New Delhi, May 12
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) today turned down the new Four Year Undergraduate Programme and wanted the dismissal of the DU Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh.

In its first-ever General Body Meeting (GBM) convened on a Sunday, over 900 teachers here urged the government to respond timely and stop the implementation of the FYUP in public interest. They have pleaded with the government and the UGC not to override the concerns raised by a cross-section of eminent academicians, college and university teachers, people’s representatives besides media against the FYUP and halt the process to prevent students from becoming guinea pigs to an “ill-conceived and rushed” programme.

In the GBM, which was boycotted by a section of teachers, DUTA resolved to begin a campaign against the FYUP and would take up all forms of agitation in the coming days.

“The DUTA General Body passed unanimous resolutions against the FYUP and the VC who has made disparaging comments against the teaching community and committed contempt of Parliament by questioning its wisdom and collective responsibility. We reject the position taken by the MHRD and the UGC that halting the perverse and hasty decision undermines the university autonomy,” DUTA president Prof Amar Deo Sharma said.

Condemning the latest programme which is going to be on ground this July, DUTA observed that the new progarmme is against the National Education Policy and will not only affect the quality of education but also the employability.

“It will make education more expensive and would compound the woes of the students of the disadvantaged sections. The multiple-exit points will legitimise dropouts,” said Prof Sharma.

In its second resolution, DUTA accused DU VC Prof. Dinesh Singh of highhandedness and demanded his immediate removal from the post.

“The Academic and Executive Councils may have passed the new FYUP but within them the elected component is outnumbered than the VC’s nominated members,” said DUTA executive member Prof Saikat Ghosh.

New Delhi, May 12
Around 20 per cent of students studying in Delhi government schools have been found to be anaemic during the check-up camps organized by the health department. What is worse, two per cent of them were reported to be suffering from severely low levels of haemoglobin.

It took more than a year for the government to implement the ‘Chacha Nehru Health Scheme’ in its schools under which students were supposed to go through a check-up by a team of doctors formed at the time of announcement of the scheme in November 2011.

The scheme included treatment of students for ailments like anaemia by giving them iron capsules and de-worming medication.

Eyeing a comeback for the fourth consecutive time, the government has finally announced that it would start the ‘Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Programme’ scheme from July 15.

The students of all the government schools and Anganwari centres between 9 and 18 years of age will be treated with a weekly dose of iron capsules and folic acid. The scheme will continue till next 52 weeks. There are around 1,200 state government schools in Delhi with over 15 lakh students studying in them.

According to Health Minister AK Walia, the students will be given iron capsules once a week. However, the 20 per cent students who were found to be anaemic will be kept under observation and given medicines for 100 days.

“A student attains maximum growth between 10 and 19 years of age, thus they need maximum iron and folic acid during this period,” said Dr Walia.

He said the treatment will include 400 mg medicine to kill worms in their stomach. This will be given only once a year.

“The government had started an ambitious ‘Chacha Nehru Health Scheme’ last year to keep a check on the health of all its school students. Under this scheme, teams of doctors were formed who found the students to be suffering from anaemia,” said Dr Walia.

The medicines will be provided by the health department and managed at the school level by the nodal officers. “These medicines are absolutely safe and will give the required iron and vitamins to students,” he said.

Following the same trail, the BJP-ruled East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has also announced ‘Suposhan’, a programme to detect iron deficiency among the children studying in the schools under its jurisdiction.

“Under this programme, 50,000 children of EDMC schools would be examined for their height, weight and haemoglobin. The six-month-long programme targets 45 sites, covering 90 schools (morning and evening shifts). After de-worming, the children diagnosed with anaemia would be provided with iron-fortified biscuits that will continue to be distributed until the programme is completed,” said EDMC Mayor Ram Narayan Dubey.

“Although anaemia could hamper health and productivity at any age, its effects are most devastating for children as it restricts their physical and cognitive development. This calls for immediate intervention of the private as well as government stake holders,” said Dr C.S. Pandav, Head of Department, Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

New Delhi, May 12
With the arrest of four persons, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a racket of IPL cricket betting in Uttam Nagar.

The suspects were identified as Rajinder Kumar Ahuja, Ravi Bellan, Vinay Kumar and Ajay Arora.

The police received an input that one Rajinder Kumar Ahuja, resident of Jeevan Park, Uttam Nagar, was organizing a betting in his house during the match between ‘Mumbai Indians’ and ‘Pune Warriors’ on May 11, the police said.

After doing a recce of the surroundings of Rajinder’s house, a decoy customer was sent who offered a deal to the accused. At the instance of the decoy, a raid was conducted at the given address at about 6 pm yesterday.  Inside the room, the match between ‘Mumbai Indians’ and ‘Pune Warriors’ was being telecast live on an LCD TV.  The accused were using two telephone lines to receive the betting rates from the bookies.  They were also writing the ‘satta’ deals received from the punters and recording the conversation on other mobile phones.

During interrogation Ahuja disclosed that he had been running this racket with the help of his associates from his house for the last two years.  He disclosed that the other three accused are his paid workers who are given Rs 1,000 each besides the commission. The amount of commission depends on the profits earned.

The police recovered 19 mobile phones, being used in the betting, stake money of Rs 45,500, an LCD TV, two calculators and writing material.