New Delhi, May 10
Five unidentified armed miscreants entered the premises of a renowned gold financing company and after taking the employees at gunpoint fled with gold and cash worth crores of rupees in the Laxmi Nagar area of east Delhi this afternoon.

According to the police, the incident was reported around 12 noon from Muthoot Finance Company office/bank. KC Kannojia, the branch manager of the firm, called the police after the incident.

According to the information, the miscreants barged into the premises of Muthoot Financer's office and took the receptionist and the staff present there at gunpoint. They then forced the staff to open the lockers and decamped with gold jewellery worth around Rs 3 crore and cash Rs 3.5 lakh.

"A man wearing a headgear was the first to enter the bank followed by four other. They then held the woman and the other staff hostage at gunpoint. First they collected the cash from the cash counters and then forced the staff to open the lockers. They reportedly bought two bags with them and filled in the available gold and fled from the spot," said a police official from Mandawali police station while maintaining that the loss of gold is yet to be estimated.

According to him, the whole robbery took about 15 to 20 minutes and the robbers also took away the laptop of the manager.

The investigation team is surprised that there were no proper security arrangements at the office despite handling of so much gold and cash. The police suspects the hand of insider involved in the robbery who passed on the information to the robbers.

"Strangely, no CCTV camera was installed at the office and neither was there any guard there. We are questioning the other shopkeepers of the area and also inquiring whether they have CCTV camera in which the robbers would have been caught," said the official.

The police is recording the statement of the whole staff and customers who were present when the incident took place.

New Delhi, May 10
In a major relief to the poor, anybody who has a monthly income of Rs 6,000 can avail the benefits of Delhi government's free treatment provision for the EWS at all the private hospitals which have purchased lands at subsidised costs.

The step to raise the minimum income criterion from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,084 for considering under the ambit of free treatment provision came into effect from May 1 and this now falls in line with the minimum wages of the unskilled workers, which form the largest chunk of the deprived lot.

In the last quarter, even as the picture of treatment provided under the system at the city's private hospitals has improved, the occupancy rate continues to be dismal and a majority of the free beds are runing vacant.

In February, the average occupancy rate of beds meant for the impoverished remained at 15 per cent and with this latest step, the government expects more number of people with meagre incomes to benefit from the free facilities.

"The aim is towards having a total occupancy and things are progressing though slowly. Increasing the income bar, linking it with the minimum wages of untrained labourers, would definitely help in reaching out to more number of poor people," sources from the Directorate Health Services NCT Delhi (DHS) told The Tribune.

Earlier, based on the verdict of the Delhi High Court (DHC) of March 22, 2007, the income bar was fixed at Rs 5,000 that was later brought down to Rs 4,000 which continued for over 2 and a half years.

This time, the decision on the matter was taken following a meeting on April 13 of the DHC's empowered special committee, which comprises the DHS, principal health secretary, representative of the finance department and in-charge of nursing home cell.

While the government is planning to issue advertisements for public awareness, all the private hospitals concerned as well as government hospitals have been instructed to put up displays to guide the EWS patients .

While there are 40 such hospitals, three hospitals-Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Moolchand Khairatiram and St. Stephens- have declined to obey the DHC's orders, pertaining to the reservation of 10 per cent of IPD beds and 25 per cent of hospital's OPD services for the EWS. They have appealed against the verdict in the matter.

Greater Noida, May 10
Frequent agitations by farmers here have sent fear signals to entrepreneurs, with the result that no big or worthwhile industry has been set up in the Noida-Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway belt in the past four years. The investors are apprehensive about making big investments in the area.

Industrialists prefer Uttarakhand, Haryana and Gujarat for industrial investments.

The area is paying a heavy price for agitations by farmers. Industrial development has a direct bearing on the employment generation capacity of the area. Because of lack of industrial development, youths here are not finding adequate avenues of employment and thus getting attracted to crimes, which is creating big socio-economic problem for the area.

The population in Greater Noida has increased to mere 1.50 lakh in past 20 years.

"Who will come to live here if there are no jobs. Over 5,500 hectare land from Greater Noida to Rabupura has been sold in the past one year. But, not a single land has been bought to set up industry. All the lands have been purchased for setting up residential apartments or educational institutions," said president of the Association of Greater Noida Industries Sehdev Sharma.

Sharma added, "Three years ago, land was allotted to 250 small and medium-level units which had brought Rs 1600-crore investments to the area. But the companies were not given the possession of the plots allotted to them. In these circumstances, how can an industry start production? Not a single large industry has been set up here during this period."

Deputy CEO of Greater Noida P.C. Gupta also agrees that agitations by farmers have adversely impacted the industrial climate here.

New Delhi, May 10
Delhi health minister A.K. Walia today said that LNJP Hospital would soon become a premier healthcare centre for the families residing in the Walled City, central Delhi and other nearby localities.

The city government has made all arrangements to make a new orthopaedic block at the hospital fully functional.

"It will be started soon. This block has been constructed keeping in mind the requirements of the latest orthopaedic surgery equipment and modern physiotherapy system. The ground floor of the block will have emergency services, ICU, two operation theatres and one minor OT unit, apart from a post- operative ward. The first floor will have OPD services, whereas the third floor will house wards.

Walia along with local MLA Shoaib Iqbal and health secretary Anshu Prakash today took a round of the hospital which has been given a new look.

The minister instructed the health department and the hospital authorities to chalk out a time-bound construction plan so that a new OPD block could be commissioned at the earliest.

New Delhi, May 10
A 36-year-old self-styled commander-in-chief of banned Manipuri outfit the Kangleipak Communist Party (MC) and alleged to be responsible for bomb-throwing at Imphal Raj Bhawan in 2008, have been arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police from Bangalore five days ago.

The arrested commander identified as Nangthanbam Anand, alias Malengamba, was apprehended after Napolean was arrested in Delhi with 200 kg ephedrine on April 1 and told the police that he was working with Robindro who is said to be a trade partner of Malengamba and operating from somewhere in Karnataka.

According to Arun Kampani, DCP (special cell), the investigation into the information led the police to Malengamba base in Bangalore. A laptop, seven mobile phones, pen drives, internet broadband connection and documents, threat e-mails and extortion letters related to KCP (MC) have been recovered from his hideout. Produced in the court, Malengamba has been sent to the police custody till May 13.

According to Kampani, Malengamba was unemployed when first arrested in 2002 in a criminal case and met Thockchom Nando in Jail. "Nando motivated him to join his outfit KCP (Tabungba) Group. The outfit was involved in extortion and killing innocent people. Subsequently in 2009, Nando met him in the jail again and directed him to raise another faction in the name of KCP (Malengamba).

He was also nominated as commander-in-chief of the outfit. He extended threats to various political leaders, government officials and MNC executives in order to get protection money," said Kampani.

When the police in Manipur built up pressure on him, he along with his wife Salima Soibam and son Jemson, shifted to Goa. After staying there for a short span of time, he shifted to Bangalore about seven months ago.

Nando also nominated Malengamba as public secretary of the outfit to give press notes on the behalf of the outfit. He used to give all the press releases in order to make impact on local people and wrote on letter pad of the KCP for seeking financial contribution from various business houses, individuals and officials.

New Delhi, May 10
A 32-year-old woman, who was married four years ago, allegedly hanged herself to get rid of constant harassment by in-laws for dowry. The incident happened in the Paschim Vihar area last night.

The deceased has been identified as Rekha. She worked as a temporary teacher at a primary school at Pandav Nagar.

The incident came to light around 7 pm when Rekha was rushed to Balaji Hospital by her in-laws after she was found hanging with a stole at her residence in Shubham Enclave. The police has seized the body and sent it for postmortem at Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital.

An inquiry has been ordered after the family of the deceased alleged that she was being harassed by her husband and his family for dowry.

"Rekha married Sanjeev, also a teacher, in 2007. But it seems there were problems between the two. Rekha's family has alleged that Sanjeev used to beat her for not bringing enough dowry and his mother was the instigator. We have detained Sanjeev and his mother Om Lata and are questioning them," said a police official from Paschim Vihar police station.

New Delhi, May 10
The ongoing examinations for the 13 undergraduate science courses running in semester courses at Delhi University have trouble in store for the students as they are clueless about the date for the qualifying paper of environmental science.

Even after the exams began, the university had still not announced the date of the exam, troubling the students.

At last, on May 5 a notification was published on the university website that said the exam would now take place in the third semester and not this semester. The notification addressed to the college principals has still not reached the students as most of them are still wondering when their exam is.

This is a compulsory paper to be taken by the students of all the 13 undergraduate science courses following the semester system across all the 30 colleges of the university teaching these courses.

"We just have two exams left now. Most of us are outstation students who have already booked their tickets to go back home after the exams as we have to vacate the hostels during summer vacations. We have no clue whatsoever when the exam is. Even my friends in other colleges are clueless, when we ask the teachers, they are clueless themselves," said Anuradha, physics (Hons) student from Miranda House.

"We do not know what to study. Our seniors had English as their qualifying paper and we have environmental science. This is a self-taught paper. We have studied for it ourselves. We have still not been told what readings to refer to, where to prepare from. Even though we are worried that when the paper will take place, we still don't know where to study from," she added.

"This is just one of the fallouts of the semester system for which students have to pay dearly this year. Till now, only implementation in 13 courses has such significant loopholes. Soon, more problems will surface in other courses as well, if the hasty implementation of semester system in all courses continues," said Abha Dev Habib, physics teacher, Miranda House.

New Delhi, May 10
Twenty children were rescued from zari units in Garhi Gaon and from hotels and road-side eateries of the Amar Colony police station area today.

These children, mostly from Bihar and West Bengal and in the age-bracket of 8-14 years, were trafficked from their native places by middlemen who allured them for a better living in the Capital of dreams.

In reality, they had to work for more than 10-12 hours without proper food and rest, a nightmare for many of those rescued. Located in south Delhi, the units where the child labouers were forced to stay and work was situated in narrow clumsy lanes, followed by steep and dark staircases. The working places hardly seemed to be places of human survival, said the officials involved in the rescue operation.

During the operation, six employers have been arrested and eight factories have been sealed. The raid, carried out by officials of the district task force on elimination of child labour, SDM, Kalkaji labour department, Delhi police and the activists of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), followed after the complaints filed by BBA.

According to the activists of BBA, some of the kids were beaten up by their employers when they were not able to accomplish their task on time and many were forced to work with empty stomach. Farhan, 8, youngest among the resuced, said "I am very happy that I don't have to work anymore. I want to go to school."

New Delhi, May 10
With the arrest of Subhash Kumar (25), a resident of Jharkhand, the south district police has solved the murder case of a woman, Mumpy, the wife of arrested accused whose highly decomposed body was recovered from their rented accommodation in Savitri Nagar on April 24.

The murder came to notice after the landlord, Babulal, informed the police about the decomposed body lying in the house while Subhash was missing with all his belongings. However, Babulal produced a "Tenant Verification Form" duly filled by Subhash which was yet to be deposited with the local police for verification. Using the information provided in the form, parents of the deceased were contacted who told the police that their daughter Mumpy and Subhash got married about three years ago after a love affair.

Chhaya Sharma, DCP (south), said Subhash was arrested last night from Gurgaon where he had come visiting a friend for financial help. On interrogation, Subhash said he married Mumpy because her father's economic condition was better than his.

"Soon after the marriage, he started harassing her and her family members for not bringing sufficient dowry. On the fateful day, a fight ensued between Subhash and Mumpy over a trivial issue of not paying rent to the landlord. Subhash strangled her and when she became unconscious; he left the house by taking away all his belongings," said Sharma.