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RTE Benefits: Delhi begins mapping of schools
Stolen mobiles lost for good
Pvt schools yet to get guidelines
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JNU meet over OBC quota
in jobs inconclusive
DTU students held
Man stabbed to death
Din over cow slaughter
Couple caught for cheating over 100 job seekers
Public-private model for healthcare on cards
Farmers oppose laying of pipeline
Custody of serial blasts
accused extended
Class XII boy held for
hoax calls
Farmers on dharna in worrisome condition
School clash: Parent arrested
MBA, history graduate held for robberies
2 get life term for murder
Vaastu training for Gurgaon realtors
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RTE Benefits: Delhi begins mapping of schools
New Delhi, March 31 The Directorate of Education, Delhi government, today said they have begun mapping of schools and a survey of children who do not go to school. V.P. Singh, director, state project, RTE, told The Tribune today that school-mapping would find out the required capacity to accommodate the number of additional children as the implementation of the RTE is expected to bring many new students to each school. A recent study by an NGO had put the number of children who do not go to school in Delhi around five lakhs and officials said it will take them many months to reach all of them. The department has so far done a survey of 91 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to know the number of such children. Emphasis was given on JJ clusters, resettlement and unauthorised colonies and over eight lakh houses were covered during the survey, Singh said. “We also asked all the parents to send their children to nearby schools. We will be putting in place a mechanism to ensure that they are admitted and get education,” Singh said. There are thousands of poor families living in these colonies who willingly let their children do menial jobs to supplement their incomes and they may not be very keen on sending their kids to schools. However, he said the number of such children is not confirmed in these wards as yet as a few other exercises would be done before the report is submitted. Officials said they had held a meeting of experts, comprising different stake holders, and they decided that such children required special training to bring them to the level of those who go to schools. “The children who do not go to schools would be imparted training in central schools,” they said. As to how the government plans to bring private schools, which are bound by the law to allot 25 per cent of their seats to the students from poor families, in line, officials said private schools would have to do their bit. “Those schools which are built on land allotted by us will have to provide free education to them while we will reimburse the fees to other private schools,” he said. As far as execution of the law in government schools is concerned, Singh said many schools having one shift now would have double shifts if needed. “To fill up the infrastructural gap, new classrooms will also be constructed. The government has already constructed 1,300 classrooms in various schools under the RTE scheme,” Singh said. ‘Govt shirking responsibility’
Amidst all euphoria over the Right to Education law coming into effect tomorrow, several organisations have decided to take to the streets against the law. They will gather at Jantar Mantar to register their protest. Activists working on the act said education needed to be made more equitable and mere assurance that 25 per cent seats of the private schools would be reserved for students coming from deprived sections was not enough. “India has a multi-layered school education system where students coming from different economic sections go to different schools. This discrimination must faze out,” said Abhishek Kumar, spokesperson of the All-India Forum for Right To Education (AIFRTE). The organisation maintained that the act was a government’s strategy to run away from its responsibility of ensuring free education for all. “The government wants to maintain the status quo. This is why it has come up with this act that would ensure that only the rich students get best education,” said Kumar. “Crores of students who would not be accommodated in the private schools would get the same degraded education which they have been getting all this while,” said Prof Madhu Prasad from Zakir Hussain College, adding that education was not for sale and a common school system should be implemented. Some activist working on school education maintained that there was immense confusion among schools regarding the implementation of the act. “The unregistered schools are not being taken into account and the state governments have not yet released the guidelines,” said Kush Verma from School Choice Campaign. |
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Stolen mobiles lost for good
New Delhi, March 31 Answering to an RTI enquiry by a city resident, Delhi police said they received 56,841 such complaints across its all police stations, 155 of them now, in the city in the last two years (January 2008 to December 2009). However, they could recover only 1,208 mobiles so far. It has also come to light that the maximum cases of mobile thefts were reported from north and central districts while south-west and west districts fared better. According to information during last two years, 13,086 and 11,274 cases were reported from north and central districts respectively while only 85 incidents of mobile loss came to light in south-west district. “This could be attributed to the fact that north and central districts have many crowded markets of wholesale goods and it is easy for the thieves to pickpocket in such areas,” said a senior police official. As regards to low percentage of mobile recovery, police officials say that the tracking of mobile is a technology-based investigation and police can do little after the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IEMI) number of the lost phone is put on tracking. “Mobile cannot be easily traced by manual investigation. It is mostly done by scientific equipment and once the mobile IMEI is fed into these, we would know when the mobile is being used. However, unless the mobile is used, we can do nothing about it,” said a senior police official associated with Mobile Tracking Cell. According to information, the IEMI is passed on to all the service providers of Delhi /NCR circle, and when the mobile is put into use by the culprit through any of the service provider companies, police is alerted. “However, if these mobiles are being used outside the Delhi/NCR circle, the chances of their being traced become negligible,” said the officer. |
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Pvt schools yet to get guidelines
New Delhi, March 31 Administrators of several private schools told The Tribune that they had not received any guidelines from the government. The principals of Vasant Valley School and Ramjas School, Rekha Krishnan and Rachna Pant, respectively, said they were looking forward to official directions about the law. According to the law, termed historic and revolutionary by many educationists, private schools will have to give 25 per cent of their seats to the children from disadvantaged families. The private schools, however, have in the past opposed any government guideline regarding their admission criterion. Recently, when the Delhi government had asked them to abide by certain rules for nursery admission, most of them had ignored the direction. In fact, some private schools of the country have already moved the court against the government’s decision to bring them under RTE and the legal decision would impact Delhi’s private schools as well. However, the law has also been welcomed by a lot of people associated with private education. They feel that the act would bring education to all and ensure diversity in classrooms with children from different socio-economic backgrounds coming under one roof. Shyama Chona, director of Tamana School, said, “The act will bring children from all backgrounds under one roof. Private schools, which till now were the bastion of affluent people, would now open to backward and poor sections of society,” she said. |
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JNU meet over OBC quota
in jobs inconclusive
New Delhi, March 31 “Most members feel that the university should go ahead with the recruitment advertisements with quota for associate professor and professor levels, released earlier,” said sources in JNU. While some feel that the matter is under the sub judice of the Supreme Court and, hence, should not be debated. The apex court has scheduled the next hearing in the matter for April. There were reports that the alleged anti-reservation group of teachers represented by Aditya Mukherjee of history department was in minority at the meeting. Earlier, Mukherjee had circulated a letter among teachers that allegedly opposed reservation in jobs in JNU. Taking note of the document, Executive Committee member P. Sainath wrote to vice-chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya stating that the university administration was bound to implement quota in jobs as it was a constitutional mandate. There are reports that the administration advanced the AC meeting that was previously scheduled for April 3 to today as Mukherjee is going abroad. Meanwhile, the university teachers told The Tribune that a common opinion could not be formulated by the JNUTA as there was striking division on the issue among teachers also. |
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DTU students held
New Delhi, March 31 Three students, including student leaders Ravi Sekhar and Pankaj Misra, were detained. Besides, 20 odd students were detained for indulging in violent protests outside the AICTE office. The agitating students allege that no one has given them a fair hearing and now want to appeal to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. A third year student said, "We want to reach out to Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. We hope they give us a fair hearing." Meanwhile, to apprise parents of the issues being raised by their wards, the university has invited parents for a meeting this Saturday. |
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Man stabbed to death
New Delhi, March 31 “The deceased has been identified as Gajender. He was stabbed by an unknown person when he was returning home on foot. He was rushed to Max Hospital but declared brought dead,” said a police officer. Police further stated that the victim used to work in a gurdwara as sewadar. Major fire in
factory
A major fire broke out in the Jahangirpuri area of north-west district this morning. However, no one suffered injuries in the incident. Police said that the incident took place around 6 am in a steel factory located at SSI Industrial area in Jahangirpuri. “Ten fire engines were rushed to the spot to douse the flames and it took one hour to bring the fire under control. No one suffered injuries in the incident, but property worth lakhs of rupees is feared lost in fire,” said a fire officer. |
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Din over cow slaughter
New Delhi, March 31 He warned of massive protests by the BJP if the illegal act was not stopped. Later, BJP MLAs trooped in well of the House The Speaker had to adjourn the House for 15 minutes. |
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Couple caught for cheating over 100 job seekers
New Delhi, March 31 According to police officials, Sumit Barara (23), who worked as a crime reporter for a local news channel in Ghaziabad, and his wife Jahnavi (21), a former airhostess, were arrested yesterday. According to Neeraj Thakur, additional CP (Crime), the arrest came following a complaint filed by one Satwant Singh of Moser Baer India Ltd who reported that a woman was cheating people on the pretext of providing jobs of engineer and manager in their company. “They cheated job seekers by asking them to deposit money in advance in fraudulent accounts and then switched off their mobiles,” said Thakur adding that Jahnavi would call the job seekers and ask them to deposit Rs 6,865 in an account. “During investigation it came to light that the couple was operating from Munirka. Jahnavi also gave a mobile number to the people to contact her. The couple even issued fake joining letters to them,” said
Thakur. The duo told the police that they along with Suraj and Manpreet, both residents of Ghaziabad, had cheated more than 100 job seekers on the pretext of offering jobs in MNCs through e-mail. “They obtained SIM cards in different names and addresses on the basis of fake documents. They also opened accounts in banks after producing forged documents. Then they collected data of job seekers from websites and contacted them,” said the officer.
Sumit is the kingpin of the racket and worked in a local news channel in Ghaziabad with his father. Then he quit the job and entered the business of property dealing. He also worked as a storekeeper in a construction company at Palam Airport for a short period where he came to know Jahnavi who was working in an airline as an airhostess. “They married and started living in Munirka Village in a rented room. After some time, both left their jobs and started cheating the gullible,” Thakur said. |
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Public-private model for healthcare on cards
New Delhi, March 31 Under a pilot project, two super specialities—one each at Janakpuri and Tahirpur would come up and the city government has already invited requisitions for it from the interested private players. The directorate health services of NCT Delhi, Dr S Bhattarcharya said, “The project is taking shape and we are in process of bidding. We have received tenders from many hospitals and many of them have asked for several concessions. But, nothing has been decided on it.” In the said model, the Delhi government would not have any monetary stake, but there would be an oversight committee, comprising Delhi government officials and others, which would monitor the working of the hospitals, once they become functional. Adding that both the hospitals, one 350-beded and the other at Tahirpur with 650 beds, should be functional within two calendar years, he said, “The government would decide on the concessions depending on the viability of the offer. We hope to have at least 65-75 per cent of beds reserved for those belonging to the economically backward section.” Dr Bhattacharya said that the proposal is in a conceptual stage and several modalities need to be worked out. “The control room would guide the poor patient and ensure that the patient reaches the hospital concerned for the treatment. But, it would require some time as there are constraints, like it demands a huge manpower,” the doctor said. |
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Farmers oppose laying of pipeline
Greater Noida, March 31 Farmers are demanding land compensation on the pattern of Greater Noida area. The pipeline from Panipat will passes through Dadri's Ranauli Latifpur village. The administration has announced compensation at the rate of Rs 640 per sq mt which farmers term as low. The farmers had declared that they would stall the pipe-laying work. The administration had deployed a large police force in the area. Farmers had called a panchayat at Shiv Mandir of the village, which unanimously decided to stop the work. As the slogan-shouting farmers were marching towards the site, they were stopped by police under SDM Som Srivastava and circle officer Rahul Kumar. Later, both the parties sat for a meeting near Shiv Mandir to dissolve the crisis. While farmers said they will continue the agitation, the SDM said they had solved the crisis. |
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Custody of serial blasts
accused extended
New Delhi, March 31 Ahmed, who was arrested on February 1, was produced before the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Naveen Arora, who extended his judicial custody till April 12. He was produced before the court after his judicial custody ended today. Ahmed was earlier sent to 14-day judicial custody as the police did not seek his custody for interrogation in the case. Ahmed is also an accused in the murder of special cell inspector Mohan Chand Sharma. Besides Sharma, two alleged IM terrorists were also killed in a shootout between the police and alleged terrorists at the L-18 flat of Batla House on September 19, 2008, a week after the serial blasts. According to the police, Ahmed and another suspected terrorist Junaid planted a bomb at the Children’s Park near the India Gate on September 13, 2008. However, the bomb did not explode. The police claims that the two were present at the Batla House flat of the terrorists at the time of the shootout, but managed to escape. Ahmed was brought to the Capital after his arrest by the Uttar Pradesh police’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) from
Azamgarh. |
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Class XII boy held for
hoax calls
New Delhi, March 31 According to O.P. Mishra, DCP (IGIA), the accused Debasish Banerjee has not been arrested yet. We have filed a report against Banerjee in the Dwarka court for giving false information . He has not been arrested since the offence is cognizable and the magistrate may summon him from Kolkatta ,” said Mishra. A call was received on March 12 at the domestic airport police station around 12.10 pm that a bomb was kept on Indigo flight going from Delhi to Bangalore. Another call was received around 3.25 am that there was bomb on an Indigo Flight from Delhi to Mumbai. Mishra said both the calls were traced to a Kolkata . “A team was sent to Kolkata which traced the owner of the phone as one Kamal Banerjee. He told the police that he had given the phone to his son Debasish who was sitting for Class XII exams,” said Mishra. Debasish told the police that he got the toll-free number of the airline from a hoarding, after which he made the phone calls. |
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Farmers on dharna in worrisome condition
Greater Noida, March 31 The farmers are sitting on dharna under the aegis of Bhartiya Kisan Union since Sunday near Adda Gujarat village. Ajay Pal Sharma of Bhartiya Kisan Union said the condition of two old farmers-- Dharam Singh and Prahlad --has become worrisome. Despite the authorities having been informed of it, no official has visited them, Ajay Pal alleged. |
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School clash: Parent arrested
March 31, Faridabad There were complaints from both the sides— parents as well as the school. The police has, however, registered a case against the parents. Four parents have been made accused in the FIR. However, their names have not been mentioned in it. A group of parents today met to express concern over the “partisan” role of the police, who, according to them, ignored their complaints. They said that the parents who were arrested were injured by the school staff. They said they had a medical report of the injury. The incident occurred as the school was adamant that it would declare the annual results of more than 30 students only if the dues of their fees for academic session 2009-2010 were cleared. The parents, however, were adamant that they would pay the fees as per the rules of the Haryana government. The altercation eventually led to a clash between the parents and the school personnel. |
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MBA, history graduate held for robberies
New Delhi, March 31 The accused have been identified as Manoj Kumar Kejriwal (35), Parveen Shankar (27), Rahul Anand (26), Hari Om (23) and Mahesh Kumar (35). According to the police, while Shankar holds an MBA degree of Symbiosis University, Kejriwal is a history graduate of Ranchi University. “The accused were arrested on March 26 from Geeta Colony after a tip-off. A semi-automatic pistol, two country-made pistols, three stolen motorcycles and some jewellery were recovered at their instance,” said Neeraj Thakur, additional CP (crime), adding that the gang had also robbed a Hindi daily reporter on March 6. The gang also committed a robbery in Gurgaon and looted jewellery from a woman at gunpoint on March 20. “The looted jewellery was mortgaged at the Maipalpur branch of Muthoot Finance company for Rs 69,000,” said the officer. “Shanker and Anand were in Patna Jail for two years in connection with a robbery case. They were involved in dozens of heinous crime in Patna,” he added. |
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2 get life term for murder
New Delhi, March 31 Additional sessions judge R.K. Chauhan pronounced the judgment taking note of the witness, Suresh Mishra’s statement. Mishra is a shopkeeper. On March 14, 2008, Ashish and Nazir gave a knife blow to Vinod at a roadside shop near Delhi Public Library, after a verbal duel with him. This led to his death. Earlier, the prosecution had said that the convicts had some enmity with Vinod so they killed him. |
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Vaastu training for Gurgaon realtors
Gurgaon, March 31 The district administration, Real Estate Development Council (REDCO), Haryana Tourism and Haryana Tourism Mart have jointly organized a monthlong licensing and enrolment camp at Community Centre of DLF Phase- I. The camp was formally inaugurated by deputy commissioner Rajender Kataria yesterday. Addressing the participants, Kataria said the idea behind camp was to facilitate the registration of realtors with the district administration without harassment at the hands of ‘babus’. REDCO would receive the applications for registration and after completing the formalities, the applicant would get his registration certificate or licence within a day or two. The property dealers, real estate agents and property consultants need to get themselves registered with the district authorities after the promulgation of Haryana Regulation of Property Dealers and Consultants Rules 2005 in the state. During the camp, the property dealers or developers would also be enrolled for a three-week certification course to be organised by the Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), Human Settlement Management Institute (HSMI) and REDCO. The realtors would be told about various regulations and legal provisions related to the sale and purchase of property along with subjects like ‘Vaastu’. After the completion of the course, the participants will be issued with certificates. The deputy commissioner claimed that this initiative had been taken for the first time in the state. |
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