the other kind of small complaint by parents when it comes to their children’s admissions. This time the nursery admissions are much smoother than previous years”.

The Federation of Public Schools has around 300 schools under its ambit

“There are complaints about schools charging more for the admission forms. The thing is that some schools sell their prospectus separately and if you have to buy that and the form, you obviously have to pay more. Therefore, nothing much should be read into these complaints,” said Mallik.

The Delhi government on Monday pulled up four private schools in the city for not following guidelines on nursery admissions.

“Acting on the complaints of parents, the education department has asked four private schools for a reply into the alleged irregularities in the admission process,” an education department official said.

The education department on Saturday warned 19 schools .

However, Mallik said: “The government has no option but to warn schools when a few complaints come. But I don’t think these are very big issues and it is an easy process.”

Hundreds of thousands of children are expected to apply for admissions at the nursery level even as the seats are far fewer. — IANS

New Delhi, December 22
Proving that Metro is a new generation public transport, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) today launched a must-have accessory for its travellers.

The Metro smart cards are now available in the form of key chains for the convenience of commuters who use them every day.

The sleek new ‘smart key chains’ can be used in the same way as normal smart cards to enter and exit Metro stations by swiping on the designated space on the automatic fare collection gates.

DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said the decision to introduce smart key chains was taken as many Metro commuters use cars, two-wheelers or bicycles and normally use key chains which they could now replace with the new devices.

While the Metro smart cards are of the size of credit cards that can be kept in wallets, the smart key chains are much smaller in size (55 millimeter in length, 27 millimeter in breadth and 3 millimeter in thickness) so that they can be easily carried in pockets. The corners of these chains are rounded and the sides tapered so that they do not cause cuts while being taken out.

The cards are made with high-quality plastic and are coated with acrylic resin which makes them unbreakable.

“We have procured 50,000 smart key chains in the first lot and order for more will be placed depending on the demand,” said Dayal.

The smart key chains can be purchased from customer care centres at all Metro stations for Rs 50, which unlike the normal smart cards is non-refundable.

As in the case of normal smart cards, 10 per cent discount on fares will be given on use of smart key chains.

About 15 lakh smart cards are presently in circulation. Among Metro commuters, 55 per cent are smart card users while the rest use tokens.

The Delhi Metro today also launched an identity card for its station managers and controllers authorised to realise penalty from commuters violating rules and regulations on DMRC premises. The ‘Authorised For Penalty’ identity card is in the form of a wallet made of leather with a di-casted DMRC brass logo of 2 inch diametre inside.

Metro officials said station managers and controllers had been authorised to directly impose fines on defaulters from November 2008 and penalty had been imposed on about 3,000 violators since then for offences such as spitting, squatting, nuisance and defacing Metro property.

“There were instances of arguments between the staff and offenders who objected to their imposing fines without any authority proof. The new identity card has been launched to address this issue,” said Dayal.

New Delhi, December 22
The south Delhi police has arrested a teenaged leader of a juvenile gang and his 20-year-old accomplice for ransacking houses in government colonies of south Delhi and then lighting fires inside them.

The teenager and his accomplice Sanjay were arrested yesterday for burglaries and arson in government flats in Sarojini Nagar and in nearby areas.

“In the past few months, there was a spate of burglaries in government flats in and around Sarojini Nagar. A group of minor children was indulged in many such incidents. These juveniles used to set the burgled houses on fire after ransacking them,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south Delhi) H.G.S. Dhaliwal.

He added, “Sanjay had been arrested earlier but the juvenile leader could not be apprehended since 96 his escape from the Children’s Home May 5. The boy had escaped with 34 other juveniles.”

A fortnight earlier, the accused had burgled the house of a defence ministry employee in Laxmibai Nagar when the family was away in Punjab. They then set it on fire.