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TIMES CITY
New Delhi: Alleging a con-spiracy behind the fire at StSebastian’s Church in Dil-shad Garden, representativesof the city’s Christian com-munity have decided to stagea protest outside Delhi Policeheadquarters on Tuesday.They said the fire at thechurch resulted from arson,not a short-circuit, and was anattempt to polarize voters be-fore the Delhi elections.
“We will stage a protestagainst the office of the policecommissioner on Tuesdaymorning to focus attention onattempts to polarize people inDelhi, which goes to the pollssoon,” said Dr John Dayal, aformer member of NationalIntegration Council of Indiaand All India Christian Coun-cil. He added that there is ahistory of attacks againstChristian places of worshipin areas like Janakpuri andTrilokpuri.
Christian representativessee Monday’s fire as part of apattern of violence againstthe minority community. “OnSunday, two house churcheswere attacked in Annupurdistrict of Madhya Pradesh.In several districts of Chhat-tisgarh, village panchayatshave passed regulationsagainst non-Hindu prayersunder political influence,”said Father Savarimuthu.
Several politicians visitedthe church on Monday. AreaMP, BJP’s Manoj Tiwari, wasamong the first to arrive. Hesaid he had come straightfrom Parliament to assess thesituation and prepare a re-port. AAP convener ArvindKejriwal followed. “Such actsare deliberate. If they’re be-ing done just before elections
to influence votes, I’m sureDelhiites will not accept thosebehind them. I have asked thepolice commissioner to takeaction,” said Kejriwal.
Delhi BJP released a state-ment condemning the inci-dent. “Christians are our
growing partners in nationaldevelopment, a proof ofwhich is the large number ofour Christian MLAs inGoa…We cannot rule outsome political mischief too,”the statement read.
Congress attacked BJP for
police’s lethargic response tothe fire. “Instead of playingpolitics on a sensitive issuelike this, the authoritiesshould act swiftly to prevent acommunal flare-up,” said Del-hi Pradesh Congress Com-mittee chief Arvinder Singh.
CONSPIRACY THEORY: The fire is being seen as part of a pattern of violence against the community
Photos: Piyal Bhattacharjee
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Archbishop Couto, in his mem-orandum, demanded that thegovernment must repair thebuilding before Christmas, en-sure that policemen guilty ofdereliction of duty are puni-shed and that special police in-vestigation teams are set up totrace the guilty.
The fire department saidthey received a call at 7.26am.Four fire tenders took less thanfive minutes to reach the spot,officials said. “We found thewhole place burning furiously.It took us 40 minutes to controlthe blaze,” said a senior DelhiFire Services (DFS) official.
Police officials aren’t rulingout a planned assault. “All an-gles are being probed. The sta-tements of various people havebeen recorded and evidence isbeing examined. The crime andforensic teams have inspectedthe site and lifted samples, in-cluding fingerprints and oth-ers,” a senior officer said.
The first to arrive on the sce-ne, apart from a permanentchowkidar, was the parish pri-est, Father Antony Francis. “Itwas around 6.30am. Within 10minutes of receiving a callfrom the chowkidar, who sud-denly saw flames coming out ofchurch windows, Father Fran-cis reached the spot. He calledothers and everyone got busytrying save the church,” saidFather Stanley, another priest.
He added that there was anoverwhelming stench of kero-sene in the entire church when
he reached it. “Traces of itcould be seen floating on waterwith which fire tenders had flu-shed our church. Undoubtedlythis was planned vandalism,”said Father Stanley.Visitors onSunday didn’t recall observinganything strange. “While Sun-day prayers are important, yes-terday was especially importa-nt for me as children were recei-ving their first holy commun-ion and my daughter was amo-ng them. We left the church aro-und 11pm and there was noth-ing amiss,” said Anthony Jose-
ph. He said around 600 peopleattend the Sunday mass.
The church is surroundedby religious sites. On one side li-es Varadha Ganesh Mandir, infront of which is a crematori-um, and on its other end is anOrthodox Syrian church. LocalChristians, of whom there areabout 1,500 families, say theyhave always lived peacefully inthe area. However, they recallone instance of vandalism aga-inst the same church. “In 2010,it was stoned by some people.We still don’t know why,” saidRoby Matthews, a regular at StSebastian’s.
Kerosene stenchin building: Priest
Christians protest near the church
!Continued from P1
New Delhi: Inadequate andunreliable data from govern-ment agencies has led to individual researchers usingbattery-operated portable de-vices that measure one’s per-sonal exposure to air pollu-tion. This method reflects notonly the alarming fact that ex-posure to air pollution in Del-hi, however brief, could some-times be 10-20 times the safelimit but also the large dispari-ty in government data and re-
al-time data monitored at vari-ous locations in the city.
Government agencies,however, believe such moni-toring is “unscientific”. Theyclaim what matters is consis-tent exposure which is reflect-ed in the day’s average PM 2.5(fine, respirable particles)reading. It’s PM2.5 that’s asso-ciated with reduced lung ca-pacity, etc.
Recently, environmentalistSunita Narain and SupremeCourt advocate Harish Salve
carried such a device insideSupreme Court premises onlyto find PM2.5 levels about fourtimes the standard. JoshuaApte, a post doctoral fellow atLawrence-Berkeley nationallaboratory, who has beentracking pollution levels attraffic-heavy locations whiletravelling in an auto, has alsofound average ambient air pol-lution levels to be 50% higherthan background readingstaken by monitoring stations.
“We are monitoring whatis the personal exposure of anindividual to air pollution. Ifsomeone is spending longhours in traffic, their exposureis much greater,” AnumitaRoychowdhury, head of theCentre for Science and Envi-ronment’s Clean Air pro-gramme, said. California Re-sources Board in US is alreadymonitoring roadside exposureto pollutants. To assess real im-pact on health, one needs toknow real-time exposure tosources pollution watchdogsaren’t monitoring, she said.
“In terms of one’s healthrisks, what matters is whatone actually breathes. Be-cause people in Delhi fre-quently spend two to threehours in and near traffic, theirexposure over a day is higherthan what official monitors in-
exhaust,” an official said.As for the reason behind
taking up this research, non-government bodies cite the ab-solute lack of monitoring bythe Central Pollution ControlBoard which ought to track airquality in almost all major ci-ties. CPCB doesn’t have any re-al time monitoring for PM2.5in cities other than Delhi. It iseven unable to provide dailyreadings for PM10 (coarse pol-lution particles) for most citiesin India.
On Monday, CPCB’s airquality monitoring process“crashed” due to some techni-cal issues, according to someofficials. “It’s very unfortu-nate that CPCB is not able toperform its primary duty ofgiving round-the-clock pollu-tion levels. We aren’t sure whyits officials have failed to in-stall automatic stations or col-lect data instantaneously be-cause the technology isavailable. People obviouslyhave to depend on other sourc-es because of this,” said a for-mer CPCB head who declinedto be quoted. People can cur-rently access real time data forDelhi only from Delhi Pollu-tion Control Committee andthe ministry of earth sciences’System of Air Quality Weath-er Forecasting and Research.
scientific protocol. “The method of traveling
in an auto-rickshaw and mea-suring pollution is unscientif-ic. A moving sensor is highlyaffected by the aerodynamicflow of air. Air should enterthe sensor at a certain pres-sure else the value will in-crease drastically. The devicewill measure pollutant levelsclose to exhaust pipes. Thewhole city does not breathe in
dicate. For one of the pollu-tants we measured, ultra-fineparticles, half or more of one’stotal daily exposure in Delhimight come from time spent intraffic,” said Joshua Apte.
While such private agen-cies taking up the pollutionwatchdog’s role has left manygovernment bodies jittery, ex-perts in pollution monitoringagencies have claimed re-searchers are not following the
DIY pollution tests challenge govt data
TOI AGAINST
POLLUTION
[email protected] GADGET TO CHECK AIR QUALITY
➤ A battery-operated real-time air pollution monitoring device➤ Uses a sheath air system that isolates the aerosol in optics chamber➤ This contributes to improved reliability and less maintenance➤ Suitable for clean office settings as well as outdoor applications➤ Measures concentrations of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10
➤ Has both manual and programmable data logging functions➤ Aerosol concentrations ranging from 0.001 to 150µg per cubic metre can be measured
ALL ABOUT THE AEROSOL MONITOR
APPLICATIONS Industrial/occupational hygiene surveys; indoor air quality investigations; outdoor environmental monitoring; emissions monitoring; aerosol research
Photo: AP
New Delhi: Days after theDelhi high court passed alandmark judgment on nurs-ery admissions, an NGO onMonday challenged it beforethe court’s division bench.
A single-judge bench hadquashed the points systemfor nursery admissions intro-duced by the lieutenant gov-ernor for private unaidedschools and disposed of twopetitions by a group of pri-vate schools challenging theLG’s notifications in Decem-ber last year.
Challenging the HC deci-sion, NGO, Social Jurist, hasclaimed the bench erred byfailing to appreciate that, asper law, there cannot be totalautonomy of schools in nurs-ery admissions. The appeal,filed by Ashok Agarwal, ar-gues that the Supreme Courtin its verdict “has upheld thevalidity of Section 13 of theRTE Act, 2008, which prohib-its screening, there is noquestion of autonomy ofschools in the matter of ad-mission of tiny tots.”
HC verdict onnursery issue
challenged TIMES NEWS NETWORK
GAUTAM NAGAR MONUMENT EATEN INTO, USED FOR PARKING
New Delhi: Nestled between two resi-dential buildings in south Delhi’s Gau-tam Nagar, a Lodi-era monument hasserved as a makeshift parking lot,dumping ground and haunt for straydogs for decades. Ornamental designsare still visible on the exterior façade,but new buildings have hemmed in thestructure completely. Portions of thetomb’s parapet walls seem to have beentaken over by one of the adjoiningbuildings.
To salvage Delhi’s vanishing heri-tage, the monument is going to be con-served for the first time by Intach Delhiin collaboration with the department ofarchaeology.
Under Intach’s built heritage list-ing, the tomb has been graded ‘A’ interms of archaeological significance.Located opposite the main road of thecolony, the tomb is surrounded by resi-dential buildings but the ones next tothe monument have literally eaten intoit. “The building has never been con-served and its history is unknown.However, it has striking Lodi architec-ture features placing it somewherearound 14th or 15th century. The neigh-bouring building on the right side hastaken over some portions of the parapetwall,” said an official.
Officials said that fortunately noportions of the monument have been
demolished. However, inspection of theright side of the structure has not beendone so far due to the new building eat-ing into it.
“Inside the monument, the façade iscracking and damaged at severalpoints. We removed the malba that was
dumped here. Conservation includes achemical cleanup by art conservatorsand restoring old plaster to assess howmuch of the original surface still exists.This work began in late November andwe expect to complete it in two months,”added officials.
Local residents have been using thefront portion of the tomb for parking.Officials said that this will have to bediscouraged once the conservationwork is completed. “We cannot allowencroachments or parking misusearound the structure. Local residents,who have been using the tomb and itssurroundings for personal use foryears, will need to get used to it as it willnow be protected government proper-ty,” said the official.
The Gautam Nagar tomb was part ofthe original 95 monuments identifiedby the government and Intach for con-servation during CommonwealthGames in 2010. The first phase includedprotection and conservation of onlythose monuments located en route tothe stadiums or near them. This build-ing and several others were part of thesecond phase involving larger monu-ments in prominent locations whichdid not have many encroachment/legalissues. Once conservation is over, a pro-tected building tag under the Delhi Ar-chaeology Act will ensure the monu-ment remains protected afterconservation.
Intach to revive Lodi-era tomb
HISTORICALLY RICH: It has been graded ‘A’in terms of archaeological significance
Christians say it’s arson, will protest
New Delhi: It’s the end of theroad for old vehicles in Delhi.On Monday, all 13 regionaltransport offices (RTO) in thecity were told to stop register-ing vehicles that are 15 yearsor more old, in keeping with aNational Green Tribunal or-der of November 26 aimed atchecking pollution.
In Delhi, only private vehi-cles—two and four whee-lers—were allowed to re-reg-ister after the expiry of theoriginal 15-year registration,provided they cleared a fit-ness test by the transport de-partment. The second regis-tration was valid for only fiveyears. From December 1,however, re-registration of allold vehicles has been disal-lowed. The order, sourcessaid, came directly from thechief secretary’s office.
NGT had pulled up all Del-hi government departmentsand asked them to be presentat a coordination meeting onDecember 2.
Sources said implementa-tion of the NGT order will af-fect owners of around 22 lakhvehicles—mostly scootersand motorbikes—that willhave to be sold off orscrapped. A senior govern-ment functionary said thecity’s scrapyards are notequipped to dismantle so
many vehicles at short notice.“A very large number of vehi-cles will go off the road. Thetransport department’s data-base will need to be updatedas well to reflect this change,”said the official.
Of the 81 lakh vehiclesregistered in Delhi, around 60lakh are private vehicles. Ofthese, around 25 lakh are four-wheelers and the rest two-wheelers. Commercial vehi-cles which are more than 15years old are officially not al-
lowed to ply in Delhi, and arenot issued a fitness certificateby the Delhi transport depart-ment. This has been the casesince 1998, in keeping with aSupreme Court order.
The ban on re-registrationis good news for the auto in-dustry as around 1,200 vehi-cles are registered every dayin Delhi. An overwhelmingmajority of these vehicles areprivately owned, with manybeing two-wheelers.
Delhi Stops Re-Registration
No second lifefor 15-yr-oldvehicles now
CLUNKERS HAVE TO GO
THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014
11, 16 & 17
Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 02-12-2014 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAPDEL User: mrinalib0309 Time: 12-01-2014 23:47 Color: CMYK
