Nearly 90% vote against appointment of dean at JNU's student referendum

NEW DELHI: The students of Jawaharlal Nehru University held a referendum on February 27 and 28 on whether a faculty member with a case in JNU's GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment) should be appointed into an administrative post. Of the total 1,735 votes cast, 1,561 (89.97%) were against such an appointment.

Conducted jointly by a number of student organizations active in JNU with JNUSU, the referendum will lead up to a protest and a meeting with the vice-chancellor to whom the students will hand the results on Monday. "Over two dozen teachers have written an open letter to the vice-chancellor against this appointment," says Rajan Jha of Students in Defence of JNU Culture. The letter, signed by two dozen faculty members, is dated January 24, 2014. The position concerned is that of dean at one of JNU's 10 schools.

JNU's GSCASH has been discussed much since the attack on a student by a classmate in class last July. More cases, though far less violent, have been reported since and GSCASH's own survey found that over 20% female students in JNU face sexual harassment. In another open letter, written in August 2013, teachers had demanded greater support for GSCASH and observed that there are repeated attempts to "undermine" the institution.

While GSCASH never dropped from discussions, JNU, where new student organizations are constantly proliferating, has seen a new entrant — Students Against Politicisation of GSCASH. The members of this group are unwilling to be named fearing retaliation "from the communists in the campus" — the Left dominates student politics at JNU. This group, at least, has rejected the referendum led by the JNU Students' Union (all central panel-members are from radical left group, All India Students' Association) that also involved Democratic Students' Federation, as "bogus" and an attempt to "defame" anyone who doesn't agree with them.

The organizers of the referendum, however, aren't will to leave it at that. They'll first hold a protest at the administrative block on Monday and an Open House is planned for Tuesday.

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Maid death: Cops get court’s poser

NEW DELHI: A trial court on Saturday asked Delhi Police if it has provided protection to the crucial witnesses in the maid murder case in which BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti have been chargesheeted.

Additional sessions judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma asked police to file a status report on protection given to the other two servants at the home who are key witnesses. The court wanted a detailed report on whether witnesses were given protection after the November order by the magisterial court.

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Bharti, Krishnan in war of tweets

NEW DELHI: A war of words broke out between former law minister Somnath Bharti and activist Kavita Krishnan on Twitter on Saturday after the former was indicted by a judicial panel in the Khirki Extension raid case.

On Friday, the inquiry panel headed by retired additional district and session judge B L Garg submitted its report to LG Najeeb Jung. Sources said the report gave a clean chit to Delhi Police, which the AAP had accused of inaction, and blamed Bharti for the incident.

On Saturday, Bharti posted a tweet. He said: "Hw come a report is being commented without it being released? Also, no visible attempt ws md 2 record statmnts of eye witnesses 4m khirki. (sic) To this, Krishnan, who has been extremely critical of AAP's stand on the matter, said: "questioning credibility of judicial report coz it found him wrong. So AAP internal clean chit is good, not indep enquiry ?" (sic)

The exchange soon picked up pace with both parties trading charges. In reaction to Krishnan's comment, Bharti asked her to take up the "issue of Ugandan girls being trafficked for prostitution in the name of jobs" and meet the three Ugandan women..

Krishnan said Bharti was "fanning race riot" and "not rescuing women". She said: "Accept judicial enquiry, say sorry. You should have called women's groups to counsel them. Still no action against u, even after judicial probe indicts you?" (sic)

Referring to the yet unreleased report, Bharti said he had not yet been indicted and asked Krishnan to spell outthe charges against him.

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Sting operation on poll surveys: EC seeks action from Delhi Police

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Saturday wrote to the government and Delhi Police seeking "appropriate action" against 11 opinion poll companies that a news channel recently claimed were willing to manipulate their poll projections. The panel also reiterated its long-standing call to the government to ban opinion polls, in the wake of the "expose".

The EC action comes days after a Congress delegation led by Ajay Maken approached the panel seeking blacklisting of the 11 poll survey firms, along with registration of an FIR against them. The party had also sought banning of opinion polls until expiry of 48 hours from the close of poll.

In its letter to the Delhi police commissioner B S Bassi, the poll watchdog drew attention to the alleged "conspiracy" on part of the pollsters to tweak the figures for dissemination to the general public, and sought a probe into the matter. It also dashed off separate communications to the ministries of information & broadcasting and corporate affairs calling for "urgent" and "appropriate action" at their end. Sources in the EC told TOI that the ministry of corporate affairs was brought in as it is the nodal ministry for registration of these opinion poll companies.

A copy of the CD and transcripts released by the news channel after the sting operation were enclosed along with the letters.

"The matter involves allegations of conspiracy to prepare false reports/polls for publishing misleading information on consideration of illegal payment of money in return", the EC told I&B secretary, Delhi Police Commissioner and corporate affairs secretary and suggested that the matter be "probed into for urgent appropriate action".

The Commission, which first mooted restrictions on opinion polls in 2004, on Saturday wrote to the law secretary once again, seeking implementation of its proposal.

In addition, separate letters were addressed to the Press Council of India and News Broadcasting Association asking them to consider prescribing of appropriate guidelines to be followed by the media while engaging agencies for conducting opinion polls and the methodology for conducting and publishing the polls. The EC suggested that the media be made accountable for publishing results of fabricated opinion polls.

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Delhi hotels are amongst the worst in the world: Online survey

MUMBAI: Hotels in Delhi are considered as one of the worst in the world as per the trivago Reputation Ranking of 100 destinations which places them in the 90th position, while those in Mumbai have fared better.

The ranking is based on over 82 million reviews compiled by trivago from over 200 online booking websites. Trivago is the world's largest online hotel search site which compares rates at over 700,000 hotels on over 200 booking sites worldwide.

"The national capital lands on the bottom of the list of 100 destinations...Mumbai took the 65th position with a score of 78.90 per cent, whereas Delhi was placed on the 90th position in the list with a score of 77.70 per cent," a recent trivago Reputation Ranking report said. It considers hotels with over 60 reviews and cities with over 130 hotels.

Many other Asian destinations, including Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Pattaya (Thailand) and Manila (Philippines), are at the bottom of the list. Kuala Lumpur was ranked 94, Pattaya (Thailand) 95, Singapore 97, Bandung (Indonesia) 98, Jakarta (Indonesia) 99 and Manila (Philippines) 100.

The bottom list also included Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) (91) which is hosting the football world cup this year, while the vaunted Paris is in the 92nd position.

Hotels in Sorrento in Italy topped the list, followed by Dresden (Germany), Gdansk (Poland), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Siem Reap (Cambodia). Polish hotels dominate the top ten, with Gdansk at third, Krakow at sixth and Warsaw (the Polish capital) at the ninth position.

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In Delhi, RAW official and his family found dead under mysterious circumstances

NEW DELHI: A RAW official, his wife and two children were found dead under mysterious circumstances in their official residence in south Delhi's Sadiq Nagar area on Saturday, police said.

Ananya Chakravarty (52), who was a technical officer in Reasearch and Analysis Wing, was found hanging from the fan while the bodies of his wife Jaishri, son Arnab (17) and daughter Disha (12) were found dead on the floor in a pool of blood.

They had blunt injuries on their body in the house which was bolted from inside.

Prima facie it seems that Chakravarty first killed his family and then committed suicide.

"We are investigating the case and the exact cause is yet to be ascertained", police said.

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Delhi's railway station water full of bacteria: Report

NEW DELHI: About seven lakh passengers at Delhi's railway stations may be exposed to a serious health risk.

The reports and letters submitted by chief engineer Alok Verma to Northern Railway's general manager show the quality of water samples collected between July and December 2013 from all the stations are alarming. In his letter, Verma observes "a complete disregard of guidelines and instructions" issued a year ago. He expresses serious doubt over the suitability of chlorination plants at Delhi and Ferozepur divisions.

Verma was effectively transferred out of the railway board from Friday. The railway officials say he is not being punished for highlighting the issue; his transfer orders were issued in December last year. Sources, however, said Verma wrote his first letter to top railway officials in November, drawing attention to the health hazard. "The underlying causes for the state of water quality on this railway are rampant irregularities and malpractices in awarding contracts for acquisition of chlorination plants, and in operation and maintenance of plants," says Verma. The letter was written to the GM, V K Gupta, on February 14, 2014.

He adds that the inspections (carried out by his officials) have also provided clinching evidence that the technical specifications were meant to suit the plants made by these companies. The report, compiled by the medical department of the railway, finds 37% contaminated samples in Delhi. The method of testing water is a bit skewed. For Delhi division, a sample is considered contaminated if the bacteria count exceeds 20. But, Indian Standard Code doesn't permit coli-form bacteria at all. So, the actual percentage of contamination, if the findings are correct, would be significantly higher.

The railway says it is analyzing the accuracy of the tests and is conducting its own tests. Northern Railway issued a figure compiled by the medical department only for New Delhi railway station, which showed over 93% samples as safe for consumption, while another figure compiled by its engineering department, in charge of water supply, showed 90% of samples from July last year to February were fit.

"The department chlorinates the water scientifically. Exhaustive tests are done thrice a day at three to seven locations from each source to ensure a minimum residual chlorine of 0.2ppm," said spokesman Neeraj Sharma. On the reports filed by the chief engineer, he said, "We are analysing the facts and will soon be able to comment." The Delhi division uses 3 crore litres of water every day at the washing lines, stations, hospitals and colonies.

Correction:

In our previous report we had published the figures issued by the Northern Railways as— 93% of water samples at the New Delhi railway station is unfit. However, the corrected sentence stands as— 93% has been found safe for consumption.

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School Leadership Development Programme launched

NEW DELHI: Having first focused on enrollment and retention, the government is now turning to quality. A National Centre for School Leadership and a "curriculum framework on school leadership development" have been launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Centre will be situated at an administered by the National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA), in Delhi, but operate through a network of "state resource groups" and "anchor and nodal institutions."

"The leading priority for NCSL," says a statement issued by NUEPA, "is to build leadership capacities for change, eventually leading to transformation of schools." The centre will "engage in capacity-building programmes" for schools heads and also "encourage networking among schools and related resource institutions so as to facilitate meaning exchange of experiences, lateral learning and shared problem-solving. "The centre," continues the statement, "will also function as a repository of information for all developments in the areas of leadership and governance in school education."

As a first measure, a "Curriculum Framwork on School Leadership Development" has been designed that'll address the "differential leadership requirements to help states to adapt to context-specific needs of school heads." There's also a handbook for the leadership progamme that's expected to served as a "resource kit"" that can be used by school heads, administrators and academics working in the area of school education.

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Vehicle thieves arrested in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: Three people were arrested for allegedly being members of a gang of vehicle-lifters active in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad, police said on Saturday.

Police recovered seven stolen bikes, three scooters, a countrymade pistol and two knives from the possession of the accused.

According to police, the arrested trio has been identified as Saddam, Kalammuddin and Keshav, residents of Gautam Budh Nagar district.

The three accused, all aged between 28 and 32 years, were arrested from the Kotwali area following a tip-off.

"We got information that three vehicle-lifters were coming towards Chipyana Pathak last night. A trap was laid and we nabbed them from there.

"The three accused have confessed to their involvement in a number of crimes in Delhi-NCR," said a senior police officer.

The trio are being questioned for information on their accomplices, the officer added.

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Another racial attack on northeastern Indians in Delhi, two thrashed

NEW DELHI: In yet another incident of violence against northeastern people in the national capital, a girl and her cousin brother hailing from Manipur were allegedly attacked by two men who thrashed them, hurled racial abuses and molested the girl on Friday night.

According to the police, both the assailants, identified as Kamal, a motor mechanic and his associate Manpreet have been arrested.

The victims belong Ukhrul district of Manipur. The 24-year-old-woman is pursuing BEd from Delhi University.

The incident took place at around 10pm last night in Vijay Nagar area which is close to Delhi University's north campus when the boy was going to drop her cousin sister to her PG after having dinner at his place.

As they reached near a park at Buddha Colony, they saw a man urinating on roadside. Seeing the girl, he turned towards her and started making lewd gestures and comments.

"They first ignored him but as he continued and went on to call them 'chinki' 'and nepali', the boy confronted him. Kamal and Manpreet, who were in an inebriated state, thrashed the boy black and blue, when the girl tried to intervene, they beat her, tore her dress and molested her and even tried to rape her in front of her brother," said a friend of the duo.

As they shouted for help, locals and neighbours rushed to the spot after which they fled from the spot. Police was informed and both the victims were taken to a nearby hospital. They were later discharged after first aid and medical examination.

However, soon after the incident, northeastern students and other locals reached Model Town police station and protested. The demonstrators pelted stones due to which over ten vehicles including a PCR van were damaged, the officer said.

"We have registered a case under relevant sections and both the accused have been arrested," said a senior police official.

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