New Delhi, March 23
Catching up with the international academic standards, Delhi University, India’s biggest central university, is planning nothing short of a revolution in information technology from the coming academic year.

The university administration has begun educating both its faculty and students in the Information Communication Technology (ICT). Besides, several on-line courses are being launched for the students to get additional certificates while they study the main courses.

The university has decided to provide all its colleges with 40 computers and ancillary components at a total cost of more than Rs 10 crore.

Sources said the central server has still not been operationalised, but the university is keen on making it possible for the colleges to access all e-resources available on the university network.

The process is on to connect all the colleges with the university through a dedicated network which is capable of delivering high bandwidth, they said. Furthermore, the university would provide the colleges with two servers and Wi-Fi connectivity.

DU has also subscribed to a large number of e-journals and electronic data bases in science, social science and humanities. Around Rs 5.9 crore has been spent on these resources available to the university community. Additionally, the sources said the annual subscription for the e-journals is about Rs 3.5 crore.

In an effort to make the researches undertaken at the university accessible to students, DU is digitising the Ph.D. thesis. Around 3,000 theses would be uploaded on the university intranet. The first phase of digitising to cover the period of 1980 to 2002 may get over by this month.

The vice-chancellor is keen on taking a big leap in IT and one of the important initiatives is the Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL), which has been re-launched in a big way this year, administration sources said.

ILLL was created in 2007 to improve the quality of education through the integration of information and communication technology with a focus on development of high quality e-learning material, including e-lessons, e-quizzes, e-labs and e-lectures.

Several add-on courses have been launched on the portal for the academic year 2010-11. Three courses offered by the ILLL are English proficiency course, foundations of banking course and personality development course. A basic certificate course in the IT is also being offered by the ILLL in collaboration with Microsoft.

To develop IT-compatible course material, the ILLL would offer fellowships to university faculty from different departments starting from this month.

“The faculty members could develop course material with us during the summer months when classes are generally not taking place,” said Dr A.K.Bakshi, director of ILLL.

Teachers can apply for this deputation course from this year.

New Delhi, March 23
Scores of youths and children led by national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Vijay Goel, today demonstrated outside the residence of Chief Minister against the levying of taxes and withdrawal of subsidy from cooking gas in the name of Commonwealth Games. Goel was detained by the police.

The demonstrators carried placards against gas and milk price hike apart from levying heavy VAT on essential items of children, including stationery, burger, ice cream. They left an empty milk bottle outside the residence of Chief Minister.

Addressing the demonstrators, Goel said it was a matter of shame that the Sheila Dikshit government was penalizing the common people of Delhi in the name of Commonwealth Games.

Dikshit knew that the Games were to be held in Delhi, but she sat over all preparations till 2008, resulting in the escalation of costs. Had the government planned and started work on stadiums and infrastructure projects on time, thousands of crores of rupees could have been saved, he claimed.

Goel questioned the government’s wisdom in spending money on beautification, revamping of streetlights, neon sign boards, putting colourful tiles on pavements. Hundreds of crores of rupees are being pocketed by way of kickbacks. This has happened as there are no elections in the next two 2 years.

What’s more, hefty increase in VAT on most items will destroy the wholesale trade. It might shift to adjoining states. The BJP would force the Delhi government to roll back the enhanced VAT and check corruption in the name of Games, added Goel.

New Delhi, March 23
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former finance minister of Delhi, Jagdish Mukhi, has asked the government to withdraw the enhanced value added tax (VAT) from diesel, CNG and allow subsidy on LPG cylinders, as this will affect the common man.

He alleged that the 2010-11 Budget was anti-people, anti-development and anti-farmers.

Finance minister A.K. Walia’s had said in his speech yesterday that VAT had been imposed on several products and subsidy withdrawn from LPG cylinders to generate more funds for developing infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games. Reacting on the minister’s statement, Mukhi said that the government could have other ways to generate more funds. Walia is ignorant of the city’s basic economy.

He said that with increased VAT, diesel would be more costly in Delhi. While, it would be cheaper in the neighbouring state of Haryana. In stead of purchasing diesel from Delhi, transporters will prefer to buy it from Haryana, which will affect Delhi’s revenue. It will also affect the prices of other goods.

Mukhi further alleged that the budget proposals were prepared without a discussion with experts. Things used by common man like— stove, lantern, petromax, utensils were earlier exempted from tax. Now, five per cent tax has been levied on these items.

Supporting the budget, senior Congress MLA Mukesh Sharma said that the budget was prepared with a vision to develop the city and provide basic amenities to citizens. The government has increased compensation for farmers whose plots have been acquired by the government. This will improve their economic conditions.

He added that the BJP always criticised the government. Had the BJP government’s performance been better in 1998, people would have voted it to power again. The Congress has been coming to power for the last three terms because it is doing better for people.

New Delhi, March 23
The south Delhi police has arrested two men for allegedly siphoning off Rs 1.5 crore by stealing cheques from drop boxes and encashing them by opening bank accounts using forged documents.

The accused have been identified as Shailesh Choudhary (37)and Sakishan Pal (56).

H.G.S. Dhaliwal, DCP (south) said the accused spentthe bulk of the booty on betting in horse races. “They used to steal cheques from drop boxes installed at petrol pumps and get them encashed by opening fake accounts in banks in Delhi and other states. They are not first-time offenders and were arrested in 2004 by the Meerut police and in 2007 by the south Delhi police for the same offence,” said Dhaliwal.

He added that their arrest came after a complaint in this regard was lodged at Vasant Vihar police station.

“A cheque of Rs 3 lakh issued by a leading South Delhi eye surgeon was stolen from BP petrol pump, Vasant Vihar, and was encashed at a branch of HDFC Bank. It was found that all accounts in which the stolen cheques were deposited were opened by producing fake driving licenses,” said Dhaliwal.

The police zeroed in on Chaudhary, as he was previously arrested in a bank fraud case. “In 2004, Chaudhury was arrested in Meerut for credit card thefts. After his release, he shifted to Dwarka,” Dhaliwal said, adding that the accused used to steal cheques during the afternoon when the drop boxes are usually full.

Two cars and five expensive mobile phones have been seized from them.

Chaudhary has studied till Class XII. He would use the booty to bet on horse races. He had also purchased expensive mobile phones and two cars.

“Shailesh used to change his mobile handset and connection after each theft because he used to mention his mobile number in the bank form. He also used to destroy all bank-related documents after every theft. So far, around 30 cases of such thefts have come to notice,” said the officer.

Faridabad, March 23
Infighting in the Haryana Congress became evident again yesterday with the local MP levelling corruption charges against a senior state minister.

Many feel that it must have come as an embarrassment to the ruling Congress, as Faridabad MP Avtar Singh Bhadana yesterday waded into sharp criticism on the functioning of the district administration and other agencies.

He alleged that cases of corruption on part of government functionaries at the behest of a minister were rampant. Bhadana went to the extent of specifying the minister’s name.

He alleged that associates of Haryana minister for urban, local bodies and power, Mahender Pratap, were frequently indulging in land grabbing practices and carrying out illegal mining and constructions. He further claimed that bad characters of the area were getting protection by the minister and the administrative machinery.

When Mahender Pratap was contacted, he said that Bhadana had indulged in foul politics. His behaviour showed his ‘frustration’.

The war of words between the two leaders does not seem to end.

Earlier, when Bhadana had called Pratap ‘frustrated’, the latter had publicly taken potshots at him.

Pratap had said that Bhadana had taken numerous personal benefits from the earlier Congress government in Haryana like — mining of hills. Bhadana had misused his position as the elected representative of people.

Bhadana has said that Pratap should resign from the MLA’s post if the latter failed to prove the charges that he had levelled against him. Bhadana added that he was ready to resign if the minister proved the charges against him.

Bhadana alleged that the power ministry under Pratap carried out raids on premises of poor people. While industrial units and establishments of colonisers or influential commercial units that were committing power thefts were allowed to go scotfree.

Bhadana made these statements against the minister after he presided over a District Monitoring Committee, a statutory body that monitors development work in all districts of the state. He is the chairperson of the body.

Moreover, Bhadana asked the office of deputy commissioner, Faridabad, to explain why no in development had been carried out in the area in the past six months.

He said that the Chief Minister had sanctioned Rs 85 crore for development of over 80 villages in Faridabad parliamentary constituency, including some in Palwal district.

The amount was sanctioned before the last Assembly elections in Haryana. But no work was carried out as yet.

Bhadana said that even the money that he sanctioned from his MP fund was not utilised.

He appealed to the district administration to provide adequate drinking water to the poor. He alleged that the mafia drew water illegally and sold it to industrial units and areas in Delhi.

Noida, March 23
The Noida police has no inkling as to where 16 youths missing for the past three years have gone. Among those missing are audit officers, pharmacists and IT experts.

What is worrying is that the police is not serious in tracing these persons. All that the police department has done is to issue press advertisements to inform the public of the missing persons.

All these cases were registered between 2007 and 2010.

A call centre worker Pooja went missing on Holi day. Her body was later found in Faridabad. Police circle officer and inspector were transferred for negligence in the case.

The mobile phone of an audit officer Suraj Verma was recovered from Kota in Rajasthan. He had gone missing on January 13, 2009, from a guesthouse in Sector-15A. He came for audit in Tata Indicom Co. Verma’s cell phone was found at Kota where one Kamal said he picked it from a heap of waste.

Pharmacist Amit Kumar who was employed at homoepathic hospital in Sector-18 went missing on May 2, 2009. His cell phone was traced to a drain in Sector-15.

He had left his house at E-154, Sector-15, for office in Sector-18. His family alleged that a lady doctor was behind Amit Kumar’s disappearance. But police did precious little to find him.

Ankasha Singh, an IT person, went missing just after she had left her house in Delhi for her office in Sector-62 here on February 27.

A beauty parlour worker Deepa Rawat went missing on August 17, 2008 from Sector-18 and is yet to be traced.

However, SSP Ashok Kumar Singh says efforts will be made to trace all of them. Police in the neighbouring district and states will be informed and their cooperation sought.

New Delhi, March 23
A 28-year-old school principal hanged himself on the school premises in the Ranhola area of west Delhi last evening.

The deceased has been identified as Pankaj Bhardwaj. His body was discovered by a teacher around 6 pm.

“Bhardwaj hanged himself with a rope in his office at SV Public School. He was declared brought dead when taken to a hospital. No suicide note has been found,” said an official from Ranhola police station.

The reason behind him taking the extreme step is not yet clear.

Surinder Kumar, father of the deceased, said that Bhardwaj was in some kind of depression for the past few days. He said that his son had told him that the school was doing financially well.

“Financial reasons are certainly not behind his committing suicide, as the school has been doing financially well. Bhardwaj was a bachelor. We are trying to find out whether he had a love interest,” said the official.

The deceased was a resident of Indra Park in Palam Colony.

New Delhi, March 23
A 21-year-old Class XII student, suspected of murdering a man whose body was found in a government school in Vinod Nagar (east) yesterday, allegedly hanged himself at his residence in the Pandav Nagar area of east district this morning.

“The victim, Ajay, was found hanging from a ceiling fan around 10 am by his father who informed the police. He was rushed to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital where he was declared brought dead,” said a police official.

Ajay was detained last evening for the murder of Girish Rawat. Rawat was found dead on the compound of a government school in Vinod Nagar east.

“There were several wounds on the Rawat’s face, hands and the back of his head. The police had detained three persons— Ajay, Manish and Kallu—in this connection. But they were released,” the official added.

Ajay lived with his family in gali no. 8 of Vinod Nagar east. “A suicide note has been seized, in which Ajay has stated that he and other persons who were detained were innocent,” the official added.

According to Ajay’s parents, Ajay was in depression due to his detention in Rawat’s case, so he took the extreme step.

“On Monday, Ajay returned in the evening but did not speak to anybody. Next day he told his mother about the incident and went to his room. When I entered his room around 10:30 am, I found him hanging from the ceiling fan,” said Ajay’s father, Digambar.

New Delhi, March 23
An ex-armyman was sentenced to life term by a local court today for killing a woman who had rejected his advances and instead complained to his officer.

Additional sessions judge Aditi Chaudhary convicted Bhagtu Munda, a washerman with the army, of killing Suman Barla over five years ago. Both were once friends but she decided to sever her relations with him when her marriage was fixed with another man. The accused, then posted in Himachal Pradesh with the Army, cajoled her to meet him in a hotel and, the prosecution said, strangled her on Jan 7, 2005.

He had run away to Ranchi and was arrested on January 12. The court, though, said it was not a rarest of rare cases and decided not to award him the capital punishment.