New Delhi: Going by the current trend, India will be half a century late in achieving its global education commitments and the country needs fundamental changes in the education system if it wants to meet the 2030 sustainable development goals, a UNESCO report has said.

UNESCO’s new Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report says that based on current trends universal primary education in Southern Asia will be achieved in 2051, lower secondary in 2062, and upper secondary in 2087.

India is expected to achieve universal primary education in 2050, universal lower secondary education in 2060 and universal upper secondary education in 2085, it said.
“This means the region would be more than half a century late for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline,” it added.

The report says there is an urgent need for greater headway in education and the sector needs a major transformation to fulfil the needed potential and meet the current challenges facing humanity and the planet.

It also talks of another report, Education for People and Planet, which, it said, shows the need for education systems to step up attention to environmental concerns.

“While in the majority of countries, education is the best indicator of climate change awareness, half of countries curricula worldwide do not explicitly mention climate change in their content. India is an exception, where currently some 300 million school students receive some environmental education,” it said.

The statistics cited in the report have revealed only six per cent of adults in the poorest countries and only five in India have ever attended literacy programmes, once they pass the formal schooling system.

The report has also called upon governments of various countries to start taking inequalities in education seriously, tracking them by collecting information directly from families.

“The new global development agenda calls for education ministers and other education actors to work in collaboration with other sectors,” it said.

The GEM Report lists various benefits that could come if education actors work in collaboration with other sectors.

The collaborative working may help delivery of health intervention through schools, contribution in increasing crop yields by 12 per cent and contribution of education in reducing population growth.

(PTI)

Meerut: In yet another heart-rending incident, a woman ran from one hospital to another with her daughter’s body and was forced to spend a night outside the emergency wing of the district hospital with the dead child after ambulance drivers allegedly refused to take them to their village as it was in another district.

It comes just days after the disturbing incident reflecting hospital apathy in Kanpur, where a man was allegedly made to take his ailing son on his shoulders from one department to another by the doctors and the child finally died.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Gulnad, a resident of Baghpat district, was suffering from a viral infection and undergoing treatment at P L Sharma government hospital but on Thursday night, her condition deteriorated and doctors referred her to Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College (LLRMC) Hospital here.

Her mother Imrana took her to the LLRMC hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

Imrana alleged that for two hours she pleaded with the hospital ambulance driver to take the body to her village Gauripur but he refused, saying he is not allowed to travel to other districts.

Expecting help from district hospital authorities, Imrana took the body to the district hospital in a private ambulance after paying Rs 200 but there also she was denied ambulance service.

Imrana claimed that she requested the doctors at the hospital for hours to get ambulance service and when she contacted the hospital ambulance driver, he refused to go to her village stating that it is in another district while private ambulances demanded Rs 2,500 for the journey which she did not have.

According to Imrana, she, with her daughter’s body on her lap, spent the night outside the emergency wing of the hospital.

The next morning, some people present there chipped in and hired a private ambulance to take the body to her village.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate, Meerut, Jagatraj Tripathi said, “This incident has not come to my notice yet. But I will order an investigation into it.

“Whoever is found guilty will be punished. I’ll ask the chief medical officer, the additional director that these type of incidents should not happen,” he added.

In similar shocking incidents in Odisha, a man was forced to carry his dead wife on shoulder after being denied a hearse by the hospital authorities while another had to walk miles carrying his seven-year-old daughter’s body as the ambulance transporting them allegedly left them midway.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today quashed criminal proceedings against cricketer M S Dhoni for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by portraying himself as God on a magazine cover.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi granted the relief to Dhoni after noting that the trial court in Karnataka erred in summoning the cricketer without following the due procedure of law.

“We interfere with the order of the High Court and quash the proceedings including the summoning order against the accused… we have taken note of the complaint and the offence alleged while passing this order” the bench said.

On September 14, last year, the apex court had stayed the criminal proceedings against Dhoni on a complaint lodged for allegedly portraying himself as Lord Vishnu on a magazine cover page.

The court had also stayed the operation of the order of Karnataka High Court which had refused to stall the criminal proceedings against him.

Dhoni had filed the Special Leave Petition challenging the Karnataka HC order. The complaint, filed by social activist Jayakumar Hiremath, had alleged that Dhoni was seen on the cover of a business magazine as Lord Vishnu, holding several things, including a shoe in his hands.

Taking cognisance of the complaint, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) had directed registration of a case against Dhoni under section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) along with 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

(Agencies)

The Delhi Police on Saturday booked former Aam Aadmi Party minister Sandeep Kumar on charges of rape at the Sultanpuri Police Station in New Delhi. Kumar has reportedly reached the DCP office in Rohini, New Delhi to surrender.

Meanwhile, the woman who lodged the complaint against Sandeep Kumar has been taken for a medical test. She alleged in her complaint that the CD was made after Kumar became a minister. The woman claimed she had gone to meet Kumar for his help in getting a ration card. She was asked to wait at the minister’s office and then offered a cold drink which was allegedly spiked, the sources said.

After she lost consciousness, she was allegedly raped. The woman claimed she did not know a CD had been made, they said. Sanjay Singh, Joint Commissioner (Northern range), said that the victim’s statement was being recorded.

A case under IPC section 376 (rape) has been registered, police said.

The Aam Aadmi Party suspended its MLA and ex-minister after a raging controversy over an ‘objectionable CD’ which showed him in a compromising position with a woman. Earlier this week, Kumar, who handled the Women and Child Welfare ministry in the Delhi government, was sacked from the cabinet.

“In a high-level meeting held on Saturday morning, the party suspended primary membership of Sandeep Kumar,” AAP’s Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey told the media. A further decision on terminating him from the party will be taken later, he added.

The 36-year-old MLA from Sultanpur Majra said he was targeted for being a Dalit. Speaking to reporters, Kumar had said, “Like Eklavya was pulled down,when people from our community rise, some plot is hatched to destroy us.” He also said that “plot was hatched” ever since he installed Dr. Ambedkar’s statue and it was happening because “he is poor and Dalit.” He alleged the tape was fabricated.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders met police chief Alok Kumar Verma on Thursday and asked him to conduct an inquiry against the Kumar. A senior police officer said that after the inquiry, he could be booked under Section 354C (voyeurism) of the Indian Penal Code.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: CBI today carried out searches at the residences of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a sitting UPSC member along with 18 other locations in a case of alleged irregularities in acquisition of land in Gurgaon in which farmers were cheated to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore.

CBI sources said besides Hooda’s residence, premises of the then Principal Secretary M L Tayal, UPSC member Chattar Singh, both former IAS officers, and a serving IAS SS Dhillon were also searched by the team.

“In an ongoing investigation, CBI carried out searches at 20 locations in Rohtak, Gurgaon, Panchkula and Delhi in connection with alleged irregularities in the purchase of land from farmers in Gurgaon,” CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said.

The agency had registered the case last year in September on allegations that private builders in conspiracy with unknown public servants of Haryana Government had purchased around 400 acres of land from farmers and land owners of village Manesar, Naurangpur & Lakhnoula, District Gurgaon at throw away prices, showing the threat of acquisition by the government, during the period August 27, 2004 to August 24, 2007.

It is alleged that in this process, initially, the Haryana Government had issued a notification under the Land Acquisition Act for acquisition of land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an Industrial Model Township at Villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula in Gurgaon.

After that, all the land had allegedly been grabbed from the land owners by private builders under the threat of acquisition at meagre rates, CBI had said after registration of the case.

It is alleged that an order was also passed by the the competent authority i.e. the Director of Industries on August 24, 2007 releasing this land from the acquisition process and the land was released in violation of the government policy, in favour of the builders, their companies and agents, instead of the original land owners.

The CBI has alleged in its FIR that in the said manner, land measuring about 400 acres whose market value at that time was above Rs 4 crore per acre approximately totalling about Rs 1,600 crore approximately was allegedly purchased by the private builders & others from the innocent land owners for only about Rs 100 crore.

It was alleged that a loss of Rs 1,500 crore was caused to the land owners of village Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula of Gurgaon.

(PTI)