New Delhi, June 2
Two drunk drivers of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's pilot car were arrested last night for alleged misbehavior with a 22-year-old girl who was standing with her friend outside her house.

The girl had to suffer lots of harassment not only on the road but also at the police station before she put her complaint on a blank sheet of paper. She was also reportedly rebuked by the police officials when she asked for an FIR number.

According to the police, the incident was reported around 10.15 pm near Hanuman Murti on W Chowk of ITO. The accused, Jagdish Kumar Vasisht and Rajesh Kumar, both in their late thirties, were arrested by Tilak Nagar police station sleuths. They were later set free.

"The accused have been identified as Rajesh who was driving the pilot car at the time of the incident and Jagdish Kumar Vashista. An FIR under section 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman) was registered against them. They were arrested and released on bail," said a senior police official from the district, adding that the girl showed a lot of courage in tackling the drunk drivers and then filing the complaint.

The victim, Madhuri (name changed), is a student of music and is working as manager with a renowned event organising company on part-time basis. She is daughter of a priest and lives in the quarters at the back of the temple at Tilak Marg along with her parents and two brothers, Rohit and Mohit.

According to Mohit, the incident took place when Madhuri had come out to see off her friend who was visiting her from Laxmi Nagar.

"My sister was waiting with her friend to hire an autorickshaw for her when a Gypsy arrived there. Two persons were travelling in the Gypsy which, we learnt later, belonged to the Delhi CM convoy. The drivers made obscene gestures and asked her whether she would like to drink. Instead of feeling intimidated, my sister went up to the duo and asked whether what they were doing was correct or it was legal to drink and drive.

“However, this made them angry and they said that nothing could happen to them as they belonged to the CM's staff," said Mohit, alleging that the drivers tried to molest Madhuri.

She then went up to the traffic police present at that time, but they refused to intervene and said that a PCR call should be made.

According to Madhuri, though the police station is about 200 metres from the spot, the police arrived 20 minutes later. Seeing the Gypsy Pilot Car (DL13C0023), the policemen advised her to make a compromise.

"Two policemen on a motorcycle came from the police station and even before I could tell them what had happened they told me to leave the matter. However, I went to the police station and lodged a complaint," said Madhuri, speaking to media persons. Speaking of her experience at the police station, Madhuri said that when she demanded an FIR to be lodged in the matter, the police official shouted at her, saying that she need not teach them their work.

Meanwhile, the Delhi CM office said that the accused drivers have been suspended with immediate effect and the allegations are being investigated.

Greater Noida, June 2
The body of an 18-year-old girl was allowed to rot for over 15 hours due to a jurisdiction dispute between the UP and the Haryana police.

The police from both the states maintained that the body was lying under the jurisdiction of the other state. So, both the teams refused to send it for the postmortem.

Later, officials from Javer tehsil in GB Nagar district of UP confirmed that the body was lying in the UP territory. It was then the Rabupura police took it under its custody and sent it for autopsy. The jurisdiction tangle became a topic of discussion for almost 30 hours.

Yesterday, the Rabupura police received information that the body of a young girl was lying in bushes on the UP-Haryana border. The police did not remove the body saying that it was lying in the area under Haryana state. At the same time, the Haryana police reached the spot, but it also refused to touch the body maintaining that it was lying under the UP jurisdiction.

The police officials of both the states had kept arguing the issue till 10 pm.

Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers from Phalauda village, UP, and Bagpur in Haryana collected on the spot.

The Rabupura police then took custody of the body and sent it for autopsy.

The police said the face of the girl had been burnt with acid so that she could not be identified. The deceased appeared to be an unmarried girl who was wearing a shirt and salwar. The police said she had been strangled with a rope after which her face had been burnt with acid.

The police has failed to identify her so far.

New Delhi, June 2
A day after the President's office rejected the city lokayukta's recommendation to sack Delhi public works minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, president of Delhi BJP Vijender Gupta accused the central and the Delhi governments of shielding Chauhan. Gupta demanded that the file related to the case be made public.

Briefing reporters today, Gupta said both the governments were acting arbitrarily and were hand-in-gloves in corrupt practices.

If the government doesn't take any action soon, the BJP would file an RTI application to access the recommendations of the lokayukta and the report sent to the home ministry by the Chief Minister of Delhi, said Gupta.

"While it has been three months since the lokayukta recommended removal of Chauhan, no action has been taken against him till date. This clearly shows that the central and Delhi governments are involved and acting in an illegal way to protect the minister," said Gupta.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram know about this case, still neither Chauhan has been removed from his post nor a CBI enquiry has been ordered against him. The lokayukta had asked the President to take legal action against Chauhan, but the Delhi government misled the President through its report," Gupta alleged.

On February 24 this year, the lokayukta recommended action against Raj Kumar Chauhan and suggested a CBI enquiry. Gupta alleged Raj Kumar Chauhan, while he was the state revenue minister, misused his position to protect a resort in a case of tax evasion of crores of rupees.

According to Gupta, Chauhan had called commercial taxes commissioner Jalaj Srivastava on his mobile phone while a raid was being carried out on the premises of Tivoli Garden Resorts for alleged tax evasion. Chauhan had asked Srivastava to stop the raid. Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sareen took suo moto cognisance of the incident and started a case against him.

According to the BJP, last week, Dikshit met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and requested her not to take any action against Chauhan.

"Respecting the law of the land, the Chief Minister should have removed Chauhan immediately after the Lokayukta's recommendation. However, she not only failed to do so, but instead, questioned the constitutional institution of Lokayukta itself.

But the BJP will not allow it to happen.

“The party will go to the Legislative Assembly, Parliament and the streets f the Capital against corruption and send those involved in bungling of public money to jail," said Gupta.

New Delhi, June 2
The MCD, facing court-ordered police probe for allegedly paying Rs 500 crore as salaries to ghost employees in the past five years, has told the Delhi High Court that it did not employ such persons and accused the media of raising a non-existent scam.

"Since only 79,559 employees were found enrolled on the biometric attendance system, the gap of 22, 853 was noticed and the same was termed as ghost employees by a section of the media despite the fact that this was merely the gap in figures.

"Which could have been attributed to many reasons as till then all the employees were not marking attendance through the biometric system. Therefore, certain gap in the numbers was inevitable," K.S. Mehra, commissioner of the civic agency, said in an affidavit.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which will now take note of the MCD's reply on August 4, had taken a serious note of alleged conflicting figures given by the civic agency on the number of its employees working in various zones of the national capital.

MCD Commissioner, in his affidavit, said despite stiff opposition from employees' unions, it had installed biometric system at the offices to mark attendance of the staffs.

The civic body said "as on November 20, 2009, the total number of employees was 1,27,094, out of which 24,682 school staff was not intended to be covered under the biometric attendance system.

"Since at that point of time, only 79,559 employees were found enrolled on the biometric attendance system, the gap of 22, 853 (127094 - 79559 + 24682 = 22853) was noticed and the same was termed as ghost employees

The civic body rejected the allegation of the Delhi government that it gave different number of ghost employees in its various lists given to the police making the probe into the case difficult.

Taking note of the submission, the court had earlier directed the MCD commissioner to file a detailed affidavit specifying the categories of employees and their work profile within three weeks.

The civic body promised punitive action. — PTI

New Delhi, June 2
With an aim to secure the future of the children engaged in labour, the Delhi government is all set to chalk out a plan that would work by combining different schemes of the government such as National Child Labour Project, Integrated Child Protection Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan etc.

The target group comprises the marginalised children who do not go to school, particularly the street children who are seen begging or doing labour.

While giving details of the plan, city labour and industries minister Ramakant Goswami said the labour, women and child development and education departments would work in tandem on the plan.

Before finalising the plan, the labour department would hold a consultation session on the subject on June 14, two days after the World Anti-Child Labour Day, at Delhi Secretariat. The session will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The session is expected to be attended by around 200 people from various departments of the Delhi government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi police and senior representatives of national and international civil society organisations like UN agencies such as UNICEF and IOL, besides around 100 children from different institutions.

New Delhi, June 2
The National Human Rights Commission has asked the Delhi government to pay Rs 1 lakh as relief to the family of a youth who died due to "medical negligence" at a state-run hospital here.

It recommended the payment of compensation to the next of kin of 17-year-old Pappu, who died due to negligence on part of the doctors at Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital in Delhi last year, the rights panel said today.

It has directed the Delhi chief secretary to submit a compliance report to it along with proof of payment.

The NHRC had taken up the case on a complaint filed by Deepak, the brother of the deceased.

The complaint said that Pappu underwent a surgery for hernia at Guru Gobind Singh Hospital on January 17, 2010. "However, his condition deteriorated after the surgery and the doctors failed to attend to him promptly. Pappu breathed his last on the same day at 8.30 pm," it said citing the complaint.

On consideration of various reports and material on record, the commission found that Pappu lost his life due to negligence on part of the doctors.

"The autopsy surgeon in his report indicated medical negligence and sought to refer the case to the Delhi Medical Council. The DMC found that after the surgery, there was continuous bleeding in the peritoneal cavity. However, the doctors failed to take appropriate action in time on complications associated with blood loss, which resulted in the death of the patient," the NHRC said.

It said as the doctors were government functionaries, the state is liable for their "acts and omissions" and has to compensate the next of kin of the deceased. -- PTI

New Delhi, June 2
All those students who fear that they might not make it to a regular college at Delhi University this year, have solid options like the School of Open Learning and the Non-Collegiate Women Board that admit students for correspondence studies.

Students can later on shift to the regular stream in the second and third year, with sustained performance in exams.

Moreover, they have the option of gaining some work experience side by side with the free time on hand, which will reflect wisely on their resume later.

"One of the greatest worries that students have is that the open learning will reflect badly on their resume. But the final degree from SOL is the same as from a regular college. It gives the student recognition of Delhi University. The study hours are convenient, the means of study is affordable and if students come regularly for discussions and weekend classes, they can easily cover the syllabus, well in time," said JM Khuntia, member, admission council of the SOL.

"School of Open Learning (SOL) was established in 1962. In the first academic year, more than 900 students got enrolled in different courses, and today the number goes up to 60 to 70,000 students every year.

"Due to its inherent flexibility of time, SOL was ideal for me as I wanted to pursue my career, without compromising on my education. I have many friends who took to SOL because they stay far away from their educational centre. Differently abled students and financially backward students gain largely by cutting down their costs of transportation, housing and food that might accompany some eminent college," said Kirti Anand, pursuing English Hons, second year, from SOL.

"We at SOL have access to its online library database. We have fewer classroom lectures, and more time to clarify doubts. The process of registration, getting syllabus books and everything else is very simple. Teachers offer us their time as well, in case we need any help. And situated amongst DU north campus colleges, we always get the feel of a regular college," she added.

Apart from north campus, School of Open Learning (SOL) has established another centre in South Delhi; two more centres are proposed in East and West Delhi.

Another option for girl students is the Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board.

Established by an amendment of the Delhi University Act in 1943, the board enabled women students to take some of the examinations of the university with special coaching, but without attending regular classes.

However, women students residing only in Delhi can enrol themselves as students of the Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board (NCWEB). At present, the enrolment in undergraduate classes is more than 16,000. Over time, due to the steep increase in the number of students, space became a serious problem and several teaching centres had to be opened in various women's colleges in Delhi.

At present, postgraduate classes are held at Hansraj College, University of Delhi.

Major advantages of the non-collegiate programme of teaching is the low cost of education, utilization of the existing infrastructure and facilities available in the educational institutions during Sundays and vacations.

New Delhi, June 2
It is unlikely that volleyball player Arunima Sinha who was allegedly pushed from a speeding train would be able to play her heart's game again, but her spirits remain undefeated as she gets ready to wear the hat of a beautician.

Recuperating at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre (AIIMS) since mid-April, Arunima is currently undergoing a training in beauty parlour course offered by Shahnaaz Hussain while doctors are getting the prosthetics ready for her.

"She has shown considerable progress and could be discharged soon. Arrangements for her prosthetics have been made and the orthopaedics department is seeing the case and with their go-ahead, she will be discharged. It is to be ensured that she can move without being dependent on anyone," said Dr M C Misra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre.

Doctors said that the celebrity beautician had come two weeks ago and offered to impart beauty training to Arunima, who had been offered many jobs but nothing has materialised to date.

"I have to earn a living and that is why I accepted the offer. Shahnaaz Hussain has also offered to grant me a franchise in Lucknow," Arunima said.

On April 11, the 23-year-old, whose left leg had to be amputated, was allegedly thrown off from a moving train near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh on her way to Delhi when she resisted a chain-snatching attempt.