New Delhi, July 11
There was chaos at Old Delhi Railway Station where relatives were anxiously waiting for the victims of Howrah - Kalka Mail train that had an accident near Malwa in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, though the Northern Railway made an arrangement to treat the injured who reached here this morning. A few of them considered serious were referred to AIIMS.

A senior official of the railway said that about 167 passengers of the ill-fated train arrived by a special train around 6 am at Old Delhi Railway Station. Of them about 67 passengers had got down here while the remaining left for Kalka.

The official said that a team of about 10 doctors and six paramedics was present at the station to provide treatment to the injured passengers.

"We treated about 34 passengers at the station out of which one was sent to trauma centre," the chief medical officer Satish Kumar Gadi said while briefing journalists on the nature of injuries sustained by the passengers.

The CMO said that one Kazil (60) was referred to AIIMS as he was found serious by the medical team. The majority of the patients sustained head and leg injuries. Patients were given pain killers. Only 10 were administered tetanus injections.

Debashish, a 25-year-old passenger, said that there were screams at the site of the accident and there was nobody to help the victims. The local people reached there first. Many passengers were saved by God.

"It is God that has brought me here. My parents were waiting for me. They had been at the railway station since last evening. I informed them on the mobile phone that I am safe. But I cannot forget the accident," he said.

He had a head injury and was given first aid at the railway track.

Rahul Dass, another victim, said, "It seemed that someone had pushed the coach. Thereafter I do not know what happened. I was unconscious and evacuated by the security personnel.”

Ghaziabad, July 11
Three children, including a pair of twins, born to two mentally disturbed women are languishing in a hospital here with their mothers unable to care for them and no sign of their fathers or any other relatives.

The District Women's Hospital nurses, already overworked due to insufficient staff, are trying to spare time and take care of the three babies.

A woman, appearing to be in her late 20s, was found in an advanced state of pregnancy in the Vaishali area by NGO Asha Deep Foundation. She was brought to the hospital where she gave birth to identical twins on June 30.

"The woman was brought to the hospital on June 27. She seems to be mentally weak and is not speaking anything about the children' father or her family. She has not even told us her name. She does not respond to our gestures and remains almost mum," said Sushma Chandra, senior consultant (gynecology) and acting incharge of the women's hospital.

"She is in an extremely disturbed state. We have tried to speak to her, but she hardly answers. But from whatever she could utter, it seems that she hails from Assam because we also belong to that area," said an attendant sitting on the next bed in the same ward.

The other woman was found at the railway station and was brought here by Railway police inspector Shikha Malik on June 20. She delivered on the same day.

"The woman, who is recovering in the labour room, is also unable to reveal anything about herself. She is in the same condition and looks extremely disturbed. Her baby's father is also unknown. However, on asking her name, she utters Jyoti, so we are assuming that to be her name," Chandra said.

"We wrote to the administration on the same day the two women delivered, apprising tem of the situation. We have asked them to arrange for some home for better care of the two women and their infants, but they have not replied so far," Chandra said.

The children are being looked after by the staff nurses and attendants, who find it difficult to do this with their normal duties.

"As per the government's prescribed standards, there should be one nurse for five beds, but here, we have six nurses to look after 70 beds, a labour room, an operation theatre and a family planning section. There is an acute shortage of staff," said Nirmal Singh, a staff nurse and president of Rajkiya Nursing Sangh.

"We are in a dilemma whether we should look after the labour room or guard the babies, as in this case. Guarding means you have to constantly monitor the mother and infant. It is very difficult," she said. — IANS

New Delhi, July 11
Rising humidity along with frequent power cuts in several parts of the city is making life miserable for the people.

It is not only the residents of non-VIP areas who have to bear the muggy weather without adequate power supply, but also the residents of posh colonies are facing long power cuts.

The area under the New Delhi Municpal Corporation's (NDMC), which includes the Lutyens' zone, went without electricity for more than two hours today. The officials attributed the power cut to a technical snag in the transmission lines.

"The glitch was reported in the transformer responsible for supplying power to the Lutyens' area," said an NDMC official.

A problem was detected in the major transmitter around 9 am, resulting in power cuts in most of the NDMC areas.

The areas affected include Parliament Street, Ashoka Road, Lodhi Colony, Palika, Jor Bagh, Gole Market, Mandir Marg police station and Dalhousie Road.

A technical snag at NTPC's Dadri plant yesterday also led to long power cuts in the city. The power supply to the city fell short of 1,400 MW due to the fault.

Parts of east Delhi, incuding Preet Vihar, Shahdara, Dilshad Garden, Welcome, Seemapuri, Karawal Nagar and Nandnagri, were the worst affected.

The pleasant weather, however, brought down the power demand to 3,814 MW. Usually the city's maximum demand ranges between 4,300 MW and 4,600 MW.

New Delhi, July 11
A 25-year-old IAS aspirant from Sonepat has been arrested for impersonating a candidate at the assistant central intelligence officer (grade-II) examination. He had allegedly taken Rs 1 lakh for this.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Rohit Deshwal. He was writing the examination for his friend Sunil Kumar whom he met at a coaching institute in north Delhi a few months ago. Deshwal was caught yesterday around 10 am at a government school in the Nehru Nagar area of Lajpat Nagar in southeast Delhi.

"One of the invigilators, Mohammad Ali, got suspicious when the photograph on the admit card did not match with Deshwal. He informed the police and Deshwal was detained. He revealed that he was appearing for Kumar," said a police official.

Rohit and Kumar were arrested.

It was revealed that Rajiv Kumar Sharma, owner of Shankul Coaching Centre, Autram Lane, Kingsway Camp, had fixed the deal between Deshwal and Kumar. He was arrested today. He has done postgraduation in computer science.

New Delhi, July 11
His arrest because of mistaken identity has ruined his life. Amarjit Singh, a resident of Rohini, was arrested from his residence on a charge of forging motor vehicle papers 10 years ago. Acquitted by the court now, he finds that he has lost his business and virtually everything during this period. He has been running from pillar to post for a job, but in vain.

Singh today approached the Delhi Minorities Commission, seeking the help of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for a job, since he feels that it is the Punjab police that has ruined his life.

Singh was arrested by the Punjab police on a charge of forging motor vehicle papers on September 30, 2000. He was taken to the CIA office, Ma Di Sarai, Patiala, and put behind the bars.

After fighting the case for 10 years, Singh was acquitted by the court of Poonam Bansal, PCS, judicial magistrate, Rajpura, on June 6, 2010.

While delivering the judgment, Bansal said the two witnesses who were examined could not establish the identity of the accused. Also, the FIR, site plan and other police proceedings in the case could not prove anything against the accused, the court said. Moreover, the complainant in the case had not been examined, the court added.

Talking about his loss, Singh claimed that his daughter, Ravinder Kaur, was so shocked by the rude behaviour of the policemen when they had come to question Singh before his arrest that she slipped into a coma. He took her to AIIMS, but she could not survive. She breathed her last on July 30, 2000. She was cremated on July 31, which was coincidentally her birthday.

New Delhi, July 11
With Delhi University's academic council and executive council approving the semester system in the remaining undergraduate courses, the university is all set to usher in the new system in the coming academic session that begins on July 21.

Even as big hopes ride on the system, teachers still fear that problems will arise midway as in most courses, instead of revising the syllabus according to the new system, annual mode syllabus has been bifurcated to fit the semester system.

In subjects like Hindi and English (Hons), the existing syllabus has been bifurcated with no change in content. In history, almost 30 per cent of the course has been deleted and it has been bifurcated for this year.

"There was a lot of resistance to the system within the department; hence everything had to be done at the last minute. Background readings and core readings have been divided between two semesters. As a result, we have 18 courses in the first year, as opposed to nine courses last year," explained Prof. Sathpathy, head of department of English.

"We fear dilution of the courses. The infrastructure isn't appropriate. Teachers know that in order to finish the syllabus in the new system, we will have to cut short the elaborate teaching methods. Time will also be cut out from tutorial or problem-solving classes. The distribution of optional subjects across semesters is not clear either," said Prof. Abha Habib, Miranda House.

Teachers also worry that the system will affect quality study time. Others have concerns that the system will eat into the time of students' extra curricular activities and other welcoming traditions like orientation and fresher parties.

"Most colleges have the tradition of fresher parties within the departments wherein seniors and faculty members welcome the new batch.

The parties are mostly scheduled towards lunch time. This time, that will not be possible. There is no way any teacher can give up even one lecture for the fresher's night. We just hope that the new study system doesn't seem very burdensome.

New Delhi, July 11
Facebook has turned into a useful tool in the hands of a 78-year-old retired Army Colonel to clean up Delhi's walls. Shivraj Kumar is using the social networking site, very popular among the youths, to reach out to people and help rid the metropolis of ugly posters that deface and often disfigure public edifices and street furniture.

A few months after Shivraj Kumar started his 'Poster Hatao' campaign in the national capital in August 2009, he created a Facebook profile to communicate with residents of Delhi directly.

"There are crores of useless posters everywhere, and through this campaign, we have managed to remove many half-peeled and soggy posters defacing public walls. I wanted to use the medium of social networking to spread the movement," said Shivraj Kumar, founder secretary of Munirka Vihar.

"Many people have approached me since I created the Facebook profile of the campaign. The campaign has seen some young energy," he said.

The campaign has garnered around 207 supporters on Facebook.

The retired armyman ensures that one of his family members daily checks the account and maintains interaction with the Facebook supporters.

People use the Facebook forum to inform about the situation of their area. They post encouraging notes on the wall and appreciate the efforts of the campaign.

With the support of his wife Laxmi, 73, and through his network with residents' welfare associations and Bhagidari, the Delhi government's residents partnership initiative, he is getting support from Delhiites.

"People from all age groups are joining in to remove unwanted posters and make Delhi poster-free. And this has been helpful through intense campaigning," Shivraj Kumar added.

Shivraj Kumar held the first community project in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh in June where the veteran was assisted by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and area residents.

Even as he works to take the movement to the bylanes of Delhi, Shivraj Kumar wants to ensure its success across the city.

"The posters removed are of political parties, advertisements and tutorials," he said.

According to the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act of 2007, which came into force in March 2009, sticking of posters, banners and wall-writings on public properties is a cognizable offence.

The penalty is a fine of up to Rs 50,000, a jail term of up to one year, or both.

"People should know that there is a fine imposed on them if they deface public property," Shivraj Kumar added.

According to Vasant Kunj police station, two shop owners were last year fined on a complaint by the group. They were penalised an amount of Rs 25,000 each.

Shivraj Kumar explained, "The interesting part is that we have a team of volunteers who are allotted a particular spot to monitor and clean. A warning is given to those defacing public property. If they don't respond, we approach the authorities to fine them."

The campaign has also been started in Mumbai.

"If one crore residents of the city help to remove at least one poster each, the city will be cleaned in 5 minutes. And this goes for all metropolitans," Shivraj Kumar signs off. — IANS

Faridabad, July 11
The ruling Congress in Haryana got a shot in the arm by the recent laudatory reference made by the party's national leader, Rahul Gandhi, to its government's land acquisition policy, but the opposition parties made light of it and decided to take on the ruling party.

Rahul alluded to the Haryana's land acquisition policy in glowing terms during the course of his Yatra in UP for demanding higher compensation to the farmers for acquiring their land.

The principal opposition party in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, the INLD, which is in the midst of organising meetings at the assembly constituency level throughout the state, will finalise its strategy to take on the ruling party. According to the schedule, the meetings, by and large, addressed by former Chief Minister and INLD supremo, Om Prakash Chautala, are slated to end this month.

The INLD's ongoing "programmatic" action to highlight the failures of the government is a sequel to its month-long "mass awareness" campaign undertaken by the senior party leaders in the state in June.

While the Haryana unit of the BJP claimed that it was preparing a "charge-sheet" against the government, which would cover various aspects of its "faulty" land acquisition policy, the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) headed by Kuldip Bishnoi was in the midst of strengthening its youth wing.

However, the Congress is unfazed by the political shenanigans of its opponents. Senior party leaders assert that while the opponents have to still work hard to establish their credibility among the masses, the leadership provided by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana and, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at the national level, has already placed the party ahead of others.

Besides, the announcement of withdrawal of VAT from kerosene by the Haryana government in the wake of the last hike in the prices of petroleum products has provided fresh ammunition to the Congress workers to take on the opposition.

According to Congress leaders, the government in Haryana was the only government in the country which promptly took the step to ease the suffering of people.

This would go a long way in strengthening the party to counter the opposition's attack on the government and the Chief Minister, they added.

New Delhi, July 11
A juvenile who had eloped with his 17-year-old girlfriend after stealing Rs 25 lakh from his house on July 6 was found in Yamuna Nagar (Haryana) yesterday.

According to the police, the money has been recovered and the girl in her statement said that the duo had been in relationship for the past one year and they decided to run away after the boy was beaten up by his family a few days ago.

The incident was reported from the Raghu Nagar area of west Delhi wherein complainant Narender Singh (name changed) said that his 17-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by the juvenile living in his area.

According to AK Ojha, DCP (west), during investigation, the police found that one person Surender who lives in the same neighbourhood was also missing. Surender was close to the boy. "Since the boy had run away with huge cash, we apprehended that Surender might eliminate both the boy and the girl. Several raids were conducted at all the possible locations, including his hometown in Azamgarh wherein his family said that they had severed all ties with him since his marriage eight years ago. Finally, we traced him to Yamuna Nagar and recovered the juveniles and money," said Ojha.

Examination of Surender revealed that the boy and the girl used to meet at his residence and when they decided to run away, they also forced him to accompany them.

New Delhi, July 11
The crime branch of the Delhi police, in two different incidents, has arrested three alleged drug traffickers and seized contraband goods worth Rs 4.5 crore. Aslam (42) and Mohammad Slamuddin (30) were arrested from Shalimar Bagh in north Delhi on July 8 and Om Prakash (38) from the Kali Mandir area of Outer Ring Road a day later.

According to deputy commissioner of police Ashok Chand, the police seized 10 parcels of marijuana from a Maruti van in which Aslam and Slamuddin were travelling.

"A total of 105 kg ganja worth Rs 5 lakh was seized from them. They have been in this business for three years. Their contacts in Orissa sent parcels of marijuana through post office," said Chand.

Om Prakash was arrested a day later with 40 kg opium worth over Rs 4 crore.

During interogation, Prakash told the police that he and his brother cultivated opium on farmlands at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

"They cultivated opium on the lands of the farmers who had the licence to cultivate it, but did not have the finance. They then sold it in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana," said DCP Chand.

New Delhi, July 11
A 40-year-old cattle trader was allegedly robbed of Rs 35,000 near the Ghazipur slaughterhouse in northeast Delhi last night.

According to the police, the incident was reported by Hazi Naki, a trader at slaughterhouse, though the case is yet to be registered as his claims are being verified.

"Naki said that he was robbed of Rs 35,000 near the slaughterhouse while he was going to buy a buffalo. He had initially said that robbers fired upon him, but the police did not find any bullet shell at the place of the incident," said a police official, adding that investigations in the matter are on.

Naki lives in the Brahampuri area of northeast Delhi.