Delhi gang-rape victim’s body to be flown back to India today

The 23-year-old girl, who put up a brave battle for life after she was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a Delhi bus on December 16 that had created a nationwide outrage, died on Saturday morning in a hospital here.

The girl, who was admitted to the well-known multi-organ transplant facility Mount Elizabeth Hospital here on Thursday morning in an extremely critical condition, breathed her last at 4:45 am (2:15 am India time). She was earlier treated at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi condoles death of Delhi gang-rape victim.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal tweeted this morning: “Aren't we all responsible for her death? Can we all now do something so that half of humanity starts feeling safe amongst us?...Her death is a matter of shame and sorrow for all of us. Let's resolve that we will not let her death go in vain”.

Reports say that JNU students will take out a silent march following Delhi gang-rape victim’s death.



Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he was deeply saddened by the demise of the victim. “We tried our best to provide her the best possible health care...Government is committed to seek deterrent punishment for all the accused”.

President Pranab Mukherjee 'deeply distressed by the unfortunate demise of the 23-year-old girl'.

Condoling the death of Delhi gang-rape victim, Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath appeals for calm, saying mindset of society needs change.

The body of the Delhi gang-rape victim, who died this morning, will be flown to India by a special chartered aircraft this afternoon, announced Indian High Commissioner to Singapore TCA Raghavan.

Delhi Police will invoke murder charges against the six men allegedly involved in the gang-rape and brutal assault of the girl in a moving bus after she died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after treatment.

Reacting to the news of the death of the gang-rape victim, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said it was a shameful moment not just as the CM but also as a citizen of the country.

Ten Metro stations - Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Barakhamba Road, Rajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Race Course, Khan Market and Jorbagh - will remain closed.

Fearing large-scale protests following the death of the gang-rape victim, Delhi Police announced that India Gate and its surrounding areas that comprise the capital's power centre would be out of bounds for the general public.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled the death of the Delhi gang-rape victim and expressed the hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests and agenda to make India a demonstrably safer place to live in.

The Singapore government condoled the death of the Delhi gang-rape victim, who breathed her last at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital this morning.

The 23-year-old girl, who was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a Delhi bus a fortnight ago, died early this morning in a hospital in Singapore.

Delhi gangrape victim reaches Singapore for treatment

The 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim, who was flown out to Singapore in an air ambulance for specialised treatment, was admitted to the Mount Elizabeth hospital Thursday morning. The plane carrying the girl landed at the Changi International Airport at 7.30 am.

Indian High Commission in Singapore said, confirming the girl's arrival.

The decision to shift the girl was taken at the highest level of the government.

On December 16, the girl was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi.

The girl, who continues to remain in a critical condition, remained on ventilator support during most part of her treatment in Delhi.

The victim fighting for her life in a Delhi hospital was whisked away to Singapore on Wednesday night in a move to better her chances and limit any outburst of fury in a volatile Capital.

The girl, who was brutally assaulted by six men in a moving bus ten days ago and dumped on the roadside to die, has been battling acute infection and a clot in the heart. Her stomach has been cut open twice and her small intestines have been removed.

She was taken from Safdarjung Hospital to Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 1D airport at 10.30 pm and boarded a chartered 12-seater aircraft an hour later from Delhi airport. With her were her parents, two relatives, two nursing staff and two doctors. Prior to the move, three police vans and two cars full of policemen kept watch outside the hospital.

People and media persons gather outside Safdarjung Hospital where the Delhi gangrape survivor is admitted in New Delhi. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

People and media persons gather outside Safdarjung Hospital where the Delhi gangrape survivor is admitted in New Delhi. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

The girl, a physiotherapist, comes from a lower-middle-class family, with her father having sold his ancestral land to fund her studies. The family did not have passports, and the government arranged these, along with visas for Singapore at top speed.

An ambulance carrying the Delhi gangrape survivor to the airport. She is being taken to Singpore for better treatment.

The girl will be treated at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, one of Asia’s best centres for organ transplants, sources said. It is the same hospital where politician Amar Singh and southern superstar Rajinikanth underwent treatment.

Earlier, doctors described her health as “critical” but “a shade better”. “She is certainly not out of danger and continues to remain on ventilator, but her parameters have improved,” said Dr Sunil Jain, senior surgeon at the hospital.

Doctors said the girl was communicating meaningfully and was “very optimistic about her future”.

The rape and the government's leaden-footed response to it led to unprecedented protests near the seat of power in Delhi, forcing a lockdown of the city's administrative district.

Security was stepped up across Delhi on Wednesday, especially near government buildings. A debate raged on the penalty for rape and whether Delhi's cops should report to the chief minister instead of the central home ministry. Calls for the police chief to go have also gained momentum, though indications are that the Centre will back him for now.

Amanat's' condition deteriorated last night, improves today

The 23-year-old medical student who was brutally gang-raped last week in a moving bus in Delhi, is better, say doctors, but is still in critical condition. She still has fever. Her bleeding has stopped and though she is still on the ventilator, the support has been reduced. Her statement was recorded a second time yesterday. Delhi is calmer after a week of angry protests against the savage assault on the young woman, and nine metro stations near India Gate that had been closed for three days, are open today, as are radial roads leading into India Gate.

US agency to fund NDPL's smart grid technology

Tata-backed north Delhi discom NDPL and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) on Thursday announced the signing of a pact wherein USTDA will extend a financial grant of US $ 686,447 to NDPL towards implementation of the smart grid technology in its distribution network of North & North-West Delhi.

According to senior officials, NDPL is one of the first Indian utilities to initiate implementation of smart grid technology. Sunil Wadhwa, managing director of NDPL said: "We welcome the association with USTDA. The smart grid solutions are designed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of power distribution and to increase the ability of consumers to manage and use energy in a more cost-effective and energy- efficient way. It will also enable us to optimize our power line grid planning, operations and maintenance, enabling us to deliver power more efficiently.

Display water-supply timings on your website: CIC to DJB

The denizens of national capital will be able to know the timings of water supply in their area from March onwards if Delhi Jal Board complies with the orders of Central Information Commission in time-bound manner.

The transparency panel has directed the Board to post timings of water supply on its website by February 28 and keep updating it if their are any changes.

"The Commission directs the PIO to ensure that timings of water supply of all areas are displayed on the website of Delhi Jal Board. If these timings are changed the website is updated accordingly," the directive by the Commission said.

Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi was hearing the plea of one Narender Dutt who did not get details of water supply in his area from the Board and filed an appeal in this regard.

Gandhi held that such information should be displayed as part of mandatory proactive disclosure under section 4 of the RTI Act which deals with important information about functions and duties of the organisations displayed in public medium.

"The Commission directs that these timings are displayed on the website under its Section - 4 compliance before 28 February 2010," he said. link

First Indian woman skier to South Pole gets Delhi govt award

Reena Kaushal Dharmshaktu, who became the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole last year, will be given a Rs 5 lakh award by the Delhi government, an official statement said on Thursday.

"The city Government will honour Reena Kaushal Dharmashaktu with an award of Rs 5 lakh in a function to be organised in near future for her feat of skiing from the coast of Antarctica to the geographic South Pole," the statement said.

"The award is in recognition of her adventurous effort," it added.

The decision was taken in a meeting headed by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Delhi-based Dharmashaktu, a 38-year-old mountaineer and outdoor instructor, was part of an all-women expedition that skied for nearly eight-nine hours daily for 40 days, braving chilly winds, sub-zero temperatures, the vast emptiness of Antarctica and carried 80 kg of load on their backs to reach the South Pole Dec 31, 2009.

The cost of her venture was around Rs.10 lakh.

Unable to raise sufficient funds, Dharmshaktu had to take a loan of Rs.5.75 lakh from a bank and borrowed the rest from friends.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth, the team of eight women from Britain, Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand and Singapore were selected for the expedition.

Road signal-free, so kids going to school just dash

Ever since three new flyovers opened on the Outer Ring Road between Munirka and West End, to make the journey from south Delhi to the airport signal-free, the stretch has become highly accident-prone. At the receiving end of the bad planning are scores of school children who study in about a dozen schools on either side of Outer Ring Road.

The children risk their lives every day as the cross the road, in the absence of a subway, foot-overbridge (FOB) or traffic signal.

Ever since all three new flyovers were made operational in the last months of 2009, the route from IIT to National Highway 8 has become completely signal-free. Speeding vehicles use the route as a quick access from south Delhi to the airport and back. There used to be two traffic signals between the flyovers at Munirka crossing and on Rao Tula Ram Marg, but these were removed when the flyovers were opened.

Turning the stretch into a nightmare for pedestrians. "I feel scared to cross the road. Traffic comes non-stop and all I can do is just run when I see the number of cars becoming a little less,'' said Deepika Sree, a class 8 student of Tagore International School.

Added Mohan Thapa, a Class 7 student of Hope Hall Middle School: "I need to cross the road twice a day to get to my home in D-block, Vasant Vihar. But it's become impossible. I feel like I am going to get hit by a car one of these days as no one stops for us. Even the footpaths are all dug up.''

There are several schools located in the colonies on either side of Outer Ring Road, including Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Upras Vidyalaya, Hope Hall School, Tagore International School, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Delhi Public School RK Puram and Vasant Vihar, Kendriya Vidyalaya. As a result, thousands of school children studying in these schools and who live in the vicinity or use public transport need to cross the main road to get to school and back.

Students can be seen crossing the road in hordes in a feeble attempt to prevent their being run over. "I use the route often and I see small children crossing the main road. But even if I want to, it's unsafe to stop my car because I risk being hit by a speeding car from behind,'' said DS Khurana, a resident of Malviya Nagar.

The government, meanwhile, seems to be dragging its feet on construction of pedestrian facilities. "The matter was discussed at UTTIPEC Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre) and there is a plan to build a foot-overbridge at this point, which has been approved. Construction should start soon. Though the flyovers have been opened for traffic, work is still going on at the stretch,'' said an official.link

Three FOBs were supposed to come up alongwith the flyovers but the tenders were reportedly not awarded in time as officials were unable to finalise locations. The proposals were finalised only in November last year, after the flyovers were opened for traffic.