New Delhi, July 17
Even as seats in a few courses of Delhi University are up for grabs for general students, a major chunk of the unoccupied seats belongs to the reserved categories across colleges after admissions based on their sixth cut-off list came to a close today.

As colleges posted their seventh cut-off marks late evening, Daulat Ram College, which had stopped admitting general students in all its 14 courses, today sought applications from general aspirants for English along with other reserved candidates for whom options remain available in many subjects.

In popular campus colleges such as Hansraj and Ramjas, general category admissions to B Com remain open.

At Hans Raj, the qualifying marks stood at 96.25 pc for general students with commerce background and 98 pc for the rest while Ramjas had it at 95.75 pc for commerce stream and 97.75 pc for other disciplines.

For the general students, the college has closed entries to botany, physics and chemistry in science discipline and English in arts which were open until the last list.

In fact, in most of the colleges, English is no more available for general aspirants expect a few like Kirori Mal College (KMC) where it is still on offer for them (89 pc) as well as for the Scheduled Castes and candidates with disabilities.

The college has also kept physics, which is closed for the rest, open for the general candidates. This is not all, for general category, seats have been declared open by Ram Lal Anand College in computer science. Gargi College continues to offer seats in subjects like history, philosophy, pol science and Sanskrit.

For aspirants of the reserved categories, there are options galore with the seventh cut-off list released officially. All the above colleges are offering admissions to the students of reserved categories largely in most of the subjects.

Joining the queue of colleges having seats for reserved categories are: Bharti College (including commerce) and Bhagini Nivedita.

New Delhi, July 17
Adolescent behaviour experts and child rights activists have hailed the Supreme Court's today's verdict upholding 18 years as the age of the child/juvenile and the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act while striking down the plea to reduce the age to 16 and dismissing the idea that minors involved in heinous crimes should not be protected under the law.

They stressed the need for rehabilitation and social reintegration of juveniles, including adoption, foster care, sponsorship and aftercare which are listed under Section 44 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

"This is something that is facilitated in a correctional home and these juveniles should be given psychological counselling. This might not be possible in the prisons where they would share space with the hardened criminals," said Dr. Sunil Mittal, director of Delhi Psychiatry Centre.

"The focus should be on reforming juvenile delinquents instead of giving them severe punishment," stressed Dr Sameer Kalani, senior psychotherapist and coordinator of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services CIMBS.

In the wake of the hue and cry over the alleged involvement of the minor in the December 16 gangrape case, a batch of PILs was filed in the apex court pleading that the JJ Act should be amended and a minor, involved in heinous crimes, should not be protected under the law.

The plea in the apex court was opposed by various child activists, including former chairperson of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Amod Kanth, who is also general secretary Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre Society.

"Following the Delhi gangrape which resulted in the death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, a demand has been raised by different sections of society that the juvenile age be lowered to 16 and that juveniles be tried as adults for severe offences, but we opposed this dilution of the JJ Act and reduction of age," said Kanth.

He said there is a need for the 'aftercare programme' as provided under the law and practised in many advance countries. Such a programme has been undertaken by the Prayas' Society by the name of 'Yuva Connect' to reform and rehabilitate nearly 100 juveniles involved in serious offences which was also brought to the notice of the court, he added.

New Delhi, July 17
Unveiling the strategy for the coming assembly elections in Delhi, the Delhi BJP today said the party has started its exercise to put crack teams on all 11,763 polling booths in the Capital.

In the poll battle, the crack teams will comprise more than 3.5 lakh trained and well-equipped party cadres.

The crack teams and party cadres will be rallied from July 19 to August 4 in 280 mandal-level 'Karyakarta Sammelans' which will be addressed by the leaders of national and state levels.

Elaborating on the election preparation, Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said, "On every polling booth, we are making a 32-member crack team. Around 10,000 teams are already in place. The team comprises 12 BJP workers over 30 years of age, 12 workers below 30 years of age and eight women."

There are around 250 families at every polling booth. The task assigned to this 32-member team is to reach every family. Every member of the team will approach around seven families over the next few months, convincing them as to how important it is to bring a change in Delhi. The party cadres will expose the misdeeds of the Congress government and mobilise common people at the household level, he said.

Goel said, "In the days to come, these crack teams comprising 3.5 lakh committed party cadres will lead the poll charge."

New Delhi, July 17
With the seizure of a large number of sophisticated weapons, Special Cell of the Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a trade in illegal weapons that are supplied from Munger in Bihar to criminals in Delhi as well as NCR.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said that the police arrested two suspects - Niranjan Mishra and Mohammad Feroz - who were in an Ambassador car. Ninety-nine pistols and 198 magazines were seized from an inbuilt capsule cavity in the headlights of the car.

The pistols bore the mark "Army supply only", "made in USA", the DCP said.

The police came to know about the supply of the consignment during a study about the supply of the weapons from Munger. The Special Cell had its teams in Baghpat, Meerut and other districts in UP last year. During the study, the police came to know that the illegal weapons are being supplied throughout the country from Munger.

The police had deployed its informers in various districts of Uttar Pradesh. The police received information yesterday about the delivery of the consignment at Sonia Vihar. A trap was laid and the suspects were arrested with the weapons.

The modus operandi used by culprits was well designed as they had used inbuilt capsule cavity meant for headlights of the vehicle to conceal the pistols. However, they could not outsmart officials of the Special Cell, added DCP Yadav.