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Decks cleared for
street vendors law
Food and hospitality fair begins today
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Five-year-old raped by father
Married woman sets herself on fire
Budget session: LG lists infra development in 15 yrs
CM decries Malhotra’s attitude towards Speaker
CCTV control rooms soon for better Metro security
Students challenge copyright charges
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Decks cleared for
street vendors law
New Delhi, March 13 The joy of the crowd at Jantar Mantar today knew no bounds, when the letter from the minister was read out. The Bill will be passed in this Parliament session and once enacted, the Act would go a long way in protecting the rights and entitlements of street vendors, the message stated. In the letter, Maken said that 2.5 per cent of a city’s population would be eligible for vending licences under the upcoming legislation and it would be mandatory to form Town and Zonal Vending Committee in each city. Such committees would have 40 per cent representation of the elected representatives of vendor organisations, 10 per cent of NGOs and the rest of town planners, administrators, police and elected people’s representatives. He also expressed concern over the incidents of harassment and eviction of street vendors. Till the time the Street Vendors Livelihood Protection Act comes into effect, no vendor should be evicted, read the letter. The programme manager, Ranjeet Abhigyan, said the minister has asked the municipal bodies across all the urban centres to halt their drives to evict vendors. Addressing the Street Vendors Parliament, the coordinator of the National Association of Street Vendors of India, Arbind Singh, said, “We are happy that our efforts towards getting an inclusive central law are finally yielding result and the decks are cleared now for the law. We call upon all the parliamentarians to support the Street Vendors Bill in both the Houses of Parliament.” |
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Food and hospitality fair begins today
New Delhi, March 13 As many as 671 leading companies will be participating in the fair as compared to 565 in the previous edition. The net covered space at the show exceeds 19,000 sq m. This year, the theme of the fair is “Traceability-An Essence of Food Products”. The theme assumes special significance for the food safety industry where traceability is viewed as a strategy that enhances business and pays for itself in the process. A food company with an advanced traceability system allows real-time alerts to be generated, enabling better operational decisions. The fair comprises two segments – ‘Food India’ at hall No. 2 to 6 and ‘Hospitality India’ spread over halls No. 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12A, 14, and 15 at Pragati Maidan. Overseas participants at the show number 50, and are from countries such as Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE and the USA. The display profile of the fair covers processed foods, alcoholic beverages, machinery and equipment for food processing, packaging, milling poultry farming, dairy and confectionery equipment, air-conditioning, housekeeping, hotel and kitchen, health and fitness as well as consultancy services and publications. Aahar is being organised with the support of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India and Agricultural and the Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). The fair will be open exclusively for the business visitors from 10 am to 6 pm from March 14 to 18 and will open to the general visitors on the last day from 2 pm to 6 pm.
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Five-year-old raped by father
New Delhi, March 13 The police is searching for the girl’s father, Rakesh, who is presently absconding. “We have identified his location in Delhi and will nab him,” said a police officer. The incident came to light on March 8 when the victim complained to her mother of pain in her body. “When her mother asked her if anyone was inappropriately touching her, she said her father did,” added the officer. The victim’s mother and some relatives took her to the Patel Nagar police station yesterday. A case under Indian Penal Code section 376 (rape) was registered at the police station. |
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Married woman sets herself on fire
New Delhi, March 13 The woman named Sarita (25) died at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi this morning. She had sustained more than 85 per cent burns injuries. The incident was reported on late Tuesday night when her neighbours saw smoke emanating from her house and called the police. The police reached the site and rushed her to the hospital. According to the police, the victim’s parents alleged that her husband, Som Kumar (25) used to torture Sarita for dowry. The police has registered a case of dowry and torture and arrested Kumar. A sub-divisional magistrate is inquiring the matter. The police claimed the victim belonged to Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh. She married in April last year. Kumar works in a private firm. |
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Budget session: LG lists infra development in 15 yrs
New Delhi March 13 In his address at the Assembly on the first day of the Budget session, Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna spoke about various initiatives of the government and resolved to regularise all the unauthorised colonies in the city. He said all efforts are being made to remove the obstacles for regularizing the unauthorised colonies. The government in September last year had regularised 895 unauthorised colonies. Nearly 50 lakh people are currently residing in 1,639 unauthorised colonies which constitute a major votebank. “The confidence in my government reposed by the citizens of Delhi has inspired the government to dream big. We are not inclined to accept that growth has to be based on small incremental steps,” Khanna said in his long speech. Claiming that the city has witnessed ‘unprecedented’ and ‘sweeping changes’ in the last 15 years, he said the government has aimed at making Delhi an ‘efficient, productive and caring city’ in the 12th Plan period (2012-2017). “A whole generation that believes and takes for granted the Metro, low-floor buses, 24-hour electricity supply and even the increased green cover as features of Delhi life does not realise that these were non-existent 12 years ago. The fact is that these are the result of major initiatives taken by the government over the last 15 years,” Khanna said. On the economy, Khanna said the government will continue to aim at achieving fiscal consolidation by a series of initiatives, including improving efficiency in governance. “Delhi continues to contribute a healthy 3.8 per cent to the GDP at the national level. The per capita income of Delhi in 2012-13 is about three times the national level. Compared to other metropolitan cities, the rate of inflation was the lowest due to constant monitoring and effective intervention,” he said.
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CM decries Malhotra’s attitude towards Speaker
New Delhi, March 13 She condemned the letter written by him to the Lieutenant Governor calling for the Speaker’s resignation on the basis of unverified allegations of corruption. “They have shown disrespect to the chair of Speaker. The members express anguish over this sort of uncalled-for attitude of the Leader of the Opposition,” said
Dikshit. |
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CCTV control rooms soon for better Metro security
New Delhi, March 13 Nine hundred additional CCTV cameras will be set up in dark and vulnerable areas in the stations in the coming six months. During the same time, the CISF will also relocate 300 out of the present strength of 5,000 CCTV cameras installed in all the Metro stations. CISF officials said the relocation is being done as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had installed them without keeping in view the security concerns. Ninety out of the 134 Metro stations already have Close Circuit Television (CCTV) control rooms of the CISF. They were set up in those stations in mid-2012. The DMRC has recently provided a tender to a company for constructing more control rooms in the remaining 44 stations. These are likely to come up in the next six months. The CCTV station-level control rooms will be connected to each other by a common communication system. This will help security forces in tracking a suspect by quickly passing information. CISF officials said the station-level control rooms are better than the earlier system of having only two CCTV central control rooms, which are located at Shastri Park and Metro Bhawan on Barakhamba Road. A single local control room is only connected to the CCTV cameras of one station and a person manning it can quickly view the footage. “This helps in keeping a better watch on the platforms and allows us to quickly inform our quick reaction teams in cases of emergencies,” said CISF Director-General, Rajiv. In the past, the CISF personnel at the two central control rooms would view the CCTV footage daily. “It became really difficult analyzing all the footage. We were short-staffed and not able to give enough attention to a single video. Our response time was much slower as compared to what it is now,” said CISF sources. After control rooms have been set up in all the stations, the CISF will have a two-layer electronic security set-up. The CCTV footage will first be viewed at the local level and then sent to the central control rooms for further examination. In 2007, the force got its first central control room at Shastri Park. This centre would receive the footage of CCTV cameras installed in the stations along the “red” and “green” lines of the Delhi Metro system. As more stations were constructed, the second central control room was set up at Metro Bhawan in 2010. With the changing security scenario, the CISF wanted new technology for their two control rooms. Until 2012, they held several meetings with the DMRC and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), demanding artificial intelligence (AI) for the central control rooms. The artificial intelligence is a system that perceives its environment and accordingly takes action. This technology includes video analytics, which identifies a suspicious object or a person. “When our demand for improvement in technology was not met, the MHA decided to sanction the construction of 90 station-level control rooms, as an alternative solution. There has been no resolution on our demand for AI, as the DMRC is still evaluating it. So the MHA further decided to set up more control rooms in the remaining 44 stations,” said the sources.
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Students challenge copyright charges
New Delhi, March 13 On March 1,
the impleadment filed by the Association of Students for Equitable
Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) to be made a party to the ongoing lawsuit
was accepted in the high court and the association will now represent
the interest of students in the case. The ASEAK has been formed out of
the campaign to save the D-School photocopy shop. The publishers had
claimed that photocopying of the prescribed study material constituted
an infringement of their copyright and claimed damages in excess of Rs
60 lakh. However, the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, makes for exceptions
to copyright infringement in Section 52, Article (h) of the act, which
states: “(h) the reproduction of a literary, dramatic, musical or
artistic work- (i) by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction;
or (ii) as part of the questions to be answered in an examination; or
(iii) in answers to such questions” does not amount to an infringement
of copyright. “We condemn the move of these publishers who claim to
be fostering academic excellence,but are working towards making higher
education a preserve of the privileged few, said a member of ASEAK. |
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