New Delhi, July 15
A 47-year-old married woman sustained burn injuries after she was allegedly attacked with acid in Punjabi Bagh, west Delhi, about 7 pm yesterday.

The attack took place less than a week after the Supreme Court expressed serious concern over acid attacks and pulled up the Centre for not formulating a policy to regulate or ban the sale of acid across the country.

The victim, Sudhesh Yadav, lives with her husband Kishore at Shivaji Enclave near Raja Garden. She is undergoing treatment at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, according to the police. She sustained 40 per cent burns on her chest, face and neck during the attack.

In her statement to the police, Sudhesh said that she was going to Jwala Heri market when four men on two mopeds threw acid on her. A passerby called the police control room, while locals rushed her to a nearby hospital.

Sudhesh has identified the attackers, who are at large. The police have formed teams to catch them. The victim claimed the attack was probably due to a dispute between two families. She was supporting one of the families.

A case in regard to the incident has been registered at the Punjabi Bagh police station.

New Delhi, July 15
The Delhi Government today launched "Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Programme (WIFS)", aimed at curbing the menace of anemia, effecting 52 per cent adolescent girls in the city.

The WIFS Programme will be implemented under Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojana in all schools of the Delhi Government, its aided schools, New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board for students from Classes VII to XII.

It will also cover adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years through Anganwadi centres where they will receive weekly iron and folic acid supplementation tablets on every Wednesday.

Besides, all children between 12 and 19 years will receive de-worming tablets and syrups once a year. The programme will reach out to 18 lakh children under the WIFS Programme and 35 lakhs under the De-worming Programme.

Launching the programme, the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, said that weekly iron and folic acid supplementation will go a long way in making Delhi healthy.

"The programme is to be implemented in coordination between health and education departments, therefore, it is essential that both the departments must work at tandem with each other," said Dikshit.

A health team visits a school and a complete health check-up is done for major ailments that affect children.

Since its inception, a total of 100, the teams have covered 620 schools reaching out to approximately 9.5 lakh students.

If a student screened with some ailments, the student is referred to nearest linked hospital for further investigations. Nearly 2 lakh such students were referred to linked hospitals.

"Anemia has various long-term consequences, thus, affecting generations of children and adults.

“The programme, by reducing anemia, will not only improve capacity and productivity of our children and adolescents, it will also improve enrolment in schools and increase attendance, increase infant survival and health, reduce maternal deaths and eliminate gender disparity," said Dikshit.

New Delhi, July 15
Guru Harkrishan Public School (GHPS), Tilak Nagar and Fateh Nagar, which are trying hard to restore the recognition of the schools withdrawn by the Directorate of Education (DoE), Delhi Government, for the over two years, are charged with allegations of appointment of unqualified staff and teachers, accepting kickbacks, admitting students with donations, etc., by the local Sikh community.

On the matter Manjit Singh, president of the National Crime and Human Rights Protection of Society, had written to the DoE's public grievance redressal cell last month demanding action against chairpersons of the schools.

He has called for a judicial inquiry into the functioning of the three schools of Guru Harkrishan Public School, including the one at Hari Nagar (now closed), raising concern on the thousands of students who are studying in the schools, which are run by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC).

"Since 2000, corrupt practices are on in staff and teachers' recruitment and the administration is giving admission to students on donations. We had approached the DSGMC to ensure that the things are straightened, but to no avail. We have also approached the police and the matter is pending," he said.

On the matter even as the DoE has refused to intervene citing it as "internal management issues" it now, at loggerheads with the higher authorities on the same, has also filed a writ petition with the Delhi High Court, countering the former Lieutenant Governor Tejender Khanna's order of 2012 of allowing the schools to function under his special powers.

Prior to this, the DSGMC president, Manjit Singh GK, also the chairman of the Tilak Nagar School, met the Minister for Education, Kiran Walia recently for her intervention. But was only left with the option to submit a representation on details on when it would implement the Sixth Pay Commission.

It was in March 2011, GHPS at Hari Nagar Fateh Nagar and Tilak Nagar were derecognised by DoE for non-compliance of the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973, especially Section 10(1) which deals with scales of pay and allowances, medical facilities, pension, gratuity benefits etc.

However, after the GHPS management appealed to the then LG a direction in this regard was issued to DoE for taking steps for reinstating the recognition of the unaided minority schools.

When contacted, vice-chairperson of GHPS Tilak Nagar Inderjit Singh Monty, while refuting the allegations said, "The DSGMC has been monitoring the schools and parents of the students here are living hand-to-mouth, so there is no question of accepting donations from them. On the Sixth Pay Commission we have expressed our concerns on the financial constraints to the minister. She had directed in our favour."

New Delhi, July 15
An official of a power distribution company was allegedly beaten up and threatened inside the ICU of AIIMS Trauma Centre by a resident of Lajpat Nagar, South Delhi.

The accused, Subhash Saluja, was a defaulter of power bill worth more than Rs 90,000, said said a BRPL official.

The victim, Sahab Singh, an employee of BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), along with his three colleagues, had gone to Saluja's home at Lajpat Nagarto collect the payment for his long-pending electricity bill, said the official.

"Despite being sent several notices, Saluja had continued to default in paying his bill. As a result, the BRPL discontinued the electricity connection," said the official. As soon as Saluja came, he invited the team inside the house and locked the door from outside and mercilessly beat the members," the officials said.— TNS

New Delhi, July 15
Keeping in view the Delhi Assembly election, the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has decided to withdraw the property tax on commercial properties.

This announcement has been made today by the president of the Delhi BJP unit, Vijay Goel.

The NDMC had increased tax from 12 to 20 per cent on commercial properties. Consequently, the property owner had to deposit 75 per cent additional amount of the tax that angered the people, sources said.

The sources said withdrawing hiked tax is not an easy task. Legally a proposal passed by the Standing Committee cannot be withdrawn. It has legal procedure that takes too much time.

However, Goel today said that the corporation would start the provision soon to withdraw the proposal passed to increase the property tax on commercial buildings in north Delhi. The corporation will also find out a provision to withdraw the hiked tax amount deposited by property owners.

New Delhi, July 15
Delhi University has once again drawn flak over closing the admission to the four-year BTech in humanities course by the Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) where allegedly some aspirants were denied admission.

According to the CIC's stipulations, students can seek admission to its four-year course only after securing admission to another course offered by the university. Its website states: "Admission is open only for the students currently enrolled in any undergraduate programme of study of University of Delhi. This includes the colleges, School of Open Learning (SOL) and Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board."

However, student activists from Krantikari Yuva Sangathan said this is an arbitrary move and stands in sharp contrast to last year's admission procedure, wherein the CIC admission form was released and the admission process commenced after the closure of admissions in other DU courses.

According to them, this marks a grave administrative irregularity and also adds to the series of incidents that show the "high-handed and unregulated functioning" of the CIC authorities. When approached the DU administration said the dates were notified earlier.