New Delhi, August 6
Four persons, including two policemen on duty, were killed while eight were injured in a freak accident involving five vehicles: two trucks, a car, an autorickshaw and a police patrol car.

The accident occurred at the Mayapuri flyover in West Delhi this morning.

It all started when a small collision took place between a Wagon-R and a mini truck. The drivers of the two vehicles had an argument and were unable to reach an agreement. Pawan Kumar, the driver of the Wagon-R, placed a phone call to the police and also to his maternal uncle, Vijay Singh.

Within minutes, a PCR vehicle arrived. Vijay Singh also reached the spot in an autorickshaw. While the matter was being settled and the cops were recording the statements of the driver of the mini truck and of Pawan Kumar, a speeding truck came from behind and hit the vehicles killing Pawan Kumar and his uncle Vijay Singh on the spot. Head constable Deshraj and constable Pawan Handa, who had come in the PCR team, succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The injured have been admitted to the Deen Dayal Upadhya Hospital.

The driver of the truck that had first collided with the Wagon R escaped death narrowly. Since the accident had taken place on the flyover, there was no place for the victims to escape as the rampaging truck mowed down vehicles.

The driver of the killer truck fled the spot.

New Delhi, August 6
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has said that Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Tejendra Khanna had the overall responsibility regarding the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) with specific reference to security, law and order and projects of civic agencies.

A government-appointed group of ministers in January 2005 decided that the LG would have responsibility regarding matters under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit would look after issues under the Delhi government, said the report which was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

According to the CAG report, the DDA, whose ex-officio chairman is the LG, allowed several financial concessions to Games Village builder Emaar MGF, including revision of milestones and delayed/non-levy of liquidated damages.

There were irregularities in awarding the contract to Emaar MGF for the construction of the residential complex at the village under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, the report said.

It also said that there was a series of misrepresentations and accommodations at various stages that resulted in Emaar MGF emerging as an eligible (and successful) bidder through the consortium route.

It also stated that key issues related to the selection of site for the Games Village were not properly addressed.

The CAG said the LG wanted the Delhi police to persist with Tetra or Terrestrial Trunk Radio, a special handset-based communication system, even after the Games. The report called the idea "ill-founded and ill-conceived" because the police already had their own communication gear. - IANS

Greater Noida, August 6
In a relief for Noida Extension flat buyers, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) today reached an agreement with farmers of Patwari village. Now clouds over their dream houses have disappeared and they can hope to get their flats in the scheduled period if negotiations with other villages too were reached on this pattern.

Gautam Budha Nagar MP Surinder Singh Nagar told The Tribune today that the deal was inked between farmers and authority officers. He said, "The farmers will get Rs 550 per square metre extra. Also, the developed land has been hiked from 6 to 8 per cent. Abadi land will be regularizsed as it existed today. Further, their children will get 10 per cent reservation in schools and colleges to be set up here. Their demand of village development on a par with sectors was also approved."

"Patwari village pradhan Resh Pal and others have inked the agreement. On a similar pattern, we will strike deals with other villages. Dealing collectively with all villages was not possible, so we decided to deal with them individually. Patwari was selected first as the court had quashed the land aquistion here," said Nagar.

However, not all farmers agreed to the pact.

Dushyant Nagar, a farmers' leader, said, "The Authority has executed an agreement with one group of people. The agreement is not acceptable to all the farmers. The Authority has deployed a pick and choose method and formed a committee of members who have a soft corner or can be induced."

Feeling relieved, Noida Extension Flat Buyers Association president RP Tyagi said, "The agreement between Patwari farmers and the Authority has provided some relief to the buyers. At least some pattern has emerged on which the Authority can negotiate with other farmers. Our real relief would be when all the farmers from all the villages in Noida Extension strike deals with the Authority and get their court cases withdrawn."

Builders promise buyers flats at just few months' delay, but at old rates.

RK Arora, director of Supertech, said, "We will not pass the burden to the present buyers. For future allotments, rates would be hiked in proportion to the burden we will have to bear."

Meanwhile, at Noida, farmers from 11 villages whose land was acquired between 1976 and 1997 held a panchayat at Morna village. They have decided to hold a protest march on August 9 and give a memorandum to the Authority officers. They were demanding 5 per cent developed plots though the scheme was introduced in 1997.

New Delhi, August 6
The Crime Branch arrested five racketeers who sold forged marksheets and certificates of Jamia Millia Islamia for about Rs 50,000 to people who were getting jobs in call centres and private firms in Delhi and NCR.

The gang had been engaged in these dealings since 2009 and has sold more than 100 forged marksheets and degree certificates of the university to several people.

On August 3, the Crime Branch apprehended Nimesh Pruthi (29), Martin (35) and Atif (28), who were in a Santro car parked near the Surya Hotel in New Friends Colony. They were waiting for a customer to deliver degree certificates of undergraduate courses.

"The police recovered four fake degree certificates of Jamia Millia Islamia and four forged marksheets of BA, BCom, BEd and Class 12 from the three racketeers. Other incriminating material was also recovered from them," said Sandeep Goel, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime.

During the interrogation, the three accused revealed that they received degree certificates and marksheets of Jamia Millia Islamia from Jitender and Rehan. The two persons used laptops to scan the original documents. The police then raided the residence of Rehan and Jitender and arrested them. One laptop, a pen-drive and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence.

"The accused confessed that they have sold more than 100 degree certificates and marksheets of Jamia Millia Islamia to several people, who were seeking jobs in Delhi and NCR.

Rehan and Jitender were the masterminds behind the racket. After preparing the documents, they would give them to Nimesh, Martin and Atif, who sold them to customers for a hefty price of Rs 50,000 to Rs 55,000. The accused procured the sheets to prepare the documents from street vendors in Chawri Bazaar," said Goel.

The Crime Branch has recovered 30 fake degree certificates and marksheets of BA, BCom, BTech, MBA and Senior Secondary School of Jamia Millia Islamia. Two rubber stamps and embossed logo stamps of the university have also been recovered. Incriminating documents, including registration certificates of transport authorities of different states and VISA stickers, have been seized, according to the Crime Branch.

New Delhi, August 6
The Right to Education (RTE) Act may have many positive consequences of its getting passed but surprisingly it also has some negative consequences for schools and students in general.

One outstanding negative consequence of the act is that after its passage and implementation, general discipline in schools has suffered. Also, attendance of students has become erratic.

Teachers and experts said many parents and students had misunderstood the bar on detention and corporal punishment under the RTE. Due to a general lack of clarity and confusion created by certain clauses of the act, the teachers had withheld their hand and not taken any action to discipline students who need it. As a result the general discipline in classes and schools had deteriorated.

Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, some time back, has took cognisance of the deteriorating disciplinarian situation in the schools and requested the Center to issue a clarification on certain clauses so that teachers can be empowered to maintain discipline.

The problematic clauses are 16 and 17 of the act that bans the schools from holding back students with a poor academic record till class VIII and also penalises teachers for any form of corporal punishment that they may subject students to.

Sarita Singh, an MCD schoolteacher in south Delhi, said, "The act has effectively tied our hands. How can we discipline children now. We can get into serious trouble for the lightest disciplinarian measure. This has a direct effect on the children who are taking it easy. They feel they can get away with not doing their homework, talking in class or coming late to school. So, they are blatantly taking liberty and we teachers are in no position to stop them."

Ritika Gupta, another teacher, said, "After the act got signed, discipline has certainly come down. Students now feel they can get away with anything so they are taking chances. Attendance in the classes is low and students are getting up to all kinds of mischief. And teachers cannot take any action."

"Authorities should take note of deteriorating discipline in schools before it becomes a major problem," she added.

However, Vinod Raina from the CABE has different ideas. He said, "I feel that the RTE act is really about changing the prevalent paradigm of education in India. Teachers should be able to discipline their students without resorting to caning and corporal punishment. This is one of the purposes of the act, teachers have to keep up with the new system and adapt with it. There is no reason for discipline to be suffering. The RTE act aims to reduce the mental stress."

New Delhi, August 6
A 28-year-old man, father of three children, has been sentenced to seven-year jail term by a Delhi court for raping a teenaged girl half his age and fathering her child on the false assurance that he would marry her.

Additional Session Judge Kamini Lau sentenced the man terming the case as "a saga of lies, lust, treachery, tricks, sex and cheating." "The accused, by suppressing the fact of his earlier marriage, emotionally, psychologically, financially and physically exploited a young teenager since the age of 14 to 15 years and fathered her child when she was hardly 17 years of age," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said while convicting and sentencing North West Delhi resident Satish Bhati.

The court empathised with the girl's plight saying Bhati took advantage of her tender age and absence of any male member in her family and even got her properties transferred to himself.

While convicting Bhati, the court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on him, stipulating that, if recovered, it should be given to the victim.

The court said Bhati cheated two women simultaneously. On the one hand, he cheated his wife by developing extra marital affairs and on the other hand, he exploited the victim physically, financially and emotionally, it added.

"Wanting to have the best of both worlds, the accused is now in a hot soup, a situation which he did not contemplate," the judge said.

Holding that consenting adults have a right to make their choice of the way they want to live their life, the court said, "representation made by a person to elicit the assent of the victim without having any intention of inclination to marry her would vitiate the consent." The court also termed the consent obtained by the girl as tainted and based upon deception.

Bhati admitted his relation with the victim and also the fact that he fathered her child, but said it was consensual.

According to the prosecution, Bhati was a tenant at the victim's house and he lured her, came closer to her after her father's death.

The court noted the girl was below 16 years when Bhati first made sexual relations and it was too late when she came to know that he was already married and had children from his first wife as she had become pregnant by that time.

"It was only when the victim delivered a child when she was below 17 years of age and seeing that the assurances did not transform into reality, she started legal proceedings against Bhati," the court said.

It also observed that what Bhati has done is not only morally wrong but is also against the existing legal norms.--PTI

Girls enjoy the rain in New Delhi on Saturday. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

This month will be ruled by booze and loud music as every camp will try to reach out to as many students as possible. The Facebook pages don't advertise the student parties, but the political parties somehow manage to get the information and attend the parties religiously to mingle with the students.

Officials get cold feet

Fear gripped the Delhi government soon after the CAG had tabled its report in Parliament on the alleged scams relating to the Commonwealth Games. All the ministers and senior officials of the department concerned started planning to protect themselves from the media and the investigating agencies as there was a rumour that the CBI might investigate the alleged financial irregularities.

They were scared that they might meet the same fate as that of Suresh Kalmadi, who had headed the Games' Organising Committee.

The Chief Minister held a cabinet meeting on August 4 to discuss the report and chalk out a plan to save the government. She had a cabinet meeting the next day also when the CAG report was tabled.

Putting up a brave face, she told her colleagues that nothing substantial would be found out against the government in the end.

Even VIPs can't bend the rules

Even the VIPs have to abide by the rules. This message was sent out clear by the country's premier hospital, AIIMS, earlier this week.

The VIPs may be given preference in the matter of bed allotment and treatment, but not by giving the go-by to the laid-down drill.

At least this was something the sacked CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi learnt when he reached the hospital for a medical check-up.

On August 1, even as the room number 2001 at the neurosciences tower was being readied for the MP from Pune, he had to wait for more than five hours after reaching the hospital around 10 in the morning.

It was only after the Tihar Jail authorities submitted the required fee of Rs 12,500 that he was admitted to the private ward and all the tests had to be postponed to the next day because of the delay.

(Contributed by Jyoti Rai, Syed Ali Ahmed, Ananya Panda)

Faridabad, August 6
The police has nabbed three boys who allegedly gangraped a girl of Class IX in a moving car on Wednesday.

Sachin, who is alleged to have conspired with the accused in the case, is a classmate of the victim in Aashirbad Public School, is still at large.

According to SJM Nagar police station SHO Narender Singh, all the accused are juveniles and they were produced in a juvenile court. They have been sent to a 14-day judicial custody.

The accused have been identified as Arun, Kunal and Karan. Arun, Kunal and Sachin are residents of Ankhir village while Karan resides in Sector 21-D, Faridabad.

According to the police, the three were arrested in Ankhir while they were discussing how to wriggle out of the case.

While Arun is a school dropout and has recently taken Class X exams as a private student, Kunal is a student of XI, senior to the victim. Karan is a student of Class X of TT Public School located in Sector 28.

The car in which the crime was committed has also been traced.

According to the police, the victim left her home in the evening to attend tuition classes. On the way near Chimnibai Dharamshala, three boys pulled her in the car. They allegedly gangraped her for more than two hours in a moving car and dumped her on Surajkund road.

The police registered the case on a complaint of the victim's mother.

The accused, along with the girl, allegedly zoomed in an area of about 10 km for two hours, exposing the policing system in the city.

The victim said Sachin had picked up a quarrel with her a few days ago and he threatened to harm her.

It was from this lead that the police proceeded and made the arrests.

Arun is alleged to have borrowed the car from a person in Ankhir for a short time. The accused took the car and committed the crime.

New Delhi, August 6
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today participated in a programme, "Dadi-poti ki khanaiya", organised by the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation.

"Delhi is a unique historical city which has a large number of monuments and heritage sites," said the Chief Minister.

She said, "Delhi is bound to become a world heritage site as 
it has a number of monuments. Every monument represents culture and lifestyle 
of that particular era.

The children are fond of listening to stories from their grandparents and they remember these stories throughout their life.

The memories of stories learnt through books do not last long. The stories told vocally have also been highlighting our past."

The Delhi government is planning to setting up heritage clubs in schools so that children can be educated about the importance of conservation and preservation of monuments, said Dikshit.

A number of games are associated with the history and culture like kite flying in the Walled City. 
To highlight its importance, the government is planning to organise a kite festival soon.

The term "dadi-poti" is used for two tombs that are placed side by side.

Actress Sushma Seth and story writer Manorama Java were also present on the occasion.