New Delhi, September 16
A 24-year-old woman allegedly hanged herself and her six-month-old daughter from a ceiling fan at their residence in south-west Delhi's Dwarka locality on Monday night.

The bodies of the woman, Rajni, and her daughter, Trisha, were hanging from the same noose. The police said that their postmortem reports will only reveal if the incident was a case of suicide as claimed by the victims' family.

Rajni's parents had arrived in Delhi from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh today. They told a sub-divisional magistrate that their daughter was allegedly harassed for not paying a dowry of Rs 2 lakh. They also alleged that they were not allowed to meet Rajni which had left her disturbed, according to the police.

Rajni's husband and father-in-law were detained for questioning soon after the incident. They were not let off till late on Tuesday.

The police and Rajni's family said that there was no unusual incident that could have compelled Rajni to take the extreme step. "In the daytime she had collected water from the tankers, washed clothes and even had her lunch," claimed Rajni's mother-in-law Vimla.

Rajni had married Rinku (26) in November 2011. She lived with him, her daughter, Trisha and in-laws at their two-storey building in Dwarka's Kakrola Village. Rinku supplies tobacco products to retailers and his father Suresh works nearby. Vimla runs a grocery shop on the ground floor of their house and Rajni sometimes helped her.

Vimla claims her husband Suresh had returned from work at about 9 pm on Monday and demanded that Trisha come to him. "I called out to Rajni but when there was no response. I left the shop to go up and check. I found the door not completely closed and on opening it, I found her and her daughter hanging from a ceiling fan," Vimla said.

Rajni's family claimed that Rajni and Trisha were hanging from the same noose. A police officer investigating the case said that though it was unusual, it was indeed the state in which the bodies were found. A postmortem would be conducted on Wednesday.

A local resident Dharmender said that the family rarely interacted with their neighbours. "The couple often fought, but we never suspected it could lead to this," he said.

New Delhi, September 16
The journey of Tagore International School (TIS) in South Delhi to connect with Jinyuan Senior High School in Shanghai started in 2007.

After starting virtual classes in yoga and calligraphy as an exchange programme between the two schools located thousands of kilometres away, the activities were expanded to holding virtual classrooms even on Kathak and Tia Chi.

And the journey over the years has been so successful that after the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2010, when he came calling to New Delhi, now the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan will visit a school here on Thursday.

TIS had gifted Premier Wen Jiabao a 3-foot tall statue of Tagore sculpted by national awardee sculptor Ram V Sutar.

The exchange programme between the schools has increased to the extent that besides the virtual classes in the above disciplines every week, Indian and Chinese Art classes will be added to the virtual classes from November this year.

There are online and offline collaborative projects and about 250 students and teachers from TIS have visited China over the last seven years. Besides, TIS students perform at the Chinese Embassy here in February on the occasion of Chinese New Year.

So it is no surprise that a visit to TIS is high on the agenda of every visiting Chinese dignitary.

During her visit to the school, the Chinese First Lady will interact with a select group of students and teach them calligraphy as well.

Xi and his wife Peng will be in India on a three-day visit from tomorrow, with the first stop being Ahmedabad.

On Thursday, the Chinese President travels to New Delhi and Peng will visit TIS on Thursday morning itself, said school Principal Madhulika Sen.

The Chinese First Lady will at the school for about 45 minutes. A cultural programme, including song and dance, will also be presented for Peng.

Incidentally, Peng Liyuan, 51, is a singer, popularly known in China for her patriotic folk songs. Peng was born into a family of artists in Shandong province. Her mother was a member of the local art troupe and her father a curator of museum.

She holds a Master's degree in traditional ethnic music and now serves as the dean of the Art Academy of the People's Liberation Army. She holds the rank of a major general.

New Delhi, September 16
With increasing cases of people being duped by property dealers who sell them government land, District Magistrate (South) Niharika Rai today advised people not to purchase gram sabha land and beware of unscrupulous agents.

The Delhi government has taken a series of demolition drives in villages Maidangarhi, Ayanagar, Jonapur and Chattarpur and retrieved approximately 70 bigha gram sabha land having a market value of Rs 30 crore.

Rai said that the Block Development Office of District (South) has carried out the demolition drive on the direction of the District Magistrate (South) and similar directions of various courts.

"We advise the public not to invest their hard-earned savings in purchasing such government lands and beware of unscrupulous property dealers," she said.

The District Magistrate said the Irrigation and Flood Control Department has been asked to construct the boundary wall of the retrieved gram sabha land to check the re-encroachment.

Rai further said the gram sabha can be allotted to government departments, government agencies like MCD, health, education and other departments of the Delhi government for public utility purposes.

She said some proposals for allotment of retrieved gram sabha land have already been received for construction of school, hospital, dispensaries, etc., which are under consideration for approval of competent authority.

Till the gram sabha land is allotted to the government agencies the same has been handed over to the Irrigation and Flood Control Department for construction of boundary wall and saving it form encroachers.

New Delhi, September 16
The Aam Aadmi Party declared that it will launch an agitation if rules for e-rickshaws are not framed within 10 days as promised by Union Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari.

During the day, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal-led delegation today met Gadkari over the issue of ban on e-rickshaws imposed by the Delhi High Court. Gadkari is understood to have assured the delegation that interest of the section concerned will not be ignored while finalising guidelines for e-rickshaws.

At a time when Delhi is faced with a crisis over government formation, the AAP's move will help it earn the support of the section which played a major role in its Delhi debut last December. Kejriwal took on the BJP over Gadkari's June 17 announcement at Ramlila Grounds regarding legalising e-rickshaws calling its attempt as one to woo the section.

The minister had announced yesterday that he would be bringing out a notification towards the same in the next ten days and asked the AAP delegation to send views on the draft rules to permit lawful plying of e-rickshaws in the Capital.

Noting that e-rickshaws are environment-friendly connectivity vehicles, Kejriwal stated, "The plight of e-rickshaw drivers with nearly two lakh e-rickshaws plying in Delhi today reflects policy paralysis in the Central government."

Kejriwal lashed both the current BJP Central government and the last UPA alliance. "Both the UPA's Central government and now the NDA government have miserably failed in addressing the concerns raised by the Delhi High Court since February this year. Policy paralysis had become synonymous with the previous UPA government, but the example of e-rickshaws shows it is continuing in the NDA government too."

Meanwhile, AAP Delhi unit in-charge Ashutosh rubbished the speculation that Kejriwal's meeting with Gadkari was for working a settlement over the defamation matter.

"The only way to form democratic government is via elections. Public mood is clearly against manipulation politics," AAP tweeted. "There is no truth in the rumour and the meeting was only on e-rickshaw," stated Ashutosh.

E-rickshaw to carry four passengers, say draft rules

The Union government has issued draft rules seeking objections and suggestions from the stake holders for inserting e-rickshaw in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules. The government is interested in notifying the draft rules in two weeks.

The draft rules said that e-rickshaw means that special purpose battery-operated vehicle having three wheels. This vehicle will not be allowed to carry more than four passengers, excluding the driver and luggage not weighing more than 40 km. The power of its motor is not more than 2000 watt. The maximum speed of the vehicle will not be more than 25 km per hour. The licence to drive e-rickshaw will be valid for not more than three years. Fitness certificate will also be renewed after every three years.

Besides, overall width of an e-rickshaw will not exceed 1 metre, according to the draft . 

New Delhi, September 16
A campaign to generate awareness for enrolment of children for issuance of Aadhaar Card living in institutions run either by the government or non-government organisations (NGOs) has been launched by the Delhi Department of Women and Child Development (WCD).

All superintendents and officer-in-charge of the institutions have been directed to coordinate with the regional office of Delhi of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and ensure that the children brought up in the institution are provided with Aadhaar (UID) Cards, said WCD Principal Secretary Dr. Satbir Bedi.

"These children face problems with regard to their identity status when they are released from institutional care upon attaining the age of 18 or more and getting into the mainstream of society. Hence, the drive has been started for providing them personal identities," she said.

The card will support the children in long run for issue of their driving licence, voter identity card, ration card issued in their favour and also to have bank account opened in his or her name.

WCD Director Saumya Gupta said the department is maintaining 22 child care institutions for children in need of care and protection and juvenile in conflict with law under the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. Out of these, 16 children homes are for those who are destitute and orphaned.

New Delhi, September 16
The All India Students' Association (AISA)-led Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) has planned to work for reducing the weightage of viva in JNU's entrance exams and ensuring students' strong representation in the varsity's grievance redressal cell as some of its priorities this year.

Among a slew of other issues which would be a part of its annual agenda are fighting out Lyngdoh Committee recommendations on elections, more hostels and complete Wi-Fi connectivity on campus, said JNUSU's new president Ashutosh while sharing the plans of the new union ahead of the oath-taking ceremony where a total of 35 office-bearers, including 31 councillors representing 12 schools and four central panel members today took charge of office.

"The communal corporate agenda has been exposed and we now hope to have an inclusive campus which has always been our priority. The weightage of viva should be reduced. It is currently 30 per cent and we have been demanding 15 per cent. We have struggled and now the matter is in the Supreme Court," said Ashutosh.

In this connection, former JNUSU president and currently AISA's national president Sucheta De noted that it was after the persistent struggle of AISA, a committee was constituted by the varsity's Academic Council to look into discrimination against SC, ST and OBC students during the viva voce.

"Based on the findings of a committee that showed that students from marginalised and deprived sections get fewer score in the viva, we made the administration acknowledge that discrimination is happening. We are hoping for an outcome from the apex court soon," she said.

The new JNUSU would work towards having new hostels, stepping up scholarships on merit-cum-means basis to students and increasing Wi-Fi coverage of the campus.

Newly elected general secretary Chintu Kumari said, "JNUSU is committed to carrying forward our struggles for hostels and better infrastructure."

New Delhi, September 16
A 60-year-old Sikh autorickshaw driver has alleged that three men beat him up and cut his hair at Mathura Road last evening, forcing him to become hostile in a robbery case.

The police arrested one of the accused, Somen Nair (55). The victim has been identified as Ranjit Singh. Singh's three daughters and some residents of Bhogal and Jangpura took out a march today urging shopkeepers to close their shops in protest. They demanded that the accused be booked not only under charges of attempted to murder, but also for hurting religious sentiments.

There was a heavy deployment of the Delhi Police in Bhogal and Jangpura.

Singh is a resident of Badarpur locality. He drives autorickshaw mainly in south Delhi. Yesterday around 7 pm, he had brought a passenger to Lodhi Road when he was accosted by the three men. He said they were following him.

"Singh said the accused directed him to get into a car. He parked his autorickshaw at Lodhi Road. He sent a text message to his wife, asking her to reach Mathura Road. An argument took place between Singh and the accused (over the robbery case) in the car. It became violent. According to him, they cut his hair and threw acid on him," said a police officer.

Singh said the accused fled when his wife reached the spot. The couple went to the Hazrat Nizammudin police station to file a complaint. Members of the community gathered around the police station and also blocked the main road.

Hours later, the police arrested Nair.

The police learnt that Nair and Singh were involved in an armed robbery at a woman's house in 2011. "There were four people involved in the robbery. Both Nair and Singh were arrested and jailed with their accomplices. They were granted bail six months after their imprisonment," said the officer.

Singh had become the prime witness in the robbery case, inviting the anger of the other accomplices. "The judgment was due soon and Singh was targeted," said police sources.

Meanwhile, Singh, who was initially taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre for a medical check-up, was shifted to Safdarjung hospital where he is being treated.

He is out of danger. He had one per cent burns and some other injuries.

New Delhi, September 16
A cloud-based "Consumer Portal" that can help BSES consumers track their energy consumption on a real-time basis and recommend measures that can help save anywhere between 8 and 20 per cent was launched today in a conclave organized by the power distribution company BSES.

This platform will help all types of consumers, especially those consuming 50 KW and above to reduce their energy bills anywhere between 8 and 20 per cent.

The paid portal service will provide a broad array of services, including tracking of electrical appliances placed in industrial or commercial premises.

"The new portal would help our consumers to monitor their energy consumption patterns on a real time basis along with optimizing their power consumption. The portal service is a web based service and can be easily assessed from anywhere," said a senior BSES official.