New Delhi, August 24
Accusing the Delhi University (DU) of indulging in dictatorial practices, all Left organisations today lodged a strong protest against its several moves towards institutionalising educational reforms that they say is just to promote the entry of foreign investors into the university.

After the semester system, the discontentment is now pertaining to the introduction of the Meta College concept, a four-year graduation programme, credit transfer system and proposals of public-private partnership.

Expressing anguish, president of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), Amar Deo Sharma said, “None of these ‘reforms’ have been discussed with teachers and students. These decisions follow without any process of informed reflection and debate in the statutory bodies of the university.”

In this regard, representatives of 13 such organisations headed to the DU Vice-Chancellor’s office during a protest march but were stopped from entering the gate number 1 and the area was later heavily barricaded by cops, thus resulting in the blockage of traffic and inconvenience to students.

“The custodian of DU is the VC, but he is not ready for any dialogue. All our appeals and letters over a year have gone unanswered,” said the DUTA president.

According to them, in the name of academic reforms, the university is ruining the students’ future and its apathy is clear in its disregard towards the concerns shown by the collective voices of students and faculty.

“All these measures are anti-students and will promote privatisation leading to monopoly of a few established ones. This will raise the cost of education and the poor students will be at the receiving end. Education has to be inclusive,” said Prashant, secretary of AIDSO’s Delhi Committee.

New Delhi, August 24
The Union Minister of Railways, Mukul Roy and Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit today flagged off the air-conditioned (AC) double decker train between Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Jaipur from Sarai Rohilla station.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Mukul Roy said that the first AC double decker train was introduced between Howrah-Dhanbad in 2011 which was found to be satisfactory. He said that with the introduction of this much-awaited air-conditioned double decker service between Delhi and Jaipur, the Indian Railways have fulfilled the dream of the travelling public.

The Railway Minister said that the design of the double decker coaches was a mighty challenge for the Railways as the entire rail network and coach designs need to meet standard dimensions in length, breadth and height as per bridges, overhead electricity wire, tunnels, etc.

New Delhi, August 24
The Delhi Metro service at six stations will not be available from 8 am to 6 pm on August 29, said a senior official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporations (DMRC). The staions will be closed for security reasons.

The stations are close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence and have been ordered to remain shut to prevent any mishap as the activist, Arvind Kejriwal, has given a call for a protest against the ongoing ''coalgate scandal''.

"As per the directions received from the Delhi police, six Metro stations - Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Jor Bagh, Race Course (on Line 2, HUDA City Centre to Jahangirpuri) and Khan Market Metro station (on Line 6, Central Secretariat to Badarpur) - will be closed for public from 8 am to 6 pm. However, interchange of passengers from Line 2 to Line 6 and vice-versa will be allowed. The Metro services on all other stations will run as per normal schedule, he said.

"We are closing the stations following a Delhi police order which states that we need to shut services at these stations due to security reasons," added the official.

Kejriwal has called for protest outside the residences of Prime Minister and national president of the BJP Nitin Gadkari, arguing that both the parties are to be blamed for irregular coal blocks allocation. The announcement for the protest has come after the CAG's report stated that the exchequer lost around Rs 1.86 lakh crore due to coal block allocation without competitive bidding during 2005-09.

"We will start the protest at Jantar Mantar around 10 am and head towards the residences by 2 pm in two teams. One team will go towards Gadkari's house and the second to the PM's residence, simultaneously," said Aswathi Muralidharan, a spokesperson for the India Against Corruption movement. She added that Anna will not come for this protest as he is not in Delhi. However, supporters are likely to participate in this protest in huge numbers.

Team Anna members namely Kiran Bedi, Kumar Vishwas and Manish Sisodia have confirmed their participation.

New Delhi, August 24
During the 5th Medical Technology Conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here today, industry and health experts called for transforming healthcare delivery system through innovations in technology.

At present, all matters of medical devices come under the purview of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and in this regard the latest draft prepared by the Union Health Ministry has been sent to the law ministry for approval, said Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Arun Kumar Panda.

He also urged industry representatives to identify the areas in which the government could help them realise their growth potential and healthcare goals. Panda said the 12th Plan was likely to see a considerable increase in healthcare spending and upgradation of health infrastructure.