Afzal seeks refuge in books, scriptures

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Facing death row, Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru has sought refuge in novels and religious scriptures in his cell in Tihar Jail.

Guru, whose mercy petition filed by his family is pending before President A P J Abdul Kalam, has asked the jail library officials for fiction books and a copy of the Holy Quran.

"He had asked for a few Urdu novels and a copy of the Holy Quran, which have been provided to him," jail sources told PTI.

The former JKLF member has also sought permission to move about in the courtyard and garden near his cell, which has been granted, they said.

"As he was confined to his cell in the jail, he was getting bored. Therefore, we granted him the permission to move around," the sources said.

His health condition, checked on a daily basis by the jail doctor, is stated to be normal. "He is absolutely fine. His health is okay and he is having normal diet," sources said.

Convicted in the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack case, Guru has been given death sentence, execution of which was to take place on October 20.

However, with his mercy petition pending before the President, there is a possibility that the execution will not take place on the scheduled date. (PTI)

Total dengue cases rises to 1,373; Death toll at 25

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: As Delhi struggles to cope with the mosquito menace, dengue death toll in the national capital climbed to 25 today and the total number of patients increased to 1,373.

Twenty-five-year-old, Farhana, a resident of Hauz Rani, Delhi succumbed to the viral disease in AIIMS at 0200 hrs.

MCD officials said of the total cases till 1000 hrs this morning, 892 were from Delhi and the rest from outside.

"Ninety-five more cases were reported in the past 24 hours in Delhi," they said.

Central Zone, Najafgarh and Shahdara (North) continued to be the worst affected areas which have reported 181, 111 and 102 cases respectively.

In AIIMS, which is facing a dengue deluge, 39 new patients were admitted in the past 24 hours taking the total number of patients undergoing treatment for the viral disease to 165.

Thirty-four patients were discharged from the institute during the same time period.

More than 15,500 patients have been screened at the AIIMS emergency OPD since October 3, doctors said.

An average of 1000 people are being screened daily at the emergency OPD.

The hospital is conducting about 1,600 platelet-counting tests daily with the help of four separator machines, functioning round-the-clock.

Doctors at the premier healthcare institute today again appealed to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to declare Dengue an epidemic.

" Dengue is not abating.... The numbers are increasing every day. Dr Ramadoss must declare it an epidemic. More resources to fight the disease will be available then," RDA General Secretary Dr Anil Sharma said.

"AIIMS, a super specialty institute, has been reduced to a hospital which will only deal with dengue. Our resources have have been stretched to the limits," he added.

Only emergency and dengue patients are being admitted to the the hospital.

"We have been told only to admit dengue and emergency patients. People have been waiting for their renal, heart or liver surgeries for years are being turned away," he pointed out.

"If an epidemic is declared than we can refer dengue patients to other hospitals and attend to other patients then," he said. (UNI)

BJP demands re-election to Chennai Corporation

MADURAI, Oct 14: The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP today demanded re-election to all the 155 wards of the Chennai Corporation and use of electronic voting machines in view of the unprecedented violence and rigging from the beginning of the polling.

The election held yesterday should be cancelled, counting of votes should be stopped and the State Election Commission (SEC) should take full responsibility for holding the polls afresh with observers from the judiciary and media and central police force, unit President L Ganesan told reporters here.

Listing a number of wards where "all the votes were cast within an hour of polling", he said many volunteers of the BJP and other parties suffered grieveous injuries in the violence. "This had been reported by all sections of the media."

He regretted that top Police officers, including the DGP and the Chennai Commissioner of Police, as well as the State Election Commissioner were not available when the party leaders wanted to meet them and give their personal account of the violence.

The SEC, which was answerable only to the voters, had "failed" to do its duty, he charged.

Apprehending that similar violence could erupt in Madurai, where the elections are to be held tomorrow for the Corporation, he wanted the SEC and Police to be more careful in conducting the polls.

The BJP was also consulting legal experts on the possibility of cancelling Chennai Corporation election through court, he added. (PTI)

Bihar AP, MP suffering from heavy mobile congestion

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: The Telecom Regulatory Auhthority of India (TRAI) today said that net work congestion problems is on rise among the private mobile service providers and is high in Bihar, North East, UP (East), West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

The benchmark notified by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its Quality of Service (QOS) regulations of July 2005 parameter is 0.5 per cent. This means that of 200 calls between two operators, only one should face congestion problem.

However a fresh set of monitoring by the regulator reveals that

In a number of areas, the degree of congestion between the operators is alarming.

"In a number of cities, the level of congestion between the

Networks of different operators is far more than this benchmark," TRAI said.

The TRAI report said In the period under study from May 2006 to July 2006 the congestion in the Points of Intersection (POI) increased from 99 in May 2006 to 111 in July 2006.

Some of the badly hit states are Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharshtra, North East, Rajasthan, Tamil NAdu, UP-East, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. (UNI)

Rape accused acquitted after victim’s
admission of marriage

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Relying upon the statement of the victim that she was married to the accused, a city court has acquitted a 20-year-old youth of Amritsar of the charges of commiting rape after kidnapping her from her home in north west Delhi.

"Since the complainant (girl’s father) and the prosecutrix (victim) have not supported the prosecution case, accused Harjeet Singh is acquitted of the charges," Additional Sessions Judge Narottam Kaushal observed.

Earlier, the court noted that nothing incriminating had come up against the accused in the statements of prosecution witnesses.

A complaint was filed with the Nangloi police station by one Harbhajan Singh of Chander Vihar here that her 17-year-old daughter had been missing since September 2, last year.

He suspected that Harjeet Singh had enticed away the girl and took her to village Dolo, Nangal Vyas in Amritsar. An FIR under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping for the purpose of marriage) was lodged against the accused.

The police arrested the accused two days later and rescued the girl. A chargesheet was filed invoking various Sections of the Indian Penal Code including 376 (rape) against Harjeet.

During her deposition in the court, the girl however stated that she had been living with the accused after marrying him on April 16 this year.

Her father also told the court that he had no grievance against Harjeet after the marriage. The accused was granted bail on March one this year in the case. (PTI)

SC stays death penalty of two persons from Punjab

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: The Supreme Court has stayed carrying out the death sentence awarded to two persons from Amritsar in Punjab, who were convicted for killing four of their relatives in 2000 over a property dispute.

The relief to convicts-Jaj Singh and Gurvail Singh-came yesterday just before their hanging scheduled for October 16.

After Punjab and Haryana High Court had confirmed their conviction and capital punishment, a Sessions Court in Amritsar had fixed the date for their execution.

However, an apex court Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Dalvir Bhandari, yesterday stayed their hanging and issued notices to the Punjab government after admitting their petition challenging the High Court judgment.

The duo were convicted for murdering four relatives on August 21, 2000, following a dispute over partition of family’s property in Bhittad village. (PTI)

Lt Gen Sandhu first army officer to be
awareded PhD degree

CHANDIGARH, Oct 14: Lt Gen (Dr) D D S Sandhu, Director General, Ordnance Services and Senior Colonel Commandant of Army Ordnance Corps is the first army officer to have been awarded honorary degree of Doctorate by President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

Dr Kalam awarded the degree to Lt Gen Sandhu at a convocation held at Jabalpur yesterday.

Lt Gen Sandhu, an alumnus of National Defence Academy was commissioned in the Army Ordnance Corps on June 11, 1967. He is a graduate of Defence Service Staff College, Wellington and has done his post graduation in Defence Studies from Madras University and M Phil in Defence and Management Studies from Devi Ahalya Bai University, Indore.

The General officer has an MBA degree in Material Management from Rani Durgawati Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur, and MDBA degree from IIMM, Pune. He is also a Fellow of British Institute of Management.

Gen Sandhu has an inclination towards research on vital issues of military logistics and he acquired his Doctorate in "International Marketing of Indian Defence Products" from Punjabi University, Patiala.

In addition, the General is qualified in various professional courses on computer applications in the latest technologies such as Enterprise Java Beans and RDBMS Oracle. His forte is "Management" and "Automation" and he has held various prestigious appointments in the Army and abroad primarily in the logistics field.

He has also been the Commandant and Principal, College of Materials Management, Jabalpur. (UNI)

Illegal constructions, factory demolished

SONEPAT, Oct 14: Unauthorised structures in two residential colonies and one factory under construction near here were demolished today by the Country and Town Planning Department, officials said.

Five shops constructed illegally in the residential colonies were also demolished, they said.

JCB machines were used for the demolition and officials were accompanied by police teams.

The unauthorised structures and factory were demolished for violating the Controlled Area Act and many complaints had been received regarding them, officials said.

The factory, spread over five acres and located at a distance of 13 kilometres from here, was allegedly owned by Delhi resident while the two colonies, spread over three acres, are allegedly owned by persons from the Bahalgarh and Khewra village, officials said. (PTI)

Reservation for post of SC Judges demanded

COIMBATORE, Oct 14: Demanding reservation for the post of judges/justices in Supreme Court, about 50 workers of the Dravida Kazhakam, staged a demonstration, here today.

The activists, led by the district president, Vasantham K.Ramachandran, holding placards, said as there was reservation for the post of judges in the district courts, it should be extended to High courts and Supreme Court.

With 520 judges in 18 High courts, there were only 85 judges belonging to SC/ST and the demand for reservation in the judiciary was part of social justice, they said. (PTI)

District Magistrates in vigilance net

PATNA, Oct 14: With the arrest of Mr Hemchandra Jha, three District Magistrates have so far been caught in the vigilance net for commmitting financial irregularities in recent times.

The District Magistrates who are facing charges of squandering public funds include former District Magistrates of Patna and Katihar - Gautam Goswami and Lakshmi Kant.

Mr Jha has been booked by the state vigilance investigation bureau for allegedly accepting grafts from some officials in Madhepura district while Mr Goswami, now languishing in Beur jail, has been chargesheeted for siphoning off flood relief funds. Earlier, Mr Lakshmi Kant had also been chargsheeted for embezzlement of various educational scheme funds.

"Mr Jha was arrested last night by the sleuths of state vigilance bureau, and now was being taken for interrogation and is likely to be produced before the court today evening," said additional DGP(vigilance) Nilmani, adding "at the time of his arrest, an amount of Rs 1,90,200 was recovered from his possession and he failed to give any plausible explanation about the huge cash."

The Vigilance also raided Mr Jha’s house in the state capital and his official residence in Madhepura. The District Magistrate is also facing a complaint case filed against him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Madhepura by Madhepura NCP district president Angad Yadav for committing financial irregularities in the purchase of medicines for various health related schemes.

Apart from Mr Jha, the Vigilance had also arrested assistant labour commissioner Sant Lal Choudhry in Bettiah of West Champaran district for accepting a bribe of Rs 5000.

Prior to the arrest of the three DMs, the Vigilance had booked a District Development Commissioner of Supaul for taking bribe of Rs 35,000.

Notably, Bihar tops the chart for corruption charges after the CBI in 1997 arrested many senior IAS officers in connection with the multi crore rupee fodder scam and the present arrests simply adds up to that tally. (UNI)

IIT to provide satellite-based education to engg colleges

KANPUR, Oct 14: The faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, would provide education via satellite to various technical and engineering institutes in Uttar Pradesh.

The project has got the green signal from the state government and a team of professors from IIT and Harcort Butler Technical Institute (HBTI), Kanpur, are busy giving final shape to it.

The faculty members will deliver lectures and answer queries of students sitting even at far-flung areas using video-conferencing technology, a member of the project and Head of the Department of Computer Science, IIT Kanpur, Phalguni Gupta said.

He said 15 engineering institutions of the state will be taken up in the first phase of the project out of which 10 colleges will be from the private sector and the remaining government run institutions.

Gupta said teachers of IIT and HBTI were preparing schedule of all subjects which will be directly beamed to class rooms of engineering institutions via satellite.

There are 210 engineering institutions in the state but there is a shortage of faculty with necessary expertise. As a result, students passing out of these institutions were faring well in competetive exams, he said.

A centre would be set up at HBTI, Kanpur for this tele-education plan and professors of IIT Kanpur senior staff members of other technical institutions would also be invited for delivering lecturers, he said. (PTI)

Attempt to enter Guinness Book by
planting seven lakh saplings

COIMBATORE, Oct 14: In a bid to enter Guinness Book of World Records, a city-based organisation will plant seven lakh saplings across Tamil Nadu in a day.

The mass plantation initiative, planned on October 17 by Isha Foundation under the ‘Project Green Hands,’ would be officially inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi tomorrow at Chennai, K Sekhar, Project Coordinator, told reporters here today.

The project would cover 2,400 planting locations across 28 districts of the state and Governor Surjit Singh Barnala would conclude the drive by planting the last sapling, Sekhar said.

About 2.5 lakh volunteers of the Foundation would assist various NGOs, corporates and educational institutions for planting 30 types of saplings, at a cost of Rs.24 lakh.

The previously known record is 1.1 lakh saplings planted in the UK in a span of three days.

Sekhar said all the stipulated documents would be compiled and sent to Guinness Book officials, with whom a claim has already been registered.

Thirty per cent additional saplings have been stocked, in case the response was more than anticipated, he said.

The two-year old initiative, Project Green Hands, would see 11 million trees planted through various mass initiatives in the next 10 years, he said. (PTI)