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60-yr-old overpowers robber
Quake jolts Delhi
Insufficient staff bane of semester mode
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MCD budget likely to be pro-common man
Cord blood cells cure 7-yr-old’s thalassaemia
‘Poor conditions at shelter homes force kids to flee’
HC reserves verdict on striking docs
Cong has no solution for demolition: BJP
Gurudwara polls should follow proper norms: SGPC
E-Assess makes evaluation of papers easy
Woman held for DVD theft
Woman commits suicide, father alleges murder
Rs 8 lakh looted from bank officer’s house
Boy found hanging from tree
Gang of drug pushers busted
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60-yr-old overpowers robber
New Delhi, January 19 According to the police, Satish Chaddha, a resident of Rohini, had boarded a bus from Saibaba Chowk to Karol Bagh yesterday and two youths allegedly took Rs 4,000 from his pocket while he was buying the ticket. "He caught one of the boys but he passed on the cash to his associate. When the bus halted, the duo got down followed by Chaddha, who chased them, following which the police was alerted," said Chhaya Sharma, DCP (Outer). According to her, beat constable Harish, who was present near Saibaba Chowk, apprehended one of the accused, identified as Kirpal Singh (21). However, his associate Anand managed to escape with the money. Wanted in Orissa, arrested in Delhi
A Nationalist Youth Congress (NCP) leader, who was wanted by the Orissa police in connection of shooting at a municipal councillor of Sunder Garh (Orissa) about two months ago, was arrested in the Shahpur Jat area. According to the special cell of the Delhi police, Raj Kumar Yadav, a resident of Rourkela, had been national general secretary of Youth Congress, was apprehended from a DDA flat in South Delhi's Shahpur Jat on January 15. Yadav had business rivalry with area councillor Ashish Mohanty following which he hired some men to kill him. Yadav and his associates opened fire at Mohanty and others in which the councillor sustained bullet injury.
Yadav fled Orissa after the incident. According to information, Yadav is active in politics and held the post of national general secretary in NPC and national president of the Pragatishil Yadav Morcha. The Orissa police has been informed regarding his arrest in Delhi. |
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Quake jolts Delhi
New Delhi, January 19 The earthquake hit few minutes before 2 am. The epicentre was in southwest Pakistan, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Tremors of the quake were felt in Delhi, Jaipur, Barmer, Ganganagar and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and parts of Haryana. One person was killed in Pakistan due to a wall collapse and no casualty or damage has been reported in India. Residents in the national capital, however, rushed out of their houses after feeling the tremors. "We were sleeping when suddenly we heard the sounds of furniture rattling against each other. We immediately rushed out," said Archana Kaul, a resident of the Sarojini Nagar area of Delhi. The fear was greater in the densely populated areas. "The tremors were strong as they shook us out of sleep. But we remained inside as we could not have reached an open space even had we rushed out," said Shanti Luthra, a resident of Lakshmi Nagar, an area with high density of population and closely built structures. US Geological Service report said the epicentre of the earthquake was located 45 km from Dalbandin in southwest Pakistan. It said the focal depth of the earthquake was 84 km. According to the IMD, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 74 km from ground level. An official of the department said the area was located at the plate boundary of the Indian and Eurasian plates, and plate movement was the reason behind the quake. "It's a plate boundary region and plate activities were the reason behind the quake," the IMD official said. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake had devastated northern Pakistan and parts of Kashmir in October 2008, killing thousands of people. — IANS |
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Insufficient staff bane of semester mode
New Delhi, January 19 "We were very lenient in the course make-up and the checking last semester. We knew that students had to study a lot so we tried to aid their preparations as much as we could. Many portions were excluded at the last minute which we thought we could cover in the next semester. More so, just one examiner set the papers last semester; we didn't try and set a tough paper actually. But now, in this semester we have more topics to finish and that too in lesser time," said Abha Habib, faculty member, Physics (H), Miranda House. Others are worried as now, opposed to an annual system where the teachers are taking care of the entire course for the entire year, in the semester mode teachers are hired mostly for six months when their subject or paper needs to be finished. In this semester as well, many teachers need to be hired. Sources say that the physics department in the university has an acute shortage of teachers as of now. Almost every college in the semester mode will soon be conducting interviews for physics. Miranda House alone needs five teachers. Just two have joined so far. On the other hand, in the last semester, there was a need for chemistry teachers, but the uncertainty looming over the semester system led to insufficient staff. "During the last semester everyone worked round the clock to keep the labs working for practicals. But this time around, the labs are going to work according to timetables and many non-teaching staff members will avail the pending leave. In case there is a shortage of classes, practicals will not be completed on time. Also, certain colleges lack the infrastructure. There are not enough labs. The university will have to intervene and set things right soon," said Prof P Sharma, Maths (H) faculty, Zakir Hussain College. "Extra teachers will need extra classes and separate periods for practicals. The timetables, labs, classrooms and other details need to be worked out soon now," said one of the life sciences teachers at Gargi College.
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MCD budget likely to be pro-common man
New Delhi, January 19 The Standing Committee will present its budget tomorrow when it will make its decision public. MCD commissioner KS Mehra had in December proposed a hike of 5 per cent in the property tax across all the categories from A to H. According to sources, the corporation might decrease the proposed hike in tax on commercial establishments or properties by 2 to 3 per cent, thereby resulting in less increase in the total tax. |
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Cord blood cells cure 7-yr-old’s thalassaemia
New Delhi, January 19 More so, because she has been successfully treated of the genetically inherited blood disorder by stem cells of umbilical cord, which otherwise find way to the bin as medical waste, in addition to bone marrow cells. So, doctors during an interaction session, yesterday termed her case as a path-breaking medical marvel, with the case being the second one in the country. Life wasn't the same a year back for Harshita, said her grandmother, Krishna Aggarwal, when her life was transfusion-dependent and painful sub-cutaneous injections, once every two-three weeks, were routine to her as she was affected by a disease, which has afflicted 1.7 lakh Indians as per the ICMR's latest data. After the family learnt about the disease, it was ready to do everything possible for her. "I used to search the columns of newpapers and that is how I got to know about Cryobanks cord blood facility which we approached three years back. After Yuvraj's (Harshita's 3˝-year-old brother) birth, the cord blood cells were saved and our granddaughter was cured of thalassaemia," said Krishna, embracing her with a broad smile. But the case of Harshita, who underwent a tranplant with her younger brother's bone marrow and cord blood cells in February 2010 at B L K Kapur Memorial Hospital in Delhi, said Dr Dharma Chaudhary, was a complicated one as she had developed hepatitis C owing to repeated blood transfusions. While the ideal age of carrying the stem cell transplant for curing thalasseamia is between two and five years, the chances of relapse are high and hence the patients after such transplants are observed for one year, when the patient is asked to come for follow-up every month. "As the age advances, the risk associated to thalassemia patients increases and hence the treatment and following recovery also gets difficult," stressed Dr Chaudhary. The complications that may arise, in such cases of allogeneic transplant-treatment involving stem cells of either a HLA-matched related or unrelated donor-are due to graft-versus-host-diseases (GVHD). "The risk continues as the patient's body takes time in accepting the cells of the donor and to avoid the rejection of the tranplanted cells due to a fight between the donor cells and the recipient cells, immunosuppresants are given. So the patient is carefully watched and even after a year, the patient has to come for regular check-ups," explained Dr Chaudhary. Thalassaemia is a congenital blood disorder resulting due to inadequate making of haemoglobin in the body along with ineffective erythropoesis and it was only a decade back, transplant using bone marrow cells for treating patients of thalassaemia began in the country, maintain experts. However, the use of cord blood cells is still not prevalent in the country, with just one per cent of the population knowing about it. In this context, chairperson of Medanta Medicity Dr Naresh Trehan, who is also the medical advisor to Cryobanks, called for the need to have a public banking centres for cord cells, with doctors and people largely unaware about the prospects in treating several disroders. The picture is quite discouraging given the fact that while 10,000 transplants are required for treating blood-related ailments, including leukaemia, a meagre over 500 such life-saving procedures are done annually.
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‘Poor conditions at shelter homes force kids to flee’
New Delhi, January 19 The BBA said the information it received from the authorities under the RTI Act presented the conditions of 26 homes, seven non-government and 19 government, for four years, from 2006 to 2010. The statistics for the period of four years for 26 shelter homes showed that total average children residing per year in these homes are 2,650. As many as 1,807 children escaped among them and 1,750 children are still untraced, which amounted to 97 per cent of the total escaped children. Among the NGOs, the maximum number of children escaped from Prayas and their total was 807. Among the state-run institutions, the highest number of children, 169, escaped from the Children's Home for Boys, Alipur. "There is no trace of these children and even the authorities concerned have no idea about the whereabouts of these children. It raises a question regarding the efficiency and seriousness of the services being provided by these institutions," it said. The case becomes even grimmer when it was found that the children were not only found missing but even dead. The total number of children who died in the period was 29, which was really less in proportion to the total number of children residing in these homes. "It is astonishing to know that out of these 29 dead children 28 are from Bal Nirikshan Grih, Nirmal Chhaya Complex, Jail Road," it said. The information regarding funds provided as grant-in-aid or under various heads from different schemes and projects is not made available by the institutions. But 15 out of 26 institutions furnished the details of their total expenditure for the financial year 2007-2008. The total expenditure during the financial year 2007-08 is Rs 5,08,81,904 for 15 shelter homes. The total average stay of children in these 15 shelter homes during 2007-08 is 1,467. This gives average expenditure per child in the financial year 2007-08 as Rs 34,684. It means per month expenditure per child is approximately Rs 3,000, which is sufficient enough for a child to get better facilities and infrastructure in the homes. "Despite this, these homes are in dilapidated condition, which makes one think that whether the children are staying there for better life or bitter life," it said. |
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HC reserves verdict on striking docs
New Delhi, January 19 A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna reserved the order on a petition by advocate Prashant Bhushan seeking action against the AIIMS management for allegedly supporting the strike and not taking any disciplinary action against the striking doctors. Bhushan argued that defying the Supreme Court ruling, the doctors had gone on strike repeatedly in July 2006 protesting the government's decision to reserve 27 per cent seats in higher educational institutions for students of Other Backward Classes (OBC). Seeking identification of the doctors who had struck work, the lawyer said the apex court, while dealing with a petition on AIIMS doctors' strike in May 2006, had said the strike by the doctors was illegal and had asked AIIMS authorities not to support them. Countering Prasahnt Bhushan's argument, AIIMS counsel submitted before the bench that the erstwhile AIIMS' director had not maintained any record about the striking doctors and many of them have already left the institute. The bench was hearing the PIL filed by an association of SC/ST Medical Staff seeking appropriate action against the striking doctors.--PTI
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Cong has no solution for demolition: BJP
New Delhi, January 19 Leader of the House in MCD Subhash Arya said people were living with a fear of demolition in these areas, due to which they were neither able to repair or rebuild their old houses nor the MCD was able to sanction their building plans. "The MCD has raised the matter with the Union Urban Development Minister earlier through a letter where it was written that necessary amendments should soon be made in Delhi Master Plan-2021 so that a permanent solution to the problem of demolition be found, and people could repair their old houses for getting sanction of their building plans," said Arya. The Congress government had from time to time issued notification to prevent sealing and demolition in the special areas, unauthorised colonies, rural areas, JJ Clusters and farm houses. However, the term of the last notification ended on December 31, 2010. He said the Central government should top sealing and demolitions till December 31, 2011, or the time the amendment was made.
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Gurudwara polls should follow proper norms: SGPC
New Delhi, January 19 In a letter to the Lt-Governor, Bhogal said that the process of gurudwara committee elections had started. Some staff are deployed for enrolling the eligible Sikh voters. Temporary offices have been set up nearby gurudwaras in each ward. The staff members do not go from door to door that is violation of the Lt-Governor's direction. Bhogal said that as the gurudwara committee had been formed under the Parliament Act so the government should follow election procedures adopted for the Assembly as well as Parliament elections. During delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies, election official used to go from door to door for the registration of voters' names. But in case of gurudwara committee elections, they do not do so. |
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E-Assess makes evaluation of papers easy
New Delhi, January 19 In addition, the E-Valuator ensures timely online valuation of subjective exams or assignments and helps bring in speed and standardisation in evaluation methods. These two highly-advanced technology solutions were introduced by TRS Forms and Services Pvt Ltd, a leading provider in the domain of educational technology, and the two technology solutions target at addressing vital issues of subjective exam valuation and difficulties in the assessment process. Talking about the solution that caters to the issues of answer-sheet valuation, TRS founder N Subramanian, said, "Every year the volume of students appearing for exams is swelling and 20 per cent of them ask for re-evaluation. TRS provides a solution 'E-Valuator' which is cost-effective and helps in easing this process. It saves time for the institutions and teachers in completing their process of evaluation and re-valuation. This will enable web-based online evaluation software in which scanning, indexing and evaluation modules are integrated together that helps correct subjective-type answer sheets with acute precision. Also, it helps in establishing great level of confidentiality and transparency in the process." Talking about certain features inbuilt, Subramanian said, "There are features like answer book digitisation which helps in automatic archiving of the answer booklets. Others include option of sending a copy of the answer booklet to the students through email for high level of transparency; automatic suppression of student identity for high level of confidentiality; option of multiple evaluations for one answer booklet; marks can be awarded, viewed and corrected for individual question with ease." Talking of the subsequent solution, TRS strategic partner R Ramkumar, said, "E-Assess is an innovative and interactive solution for test creation and assessment. This is not only for objective type of testing but also for subjective type of testing. It is a useful tool for online testing for both objective and subjective. It provides a user-friendly and unique platform to the individuals and institutions for creating, publishing and evaluating examinations, both online and offline using state-of-the-art interactive software backed by an advanced technology system." Ramkumar also added, "Daily, weekly assignments and projects can be sent out to students anytime and later, post-logging in through a unique user ID can take the test and submit the answers online. Security features available are set to detect and prevent any unethical means of taking the test. Further, the collection, display and management of test results are all integrated in E-Assess which let users view results in popular data formats as well as in picture formats. Candidates can receive help for any wrong answer by an expert trainer through video clipping option".
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Woman held for DVD theft
New Delhi, January 19 The accused was caught in the CCTV footage while she was lifting the DVD player from the shop at Sarojini Nagar Market. According to HGS Dhaliwal, DCP (south), the accused has been identified as Sunita Sharma (42), resident of Darya Ganj in Central Delhi and has previous police record. According to information, Vikas Verma, shop owner in Sarojini Nagar Market reported to the Sarojini Nagar police station that on December 29, he noticed a small DVD missing from his shop and on checking the CCTV, found a woman slipping away with the electronic item. The same woman, later identified as Sunita again came to the shop with intention of theft on January 15 and even as shopkeepers tried to apprehend her, she managed to give them the slip. However, in the scuffle she left behind her purse with some money and a paper slip with some one's address and a mobile number.
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Woman commits suicide, father alleges murder
New Delhi, January 19 While the husband of the deceased said she had committed suicide due to depression over health ailments, her father has alleged she was being pressurised to bring Rs 2 lakh as dowry. The police is investigating the matter and has detained Gurudev Singh (28), husband of the deceased Harpreet Kaur, and his family. According to information, Harpreet was brought to the Metro Hospital in Ranjit Nagar at 3 pm by Gurudev yesterday, but was declared brought dead. Singh said around 2.30 pm, he found his wife hanging from the ceiling fan in her room, after which he and his family rushed Harpreet to the hospital. "She was depressed for sometime due to health reasons," said a police official quoting Singh. Meanwhile, Manjeet Singh, the father of the deceased, registered a complaint with the police alleging that Gurudev had been harassing Harpreet for the past six months and demanding Rs 2 lakh and a car as dowry. "He also told us that Gurudev Singh, who works in a MNC in Gurgaon, was asking for the car," said a police officer close, adding that, a case of dowry death has been registered. |
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Rs 8 lakh looted from bank officer’s house
Ghaziabad, January 19 manager, ICICI Prudential. His mother and child were sitting at the park in the colony while his wife, Abhilasha, was at the house when thieves struck there. She heard the noise from the next room. When she went there she found two thieves who had broken open the cupboard. She tried to nab one of them. But as she was carrying baby in her lap the thieves pushed her and went out of the house and escaped. "Thieves fled in a car. Two bikers, too, were found outside who were talking to the miscreants," said Abhilasha. Guard of the colony said the intruders had told him that they wanted to go to Vinit's house. As several people come to visit him, he thought they might be known or might have come in regard to some policy work. Sahibabad SHO Rashid Ali said, "An FIR has been lodged against unknown persons." Till late evening, the thieves were not traceable.
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Boy found hanging from tree
Ghaziabad, January 19 In the first incident, a 14-year-old boy's body was found hanging from a tree at Gharmukteshwar today. His father alleged he was murdered. He has lodged a murder case against some persons. The deceased was identified as Salim, son of Nafees, resident of Phoolwari village. He had gone missing on Monday afternoon. His family members searched for him but in vain. As some villagers went to fields to ease themselves, they saw a body hanging from the tree. They informed the police. When the police pulled the body, it was identified as that of Salim. His father said he had old enmity with some persons and named Zamir, Micky, Zakir, Shannawaz and Waris. He alleged that they had kidnapped his son and killed him. Engineer’s body found on
terrace of factory
In another case, the body of an engineer Mukesh Kumar who had been missing for the last six days was recovered from the terrace of a factory on Meerut Road.
The company management claims he committed suicide while his relatives claim he was murdered. Mukesh Kumar was resident of Mayur Vihar Phase 1, Delhi. He was running a company in the name of Om Communications. He had taken the contract of intercom repair from the factories. His brother Bijendera said, "My brother was murdered. He cannot commit suicide." |
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Gang of drug pushers busted
New Delhi, January 19 They were held after a tip-off from near Sarai Kale Khan bus stand. While Kamil is from Pilibhit (UP), the other two accused are from J&K. The police also apprehended one Munib Bhatt (23), resident of Khanpur and allegedly the brain behind supplying drugs in rave parties in Delhi. |
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