Court notice on school interviews

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi High Court has issued notice to attorney-general Milon Banerjee, seeking his help to decide if interviewing children and their parents for admission to nursery and pre-primary classes is necessary.

“Keeping in view the importance of the issue we have to decide, we think it appropriate to request the attorney-general to assist this court in the matter,” a division bench of Justices D.K. Jain and S.R. Bhat said.

“All bodies, individuals and schools interested in assisting the court in the matter may file their submissions in the form of affidavits within two weeks,” the judges said.

The bench, which had earlier issued notice to the human resource development ministry, will take up the case again on September 22.

The court is deciding on a petition filed by three parents challenging a single bench judgement of the same court, which on January 12 last year rejected the plea for banning interviews.

Job free rides from Monday

New Delhi (PTI): Unemployed persons up to the age of 35 who are appearing for interviews for central government jobs will be allowed free rail travel from September 6.

The free ticket facility would be for basic mail and express fares in second class only — the sleeper class is excluded — an official release informed on Tuesday.

However, other charges like reservation fee and the superfast safety surcharge would be realised in full, it said.

The tickets will be issued by station managers and station masters if the job candidates produce their call letters, the release said.

For those appearing for interviews for jobs in state government offices, government undertakings, universities and public sector banks, the existing provision for grant of 50 per cent concession in the second or sleeper class would continue, it said.

Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav had made an announcement in this regard in the Lok Sabha in his budget speech.

Emigration norms revised

Dubai (PTI): India has relaxed emigration clearance norms for its residents in the United Arab Emirates by exempting four categories from the mandatory clearance procedure.

From now, emigration clearance is not needed for people over 50 years and below 18 years for travelling to India, the embassy said here. The relaxation is also valid for diploma holders from any institute recognised by the National Council of Vocational Training or State Council of Vocational Training and for those with higher secondary qualifications.

Zaheera summon

Vadodara (PTI): Police on Tuesday summoned Zaheera Sheikh, the main witness in the Best Bakery case, in connection with a complaint filed by her brother Nafitullah. Zaheera’s brother has accused BJP MLA Madhu Srivastav and three others of threatening them to turn hostile during trial last year. The police wants to record Zaheera’s statement on this. “We have sent summons and by telephone informed Zaheera’s custodian in Mumbai, Teesta Setalvad,” police commissioner Sudhir Sinha said here. Police sources said since October 6 last year, they had tried to contact Zaheera 13 times — nine times by phone, thrice by fax and once by visiting Mumbai — but they were stopped by Setalvad.

Mamaji dies

New Delhi (PTI): Kailash Nath Aggarwal alias Mamaji, a close aide of controversial godman Chandraswami and an accused in the St Kitts forgery case, died here on Tuesday. He was 80. He was suffering from cancer for over six months.

Train timing

Mumbai (PTI): The departure timing for the 8029 Down Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Howrah Express will be changed from Wednesday. The train will now leave Mumbai at 9.50 pm instead of 10.05 pm.

Forest ban

Srinagar (PTI): The Jammu and Kashmir government has banned extraction of minor forest produce, including medicinal plants, from demarcated forest areas for five years.

Pilgrimage to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri has resumed after more than a week while the yatra to Yamunotri remained blocked due to landslides in the area in Uttarkashi.