Members of the Netherlands hockey team Saturday visited a shelter for rescued child labourers and gifted them hockey sticks. They also had a friendly hockey session with the children.
Bhuwan Ribhu of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a child rights NGO which runs the shelter, said: “The coach of the Netherlands hockey team, Michel Van Den Heuvel, and two other players of the Premier League team visited the Mukti Ashram today to visit the 40 rescued child labourers who we have housed here.”
“The team spent about an hour with the kids and presented them with hockey sticks. The idea behind this was to tell the children that they have every right to play and enjoy their childhood, as much as they have a right to education,” Ribhu told IANS.
Rizwan, one of the children in the shelter who was rescued from a bindi making unit in Delhi March 9 said: “I like hockey and have been watching a lot of matches on TV. I am glad I have my own hockey stick now…I can play whenever I wish”.
Seeing the enthusiasm of the children – all of who were boys – the visiting team also had a friendly hockey session with them in which they gave them some basic playing tips.
The Netherlands lost to Australia in the semifinals of the Hockey World Cup.
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit Saturday assured that there will be no power shortages during the summer or the Commonwealth Games to be held in October.
“The city will become power surplus and there will be no shortage of power during Commonwealth Games and thereafter,” Dikshit said at the two-day national seminar on power sector reforms.
Dikshit also told the discoms to purchase the power at whatever rates were available to avoid any shortages.
“It is a satisfactory fact that the per capita consumption in Delhi has increased from 1,259 units in 2000-01 to 1,615 units in 2007-08. The increased demand has been met successfully by arranging adequate power from various states,” Dikshit said adding, this is the result of privatization of the power sector.
“This is an era of power trading. Delhi will get more than 1,400 MW power from Bawana project this year, around 750 MW from Jhajjar and 900 MW from NTPC Dadri. This will definitely suffice our demand. Apart from this, work on 750 megawatt Bamnauli project will also be taken up soon,” Dikshit added.
Appreciating the private discoms for providing good service to consumers, Dikshit said: “Discoms in Delhi are now competing with each other to provide the best possible services to their customers.”
Dikshit also expressed satisfaction at the fact that transmission losses have come down from 50 percent to 18 percent and urged people to save electricity.
India’s Saina Nehwal stormed into the women’s semifinal of the All England Badminton Championship with a stunning 21-8, 21-14 quarterfinal win over Germany’s Juliane Schenk in 27 minutes at the National Indoor Arena in Brimingham.
Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the quarterfinals of All England, which is in its centenary year. In the semifinal, Saina will meet former world No.1 Tine Rasmussen of Denmark. Rasmussen shocked world champion and sixth seed Lan Lu 16-21, 23-21, 21-11 in the first quarterfinal.
“It is a fantastic victory,” said Pullela Gopichand, former All England champion and national coach, in a statement.
“I told her to playing an aggressive game. Saina is in good touch,” he added.
Asked about her semifinal chances, Gopichand said: “Saina is a much improved player than last year. She has been working on her strokes. She has the edge over Rasmussen.”
Pro-Telangana students Saturday heckled union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal at the Hyderabad Central University, prompting the leader to cut short his visit to the city and return to New Delhi.
The pro-Telangana students stopped the minister when he arrived at the university to address the vice-chancellors’ meet. They raised slogans of “Jai Telangana” and demanded that the government table a bill in parliament for the formation of a separate Telangana state.
The protesters also raised slogans against the Srikrishna committee formed by the government to look into the demands for and against creation of a separate state.
Police had to intervene to bring the situation under control. The minister cancelled his visit to the English and Foreign Language University (EFLU) on the Osmania University campus where he was to inaugurate a newly-constructed building of EFLU, and returned to the national capital.
Sibal’s junior D. Purandareswari was also scheduled to attend the function, which was cancelled following an advisory by the police who had anticipated trouble during the ministers’ visit.
Osmania University is the nerve centre of the Telangana agitation. A student early this week committed suicide to protest the delay in formation of a separate state.
Singer Peter Andre, who is currently on “The Revelation Tour”, is curing his throat problem by eating Japanese honey.
“My tour is still going really well but I had a few throat problems last week and ended up having to ban myself from speaking during the day so I could get through my performances at night. I’ve even been eating Japanese honey as it’s meant to coat the nodules on your throat,” contactmusic.com quoted Peter as saying.
Peter, 37, has also revealed his pre-show ritual, which involves doing press-ups and staying in his dressing room in silence.
He added: “To be honest, I never speak to anyone for an hour before I go on stage as I like to psyche myself up and focus. I do loads of press-ups and stretches, drink lots of water and just generally have some time alone so I can concentrate. Then, when I go on stage, I’m fired up and ready to go!” he added.
American director Steven Spielberg has cast “Jurassic Park” child star Joe Mazzello in his new World War II mini-series “The Pacific”.
Mazzello was just nine when he was cast as Sir Richard Attenborough’s grandson Tim Murphy in the dinosaur adventure, reports imdb.com.
He then starred in its sequel “The Lost World” and a string of other movies before he quit acting to study.
After graduating college, Mazzello picked up where he left off and, at the age of 27, has teamed up with Spielberg for “The Pacific”, in which he plays a soldier.
“Acting was something I always knew I’d come back to,” said Mazzello.
And re-teaming with Spielberg was always an ambition. “My fondest memories of ‘Jurassic Park’ are of him, so I felt like it came full circle when I auditioned for ‘The Pacific’,” he said.
Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston has slammed rumours that she is pretending to date co-star Gerard Butler to promote their movie “The Bounty Hunter”.
“They think that if you do a movie together and you get on really well you must be dating…I think it’s a filler, it’s fodder, it fills magazines, it has nothing backing it at all,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted her as saying.
“You know there’s all this stuff about calculating…that me and Gerry are in this fake relationship for the press of our movie or the selling of it. It’s just so insulting at the same time, but again it’s the story…,” she added.
The pair sparked rumours of a new romance after Butler joined Aniston on vacation in Mexico last month to celebrate her 41st birthday.
The Delhi High Court Friday issued notices to eight colleges run by the central government for not implementing the disability quota for teachers despite directions.
A division bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ajit Bharihoke asked the colleges to file their reply by April 16 and state why their orders were not complied with.
Bharti College and Lady Harding Medical College are two of the eight colleges that have not complied with the order.
Colin Gonsalves, counsel for NGO Sambhavana Trust, said: “There are only 39 colleges in Delhi University (DU) that have complied fully with the disability quota, 12 colleges have partially complied and 31 colleges have not complied at all.”
The court was hearing a public interest petition seeking an implementation of the law on quota for disabled candidates for teaching posts.
Sambhavana Trust, a registered society of disabled persons, had alleged that the varsity and its colleges had not implemented the law even 15 years after parliament passed it and six years after the court’s direction in this regard.
It was also submitted that the university, after enactment of the law, had passed a resolution in 1996 to provide three percent reservation for the disabled, out of which two percent was to be given to the visibly handicapped and one percent to orthopaedically handicapped.
Mumbai Indians piled up 212 for six in 20 overs against Rajasthan Royal in a Indian Premier League match here Saturday.
Saurabh Tiwary smashed 53 and Ambati Rayudu 55.
For Royals, Dimitri Mascarenhas (2-34) and Amit Uniyal (2-41) took two wickets each.
Producer Sanjay Gupta’s much-awaited movie “Pankh”, featuring actress Bipasha Basu, is finally hitting the screens April 2.
“Pankh” traces the life of a boy who plays a female artiste as a child in films. When he grows up and wants to be launched as a hero, he goes through gender confusion and falls in love with an imaginary actress, played by Bipasha.
The film, which was to release 2009, is directed by Sudipto Chattopadhyay and features Mahesh Manjrekar, Lillette Dubey, Ronit Roy, Sanjeeda Sheikh and newcomers Maradona Rebello and Amit Purohit, apart from Bipasha.
The director is confident that the movie will touch the right chords with the audience.
“This was a story that needed telling. It is a film that will touch every sensitive soul. ‘Pankh’ is Bollywood’s wildest take so far,” Chattopadhyay said in a statement.
Gupta is releasing the film under his newly launched brand White Feather Arthouse Film in association with Next Gen Films.
He also announced the release of unconventional film “The Great Indian Butterfly”, which has been a part of many film festivals. The movie, featuring actors Aamir Bashir, Sandhya Mridul, Koel Purie and Barry John, will be on screens March 26.
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