News Digest: Dipti's stalker, a 'rogue' no one wants to remember

Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India.

1. Dipti's stalker: A 'rogue' no one wants to remember

Snapdeal employee Dipti's stalker Devender, who has been arrested by the Ghaziabad police, does not share a good relationship with his family as well. According to a report in Times of India, the man was disowned by his own family years ago.

When asked about Devender, his mother minced no words in saying that they had disowned him. She said that she had just one son now, who is involved in farming. Residents of his village, Kami, are also wary of him.

Others speak about his aggression, about how he stabbed and shot some people. A retired Armyman's son, Devender had 32 cases against him, of which three were of murder.

2. CIC notice to Tihar over 'hiding' info

A visually impaired convict has been given a go ahead by the Central Information Commission to access his medical records that he believes may prove his innocence.

The CIC has upheld the dowry convict's right to freedom and issued a showcause notice to the Tihar authorities for allegedly suppressing information, said a report in Times of India.

Ravinder Kumar, a life convict in a dowry case and lodged in Tihar, had sought information related to his medical records which reportedly would have proved that he has visual impairment. Kumar believes that the medical records would help him prove that with such visual deficiency , he could not have killed his wife as was alleged by his in-laws.

According to the commission, Kumar was first denied the opportunity when his medical records were not certified, followed by alleged destruction of records and finally denial of permission to attend the second appeal.

3. New Raj textbooks drop western writers

The Rajasthan government has replaced the likes of John Keats, Thomas Hardy, William Blake and TS Eliot with authors who have a regional flavour.

A report in Times of India said that while Hardy's 'When I Set Out For Lyonnesse', Eliot's 'Macavity: The Mystery Cat' and Blake's 'The School Boy' have been dropped, works such as 'My first visit to the bank', 'The Brave Lady of Rajasthan', 'Chittor', 'Sangita the brave girl' have been included in the first lot of revised textbooks that have arrived at state textbook depots in Ajmer, Udaipur, Dausa, Bharatpur and Jaipur. Last year, Rajasthan had re-written textbooks from Class I to XII in a period of less than three months.

The books that have arrived include those for Class VIII (Hindi, English, Sanskrit, maths) and Class VI (English, Hindi, maths). They have been confined in the godowns of state textbooks depots. Foreign authors were dropped as part of the education department's directive to the textbook rewriting committee to include content that evokes a sense of pride in the state and the country.

4. 'Want justice in 10 days or I will kill self'

A 13-year-old girl from Gujarat has written to President Pranab Mukherjee, threatening that she would end her life if she doesn't get justice in 10 days. The girl has alleged that her school principal harassed her.

Ishika Gupta, a student of class VIII of Bhadran-based Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya has made allegations of harassment by school's prin cipal Kiran Mhaske, according to Times of India.

District authorities have termed the allega tions as baseless.

In her letter addressed to the President, the girl has stated that in eventuality of any mishap to her or her family , after 10 days five people including four office-bearers of the schools and Anand collector Dhaval Patel should be held responsible. The student has alleged that after her father questioned the school's principal over a contribution sought by the school in the name of development, she started facing harassment.

5. Man who went to Pak for love jailed as 'spy'

An Indian national who travelled to Pakistan in 2012 to meet a woman he befriended online has been moved to Peshawar central jail after a military court gave him a three-year prison term for "spying" and entering the country without documents.

Hamid Nehal Ansari, 31, was taken into custody by police and Intelligence Bureau officials at Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province within days of arriving in Pakistan. It is believed he was arrested following a tip-off as he did not have travel documents, said a report in Hindustan Times.

The military court in Kohat convicted Ansari on Saturday, according to media reports. The Mumbai resident has the right to appeal under the Pakistan Army Act.

6. Ministries to compete with each other in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

The Centre has planned to divide the responsibility of Swachh Bharat campaign to all 53 union ministries and also, make them compete with each other to promote it.

According to a report in The Economic Times, in a meeting held on February 3 with representatives from every ministry and cabinet secretary, it was decided that every ministry take up complete responsibility for the publicity of Swachh Bharat for 15 days in a year and organise at least 200 events each across the country.

The details of what every ministry did during the two week duration will be monitored by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation through a portal, and at the end of the year, name of the ministry that did the best to promote the programme will be published.

7. Russian Consulate writes to Jharkhand CM: BJP MLA blocking work, seeking money, jobs

The Russian Consul General in Kolkata has written a letter to Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das complaining against BJP MLA Dhulu Mahato.

The letter accuses Mahato, MLA from Baghmara in Dhanbad district, of obstructing work of a Russian company engaged with Coal India subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in his area while demanding money and jobs for locals, said a report in The Indian Express.

Mahato said it was a conspiracy against him and that he was prepared for any probe. The Chief Minister's office, however, denied having received any such letter.

8. Alerted JNU about trouble hours before the incident, say cops

The Delhi Police have said that they had alerted the Jawaharlal Nehru University authorities about the February 9 event and its possible fallout hours before it was organised on the campus, said a report in Hindustan Times.

In a report sent to the Union home ministry, the police have said that the JNU authorities, particularly the vice-chancellor's office, had no idea that the programme that was being organised at Sabarmati dhaba at 5pm was not a cultural event but was a protest by some Left-supported student groups who may create trouble on the campus.

According to the police report, the area officer of special branch had noticed a poster on JNU campus on February 9 in which it was mentioned that a cultural evening was being organised at Sabarmati dhaba that day at 5pm. As the poster contained offensive messages, the special branch officials informed all concerned agencies including the local police about it.

9. Have been like this since childhood, says OP Sharma

Delhi BJP MLA OP Sharma, who is accused of assaulting protesters outside Patiala House courts, offered an excuse for his aggressive action. A report in Hindustan Times quoted him as saying, "I have been like this since childhood."

That was Sharma's response after TV channels showed him assaulting CPI activist Ameeque Jamai and other protesters on Monday inside the court premises where a sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was to be heard.

"Main bachpan se yahi karta aa raha hu, mujhe mara gaya toh khali nahi baitha gaya, teen char hath maine bhi maar diye (I have been doing this since I was a child, when I was hit, I hit back in selfdefence)," he said.

The MLA for east Delhi's Vishwas Nagar constituency is one of the three BJP legislators in the 70-member Assembly.

10. Wait for homes gets shorter as government cuts red tape for builders

India's slowdown-hit real estate sector is hoping for a fresh boom with the government deciding to prune a long list of conditions developers have to meet before laying the first brick, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

The plan seeks to replicate Hong Kong's success of issuing each construction permit within 60 days.

The environment ministry last week decided to reduce the number of conditions that developers have to meet from 30 to about six-eight, depending on the project size. These norms are related to water conservation, natural drainage, solid-waste management, energy, air quality, noise and green cover. For instance, a project coming up on a 50,000-to-1,50,000 sqm area will need to fulfill eight prescribed norms while smaller ones will have to meet just six conditions.