New Delhi, August 27
The light to moderate rains hit the traffic at several places in the national Capital. The Met department has forecast more rains for tomorrow--ominous for residents in low-lying areas as the Yamuna continues to flow above the danger level.

Rains were heavier in the evening. Serpentine queues of vehicles leading to the ITO could be seen.

The rains triggered cave-ins at two places, adding to traffic chaos while underling the poor quality of work undertaken by different agencies. Roads have caved in at over 25 places in this monsoon, a record of sorts.

A part of road at Aurobindo Marg in south Delhi caved in while a part of Tolstoy Marg also caved in near Connaught Place.

Officials said the Aurobindo Marg caved in near Green Park Market in the morning while the stretch on Tolstoy Marg gave way following the evening rains.

Traffic officials said they were forced to restrict vehicular movement from IIT towards AIIMS and diverted the traffic.

The officials said traffic was affected in most parts of the city. Rains slowed down vehicular movement, causing snarls at many places.

The humidity level in the city oscillated between 92 and 69 per cent. The minimum temperature was recorded at 26.7 degree Celsius, one degree above the average while the maximum settled at the normal 34.1 degree Celsius.

The city has received 681.6-mm rainfall this monsoon, which is 39 per cent above average. In August itself, it has received 437.8-mm rainfall, which is double the average.

New Delhi, August 27
The cross checking teams of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme have detected many incidents of mosquito-breeding in offices, educational institutions, hospitals and campuses of paramilitary forces, said municipal commissioner K.S. Mehra today.

"Due to recent intermittent rains in Delhi we have found heavy breeding of mosquitoes at many places," he said.

Taking into account the upcoming Commonwealth Games, Mehra termed the situation serious and requested the head of the departments of government and autonomous offices, educational institutions, commercial concerns and all market associations of Delhi to take measures to check mosquito-breeding on a priority basis.

Mehra said that creating mosquitogenic conditions and failure to take preventive measures would attract prosecution of the heads of the office or the nodal officers under the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Malaria and Other Vector Born Diseases) By-laws 1975 punishable with a fine of Rs 500.

"In case of repeated offence, the offenders will be booked for action under Section 269 of IPC, which invites imprisonment up to six months or fine or both," he said.

"Stagnant water in overhead tanks, empty containers, drums, pots and old tyres should be avoided. Disposable plastic or paper cups, and glasses should be regularly disposed of," he added.

Greater Noida, August 27
Two persons were killed and three others injured on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway when a speeding Innova car crashed into divider last night.

The incident took place in the Surajpur police station area around midnight. The Innova car was coming from Noida and going towards Greater Noida. The car was reportedly running at a speed of over 150 kilometre.

The injured were rushed to Kailash Hospital. Two of them were declared dead while the others admitted.

The deceased were identified as Swati and Jayesh. The injured are: Somya, Prarit and Sanchipta.

Jayesh was driving the car and Swati was sitting on the front seat. The car has been badly damaged in the accident.

Jayesh and two of the injured are MBA students of a Mumbai college. Swati and one injured is an ex-student of G.L. Bajaj College in Greater Noida. Swati was taking her friends to Greater Noida to show her college when the mishap took place. They had come to Noida from Delhi to attend a party.

New Delhi, August 27
The Delhi High Court on Friday held that an unemployed man cannot be forced to pay maintenance to his estranged wife as, in an era of equality of sexes, a person cannot be compelled to maintain the other if the spouse is on an equal footing.

"Under prevalent laws, a husband is supposed to maintain his unearning spouse out of the income he earns. No law provides that a husband has to maintain his wife, living separately from him, irrespective of the fact whether he earns or not," Justice S.N. Dhingra said.

The court passed the order while setting aside the order of a family court which had directed the husband, who was unemployed, to pay a maintenance of Rs 5,000 to his wife. The court said the wife, who was equally qualified as her husband and was working in an MNC, cannot ask for maintenance from her husband who lost his job.

"The court cannot tell the husband that he should beg, borrow or steal but give maintenance to his wife, more so when the husband and wife are qualified and capable of earning and both of them claimed to be gainfully employed before marriage," the court said while granting relief to the husband who was an NRI working in Angola.

"We are living in an era of equality of sexes. The Constitution provides equal treatment to be given irrespective of sex, caste and creed. An unemployed husband who is holding an MBA degree cannot be treated differently to an unemployed wife who is also holding an MBA degree," the court said. "Since both are on equal footing, one cannot be asked to maintain the other unless one is unemployed and the other is employed," it said. — IANS

New Delhi, August 27
The route for trial of the Commonwealth Games cycle race has not been completed despite daily monitoring of construction works for the sporting projects by a group of ministers and officers under the supervision of the Prime Minister.

The route of cycling trial was fixed through Connaught Place. Now it has been changed as CP is dug up at many places.

This has also been accepted by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that the works would not be completed on time due to the rains. But she expressed confidence that all the work would be completed before October 3.

Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta said that with changing the route for the trial of Commonwealth Cycle Race, a message has gone to the participating countries that the Organizing Committee of India is telling lies.

The trial run for cycling is to be held only after two days, but its preparations are not complete. Thus, the trial run has been fixed two days later and its route also changed to YMCA, Parliament Street, Central Vista, Rajpath, etc. Previously the route was through outer and inner circle of Connaught Place.

The sports equipment has become defective due to rains. It is not possible to replace it within the fixed time, he said, adding that nobody knows by what time the construction of stadiums and sports premises, mock drill for security, etc. will be completed.

New Delhi, August 27
The grand plan of authorities to redo the old Delhi and spruce up majestic Mughal-era buildings and historical Chandni Chowk for thousands of tourists during the Commonwealth Games has come a cropper thanks to the inefficiency and tardiness of the officials concerned.

The ambitious project of illuminating heritage sites, opening souvenir shops and snazzy cafeteria has also been scaled down and these facilities would be available at only a few chosen places and that, too, on a much reduced scale.

From the initial plan of removing all the encroachments from the dense old Delhi and jazzing up the monuments and buildings, municipal and government sources said they are now concentrating on simply cleaning up the place so that visitors do not have to face heaps of garbage and filth around.

Out of more than 1,200 monuments in the Capital, Archeological society of India (ASI) and State Archeological Department had undertaken beautification of 60 prominent monuments. But the rains have derailed the work.

An ASI official said they had brought down their estimates for illuminating monuments and narrowed down to 13 of them out of 46. So far only five of them, Safdarjung Tomb, Red Fort, Purana Qila, Qutub Minar and Humayun's Tomb, have been lit up and the remaining eight are unlikely to be illuminated as they are not left with enough time, the official added.

"Most plans were not approved on time. Payments were delayed and the disagreements between various agencies led to months of delay," he said.

Many heritage sites are a mess these days. The rains have brought construction works to a halt. "We have laid the foundation. But we cannot proceed until the rains stop. The plaster needs time to settle and it is getting washed away, day after day," said one of the contractors.

Cafeterias or food kiosks were to be set up within the protected areas of five monuments: Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Purana Qila and Jantar Mantar. However, ASI's failure to even float tenders so far has left experts wondering if the project will be ready on time. Other tenders, including those of public toilets, were floated only recently and rains have hit the work hard.

Some heritage experts have also questioned the quality of work being carried out at many places.

New Delhi, August 27
Nearly 25 per cent children above eight years of age are suffering from obesity in schools across India, while another 18 per cent children below seven years are obese in many schools.

The findings indicate that obesity is setting in earlier among schoolchildren, in many cases before adolescence which has been taken as the cause behind obesity among children.

However, the findings indicate that the popular cause of obesity among children is not just adolescence but wrong lifestyle and eating habits coupled with low physical fitness.

According to a survey conducted by Edusports, nearly 23 per cent of 4,098 children between 5 and 14 years possessed bio-mass index (BMI) higher than ideal.

Shruti Chawla, a psychiatrist, said, "Low physical fitness combined with wrong lifestyle and eating habits causes obesity among children. These days obesity starts early in children--well before adolescence sets in. The reason behind this is nuclear families, where parents lead hectic lives and children often end up being over-indulged or neglected. The result-- no one eats healthy and problems like obesity creep in."

If many suffer from obesity, nearly 19 per cent have low BMI and are underweight. Their fitness levels are low.

The Edusports survey further indicates that 42 per cent children in schools did not possess ideal BMI and are suffering either from obesity or are underweight. Physical fitness levels among school-going kids remain low.

Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road, said, "Obesity has always been a problem among a quarter of children in a given class. For maintaining good fitness levels, we encourage students to participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities at school. But obesity continues to exist among a section of students. It is a problem where parents should analyse where they went wrong with their kids and address the problem accordingly."

Harpriya Nakai, a teacher at Vasant Valley School, said, "I teach in junior classes and obesity does exist among kids between 4 to 8 years of age. Wrong eating habits and lifestyle contribute a lot to the problem among children. But this is not any thing that cannot be tackled early. Parents can get their children eat healthy, but I find that many feed their kids with too much of junk food and aerated drinks. Obesity is the result. Children require a balance of healthy food and exercise. The importance of sports for children cannot be ruled out as they help them burn the excess fat and lead healthier lives."

Amita Singh, a parent, said, "I have a 10-year-old daughter who has a tendency to gain weight. But I monitor her diet and she is not obese. Children must eat the right kind of food. This needs active involvement of parents. Unfortunately, with working parents, this is not possible every time. Also exercise is very important. I see to it that my daughter goes for her classical dance lessons and plays tennis."

New Delhi, August 27
Some of the celebrated authors were joined by leading politicians here to celebrate the 75th anniversary of a leading publishing house as they discussed the future of books and reading habits.

Former deputy prime minister and top BJP leader LK Advani, his party colleague and former minister Jaswant Singh, law minister Veerappa Moily, poet and film lyricist Gulzar, and famous authors Ruskin Bond, Mark Tully and Chetan Bhagat were the panelists while noted journalist M.J. Akbar gave the welcome address on Thursday and set the tone for discussion during the celebratory function of the publishing house, Rupa Publications.

Jaswant Singh, who had been expelled from the BJP for his controversial book on Pakistan's founder Jinnah last year before he was readmitted to the party recently, sat alongside Advani as both the leaders held their books: Advani, his autobiography My Country My Life while Singh, his controversial book Jinnah: India--Partition Independence.

The panel was near unanimous that reading as a habit would survive the onslaught of different mediums like online networking and videogames.

Bond said things are much better for authors nowadays. They simply hoped in the 50s and 60s that somebody would publish their books and some writers were even reduced to buying their own books.

"There could not have had a bestseller like Chetan Bhagat then because there was hardly any readership. Reading remains a minority's pastime but the tribe has grown now," he said.

Gulzar said tools of reading could change and books might metamorphose from paper format into digital or something else, but reading would survive.

He expressed concern over the fate of book-writing in vernacular languages, but said the future of writing in the English language seemed secure. "All vernacular writers now aspire that their books would be published in English," he said.

Advani said he is more a reader than author and books he has read through his life have made a deep impact on his values.

Moily said reading and writing would always inspire people and remembered how his illiteracy pushed him as a child to write by waking him up in the early hours every day.

New Delhi, August 27
A 25-year-old man, accused of being involved in snatchings and robberies, has been arrested, the police said today.

The accused has been identified as Sunil Kumar, alias Edal.

His arrest was made after the police took up investigation of the increasing number of snatching and robbery incidents in the area.

Intelligence was developed and it came to be known that Kumar would be coming to Khan Market to commit crime. A trap was laid and the accused apprehended from near the market while he was riding a stolen motorcycle.

He was signalled to stop for checking, but as he tried to escape, he was overpowered.

On interrogation, he admitted to have committed over 30 snatching and robbery cases along with his brother-in-law Dalip in the past three months in various parts of Delhi.

"Kumar and Dalip used stolen motorcycles with fake number plates. They used to target women carrying handbags and cell phones," the police said.

The police has recovered a countrymade pistol, stolen mobile phones and ladies bags from his rented room located at Begam Pur in Malviya Nagar.

Earlier, Kumar used to supply countrymade liquor in Sangam Vihar, the police said. Last year, Kumar and Dalip were arrested in two cases of robbery registered in Faridabad and Ballabhgarh of Haryana. He was also arrested twice in excise cases.