New Delhi, August 10
The stand-off of nearly 150 disabled athletes over the rampant irregularities and mismanagement in disability sports came to an end today, with officials from the sports ministry assuring them that the minister would meet them tomorrow morning.

Earlier, the section had announced an indefinite gherao outside the sports minister M S Gill's residence.

They were protesting against the reported indifference of the government towards their plight and nothing seemed to deter their spirits, neither the fear of being beaten by policemen nor the heavy rains

"Let them use force or police, but we are not going to yield until our demands are met. We are not allowed to meet the minister in a democracy. The ministry has remained blind to our interests and we would not yield and continue our fight against the discrimination faced by the disabled athletes," said Javed Abidi, the convenor of Disabled Rights Group (DRG), an umbrella organisation, which had led the protest.

According to the section, the government has ignored the concerns raised over the lack of basic amenities for training, including good coach, disabled-friendly environment and equipment at a time when the nation is going to host the Commonwealth Games.

"There are at least 15 disability sporting events, but India would have no competitors in two events, including wheelchair racing. We have been rasing the issue and invited the government’s attention through letters and memoranda. All our requests have gone unanswered. This is the treatment meted out to the disabled even as India happens to be a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities," he added.

Ironically, about Rs 13 crore was earmarked for putting up infrastructure for disability sports, but in the light of nothing significant on ground, the section has demanded an inquiry into the matter.

"Our issues have always been sidelined and even in the matter of participating in the CWG, we have been denied our rights. We want a detailed account of the allocation under the CWG head made for disabled athletes," said Pradeep Raj, who has been a table tennis national champion and a member of DRG. 

New Delhi, August 10
Metro will be the best bet for anyone heading to the Commonwealth Games venues. While most venues lie within a 2 km periphery, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has decided to run feeder bus services to venues which are a bit away from the venues, to enhance better connectivity.

The 12 venues will have easy Metro connectivity that will provide access to most stadia, Games Village, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex and Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium.

"The Games Village, where most athletes will reside, is adjacent to Akshardham Metro station," said Anuj Dayal, DMRC spokesperson.

JLN Stadium, where the opening and the closing ceremonies are to be held, can be accessed directly from JLN Stadium Metro station or Jangpura station in south-central Delhi, located half a km away.

Both the stations are part of the Central Secretariat-Badarpur corridor which is likely to open next month.

The Delhi University Ground, which will host rugby events, has its own Metro station, Vishwavidyalaya.

Another venue, Thyagaraj Complex, will be 1 km from INA Metro station. The station is part of the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar stretch that will open up in September.

The tennis venue, R.K. Tennis Complex, will be 2 km from AIIMS Metro station, which is also on the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar line.

Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium - the hockey venue and Indira Gandhi Sports Complex that will host cycling, archery, wrestling and gymnastics events, is 1.5 km from Pragati Maidan Metro station and Indraprastha Metro station, respectively.

The National Stadium can also be accessed from the already-functioning Central Secretariat Metro station.

The aquatics venue, Talkotora Indoor Stadium, can be accessed from the operational Jhandewalan Metro station situated about 4 km west of Connaught Place. The Yamuna Sports Complex, a multi-Games venue, will be 2 km from the Anand Vihar Metro station of the Yamuna Bank-Anand Vihar ISBT line.

The Doctor Karni Singh Shooting Stadium is the only venue outside the 2 km periphery of any Metro station. Situated near the Delhi-Haryana border in the southwest, this venue will be 7 km from the Tughlaqabad station on the under-construction Central Secretariat-Badarpur line.

DMRC has proposed feeder bus services to bridge the relatively longer distances between stations and venues.

"DMRC is planning to start feeder bus services to all Games venues that are not adjacent to Metro stations," Dayal said.

New Delhi, August 10
The heavy rains that mainly lashed southern part of the Capital today caused traffic jams near construction sites or the places where digging work is being carried out by the various local agencies.

In many areas, the construction debris lying on roadside led to waterlogging.

The control room of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi received four complaints of waterlogging, an official said.

"The entire area has been dug up. The malba lying around has clogged the drains and caused massive waterlogging everywhere," said a resident of Lajpat Nagar.

The worst affected area was the stretch between Ashram and Maharani Bagh and from Lajpat Nagar to Ashram and IIT to Malviya Nagar.

However, the traffic police did not confirm any reports of road cave-in.

Among other areas where traffic was affected owing to waterlogging and technical problems in vehicles were Escort Hospital, Bhogal, Ashram, Defence Colony Flyover, Outer Ring Road, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Sarai Kale Khan and Pragati Maidan.

New Delhi, August 10
Owing to the lack of awareness among people at large and government's unwillingness in taking ahead the step of standardising common school system through Right to Education Act, 2009, the number of dropouts in Delhi continues to be consistently high.

An interim survey carried over 25 lakh households of the city's JJ clusters, which is yet to be released, as many as 2.5 lakh children have dropped out of schools in the national Capital, which harps on safeguarding the rights of the economically weaker sections.

Many times, the Delhi government has expressed lack of funds and infrastructure as major roadblocks in the proper implementation of the RTE Act, but Delhi Commission of Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) is not ready to buy the argument.

"It is not failure of funds, but failure in management. Government-run schools give overcrowding as the main reason for denying admission, but if the government can organise Commonwealth Games it can also create services for children' education," said DCPCR chairperson Amod Kanth.

Coming into effect on April 1, the historic amendment, which had been in waiting since 1950, guarantees free and compulsory elementary education to every child in the age group of 6-14 years. Since April, DCPCR has received 8,000 complaints from children and NGOs, with majority of them pertaining to denial of admissions, said Kanth while pointing at the rising number of schools flouting the norms of the RTE Act.

"The Majority of the schools are reluctant in admitting poor students, but we force them and this is how 1,100 complaints have been entertained. But, problems continue to remain due to the current system adopted by most of the schools. Schools are conducting screening tests based on points and they have hiked their fees. They try to collect money on some pretext or the other and poor students are denied admissions," he stated.

The whole system is such that children of the economically weaker sections are denied entry to the neighbourhood schools, even though the criterion happens to be a baseline for nursery admissions in the Act, said Sarita Sarangi, member of DCPCR.

In view of discrimination at nursery level, the commission has taken up the matter with the Delhi government, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Directorate of Education. Hence, this year parents could have some respite in getting their children admitted to nursery classes.

Among the complaints, non-compliance with freeship under EWS quota, corporal punishment and mental harassment were main reasons, besides denial of admissions.

There were about 952 cases of drop-outs from government schools from Jehangirpuri, Bhalsawa JJ, 150 cases from Sangam Vihar and 200 from Madangir area owing to lack of proper treatment to children, said B C Narula, consultant with DCPCR.

With an aim to reach out to unreached children, the commission has started a project "Alert and Action Mechanism" and under it, an RTE cell with a helpline number (011-23862686) has been in operation. 

New Delhi, August 10
A victim of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots today said before a city court that she knew Sajjan Kumar, the prime accused in the case, before the carnage took place.

The victim Jagdish Kaur who lost her husband who was in the Army, her son and three brothers in the riots said, "I knew Sajjan, as he had visited my house a few days before the riots broke out."

Earlier, Kaur had submitted that she had seen Congress leader Sajjan Kumar instigating a crowd during the riots.

"I had seen Sajjan telling a crowd that 'Sikh sala ek nahi bachna chahiye...jo Kindu Sikho ko panah dete hai unke bhi ghar jala do'. No Sikh should be spared," Kaur said, while recording her statement against Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case registered with the Delhi Cantonment police station.

"I had seen Sajjan's nephew Balwant Khokkar killing Sikhs in the carnage," she added.

Kaur was examined on the 15th day in a row today.

The court has fixed the matter for August 12.

On May 28, charges were framed against Sajjan Kumar, Balwant Khokhar, Krishan Khokhar, Mahender Yadav, Captain Bhagmal and Girdhari Lal under various sections of the IPC relating to murder, criminal conspiracy and spreading enmity between two communities.

The CBI had accused Kumar of provoking people against members of a particular community during the carnage that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. This had led to the killing of five persons in the Delhi Cantonment area.

In his defence, Kumar had claimed before a lower court that the accounts of the CBI witnesses were not reliable as they had changed their versions a number of times.

New Delhi, August 10
A blind couple were found murdered inside their house in the Vivek Vihar area of east Delhi today. The police suspects the hand of their two tenants, including a call centre employee, who have been missing ever since.

The victims have been identified as Rajender Verma (52) and his wife Sudha (50), residents of Janta Flats in phase-1 of Vivek Vihar.

The police said while Verma was smothered, Sudha was found tied to a chair with a stab wound and strangulation mark around the neck.

The incident came to light when Hema, one of the three daughters of the couple, telephoned them this morning.

"Hema telephoned her parents, but there was no response despite repeated attempts. She then called one of their neighbours, Amit Rana, and asked him to check if her parents were alright. Rana went to the house and found the bodies," said a police official.

The police suspects the involvement of the couple's two tenants, who started living in their house just a week ago, and have gone missing.

One of them has been identified as Ashwini, who works in a call-centre in Noida. "Their police verification had not been conducted. The victims lived on the ground floor while the suspects on the second floor," the official said.

Ashwini was reportedly spotted by residents in the morning, but later went missing. Around Rs 50,000 and some jewellery are allegedly missing from the house.

The couple's daughters-- Hema, Anjali and Lalita, all married and staying with their husbands in different parts of the Capital have been informed.

"Their daughters said the couple was planning to shift to Noida soon. The victims' bodies have been sent for postmortem. Investigations are on," said a police official. 

New Delhi, August 10
Delhi University (DU) will flag off a special bus tomorrow to kickstart a national ragging campaign.

The campaign named 'Bus Aur Nahin' will be flagged off by vice-chancellor Deepak Pental outside his office on the main campus area at 10:15 am.

"The special colourful bus will travel from Delhi to Chennai, covering eight major cities. It will board volunteers from different states, besides showcasing drawings, hoardings, paintings and posters on no ragging," said a representative from Muthoot Foundation, which is organising the campaign jointly with the university.

Also, students from various universities will sign a petition against ragging. "The petition will first be signed by DU students. In addition, there will be a singing competition among students at the flagging off ceremony tomorrow," he added. 

New Delhi, August 10
A six-year-old boy was allegedly fell in a 30-feet deep manhole in south-east Delhi this morning.

According to fire officials, the incident was reported from Shaheen Bagh in Jamia Nagar around 7:45 am. The victim has been identified as Adil.

Adil's family has reportedly, moved to the place just last week. His father Md Raza works in a local sports company.

"Adil was playing with his friends when he fell in the manhole. A motorcyclist saw the boy falling in the manhole and tried to save him. Some locals also joined him, but Adil could not be saved," said the police.

After they could not locate him, they called the fire brigade. The boy was fished out from the manhole after three hours. 

New Delhi, August 10
The Delhi police has busted an international gang involved in minting counterfeit Indian coins in Nepal and then supplying this metal currency in India through big food joints in Delhi, Gurgaon and other metropolitan cities.

Sudhir Kumar (36), residing in Uttam Nagar, and Daleep Kumar (29) from Bihar's Madhubani and putting up in Uttam Nagar were arrested yesterday from Mehar Chand Market in south Delhi.

With their arrest, the police has seized 41,600 counterfeit coins of Rs 10 face value. A Maruti car used in transporting these coins has been seized.

"The coins were smuggled into the country through the border near East Champaran on tongas. Once the consignment crossed the border, the coins concealed in wooden boxes were either shifted to trucks which transport vegetables and fruit or to the Samparak Kranti Express. The gang allegedly used the guard room of the train to transport the coins," said DCP H G S Dhaliwal.

The arrests came following investigations into inputs about the circulation of fake coins in the Capital near food joints where coins are required in abundance. Some traders also made complaints about it.

They were apprehended when they came to exchange the coins with a decoy customer. Three packets of coins with a face value of Rs 1.16 lakh were recovered from their possession while the rest were recovered from the vehicle.

On sustained interrogation, they revealed to be a part of major international gang involved in minting counterfeit Indian coins of Rs 10 denomination in Nepal.

"The accused have so far given coins worth more than Rs 1 crore to Bikaner Sweets, Rajouri Garden and Gurgaon and Aggarwal Sweets in Tilak Nagar and Pankha Road and other food chains as these food joints are always in demand of coins," a senior police official said.