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Three-day bandh against VAT
Fake US varsity operating in India
MCD fails to meet target of property tax collection
MTNL ordered to compensate consumer for faulty bills
Power of Attorney scheme extended till June 30
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Metro trials on Kashmere Gate-Central Secretariat section soon
CBI probe demanded against Mehta’s secretary
Water tariff hike: Burden on middle category consumers
HC clears acquisition of 20,000 bigha in four villages
First woman officer to handle G B Nagar traffic
Sachin’s bat goes under hammer for princely sum
Correa is new DUAC chief
Visitors give Handicrafts Expo the go-by
5 juveniles held with stolen jewellery
Truck loaded with aluminium plates looted
Five killed as canter turns turtle
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Three-day bandh against VAT
New Delhi, March 30 The petrol pumps in the Capital, however, will open tomorrow but will restrict their working hours. They are protesting against the hike in sales tax on diesel, which they claim will cause an increase of Rs 1.80 per litre. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), an umbrella organisation of more than 5,000 trade federations, which gave the bandh call from today along with Bharat Udyog Vyapar Mandal, claimed that it had evoked “tremendous response” in all markets of the city. “We will hold sit-in demonstrations, hunger strikes and rallies to press our demand that VAT should not be implemented,” CAIT Secretary-General Praveen Khandelwal said. However, the trade bandh would be restricted only to closure of business establishments and all other activities would remain outside its purview, he added. Mr Khandelwal said traders would observe April 1, when VAT is to be implemented, as ‘Black Day’ throughout the country. They have also decided to write a petition to President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam opposing the new regime and the service tax levied on traders. Not relenting to pressure, the Delhi Government today decided to stick to its decision to hike sales tax on diesel from 12 to 20 per cent per litre but exempted commodities like Atta, Maida and Sooji from tax under VAT while reducing the tax on medicines from 12.5 per cent to four per cent. The budget was passed by voice vote in the Assembly today. Diesel will be costlier by Rs 1.80 in Delhi from April 1 following the increase in the sales tax. “In keeping with the decision reached among states to have a uniform floor rate for diesel, we have had to increase the tax on diesel from 12 per cent to 20 per cent,” the Finance Minister, Mr A. K. Walia, told the Vidhan Sabha in reply to the debate on the Delhi Budget 2005-06 presented on March 23. He said talks were on with neighbouring states like Haryana and Punjab to increase the sales tax on diesel so that the petrol pump owners in the Capital did not suffer.
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Fake US varsity operating in India
New Delhi, March 30 The university, which was operating in the countries like Lebanon, Republic of Georgia and India besides many others, has been found to have no acceptable jurisdiction or authority to issue degrees. The UGC, which has been approached with a complaint against the university, claims to have received a letter from the State of Hawaii through the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI), communicating the status of the university. In a letter issued in February this year, the State of Hawaii in the USA conveyed that the “so-called Hawaii-based unaccredited university is operating in India”. It was mentioned that the AUH operating in India is not accredited by any recognised accrediting agency and not licensed or approved by the State of Hawaii. “Although the AUH is incorporated in Hawaii and has a small office in Maui, it appears to be run by a British citizen of Iranian descent out of California,” the letter reads. The university, which claims to have affiliates, study centres and regional offices in 18 countries is said to have almost no students or graduates in the United States and primarily issues degrees and diplomas to the non-US citizens, including those in India. The UGC further mentioned that the Office of Consumer Protection of the State of Hawaii has obtained an injunction from an appropriate court in Hawaii, barring it from doing business as a university. In the order, dated January 31, 2005, the judge has ruled, “The defendant shall respect and enjoined from using and or disseminating legislative certificates and other government documents in websites or promotional materials and otherwise indicating or suggesting that the State of Hawaii license, approves or regulates its operations and making any claims, promises or indica of future accreditation.” While the Government of Hawaii has alerted the UGC, sources in UGC claim that they are yet to ascertain the whereabouts of the university and the number of students who could be enrolled.
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MCD fails to meet target of property tax collection
New Delhi, March 30 Sources in the civic body said that the total collection of Rs 650 crore include Rs 200 crore as transfer duty. Moreover, Rs 150 crore has to be refunded to those who had deposited additional amounts with the MCD. It may be recalled that when the corporation had introduced the Unit Area Method (UAM) for the assessment of property tax in the national Capital, the ruling Congress party had estimated that Rs 1,245 crore would be collected as property tax because it was ‘people friendly’, aimed at ending the ‘Inspector Raj’. The properties were categorised on the basis of its location and the rates fixed accordingly. Pointing out its shortcomings, sources in the civic body said that the authorities had failed to implement the policy in a proper manner mainly due to a large-scale confusion among the citizens, who had failed to deposit the tax. A senior official of the MCD said that the authorities had felt that with the implementation of the UAM of assessment of the property tax, most of the properties in the Capital would fall under the tax net. However, this did not happen, as large-number of citizens were exempted from the property tax for different reasons. Moreover, those falling under the tax net have failed to deposit the amount hoping that they would also be exempted. On another front, the department had failed to prepare any database before the implementation of the UAM of the assessment of the property tax, said officials in the MCD. Moreover, it was pointed out that the senior leaders of the corporation had ignored the advice of the officials of the Property Tax Department, who were better informed about the reality of the situation in the Capital. The sources said that last year the corporation had collected Rs 1,000 crore as property tax, which included Rs 200 crore as transfer duty. The property tax is a major source of revenue of the corporation and most of the development policies depend on the MCD meeting its annual revenue target.
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MTNL ordered to compensate consumer for faulty bills
New Delhi, March 30 Mr Ratan Lal Sharma, a retired government servant, believed many of his problems had ended when he got an MTNL telephone connection after a seven-year wait in 1992. But his woes had just begun when he was handed an astronomical bill of over Rs 4.81 lakh for four months and the service disconnected owing to its non-payment. “It is the grossest form of deficiency of service...MTNL acted mechanically and even heartlessly while dealing with the representations of the complainant. Merely because the meter reading showed such a huge number of calls, possibility of telephone connection having been misused by corrupt and unscrupulous officials could not be ruled out”, the Commission headed by Justice J. D. Kapoor said. Though Mr Sharma’s calls per month never exceeded 200, he received a bill of Rs 1,53,514 showing 1,37,919 calls till mid-November and a subsequent bill of Rs 3,27,947 registering 2,98,421 calls for the period between mid-November and December. Despite complaining about the “erroneous, illegal and faulty” bill totaling Rs 4,81,872 to top MTNL officials, his telephone were disconnected on January 6, 1993. The commission said it “cannot be oblivious” of the fact that in 1992 large number of consumers in the city having dynamic STD facility had received bills amounting to lakhs of rupees suddenly and complaints that their telephone was being misused by unauthorised consumers in connivance with conspiring staff of MTNL were also widespread. The MTNL contended that there was no deficiency on their part as whenever dynamic STD facility is provided the possibility of diversion of line is ruled out and the calls must have been made by somebody in complainant’s house, who is aware of the code.
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Power of Attorney scheme extended till June 30
Ghaziabad, March 30 Additional District Magistrate (Finance & Revenue) said this would be the last chance for such people. After the expiry of this time limit, suitable action would be taken. The power of attorney scheme had been started so that the government could earn maximum revenue through stamp duty. Buying property on power of attorney basis deprives the state exchequer of sizeable revenue, which would be earned if people bought property in a regular manner. The power of attorney scheme was launched to give the benefit of full property rights as well as to enable the government its rightful stamp duty revenue. In Ghaziabad, people have bought approximately 40,000 plots, houses and other properties from the GDA on power of attorney. Their regular registries are yet to be gone through. Apart from GDA, a large number of properties have been bought by people from Avas Vikar Parished and UPSIDC. The government had allowed people to avail themselves of this facility up to December 31, 2004, and also those who applied for registries were given the regular property rights through registry under the scheme. Additional DM (Finance & Revenue) B. K. Pawar and Assistant Commissioner, Stamps, Ajay Goel said that Principal Secretary, Taxation, Shekhar Agarwal has recently issued a notification extending the time limit for power of attorney up to June 30, 2005. Those who don’t get their property registered under the scheme up to June 30, will not be given another chance and the administration is likely to take strong action against them.
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Metro trials on Kashmere Gate-Central Secretariat section soon
New Delhi, March 30 The trials will be held between April-end and the first week of May and the section, with its six stations located in some of Delhi’s most congested parts, will become completely operational for commuters by June, at least three months ahead of the scheduled time of commissioning in September. This means that the entire first phase, once the segments from Dwarka to Barakhamba and Barakhamba to Indraprastha are completed by March 2006, will be implemented in a record time of little over seven and a half years instead of 10 years as originally planned. Meanwhile, the Japanese government yesterday gave the Delhi Metro the Rs 800-crore tranche of the time-sliced loan assistance for the phase-I operations of the project, that is aimed at removing traffic congestion and preventing environmental pollution, besides making the life of the common man in Delhi convenient. Once the segment between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat becomes operational, the rider-ship, which at present is 1.3 lakh passengers a day, is expected to double. DMRC Chief Public Relations Officer Anuj Dayal told ‘The Tribune’ that the track work had been completed for both the tunnels in the segment and the majority of the
civil work was also near completion. “Minor civil work is pending which will be completed by the time the segment is thrown open to commuters in June. However, a majority of work, like overhead electrification, signalling etc are complete,” he added. The civil work for six stations on the tunnels and stations of this underground segment—Delhi Main, Chawri Bazaar, New Delhi, Rajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk and Central Secretariat—located in
Delhi’s most congested residential and commercial area started in 2001. While Delhi Main, Chawri Bazar, New Delhi, Patel Chowk and Central Secretariat have a total design capacity of 4,000 to 4,500 passengers at a time, the Rajiv Chowk station, with five lifts, seven escalators and 10 entrances has the total design capacity
of 11,000 passengers at a time.
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CBI probe demanded against Mehta’s secretary
New Delhi, March 30 While appealing to the Chairman of the Stranding Committee for a CBI inquiry into the case and providing security to Mr G. S. Matharoo, the municipal councillors expressed their fear of involvement of some senior officer of the corporation in this case. The Chairman of the Standing Committee, Mr Mukesh Goel, Leader of the House, Mr Satbir Singh, Leader of the Opposition, Mr Vijender Gupta, and others said that if any officer was found involved in the case he would not be spared. This has happened for the first time in the corporation. The Municipal Commissioner said that on March 25, he received a call from G.S. Mathroo who said that two personnel of the Jharkahand Police along with the local police came to take him to Ranchi in a case of Arms Act. With the intervention of the Delhi Police officers, it was prevented and the case is being investigated. A case of Arms Act was registered against Mr Matharoo on the basis of an accused arrested in Jharkhand. The accused, in his statement, had alleged that he had bought two arms from one Matharoo in Delhi. To quash the case registered against Mr Matharoo, the Municipal Commissioner has written letters to the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, Mr P. P. Sharma, and the Director General of Police, Mr S. M. Cairae. He has also talked to the Resident Commissioner of Jharkhand in Jharkhand House in Delhi. In his letter the Commissioner said: “The allegation that the officer has supplied two illegal arms to an accused of robbery in the FIR 8/05 registered on January 20, 2005, is totally prima facie false and baseless. It appears to me that it is fallout of a very strong drive launched in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to weed out corrupt elements and to put a curb on their nefarious activities. It appears that strong vested interest of corrupt officials have been hurt in the above drive and they are trying to implicate senior officers of the corporation whose integrity, uprightness and dedication to duty cannot be suspected.
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Water tariff hike: Burden on middle category consumers
New Delhi, March 30 Under the new tariff, which was announced by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the Assembly, consumers who use 21 kilo litres to 30 kilo litres of water in a month will have to pay Rs 7 per The government also reduced the number of slabs for calculating service charges. There will now be only two slabs – Rs 40 per month for owners of property up to 200 square metres and Rs 120 for property above 200 square metres. There will continue to be no charges for those who use up to six kilo litres of water in a month. For those who use between seven kilo litres and 20 kilo litres, the rate will remain the same at Rs two per kilo litre. The high-end consumers of above 31 kilo litres will also continue to pay Rs 10 per kilo litre per month. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had increased the water tariff in the last quarter of last year. “We have rationalised the rates so that the people use water only according to their needs,” said Ms Dikshit. The new tariff will also help prevent wastage of water, she added. She said the government did not want any increase but new supply lines and high costs have added to the burden. The DJB budget for 2005-06 was also presented today.
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HC clears acquisition of 20,000 bigha in four villages
New Delhi, March 30 The government issued the notification to acquire 50,000 bigha of land in 13 villages at the time, out of which the court has cleared 20,000 bigha. A Division Bench of Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Madan B Lokur upheld the government notification in respect of Shayoorpur, Maidan Garhi, Neb Sarai and Rajpur Khurd on the ground that the subsequent declarations in 1985 under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act were made after inviting objections under Section 5-A of the Act. The Bench felt there were no infirmities in the orders passed by the Land Acquisition Collector and the Delhi Lt-Governor in regard to land acquisition of these four villages. However, the Judges gave dissenting judgement in respect of six other villages—Chattarpur, Khanpur, Satbari, Deoli, Tughlakabad and Khirkee and the cases relating to these villages would now be referred to a larger Bench.. While Justice Kumar held that the acquisition procedure was properly adhered to by the authorities, Justice Lokur agreed with the petitioners that they were not given enough opportunity to place their objections. The land acquisition led to a protracted legal battle as about 80 people from 11 villages challenged the government notification in the High Court in 1985. The Bench, however, transferred the cases relating to the 11 villages to another Bench.
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First woman officer to handle G B Nagar traffic
Noida, March 30 Ms Kalpana Saxena, who has joined Noida as Circle Officer on transfer from Muradabad, belongs to
the 1990 batch of UP police cadre. After joining, Ms Ka1pana Saxena took a meeting of her departmental officers to familiarise herself with the problems and challenges of traffic in Noida and Greater Noida. Later, she inspected the traffic department in Noida Control Room. She said her priority would be to improve the image and behaviour of
the traffic police in the eye of public. The new Circle Officer said she would like to
conduct Noida traffic police on the pattern of the Delhi Police.
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Sachin’s bat goes under hammer for princely sum
New Delhi, March 30 Other items close to the cricketer’s heart: caps, shoes, helmet, T-shirts, sun-hat and tie were also put under the hammer and virtually gobbled up by eager collectors. The proceeds of the auction will go to Amitasha, an NGO and an extended arm of Ritnand Balved Education Foundation and an umbrella organisation of the Amity institutions working for the cause of underprivileged girl child. The sparkling function was attended by the Who’s Who of the corporate sector with sizzling Mandira Bedi along with her mother and the illustrious Charu Sharma encouraging the bidders to benefit the maximum from Sachin’s possessions. The bid started with the auctioning of a bottle of champagne, an exclusive collection of British Airways and then the replica and picture of Concorde of British Airways. A pair of shoes of the cricketer was sold for Rs 13,000 and the helmet fetched a princely price of Rs 37,000. The audience went berserk chasing Sachin’s caps and hats. The highest bidder was Mr Mohit Kumar of Exim International who pocketed the priceless memories for his son whose eyes sparkled with pride. The event was organised to raise funds so that lakhs of the underprivileged girl children can be included in this project for their uplift by 2010.
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Correa is new DUAC chief
New Delhi, March 30
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Visitors give Handicrafts Expo the go-by
Faridabad, March 30 Several artisans went on a half-day strike yesterday in protest against the alleged poor publicity by the organisers. They even protested against the Haryana Tourism Secretary, Mr Sanjay Kothari, who was here last evening to formally inaugurate the expo, though it had begun on March 21 and would continue till April 4. About 112 craftsmen and a dozen designers have been taking part in the expo. While the artisans have been claiming that there was hardly any visitor to the spot, it surprised many that there was no formal inauguration of the expo till yesterday, which was seen as the cause of poor response, said a participant. He said many craftsmen had been thinking of returning as they found it difficult to make both ends meet. However, Mr Kothari claimed that inaugurating the expo after a week was a unique idea as it would get more publicity now. Regarding the problems and complaints of the artisans, he said every event, held for the first time, faces such teething problems. Famous Surajkund Arts and Crafts Mela had also faced the same problem in 1987. He said his department and the district administration would do their best to provide publicity to the expo. It is learnt that one of the artisans hailing from Andhra Pradesh lost valuables worth Rs 60,000 when someone stole her bags from the railway station.
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5 juveniles held with stolen jewellery
New Delhi, March 30 The receiver, identified as Munish, is a resident of West Sant Nagar. Acting on a tip-off that the juveniles would be passing through Roop Nagar via Maurice Nagar Chowk to sell the jewellery, the police laid a trap and nabbed the suspects. During interrogation, the accused persons confessed to the police that they had stolen the jewellery from a locked house in Kamal Pur,
Burari.
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Truck loaded with aluminium plates looted
Faridabad, March 30 According to the complainant, the incident took place at about 11 last night, when the truck was on its way to Faridabad city. The truck was loaded with about 15 tonnes of aluminium material and was to be delivered at a factory here. As many as five youths had allegedly been following the truck, when it entered the Hodal sub-division. The miscreants, who were in a utility jeep, overtook the truck near Banchari village and overpowered Shaukat, the truck driver, and his nephew Javed, who works as a cleaner. Later, the youths tied and dumped them on the side of the road before fleeing away with the truck loaded with the material. Meanwhile, in another incident, a resident of Janwan village in the district, submitted a complaint attached with an affidavit to the Deputy Commissioner that a doctor in the local civil hospital has been demanding a bribe from him for issuing a medical certificate.
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Five killed as canter turns turtle
Bulandshahr, March 30 The canter, coming from Gwalior, was loaded with ironsheet consignment. It was heading towards Ghaziabad. Four persons, sitting atop the consignment, were buried under the weight of the ironsheet and died on the spot while the fifth, who was sitting on the roadside, also died. The driver and the conductor of the canter, a woman and four children, were seriously injured and rushed to the district hospital. Three bodies were pulled out from the ironsheets with great difficulty. Only one of those killed could be identified. Two electric poles and passenger sheds were also damaged under the impact of heavy ironsheets. At Hathras, driver Vikas and cleaner Subash had taken in some passengers. At Khurja, the driver and his companion had reportedly consumed liquor at a wayside restaurant.
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