Elderly Metro commuter targeted with racial slur
The incident occurred on April 23 when two men refused to give a seat to the elderly man, belonging to a minority community, and further abused him while travelling in the Violet line
NEW DELHI: In an alleged incident of discrimination against a person belonging to a minority community, an elderly man was subjected to religious and racial slurs and derogatory remarks by some passengers while travelling in the Violet line of Delhi Metro.
The incident came to light after women's right activist Kavita Krishnan wrote about it in a post on her Facebook wall. Krishnan posted the details of the incident on Sunday, where a senior citizen (who appeared to be Muslim because he had a beard and no moustache) was denied a seat on the train by two young men because of his appearance. He was told that if he wishes to get a seat in the coach, he must go to Pakistan.
Krishnan said that the incident took place in front of her colleague and trade union leader Santosh Roy who intervened after the situation seemed to get out of hand.
According to Roy, the young passengers not only denied the elderly man a seat on the Metro and abused him, but also passed derogatory remarks against other passengers who tried to intervene in the matter.
Some other young men came to the support of the two abusers, one of whom caught Roy by the collar and told him also to “Go to Pakistan” as well.
Krishnan said that Roy stood his ground and several other passengers in the Metro came to his support. When the Metro stopped at Khan Market station, a guard entered the compartment.
Eventually, the guard, accompanied by Roy and the elderly Muslim man, took the two men who abused the passenger to the police post at Pandara Road, after which the two men were detained.
Krishnan further stated in her post that a few days later, when Roy visited the police station he came to know that the elderly man had decided not to pursue the complaint.
“The elderly gentleman had given a written statement that he accepted the apology from the two young men and that he had forgiven them keeping in mind their young age,” Krishnan added. GURUGRAM: 17 Gurugram police officials were caught indulging in power theft during a surprise raid by the State Electricity Board's (SEB) Vigilance Department in the Police Lines area on Tuesday morning and their power connections cut.
A formal complaint has also been sent to Gurugram Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar in this regard.
The Gurugram Police Department is worried as more cops are likely to be exposed during further investigations.
The power department officials also seized seven electricity metres that were found tampered and sent them for testing.
This is the first time that a raid of this kind has been conducted on city cops.
Officials of the electricity board Vigilance Department began the raids at 6 am on Tuesday and continued them for more than five hours.
During the exercise, elec- tricity board officials examined more than 500 houses of police officials.
“Our officials conducted a raid after receiving complaints from various sources of power thefts that were occurring in the Police Lines area. As we had to conduct a raid on the police officials, we had to carry out a thorough examination before we carried out the raid," said an official of the SEB, who was present during the raid..
The official further added: "During the raid, we found that as many as 17 city policemen were receiving direct power connections without electricity metres as they had bypassed the power connections. We have also taken possession of seven electricity metres that were found tampered.”
“Notices have been served by the Electricity Department to the city police officials who were caught stealing power. The complaints have also been forwarded to senior police authorities," the official said.
He also stated that the “guilty” policemen will have to pay a fine based on the losses incurred by the Electricity Department, failing which further action will be pursued against them.
The issue of power theft is a big challenge for Electricity Board in the city, which recently stated that it was facing major losses due to massive power thefts.
Besides payment of hefty fines, according to the law there is also a provision for three years' imprisonment for power theft.
Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has started issuing tenders for installing air quality monitoring stations in Greater Noida.
Three stations will be set up in the city, of which one will be automatic while two others will be operated manually.
The air monitoring stations are being set up following the directions of the Centre. The state and central agencies will equally share the financial burden for setting up the stations.
Around Rs 2 crore will be spent on setting up the three new stations, said an official.
Currently, there are no air quality monitoring stations in Greater Noida. Even as air quality in the NCR continues to be critical, UPPCB does not have a single automatic machine to monitor air quality. It still calculates pollution levels manually and it is timeconsuming to prepare a report.
The lack of proper monitoring system restricts the board from getting exact details of pollution created by industries. It relies on reports given by the industries themselves. After the installation of three monitoring stations, regular updates on pollution levels will be easily provided to public.
It will help in monitoring pollution created by vehicles as well as the industries located in the area. The locations of the new stations are yet to be decided.
“We are ready to set up three stations in the city. The board is in a hurry to get them installed. The automatic station will be the first to be set up by UPPCB and the Centre. The station will give instant updates to residents round-theclock. Air quality will be monitored on regular basis and strict actions will be taken against the violators” said Praveen Kumar, Regional Officer, UPPCB.
The automatic air ambient monitoring system provides real-time data on 12 parameters such as particulate matter, NO2, SO2 and CO2. At present, the manual systems only provide data on the level of PM10, SO2 and NO2.