New Delhi, February 13
An Innova car exploding into balls of flame at Aurangzeb Road today left four persons injured, including an Israeli embassy official who was the main occupant of the car and is believed to be the target of suspected terror attack.

Among the four persons injured, the three were said to be stable even as one, the embassy official, is critical and likely to undergo spine surgery. Three persons were rushed to the nearby Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital while the official was admitted to a private hospital Primus at Chanakyapuri.

The 42-year-old Talyesshova injured in the car explosion here today is critical after receiving multiple injuries, said doctors attending on her at Primus Hospital in south Delhi.

"The woman was brought to us with multiple injuries around 3:30 pm. She has been taken to the operation theatre and is likely to undergo spine surgery. Her condition is critical though her parameters are stable," said Primus Hospital's medical superintendent N.D Khurana.

The injured Israeli official is defence attache's wife in the embassy.

Doctors at the hospital said that she has been put in the Intensive Care Unit and is said to be very critical, said sources. Though, they refused to give any details about her condition.

However, the other three injured persons were admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and are reported to be stable. "Three persons with splinter injuries have been brought. They will be discharged soon," said Medical Superintendent of RML Hospital, Dr T S Sidhu.

They were identified as Manoj Sharma (40), driver, Arun Sharma (40) and Manjeet Singh (75). They were travelling in a different car near the embassy vehicle.

The chief medical officer at RML, Dr Sanjeev Saxena, said that all the three persons are stable and have been kept under observation in the Trauma Centre.

"They are stable and have suffered serious injuries. They had glass pieces embedded in their faces," said Dr Saxena.

"It was a very big explosion. When I went near the site, I saw the whole car in flames. After some time, the firefighters came and the fire was put out," said one of the employees at the petrol pump near the blast site.

The VVIP area was cordoned off by the police immediately after reaching the spot. The traffic was diverted from the route and the roads leading from the crossing were closed. The Special Cell, the counter-terror unit of the Delhi police, came and took charge of the area.

The officials of the Centre for Forensic Science Laboratory also reached the spot to collect samples from the site.

New Delhi, February 13
The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea challenging the Supreme Court's rule allowing only advocates-on-record to file petitions before it, saying the apex court rules are "non-discriminatory".

A Bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said, "It cannot be treated as discriminatory or violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.

"It is in the PIL that the practice before the apex court is regulated by way of prescribing such qualification and conditions for advocates to become advocates-on-record and to be entitled to act or plead," the court said.

The court was hearing a plea by Balraj Singh Malik, a city advocate, challenging the Supreme Court rules on the ground that it violated the fundamental rights of other lawyers having the same qualification.

According to the petitioner, a large number of advocates were suffering professionally because of this rule giving the privilege only to advocates-on-record.

Challenging the SC Rules of 1966 which allows only the advocates-on-record to file petitions before the apex court, Malik pointed out that "other advocates are equally skilled in filing cases according to requirements of different formats in different courts and there is no specialty in the Supreme Court practice other than high courts." — PTI

New Delhi, February 13
Continuing its strike against the recent attack on one of the municipal executive engineers, the forum of MCD engineers today sat on a daylong agitation outside the civic agency's office, demanding more security for the engineers.

"Engineers work at odd hours and in different conditions. We are more vulnerable to such incidents," said Feroz Muzaffar, joint secretary of the Engineers' Association.

Over 400 labourers, including sanitation workers, also joined the strike which affected the routine cleanliness of roads and other areas. The members of the association said that only the engineers are blamed even if the things go wrong at the decision-making level.

New Delhi, February 13
Two-year-old Falak continues to remain on ventilator after experiencing difficulty in breathing, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said Monday about the battered baby who has been in hospital for more than three weeks.

"The baby continues to remain on ventilator and there is no change in her condition. The infection in her brain is still persistent," Deepak Agrawal, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the AIIMS trauma centre, told IANS.

Falak had earlier shown marginal improvement in her condition and was put off the ventilator Friday evening as the chest infection had cleared and the blood infection had also subsided.

By night, she was put back on it after having breathing problems.

Falak was brought to AIIMS by a teenager Jan 18 with a fractured skull, bruises and human bite marks all over her tiny frame.

The girl who claimed to be her mother is now in a juvenile home. Nine people, including key-accused Raj Kumar Gupta who had handed over the baby to the juvenile, have been arrested in the case.

The team of doctors monitoring the toddler's condition had said the chest and blood infection had subsided, but the brain infection was still a cause for concern.

The baby has undergone three surgeries so far. Doctors say she is stable, but critical.

"She continues to be critical, but stable," said Agrawal. — IANS

Mewat, February 13
Mubarik Ali, a youth of Chandaani village in Nuh (Mewat) district, has turned a banker. He is not a private money-lender, but an authorised business correspondent (BC) of Syndicate Bank, the lead bank in the district.

Fellow villagers can deposit money with Mubarik and also withdraw money from their bank accounts, even at odd hours. The village banker has portable equipment which has a biometric identification mechanism to rule out any irregularity and prints out transaction receipts on the spot.

A bank official visits the village on fixed weekdays with a laptop having VPN connectivity to the bank's CBS server and helps the villagers in other financial and banking-related matters.

Several banks, including Syndicate Bank and its sponsored Gurgaon Gramin Bank, State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Union Bank have a full network of such business correspondents (mostly smalltime shopkeepers) and ultra-small branches in 95 villages of the district.

In fact, after reviewing the performance of the Financial Inclusion programme at the national level, the Union Ministry of Finance had selected Nuh (Mewat) district of Haryana and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh for a pilot study for holistic and meaningful implementation of the Financial Inclusion programme.

Nuh district, which has a population of 7,89,750 and 1,06,100 households, was characterised by a poor banking network.

Under the pilot project, 95 villages of the district having population of more than 2,000 were identified. Of these, 72 villages were allotted to Syndicate Bank (including its sponsored Gurgaon Gramin Bank), 14 Villages to State Bank of India, three to Canara Bank, five to Oriental Bank of Commerce and one to Union Bank.

In all, these banks have 14 brick-and-mortar branches and appointed 81 business correspondents, thereby covering all 95 villages well before the stipulated date of March, 2012.

As of now, the banks have provided banking access to 1,06,100 households by opening 4,85,000 no-frill accounts. Apart from providing kisan credit cards and general credit cards, the banks have also introduced a new product for financial inclusion customers with an in-built overdraft limit of Rs 10,000 in the saving account.

Moreover, customers of any bank are now able to transact through business correspondents of any other bank through the facility of inter-operability.

While Chandaani sarpanch Rattan Lal, termed the financial inclusion scheme a revolution, Zubaida of Salamba village maintained that the ultra-small branch at their village had saved their time and money required to commute to the bank branches.

"The underlying idea of the programme was to reach out to the residents of far-flung rural areas so as to ensure that the benefits of various financial schemes reaches to the unreached," said Basant Seth, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Syndicate Bank, who was here today to review the progress of the work on the project.

Nuh Deputy Commissioner Balraj Singh Mor appreciated the efforts of the bank authorities and assured them of all possible help and support on their part.

Gurgaon Gramin Bank chairman S.Indirajith and senior officials from NABARD and all banks concerned were present.

New Delhi, February 13
Prof. M. Aslam, vice-chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), today announced that the university will soon be opening its study centre in collaboration with Zambian Open University (ZOU) in Zambia for three MBA programmes.

Master in Education Management and Educational Economics are the fields in which ZOU desires to open an IGNOU study centre.

Prof. Aslam stated that though no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed as yet, a mutual agreement has been arrived at with Prof. Dickson Mwansa, vice-chancellor of ZOU and Bwalya Lyapa Nondo, First Secretary, Republic of Zambia.

Both the delegates visited the university headquarters in the Capital to explore the possibility of future collaboration with the university.

Prof. Aslam briefed them about the university through a presentation. He apprised them of the fact that IGNOU is already functioning abroad with 82 partner institutes across 43 countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

He said quality and sustainability is the most important criteria of collaboration with the partner institutes in order to spread education in the world.

New Delhi, February 13
The Chief Minister of Punjab Prakash Singh Badal made a visit to the Delhi Metro today and travelled from Central Secretariat to the Rajiv Chowk Metro station and back to the Patel Chowk Metro station where he visited the Metro museum.

"It is for the first time that I travelled by the Delhi Metro and I enjoyed it. It is an excellent experience. Our Metro service is comparable to the Metros in other parts of the world."

The DMRC has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) for Ludhiana city comprising two corridors covering approximately 29 Km. corridor-1 is of 16 km from Ayali Chowk to BBMB Power House and corriodr-2 is of 13 km from Gill village to Rahon Road Chungi. The DPR has already been submitted by the DMRC to the Government of Punjab.

Noida, February 13
District election official Hirdesh Kumar today held a meeting with representatives of political parties and other candidates and briefed them about the model code of conduct. He warned them not to violate the code of conduct.

He told them to submit the expenditure details at the scheduled period. Candidates from Noida have to submit details on February 14, 18 and 25 and Dadri candidates on February 15, 21 and 26 while Jewar candidates on February 16, 22 and 27.

From February 18 to 22, the election staff will be given second training at Phool Mandi. All officials have been told to reach there and get the training, said Kumar.

"There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, churches, temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda," Kumar added.

All parties and candidates shall avoid scrupulously all activities which are 'corrupt practices' and offences under the Election Law, he added.

No party or candidate will permit its/his followers to make use of any individual's premises without permission from the owner, said the official.

Meanwhile, today seven candidates withdrew their nominations from three assembly seats of Noida, Dadri and Jewar. After withdrawal, the total number of candidates at Noida is 29, Dadri 14 and Jewar 19.

New Delhi, February 13
The much-awaited students' union elections at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) that were to kick-off today now again deferred for a week more. The decision came soon after the all-party meeting decided that more time was needed to prepare for the elections.

The election committee had earlier announced the nominations to be filed today and polling was to follow on February 23. Members of the committee said that the delay was inevitable since the formal notification from the administration regarding elections arrived just three days back on Friday.

A revised schedule was proposed at an all-party meeting called by the JNU Students' Union Election Committee today.

"The proposed schedule has been sent to the administration for approval now. If approved, we will make the schedule public by tomorrow evening. The elections are being held in this semester as a one-time arrangement. There were some technical issues that led to the delay, but the administration is offering us complete support," said a member of the election committee.

The new schedule suggests that the entire election process be postponed for a week. If approved, according to the new schedule, the nominations will now be filed on February 21 and the polling will take place on March 1.

Vice-president of the SFI Zico Dasgupta said, "Today, it was decided that the students were not prepared for elections and hence a delay of one week was proposed."

The withdrawals have been scheduled for February 22. The proposed date for the presidential debate is February 28.

The election process at JNU has now taken a month to begin ever since the first all-party meeting was held on January 10 that demanded elections in the first week of February.

The Supreme Court in December lifted the stay on elections in JNU that had been earlier imposed in 2008, citing violations of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations.

The university will now see elections after a gap of four years, however, technical glitches have been delaying the process for quite sometime now.

New Delhi, February 13
Cupid can strike in the unlikeliest places, even in the congested confines of a Delhi Metro station or train. Ask the many youngsters who traverse the length and breadth of the national capital and its suburbs in the trains and find that romancing in the crowd may be just the way to go.

For those looking for love and those already head over heels in it, Delhi Metro is veritable Cupid land -- the crowded refuge of a couple looking for privacy or providing the opportunity to find that certain someone in the long journeys made day after day.

A day before Valentine's Day, some recall how they found love when they were bored of commuting alone.

Jitin Walia, a 19-year-old Delhi University student, found his first love in the Metro.

"I travel from Badarpur to Rajiv Chowk every day. I used to see her at Badarpur station around 8.30 am every day. After a couple of weeks she also started noticing me, and flashed a friendly smile.

"Earlier, she used to get into the ladies coach. Then one day, she hopped on to the compartment I was travelling in and gave me a friendship band. We liked each other and have been dating since day six months ago," Walia said.

Surabhi Kumar, another student, describes Metro stations as a comfort zone.

"Metro stations are the best comfort zones for youngsters like me as I can spend an intimate time with my boyfriend without the fear of moral policing. And the small restaurants are economical and fit our pocket," she said.

Interestingly, preferred stations for many to spend time with their loved ones are the busiest: Kashmere Gate, Rajiv Chowk and Central Secretariat.

"About 5,000 youngsters, most of them college-going, visit every day and behave decently," said Vishika Gulati, who is working at the Take Away restaurant at Kashmere Gate station.

Management student Sameer Suri saw a business opportunity in this and started the portal www.MetroMates.in

"It is quite natural to get attracted to a fellow passenger whom you meet every day. Realising this, during my one-hour travel from Janakpuri to Saket daily, I got the idea of a web portal for Metro commuters. This portal provides a platform to interact without any uneasiness," said the 24-year-old management student.

"After a person signs up, he or she is given a unique bluetooth code. While travelling, you'll have to turn on your bluetooth device, and set a phone name to MetroMates.in/yourusername. After you do that, other MetroMates users will be visible on your (GPRS-enabled) phone," Suri said.

For easy identification, the portal asks its users to travel in the last compartments. The portal launched in January 2011 has 8,332 registered users. After its success in Delhi, the portal can now also be accessed by Bangalore and Kolkata Metro commuters.

According to an online survey, in which 300 commuters participated, 23 per cent have made friends during travel and even found dates among their fellow travellers; 51 per cent felt that the Metro is a better option to find friends than finding love or a date.

"I started accessing the portal six months ago and it helped me find my love Sandeep Saxena. Our relationship as just co-passengers travelling together transformed into friendship, later we started dating, now we are in love and engaged. Thanks MetroMates," said Renu Sharma, an IT professional. — IANS