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Takeover Issue
Enemy Property Matter
Fund crunch should not hit heritage protection: Sheila
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‘Tasteful’ R-Day for JNU students
MCD admits to nexus between staff, parking mafia
Govt to sell food items at cheaper rates
City foggy, though temp up
BJP flays absence of Delhi tableau
Three held for using fake credit cards
18-month child crushed
to death
Varsities closed today due to stir
5 hurt in e-way pile-up
NSUI protests Oz attacks
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MPs cancel DTU visit
Akhila Singh Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 27 Official sources told The Tribune that in the standing committee meeting of the parliamentary committee for education, some members had argued that the visit would only give sanctity to the “takeover” and wanted the visit cancelled. These members reportedly pointed out that the matter needed to be looked into in detail from the point of view of the Delhi University (DU) administration, as the college was earlier affiliated to the university. The committee is headed by Oscar Fernandes and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is also its member. Considered one of the four best engineering colleges of the country, DCE was upgraded on July 1, 2009, as a full-fledged state university through a unanimous decision taken by the Delhi Assembly and it was rechristened as DTU. The state government argued that there was huge scope for the betterment of the college and it was not growing under the DU. It was also mentioned that the upgradation was in conformity with the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission. This move of the state government was resisted by the university administration. The DU Teachers’ Association (DUTA) president Aditya Narayan Mishra said the Yashpal Committee recommendations on higher education suggested that for academic growth of a technical institute, it should be part of a university. The teachers said the decision of parliamentarians to cancel the visit should be welcomed. “The takeover was done without any consideration from the two key decision-making bodies of the university, the executive and academic council,” said Rajib Ray, member of the executive council of DU. He questioned the term “upgraded” which was used in reference to the change in status of the college. “If a college is shifted from a central university to a state university, it could not be called upgraded,” he said. Calling it a “forcible takeover”, Rajeev Kumar of the Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) said the newly established university was only expanding technical education by introducing self-financing courses. He expressed fear at yet another move of the Delhi government to set up a new university with 28 colleges of DU funded by the state government. DU was established under the Central University Act of 1925 and the teachers of the university said a college could only be taken out of it if amendments were made in the Act itself. The vice-chancellor of Delhi University Deepak Pental has also sent a representation regarding the alleged takeover to the Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna.
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Shoaib threatens case against CM
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 27 He said these leaders issued statements that a CBI inquiry had been ordered into the case and gave impressions that he was involved in an illegal construction on the enemy property. On the defensive since the issue hit headlines, Shoaib clearly seemed emboldened by the LG’s statement. Shoaib mustered up courage for the defamation suit following the statement of the Lt-Governor who said that there was no specific proposal to hold a CBI inquiry into the issue. The LG said he had ordered no such inquiry before adding that that there should be no sale and purchase of enemy property in the national Capital. Law bans registry or mutation or general power of attorney in respect of the enemy property. It says the Union government is custodian of these properties. According to sources, the Union home ministry submitted a list of 126 enemy properties to the Delhi government last month after the controversy erupted. Most of the properties were located in the Jama Masjid area, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Civil Lines and Mori Gate. Some of them are occupied by private people and they pay rent to the government while some properties are under the court of law.
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Fund crunch should not hit heritage protection: Sheila
New Delhi, January 27 “At a time when a lot of innovations are taking place in areas like arts, crafts, painting, and architecture for preserving both tangible and intangible heritage, funds should not be a problem, and if need be, the ministry of culture should rise up to the challenge. Even the state governments should be mandated to contribute towards the cause of preservation of heritage,” said Dikshit at a conference at the India International Centre organised by NGO INTACH (India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). The Chief Minister said that Delhi’s rich architecture and greenery needed to be conserved. “With 290 odd monuments notified by the city authority, the task is quite challenging. Habitations have gradually grown around monuments,” she said. Drawing attention towards the controversy over encroachment of Aravalli Range and the desecration caused to Qutab Minar, she said, “Bio-diversity parks are coming up around the Aravallis, but more needs to be done to protect the range from encroachments. Similarly Qutab Minar needs to be protected by erecting railings.” Dikshit said the civil society should come forward and work in collaboration with NGOs for conserving city’s monuments so that Delhi’s history could be brought out in true colours during this year’s CWG. The highlight of the day was introduction of INTACH Indira Gandhi Lifetime Achievement Awards for Conservation of Cultural Heritage 2010. The award was given to six persons— Ebrahim Alkazi, Kapila Vatsyayan, Martand Singh, Rajeev Sethi, O.P. Jain and O.P. Agrawal.
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‘Tasteful’ R-Day for JNU students
New Delhi, January 27 The students tasted rare cuisines of different countries in an International Food Festival organised on the university campus. The distinct features of the festival were food stalls from countries going through political or social conflicts. The food from Palestine and Tibet was a hit with the students. A large number of international students from different parts of the city added colour to the celebrations. “I have come to enjoy genuine Tibetan food here. I am also contributing to the cause of Tibetans,” said Temzin Tsendue, a student of arts. There were total 17 countries that participated in the fair. At the food stall of Palestine, five students had put together a special Biryani. “Food unites people across borders,” said a student serving at the stall adding that he wanted to celebrate the independence day of his country some day. A variety of food from the countries of the former USSR was also on offer at the festival. These countries included Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Russian lemonade with ingredients like pepper and cinnamon stood out as the most popular drink. “I loved fish and kabab platter at the Bangladesh food stall. I had fresh fish in a long time,” said Anna Panda, a former student of the university. The massive turnout was also due to the fact that the JNU hostel mess was closed on the Republic Day. “The students cook special dishes of their countries themselves with the help from other friends and this gives a boost to the friendship across borders,” said Khalid Mohammad from the Foreign Students Association (FSA), the organisers of the festival. |
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MCD admits to nexus between staff, parking mafia
New Delhi, January 27 The chairman of the standing committee of the
MCD, Ramkishan Singhal, today said that the civic body would approach the police commissioner of Delhi to crack down on unauthorised parking sites being run by the parking mafia allegedly in nexus with some traffic policemen and civic body staff. Presenting the budget estimates for 2010-11 at a meeting of the MCD House, Singhal said a large number of parking sites functioning under its jurisdiction were illegal. “These are being run in connivance with some staff of the Delhi police, traffic police and
MCD. We would directly approach the police commissioner to curb the parking mafia,” said
Singhal. He also alleged that the some of these illegal parking sites were being run in areas where the traffic police did not allow the MCD to operate parking lots. “If we can crack down on parking mafia, the MCD will be able to earn additional Rs 200 crore,” he said. There are approximately 800 authorised and unauthorised parking sites in Delhi for about 53 lakh
vehicles. Singhal also said that to increase its revenue, the MCD would appeal to the Centre to allow sanctioning of building plans after sub-division of plots, provision for which is not there in the building by-laws at present. He also demanded the Delhi government to provide Rs 180 crore to the MCD under municipal reform fund. |
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Govt to sell food items at cheaper rates
New Delhi, January 27 Currently, sugar is
available between Rs 45 and Rs 50, pulses at Rs 64 to Rs 100 and wheat
flour Rs 20 per kg. Delhi food supplies minister Haroon Yusuf
confirmed that the government would sell pulses, rice, edible oil, sugar
and other daily use commodities from Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar outlets at cheaper rates. He added that NAFED would
supply food items to the government and then the government would supply those to the outlets after monitoring them. Yusuf said that the government had been selling flour at cheaper rate from Kendriya Bhandar outlets. Private mills are selling a 10-kg flour bag between Rs 180 and Rs 200 but the Delhi government is providing it at Rs 139. Residents in areas like— Jamia Nagar, Delhi Secretariat and a few other places go to Kendriya Bhandar outlets to purchase flour. Sources said that at some places local shopkeepers also purchase flour at controlled rates from Kendriys Bhandar outlets and then sell in the open market at higher rates. Food and supplies department commissioner-cum-secretary Jayashree Raghuraman along with other senior officials had a meeting with NAFED officials to work out the modalities of rates, number commodities and outlets to sell them. |
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City foggy, though temp up
New Delhi, January 27 Fog that started descending on the city late last night brought down the general visibility near zero. According to sources, around 54 flights were cancelled and 31 flights, including three international flights were diverted at Indira Gandhi International Airport. “The low visibility landing procedures had to be activated owing to poor visibility that dropped near zero at 5:30 am and remained below 50 meters for hours. It improved to 100 meters around 9 am,” said an official at the airport. Besides, rail services were also badly hit. More than 100 train schedules were disrupted.“Nearly 45 trains were rescheduled and over 50 stood cancelled. Another 45 to 50 trains were running behind schedule,” said a Northern Railway official. “Muri Express and Udhyanadbha Toofan Express were delayed by more than 20 hours. While Bhatinda-Delhi Express was running 13 hours behind schedule, Kalindi Express was 22 hours late,” he informed. The weather department attributed the fog to moisture in the atmosphere. The maximum temperature recorded today was 24.5 degrees Celsius against yesterday’s 22.8 degrees Celsius. While the minimum settled at 9.8 degrees Celsius against yesterday’s 9.4 degrees Celsius.The weatherman has predicted similar conditions for tomorrow as well with dense fog in morning hours. However, the fog is likely to give way to clear skies later in the day. While the minimum temperature is expected to jump to 11 degrees Celsius, the maximum is expected to hover around 25 degrees Celsius. |
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BJP flays absence of Delhi tableau
New Delhi, January 27 Taking a dig at the government, Malhotra said the Delhi government did not have any notable achievement in the last couple of years that could be shown in the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath. “It is a matter of disgrace that the procession took place in the heart of the country, but without the cultural depiction of the Capital,” Malhotra said He went on to add that the Delhi government had failed on every front; be it power, basic amenities, traffic management or drinking water. “People are forced to live in pitiable condition without water and power supply in various areas. Traffic jams have become a regular feature. Further, Yamuna is getting dirtier day by day and the incidences of crime are rising,” said the Opposition leader. |
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Three held for using fake credit cards
Noida, January 27 According to superintendent of police (city) A. K. Tripathi, the accused persons prepared cloned credit cards and used them to buy goods or withdraw money. They have confessed to have withdrawn over Rs 15 lakh.” “The accused men used to collect details of credit and debit cards from Internet and would then clone cards. They had also formed an e-ticketing company and used the fake cards to book e-tickets,” said Tripathi. The superintendent of police added, “They were arrested on the basis of electronic surveillance after the police received several complaints against them.” “The arrested accused were living in the Sector-12 area of Noida. They hailed from Arnia. Fake credit and debit cards, laptops, digital recorder and a DVD player have been recovered from them,” said Tripathi. |
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18-month child crushed
to death
New Delhi, January 27 In the first incident, a one and half-year-old Pooja was crushed to death in Aman Vihar area of outer Delhi around 5 pm when she was going to her house with her mother. “A Maruti car hit Pooja’s mother Smita. The impact was such that Pooja fell from her lap and came under the car’s wheels. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was declared brought dead, while the driver of the car managed to flee,” said a police official. In another incident, an 18-year-old boy was crushed by an unidentified vehicle around 2:30 pm in the Sector-22 area of Rohini. “The victim Ashok was walking towards his workplace in Mazara village. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. Ashok, native of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, had been lived on a rented accommodation in the Aman Vihar area,” said a police officer. The police said investigations were on to nab the errant drivers. Cases have been registered for rash and negligent driving. |
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Varsities closed today due to stir
New Delhi, January 27 The teachers are protesting against the alleged negative conditions proposed in the Regulation on Service Conditions reportedly passed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Association (FEDCUTA) president Aditya Narayan Misra said after prolonged negotiations with the UGC, concrete assurance was given to the teachers to introduce amendments in the proposed document. The teachers would also demonstrate outside the Ministry of Human Resource Development on January 29. |
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5 hurt in e-way pile-up
Noida, January 27 A dumper truck was hit by a truck which was in turn hit by three cars one after the other. The cars got badly damaged. The accident site was cleared by cranes. Eyewitnesses said there was zero visibility when the accidents took place. The injured Anil, Ramesh and others were discharged after first aid. |
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NSUI protests Oz attacks
New Delhi, January 27 Holding placards and raising slogans against the Australian government, angry protestors tried to march towards the high commission, but were stopped by the police. |
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Mobile vans launched
New Delhi, January 27 |
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