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The homeless shiver, long for a night shelter
Strict traffic norms needed to reduce fatalities, say experts
Crane falls on cars, none hurt
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51% of Delhi women feel they are obese
One in 10 women may get breast cancer
3rd anniversary of the gruesome killings
Metro set to take rapid strides in New Year
MCD fumes over govt’s toll tax proposal
Fog claims one life in Noida
12-year-old kidnapped boy murdered
3 mishaps claim 2 lives
Delhi sees one more H1N1 death
Clarification
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The homeless shiver, long for a night shelter
New Delhi, December 29 This time the homeless of the city have been provided with 24 night shelters as against 42 last year, sources say. However, not a single shelter has been set up for women and children. Officials say that the MCD has 17 night shelters and seven converted community centres during winter. The Development Commissioner’s office sets up temporary camps. Around eight shelters are arranged by Action Aid NGO - Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA). The shelters put up by the MCD are open for 12 hours during the night while some arranged by the NGOs are open for 24 hours. “Presently, the condition of the night shelters is really bad. They are overcrowded or not managed properly. They are not even airproof,” says a social activist who frequently visits the homeless. He added, “The condition is so terrible that on Sunday night when I visited a shelter near old Delhi, I stood for 4 hours and there was just no place to sit.” An estimated 1 lakh people are living on streets. Of them, roughly 5 per cent use the shelters during night. The reason behind this is the poor number of night shelters which results in their overcrowding, says Ashok, an activist linked to an NGO working for the homeless in Delhi. The approved plan scheme, “Construction Management and Control of Night Shelters”, implemented by the Slum and JJ Department is funded by the Delhi government on year-to-year basis. An amount of Rs 60 lakh has been approved for the scheme for the year 2009-10, confirmed Deep Mathur, MCD DPRO. “It is really sad to know that even after the authorities are funded so heavily, it is not helping the poor homeless. The condition of tents and temporary shelters is poorer than the previous year,” said Pawan Jha, an NGO worker. Shyam Mangal, a caretaker of a night shelter near the Nizamuddin, said, “Despite knowing that a number of people who live in the shelter can afford their own arrangements, I can’t stop them from staying here.” For Rs 6 a night, these shelters probably offer the cheapest accommodation in town. So even those who can afford a stay somewhere else, choose these shelters. “Cold waves are an annual feature in north India and so are the frozen bodies of homeless people. Sadly, not much is done for them,” regretted Sunny Rastogi, a resident of Mayur
Vihar. |
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Strict traffic norms needed to reduce fatalities, say experts
New Delhi, December 29 India loses a major chunk of its productive populace to accidents and the Capital alone registers 2,000 fatalities annually. “The major reasons behind the alarming figures of road traffic accidents (RTAs) in India are rash driving, driving without helmets and ‘unfriendly’ vehicles. In the country, 33% of the casualties resulting from RTAs are due to the heavy vehicles plying on the cities’ major arteries and 25 per cent are those involving two-wheelers,” said the chief of Trauma Centre of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Mahesh C Misra. In the US where the number of vehicles moving on roads is much higher, each year 42,000 people fall victim to road accidents. Detailing further, five people die each hour in the US against 13 in India and the ratio for those injured and dying due to RTAs stand at 69:1 and 13:1 for the US and India respectively. Adding that the dismal practice of not using helmets in cities like Delhi and Chandigarh has contributed to the rising incidence of deaths due to RTAs, Dr Mahesh outlined, “One-third of the total number of cases involving two-wheelers succumb to their injuries. Further, 25 per cent of those with head injuries are women and children, who travel as pillion riders without any helmet.” According to experts, enforcement of strong traffic rules can prevent the loss of productive lives as a major chunk of people who lose their lives to road accidents are young. In this context, Dr Mahesh said Coimbatore’s latest step of introducing helmets for pillion riders has been of little use because of its optional nature. “Wearing of helmets should be made mandatory in entire India as trauma services consume three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product,” he asserted. Another aspect significantly behind the high number of deaths due to head injuries is the lack of trained neuro-healthcare professionals and limited number of ambulances of the Centralised Ambulance and Trauma Services. Sources say that only 30.56 per cent of the total cases of RTAs are able to access the CATs services during the golden hour (for India, it is one hour) and one-third die due to lack of timely medical intervention. While another one-third of those who fail to reach the hospital during the golden hour end up being disabled. The executive director of Indian Head Injury Foundation, Dr Rajendra Prasad said that patient is left to live with lifelong disabilities, particularly in cases of traumatic neural injuries and hence for complete recovery of such patients, comprehensive neuro-rehabilitation is essential. But as of now, the country seems to be lacking in the area as it is an expensive proposition, calling for a 24 into 7 specialsed services (physiotherapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, psychologist, social worker and neurologist). |
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Crane falls on cars, none hurt
New Delhi, December 29 According to the police, the incident took place around 9 am and no one was injured. “The accident took place in the Badarpur area of south Delhi when a crane at a six-lane flyover construction site toppled and fell on the cars passing underneath. The incident led to traffic jam for some time. However, no one was injured,” confirmed the police. Woman hangs self
A 30-year-old married woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in the Aman Vihar area of outer Delhi, last night. The woman, Neeta Jha, took the extreme step after a fight with her husband, Swadesh Jha, earlier in the day. “Neeta was discovered hanging by her husband in their house in Nithari village, late last night. According to her husband, the two had an argument when he did not allow Neeta to visit her sister. Later in the night, she hanged herself,” said the police. The police is investigating the matter, while no suicide note was discovered from the deceased. Neeta is originally from Chappra (Bihar) and the two got married about eight years ago. 2 held for cheating
The south district police has arrested two freelance commission agents and financers who allegedly duped an automobile company by submitting forged papers for taking delivery of a Scorpio vehicle. According to the police, the two accused have been identified as Ankur Sharma (35) and Ravinder Kumar Raghav (31), residents of Ghaziabad and Gurgaon, respectively. The Scorpio vehicle which they had taken after submitting fake papers has been recovered from their possession. |
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51% of Delhi women feel they are obese
New Delhi, December 29 The survey found majority of working women to be having irregular eating routine, thanks to the quick-to-have and at-your-doorstep junk food services. Consequently, the problems of obesity and diabetes have been haunting these women. The findings contrast the notion that women in metros are very conscious about their lifestyles. The study covered over 809 women aged between 18 and 50 years in four metros—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Among the respondents, 40 per cent of the women in Kolkata, 39 per cent in Mumbai and 26 per cent in Chennai feel that they are obese and overall 39 per cent of the respondents feel they are overweight. According to medical experts, people should resort to healthy ways of weight management than going for fake and attractive body-trimming packages which recommend rigorous dieting without proper supplements. The director of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Diabetes Foundation of India, Rekha Sharma, said weight reduction should be taken holistically. This is particularly significant given the fact that India is sitting on a diabetes time bomb which is ticking fast, and the onset of obesity increases the chances of diabetes. The report points out that majority of the respondents practiced unplanned dieting and unguided exercising regime. It further says that of the surveyed women, 53 per cent had unhealthy and irregular eating habits and 52 per cent hardly did any regular exercises. |
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One in 10 women may get breast cancer
New Delhi, December 29 To further the message, ROKO Cancer, an NGO, has started a fully equipped mobile breast cancer detection unit and screened nearly 200 women today at a camp—“Together we can fight cancer”, held at Guru Singh Sabha in Maharani Bagh. During the session, women were apprised of self-breast examination and the significance of early detection by many doctors as affirmative action on the advised lines could help in stemming the rise in cancer rates along with preventing at least a third of cases. Senior oncologist Dr Siddharth Sahni, associated with Cancer Research Foundation India, said most of the cases of women go unreported given the lack of awareness on screening, which should start when a woman is 35 or above. In India, over 50 per cent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer do not survive for more than 5 years due to late presentation and the commonest stages seen in metros like Delhi are late stage 2 and stage 3 when they are no longer curable. |
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3rd anniversary of the gruesome killings
Noida, December 29 The havan was performed behind the bungalow from where skulls and bones were recovered. Anticipating trouble, additional police force was deployed around D-5, known as the house of horror, to check any untoward incident. Those who took part in the havan included former MLA Nawab Singh, Garh MLA Madan Chauhan, SP leader Ashok Chauhan, Congress leader Kripa Ram Sharma, social workers S.C. Mishra and Usha Thakur. The investigation is being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has filed 16 chargesheets so far. Total 19 cases have been registered. In one of the 19 cases, which relate to the killing of a girl named Rimpa Haldar, the CBI court had given death sentences to Pandher and his servant Surender Koli. Interestingly, the CBI had not named Pandher as an accused in this case. But the CBI court took suo motto cognizance and included Pandher as an accused. However, the Pandher family later moved the Allahabad High Court against the sentence, which acquitted Pandher but upheld Koli’s death sentence. The families of the victims are not happy with the way the CBI has been probing the case. They blame that the investigation agency is helping Pandher. “We will not rest till Pandher gets death sentence,” said Pappu Lal, father of one of the victims. “The CBI has spoiled the case and has acted only to save Pandher. It has recorded only the evidences which help him. We will fight till we get justice,” he added. |
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Metro set to take rapid strides in New Year
New Delhi, December 29 Talking to The Tribune, the officials said 2009 was “eventful” as far as Metro’s expansion was concerned while consequent accidents kept the organisation on its toes. “A spate of accidents kept us busy this year one after the other, but we always bounced back with all our strength,” said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson, DMRC. A series of accidents marked the year 2009 for Delhi Metro. On July 11, a Metro overhead bridge collapsed killing six persons at Zamrudpur construction site. The accident invited wrath for DMRC from all corners giving a big blow to the organisation considered most efficient in the country. While the government was still convincing the Metro chief E.Sreedharan to take back his resignation; in yet another accident, six labourers were injured at the same site after two cranes toppled over. This was followed by a sequence of tragedies at construction sites forcing the corporation to formulate a committee to conduct a thorough check into all cantilevers constructed in phase II. On a positive note, this year saw the Metro lines going beyond the national Capital for the first time to Noida. The year saw 21.56 km being added to the network as part of phase II. While the 6.36-km Vishwavidyalaya to Jahangirpuri section opened to the public in February, services on the 2.1-km Indraprastha to Yamuna Bank section started in May. Delhi Metro also added 13 trains to its stable, with the number increasing from 70 to 83. “The coming year is going to be momentous for the Metro. Each month a new section is scheduled to be opened while measures would be taken to stabilise the existing lines,” said senior officials in DMRC. The corporation is also going to increase the number of its staff to the double. “We have enrolled hundreds of new staff who are undergoing training right now, they would also be accommodated into DMRC next year,” he said. According to the sources, the number of DMRC staff would become double next year from 4,000 to 8,000. |
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MCD fumes over govt’s toll tax proposal
New Delhi, December 29 The leaders of the BJP-led corporation today said the announcement was an unauthorised attempt to interfere in the constitutional domain of the MCD. They said that levying toll tax fell under the jurisdiction of the MCD and not the city government. “The toll tax falling under Section 113 (2) of the DMC Act, 1957 can be levied at the discretion of the MCD after following procedure as laid down under Section 109 of the Act. The tax is levied for carrying out the provisions of the Act and the betterment of the city and not as deterrent for people coming to the national Capital for their work as it is their constitutional right,” said Vijender Gupta, a BJP leader and ex-chairman of the standing committee. The MCD’s annual budget proposal, already presented by the municipal commissioner for 2010-2011, does not contain any such proposal. The actual income against the toll tax in 2008-2009 was Rs 163.23 crore. It is estimated to be Rs 187.41 crore in 2009-2010 and Rs 192.41 crore in 2010-2011. “Every year, the corporation in its annual budget determines the rates at which various municipal taxes, rates and cess will be levied in the following years. It is for the MCD to consider levying of any tax,” he said. |
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Some relief as temp eases
New Delhi, December 29 The dip was largely welcomed after the numbing temperatures in the past few days since the Christmas Eve. Just yesterday, the city experienced a heavy layer of fog. After dipping to the season’s lowest at 5.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday, the temperature has been rising gradually for the past two days. The weatherman has predicted a further rise in the day temperature, with the minimum temperature likely to settle around 7 degrees Celsius. “There is a possibility of shallow fog in the morning tomorrow, but the sky will remain clear during the day,” an official at the India Meteorological Department said. The visibility on Tuesday dropped to 400 meters at 7.30 am, but there were no reports of flights being delayed. Whether the temperatures will dip on the New Year’s Eve is a wait-and-watch game. |
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Fog claims one life in Noida
Noida, December, 29 “Some Bulandshahar residents were going to Delhi via the Noida- Greater Noida Expressway. Near the trade tax check-post in Sakipur, their Maruti car that was reportedly running at a high speed dashed into a truck. The collision reportedly took place due to poor visibility caused by fog. One person died on the spot, while three injured were admitted at Sharda Hospital,” said D. K. Walliyan, SHO, Kasna. “The deceased was identified as Salimullah Khan (55). The injured were identified as Janab Khan, Yusuf Khan and Imanullah Khan. All were members of the same family. They were going for Mohurram celebration when the accident took place,” said
Walliyan. |
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12-year-old kidnapped boy murdered
New Delhi, December 29 The duo was arrested yesterday and the body of the boy was discovered at their instance from Hapur Road in Bulandshahar district. According to the police, the boy was kidnapped on Saturday evening by the accused— Vasi-Ur-Rehman Ansari (20) and Mohammad Fahim (23)—from the Jhengirpuri area of north-west Delhi. They later killed him for fear of arrest as he could have recognised them. According to information, Raj Bahadur Singh, a resident of A- Block, Jehangirpuri, had on December 27 reported at the Mahendra Park police station that his son Karandeep (12) had been kidnapped by Ansari, who was working as glass fitter in his house. On interrogation, Ansari disclosed that he along with his accomplice Mohd. Fahim kidnapped Karandeep from his house for ransom. “He disclosed that they murdered Karandeep because they feared that he would recognise them. He said that the boy’s body was thrown in an open area near Hapur bypass, Bulandshar Road,” said N.S. Bundela, DCP (NW). |
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3 mishaps claim 2 lives
New Delhi, December 28 A man, whose identity could not be established, was killed in the Dhaula Kuan area last night when a speeding truck hit his scooter. The man was killed on the spot. The police believes him to be an army man on the basis of a jacket that he was wearing. In another incident, a Delhi Metro guard was killed while another injured when a taxi hit them in the Mehrauli area of south Delhi. The deceased has been identified as Manish (39). The victims were crushed by a speeding Innova car. The driver of the car has been arrested and booked for death due to negligence. The third accident happened in the in Akshardham area of east Delhi where three car-borne men were injured when their car hit a divider, last night. According to the police, the men were under the influence of alcohol and several beer bottles were found in the car. The driver of the car has been booked for drunken driving. Man shoots self
A 40-year-old man shot himself in east Delhi, last night. According to the police, Sandeep Singh lived in the Hargobind Vihar area along with wife Poonam and a 13-year-old son. He shot himself by his licensed revolver around 11:45 pm. The police has not recovered any suicide note from the deceased, but business losses is being purported as the reason behind the extreme step. |
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Delhi sees one more H1N1 death
New Delhi, December 29 The details of the victim are not known, she added. With the death, the cumulative toll of people giving in to the virus in the Capital has gone up to 68. Meanwhile, the city recorded 62 fresh H1N1infections, including 18 children. Now, the total number of victims of the viral disease in Delhi has become 9,260. |
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