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Trader shot by cop; youth hurt
4 toll plaza men thrashed in Gzb
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Politics, cinema at Delhi literature fest
Art collectors’ tribe growing in India
Tis Hazari is in a shambles, your honour
Delhi Metro bags UN certificate for carbon credits
Panel to examine school fee hike set up
Bawana plant: Govt mulls buying gas from international market
Applicants file false claims to benefit from housing scheme in Ghaziabad
Spurious diesel unit unearthed
Warrants against CBI officers stayed
3 online courses
2 kids die in wall collapse
3 held for theft of luxury cars
14-lane highway to link Delhi, Ghaziabad
Hot Sunday
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Trader shot by cop; youth hurt
New Delhi, September 25 The businessman, Amarpreet Chadha, died on the way to hospital while injured Sunny was admitted to Bara Hindu Rao Hospital in a serious condition. He was operated upon and the bullet was recovered from the injured part of his body, the police said. The incident occurred when Amarpreet, who had a dry fruit shop at Fatehpuri near the Lahori Gate police station, had left for his home. He was residing at Rishi Nagar in Rani Bagh. Just after Amarpreet, along with his employee, Mohit, had driven out his Aulto car from the parking lot of Nawalty Cinema, a head constable, Ajay Tomar, asked him to stop the vehicle for checking, the police said. Instead of checking the vehicle, Tomar started looting the businessman. The victim pleaded him to take his gold chain but do not kill him. However, Tomar fired at Amarpreet injuring him seriously who later succumbed to death. While the head constable was running away, two policemen, who were on night patrolling duty came to catch him. They started chasing him on the basis of information given by Mohit. The businessman also talked to the policemen. When patrolling team found it difficult to nab the culprit, they took help of Sunny who had a motor cycle. When the culprit sensed that he would be caught, he fired at the patrolling team as well as Sunny and jumped down the Mithaipul. Sunny sustained bullet injury. The police also jumped down the Mithaipul where the culprit was lying with a broken leg and arrested him. The police took Sunny to St. Stephen's Hospital in serious condition. The police said Sunny was unable to give statement. Two countrymade pistols and four live cartridges were seized from the possession of the head constable. The police also raided his residence and seized 17 cartridges. Cases of murder and attempt to murder were registered against the head constable. |
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4 toll plaza men thrashed in Gzb
Ghaziabad, September 25 The men also escaped with around Rs 40,000 in cash. The incident occurred on National Highway-24 in Dasna on Friday night. According to the toll in charge, N.D. Shukla, the five men came in a DCM Toyota mini-truck around 9.50 pm and tried to pass without paying the toll. "When our guards did not allow the truck to pass, the five men, armed with firearms and iron rods, barged into the cabin, snatched the cash collected, and thrashed the four attendants present," he said. When the guards noticed the ruckus, they opened fire, after which the five retaliated, and managed to escape. However, no one was injured in the firing, a police officer said. "The four injured attendants were taken to a hospital," he added. Shukla alleged that the men belonged to an influential community, and the police was not acting against them due to local pressure. A 22-year-old, newly married attendant at a
toll plaza in Gurgaon was shot dead just after midnight on Thursday by a man who refused
to pay a fee of Rs 27. — IANS |
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Politics, cinema at Delhi literature fest
New Delhi, September 25 The Delhi edition will be presented by Siyahi, a literary forum. One of the high points of the festival is a session on "New Wave Cinema", sponsored by Om Books International, which features the award-winning director of "Rang De Basanti" (2006) Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra in conversation with cinema writer Jai Arjun Singh. "It is a celebration of the country's rich visual literature. India has produced world-class writers across all genres. Cinema holds a very special place in my heart and I am delighted to get Mehra on board to deliberate on the new trends of cinema and his contribution to the Indian cinema," Ajay Mago, publisher of Om Books, said in a statement. The literary spotlight will be on Esther David, who discusses her work in a session "Are You Going to Eat All That". David won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 and the Prix Eugenie Brazier in France for her book "Rachel", which is now being adapted in a French film. She has documented Gujarat's Bene Israel Jewish community for the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel. She has also authored "The Walled City, By the Sabarmati", "Book of Esther", "My Father's Zoo", "Shalom India Housing Society" and the "Man with Enormous Wings". Her novels are based on the Jewish ethos. Life in theatre will come up for discussion between playwright Mahesh Dattani and Sanjna Kapoor, while Left leader Sitaram Yechury and minister of state for communications and IT Sachin Pilot will try to probe the brand of politics which India will see after Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement with journalist Siddharth Varadarajan. A workshop on children's writing will be anchored by writer Anushka Ravishankar and illustrator Atanu Roy.
— IANS |
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Art collectors’ tribe growing in India
New Delhi, September 25 A small tribe of Indian art collectors in the last decade has grown marginally to 1,500 from a paltry 500. Art collection in India is growing, though still slow, say experts. The Indian art market is valued at a little more than Rs 2,000 crore. A recent outreach initiative, Collectors' Circle by the India Art Fair, has connected to collectors of Indian art across the country and abroad for the first time. It aims to bind them together as a community with the help of international art institutions and galleries to educate and identify potential new collectors and strengthen the existing base. A year-long programme in the run-up to the art fair in January 2012, the circle is open to all those who want to learn about art for a membership fee (Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000), said Neha Kirpal, founder and director of the India Art Fair. "This country has a number of potential collectors who have to be identified. The next five years will see the emergence of many new collectors because this is a period of collective enterprises and community building in Indian art and its promotion," Kirpal told IANS. "The number of high-end art collectors - people who would spend in millions on art - in India is still a trickle when compared to the number of millionaires in the country," said Sandy Angus, co-founder of the Art Hong Kong, one of the biggest art fairs in Asia. "There are very few contemporary art museums of stature in this country," Angus told IANS. Angus and his associate Will Ramsay are partnering with Kirpal for the India Art Fair in 2012. "This country has simply got to attract people to appreciate and buy art," Angus said. "When you go to Europe, there is so much more happening around art...In India, access to art is still the privilege of a few. The country needs a lot more education, curiosity, access and willingness to be part of the artistic heritage for collectors to emerge and grow," said Priyanka Matthew, head of the sale of modern and contemporary Indian and Southeast Asian art at Sotheby's in New York. Collection is happening but the process is very slow, the Sotheby's expert told IANS here. A few private institutionalised collections include those of Tina Ambani, the Lekha and Anupam Poddar collection, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Collection and the collections owned by top line galleries. Several leading industry barons like Basant Kumar and Sarla Birla, Suresh Neotia, Harshavardhan Neotia, Parmeshwar Godrej, Mahinder Tak and Sangita Jindal have built enviable collections of modern and contemporary art over the decades, said art writer Pavan Malhotra, co-author of the "Elite Collectors of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art". According to Ajay Seth of Copal Art, his "art promotion platform has compiled a database of 1,000 new collectors in the last four years". "People have more disposable incomes now to collect, but they have to be convinced about putting money in an art work," Seth said. "They have to be guided with frequent hand-holding workshops and they look for affordable art. Education and collection are just taking off," Seth told IANS. "Art collections are handed down the generations and visiting museums has never been on the top of the agenda of Indians," observed Bhavna Kakar of Delhi-based gallery Latitude 28. Parul Vadehra of the Vadehra Art Gallery said her family-owned art house was trying to encourage new collectors through its Foundation of Contemporary Art Programme, an education and awareness outreach programme. "I have only 20 loyal
collectors," septuagenarian artist G. Gajwani told. — IANS |
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Tis Hazari is in a shambles, your honour
New Delhi, September 25 And all this even though the court is currently hearing high-profile cases like the September 7 Delhi High Court bombing, former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's role in the cash-for-votes scam and the Delhi University radiation case, among others. "The campus has very old sewage lines, laid in the late 1950s. Most of them have not been changed since then," said Khosla. The court staff has figured out innovative ways to deal with the situation, including lighting incense sticks to fight the bad smell in rooms and placing furniture items in such a way that they cover peeling walls. "During this monsoon, the situation was the worst. There was around two inches of water inside the court. We had to be very alert so that the water did not enter the cupboards, where the court records are kept," a court staff member said. The Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court is also situated in this complex. Even his court was not spared in the rains, with water entering the court room. Spread over an area of around 26.4 acre, the complex houses five buildings, including the main court building. It has 125 courts and 10 mediation cells, apart from a consumer and sub-divisional magistrate court. The bar association officials say steps have been taken to renovate the buildings and make them fully air-conditioned. "The district judge has sent a proposal to the Delhi government to install a bigger transformer, which could support the increase in electrical usage, but the application has been pending for the past two years," Khosla said. Also pending is a proposal for a multi-storey lawyers' chamber. Even though around 6,000 people visit it every day, the complex does not have proper drinking water facilities. None of the 15 water coolers spread across the main court building is functioning. "Even if they do, the water is not fit for drinking," a court official said. This translates into additional trouble for the already hassled litigants, who have to shell out money every time they are thirsty. The complex also lacks a proper parking area. The staff members park their vehicles in nearby areas like Sadar Bazaar. "Litigants and advocates cannot even park their vehicles here," rued advocate Deepak Sharma. Security remains another gaping hole. "After the Delhi High Court blast, metal detectors were installed, but since so many police officers carrying guns come to the court every day, it becomes difficult to figure out who is genuine," Khosla said. None of the seven entry gates has proper security measures in place. While the complex has several cameras installed inside, surveillance of areas outside has been ignored a critical mistake, as the Delhi High Court bombing showed. The court also houses old judicial records, occupying almost 20 rooms, Khosla added.
— IANS |
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Delhi Metro bags UN certificate for carbon credits
New Delhi, September 25 And all thanks to its sampling techniques for gauging carbon emissions in comparative scenario. The UN body's recognition comes at a time when the Delhi Metro is contributing towards reducing pollution levels in the city by 6.3 lakh tons every year due to its greening efforts. Further, the organisation has already earned in its kitty the carbon credits worth Rs 47 crore annually for the next seven years and in view of the rising footfall at the Capital's Metro stations, the figures may touch higher levels. The very fact that obtaining the UN certification is tough and warrants documentary evidence of the carbon credit, no other Metro-rail system in the world has been able to get it. "It is difficult to give documentary proof of the difference of energy consumption of two scenarios i.e. with Metro and without Metro. The DMRC proposed an innovative method of proving the emissions using sampling techniques. It is done by comparing the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions per passenger-kilometre with that of the conventional modes of transport. After rigorous persuasion, the UN body has finally agreed with this technique as it is very scientific in nature," said Delhi Metro spokesman Anuj Dayal. Currently, with as many as 20 lakh commuters using the Metro for moving in and round the capital, the services have become the city's lifeline and already removed more than 91,000 vehicles from the roads of Delhi. "Thus, the DMRC has helped in reduction in emission of harmful gases into the city's atmosphere and the UN body administering the clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol has certified that the DMRC has reduced emissions," said Dayal. So, due to its environment-friendly nature apart from being a more efficient, faster and safer transport system, the Metro takes an edge over other modes of transport and promises to improve the scenario keeping in mind the large-scale expansion in line. "The Metro complements other transport system and replaces partially trips made by conventional or traditional means of transit," Dayal added. In the greening effort, the contribution of every passenger who opts for Metro over car or bus is significant and he or she contributes in reduction in emissions to the tune of nearly 100 gm of carbon-dioxide for every trip of 10 km. This wouldn't have been possible without the CDM projects. While the second CDM project has been registered with the UN body in the past three years, the DMRC's first such project on regenerative braking had attained many international firsts in addition to fetching revenues for the country. |
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Panel to examine school fee hike set up
New Delhi, September 25 The government had on September 9 told a division bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul that it will set up the panel within a week. Earlier, the bench had directed the setting up of the committee to audit the accounts of each of the schools to ascertain if the hike, effected in 2009, was required. The bench authorised the committee to scrutinise the accounts of minority schools as well. "If the committee finds that the hike was not required, the schools are bound to return the money to students with 9 per cent interest," the bench had said in a 143-page verdict on August 12. The court suggested that the Delhi government create a permanent regulatory authority, either by amending the education Act or by enacting a new legislation, to resolve the issue of periodic hikes in tuition fees. It also suggested the central government frame a national policy on fees for unaided schools. The bench's order came on a public suit filed by the Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, which had alleged that despite the Comptroller and Auditor-General's indictment of 25 private schools for accounting malpractices, including faking losses, the Delhi government had allowed them to hike tuition fees. The government notification, issued on February 12, 2009, had said that any school, charging a monthly fee of Rs 500, will be allowed to hike this by Rs 100. Likewise, any school charging a monthly fee of Rs 1,000 will be allowed to effect a maximum hike of Rs 200. Schools with a monthly fee of Rs 1,500 were allowed a Rs 300 hike and those with a fee structure ranging between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 were allowed to hike it by not more than Rs 400. The rest of the schools with monthly fees of more than Rs 2,000 were allowed by the notification to hike it by only Rs 500. The Delhi government had approved the hike to ease the financial burden of the schools due to the increase in the salaries of the teachers as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.
— IANS |
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Bawana plant: Govt mulls buying gas from international market
New Delhi, September 25 The power generation in the newly constructed plant has been delayed due to unavailability of the gas. A total of six gas turbines were proposed in the plant before the beginning of its construction. Of them, only three turbines are ready. The third turbine was finalised in July. A senior official of the power department said the plant was to be started in 2010 before the Commonwealth Games. But it could not be started due to delay in the construction work. Three turbines had been completed with a cost of Rs 4,500 crore. Capacity of power generation of the plant was 250 MW. He said in the beginning, the government would purchase 20 per cent of the total gas from outside, provided the remaining 80 per cent was given by the Centre at the fixed government rate. The Delhi government had signed agreements with the Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Gas Authority of India Limited and Indian Oil Corporation for supply of the gas to start the power generation. The 20 per cent of the total gas will be purchased at the rate of about $14 for per cubic metre from the British thermal unit. The commissioning of the plant has been delayed for about a year due to unavailability of the gas as the government could not worked out its agreement with Reliance. Finally, the city government approached the Prime Minister Office that had given significance to the need of power generation of the city government. The officer said the Centre had allocated 0.93 million cubic metres per day of gas from Reliance's Andhra offshore KG-D6 fields for the Bawana plant for 2009-10 and 2010-11. However, the Delhi government could not sign the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement with the RIL due to delay in the Bawana project and the gas was allocated to other entities by the RIL. He said now with the consent of the Union government, the city government was going to sign an agreement to buy 20 per cent of the total gas from the international market. |
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Applicants file false claims to benefit from housing scheme in Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad, September 25 Additional district magistrate (city) Atal Kumar Rai said that 1500 houses were under construction under the Kashi Ram housing scheme and applications had been invited for 496 houses which were ready for allotment. "Over 3000 applications were received. Only 35 applications were found to be correct out of the 1500 scanned as people had falsely claimed that they belonged to the below poverty line category or women whose husbands were alive had declared themselves widows," he said. Referring to some of the cases, Rai said in Sunder Puri, a woman Sunita Devi had declared her husband dead but he was found to be alive. In Kalilash Nagar, Gulshan Kaur falsely declared her husband dead and even produced a death certificate. In another case, an applicant named Sudha showed herself as unmarried. She used her husband's name as that of her father who was shown dead, Rai said.
— PTI |
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Spurious diesel unit unearthed
Gurgaon, September 25 The police seized 48,000 litres of kerosene stored in underground tanks on the factory premises. Kerosene was mixed with black oil to make spurious diesel. The police arrested seven persons from the factory premises. All of them belong to Uttar Pradesh. They were produced at a local court, which sent them in judicial custody yesterday. A hunt was on to arrest the main accused who ran the illegal business. The Food and Civil Supplies Department has also been informed about the seizure. |
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Warrants against CBI officers stayed
New Delhi, September 25 The Rohini CBI special court wanted senior CBI superintendent of police Ganesh Verma and CBI deputy legal adviser Sunder Lal to explain why the agency had failed to produce witnesses in a criminal case in August. The stay was passed by Justice Ajit Bharihoke on Friday while hearing an appeal filed by Verma. He also stayed the court's show-cause notice to the CBI director on the issue.
— IANS |
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3 online courses
New Delhi, September 25 The 'Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Ganga' aims to create awareness about the Ganga and its connection with culture. The 'Leadership Programme on Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development' intends to sensitise policy and programme leaders to rely more on evidence-based programming for achieving targets.
— IANS
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2 kids die in wall collapse
New Delhi, September 25 Two vehicles rushed to the spot to clear the debris. They reached within 10 minutes. By the time the firemen took out the children from the debris, they had died. The police said a case of negligence had been registered and the names of contractor and the building owners were being verified. The police is trying to find out whether the construction was illegal. |
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3 held for theft of luxury cars
New Delhi September 25 On a tip-off, Chhikara, along with his associates, was arrested during a checking at Major Dr Ashwani Marg, near Lal Market in Paschim Vihar on September 21. They were travelling in a white-colour Ford Fiesta car. When they were asked to produce the documents of the vehicle, they could not produce the same. On interrogation, they said they had stolen the car from the Parshant Vihar area. The existing number plate of the car was found defective. They admitted to their involvement in other vehicle thefts. On their instance, another accused Ajay was also arrested. One Ford Fiesta car, one Maruti van, one Enfield motor cycle, one Hero Honda Karizma, one TVS Star City and one Hero Honda Passion were recovered from their possession. They belonged to poor families but had passion of driving luxurious cars and motor cycles. |
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14-lane highway to link Delhi, Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad, September 25 National Highways numbers 24 and 58 will also be linked near the Ghaziabad Hindon bridge, he said. Kumar also announced that from Dasna to Meerut one more road will be constructed to reduce the traffic volume in 2020. Kumar was addressing a gathering of officers and builders in Sahibabad last evening.
— PTI |
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Hot Sunday
New Delhi, September 25 Sunday's minimum temperature was recorded at 24.2 degrees, a notch above average for this time of the season. Humidity wavered between a high of 85
and a low of 47 per cent. — IANS |
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