New Delhi, February 8
Evening showers and poor traffic management after the end of a big rally in Ramlila Grounds led to major traffic jams in several parts of the Capital with its worst impact felt in the New Delhi district.

Police officials said traffic ground to a halt in Connaught Place, DND flyover, ITO, Outer and Inner Ring Road, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Vikas Marg and even in Meethapur, Shankar Road and Iskon Road.

As thousands of people left the rally venue, traffic cops were struggling hard to manage the traffic and things became unmanageable as the rains lashed the city.

"We were out in full strength and the crisis started easing after 9 pm when the rains stopped. The jam in the city is primarily due to rains but the rally was also to blame," said a senior traffic police official from the New Delhi area.

As a result, commuters returning home after the office hours were struck in the jam for hours. Many commuters said travelling time stretched to two hours for a short distance of 4 km.

"It took me close to two hours to reach ITO from Ranjeet Nagar flyover in New Delhi today," said Vijay Vohra, a commuter. Similar tales were heard from thousands of commuters returning home.

New Delhi, February 8
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today said that the mobile towers erected over schools, hospitals and dispensaries would be removed immediately.

However, those installed in other areas like residential apartments and commercial places will stay, at least for now. The move has been taken on the recommendations of the report compiled by a sub-committee specially constituted to look into the matter.

“The mobile towers set up on the top of hospitals, schools and dispensaries will have to be removed given the sensitive status of the building. These buildings cater to the requirements of small children and people who are fighting with diseases. As they can be vulnerable to the radiations emitted by them, towers will not be allowed at such places,” said Meera Aggrawal, councillor and chairman of the sub-committee.

According to the MCD’s new report on tower, the radiations emitted from it can be harmful if people are constantly exposed to them.

Therefore, the MCD has also decided to give preference to those places for setting up towers which are visited by people for less time like markets, shopping places, government buildings, etc.

Though the applications of 1,600 mobile towers for grant of licence out of a total of 2,517 illegal towers in the city are still pending with the corporation.

The officials said that they have to apply afresh following the new guidelines.

The civic body held a special meeting today to give final shape to the policy on mobile towers.

The report will be introduced in the meeting of standing committee for approval tomorrow. 

New Delhi, February 8
Beleaguered parents whose wards could not make it to the first list for nursery admissions now have hope, as many schools are planning to release a second list subject to the availability of seats after completion of the first list admissions.

Renu Leuria, principal of S.R. DAV School, Dayanand Vihar, says, “Parents whose children could not get through the first list need not worry, for there is hope. Many seats remain untaken even after completion of admissions on the basis of first list due to withdrawals. This gives an opportunity to the parents whose wards’ names are on the waiting list.”

Most parents apply in as many as 10 schools and their children get selected for some of them. But when they get a seat at a school of their first or second choice, they withdraw their claims from smaller schools. This gives an opportunity for children who are on the wait list.

A teacher from Gyan Bharati School says, “The first list was announced sometime back, but we expect that at least 35-40 per cent of the seats will ultimately remain vacant due to withdrawals. Parents need not worry so much, as there will be a second list.”

Admissions after withdrawals would be done on the basis of the point system and many schools will keep in mind the directorate of education’s (DOE) recent directive of not giving any weightage to educational and professional qualifications of the parents.

Another teacher from Gyan Bharati School says, “Our school follows a 100-point system and points are awarded for factors like sibling-presence in the school, alumni, neighbourhood factor and girl child. We are taking care not to give any points to parents’ educational qualifications and professions.”

A teacher from Birla Vidya Niketan at Pushp Vihar says, “The first round of admissions is over. We have a wait list of 50 names and are expecting as many seats to fall vacant after withdrawals. At least 30-35 seats should fall vacant and based on it we will open the second round of admissions.

Quiet understandingly, therefore, the distressed parents are pinning all hopes on the second list. 

New Delhi, February 8
Unlike its prior editions, the 19th Delhi World book fair this time saw record-breaking sales and bigger participation—both of the publishing industry and book lovers, organisers say.

Not just the private and international publications, even Indian publications, including Hindi and other languages, made good profits. The children books also recorded a jump of 20 to 30% in their sales, said publishers at the children’s pavilion.

“The fair was the best and the biggest compared to its previous editions. The level of participation was more than what we expected. Most publications have confirmed to us record-breaking sales. But more than sales, I think the fair reached out to book lovers in a big manner. The fair this time drew more visitors,” said NBT director Nuzhat Hassan.

She said NBT has also recorded a 100% increase in sales against the last edition. Given the limitations like space crunch and tight resources, the fair managed to create “new synergy with events, literary symposiums and interface woven around books,” she said.

Just yesterday, at the concluding ceremony, the fair’s organizer National Book Trust’s director Bipin Chandra had said that in terms of sales, the fair had broken past records.

However, when it comes to the business raked in by Indian publishers, the claims from the organisers at National book Trust (NBT) and several individual publishers differ. While several Indian publishers say they have even failed to recover their stall rents, the NBT officials claim otherwise.

“A few publishers may have had poor business. It needed to be addressed on an individual level and not associated with the success of the fair at large. Some earned more, some less. The pattern may change the next time,” said an NBT official.

Most publications indulged in cutting PR tactics to attract maximum crowds. From calling authors like Chetan Bhagat and Ruskin Bond to interact with book readers to offering tempting discounts and freebies, the publications did it all.

According to Vidut from Penguin publishers, this year the fair succeeded in achieving its prime purpose, “branding”.

“Such an event is the ideal place to launch new books. With young people looking for books by new writers, the fair has been a definite hit. This year at the World Book Fair, we have registered an incredible 100 per cent improvement in the sales figures,” he said.

Gurgaon, February 8
Gurgaon will soon have a better road network and public transport system.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said this while addressing a gathering here today. He said while the cyber city had already been connected with Delhi through the Metro rail, there were proposals of connecting other parts of Gurgaon with Indira Gandhi International Airport through Metro.

“To improve connectivity and augment the public transport system in Gurgaon, we have readied a project based on the public-private partnership model to run 750 low-floor intra-city buses, of which about 150 will start plying soon,” he added.

He maintained that a survey was being conducted to regularise illegal colonies.He said 13 such colonies in Gurgaon had been covered, while the survey of 38 colonies would soon be completed.

On a demand put forth by Haryana minister of state for agriculture and cooperation Sukhbir Kataria, the Chief Minister announced the construction of a community centre in Sector 12, repair of primary health centre at Gurgaon village located in the heart of the city and naming two roads of the village after freedom fighters Dayakishan Kataria and Kartar Singh Kataria.

He announced that the road from NH-8 to Sheetla Mata Mandir would be named as Sheetla Mata Road.

He dedicated two railway over-bridges (ROBs) constructed at a cost of Rs 42 crore. One ROB is built over on the Daulatabad railway crossing and the other is on the Basai railway crossing.

Hooda also unveiled a huge statue of Lord Shiva on the premises of Sheetla Mata Mandir here. He also planted a sapling on the temple premises.

Ghaziabad, February 8
The Ghaziabad police on Sunday morning rescued three children allegedly abducted from Delhi and Azamgarh and kept at a servant quarter in Kavi Nagar Colony, here.

The police arrested one person for illegally confining these children to captivity for three years. He has been identified as Vijay, a rickshaw-puller hailing from Balabhgarh in Haryana. He used to stay at the servant quarter of an NRI’s bungalow and is the leader of the rickshaw-pullers of the area.

The children were being made to work at dhabaas. They were also being sodomised at night, said DIG Akhil Kumar.

The raid was based on information received by the police. Some people on Saturday night informed the police that they heard cries of some children from the servant quarter of bungalow no. 44 at Kavi Nagar.

When the police reached the place on Sunday morning, a suspicious-looking man opened the door of the quarter. Three children were also found there.

When questioned, Vijay admitted that he had abducted the children from Delhi and Azamgarh. He said that during the day he used to send them to eateries for washing and cleaning utensils and in the night, sodomised them.

The rescued children have identified as Amit (9), abducted from Azamgarh, and Deepak (7) and Rahul (6) abducted from Delhi.

Noida, February 8
Three persons lost their life and 23 others were injured in five accidents in 24 hours here.

A truck laden with iron rods parked in middle of a road caused the death of 27-year-old Abhishek, son of a former Himachal Pradesh minister Kanwar Singh. The victim’s Accent car reportedly run into the truck on Maha Maya Flyover.

In another incident, a biker who met with an accident on DND two days ago, also breathed his last in a city hospital yesterday.

SP (city) Ashok Kumar Tripathy said in other three cases yesterday six persons were injured. Two of them are serious.

One accident was reported from NTPC crossing. Om Pal Sharma of Chaura village was coming from Greater Noida on his bike when he got hit by an unknown vehicle and lost his life.

In two other accidents that took place under Surajpur and Kasna Kotwali areas, 17 persons were injured who were rushed to different hospitals by the police.

A Tata-407 from Dadri to Surajpur was carrying vegetables and some passengers. The Tata-407 reportedly overturned near Telpata village. About a dozen persons travelling in it were injured.