New Delhi, January 3
The control room of the recently launched helpline number '181' is buzzing with calls asking for assistance in LPG connections, voter-ID cards, blockage of drains, school admissions, etc. The operators controlling the system said that people are calling them for everything under the sky.

Admitting that there was wrong publicity of the campaign launched by the Delhi government after the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old girl, the top officials said that the government will publicize the campaign again in order to let people know about the initiative which is dedicated only to extend help to the women in distress.

"People have probably mistaken it with the Delhi government's customer care number. It is a campaign to help only women who need immediate assistance against any kind of harassment," said a senior government official.

"We will re-publicize the number so that only women who need protection or help get motivated to dial the number," he said.

In view of the wrong publicity, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has also called for a meeting tomorrow to review the promotion of the helpline.

Ironically, the 24-hour helpline at Delhi Secretariat is functioning without any woman operator with only three men on three phone lines listening to the unending buzzing of calls made by people throughout the city.

Though the helpline is meant to provide an extended support to the women facing any trouble or harassment, all that it does is to suggest the caller to either call the Delhi police or file a complaint at the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) office. Also, as there are only three telephone lines, the number is most of the times unavailable due to the heavy inflow of calls.

"We don't have any task force of our own which can be sent to the spot for immediate action. So, we forward the complaints to the police and DCW, which have their own dedicated mobile vans," said Jhuma Ganguly, a counsellor from the DCW looking after the operations of the control room.

New Delhi, January 3
Delhi Urban Development Minister Arvinder Singh said that all the homeless would be accommodated in night shelters and the basic facilities like blankets, mats, drinking water, first aid boxes, etc would be provided to them.

The shelters have the capacity to accommodate about 10,000 homeless.

Addressing the officials of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the minister said all the homeless would be accommodated in shelters in view of the prevailing cold conditions. Eight teams, consisting of experts under the chairmanship of executive engineers, have been constituted which will inspect the functioning of night shelters in the Capital and report to the authority concerned within three days.

The minister said that there are 150 shelters, managed by DUSIB, which include 84 temporary and 66 permanent. The temporary shelters, 70 in tin structure and 14 in Basti Vikas Kendra, were established during the Winter Session 2011-12. These shelters are water and fire-resistant and fitted with solar system. Those in tin structures have been upgraded to make them all-weather shelters. There are also fans in them.

Besides, the government is going to construct 26 model night shelters with green building technology. The DUSIB is taking up the matter with the DDA in this regard.

The DUSIB is implementing an approved scheme, "Construction, Management and Maintenance of Shelters" in Delhi for which the funds are being provided annually by the city government. An amount of Rs 600 lakh has been approved for the scheme in the financial year 2012-13.

New Delhi, January 3
Jamia Millia Islamia has initiated an ambitious target of cent per cent employability on campus by 2020, as part of its 100th year initiatives. For this, the university is starting a web management system, an online assessment system, an innovation and incubation centre and a full-fledged entrepreneurship development cell.

In order to achieve the target, the university has decided to adopt a six-fold initiative in the next five years, which includes introducing a web management system, which is a platform for industry professionals and students to interact and also to make the training and placement process online.

"Employability is the biggest issue and not placement. We are working on employability so that every Jamia graduate is employable. We are planning to categorize the student in three colour-bands - red, yellow and green, where each colour-band defines the readiness and the improvement needed. For example the red category of students will need hand-holding, personal counselling as well as skill development; where as the green category is of ready students. We will counsel and upgrade their skills accordingly," said training and placement officer Rihan Khan Suri.

The university is also planning an online assessment system along with a question-based test, whereby students will be evaluated online with inputs from professionals from the industry. The university will also setup an industry-institute interaction cell and an innovation and incubation centre. Moreover, apart from tie-up with corporates for projects, Jamia will also set up a full-fledged entrepreneurship development cell in association with National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

New Delhi, January 3
Alleging misuse of freedom by several schools in formulating their own point-based system, distressed parents have been pouring in complaints on the website of the Delhi Education Department for the past couple of days.

Even as the Delhi government has rolled out a strict schedule, some schools have created "first come, first served" criteria in case scores get tied on with a limited number of seats left. Ideally, in such a situation a draw is held, which decides the result.

"According to the rules, I can submit the admission forms for my children till January 15. However, several schools, including Lancer Convent, Rohini, have updated on their website that in case of scores getting tied between an application submitted on January 10 and one on January 15, the 10th January applicant will get the seat. This is ridiculous as what's the point of having 15 days of submission of applications?" questioned a parent at the school today.

Also, Lancer Convent along with Ratan Jindal Public School and others have allotted 10 points under the 'transport category'.

Under the category, any parent who submits an undertaking stating that they would agree to use the school bus for four years would be awarded an extra 10 points.

"This is a move to mint money, nothing else. Any parent, who would want to drive down their kids to school, will lose out on these points. This also isn't fair to those who cannot afford the school transport," said Kirti Thakkar, another parent at Lancer Convent.

While recently, the government clearly stated that any applicant having minimum three years of age by March 31 is eligible to apply for nursery admissions, no upper limit was set.

Standard rules do not mention any allocation of points according to the age. However, several top rank schools have fixed points for age.

Sreejan School, Model Town, has fixed 20 points for applicants who are between three and a half years to four years and one month. Sixteen points will be awarded to the applicant between three and three and a half years. Likewise, Sri Ram School has also fixed 10 points for applicants.

Sumit Vohra from admissionnursery.com said that last year also, many parents complained that several schools conducted an indirect screening of children and were looking at the qualifications of parents, something prohibited as per the guidelines specified by the Delhi government.

This year as well, while the department advised maximum points for the distance criteria, several schools initially allotted a zero point to the distance criteria on their websites. After several complaints, the error was rectified, Vohra added.

Reacting to the problems in the point-based system, a senior DoE official said, "We have received some complaints and are looking into them. Any school found violating the specified rules will be hauled up."