New Delhi, May 28
As the CBSE Class X results came out this morning, it brought along joy for some; disappointment for others. While many students gave the thumbs-up to the new grading system, others felt dissatisfied.

Unlike previous years when there was a cutthroat competition amongst students and even a margin of less than 1% decided the topper, this year there have been more students enjoying the feeling of doing well in exams.

Under the new system, students have been given grades instead of percentages on a nine-point scale ranging from A1 (above 91 score) to E2 (marks from 33 to 40) with D being the minimum pass grade; E1 and E2 are below 33.

Students who have obtained the qualifying grades (D and above) in all the subjects, excluding the additional subject, have been given the qualifying certificate this time.

The new system will not fail any student and neither will award any compartment. Students with low performance will now get a result declaring that he or she is eligible for improvement.

"I am satisfied to know that I got a 10 CGPA. Fifty-one students from our class have got a perfect 10 this year. So the hard feelings are much less. I totally support the new grading system," said Akash Goyal, from Amity International School, Noida.

"The new grading system will give impetus to weaker students. The well-read students will always find place in better schools and colleges. By a thin margin, a student will not have to repeat his or her entire year again," said Pratibha Roy of Bluebells International School, who also scored a 10 on her CGPA.

However, there is another school of thought which does not support the grading system.

"I feel there is a lot of ambiguity in the grading system. One grade that covers ten-mark gap will place all the students in the gap at the same level," said Sushant Jha of Modern School, Barakhamba Road.

New Delhi, May 28
The admission season in Delhi University (DU) got off today with the university selling 40,559 pre-admission forms on its 16 admission information counters.

Last year DU had sold around 27,000 forms.

Weather gods also seemed favourably inclined to the students as conditions turned pleasant and large numbers of students queued up at different centres. The arts faculty counter of the university sold the maximum number of 5400 forms.

The Dean of Students’ Welfare (DSW) office counter sold 4050 forms followed by Rajdhani College in West Delhi that sold 3675 forms.

Though queues were seen at information counters, there were not many students who submitted their forms on the first day.

As many as 1416 forms were submitted at all counters of the university today. The maximum number of forms 260 was received at the information centre at Arts Faculty.

“A majority of students decided to take the forms home and then submit them later after giving it proper thought,” said a university counsellor, who added that it was a better thing to do.

With the sale of centralised pre-admission forms starting from today, the sale of individual forms at St Stephen’s College also soared in a big way. The college sold the maximum number of brochures 2044 today. Each brochure of the college contains two admission forms. The college had sold total 2200 forms up till today. Total 500 forms were also deposited by the students at St Stephen’s while additional 270 online applications have been received by the college in total.

The counter for the sale of CATE forms also saw a rush as hundreds of students turned up to apply for entrance test for English (Hons.) course in some of the popular colleges of the DU.

“Our sales went up today as hundreds of students turned up to collect the DU pre-admission forms, but e do not have exact figures right now,” said Sumanyu Sathpathy, head of the department of English. The department is expecting the sale to go up from tomorrow.

Total five students registered under the physically handicap (PH) category on the first day. The university administration appealed to more physically challenged students to register under the quota. “We have around 1600 seats for the physically challenged students along with special infrastructure for them. Physically challenged students should come and join the university,” said Deepak Pental, vice-chancellor, DU. The university officials would be available at the Dean of Students’ Welfare office to assist students applying under PH category on all admission days till June 11 except Sundays.

There was considerable confusion amongst students applying under the OBC quota as they were expecting separate procedure of registration. Students applying to seats reserved under OBC quota need to apply through the centralised form itself. “OBC candidates have to put their OBC certificate number on the form along with specifying whether they belonged to non-creamy layer,” said university counsellor.

New Delhi, May 28
A 40-year-old Delhi police inspector was found dead in a park close to Old Fort near the Delhi Zoo area last night.

The incident came to light around 1 am after a Swift car driver hit the inspector's Santro car parked on the Purana Qila road, barely 50 metres from where the body of the inspector was discovered later in the bushes.

"The deceased has been identified as Shyam Sunder, inspector (investigation) deputed at the Kalyanpuri police station. The matter came to light after a speeding Swift car driven by one Sahil Gupta rammed into the Santro car which was parked on the Purana Qila road. The police team which reached the accident spot recovered the body from a nearby park when they searched for the occupant of the parked car. The body has been kept at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital for postmortem," said a police officer from the New Delhi district adding that the errant driver has been detained for questioning and his car impounded.

According to police sources, the body of Shyam Sunder bore injury marks on the head and neck.

Meanwhile, Sahil in his statement to the police said that after he hit the parked car, he himself got down to find out whether the occupant of the car was all right.

"There was no one in the car except a police uniform inside it. Later, when the PCR van came, the cops looked for the missing driver and the body was then discovered from the park," said a police official quoting Sahil.

He owns a garment shop in Dilshad Garden and was on the way to his residence in Malviya Nagar when the accident took place.

Senior police officers of the district, including S. Dash, Additional CP (New Delhi), also reached the spot after a wireless message regarding the body of a police official was flashed across.

The police officials refrained from terming the death as murder.

According to the Tilak Nagar police station, the investigations are on. "Prima facie, it is a case of accident and a case of rash and negligent driving has been registered against the errant driver but postmortem report is awaited," the police officials said.

Shyam Sunder is survived by his wife, Kiran (38), 11-year-old daughter, Jessika and a six-year-old son, Subham Pawar. He stayed at Block- C, New Moti Nagar.

New Delhi, May 28
The Delhi Mayor, in a unique appeal, today requested the owners of houses falling on the routes to be used by sports teams and officials of the Commonwealth Games, to carry out façade improvement and whitewashing of their buildings.

He appealed to the citizens to do their bit to beautify the city for the foreign visitors who will be coming here for the mega event.

“We want to request the people of Delhi to make their contribution in order to make the city look beautiful and aesthetic. Owners of buildings on Games routes can carry out facade improvement and painting to make them look better,” said Prithvi Raj Sawhney.

He also said that in an attempt to motivate people to take such measures, the corporation can also give them benefits such as rebates in property tax.

Earlier, at a meeting in April, the MCD officials had said that they were asked by the government to motivate the residents to take up façade improvement of their respective houses and buildings. They had also suggested that whitewash of buildings be carried out.

The civic agency has also asked traders in areas like Chandni Chowk to put up uniform signboards to make them look attractive for the Games. The traders have agreed to replace the signboards.

New Delhi, May 28
Taking advantage of his physical disability, a wheelchair-bound man allegedly indulged in illicit sale of liquor. He carried on the nefarious activity without anybody suspecting him for several years. However, his luck ran out yesterday.

The outer district police arrested the accused Sambhu Dayal (37) after a large quantity of illicit liquor was seized from his house in the Samaypur Badli area.

“We came to know that Dayal sold illicit liquor from his house. Police personnel in plain clothes were deployed near his house. Constable Raghvender was sent as a decoy customer to Dayal’s house. After receiving a signal from Raghvender, the police team zeroed in on Dayal’s house. A large quantity of illicit liquor of different brands was found in his house,” said Chhaya Sharma, DCP (outer).

Dayal disclosed that he along with his family members had been carrying out the illicit trade after he lost his legs in an accident. He used to procure illicit liquor from Haryana and sell it in Delhi at handsome rate. He further revealed that his wife, Versha, had also been arrested for bootlegging in 2006. She was convicted and fined.

“His disability helped him run the racket without any suspicion. On the occasion of Budh Purnima, all government excise shops were closed yesterday. He had already stocked illicit liquor for the dry day and was intending to sell it at handsome rate,” said Sharma.

Noida, May 28
Two persons were killed while six were injured in two accidents today.

The first mishap was reported near Chhijarsi. Three persons who alighted from a UP Roadways bus were hit by an unknown truck. Two persons died on the spot, while one was critically injured.

“The deceased have been identified as Saeed Ahmed and Sidhartha Kumar and injured as Guljar Ahmed. The injured was admitted to a private hospital. His condition was said to be critical till late evening today,” said A.K. Tripathi, superintendent of police (city).

Another accident took place in the Surajpur area of Greater Noida where Tata 407 tempo loaded with vegetables turned turtle. Five persons were injured. They were returning from a mandi when the mishap took place.

New Delhi, May 28
Angry over a petty domestic issue, a 47-year-old man allegedly burnt his daughter in his residence in Sonia Vihar area of east Delhi last night.

According to police, the victim Bindu (18) has been admitted to hospital with 75 per cent burn injuries and is in a critical condition.

The accused father Jagganath has been arrested.

The incident was reported from Pusta -1 in Block – B of Sonia Vihar around 10 pm yesterday.

“Jagganath locked his eldest daughter Bindu inside the room after he got angry with her over some domestic issue. Later, he poured kerosene over her and lighted the match. When the flames engulfed the girl, her younger brothers and sisters who were witness to the incident shouted for help. The neighbours came and helped the girl who was taken to GTB hospital where her condition is critical,” said the police.

A case has been registered and Jagganath was arrested.

Jagganath has six children. His wife died a few years back.

In their statement to the police, the children told the police that their father was a strict man and often beat them on minor issues.

“Indu (12), one of Jagganath’s daughter has even alleged that their mother too was killed by their father but they did not complain about it as they were scared of him,” said a police official adding that the investigation in the matter are on.

New Delhi, May 28
With the arrest of three men, the south district police has busted a gang allegedly involved in cases of cheating and forgery in various areas of the Capital. The accused men would allegedly target youngsters seeking jobs in various parts of the country.

The accused identified as Vishal Bakshi (37), Virender Prasad (37) and Vijay Kumar (43) were arrested a few days ago from the Humayunpur area of south Delhi. The gang was engaged in duping job aspirants wishing to go abroad.

DCP (south) H.G.S. Dhaliwal said the accused men would open an office and advertise about it showing a rosy picture of job opportunities abroad.

“The accused took lakhs from each candidate along with their passports and other documents. To convince the aspirants, they would prepare fake employment agreements. Besides, they used to scan the documents and prepared a fake approval from the Australian High Commission. They would then provide the photocopies of these agreements to the complainants, bearing fake seals of the Australian High Commission. The accused persons collected huge amount from the job aspirants and then fled,” said Dhaliwal.

Vishal Bakshi is a graduate from Delhi University and has two years’ diploma in computer training. “He speaks fluent English. He prepared fake documents on computer and dealt with the clients. He started his own business. But due to financial irregularities, a case was registered against him. He was arrested in 2004. In jail, he met with some people involved in passport/ visa racket. Then he started cheating youths seeking foreign jobs along with his associates,” said Dhaliwal.

To avoid any suspicion, they used to take office at posh area and employed some girls at the reception.