New Delhi, February 20
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is likely to constitute a committee to develop the Muslim-dominated North East district in Delhi.

The Chief Minister has called a meeting of deputy commissioner (North-East), revenue department, Delhi Minorities Commission and principal secretary (home) of the Delhi government to discuss the proposal to start developmental works in the district.

The North East district is one of the 90 most backward Muslim-dominated districts listed by the Union government-appointed Sachchar Committee. The committee was constituted by the Union government to find out the status of the Muslims in the country. Based on its report, the Centre has made a plan to develop these districts and bring the Muslim community at par with other communities.

The Union government has been sanctioning Rs 40 crore every year since 2007 for the development of the district.

The secretary of the National Minorities Commission in 2007 wrote letters to the secretaries of various states, including Delhi, to implement the government scheme and submit a proposal to develop these districts. But, according to sources, the Delhi government has not yet submitted its proposal to develop the area.

According to Jai Prakash Agarwal, president, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, the Union government sanctioned Rs 40 crore every year for the development of the district, but the sanction lapsed because the city government did not submit its development proposal.

Agarwal added that the sanction for this year was also likely to lapse. “The first meeting on the issue will be held on February 23, after which some time will go into constituting the committee and preparing the proposal. By the time the government completes the formalities, the financial year will be over,” he said.

New Delhi, February 20
Indian schools seem to be coming of age environmentally and the real action in environment activism is not happening in the elite, upmarket schools but rather it is the semi-urban and middle-rung schools that have donned the mantle of being ‘green schools’.

This was revealed in an environmental audit of schools, undertaken by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

On the basis of this audit, the Centre for Science and Environment on Saturday conferred the ‘green school awards’ on schools that excelled in their natural resource management. Out of the 20 national awards, six have gone to Delhi schools and nine to semi-urban and rural schools. The awards were given away by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and film personality Sharmila Tagore.

Among this year’s winners are St Georges School at Alaknanda in Delhi, DAV Public School of Panipat and Anubhuti School of Jalgaon, Maharashtra. Around 5,000 schools from across India participated in CSE’s green school programme. These schools carried out a rigorous self-audit on environmental practices like water-harvesting, recycling of garbage, plantation of trees.

The CSE examined the schools exhaustively for green programmes and then short-listed them for the awards.

Sheila Dikshit commented, “The time has come to start doing what we think; to practise what we preach. There are signs of a change whether it is water harvesting in the city or garbage recycling or children playing Holi without chemical colours.”

Dikshit said that schools should encourage students to cycle or walk to school and not come by bus or cars. Plans were also under way to build cycle tracks across the Capital, she added.

Some of the awarded schools have cultivated impressive environmental practices. Take the case of Salwan Public School in Gurgaon which has registered a remarkable change by discarding transportation in cars and buses and commuting through cycles or walking.

St Georges School at Alaknanda which bagged the top prize has done quite well in water management practices. The school reuses its grey water to irrigate its play fields and green areas and also has a rainwater harvesting system.

Deepalaya, a Kalkaji-based school won an award for its balanced land use policy. Jalgaon’s Anubhuti School sources almost 15% of its energy from solar power, using it for water heaters, streetlights and cooking.

New Delhi, February 20
A section of Delhi University (DU) teachers today condemned human resource development minister Kapil Sibal’s statement that allegedly indicated that there was no need to pay the private schoolteachers at par with the government schoolteachers.

The teachers alleged that the minister while addressing private school principals recently stated that the private school owners were free to run the education business the way they wanted.

“What he recommends is running private school business by delivering poor quality of education to the students who are paying high fees because of the crumbling government school system,” said Shawati Majumdar, president, Democratic Teachers’ Federation (DTF).

“It is not surprising that Sibal did not press these principals to allocate 25 per cent of their seats for the students of poor sections,” said Majumdar, who is former president of DU Teachers’ Association (DUTA).

Talking in context of implementing semester system in the central universities, the teachers alleged that it was being done to facilitate profit making through higher education.

“The government has been pressurising all educational institutions to adopt similar academic calendars,” said Rajeev Kumar Kunwar, secretary, DTF.

The teachers alleged that the government was not paying heed to the contention of university teachers that the introduction of semester system would adversely affect these educational institutes of high repute.

New Delhi, February 20
A two-day fruit, vegetable and flower show today began at Gulmohar Park Club in south Delhi. Organised by All India Kitchen Garden Association (AIKGA), the show was inaugurated by Dr Mohini Giri, an activist. 

“More than 12,000 varieties of plants, fruit and vegetables, including ornamental plants, will be on display during the show. This includes herbal plants, roses, hanging plants and potted plants,” said Bella Gupta, secretary, AIKGA.

Apart from members of the AIKGA, the other participants include government organisations liken Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Public Works Department (PWD).

The theme of the show this year is ‘Colour and Aroma’.

“The focus is on food preservation and nutrition. A number of competitions have also been organized for the visitors. These include arranging cut flowers into a beautiful bouquet to hanging basket competition, tray-landscape of bonsai and nutrition recipe contest,” said Bella Gupta.

Union minister of state for home Ajay Maken along with his wife will give away prizes to the winners of various contests tomorrow, she added.

A three-day Garden Tourism Festival was also inaugurated yesterday by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit which showcased a collection of native plants, colourful flowerbeds and bulbous plants in the midst of lush green lawn. 

New Delhi, February 20
A group of seven former child labourers on Saturday kicked off a week-long sensitisation drive against the evil of child labour. The campaign involves mediums like street plays and theatre.

A part of the theatre group, Mukti Caravan, the children are all above the age of 18 and have been rescued by the child rights organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in the past.

“All the seven members of the group are boys who have been rescued from different places like dhabas and factory units in the Capital by BBA. They were then sent to school and given shelter by us. They later decided to stay on with us and take up the role of an activist to spread their message against child labour through theatre,” Umesh Gupta of BBA said.

The first stop of the group will be in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi where they will perform a street play at Good Things, a store that promotes child labour free products.

Besides sensitising people, the campaign will try and encourage people to sign online petitions asking the government to enforce child labour laws more strictly. — IANS

New Delhi, February 20
The Master Plan Delhi 2021 calls for environment assessment before any new project or upgradation of the extant infrastructure. However, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) hardly seem to care about it.

Currently, the civic body and the land holding agency are covering many drains for converting them into parking lots, green spaces or walkways and in the process the drain beds and sides are being concretised, which is worrying the nature experts.

Sunahari Drain, near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, a venue for the CWG, and the Kushak Drain, which flows from Andrew Ganj through Defence Colony and then joins the Brapulla Drain are two such examples. Heading towards multi-utility, the former would see a parking centre for 400 buses over it and the latter would have green space overhead.

According to Manoj Misra of NGO Peace Institute Charitable Trust, concretisation of drain beds is actually an invitation to disaster, given the fact that it would restrict the percolation of water through the soil, consequently affecting the groundwater table.

However, sources said, both the agencies, responsible for the construction, have discussed the issue with the officials of the governor’s office and they contended that as the drains carry polluted water, which is not fit for consumption, the beds could be concretised.

Misra explained concretisation is against the norms of hydrology and during the process of seepage, water gets cleansed through natural process when it passes through the layers of soil and solid pollutants in course are left at the top.

Residing in one of the localities of Defence Colony, director of Toxic Link, Ravi Agrawal said, “The residents of the area want the drain to be covered, but it cannot be done at the cost of environment. You can’t cover the drain bed and hamper the groundwater recharge capacity. Rather a canopying would help.” 

New Delhi, February 20
After giving bestsellers like English, August, celebrated writer Upamanyu Chatterjee released his new book “Way to Go” here today.

One of Penguin India’s biggest fiction titles of 2010, Way to Go is being published under the literary imprint Hamish Hamilton, which was launched in India in 2009.

Indicating that the new book was taking off from his other stories, Chatterjee said he has working around the question whether one could make amends for not loving one’s dead father by loving one’s child more.

“The story is about family and discovering its different faces and ties,” he said, before reading out the phrases of his book in front of his friends in a small launch ceremony.

Chatterjee’s book revolves around the life of its main character Jamun whose father goes missing from his deathbed. By getting close to his brother in tough times, Jamun tries to mend relations with him.

Animatedly the writer read out the part of the book where Jamun goes to a police station to lodge complaint for his missing father.

Over the years, Chatterjee has entertained his fans with novels The Last Burden, The Mammaries of a Welfare State and Weight Loss. Way to Go is a sequel to his second book, The Last Burden. Here’s vintage Chatterjee brimming with wit and dark humour.

In his typical style of black humour Chatterjee has produced a moving examination of the family ties and the redemptive power of love, however imperfect, in the midst of death and degeneration.

New Delhi, February 20
Thieves broke open locks of three flats and escaped with cash and jewellery worth Rs 10.20 lakh in the Sarai Rohilla area of north Delhi last night.

The police said the thefts took place in DDA flats of Inderlok. According to the police, the three families had gone to attend the wedding of the daughter of one of them in a nearby park. The incident came to light around 11 pm when a relative of one of the three families came home and found the locks broken and house ransacked. Later, it was found that three houses, including two on the same floor, were burgled.

As per the police, the theft took place in flat numbers 11/83A, 84A and 87B owned by Abdul Sattar, Mohammad Salim and Ashraf, respectively. While Ashraf lost around 28 tola gold and Rs 2.10 in cash, Salim lost Rs 35, 000 while Sattar claimed to have lost 5 tola gold and Rs 56, 000. The police said the total loss amounted to around Rs 10.20 lakh.

According to the police, Salim’s daughter was getting married and all the neighbours were attending the function in a nearby park. “Most of the houses in the vicinity were locked as everyone in the area had gone for the marriage early in the evening. The theft came to notice when one of Ashraf’s relatives returned to the flat and saw the lock broken and house ransacked,” said the Sarai Rohilla police.

The police suspects it to be the handiwork of a gang who was well aware of the victims’ involvement in the marriage function.

“All the victims are related to each other and are engaged in selling and binding of coolers in a nearby cooler market. Some anti-social elements in the market could have got the knowledge of the marriage function and they hatched the conspiracy,” said a senior police officer from the district. 

New Delhi, February 20
A home guard jawan was last night arrested in connection with a dacoity in the Vivek Vihar area. He was nabbed from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

According to information, Ravinder Kumar, alias Kalu, was wanted for allegedly robbing a dry fruit merchant along with eight other men in July 2009. The merchant, Sunder Lal, and his brother were also stabbed in the incident.

“Ravinder led a team of eight people and attacked the dry fruit merchant and his brother while they were closing their shop in Nihal Vihar fruit market. The accused forced open the shop and after injuring the merchant and his brother fled with the cash. Four of the accused were arrested, but Ravinder was absconding,” said a police official.