Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Deserted mother goes from riches to rags

VATSALA SHRANGI New Delhi | 25th May 2013 Radha was rescued by a Delhi-based NGO and admitted to the GTB hospital. Barefoot, semi-nude, around 67-year-old, this abandoned woman was found lying on the streets of Civil Lines in the national capital. She has been on the streets for five years, ever since she was deserted by her family. Now, having lost some of her mental faculties, she just smiles and asks for food if one approaches her. Ironically, the woman with a bony frame and swollen legs seen wandering on this road once used to own a house in this posh locality. She also had a job. She has since then remained unnoticed by society as well as by the local administration. Rescued recently from the main Rajpur Road near a vegetable store by the Social Jurist, an NGO run by advocate Ashok Agarwal, she was initially taken to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS). However, found in a terrible medical condition, she was then shifted to Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in East Delhi for primary treatment. Shopkeepers in the area who used to feed her all these years reveal that she worked as a clerk with a private company and lived with her husband who was a driver with Tata Motors and two sons. The husband died around 20 years ago. "Long after her husband's death, the property was fraudulently taken over by her two sons who sold it and went away leaving her on the streets to meet her fate. The shock of being cheated by her own children has left her in the current state," said a shopkeeper at a vegetable store, who went to school with her elder son. "One of her sons had come once some time back to see her, but did not take her back home where he lives now in Mehrauli," he added. However, except for offering food and at times shelter, no one has cared enough to look after her mental or physical health. Sitting now on the hospital bed she feels secure and when questioned about her identity she answered merely said "Radha". She fell silent again and after a pause said, "Radha Tiwari". She has a solemn face and speaks proper Hindi, including a few words of English as well. Being prompted again on how she is feeling she says, "Here I get food and bed to sleep. I will go from here when I feel like." Meanwhile she talks to herself and when asked about her husband and family she points to her head and says, "His name was Babu Lal and he used to drive with Tata. I have two sons named Raju and Kanhaiya. They have gone," before she goes back to sleep again. We had to work hard to get her admitted to the hospital said Aarti Agarwal of the NGO. The hospital staff were reluctant to admit her since we did not have orders from the court and did not go by the police, which is essential in such cases. It was only after we took responsibility signing as her guardians and an intervention from the Delhi government's department for women and child development that she was admitted. Meanwhile, Dr Nimesh Desai, director of IBHAS, updating on her condition said that when she was brought to them her haemoglobin count was only 3.2. "We will be able to treat her only after she gains her general health," he said. The Sunday Guardian

Saturday, May 25, 2013

RTE KARYASHALA ON SUNDAY AT KANPUR

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, Member National Executive AAP (Mob. 09811101923) will conduct ‘RTE Karyashala’ on Sunday 26 May 2013 at 1.00 pm at Flames Restaurant, (First Floor), Near R.K.Devi Hospital, (THE CHAT) Swarup Nagar, Kanpur (U.P.). All are invited to attend the ‘RTE Karyashala’. Contact person Mr. Yogesh Kumar Srivastava Mob. 09335154449)

Friday, May 17, 2013

LAWYERS PLUS TEAM SUNDAY 19 MAY 2013 PROGRAMME

Lawyers Plus Team (Social Jurist) led by Advocate Ashok Agarwal will visit Slums at Gali no.10, Ram Dharam Kanta, Anand Parbat, Industrial Area, New Rohtak Road, New Delhi on Sunday May 19, 2013 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am to interact with the slum dwellers (door to door) on right to health, right to education and labour rights. Those interested to join may please reach Ram Dharam Kanta by 8:00 am sharp. Contact person Mr. Salil Umat M-09013230140. Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 17/05/2013

Sunday, May 12, 2013

UNAIDED SCHOOL FEE SCAM BEATS ALL OTHER SCAMS BUT NO ISSUE

Why ignoring unaided private schools fee scam? Despite the fact that unaided private schools fee scam is the biggest one, the same is being ignored because the political parties, bureaucrats and even media groups are not interested in raising this issue. The reason is simple. Majority of big unaided private schools are directly or indirectly run by the politicians, bureaucrats and media groups. Besides charging exorbitant, unjust and arbitrary fee under various heads, big schools are also charging donations ranging from 3 lacs to 15 lacs each fresh admission. No receipt is given in regard to donation amount. It is not that the authorities are unaware of all this. However, no action of any kind is taken against any unaided school. CAG in 2010, selected 25 unaided schools of Delhi on random basis and audited accounts and found that as many as 22 of them were having so much surplus that they were not required to increase any fee on the ground of 6th pay commission recommendations.

SOCIAL JURIST MOVES SUPREME COURT AGAINST DELHI HC JUDGMENT HOLDING RTE ACT DOES NOT APPLY TO CHILDREN BELOW 6 YRS AGE

TODAY we are going to file appeal in the Hon'ble Supreme Court against the judgment of Delhi High Court holding that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 does not apply to the pre-primary/nursery classes or the children below 6 years of age.

DTEA Senior Secondary School expels 8 Class I students

TODAY we are going to file a writ petition in Hon'ble Delhi High Court challenging the failure on the part of DTEA Senior Secondary School, Pusa Road, New Delhi to allow as many as 8 students to attend Class I in the academic year 2013-14. These students were admitted by the school in Nursery Class in the academic year 2012-13 and all of them have qualified Class Nursery Exams with good marks.

MONITORING COMMITTEE PULLS UP AN ERRING PRIVATE HOSPITAL

on Saturday 11 May 2013 , the High Court constituted Monitoring Committee made a surprise inspection of Mata Channan Devi Charitable Hospital, Janakpuri and found that Hospital was harassing EWS patients. The Hospital management was pulled up by the Monitoring Committee Members.

METRO HEART INSTITUTE OBLIGES TO PROVIDE FREE TREATMENT TO EWS PATIENTS

one more private hospital added to the list of identified private hospitals obliged to provide free treatment to EWS patients and now number of such hospitals have gone to 48 - Metro Heart Institute, Padav Nagar, Narina (near Shadipur Depot Metro Station) has also been added to the list of identified hospitals.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

LAWYERS PLUS TEAM SUNDAY 12 MAY 2013 PROGRAMME

Lawyers Plus Team (Social Jurist) led by Advocate Ashok Agarwal will visit Slums at Gali no.10, Ram Dharam Kanta, Anand Parbat, Industrial Area, New Rohtak Road, New Delhi on Sunday May 12, 2013 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am to interact with the slum dwellers (door to door) on right to health, right to education and labour rights. Those interested to join may please reach Ram Dharam Kanta by 8:00 am sharp. Contact person Mr. Salil Umat M-09013230140. Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 11/05/2013

Sunday, May 5, 2013

TALE OF A POOR FAMILY

Two weeks ago, the Lawyers Plus Team of Social Jurist, while visiting Dharampura Slums in East Delhi found a two years old child with heart problem. Poonam, the mother of the child told us that she had taken the child to G.B.Pant Hospital for treatment but as the hospital demanded money, she stopped going to the hospital. Poonam has three children. Her husband is doing the work of shoe polish and hardly earns two thousand rupees a month. When I asked her to come to my office at High Court next day, she said it will take two to three days as she has to collect money for conveyance. It was very painful to see that poverty preventing her even to move out for treatment of her son. Once I thought to pay her some money for conveyance but I did not do so believing that it would be a bad practice. One full week passed, she did not turn up to me. Only then I realized that something has to be done. I requested my friend Sunita Chouhan to go to the house of Poonam and bring her to me. Sunita brought Poonan and her ailing son to my office on 3/5/2013. I referred the child to Fortis Escort Heart Hospital for totally free treatment under EWS category. Next day, Sunita took Poonam and her son to Fortis Escort Heart Hospital and the Hospital immediately started providing treatment to the child.

only way to check rampant commercialization in unaided private schools

The only way to check rampant commercialization in unaided private schools is: Complete control of the school management by the parents. This is possible only when Central Government enacts a law in this regard. As long as it is not done the naked loot would continue.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

LAWYERS PLUS TEAM SUNDAY 05 MAY 2013 PROGRAMME

Lawyers Plus Team (Social Jurist) led by Advocate Ashok Agarwal will visit Slums at Seelampur, opp New Usmanpur Police Station and also opp Seelampur Metro Station, Delhi on Sunday May 05, 2013 from 8.00 am to 10.00 am to interact with the slum dwellers (door to door) on right to health, right to education and labour rights. Those interested to join may please reach at in front of New Usmanpur Police Station, Near Seelampur Metro Station by 8.00 am sharp. Contact Person Ashok Agarwal M-09811101923. Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 04/05/2013

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

HC Notice to UGC on faulty evaluation in UGC-NET Examination Dec. 2012

The Delhi High Court (Hon’ble Mr. Justice G.S. Sistani) on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 issued notice to University Grants Commission on a petition by Ms. Shruti Jain and Ms. Amandeep Kaur, filed through Advocate Ashok Agarwal and sought reply within 4 weeks. The petition contends that the answer-key for English paper –II of UGC-NET Examinations held in December 2012, released by the UGC on which the UGC evaluation was based, wrongly acknowledged option A instead of option B as the correct answer to question no. 29, which led to lowering of the petitioners’ marks and denial of UGC-NET qualification to them. The said question was “_____ was the first sonnet-sequence in English.” The answer that appeared in the answer key was option A, i.e. “Edmund Spencer’s Amoretti” while according to the petitioners, the correct answer is option B, i.e. “Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella”, which is backed by assertions of senior professors from several universities and over a dozen books and web-sources. “The action on the part of the UGC in denying UGC-NET qualification to the petitioners is illegal, unjustified, arbitrary, discriminatory, unreasonable, unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India”, argued Mr. Agarwal. The next date of hearing is fixed for 12.07.2013. Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 01/05/2013