New Delhi: Curtains for shops around school

Ambika Pandit
[ 8 Sep, 2006 0309hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: With godowns, a screening press and 100-odd shops dealing in junk, timber and building material circling its boundary wall, it was hard to spot the government-aided senior secondary school at Old Double Storey area in Lajpat Nagar IV.

When MCD sealed eight shops here on Thursday, the authorities at Shradharam Sanatan Dharam Senior Secondary School said this has come as a major relief to students.

"These shops have all along been a cause of pollution and distraction to students," said Ramesh Sharma, the manager of the school. He added that all these shops had been running illegally on school land for years now.

From the outside, it seems that the shops are located outside the school boundary. But once you enter the premises, it becomes clear that the shops have eaten into the playground.

At one place, the iron grill has brokwn down, owing to the junk pressing against the wall. Sitting inside the classroom, you can only see rows of tin roofs strewn with junk.

Protesting against the sealing drive, the shopkeepers claimed that they have been paying rent to the Shradharam Trust. They even produced legal documents to show that they were tenants, which however read that, "lesee will not carry out any business which will create nuisance and pollution in the area."

When contacted, the Pandit Shradharam Trust Committee labelled all these shops as unauthorised and pointed out that they were occupying the school land.

Three acres of land had been allotted to the trust to run a school in 1953.

"But the previous manager of the committee in connivance with some others had allowed these shops to come up between 1995 and 2002.

He was arrested in 2002 in connection with a case of misappropriation of funds and a fake degree racket. The case is still on. The school land was allotted by Land and Development Office (L&DO) to the Trust.

But despite complaints from the new trust committee, the authorities are yet to rid the land of encroachments," one of the trust members told Times City.

The trust and residents of the area have complained about these shops to the MCD and L&DO.

"Responding to numerous complaints, L&DO carried out a survey here a few months back, and assured school authorities that it would initiate demolition action to bring respite to people. But nothing has happened so far," said a trust member.

New Delhi: Vande Mataram's echo in city schools

Sonia Sarkar
[ 8 Sep, 2006 0311hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: For some, it was an occasion to pay tribute to the nation. While for others, it was a special day to remember the freedom struggle. Understanding the meaning of the National Song was probably not so important for the students who sang it during morning assembly on Thursday to mark the 100 years of Vande Mataram.

"I am not too sure about the meaning of the song, but probably it talks about freedom struggle and mother. Our teachers asked us to sing it and we obeyed," said P V Rahul, a Class XI student at KV, R K Puram.

To understand the Sanksrit version was not an easy thing, felt G Sidharth, a Class XI student of Tagore International, Vasant Vihar. "I think the song is about the Motherland," he said. His teachers made a 15-minute presentation on the history of song and the three tunes which had been composed so far.

If those studying in Class XI don't understand the meaning, one can't blame Shiv Sharma, a Class I student at Birla Vidya Niketan. "I don't know the meaning of the song. Our teachers sang it first, we repeated," he said.

Though there was no official direction by the state government to sing the song at 11 am, almost all schools across the city sang in unison. "We organised a special assembly at 9 am just to sing Vande Mataram. After the assembly, we distributed English and Hindi translations of the song and pasted a copy of the same on the notice board. We want students to understand the essence of the song," said Vinay Kumar, principal, DPS Vasant Kunj.

Students of two Urdu schools, Fatehpuri Muslim School and Anglo-Arabic School, also joined the choir. "Our students sang the song in the assembly along with the teachers.

This song should be sung by all irrespective of the religion," said Firoz Bakht Ahmed, a governing body member of the Anglo-Arabic School.

Even though the Muslim clergymen were not in favour of singing the song in madarssas, an all girls Madrassa Niswan at Kashmere Gate reportedly sang it.

Imam Bukhari said: "I have neither asked any madrassa to sing the song nor had instructed any not to sing it." Despite the SGPC officials declaring it optional for its schools to sing Vande Mataram, schools run by the management did not sing it.

New Delhi: RTI New Bill to give more teeth

NIDHI SHARMA
[ 8 Sep, 2006 0312hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: In a bid to give fillip to the Right to Information (RTI) Act and bring errant government officials to book, Delhi is preparing a new legislation — Delhi Public Grievances Act 2006.

The draft bill, which is likely to be introduced in the next Assembly session, attempts to give more teeth to the Public Grievances Commission (PGC) — the appellate body for RTI.

The legislation will make the commission a statutory body and will bring many administrative changes to help in checking corrupt practices and harassment by government officials.

At present, PGC is a non-statutory body comprising one chairman and three members (one full-time and two part-time members).

It addresses grievances of the people and hears appeals under the Delhi RTI Act 2001. However, the government takes a long time in the implementation of the commission's decisions or recommendations and can even reduce the quantum of punishment.

If the government ignores PGC's recommendations, which it has regularly been doing, the commission has no powers to take any action.

The new legislation aims at making PGC a statutory body. This would give the commission powers of a civil court. It would be able to summon any officer on a complaint of the common man and order production of government records.

PGC chairman Baleshwar Rai said: "The draft legislation is ready. We have incorporated the suggestions made by the law department. Now we will send it to Delhi government. Through this legislation we have aimed at giving more powers to the commission for effective grievance redressal of the common man."

The draft Bill empowers the commission to levy heavy penalties if there is delay or violation of its directions. PGC, under the legislation, levies a fine of Rs 250 per day extending to a maximum of Rs 10,000 on an officer for dereliction of duty or even harassment.

Even civic bodies, corporations or departments can be directed to pay damages to an individual in case they are found violating rules or causing harassment. The draft Bill lays down that PGC would review grievance redressal system of different departments at least twice a year.

One of the biggest changes proposed would be in the administrative set-up. The draft has tried to nudge out retired bureaucrats from PGC.

So far, there has been a tradition to post retired bureaucrats as the chairman and members. The draft says that any public servant would be given the responsibility of PGC.

The commission would be headed by a chairman. It would have a member secretary and three full-time members. They would have a fixed tenure of three years, unlike the present members who can serve till the age of 65 years.

If the Bill comes through in its present form, PGC would not be dependent on Delhi government for its day-to-day budget. It would be given an annual grant, which will be earmarked at the beginning of the financial year.

It would also have an annual accounting and auditing system.

New Delhi: Rape; Docs discuss grey areas

[ 7 Sep, 2006 0002hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: Is an underage girl, who has had consensual sex but is now under parental pressure because of the act, a victim of rape?

What is the role of a doctor when he/she discovers in course of routine physical examination of a patient that there has been sexual assault though the family is not willing to press charges?

These were some of the questions raised by doctors attending a workshop on "Role of Medicos in Handling Cases of Rape", organised by the NGO Pratidhi on Wednesday.

While the workshop aimed at equipping gynaecologists and general duty medical officers with counselling skills necessary as they are the first step of organised help for a victim, the legal and social grey areas came up time and again during the discussions.

According to Raaj Mangal Prasad, vice-president (programme), Pratidhi, however, lack of sensitivity, rather than legal loopholes is the core problem in handling rape victims.

"Our survey done in 2003 revealed that the average waiting period in a government hospital for a rape victim is one and half hours. There have been cases when the ward boy has been asked to help the doctor examine the patient," Prasad said.

Dr Kishore Rajurkar, gynaecologist with Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, said, "Rape statistics furnished by Delhi Police are extremely misleading because bulk of the cases they bring for examination are cases where an underage girl had eloped, had consensual sex and then parents lodged a complaint.

Legally, it is rape but the counselling protocol does not quite apply here the way it happens in sexual assault. The cases that leave us groping for ways to handle are when routine investigations reveal sexual assault but the family is unwilling to press charges."

Agreed many others like Dr Seema Prakash of Geeta Colony Hospital.

"Some 15% pregnancies are in underage girls, we have had sterilisation requests from 19 and 20-year-olds and there is no protocol to handle the problem. There is a lack of legal and social clarity."

Dr Kavita Arora, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, Sparsh, stressed on the need for an area in the casualty of every hospital for victims' examination.

New Delhi: Disabled youth kills girl, slits own throat

[ 6 Sep, 2006 0126hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: A 20-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her friend at Chattarpur Extension in Mehrauli on Tuesday afternoon. The man, who is physically challenged, then went on to stab himself and is admitted in AIIMS with little chance of survival.

The victim, Renu, was stabbed 38 times all over the body by Rajesh Singh (26) before he himself slit his throat. Their families are neighbours. According to the police, Rajesh, who is paralysed below the knees because of polio, was in love with Renu.

Renu is also said to have reciprocated his feelings and they were, said the cops, quite friendly for the past several months. Renu was a second-year correspondence student with DU.

On Tuesday afternoon, Renu had come to Rajesh's house around 3.30 pm. Renu was also a close friend of Rajesh's sister Monica. The family members later told the police that Rajesh asked Monica to get water for Renu.

"Rajesh had prepared himself for this. He had hidden a sword and a sharp-edge knife under one of the chairs. As soon as Monica left, he attacked her," said a senior police officer.

Rajesh first stabbed her in the neck with the knife and then used the sword to stab her in the abdomen. Renu died on the spot. Monica informed the neighbours who called up the police.

"Some of the injury marks on Renu's body are defensive in nature which suggests that there was a scuffle before she was killed. It's a crime of passion but we can't say now what was the immediate provocation for killing her," said DCP (south) Anil Shukla.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Rajesh, who was unemployed, was in love with Renu and wanted to marry her. A few family members, however, said that while Renu was also very friendly with him, she had refused to marry him and this led to the incident.

The police recovered a note from Rajesh's room in which he had written that he wanted to commit suicide.

"He had written that he was in great distress and wanted to kill himself and that nobody should be blamed for his death. This note, however, was written almost a month ago. He made no mention of the woman in the note," said a police officer.

Rajesh's father Pal Singh is a supervisor with MCD. Renu's father Gulab Singh was an employee of an export firm. The police have registered a case of murder in Mehrauli police station.

New Delhi: Chikungunya in city

Kounteya Sinha
[ 6 Sep, 2006 0124hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: Chikungunya, a viral disease with no known treatment, has come to the Capital. Three of the six blood samples collected by National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) have tested positive for the deadly disease.

NICD officials said all three patients, in the age group of 27 to 30 years, had visited Andhra Pradesh, one of the states hit hard by Chikungunya, in the past month.

Characterised by high fever lasting between seven and 10 days, painful joints, headache, vomiting, fatigue and nausea, the disease has not been seen in Delhi before.

Spread by Aedes aegypti mosquito, the disease, which is generally not fatal, has affected 11 lakh people across India with states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh being badly hit.

NICD is presently testing 30 blood samples of patients who have shown symptoms of the disease. Experts fear the virus could be in the incubation period in the Capital, with many more cases springing up in the next few weeks.

A senior NICD official said, "We had received blood samples of six patients from three city hospitals, of which three have tested positive.

Their clinical picture, along with antibody titre count of above 160 confirmed our worst suspicions." According to health minister A Ramadoss, prevention against the disease is its only cure.

Speaking to TOI, he said the ministry has sent guidelines to various states on how to control an outbreak. This debilitating illness has been affecting people for the past six months.

There are no vaccines and it has to be tackled with paracetamol and fluids. As it is caused by a day-biting mosquito, mosquito nets are also no precaution.

People therefore have to be more alert. They should not let water accumulate in their flower pots, coolers or AC chambers, which are ideal breeding grounds for the dangerous mosquitoes.