New Delhi, November 11
The Delhi Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) today cleared construction of three senior secondary schools and two more projects of Revenue and Industries departments amounting to Rs 117.79 crore.

The EFC gave its nod for construction of three school buildings in Sector-5, 3, Dwarka and Sector-21 Rohini with a total estimated cost of Rs 51 crore. The project to be executed by the PWD would be completed between 15 and 18 months. The new buildings would be four-storeyed with a multipurpose hall.

"The construction of new buildings has become necessary to provide infrastructure for facilitating better educational needs of students as per the provision of RTE Act-2009. Apart from this, the new buildings would be able to provide better atmosphere conducive to learning and overall development of students," said a senior government official.

The Revenue department would also construct an office of the Deputy Commissioner (West) at Shivaji Place, Raja Garden, over a piece of land measuring 4041 square meter taken over from the MCD Slum and JJ department.

The new six-storied building would be constructed suitably in order to meet the requirements of a modern office and would be completed within 21 months. Presently, the office is functioning from an old SPS School building. The project would be executed by the PWD.

"With coming up of the new office at Raja Garden, the Revenue department would be able to serve the visiting citizens in a better way, keep records in a planned manner apart from providing ample waiting space and usual amenities like water, etc. The department has also decided to monitor the construction itself so that the quality and longevity of the building could be ensured," the official said.

The EFC also approved a project of the Industries department for redevelopment and upgradation of roads and drains at Lawrence Road Industrial Area, Block A, B and C at in estimated cast of Rs 30.97 crore. The project would be executed by the DSIIDC and completed within 12 months.

The completion of the project will improve the condition of the industrial area. Riding quality of roads will be improved and a proper drainage system commissioned. The maintenance of the industrial area will be taken care by DSIIDC out of its own resources.

New Delhi, November 11
Delhi BJP affairs in charge Prabhat Jha said the membership drive launched by the party is a part of election campaign. The party has so far made over three lakh members.

After addressing a workshop to accelerate membership campaign, Jha said the party would soon constitute a committee that would study the issues and make election manifest just after the Election Commission announce the date for the Delhi Assembly elections.

He asked the district presidents to put up hoardings and other publicity material all over the city to attract maximum number of people towards party's membership campaign as this publicity would give dual benefit just before the elections in Delhi.

In the workshop, party's national secretary Ramlal, national membership campaign in charge Dinesh Sharma, Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay and other senior leaders were also present.

Inaugurating the workshop Satish Upadhyay laid stress on enlisting membership through online methods.

He appealed to people to call on 18002662020 and join the party.

Ramlal said the initial counts of online membership disclosed that party members in Delhi were active. It is duty of active members and leaders to enroll maximum number of people as new members.

Delhi team should try to make up to one lakh members in every constituency as this will help during the ensuing assembly elections, said Ramlal.

New Delhi, November 11
Rejecting the Aam Aadmi Party as a serious contender and the main opponent, the Congress today said it will have a direct fight with the BJP in the Delhi Assembly polls.

"The Congress will put up a very good show in the coming Delhi Assembly elections. Increasing popularity of the party was evident from the recent poll survey which showed an increase in the vote bank of the party and that in the assembly polls, it will be a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP," DPCC chief Arvinder Singh said.

He alleged that in the past eleven months development works in the national Capital have come to a halt and despite the start of winter season the people of Delhi are being forced to suffer power cuts.

"Pension of thousands of old people, widows and disabled has been stopped. Besides, construction of flats for JJ Cluster dwellers under the Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojna, started by the previous Congress government in Delhi, has also been stopped," Singh alleged.

Giving details of celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Singh said the function will be organised at Talkatora Indoor stadium on November 13.

He also informed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address the party workers on the occasion.

Meanwhile, some political leaders and municipal councillors today joined the Congress party at a function here.

Among the persons who joined the party were councillor and influential leader of the Poorvanchal community Satendra Rana, Municipal Councillor Rekha Vashisht, former councillor Jeevan Lal, BJP leader Dr Veerpal, and former BSP MLA candidate for the Devli Assembly constituency Kishore Kumar Rajora. — PTI

New Delhi, November 11
The Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung today held a meeting to review the progress on disbursement of pension to the newly added approximately 40,000 beneficiaries to the existing old age pension scheme of Delhi government.

The Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) said that the number of beneficiaries under the 'Pension to Senior Citizens' scheme has been increased from the existing 3.90 lakh, with 40,000 persons being added in this financial year.

There has been an addition of 37,527 beneficiaries till November 10. The process of fresh registration began on September 1.

He said that while the existing beneficiaries are already getting their pension, the newly added beneficiaries will be disbursed their pension by the quarter ending December.

"These are the most vulnerable of our people and we must ensure that quick disbursement of pension is made to them," the LG said.

The Secretary has instructed the Department of Social Welfare to process the applications in respect of 37,527 applicants as verification of their submitted documents, including bank accounts and Aadhar numbers, has been completed.

"The officers were directed to act fast to sanction pension in respect of all eligible applicants so that the amount could be remitted to their bank accounts by the last week of December," said a senior official.

New Delhi, November 11
A man, who had allegedly kidnapped a three-year-old girl from northwest Delhi, was caught by two passengers on board a train from Delhi to Sonepat, Haryana, and handed over to the Railway Police at Sonepat last week, the Delhi Police said today.

The passengers had also handed over the girl to the Railway Police who then placed her under the custody of the Old Delhi Railway police station. The accused, Bhanwar Singh, had boarded a train to Sonepat with the girl from the station. He belongs to Uttar Pradesh and was presently living at Gautam Colony in Narela Outer Delhi. The Old Delhi Railway police station contacted the Adarsh Nagar police station, where a case of kidnapping of the girl was registered. The girl was finally handed over to her family.

The Delhi Police Commissioner, B S Bassi, today gave rewards of Rs 10,000 each to the passengers Shubham Jain, who belongs to Hanuman Garh, Rajasthan, and Jasbir Singh, a resident of Sonepat, who rescued the girl, for their "alertness and selfless efforts". Assistant sub-inspectors Manjeet Singh and Rajvir Singh of the Railway Police, Sonepat, have also been rewarded Rs 5,000 each for "the enthusiasm and responsibility shown towards their duties", according to the police.

N Gnana Sambandan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West District) said on November 6, information about the three-year-old girl missing was reported at the Adarsh Nagar police station in Northwest Delhi. A case of kidnapping was registered. A wireless message about the missing girl was sent to all the police stations in Delhi and the superintendents of police across India. Details of the girl was uploaded on Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNET), which is a project to share crime and criminal information in real time with the police of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

During the evening, the authorities at Old Delhi Railway Station informed the police that they had received a missing girl from Sonepat. "It was revealed that Bhanwar was carrying the child in a train going from Old Delhi Railway Station to Sonepat. Two passengers, Shubham Jain and Jasbir Singh, found him suspicious. They escorted the child and Bhanwar to Sonepat railway station and handed the victim and the accused to ASIs Manjeet and Rajbir," said Sambandan.

Railway police personnel traced the girl's parents and handed her over to them.

Based on the information uploaded on ZIPNET, the staff of Old Delhi Railway Station contacted the Adarsh Nagar police station. "Bhanwar was remanded in 14-day judicial custody on November 7 by the order of the Metropolitan Magistrate in Rohini Courts, Delhi," said Sambandan.

New Delhi, November 11
An alarming 90 per cent of people with epilepsy (PWEs) are still deprived of treatment in the country and 50 per cent of them do not have access to the relatively cheaper drugs, reveals a study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Published in the latest issue of the American journal, Epilepsy and Behavior, the study says more than the disease it is the discrimination and social stigma associated to epilepsy that hits the quality of life (QOL) of PWEs and pushes them to depression.

The study found that stigma was noticed in 42.30 per cent of the sampled population (208 patients, mostly young, who visited AIIMS between 2008-2011) with women outnumbering men in stigma scale.

Using the Indian Disability Evaluation Assessment Scheme (IDEAS), disability due to stigmatised epilepsy was gauged by the AIIMS team that saw 46.62 per cent of the total patients having mild disability and up to 23.08 per cent of the patients with severe disability.

Further, low self-esteem was also widely observed in the study group, with 18.71 per cent of the patients having reduced self-esteem.

"Epilepsy though curable becomes a disabling disorder when the patients either do not respond to two or more drugs or they have comorbidities, such as depression, physical disability, behavioural changes, low IQ, etc. In both the conditions, the disease becomes unpreventable but epilepsy disability due to stigma is modifiable," said Prof Manjari Tripathi of the AIIMS' Neurology Department, who has coauthored the study with Dr Ashima Nehra, Associate Professor, Neuropsychology, et al.