New Delhi, August 22
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today categorically said that there was no agreement with the World Bank over the privatisation of water distribution in the Capital.

In an interview to the BBC, Ms Dikshit said, “Let me make it clear that there would be no privatisation of water. Yes, we want to improve the water distribution system.

We want the water supply to reach residents at reasonable rates. This does not at all mean that water rates would be hiked, I want to be absolutely clear that there is no move to privatise water.”

Brushing aside rumours, Ms Dikshit said the Delhi Government, in consultation with the Centre, had only asked the World Bank to conduct a study on how to modernise water supply in the Capital.

“Delhi is an old city also, leakage in water supply results in huge losses, leading to shortage. Also we have seen that the distribution is erratic.

In some areas, the supply of water is 500 litres per person, whereas in others, it is less than 32 litres per person. To remove such anomalies, we asked the World Bank to prepare a report,” she said.

She accused the Uttar Pradesh Government of indulging in politics over the issue of supplying water for the Sonia Vihar plant. “First the UP Government told us that without a treatment plant, it would not be possible for them to release water. The treatment plant got ready on time, and now instead of releasing 300 cusec water, the UP Government is indulging in politics. But the people of Delhi would fight for their rights,” Ms Dikshit added.

Asked about the increasing incidents of rape and attacks on women, Ms Dikshit said, “The Capital is under constant media glare. Even a single incident is shown many times on TV screens and displayed on the front pages of newspapers, increasing its impact manifold.”

However, she expressed hope that in the coming days, some progress would be made on the law and order front, adding that she had already led a delegation to the Home Minister in this connection.

“It is a part of the promise made in the Congress’ election manifesto, and the people of the state want the elected government to fulfil their aspirations,” she said.

The Chief Minister expressed her ire against UP Govt’s failure to release water for Delhi in Lucknow where she was participating in former Chief Minister Kamalapati Tripathi centenary celebrations.

“I had come here hoping to meet Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on the issue but I am told he is away,” she said. She said that enough funds have been invested for developing a channel from Tehri to Delhi to supply water and even a water treatment plant was constructed in UP, but still nothing had materialised so far. “The Sonia Vihar plant was also lying idle for the last one and a half years,” she added.

Expressing her deep condolence over the death of seven people in an accident in Delhi early this morning, Ms Dixit said her government was concerned about rising road accidents in the national capital.

Admitting that the increase in number of vehicles and reckless driving was the main reason for the accidents, she said that her government was constructing 42 fly-overs in Delhi to ease out the traffic congestions.

Claiming that the row between Delhi and UP over plying of government buses had been sorted out, the Chief Minister said on September two an agreement would be signed between the two states in this regard. An estimated one million people from UP daily cross over to Delhi to earn their livelihood, she added. Earlier participating in the centenary celebrations, she exhorted Congressmen to imbibe the values of the former leader which would help the party regain lost ground. She also honoured five journalists Kanhaiya Lal Nandan, Kumkum Chaddha, Ishrat Ali Siddiqui, S M Jaffer and Satyendra Shukla on the occasion.

New Delhi, August 22
It may sound unbelievable but it is true: There are more Delhi policemen on VIP security duty than on the Capital’s chaotic streets to bring about some semblance of order on the roads.

Already over stretched in tackling increasing incidents of crime in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the responsibility of providing security to VIPs is bogging down the Delhi Police in carrying out its routine day to day duties.

According to the figures available more and more of its personnel are being diverted for ‘VIP duty’, which now keeps more than one-tenth of the Delhi Police force occupied.

In contrast, even as traffic snarls increase, the number of policemen on the city’s roads has been steadily falling over the years and now stands at less than half of those posted for protection of Very Important Persons (VIPs).

According to the latest figures, 7,185 Delhi Police personnel were assigned for VIP duty as on July 31 this year.

In 2004, this figure stood at 6,145, marking an increase of more than a thousand personnel on VIP duty in just one year. The strength of Delhi Police, responsible for the protection of about 1.5 crore of the city’s populace, remains at about 60,000.

About the reason behind the steep increase in number of personnel on VIP duty, Joint Commissioner of Police (Security) Rajesh Kumar said “this is a very sensitive subject and I am not at liberty to discuss it”.

Besides the Delhi Police personnel, 1,964 men of the central para-military forces like the Central Reserve Police Force ( CRPF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Central Industrial Security Force ( CISF) are also deployed for the protection of the VIPs.

While 3,862 traffic personnel were deployed on the city’s streets in 2003, this number came down to 3,798 last year.

On July 31 this year, 3,547 Delhi Police personnel were posted on traffic duties, less than half of those on VIP duty.

Senior officials of the Delhi Police have frequently complained of a staff crunch and the force is currently in the process of recruiting 2,000 constables. But officials in the administration wing feel many of them will end up guarding VIPs leaving the common man to fend for himself.

Noida, August 22
Four persons died in two road accidents on the GT Road under the Dadri police station last night. Two seriously injured persons were rushed to a Noida hospital.

The dead include the conductor of a Tata-909 truck and three persons who were travelling in a car. The two vehicles were involved in the accident.

In both the accidents, trucks were involved. The truck drivers fled after the mishaps.

The bodies have been sent for autopsy by the police.

According to the police, the first accident took place near Luharli village at 12 midnight.

The car (DL-5C-B5-2000) was carrying Santosh, Devender and Om Prakash to Karawal Nagar from Delhi.

Their car was hit head on by a truck (UP-17-7117) headed for Ghaziabad. The car was badly smashed. The villagers rushed to the site. Three persons in the car were killed on the spot.

The villagers pulled out the bodies from the wreckage of the car with great difficulty.

The police were immediately informed. They sent the bodies for autopsy after a panchnama.

The police removed the truck from the middle of the road and are now looking for the absconding driver.

The second accident also took place on the GT Road near Kot village. A truck hit a Tata-709.

The truck (AS-0IA-1468) was coming from Secunderabad while the Tata-709 (DL-1S-0659) was going to Ghaziabad. Truck cleaner Shankar, son of Nanduri, and Tata-709 driver Arun, son of Bani Ram, were seriously injured.

They were rushed to a Noida hospital but Shankar succumbed to his injuries on the way. Arun was later referred to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, Delhi. The truck driver is absconding.

Despite the police putting up barriers at all police posts, accidents continue to take place, especially at night. High speed, overloading and drunken drivers are mainly responsible for the frequent accidents on the GT Road.

Meanwhile, the driver and conductor of a mini truck died on the spot when it rammed into a stationary container on the Noida crossing on NH 24 near the NIB police post. The victims were identified as Rohan Ahmed, residents of Amroha.

The mini truck was coming from Amroha when it rammed into the container parked on the roadside.

The mini truck was smashed and led to a traffic jam on NH 24.

Even as the police were trying to manage the traffic jam, the driver of the container sped away with his vehicle. The bodies have been sent for the postmortem examination.

In the meantime, four persons were injured in another accident involving a Mahindra jeep, a Maruti Zen car and a scooter near Dhumanikpur primary school on G.T. Road, Dadri, The accident occurred when a tyre of the Mahindra jeep burst, the police said.

New Delhi, August 22
A super-speciality mobile van purchased at a cost of about Rs. 30 lakhs by the BSES Yamuna Power Limited from a foreign agency last year to distribute and collect electricity bills in the Trans-Yamuna area, is gathering dust at the Karkardooma office premises of the company since then.

According to BSES sources, the mobile van had been purchased last year in the hope that it would make the task of distributing and collecting electricity bills in the area easier.

At the time, it was planned that some people of the company with this van would go door to door for this purpose. It was also proposed that if the experiment was successful, additional vans would be purchased for other parts of the city.

The van is fitted with every facility like ACs, note counting machine, fire fighting measures, security alarms, computers, photo copier and other supportive equipments. Apart from these features, it is similar to a Volvo bus in look and comfort.

A senior officer of the BSES on the condition of anonymity said that they had approached the transport department for the registration of this mobile van few months back but the department had refused their application on the ground that the van had no speed governor.

Asked for him comment, the Business Manager of BSES Mr. Jitendra Singh said the speed governor has already been fitted in the van. “We have again approached the transport department for registration and we hope it will very soon come out on the road,” he said.

New Delhi, August 22
With the arrest of a Nigerian national, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a gang of international crooks involved in cheating gullible persons.

The sleuths also claimed to have recovered one polythene bag containing black plain papers along with some incriminating documents from their possession.

The accused has been identified as one Honesty Aginbatse, alias Cabar, alias Stefano Cabar (22), presently residing at Nebsarai.

Acting on a complaint from one Dr Ranbir Singh, resident of Amritsar, that on July 29, he received an email from one Alex Ojembar, who introduced himself as Manager of Standard Trust Bank, Nigeria.

Alex had stated in the mail that one of their customers had expired in a plane crash leaving behind $27 million and none of his family members came to receive the money.

Since the money was likely to be deposited in the bank treasury as unclaimed funds, Alex told Dr Singh that if he wanted the money to be transferred to his account, he has to just part with 30 per cent of it.

Further, another person identifying himself as one John from the Nigerian High Commission contacted Dr Singh and asked him to collect the money from Delhi.

When Dr Singh arrived in Delhi, he was given two polythene packets containing black-coloured papers which were said to be worth $10 million. John also took out a black paper and washed it with a chemical in front of Dr Singh. The black paper turned out to be a $100 bill.

Later, both John and Cabar collected Rs 11 lakh from Dr Singh for giving the dollars and also on the pretext of sending him some special chemical for washing.

Noida, August 22
In a raid, police have unearthed a factory which was packing spurious salt into the packets of reputed and branded companies. The raid was jointly organized by SOG and 58 Sector police teams.

One person was caught red handed while packing salt from the spot while others were able to flee on seeing the police. The person arrested is being quizzed about his companions. The police have recovered 1000 bags of fake salt, valued at Rs.40,000 in the market, three bags full of wrappers, packing machine.

Police CO Uday Shankar said police had been getting complaints of fake packing of branded salt from the market. On the basis of this intelligence input, SO Ajay Yadav, SOG in charge Vijay Prakash had conducted a raid with police team in Mamura village where Jai Ram, a native of Bihar was nabbed while packing salt. Some other workers of the company were able to flee.

Jai Ram told the police that he was doing this work of packing salt into fake packs for the past few months.

This salt is readily sold on cheaper rates in the market, Jai Ram told the police. Some influential strongmen are also involved in this trade, he said.

Noida, August 22
The suspension of probe on allegations of corruptions against Ms Neera Yadav after two day’s hearing by KT Thomas Commission has been resented by the people in Noida.

The probe into corruption charges against Ms Neera Yadav, the then Chairperson of Noida Authority, was ordered by the Supreme Court in a case Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA) versus U.P state. The next hearing has been fixed for September 20 and 21.

The advocates have opposed the suspension of the probe against Ms Yadav in mid-stream.

On the first day of the hearing being conducted, the Commission asked searching questions about action taken from state government advocates on the Justice Murtaza Hussain Inquiry Commission as well as about CBI reports.

Heated arguments took place on the issues between Amex and state government advocates.

On the second day, inquiry report regarding the then Noida Chairperson, Ms Neera Yadav, who is presently the Chief Secretary of UP, was read out in the commission. This inquiry was conducted by the then Chairman of the State Revenue Board, Aparnita Prasad Singh.

This report also covered complaints against about half a dozen IAS officers including senior IAS officer, Ravi Mathur. These were read out in the commission room.

Ghaziabad, August 22
People fed up with long and unscheduled power cuts damaged the UP Power Corporation office, police post and blocked the traffic here on Sunday.

The Vijay Nagar police post was extensively damaged by the crowd.

The processionists were lathicharged by the police. Three persons were arrested and put in the Vijay Nagar police lockup.

An 11,000 volt cable had snapped on Saturday night. As a result, power was disrupted for the whole night. In the morning, the water supply was also affected. Angry people had blocked the traffic near the Goshala railway crossing. Some people had attacked the police post near the Goshala gate.

Soon, police reinforcements were brought in. The agitationists dispersed after a lathicharge.

The irate crowd had blocked the traffic under the bridge for more than three hours. In Mata Colony, Sector 9, Vijay Nagar, also people had blocked the traffic. Here also, they were lathicharged by the police.

Power and water shortage was acutely felt in Vijaya Nagar, Sectors 9, 11, 12, Pratap Vihar, Kailash Nagar, Gompuri, Goshala, Madhopuri, Mata Colony, Shiv Puri and Shankar Puri.

Residents of Nand Gram on the Meerut road had also blocked the traffic at 12 midnight.

New Delhi, August 22
A Delhi court today sentenced three Railway Protection Force personnel to three years rigorous imprisonment for demanding and accepting a bribe from a person for not arresting his brother-in-law in a theft case.

Additional Sessions Judge P K Bhasin convicted RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Dinesh Kumar, Inspector Preet Pal Singh and Constable Laxmi Chand for demanding Rs 10,000 from Shamim Ahmad, a junk dealer, for not implicating Mohd Iqbal in a case of theft of Railway property at the Tughlaqabad Railway station. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5000 each on the convicts who were punished under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.

The accused threatened Shamim that they would implicate his brother-in-law Mohammad Iqbal whom they suspected of involvement in a theft at the Tughalaqabad railway station on May 10, 1995, if he did not pay the bribe amount. Not willing to pay the money, Shamim promptly informed the matter to the Anti Corruption of Bureau (ACB) of the Delhi police. ACB sleuths laid a trap on May 13, 1995, the day he was asked to come to the RPF post at the station with the ‘first instalment’ of Rs 5000.

Noida, August 22
The Chief Executive Officer, Noida Authority, Mr Avnish Awasthi, has suspended Rajmohan Sharma, posted at the residential plots division of the authority.

Rajmohan Sharma was shown accepting a bribe by a private news channel on Saturday. Mr Awasthi’s action was prompted by this news clipping and was taken under the Noida Service Rules of 1981. The builders’ lobby and private property dealers got illegal favours from Noida officials by bribing them, the CEO said. This was being further investigated.

Mr Awasthi has advised people to report any such instance whereby the Noida Authority officials have demanded money in lieu of any favour on cellphone number 9871277003. The complainant’s name and identity would be kept confidential, the CEO assured.

New Delhi, August 22
Surender Gehlot, the alleged link between the prime suspect Pankaj Dahiya and the students in the Common Entrance Examination scam, today surrendered before a Delhi court which remanded him to CBI custody till August 29 for his interrogation.

Gehlot gave himself up before Special Judge Pratibha Rani who sent him to CBI custody after the agency asked for a week's time for his “sustained interrogation to unearth the whole conspiracy”.

CBI alleged before the court that the accused played a pivotal role in arranging and solving the question booklet with the help of some IIT students to help 21 students indulge in malpractices during the Common Entrance Examination for admissions to Delhi College of Engineering in May this year. The court also extended the judicial custody of Pankaj and another accused Lalit Hooda to September 9.

New Delhi, August 22
The Government has decided to use broad gauge for Delhi Metro to enable the Railways to provide necessary infrastructure support for the project, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Replying to a question, Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the decision to use broad gauge for the Metro project was taken although the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had recommended standard gauge.

The decision was taken to provide necessary infrastructure support for the project as well as keeping in view the inter-operability needs and to develop future dependence on indigenous capacity.

New Delhi, August 22
Two persons were arrested for allegedly selling pirated MP3s, DVDs and VCDs, including pornographic ones, worth Rs 14 lakh, police said today.

Bhagat Singh (20) and Mohd Iqbal (22) were arrested with 1,800 pirated discs after a raid in Old Lappet Rai market in north Delhi.

These included 25 pornographic VCDs, police said adding efforts were on to trace a man who had supplied these to them. Meanwhile, one Anita Kumar (19) was arrested with three pornographic CDs in Sultanpuri in north-west Delhi. — TNS

New Delhi, August 22
Negligence of police personnel escorting prisoners to court hearings etc. came to light again when an undertrial, facing charges under Arms Act and Narcotics Act, today escaped from Safdarjung Hospital where he was brought for medical examination.

Justus Pal, who had been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2001, pushed the constables of Delhi Armed Police (DAP) accompanying him while he was boarding the police vehicle to return to the prison.

He immediately fled afterwards, sources said. Pal had been facing some orthopaedic problem for sometime and was taken today to Safdarjung Hospital for a check-up.

The two constables were suspended after the incident, the sources said.