New Delhi, April 21
As thousands of BJP supporters thronged the national Capital from different parts of the country to attend the rally called by the party, the mayhem caused on city roads, especially in New Delhi and central districts, has not been witnessed in recent times.

As vehicles crawled, waiting time stretched to hours at certain places. People missing appointments and office hours and they could just curse the government, traffic police and the party holding the rally. While things went out of control from early morning, long queues of vehicles at several entry points to the Capital took hours to move in.

With traffic jams starting early in the morning around Rajpath, ISBT and Akshardham, vehicular movement was worst hit on Ring Road, Mathura Road, Tilak Marg, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Asaf Ali Marg, Netaji Subhash Marg and Ranjit Singh Marg. Traffic was equally chaotic on Asoka Road, Barakhamba Road, Tolstoy Marg and Sikandara Road.

Around 300 traffic police personnel were deployed on the rally route from Ramlila Grounds to Jantar Mantar to ensure that traffic was regulated, but to no avail.

More than 600 buses ferrying supporters entered the Capital today. Though they were parked several kilometers far from the rally venue, they added to traffic woes in different areas.

A massive jam was witnessed near Akshardham Temple. Around 9 am, it took people coming from Ghaziabad and Noida side in buses and cars close to an hour in reaching ITO, which is at a distance of merely 3 km.

Budh Sagar Singh, a BJP supporter from Azamgarh, said that it took him close to two and half hours to reach the Ramlila Grounds from Akshardham. “I don’t know the route we took, but we reached the venue around 12 pm. It seemed that every lane was choked,” said Singh.

Similarly, a bus carrying supporters from Greater Noida remained stranded for hours on way to ITO.

Things were equally bad on Netaji Subhash Marg, with commuters taking over an hour and a half to reach ITO.

The Metro trains ran jam-packed as people opted to use the services to avoid massive snarls.

Hapless traffic police personnel put up a brave face and tried hard to manage the traffic in sweltering heat. “Every thing is under control. Minor jams cannot be avoided during such times,” said a traffic official.

He added that vehicles loaded with goods entering the city were diverted at Wazirabad T-Point, Chandagi Ram Akhara, ISBT Loop of Shahdara, Laxmi Nagar, ISBT Yamuna Bridge, Nizamuddin Bridge and Neela Gumbad in Nizamuddin. Buses were also diverted at various places. No buses, including the chartered ones, were allowed on Ranjit Singh Marg towards Gurunanak Chowk from Barakhamba side. 

New Delhi, April 21
The national Capital today witnessed a riot of colours as thousands of people from different parts of the country braved the scorching summer to participate in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rally against price rise.

BJP national president Nitin Gadkari and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani claimed that it was the biggest gathering they had seen in many decades.

Some might take this claim with a pinch of salt, but the big gathering surely came as a boost to a party whose fortunes have been southbound for quite some time now.

One could feel the massive turnover at the rally from Maharani Bagh in south Delhi and Inter-State Bus Terminus at Kashmere Gate in north Delhi.

People were heard sloganeering against the UPA government. Slogans like— “Jab se Congress government aai hai, kamar tod mahangai hai” could be heard. They were seen marching from Rajghat and DDU Marg, where their buses were parked, to Jantar Mantar, the venue of the rally, to gharao Parliament.

Senior leaders of the BJP were in trucks. When the police saw thousands of people marching towards Jantar Mantar, it detained many BJP leaders near the Ranjit Hotel but later released them.

Trying to control the mob, a security guard sustained injury on his leg as he came under the truck that was ferrying the BJP leaders near the Ranjit Hotel. He was taken to a hospital.

BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told The Tribune that the police had appealed to the party leaders not to go to Jantar Mantar as it would be difficult for policemen to handle such a huge crowd and, therefore, detained the leaders.

Former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi said the rally looked like a ‘mahakumbh’ as lakhs of people had thronged to the Capital at a single call given by the party.

Ram Prakash Vajpayee, a participant from Chirakoot in UP, said the UPA government at the centre was a failure. People were already bearing inflation and hike in petrol and diesel prices had added fuel to the fire.

Shiv Singh Oswal from Himachal Pradesh said that over 12,000 BJP activists had come from the hill state to register their protest in the rally. He said that at a time when prices of all essential goods were sky-rocketing, it had become difficult for a poor man to run his family. Sonia Gandhi cannot imagine how people live in poverty as she has never seen such a life.

It was scorching heat but people marched peacefully. Stalls of drinking water were set up at various places on the rally route.

Besides, the organisers had made elaborate arrangements to provide food and water to the participants, many of whom had arrived yesterday and spent night in sarais and hotels booked by the party.

New Delhi, April 21
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today launched eight new programmes.

The launch of the programmes was announced by professor M.S. Swaminathan, chair for sustainable development, IGNOU, while launching his book, ‘Science and Sustainable Food Security’ at a function organised by IGNOU.

The programmes are on sustainability science, climate change, population and sustainable development, biodiversity, wetland management, sustainable management of Ganga, Himalayan ecosystem and sustainability audit.

Commenting on the challenges faced by the country in fighting hunger and malnutrition, Swaminathan said, “The accepted method for calculating the number of people living below the poverty line is how many kilocalories of food such a person consumes.

However, this method is being questioned now. Experts feel that data on housing and education should also be included in the calculation. Food security should mean physical, social and economic access to a balanced diet, which includes micronutrients, vitamins, clean drinking water and primary health care.”

Swaminathan said the current inflation in prices of food items was largely due to the increase in the prices of milk and pulses.

“To increase the production of milk, the country will need more food for its livestock, which means that we need to grow food for 1.5 billion people as well as 1 billion animals,” he said.

One of the major challenges that the country is facing today is the fact that land is a shrinking resource for agriculture, said Swaminathan.

He said that scientists had a great role to play in this problem, especially in the use of appropriate technology for improving the environment for agriculture. “They should not just predict, but shape the future,” said Swaminathan.

IGNOU vice-chancellor, V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, said, “The country needs to focus on nutrition, food security and education. Rest of the things will automatically fall into place. Any country which has focused on these three needs has become empowered.”

Dedicated to Dr. Norman Borlaug, who along with Swaminathan was at the forefront of the scientific achievements that led to the Green Revolution, the book provides a roadmap for achieving sustainable agricultural advancement and food security.

The book showcases a number of methods of linking ecological security with livelihood security, and provides a scientific basis for entering an era of bio-happiness based on sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity. 

New Delhi, April 21
After a gap of seven years owing to a controversy over its selection committee, St. Stephen’s College would finally start appointing permanent teachers.

So far, the premier college of Delhi University (DU) was managing with ad hoc teachers, who would often quit leading to serious academic problems. The selection committee of the college comprised to look into the appointments was not in sync with DU guidelines, and hence the university administration had not allowed the college to make appointments in the past seven years. A case is pending in a local court in this regard.

In a recent move, official sources said, the college’s governing committee decided to formulate a selection committee that confirmed to the DU statutes while simultaneously arguing its case in the court.

The college has advertised vacancies for three posts each in chemistry and economics, two each in English and mathematics, four in physics and one each in history, philosophy and Urdu in the general category.

More than 20 general and physically handicapped category posts at the assistant professor level were lying vacant in different departments.

“The college has been relying on ad hoc appointments and the teachers kept quitting for permanent jobs frequently. But now we have decided to go by the university guidelines till our case is pending in the court,” said Nandita Narayan, spokesperson, St. Stephen’s College.

Being a minority institute, the college goes by its own guidelines while comprising the selection committee, in which the representatives of the church are also appointed. However, the DU administration did not give a nod to the composition of the committee and asked the college to go by the university statutes.

“The college was not able to appoint any permanent teacher and students were suffering because of this, so the governing body was asked to comply with the rules of DU for the time being,” said Narayan.

The first round of interviews for the appointments would be held on April 28, where candidates under the physically handicapped (PH) category would be interviewed. The appointments would be made according to the eligibility criteria, qualifications and pay scales as per the university and University Grants Commission (UGC) rules.

“It is a good move. A sense of frustration had started creeping into our minds. All of us would sit for the interviews,” said an adhoc teacher from the college’s history department.

New Delhi, April 21
In what was billed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ groups as the first-ever students’ referendum in the country, students have overwhelmingly voted against any change in the university’s statute, which could facilitate a second term for vice chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya.

As many as 2,563 students voted against the move, while a mere 165 students voted in favour.

The referendum went on till 10 pm yesterday.

The second session of the referendum witnessed much drama with students shouting slogans like “Commercialisation par chot karo, no par vote karo” (voting against would be a blow to commercialisation of education) and “No to the second term is a yes to the plural, democratic and socially sensitive character of JNU”.

Though the students who voted in favour of the vice chancellor’s second term could not be identified, the students’ leaders said they were perhaps non-political students who did it for fun.

All students’ organisations, excluding the ABVP, had called the referendum against the proposed change in JNU statute. They had argued that a non-democratic post should not be occupied by one person for more than five years.

However, by the time the referendum started the ABVP also asked its supporters to vote against the second term for vice chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya.

“The result of the referendum shows that students are against any move to play around with JNU statute,” said P. Anand, JNU office-bearer, SFI.

The agenda of introducing the change in the statute would be discussed in the executive committee meeting on April 27.

“The war is not yet over. The karamchari, teachers and students should come together on the day of executive council meeting to pressurise the administration to remove the agenda from the list,” said Shephalika, vice president, JNU Students’ Union. 

Ghaziabad, April 21
Dowry greedy in-laws in Sambhawali here allegedly burnt a woman and her two children to death on Monday.

According to reports, the husband of the woman and his parents had demanded money and a car from her family.

According to information, one Yoginder Tyagi of Sikheda village had married his daughter Rinkle Tyagi to one Harinder Tyagi of Koli village five years ago. But the groom’s family was not satisfied with the dowry and had been demanding more money and a car from Rinkle’s parents. For this, they often harassed Rinkle and she had to live at her father’s house for many months.

In the meantime, Rinkle gave birth to a son and a daughter. But this did not end her plight and she continued to be maltreated and beaten.

On Monday, Rinkle was first beaten and then kerosene was sprinkled on her and her two-year old-son Vishal and four-year-old daughter Shivani and they were torched alive.

Hearing their cries, some neighbours rushed to douse the flames. Rinkle and the two children were rushed to a hospital in Meerut, but they succumbed to their injuries in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The bodies were sent to Rinkle’s parents, who cremated them in the village.

A report has been lodged with the Kharkhoda police station against five of Rinkle’s in-laws, including her husband Harinder Tyagi.

New Delhi, April 21
With the arrest of one quack, Jatinder Kumar Sharma, a resident of Paharganj, the police has saved the lives of hundreds of people who were under his treatment for the past 15 years.

Sharma was arrested after reports from the Delhi Medical Council confirmed that he did not have any formal degree to practice, said the police.

Sharma was presently working as a visiting doctor at a dispensary in Lajpat Nagar-I.

The police has recovered more than 100 certificates of appreciation and participation in seminars and workshops along with the photocopies of fake certificates of medical colleges issued in his name.   

On interrogation, it was learnt that Sharma had given forged registration certificate of the Orissa Medical Council to the DMA for registration. Sharma confessed that he had never done MBBS or MD.

“He tried to take admission in a medical college, but failed. He then went to Orissa for admission in any private college. There he met a doctor, Suren Kumar Dass, at Maharaja Kishen Chand Gajpati Medical Collage in Behrampur and got a photocopy of his registration certificate. He forged the certificate by putting his name in place of Dass and practised in Meerut, his hometown, and Delhi for almost 15 years,” said a senior police officer.