New Delhi, March 26
The nearly half-an-hour mock security drill at four Metro stations to check the response time of various agencies in the event of a terror strike hit thousands of commuters today.

The drills were conducted between 11:30 am and 12 noon at Rajouri Garden, Mandi House, Netaji Subhash Place and Dilshad Garden Metro stations.

The drills were supervised by officials from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority. Bomb squads and sniffer dogs were also used.

Terror scenes like— serial bomb blast, explosives-laden truck hitting a Metro pillar, powerful blast near the ticketing counter and explosion triggered by a human bomb were enacted to evaluate the security agencies functioning in such time.

As part of the drill, passengers at these stations were evacuated and all services stopped for over 20 minutes.

Passengers complained about delays and journey taking much longer then usual. Many did not know about the drills.

Passengers said that there should be proper advertisement in newspapers, informing people about such drills, so that they did not get delayed to their workplaces or shocked. They said if they were informed, they could make their travel arrangements accordingly.

In the last five years, over 15 mock drills have been conducted at various Metro stations to help build preparedness and train Metro personnel to respond to a terror situation swiftly.

New Delhi, March 26
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has won the ‘Most Improved Metro’ award at the 3rd Metro Awards ceremony held in London.

DMRC managing director E. Sreedharan was also given a special mention for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Urban Transport Industry’ during the ceremony held on March 23 at London’s Victoria Park Plaza, DMRC said in a statement today.

The award ceremony was attended by over 250 delegates from 70 metro companies from 40 countries around the world.

The awards, organised by London-based firm Terrapinn, recognises leaders, innovators, talents and pioneers in the global Metro rail industry, DMRC said.

Their objective is to recognise metros which have demonstrated “an unparalleled ability to succeed” in running metro systems.

The other awardees were the London Metro, Singapore Metro System and Copenhagen Metro.

These awards are given for celebrating excellence in the mass transit industry, DMRC said.

New Delhi, March 26
A sleazy plot hatched by Sanjiv Sharma, a so-called journalist, to blackmail a businessman into coughing up Rs 10 lakh worked to almost perfection, but his victim managed to pluck up his courage at last and complained to police, ignoring Sharma’s threat that he would distribute his porno CDs all around.

Lodhi Colony cops arrested Sharma yesterday when he came to India Habitat Centre to collect Rs 8 lakh from the Faridabad-based businessman whose name is withheld.

The 34-year-old accused had lured him into physical relations with a woman, a sex worker in reality, and made a video. He demanded Rs 10 lakh to settle the matter.

Police said they have recovered the porno CD, four cell phones, two spy cameras and two press cards belonging to two small-time vernacular publications. The businessman had complained to cops about the blackmail on March 21.

The DCP, south Delhi, HGS Dhaliwal said Sharma was carrying out the extortion plan in league with one Neeraj Aggarwal.

In the first week of this month, the complainant received a call in a female voice. Somebody introduced ‘herself’ as an insurance agent. She developed friendship with him on phone and later they met and had consensual sex, police said.

It turned out that the female voice was actually a software trick, offered by some mobile phones, while Sharma was the actual speaker. When his victim agreed to meet “her”, he arranged a sex worker.

Sharma called him on March 20 and demanded Rs 10 lakh, introducing himself as a reporter and threatening to go public with his porno DVD, said Dhaliwal.

The jittery businessman immediately paid Sharma Rs 30,000 with the promise of Rs 8 lakh more. However, as he regained his composure, he decided to go to police who laid a trap for the conman.

Sharma told the police that Neeraj Aggarwal, a trader living at B-52, Vishwakarma Colony, owed Rs 6 lakh to the businessman in connection with the sale and purchase of some plot.

“Neeraj did not want to repay the money and together they executed the plan,” said Dhaliwal. They rented a flat for Rs 10,000 per month for the purpose. Neeraj is absconding. The police is also looking into the role of a woman who arranged the sex worker. Sanjiv Sharma hails from Ludhiana and later shifted to Delhi. He did graduation and a course in architecture from Delhi University. 

New Delhi, March 26
Students of Class X appearing for their science paper today got distressed.

However, the cause of the stress was not any question, but an error in a question.

According to students, the question number 16 of set number 3 was incomplete.

Students inform that there was an error in the question that did not give the voltage in the circuit on the basis of which the solution had to be found. Without voltage, it is not possible to calculate the current and resistance in the circuit, said students.

However, once the error was realised, the candidates were asked to attempt the question so that they qualified for the grace marks, which were three.

The total marks of the question paper are 60 and by giving three grace marks to all the students who attempted the question, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will give them 5 per cent of the total marks.

Shivani, a student who attempted the question, says, “The science paper was not easy. It had tricky questions and then we had this question with an error. I lost 10 minutes trying to solve this question. How can you find the solution when the figure for voltage is not given?”

Another student Manish Singhal complains, “There was a mistake in the science paper. I wasted my precious time over it before discovering that it was not my fault. This created unnecessary stress and confusion. I hope we get grace marks for this question.”

Like Shivani and Manish, most of the students agreed that the paper was difficult and there were many tricky questions that required careful working out.

Greater Noida, March 26
The parents of the children studying at public schools here have threatened to launch an agitation in case of a hike in the fees in the new session.

Some public schools, it has been learnt, are thinking of hiking their tuition fee once again in the new session. On getting inkling about this plan of the schools, the parents have warned to hit the streets once again.

The administration, meanwhile, is consulting legal experts before taking any action against schools hiking their fees.

Last year, there was a strong protest in Gautam Budh Nagar district against fee hike by public schools. The parents had come out on roads.

However, when the administration issued guidelines for the schools, they moved the court against the guidelines and managed to get a stay order.

Reacting on the issue, district magistrate Deepak Agarwal said last year, the administration had issued some guidelines for the schools regarding fee hike, but the schools went to the high court, which stayed the implementation of the guidelines.

Agarwal added that increasing school fee was wrong, but we would not take any action till we get legal opinion on the issue.

Chairman of the Parents Association, C.P. Gautam said the association was vigorously following up the matter in the court.

“If the fees are hiked again, parents will be left with no option but to come out on roads in protest,” he said.

New Delhi, March 26
For more than a month, Batra Hospital has been refusing treatment to Sishu Pal Singh, who was referred here for dialysis by AIIMS on February 19 under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) provision.

This despite the fact that many of 50 beds, which are designated for the poor in Batra, remained vacant during the period.

“I have approached Batra several times and they keep telling me to wait. At AIIMS, they ask me to get it in writing so that they could arrange for alternatives. But Batra doctors refuse it and I have been running between the two hospitals. I am running out of money that I had arranged for my treatment after selling lands,” said Shishu Pal, a farmer.

Pal, who hails from Mainpuri in UP, is getting his dialysis done now at a private facility in Hauz Khas. The deputy medical superintendent of the Batra, Shanti Verma claimed that his hospital adhered to the norms for poor patients.

Verma admitted that the hospital has a crisis in the nephrology department and they have returned many patients like Shishu Pal.

However, it is not an exception. Private hospitals, standing tall on government-allotted subsidised lands, continue to be out of reach of the poor.

Incidentally, AIIMS had referred Shishu Pal to Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI) earlier and he was sent back from there as well.

Similarly, Jharna Misra, a resident of 36/9 Kishangarh in Delhi, met the same cold response from private hospitals when her three-month-old baby needed emergency treatment.

On March 8 evening, Jharna, who works as a domestic help in a Vasant Kunj house, and her ailing baby was taken to Fortis Hospital by her employers as the hospital is located just across the road. When they sought treatment under the EWS provision, the staff at the reception appeared to have little knowledge of free treatment clause for poor patients.

“There was no EWS board at the reception to guide the poor and the reception staff insisted on BPL card even though a written statement from the patient’s family should have worked,” Nalini Juneja, her employer, told The Tribune.

It was only after the intervention of an NGO, Social Jurist, that the baby suffering from acute respiratory distress was admitted.

Ashok Agarwal, a lawyer who has filed a PIL against private hospitals, said many hospitals are violating the government notification and there is a tendency to avoid such cases. “If at all they are admitted, they are kept in bad conditions, which we found at several hospitals during inspection,” Agarwal said.

In Delhi, there are currently 35 private hospitals, which are under the obligation of treating poor as per the March 22, 2007 HC ruling. 

New Delhi, March 26
Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit said the government had constituted a committee to find out the reasons as to why the litterateurs had refused to accept the Shalakha Award given by the Delhi Hindi Academy.

The Delhi Hindi Academy every year awards Shalakha Award to a few litterateurs of Hindi language. Continuing with the practice, this year also the academy had selected seven litterateurs for the prestigious award. Six of the seven nominees are: Kedarnath Singh, Rekha Jain, Prakash Singh, Gagan Gill, Vimal Kumar and Pushotam Aggarwal. Name of the seventh receiver is not known.

Eminent writer Mahashweta Devi was invited to distribute the awards, but she also refused to turn up.

When the reasons of the boycott were asked by Leader of Opposition, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, saying that the issue was serious, the Chief Minister said due to certain reasons, this could not be disclosed in the House.

She only said that the writers refused to accept the award due to their internal politics.

Later, talking to media, the Leader of the House said the litterateurs had refused to accept the award in protest against government’s rejection of Krishan Baldev’s name for the award last year. His name was initially selected by the award committee of the academy, but was later rejected, he said.

“A boycott like this has happened for the first time in the history of the award. The first Shalakha Award was given in 1970 when I was the chief executive councillor. At that time, the award was give to Harivansh Rai Bachchan,” Malhotra said. 

New Delhi, March 26
The 33rd SAARC Festival of Literature started here today with writers from across South Asian countries coming together to discuss climate change issues.

Mesmerizing poems from popular lyricist and Indian poet Gulzar and Sarmad Sehbai from Pakistan regaled the audiences at the inaugural ceremony at India International Centre.

Writers, academics, artists, folklorists, historians, peace and gender activists from eight South Asian countries will discuss how nature and environment have been key constituents of literature as well as visual and performing arts in the three-day festival that is being jointly organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Foundation of SAARC Writers’ and Literature (FOSWAL).

“The focus of the festival is environment and the impacts of climate change. The topics of discussion will include nature and literature, art and environment, ecology and health and tribal perspective on the ecological question,” said Ajeet Cour, noted litterateur and FOSWAL chairperson at the inaugural session of the festival.

While the SAARC lifetime achievement award was given to Hamid Mir, bureau head of Pakistan’s Geo TV news network, writers Mark Tully and Nepal’s Abhi Subedi were honoured with SAARC literary awards. SAARC young poet award went to Bangladesh’s Rubana Huq.

Honouring Hamid, Ajeet said, “He is the only Pakistani journalist who has the distinction of covering wars in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir and Sri Lanka. He has also interviewed Osama Bin Laden and his was the first interview with Laden after the 9/11.” 

Stressing the fact that collaboration between the developed and developing countries is a must for tackling environmental dangers, Abid Hussian, economist and former Indian ambassador to the United States, said, “Climate change is a dreadful threat. Copenhagen gave us a direction and we must follow. This subject needs the attention of all the writers”

“The SAARC festival of literature is bringing together more than 20 members of the intelligentsia, environmentalists and peace activists from eight South Asian nations which face common challenges. It is an attempt to forge new link in literature and culture,” said director general of ICCR, Virendra Gupta.

New Delhi, March 26
He is a veteran of many wars and also had the opportunity to work with national leaders like-- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel during his days in the INdian Army. But the wish of a ride on the Delhi Metro, had remained unfulfilled for 90-year-old retired Colonel K.K Uppal so far.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation arranged a special visit for him to the Metro today.

Accompanied by his daughter and DMRC officials, Uppal took a Metro ride from Patel Chowk to Karol Bagh. He then came back to the Central Secretariat Metro station.

He also visited the Metro museum at Patel Chowk Metro station.

Uppal praised the Metro system and said that the Delhi Metro was a shining specimen of the immense progress the country had made since independence.

New Delhi, March 26
A 60-year-old property dealer was killed when an Indian Army truck hit him on the BRT Corridor in south-east Delhi this afternoon.

The accident took place in the Ambedkar Nagar area around 3:30 pm.

“The deceased identified as Tara Chand was crossing the road with his son Yogesh (30) when the accident took place. He was crossing the road to go to Pushp Vihar when the truck hit him. His son escaped unhurt,” said a police official.

Chand was rushed to the nearby Max Hospital in Saket. He was declared brought dead.

The driver of the truck has been arrested and a case of causing death due to rash and negligent driving has been registered against him.

The truck also has been impounded.

Tara Chand lived at a DDA flat in Madangir.