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January 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Polls near, yet may be far New Delhi, January 18 The Town Hall is rife with rumours that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), is reportedly trying to delay the election for at least six months. Highly placed sources, privy to the results of the survey, said that this was discussed at the top level both in the Delhi Pradesh BJP and at the national level. The consensus was that the polls should be deferred. In the meantime, the sources said, the cadres had been asked to devise a strategy in order to maintain their hold in the civic body of the metropolis and take up development schemes in a big way to counter the anti-incumbency factor. The term of the House is scheduled to be over by April 31. The Congress Government of the National Capital Region of Delhi, responsible for conducting the corporation election, had tentatively declared that elections would be held on February 24. However, the final date of the election will be declared after the Delhi High Court order on January 23 as a case has been filed against the segment rotation policy of the Union government. Meanwhile, Ram Babu Sharma, leader of the Opposition in the corporation, has threatened to file a public interest litigation in the High Court if the elections were deferred. The elections to the civic body have already been delayed thrice for one reason or another. |
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Pak citizen hopped from state to state... Ghaziabad, January 18 He was an active member of the ‘Black Eagle’ group which is known to incite riots and cause communal disturbances. Shahid had reportedly sneaked into India to escape the wrath of Lahore police, says Ghaziabad SSP Prashant Kumar. Muradnagar police had shot dead the suspect in an encounter near Kanauja village on January 8 near the ordnance factory and recovered some maps and documents, apart from a Chinese weapon. A Delhi-Muradnagar railway ticket was also recovered from the pocket of the slain criminal. The UP police have no clues as to why he came to Muradnagar, how he got the Chinese weapon, who were his Companions, from where he got the documents and maps, and who were his contacts. The SSP said that the inquiry was still on. He said, according to Delhi police, Shahid alias Saiyed, alias Mohd Saiyed Khan, was son of Abdul Qayum, a resident of Gali No. 27, Gulbarga market of Labore, Pakistan. He was a member of the Black Eagle, which used to cause public disturbances, and extort `haftas’ from the traders etc. He was wanted in half a dozen cases by the police in Pakistan. Shahid had been in Lahore till 1990 when he got his passport and took a 14-day visa from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan and entered India in February 1992 from Attari checkpost. He went to his aunt Mehmooda in Sakeda area of Saharanpur. He was asked to leave by his relations after three months. He then shifted to Delhi. Later, he went to Bangalore, Ludhiana and Sangrur district of Punjab where he met Abbas Khan of Muzzafarnagar who was working as a passport agent. He had been a fugitive and involved in illegal activities. He was sent to jail after his arrest from Gokulpuri by Delhi police under Tada and Arms act. In 1995, he was released on personal bond. In 1996, he married a woman Rehana in Bareilly and changed his name to Saiyed Khan and declared himself to be a resident of Khoda Afghan, Saharanpur. Later, he shifted to Sunder Nagar, Delhi. He had got an Indian passport with the help of one Abbas Khan. In November 1997, he visited Bangladesh. On March 9, 1998, Delhi police arrested him under the Foreigner’s Ordinance and Passport Ordinance and sent him to Tihar Jail where he had remained for three years. |
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Learning can be fun to boot New Delhi, January 18 Textbook designing requires a lot of research and development, believes Jiva’s Educational Director, Steven Rudolph. Jiva is an NGO, working towards redefining education through their innovative programme, ‘India’s Curriculum for Tomorrow’ (ICOT). “The aim is to restore faith in interactive education. When I came to India with Rishi Pal Chauhan, the President of Jiva, I realised that there was a huge potential in the field of education. In 1994, we started with a school in Faridabad. I introduced a number of activities for children, but the teachers would complain that the textbooks were so lousy that they could not link the activities with the texts,” informed Rudolph. ICOT began with marketing computer texts. “Initially, the schools were a little wary of using texts, prepared by us for the academic subjects. However, they were impressed by our content shortly and moved on to the rest of the books,” added Rudolph. The ICOT texts are a shift from the monotonous and cumbersome texts that schoolchildren are made to study. With the aid of cartoons, large fonts and simple language lessons are explained in a lucid manner. “We have based our course content on the NCERT guidelines and have even offered to work closely with the NCERT to help them revamp their pattern and come up with more student-friendly texts,” explained the Educational Director. The ICOT recently released a series of textbooks for both the CBSE and the ICSE-based syllabi. Covering five subjects, maths, English, social studies, science and computers, these books are for first to fifth classes. The textbooks were released at a function held in the Capital by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Mr S.N. Vittal. At present, there are about 50 schools in the NCR, which prescribe to the ICOT books. “To generate interest, check absenteeism and dropout rate in schools and connect real life problems to education, such interactive textbooks should be the rule rather than the exception,” explained a teacher. It’s time for the bookmakers to take a leaf out of the books, meant to make learning easy for the tiny-tots, commented a schoolteacher. |
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Citizen is boss, but babu's still the king
New Delhi, January 18 The internal review conducted by the administrative reforms department attributes the slackened pace to “non-cooperation” of the authorities concerned and lethargy. Similar is the case with the citizen’s charter. Only 60-odd departments or organisations have thus far introduced the charter. An unfazed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says the Act is here to stay and that the “army of bureaucrats” would eventually have to fall in line. The terse message was delivered on the occasion of a workshop on the Act and its implementation. Joining the chief minister in asking the babus to pull up their socks was Chief Secretary P. S. Bhatnagar who candidly told the officials to discard the I-don’t-give-a-damn mindset and embrace the virtues of government-citizen partnership. “Citizen is your first priority,” the chief minister told the officials and in a conciliatory tone urged the citizenry to exercise their “right” to information. Observers, however, have pointed out the lack of dissemination of promulgation of such Act in the National Capital Territory for the poor response among the public.
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Jaitley’s support sought on
Nishan Sahib Gurdwara New Delhi, January 18 The DSGMC president, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, who led the delegation to the Union Minister, told NCR Tribune that Mr Jaitley had assured all possible support to prevent the demolition of the structure which has been in existence since 1953 in Nizamuddin East. “We placed all the facts of the case before him and the minister promised to find a way out soon. His response was quite positive and satisfactory,” the DSGMC president said. Rising above party politics, the pro-Tohra faction leader, Mr Parmjit Singh Sarna, said his party would extend all possible support to prevent the demolition of the gurdwara. “We appeal to all the Akali parties to fight this issue jointly and save the religious structure from demolition,” he said, adding, “our party cadre has been asked to keep a close watch on the structure and alert the authorities concerned if any attempt is made to demolish it.” In its order last month, the Delhi High Court had termed the construction of the gurdwara in the area as illegal and had directed the Delhi Development Authority to demolish the structure within six weeks. The Satsang Committee Nizamuddin has moved the Supreme Court. |
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Rs 13 lakh fine for tampering with meter Faridabad, January 18 Fraud cases Faridabad: Two cases of bank fraud involving about Rs 1.80 crore in the district last year seem to be puzzling the police. While the police are investigating the cases, they have failed to zero in on the main culprits. While one case involved the local branch of Canara Bank, from where a sum of about Rs 1.25 crore was withdrawn fraudulently a year ago, another cheating case was detected in Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) here, where an amount of Rs 60 lakhs was taken out through bogus vouchers and documents. The police are reported to have quizzed about two dozen persons in connection with Canara Bank case. Here a transporter of Delhi has been named as the kingpin.
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CM harps on CNG failings New Delhi, January 18 “We need to be assured that CNG is the fuel that will take us through the century,” she said addressing a seminar on Alternative Energy Driven Vehicles at the Auto Expo here. The Chief Minister also expressed concern about the safety aspect and said that CNG had to be established as an “absolutely safe fuel,” both for human beings and the environment. “Delhi roads have around 30,000 CNG vehicles, which would shoot up to 60,000 within the next two to three months. Keeping this in view, we have to solve the problems of inadequate supply of CNG and the dearth of pumping stations,” Ms Dikshit said. The interim report on the auto fuel policy submitted by Dr R A Mashelkar, DG, CSIR, had stated: “The government should decide only the vehicular emission standards and the corresponding fuel specifications, without specifying vehicle technology and the type of fuel.” The report has been accepted by the Union Cabinet and the Centre has indicated that the report would be placed before the Supreme Court, when the case comes up for hearing on February 8. Ms Dikshit said the government and the private sector had already invested enormous funds in converting vehicles to CNG, but it remained to be seen whether the Petroleum Ministry, which is already showing signs of scepticism, would be able to meet the fast growing demand. Ms Dikshit called on the automobile industry to suggest alternate means of public transport to control the growing number of private cars on the roads. “Given the limited road width, the pace at which private vehicles are hitting the roads is not sustainable. The industry captains have to come up with luxury and sky buses and a quicker transport system,” she said. Inaugurating the seminar, Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources M. Kannappan said that the union and the state governments had chalked out policies and initiated steps for the promotion of environmentally benign auto fuels and for reducing reliance on external fuel supply. “The country incurs huge expenditure on the import of crude oil and petroleum products to meet the fast accelerating needs in the transport sector, which is also the single largest consumer of oil,” Mr Kannappan said, adding that the government’s initiatives would help counter air and noise pollution besides reducing use of fossil fuel. The ministry was “appropriately addressing” the major constraints in battery-powered electric vehicles, including high cost and limited range, he said. He said the ministry was also supporting a broad-based R&D programme on alternative fuel vehicles and efforts were on to develop and deploy high-energy batteries, fuel cells, hydrogen energy and hybrid electric vehicles. |
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Police corner three dreaded gangsters Jhajjar, January 18 According to a district police spokesman, a team of the crime branch put up a naka near Dawla village after receiving a tip off that three criminals were roving in the area in an Indica car with a fake registration number HR-29 G-4296. The party spotted the vehicle and chased the car. Then the criminals drove the car towards the sarson fields in a bid to escape. In the meantime, another police party from the Jhajjar police station joined them and cordoned off the field in which the criminals were hiding. Once they were convinced that they could not escape, they surrendered when the police party challenged them. Country-made loaded pistols and the car were seized by the police. On being interrogated further, they admitted their involvement in several cases, including murder, robbery and looting at many places. In fact, Hansraj, alias Hansa, had escaped from the police after he killed Manphole Singh, warden of Bhiwani jail, in August last year when he was on parole in another murder case. He also looted Rs 20,000 and an Indica car from a trader in Maham in Rohtak and demanded Rs 50 lakh from another trader in Dadri as ransom. Again, they robbed another Indica car from three persons on the Jhajjar-Rewari road on January 5. Apart from this, their involvement in several other criminal cases in Bhiwani, Rohtak, Sonepat, Delhi and adjoining areas had been confirmed, the police said. |
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SPEAKING OUT
The collapse of a 3-storey building, KA-17, under construction in Koshambi, Ghaziabad’s zero distance colony from Delhi, has once again raised serious doubts about GDA’s ability to enforce building construction by laws, mandatory for all plot owners. In the mishap, eight construction workers perished and another twenty two were injured, following heavy downpour on Tuesday afternoon. Most plot owners in Koshambi, reputed to be one of GDA’s posh colonies, are either serving or retired bureaucrats, politicians of eminence or disrepute, technocrats, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and even a sprinkling of journalists and mediapersons. While the apartments occupancy has risen to 80 per cent from one per cent in 1988, only 50 per cent of the plot owners have so far built houses in the last 14 years. The remaining 50 per cent plots look-like proverbial pock marks on the charming face of an otherwise well planned colony which has yet to develop fully in the absence of essential services. However, the resale value of plots in Koshambi during the preceding decade has soared to phenomenal level. A good number of builders have stepped in to construct residential units at breakneck speed in order to make a fast buck. Obliging GDA officials collude with them for extraneous considerations and in return, overlook the violation of building by laws. After Tuesday’s tragedy, in which magisterial inquiry has now been ordered, the question troubling the minds of most Koshambians is whether such incident could have been averted if GDA had woken up in time to enforce the building norms? Therefore, GDA is legitimately blamed for its failure to ensure adherence to mandatory safety regulations by those who violate them. Why could GDA not devise a mechanism for regular inspection of a building under construction by an independent panel of architects and civil engineers, whose recommendation could form the basis for issuance of final completion certificate? If the panel finds that by laws have been violated, including the failure to follow plan specifications and use of inferior material, heavy penalty should be imposed and, in extreme cases, even cancellation of ownership rights could be considered by invoking the relevant provisions of allotment. GDA could apply the same yard stick against those plot owners who intentionally defer construction over allotted lands for future pecuniary gains. This would go a long way towards the speedy development of a colony. Consequently, pock-marks in the form of vacant plots would automatically disappear in all the GDA sponsored colonies. The entire western belt of Ghaziabad down to Noida, contiguous to Yamuna, is made-up of sandy soil and also falls under critical seismic zone. Geologically, since the soil in this region is not as firmed-up as should be, it is all the more important for development authorities to lay special emphasis on structural stability devices when approving the building plans. What needs to be ensured is the implementation of structural design by qualified and experienced engineers, taking into account the bearing capacity of soil, depending upon seismological factors in that area, bending and shear considerations and adherence to relevant ISI standards. When construction is underway, proper fortification of shuttering frame work so as to cope up for the load of RCC-and movement of working force needs to be ensured. Other safeguards to be followed are strict vigilance for workmanship, specified ratio, mixing and composition techniques. Apparently, these civil engineering imperatives are ignored, both by development authorities and the owners which ends-up in an avoidable structural collapse. R D Saxena, Koshambi (Ghaziabad)
Contributing one’s mite Every person has some aspiration in life-being successful in professional life, taking care of ones family and to do something for the people at large. Most of the people like me, who have played their inning well in life and are in the post-retirement period, can be helpful if opportunities are provided to them. Our country has a large number of people having experience and expertise in various fields and their services can be made use of by the government and other institutions. Bhagedari scheme, introduced by the Delhi Government is one of the means to elicit such cooperation. To enlarge the scope of the Bhagidari scheme, public utility works should be done in consultation with the residents of the areas concerned. This will not only reduce the cost of the project but save money spent on middlemen. People with integrity, who have a flair for social service and want to make some contribution to the country, can be invited to participate in theses schemes. As a matter of fact, the prevalent work culture among the government employees, with their clear-cut materialistic aspirations, cannot take care of the needs of our large and mainly poor population. The eradication of corruption should form one of the top priorities of our government. For this, government rules and regulations should be simplified and given wide publicity. Government employees, particularly those that deal directly with the public, should be suitably educated about their role and obligations. The police should be efficient and sympathetic in order to gain the trust of the public. The awe attached with the law enforcing agencies should be removed. Hopefully, the new entrants will be given the right training so that in times to come, there will be a change in the attitude of the police personnel. This is based on the revelations made in the article-My Maiden Duty-by Mrs Kiran Bedi, published in The Tribune of December 1, 2001. The mode of training being imparted at the Delhi Police Training College, under the guidance of Mrs Bedi, should be emulated by other training centres/colleges in the country. The detailed feedback by constable, Yajvender Singh, narrated in this article, makes us happy. She has been able to present a new face of the Indian police and this has been appreciated by the people. N.P. THAREJA, D-94, Saket, New Delhi
Red-tapism I am reader of The Tribune since 1975 as it has provided extensive coverage of news from Punjab. Additionally, the Tribune has helped me gather information regarding court cases related to the government of Punjab and Haryana, apart from all the latest news and views from around the world. Through your esteemed newspaper, I want to say that the apathetic attitude of the authorities, gives me little hope for improvement in this country. I have become fed up with the delaying tactics of the government. I had applied for the shifting of my phone, (55360) from Hodal to Faridabad. The phone was deposited in the office of the SDO (T) Hodal on 29.3.1999. However, my phone has not yet been shifted to my residence in Faridabad due to red-tapism in the Government Department.
Dr. GOVIND TANWAR, Faridabad
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NCR BRIEFS Rohtak, January 18 UHBVN cash counters The cash counters of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) will remain open at Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, Jind, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Ambala and Panchkula towns on January 19 and 21 for the convenience of consumers. Mr S. S. Panwar, Superintending Engineer, Rohtak circle of the UHBVN, said the step had been taken in view of the continuous holidays for three days in government offices in the state during the period.
2 die, 11 hurt in mishaps Faridabad Husband, wife strangled Sonepat |
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2 youths hang themselves to death Noida, January 18 In the first incident, Sanjay, son of Mr Badli Singh, had been running a dairy, Mohan Dairy, in Sector 8 for the last 10 years. He had an altercation with his wife, Ms Geeta, over money last night. The quarrel was so intense that they slept in separate rooms. At about 2 am when Geeta called for her husband, she did not get any response. She along with some neighbours started knocking at the door but there was no response still. When they peeped through a window, they found Sanjay hanging from the ceiling fan with Geeta’s dupatta. In the other incident, Vishnu Dev of Vandana Vihar of Khoda colony under the Sector 58 police station had been demoralised as he had lost his job some two months ago. All his attempts to procure a job had failed. Frustrated, he hanged himself with a piece of cloth from a ceiling fan. When his wife returned from work at a garment factory, she saw the room closed. When she entered the room with the help of neighbours, she found Vishnu hanging from the ceiling fan. |
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Four held for robbery on New Year’s eve New Delhi, January 18 The police said that on December 31, the suspects entered the office of Mr Govind Prasad in Ashok Vihar and ran away with Rs 22,000, two mobile phones and one TV remote. Later on January 15, the SHO of the Ashok Vihar police station, acting on a tip off that some criminals were planning to commit a dacoity at Chandi Wala Bagh, reached the spot and nabbed the suspects, Harish Kumar (45), Radhika Prasad (28), Jai Prakash (26) and Ramu, alias Rajesh (30), all residents of Jharoda village. However, their accomplice managed to escape. On interrogation, the suspects confessed to have committed the robbery on December 31. The police also recovered another stolen mobile phone from them, while the looted money could not be recovered from them as they had already spent the money. The criminals said that Radhika, one of the suspects, had encouraged them to commit the crime. Radhika had been an employee of the same office till six months ago. Meanwhile, in another incident, the special staff of the North-West district police seized a large quantity of smuggled liquor, worth Rs 1,13,000, while searching a Tata Sumo bearing No DL-1LB-5347 near Azad Pur.
Drug peddlers nabbed Two drug peddlers, Dalip Kumar Jha of Nangloi, and Riyaz-ul-Haque Ansari, resident of Bahrar district, Nepal, were arrested and seven kg of superior quality charas was seized by the operational staff of the North district, yesterday. The special team received information about drug peddling and kept a constant vigil. Finally, the duo was apprehended by the team at Filmistan Cinema and was booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Before this, Dalip Kumar was arrested four times for smuggling charas from Nepal to India.
Murder solved The South district police arrested three dreaded criminals who were allegedly involved in a sensational murder case where a severed head was found near a house in Sarita Vihar. The weapon, which was used by them, was also recovered by the police. The suspects, Amarpal (24), Parkan, alias Raju, and Mohar, were arrested by the staff and all of them were sent to the police custody. |
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Gurgaon Gramin Bank
posts record profit
Gurgaon, January 18 The bank chairman revealed that the total business of the bank as on December 31, 2001 stood at Rs 804 crore, with deposits of Rs 569 crore and advances to the tune of Rs 235 crore. The bank disbursed loans worth Rs 108 crore during the first three-quarters of the current financial year (2001-2002), said the official. Speaking to ‘NCR Tribune’, Mr Bhat said that the Gurgaon Gramin Bank retained its top rank amongst all the rural banks of the country by posting Rs 681 lakh profit per branch. The productivity per employee of the bank at Rs 97 lakh was in tandem with the bank’s aim to bring it to Rs 1 crore per employee by the end of the fiscal year, he added. The chairman explained that the record recovery of Rs 10.78 crore, increased credit off-take under the micro-finance and crop loan schemes by issuing over 7,200 Kisan Credit Cards were some of the reasons for the record profitability despite recessional trends and steady decline in interest rates. Schemes like personal banking loans, drastic cut in expenditure and implementation of the concept of per branch profit centre had also helped in achieving the target, said Mr Bhat. He further said that the bank would henceforth concentrate on increasing the size of its balance sheet by going full throttle for volume business while strengthening its fundamentals. On the modernisation front, the bank had already computerised 26 branches and one extension counter, informed the chairman. The profit earnings of the bank, according to the chairman, was a clear indication that a rural bank could modernise and still earn profit while expanding their services to the rural masses in the country. Above all, the bank had been able to advance record loans to the farming community in the country.
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