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In the early hours of this Sunday, a 41 year old teacher was shot dead when he tried to stop a robbery taking place in his house that time.

Suresh Kumar, a resident of Rama Vihar in outer Delhi, never knew it would be his last sleep with his family on the Saturday night. Rama Vihar that falls in the Aman Vihar police station area was the crime place. On hearing certain noises a little after midnight, Kumar got up to find three armed men trying to rob his place to which he suddenly got up and caught hold of one of the men, who in return backfired at him to save himself up. The robbers were supposed to be fully armed and fled on foot. Kumar’s family constitutes his wife and two children, aged seven and eleven years.

According to his wife, Suresh had a few disputes with people and requested the police to look into the matter as the murder could have been planned by the same people. She announced that the gun shot had woken her up and as she got up, she found her husband shot and lying on the floor amidst blood. Renu further informs that instantly she got up and went to the terrace to shout for help but by the time she could gather some neighbors, the robbers had fled from the crime scene. Suresh had been brought to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital where he was declared brought dead. A case of murder has been registered with the Anand Vihar police station and the investigations are on to find the three robbers and also to look into the plea of the wife that if it is a planned murder involving Kumar’s enemies.

The robbers could not take away any valuables from the house and are believed to have entered the house through the terrace.

Tags: Bravery, Delhi, Murder, Robbery, Teacher

With a new welcome change, as opposed to the company, Wednesday saw the government launching a vehicle. Mrs. Sheila Dixit, this Wednesday, launched the new electronic battery driven Reva on which she announced a 29.5% discount and further subsidies on hybrid cars.

The Delhi chief minister, showing all her concerns towards the rapid deterioration of the air quality, announced that the government would try to the maximum to fight against the menace. Reva, the only car to get concession from the government is now priced at 2.99 lakhs as compared to its original price of 4.25 lakhs for the base model. The concession includes a 15 percent subsidy on the base price as well as the refund of the Vat which is claimed to be paid through the 25p cess over each litre of diesel that the state government had levied about three months ago out of which the state government has already made an incredible ten crores. This announcement comes as good news for the companies who have been planning to launch their hybrid vehicles in the near future which include Toyota, Mahindra and even Tata.

Deputy Chairman of the Reva Electric Car Company, Mr.Chetan Maini announced that the company plans to increase the production of the vehicle over the coming next three years targeting the launch of their new hybrid vehicle in various other metro cities as well as in Europe and South East Asia.

With the recent launch of India’s first hybrid car, the Honda people had put up requests to the government to reduce subsidies over the hybrid vehicles for a cleaner environment pertaining to the price of their launched vehicle not seeming to be in the budget of a major part of the country. With the recent announcement, a Honda spokesperson applauded the governments step and informed that they had already appraised the government with their technology.

Tags: car, Delhi, Electronic Car, Hybrid Car, India, Mahindra, New Car, Reva, Reva Electric, Tata, Toyota

Admissions for the current session 2008-09 have started in the renowned Delhi University with its first cut off list out today. The cut-off marks have moved up by almost one per cent for most popular courses.

The Delhi University is also implementing quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from this year.

A list of the cut off marks declared by some of the popular courses in few colleges is as follows:

B.Com (Hons) course

SRCC: 94.5-98%

Venkateswara: 94.5-95.0%

Economics (Hons) course

SRCC: 92.75-95.75%

Hindu: 94-96%

History( Hons) course

Kirori Mal: 81-87%

Ramjas: 74-84%

English (Hons) course

Venkateswara: 84-92%

Ramjas: 85-90%

Tags: Admission DU 2008, Delhi, Delhi University, Delhi University Admission Procedure, DU Admission 2008

After 108 years, Monsoon reached in New Delhi on Sunday, June 15 almost a fortnight ahead of the schedule.

Monsoon 2008 break more than a century old record of hitting the capital on or before June 15 which otherwise is scheduled on June 29.

“The monsoon has reached Delhi,” Meteorological Department Director B P Yadav told PTI.

Heavy rains rushed up in the city giving relief from humid and hot weather of June.  The Meteorological Department recorded a rainfall of 15.3 mm started since 7:30 am till 11.30 am on June 15.

The cool showers lead the minimum temperature of this morning at 27.5 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, as recorded by Met. The maximum settled at 33 degrees C on Saturday.

The south-west monsoon was advancing across the country in much more smooth and rapid manner as compared to last year giving an experience of coolest summer in recent past.

The annual rainfall system had set in over south Andaman Sea on May 10, five days earlier than the normal onset and reached Kerala on schedule on May 31.

Rainfall during this season has been good and well distributed as compared to the previous year with 30 of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions receiving normal to excess rains. Record breaking showers were also hit during the last month.

Last year, only 13 meteorological sub divisions had received excess to normal rainfall till June 11.

Tags: Delhi, Monsoon, Rain, Record

The Indo-US nuclear deal that is hanging for last many months is almost certainly dead because of delays by New Delhi as indicated by a senior American official. He said the collapse of this deal will be a “historic blunder” for India.

Ashley Tellis who is one of the original architects of the historic deal and now an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign nodded in yes to the question whether it was now impossible to push the deal through in the dying days of Bush’s term?

A British newspaper on Wednesday quoted an adviser to Obama as saying the Democratic Party presidential candidate was ”highly ambivalent” about the deal. Obama submitted a wrecking amendment to the original bill in 2006.

The paper said the Bush administration has ”watched with growing frustration” as New Delhi repeatedly missed deadlines to complete the deal.

It said US officials had hoped until recently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would persuade his colleagues, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to face down his government’s Left allies over the deal.

Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he still continued to hope that “we will make progress in the months that lie ahead” after admitting that “our domestic politics has prevented us from going ahead”.

“Even if the Indian government were suddenly to turn around and get the IAEA stage completed, there will be no time for the remaining two stages,” Tellis told to the Financial Times while talking about the deal that has been touted by US President George W. Bush as one of his signature foreign policy achievements.

After New Delhi secures the approval of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), the deal would have to be cleared by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group before returning to the US Congress for final approval.

The newspaper noted that US officials continued to hope that Singh would persuade his colleagues, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi to face down the Communist parties that last year threatened to pull the plug on the coalition government if it pushed ahead with the deal.

The newspaper quoted that senior Indian officials say privately that their best chances of reviving the deal would come with the election of John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential candidate, who last month stated his strong support for it.

Tags: Delhi, India, Nuclear deal, US, USA

Delhi University (DU), one of the most renowned universities of the country, has started admissions to undergraduate courses from June 2 for the current session 2008-09. Campus is rushed with young boys and girls with lots of questions in their mind regarding the procedure and selection of the course. Students are confused from getting and filling up the forms and selecting the right course and college. Here is the required information to ease their stress.

The first step is being getting the form. Forms will be available till June 16 and the venues assigned to obtain and submit the same are as follows:

North: Dean, student’s welfare, Kirori Mal College, Faculty of arts

South: Deputy dean, students welfare, Deshbandhu College, ARSD College, Gargi College, PGDAV College, College of Vocational Studies

East: Shyam Lal College, Vivekanada College, Maharaja Agrasen College

West: Rajdhani College, Bharti College

Central: Zakir Hussain College

Forms cost anywhere between Rs 10 and Rs 50. College prospectus costs between Rs 50 and Rs 150. So if you plan to do 10 colleges a day, carry the required money for the forms. A student will be allowed to buy two forms at a time. There are 63 colleges under Delhi University and OMR forms will be available from 10 am to 1pm at these 15 centres.

Almost 1.5 lakh students from across the country are expected to apply for 51 courses offered by the university. There are 43,000 seats available in DU. Break up of seats are as follows: 27,500 for general, 6,296 for SC, 3,148 for ST and 5,000 for OBC categories. Nine per cent will be reserved for the OBC, 22.5 per cent for SC/STs, three per cent for physically challenged and 5 per cent for the children/widows/wives of soldiers killed or disabled in action.

Metro is proving its popularity in the season of DU admissions as seven of the above venues fall on the metro route. You can personally get the forms from these colleges and get the required information about the course with getting a round of the college also. You can download the same from the site of the respective colleges as most of them are giving the facility of online forms. All colleges except St Stephens and Jesus Mary College accept OMR forms. With the University this year asking the various centers to sell only one form per person, passing on the responsibility to a friend may not help this time round.

The first cut off list will be put up on June 26. With DU introducing the Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation this year, candidates are advised to get their certificates ready.

Other updates can also be obtained from this link – http://www.du.ac.in/admissions/2008/ug/ug08/index.html

Admissions through Extra curricular activities (ECA) gives students a benefit that may not have very high percentage marks to still get enrolled in a college of their choice. As in the case of sports quota, DU colleges have some seats reserved for those possessing skills in the fields of drama, debating, music, fine arts, photography etc.

“Almost all the colleges have certain seats reserved for extra curricular activities (ECA). Though the number of such seats could vary from three to five per cent as per the policies of the college, but it gives a golden opportunity to students to get admission for their talents,” said Dr Seema M Parihar, Deputy Dean of Student Welfare

In case of any problem or confusion, students can approach the grievance committee of the college concerned and in case of the problem not being addressed write to the Central Grievance Committee set up in the North and South Campus.

With cases of harassment increasing in the recent past, the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) too has issued a helpline. Students can ring up the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North Delhi, Anurag Kumar (23811770), ACP Civil Lines (9810300830), SHO Maurice Nagar, Rajendra Pathania (9810030663), SHO Roop Nagar (9899090920), DUSU president Narendra Tokas (9811746913) and DUSU vice-president Ashok Basoya (9212005012). Wednesday will also be the first day of the counseling sessions for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes students. To be held at the University Sports Complex, there will be four sessions every day till June 15 of one-hour duration each.

Helpline number facility is also provided to students in case of any confusion regarding the admission. The helpline (011-27662507, 27662508), is manned by a panel of 17 faculty members and student counselors. They answer queries ranging from which course one should opt for or which college is good for which subject or whether the admission form for accommodation facilities can be filled by a relative.

The official website of Delhi University is - http://www.du.ac.in/
The DU helpline website http://www.delhi-university.in/ maintained by DU alumni can also answers your other queries and gives most of the required details.

Tags: Admission DU 2008, Delhi, Delhi University, Delhi University Admission Procedure, DU Admission 2008

Crime graph is showing a steep increase in capital city from last few months. It becomes the crime capital of India. The streets of Delhi are not really considered safe for a midnight stroll. Lack of resources, police-criminal nexus and slow judicial process are attributed to be some of the reasons behind the rising crime graph as said by the experts.

“The main reason for the increasing crime graph is primarily absence of resources and attitude of keeping figures low,” says retired super cop Kiran Bedi.

Social activist Swami Agnivesh says, social and economic disparity coupled with “nexus between criminals and police” along with a “slow judicial process” act as a catalyst in increasing crime graph.

“Delhi has become a ‘mayanagri’ of artificial development. There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. About one-third of the city population lives in slums. They live in inhuman conditions devoid of any basic amenities. In these inhuman conditions crime flourishes,” says the Swami.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) executed its current report by The Union Home Ministry and has listed Delhi as on the top in incidents of crime in the country for the fifth consecutive year. NCRB says Delhi occupies the top slot for almost all violent crimes, including murder, rape, dowry death, molestation, kidnapping and abduction.

As many as 53,244 criminal cases, including 467 murders, 581 rapes, 1,764 dacoit and other heinous crimes, were registered in Delhi during the year. Murder cases have been increased by 1.22 per cent in 2007 from 493 to 499. The NCRB report says India become the country where maximum number of murders take place in the world.

In 2006-07 India recorded 32,719 incidences of murder. The numbers in the US was 16,692 murders and 9,631 in Pakistan. The report also reveals that of the people arrested in rape cases, 340 were neighbors, 94 were friends and 62 were relatives. Only in 10 cases, the accused were strangers.

Psychiatrist Samir Parekh says that people become habitual all the crimes. He blamed the long judicial process which encourages criminals to commit a crime. Due to the long period of execution of the cases people can easily get away with after committing a crime.

“Owing to the vast socio-economic disparity, there is an aggression among the people. This aggression has not properly been dealt with which results in the growth of criminal psychology among the masses.” He said.

Tags: Crime, Crime Capital, Criminal, Delhi, India, Kiran Bedi

After an increase of Rs 50 in LPG gas cylinders by the government on Wednesday, a sales tax cut of Rs 40 on the same is introduced by the Delhi government  to relief the citizens. In this way the Delhi people got the net price hike to Rs 10 only.

“The increase in LPG rate will be of Rs ten instead of Rs 50 in Delhi. The domestic cylinder which is priced at Rs 294.70 paise will now be costing rs 304.70 paise and not Rs 340.30 paise,” Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters here.

The move is in wake to relief the middle class people who are already burdened with increasing rate of inflation. The decision came after the cabinet meeting where it was decided to cut down the vat from existing 4 per cent to zero, while providing a subsidy of around Rs 26 per cylinder.

The subsidy would have a burden of Rs 165 crore on the state exchequer.

“There would be no rise in the fare of the Metro and the DTC buses, which run on electricity and CNG respectively.” she said while speaking at a press conference.

Sales tax cut is demanded by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP since the increase in petroleum rates.

Tags: Delhi, DTC, Gas, LPG, Petrol, Price hike

Before reading this article, answer my simple questions please. From which category you belong? General, SC, ST or OBC? I think I should put different rules and content for different categories. You must get confused by the lines. But if politics of reservation is spreading in all fields of life then this blog should also follow the same. Isn’t it?

Politics of castes is casting its shadow over Indians since long ago. The ongoing Gujjar agitation is the fresh example of the evil of castisms. Over 40 people have already lost their lives demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to get job reservation for their community. NCR and Rajasthan region are highly affected by this show of reservation and quotas. Innocent people are killed for no reason. Violence is spreading behind this politics. Why the Government and opposition are not doing anything? A year ago the Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan resulted in police firing and over 20 deaths.

We humans live on the same Earth, every human have same red blood, and every one has a heart to feel and a mind to think then why to be divided on the basis of this ugly castism. We people travel together in trains and buses. Do you ask the nearby people about their caste before sitting in a train? Our children read together in schools. Do you enquire about the other children’s caste before admitting your child in the school? Then what is the benefit of this system if it is spreading only violence and gives rise to hatred among people?

Political leaders are just making their benefits behind the reservation system. They divide the nation and confirm their profits between others fight. Caste-based reservation is a quick-fix for getting strictly limited political support and it has no real value. The most ironical aspect of this issue is that reservation on the basis of caste is something which even our Constitution does not support. The main motto behind giving the reservation was the development of the poor people, and the original resolution in the Constitution of India was made for 10 year only, but no one revised the status again. Unless there is radical reappraisal of India’s political system and culture, the nation will continue to blunder from crisis to crisis.

There seems no justification for caste based reservations in the educational system. Reservations for the students are making them lazy towards their efforts as they know well that their seat is reserved and will get it easily. Other students who work hard and deserve the seat lose. Is it right justice with them?

Reserved category students get good concessions from the institute. Whatever be their financial status they have to pay only a small amount of money as the fees. But in the same college, a poor student has to pay more just because he or she belongs to General category. Isn’t it unfair?

Yes it is wrong, we all know and abolishing this reservation system only can help the deserving students to get the admissions and needy ones to get the proper concession. Everybody agrees that the caste system is wrong and those who support it do not belong in twenty first century.

Now it is the time to wake up and find the solution of the politics behind the so called reservation system. The problem can be resolved by abolishing the caste system. Why don’t we all unite to be Indians? Is there any need to divide the united nation on the basis of caste?

The young generation of India can only solve this crucial matter. The sooner these shortcomings are abolished the better. Young India is smart and educated. They have power to change. They know their rights and they know the right way of development of their country. They reached up to Moon and Mars by their intelligence. They have made a car which can swim and another which can run at a speed of 250 Km/litre fuel to combat fuel crisis. Then why they do not understand that the reservation system is depleting their nation like a termite.

It is a humble appeal to Young India, government and the Indian politicians to stop usage of politics to divide India on the basis of caste, creed and community and region.

Tags: Caste, Delhi, General, India, OBC, Politics, politics of castes, Rajasthan, reservation system, SC, ST

If your child is studying in school then be aware. He might be in risk. A study by Safdarjung Hospital said that over 11 per cent of students in the upscale south Delhi carry weapons. This was revealed on Wednesday.

The hospital’s community medicine department studied three schools and two colleges in south Delhi and surveyed 550 students mainly below 19 years of age before stating the report.

Not only boys but the girls are found to take the weapon with them although the numbers of such female students are very low. Weapons that students carry vary from a knife to a hunter to a gun. Sticks and daggers too have made it to schools and colleges.

Rahul Sharma, professor at the department, said they carried out the survey to assess violent behaviour among students. He said many students carrying weapons said they do so as means of self-protection.

Violence activities in schools are increasing day by day. In December 2007, a class 8 student shot dead two of his classmates inside a school in Gurgaon on the outskirt of Delhi. It is a serious issue to be discussed but no one is showing any special care in the matter. Parents, teacher and the government must be concerned about the issue to avoid any mishappening.

Tags: Arms, Delhi, School, South Delhi, Weapons